How to Play the Gundam Card Game

1. Deck construction

• 50 cards in your main deck (Units, Pilots, Commands, and Bases). Reference: rule 6-1-1.
• 10 cards in your resource deck (Resource cards only). Resources are not in the main deck.
• One or two colors only per deck — Blue, Green, Red, or White.
• Maximum 4 copies of any card sharing the same card number.
• Any number of identical Resource cards is allowed in the resource deck.
• You also need one EX Base and one EX Resource token at hand.

2. The five card types

Unit

The fighters. Have AP (attack) and HP (hit points). Only Units can attack. A newly deployed Unit cannot attack the same turn unless it has a paired Pilot satisfying its Link condition — a "Link Unit" — in which case it can attack immediately.

Pilot

Placed beneath a Unit and paired with it. Adds AP/HP modifiers and effects to the Unit. A Unit can only have one Pilot at a time. Pilots have traits (e.g. Newtype, Earth Federation).

Command

One-shot effect cards played in the main phase ([Main]) or action step ([Action]). Some Commands have a Pilot effect on the bottom — pair them as a Pilot instead of resolving the command.

Base

Deployed into your shield area. While a Base is present, damage to the shield area hits the Base first. Bases have AP and HP.

Resource

Lives in the resource deck (10 cards). One Resource enters the resource area each turn during the resource phase — this is how you ramp up to pay costs.

3. Turn flow

1. Start phase — active effects trigger, all your rested cards become active.
2. Draw phase — draw one card from your deck. (Player 1 skips this on turn 1.)
3. Resource phase — place one Resource card from your resource deck into your resource area.
4. Main phase — deploy Units, pair Pilots, deploy Bases, play [Main] Commands, activate Activate・Main effects, and declare attacks with your Units.
5. End phase — <Repair> triggers, end-of-turn effects resolve.

4. Attacking and battles

A Unit attacks by resting (rotating) itself and targeting either an enemy Unit or directly into the opponent's shield area. The defender may declare an action step in response, then resolve the battle:

• Both Units deal battle damage equal to their AP simultaneously.
• If a Unit's HP reaches zero, it is destroyed and placed into the trash.
• If damage hits the shield area, it destroys the top shield (or the Base if one is deployed). Destroyed shields reveal their [Burst] effect — the owner may activate it for free.
• When all six starting shields are gone and an enemy Unit lands one more point of battle damage, the defender loses.

5. Keyword effects

Most cards reference one or more keyword effects. The seven core keywords from the comprehensive rules:

<Repair X>

At the end of your turn, this Unit recovers X HP.

<Breach X>

When this Unit destroys an enemy Unit with battle damage, deal X damage to the top of the opponent's shield area (the Base, if any, or the topmost shield).

<Support X>

You may rest this Unit during your main phase to give one other friendly Unit AP+X this turn.

<Blocker>

When an enemy Unit attacks, you may rest this Unit to redirect the attack to it.

<First Strike>

When attacking, this Unit deals battle damage before the defender. Destroying the defender first cancels their return damage.

<High-Maneuver>

While this Unit is attacking, enemy Units cannot activate <Blocker>.

<Suppression>

When this Unit deals battle damage to a shield, damage the top two shields simultaneously (Bursts on both still trigger).

6. Timing keywords

Brackets like [Deploy] or [Attack] on card text mark when an effect triggers:

• [Deploy] — activates when the card is deployed.
• [Attack] — activates when the Unit declares an attack.
• [Destroyed] — activates when the Unit or Base is destroyed.
• [Burst] — activates when this card, while a shield, is destroyed. Free to activate.
• [Main] / [Action] — when this Command can be played.
• [When Paired] — activates when a Pilot is paired with a Unit.
• [During Pair] — passive effect on a Unit while a Pilot is paired with it.
• Activate・Main / Activate・Action — repeatable activated effects, usable in the named phase.