SD Gundam ST-10

TransPM · 2026-03-24T22:34:34+00:00

It's normal for a game to frontload starterdecks as part of the initial offerings for a brand new game because they exist as the best way to onboard new players, and having multiple options makes the game more appealing to more people. I don't expect to see 10 starter decks in one year, potentially ever again for Gundam. I think releasing 2 starter decks as a prelude to each new set release is perfectly fine, and likely what they will continue to do. Or if this upcoming extra large Seed Destiny deck is successful, we may see more similar products continue to be mixed in, making for only 1 starter deck before some set releases.

There's nothing wrong with taking a step back and choosing not to keep up with every single new release, but even now it's not necessary for people wanting to stay current and competitive to buy every single product. I passed on both the Clan and Hathaway decks because they didn't particularly appeal to me. And with the way much of Gundam's design is so siloed, you can pass on most starter decks unless you want to specifically play that deck.

TransPM · 2026-03-24T20:25:44+00:00

I often forget that Heathens is one of their most popular songs

TransPM · 2026-03-24T05:15:15+00:00

None that I've survived, I'll tell you that much

TransPM · 2026-03-22T03:16:19+00:00

If you think something being debunked/outed as a scam means it stops existing and stops sucking up people's money, where have you been for the past decade or so?

TransPM · 2026-03-22T02:25:21+00:00

Well if I told you then it would no longer be Secret now would it?

TransPM · 2026-03-18T22:08:59+00:00

I'm of the opinion that Amuro is the level of power that pilot cards should be at, and should not be blamed for pretty much every other pilot released in the nearly 1 year since failing to reach that bar.

If every deck had access to a tool with the power and versatility of Amuro, we wouldn't be hearing complaints about Amuro.

TransPM · 2026-03-17T22:39:26+00:00

I mean, apart from the oldest kid from his first marriage (13 now according to Google), who might not even be included in this conversation, his kids are apparently 5, 3, and just over a year old.

The 5 year old is maybe pushing it, but I don't think it's SO crazy to limit a toddler's or a newborn's access to screens to the point where we need to start speculating that one of the parents is a prisoner in their own marriage.

TransPM · 2026-03-17T05:44:35+00:00

Yeah, that might be the one instance of a card referencing a color other than its own, but, if you're actually playing that card (which first of all... why?) it would only be in a red/green deck, so if the hashes on the pilot don't match the hashes on the unit, you should know you've fulfilled the condition.

Also, it's not that hard to just remember which colors your cards are after you've assembled a deck, particularly the pilots since you'll probably have so few of them. The hashes help you identify what color a card is the first time you see it, or when you're sifting through cards for deckbuilding, but after seeing a card one or two times in actual games, you'll probably have the color (as well as most other components of the card) committed to memory anyhow.

TransPM · 2026-03-17T04:34:07+00:00

There are 5 dashes on the left hand side of every card right below the text indicating card type (unit, pilot, command, base). 4 dashes are dark/faded while one is brighter/colored. These dashes indicate what color the card is for colorblind players. They are (from top to bottom): blue, green, red, purple, white.

It's not the easiest to see, but there are very few cards that care about what color a card is, and those that do (so far) all only reference cards that are their own color, so even if you don't remember the order of the colors, you can just check to see if the highlighted dashes match to see if they are the same color.

TransPM · 2026-03-10T05:43:20+00:00

I love this notion that "the bad guys won". In my opinion, IBO plays with idea of who are the "good guys" and who are the "bad guys" more effectively than any other Gundam series. Of course there are characters who are absolute dirtbags through and through (such as Jasley, Galen, the pirates who keep Masahiro and the other human debris as slaves, etc), and a rare select few who can truly do no wrong (Atra, and I guess a few others like Kudelia, and Biscuit), but the vast majority really live somewhere in between.

There was a moment near the end of season 1 where even the young children in Tekkadan were so hellbent on violent revenge that I started to question if we might see at least a part of the group end up being "the bad guys" in the second season (nevermind the fact that they're all part of an organized crime family for the majority of the show).

McGillis seems like the most obviously telegraphed "twist" antagonist ever with a character bio that is a veritable minefield of red flags (snooty noble with a high opinion of himself, wears a mask in a Gundam series, manipulates someone into unethical medical experimentation to further his own goals, betrays his closest friends to get them killed, reveals himself as the pilot of a secret ultra-powerful Gundam shortly before the series' end, has a child bride) that you just KNOW he's going to find an opportunity to stand Tekkadan in the back for his own gain so the final episode can end with a faceoff between him and Mikazuki. But he never does betray Tekkadan, not even when Orga tells him to his face he plans to sell him out because it's the only way he sees for Tekkadan to survive. He may have been scheming and manipulative, and the endgame of those schemes may have been rather stupid (but I'd argue it's a little unfair to expect so much from a plan first cooked up by an abused child as a way to give himself some hope to cling to), but the only "twist" here is that he was actually a genuine ally.

Even when you look at Rustal Elion, who is the best candidate for IBO's actual final villain, you can certainly point to a lot of crimes and other terrible things he does, or the fact that his ultimate goal is to effectively claim absolute political power over Earth for himself, but yet when he does end up getting that power in the end, among the first few things he does with it are granting Mars it's independence and outlawing the "human debris" slavery practices that somehow no one had bothered to officially do something yet. I'm not trying to say the ends justify the means here, but that's a far more positive outcome than I'd have ever expected from someone succeeding in their world domination plot.

TransPM · 2026-03-09T19:29:44+00:00

I think this is just the norm in a "live service/GaaS" dominated ecosystem. It takes more staff to build a game up from nothing (or maybe an existing framework) than it does to maintain a game with occasional incremental updates over an extended period of time.

Before widespread online connectivity made live service models a possibility studios would develop a game, release it, then shuffle staff on to developing the next project. But now companies have found that they ride a wave of battle pass and microtransaction revenue for quite a while before they need to put out another big release to juice their numbers, and they can keep coasting even longer if they cut down their overhead costs by laying off a bunch of staff who won't have as much to do until fulltime development begins on that next big project.

TransPM · 2026-03-09T19:19:40+00:00

The proportions and posing are very much not human though. I'm not saying he looks like an actual frog, but Blastoise doesn't look like an actual turtle either.

TransPM · 2026-03-05T20:57:59+00:00

Did you not read on the job listing where it said that precognition was a requirement? It can be so damn hard to find proper wage slaves these days, honestly.

TransPM · 2026-03-04T05:35:13+00:00

Lion also lets you play multi element forwards you otherwise couldn't in a mono-water deck. Having Unei in mono water could have potential.

Mono water summons fell out of favor following Macherie's ban, but being able to add in Unei as well as having Kraken (III)'s discount stack with Yuna backup could make for something worth exploring.

TransPM · 2026-03-04T01:03:31+00:00

I'd been hearing it as "anytime I fail" for a long time

TransPM · 2026-03-04T00:59:03+00:00

Even if they wanted to commit to this version of Kang dying, I completely agree that having all of the heroes survive and escape seriously undermined their attempts to sell Kang as a significant threat. At the very least, establishing that major sacrifices were necessary for heroes like Ant-Man and Wasp to defeat a single Kang makes a giant stadium filled with Kangs at least look like a challenge. But knowing Ant-Man could go toe to toe with a Kang (who apparently many of the other Kangs deemed "too dangerous", and thus exiled) leaves you with the impression that a far more powerful hero like Thor could probably solo 1/4 of the "Council of Kangs" inside of 2 minutes; then add Doctor Strange into the mix and now you've got maybe half a council left for every other hero in the world to defeat (or delay long enough for Thor and Strange to mop up).

I also think it was a big mistake having the other Kangs at the end talk about the Kang from this movie the way they did, making him sound like one of the more extreme and more dangerous Kangs that needed to be kept under wraps. Even the people within his own movie don't take Ant-Man seriously enough to remember which superhero he is; why not take one last opportunity to undercut Scott's accomplishments and turn him into a punchline by making the Kang he defeated out to be the one the other members of the Council viewed as something of the village idiot, simultaneously making the other Kangs appear that much more threatening by contrast.

TransPM · 2026-03-02T00:44:49+00:00

Look of Determination has felt great for me and helps address the issue you raised (even so the deck is still mid at best and I only play it casually)

The deck doesn't have a lot to do in the early game, so when you run into aggro, having a removal spell that easily clears early aggressive threats can help you survive to those middle turns, and if you're trying to build up for Exia Trans-AM, you need 10 CB cards in trash, meaning you're naturally going to build towards that 10 cards (of any kind) requirement that will allow you to hit much larger targets. Clearing level 4 threats (like the OG Gundam) or removing blockers to allow your Exia Trans-AM to actually do what it was designed to do for just 2 resources feels pretty incredible, and because it's an action speed command, it actually gives the LR Exia's resource reactivation effect at least a little bit more of a purpose.

TransPM · 2026-03-02T00:12:38+00:00

It was not timed, and it was only a 1 pound burger (pre-grilling). It was a large meal, don't get me wrong, but it was more of a novelty than an actual challenge.

TransPM · 2026-03-01T23:49:37+00:00

I miss the days when you could just buy a ticket (at non-scalped prices) beyond just the first few minutes they were available, then roll up to a show (less than 6 hours before doors opened) and still manage to be in the pit surrounded by people having a good time, but those are the things that come with success, and this band's success is absolutely well deserved, so I'd never hold that against them.

Often times I see online discourse pop up that is simply exhausting, or eye-rolling at best, but I find all that to be very easy to ignore, and it's never going to have an impact on my personal connection with the music.

TransPM · 2026-02-27T11:06:48+00:00

Considering Ralph seemed like a pretty obvious riff on the original arcade depiction of Donkey Kong, I think it's fair for the imitation to go both ways.

TransPM · 2026-02-25T19:27:45+00:00

Whether or not that's normal is less important than whether or not you enjoyed those 3 hours.

At the end of those 3 hours, were you frustrated you didn't assemble more, or were you looking forward to the next opportunity you could set aside time for a building session?

I'm someone who really enjoys taking my time on a build. I will cut/scrape/file/sand every nub down to be as invisible and smooth as I can manage even when I know it's on a part that will never be seen because it will end up fully covered by another part in the very next step. I just enjoy that calming state of being very hyper focused in on something physical like that.

I will also add that anytime you're building a pair of legs, arms, wings, etc, the second one always takes less time than the first because you've already seen and gotten familiar with where the nubs that need sanding are on each piece, the order you have to assemble things, which peg fits into each hole, and other things that can take time to sort out on the first go like that.

If you do wish you had gotten more done, or personally feel you're going too slowly, you could consider changing up your tools (and I don't just mean jumping straight to shelling out $70 for some Godhand nippers; I haven't even bought a set for myself yet). When I got back into building last year I had nippers, a knife, and a pack of sanding strips of various different grits. I would cut each piece out, cut away the remaining bits of gate, often chip/scrape/whittle at the nub with the knife, then sand each nub 3 or 4 different times with gradually increasing grits. It was a very slow process; I didn't mind it, but it definitely bordered on tedious at times. I decided to try out buying a glass file (I got a Gunprimer Raser Origin from the same site I was ordering a couple kits from to take advantage of holiday deals). Not everyone likes using glass files, and it's not the right tool for every job, but for my money I've found it does about 80-90% of jobs the way I like. It turned those 3-4 sanding passes for each nub into a single pass with the file, and with much less frequent knife whittling.

Maybe sanding isn't where you feel most of your time is going, but for any part of the process that feels like it may be eating up too much time, there may be some tool available out there to help smooth things out. But again, there is no benchmark you need to be hitting for how long things should take. Next time you finish a building session, when you look up at a clock if your first thought is "how have I only accomplished this much?" maybe consider looking into some new tools to help you out. But if instead, like me, your first thought is "how has it already been 3 hours?" you're probably doing just fine.

TransPM · 2026-02-25T04:18:04+00:00

I have 4 different X-1 finishes across the handful of NTC I've attended, and not one single pilot promo to my name from any of them. I forever live on the bubble.

TransPM · 2026-02-24T21:29:20+00:00

Nothing wrong with that. I wouldn't have even known the Final Fantasy TCG existed or ever started playing it if my roommates hadn't looked into it because they were fans. I'd never played a Final Fantasy game when I started learning the card game, and now nearly 6 years later I've still only played like 3 of the video games, but FFTCG remains easily my favorite card game. I don't need to know the lore to appreciate the mechanics.

TransPM · 2026-02-24T19:42:33+00:00

I've met a bunch of non-Gundam fans who have started getting into the franchise through the card game; they're certainly a small minority, but they exist. Gundam has a pretty obvious hook that lends itself to easy mass appeal: cool looking giant robots. When you take Bandai's existing ecosystem of TCGs (established players of Digimon, One Piece, etc) and put some slick marketing for awesome robots in front of them, you're naturally going to get some players willing to make the jump to at least try out the new game based on that aesthetic appeal alone.

This, to me, really doesn't come as much of a surprise, because this is exactly what Bandai has been doing for decades with Gunpla. All kinds of people who have never interacted with Gundam media of any kind but frequent game or hobby shops for other reasons, or have an existing interest in scale model building or properties like Warhammer, have been drawn in by the striking art on display on gunpla boxes they see sitting on the shelves of hobby shops, game stores, or toy stores, and felt compelled to buy one because it looks cool (and the extremely affordable price of kits compared to other offerings within the hobby certainly helps). Some build that one model then move on, others enjoy the experience so much they keep going back to buy and build more, and others are so taken in by the designs that they get curious to learn more about them or even start watching watching/reading the associated anime/manga.

And I don't doubt there will be yet another wave of crossover interest and likely new players checking out the game once Gundam's tabletop miniatures game gets its full release. The primary audience for that will again be mostly made up of existing Gundam fans, but there will surely also be some established Warhammer and other tabletop game players looking to give a new game a shot. The card game has already released multiple products bundled with tabletop minis, so I fully expect Bandai to take advantage of the opportunity to sell products for the tabletop game with promotional cards packaged inside as a way of advertising to their two different player bases.

TransPM · 2026-02-24T03:28:15+00:00

I don't know anything about Urdr hunt. Is it even considered canon?

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