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The second set of Gundam TCG is not even a week old, but Japan does not wait for us to start hosting plenty of store tournaments already.
Then, while we will have to wait for the first regional tournaments, the ones happening this weekend still being played with the Newtype Rising set, we can at least look at about 20 smaller tournaments held with Dual Impact cards allowed.
Obviously, this is nothing but an early look at the new decks, which I am sure will keep evolving over time. At the moment, two pairs seem to be on top, with Blue-White and Green-White decks winning 13 of the 19 store tournaments accounted for in this Tier List.
Arguably, the Green-White pair just kept going after being considered a top tier archetype in GD-01. There are two different builds, one using GD01-025 and more of the new cards, such as the (Clan) synergy, to sport a more aggressive mid and late game. The other build uses fewer of the new cards, with GD02-074 representing the main addition, adding yet another blocker to the deck.
Blue-White is in a similar situation, with the build from the first set still doing well and mostly relying on old cards. However, GD02-002 has emerged as a new win condition and tilted the Blue-White association towards more blue cards.
Alongside these two seeming dominant performers early on, Red-White is also doing pretty well, winning four events so far. Last, Blue-Purple Barbatos is the final archetype with multiple wins at 2, while Blue-Red and Green-Red based on GD01-044 got one each. However, it is important to note there are multiple archetypes of Green Red appear in tournaments at the moment. Zeons or the new Clan synergy brought by the ST06 deck bot exist, making Green - Red the color duo with the most options and no clear better deck at the moment.
Overall, the main archetype missing compared to the first set is Blue-Green Zeon, so far invisible in this new set after racking up many wins during GD-01. With that one out of the early mix, it seems like White is dominant at the moment due to being part of the three best color pairings early in GD02 Dual Impact.
Happy Tier List Everyone !
| Tier | Archetype |
|---|---|
| Tier 1 | Green - White Wing |
| Tier 1 | Blue - White Unicorn |
| Tier 2 | Red - White SEED Justice |
| Tier 2 | Blue - Purple Barbatos |
| Tier 2 | Green - Red Zeon Ping |
| Tier 3 | Blue - Red Kshatriya |
Tier 1
Green - White Wing
If I had to bet, I would put my money on the deck leaning on the green color more to post better results in the future. Not only it relies on new synergies, meaning there is likely much more room to refine the deck in the future. The absence of Blue-Green decks might mean a slower metagame is on the horizon, which should reward the more proactive decks in the mid and late game.
I don't expect the other build to go away, especially if aggressive strategies come back. Yet, even if it gained a few new cards to include, this deck looks very much like a comfort pick from someone with extensive time on the archetype during the first set. As time passes, other archetypes should have more opportunities to improve, while this one is likely pretty close to its peak already, explaining its strong results early on.
Blue - White Unicorn
Similarly to the Green - White pair, there is a build leaning more on either color in the Blue - White association.
The white heavy build uses very little of the new cards, basically just the new staple in GD02-079. Otherwise, this is pretty much the same deck as we knew during the first set, and likely a comfort pick for some players in this new, still unrefined Dual Impact metagame.
The other list isn't using that many of the new cards either, but explores a new win condition in GD02-002. Plus, the deck brings an underused pilot ST02-011 to link with the new win condition or GD02-005.
From a strategy standpoint, the decks differ a bit in how they play, especially in the second part of the game, once the early white cards they share have been played. The Freedom-Justice deck will look to control the board and start pushing for the win once it reaches level 7. The newer build however, will look to out value its opponent on the back of GD02-002 attacking twice per turn while GT02-011 draws.
Tier 2
Red White Seed Justice
Fairly close to the Blue-White deck based on GD01-066 and GD01-065 above, this is another build preying on the still unrefined decks going around early in this Dual Impact metagame.
Some lists like to run GD02-074 instead of GD01-065 but that is as far as innovation goes at the moment for the Red-White pair. I expect Blue White to be more popular as time passes due to its ability to incorporate more cards from the new set.
Blue Purple Barbatos
The new set brought a few new support cards, especially when it comes to drawing cards. GD02-054 and GD02-058 are featured as a pair in another build, but GD01-001 still feels more stable at the moment. Then, the main addition to the deck has been GD02-055, bringing some defensive power, typically used to buy a turn before going for the win.
At the moment, this would be considered the faster build amongst competitive picks with Blue-Green not posting any wins.
Green Red Zeon Ping
Equipped with the new GD02-036 atop the curve, and GD02-039 adding yet another ping to the equation, Zeon Ping feels like the most polished Green-Red build at the moment.
Indeed, the Zeon aggro build featuring more green cards runs none of the new additions, meaning it is more of a comfort pick than anything else at the moment. As for the Clan synergy brought by ST06, this one is very new so will likely a bit to be refined.
In that mix, Zeon Ping is a good in between, sporting a few new cards without requiring to take a new synergy into a tournament without much testing.
Here is the clan deck :
Tier 3
Blue Red Kshatriya
The build from GD-01 snatched a win from a store tournament, but I felt it was more interesting to discuss this mix with the new Titans synergy. Here, the new GD02-001, GD02-007 and GD02-085 adds a value based package of cards to draw, and be a bit more resilient on the board.
The deck has to cut on early units in order to incorporate those new tools, which can make the build a little worse in the early game. Yet, Blue-Red has plenty of cheap units available, while drawing one of GD01-018 is typically enough. If you feel like you are losing the board early, adding another copy of that specific cards, or GD01-008 would make sense.
For that sacrifice, the deck now feels much more able to anchor the board in the mid-game, and pressure its opponent with units they can't remove with small bits of damage. It doesn't feel on par with the top archetypes yet, but this is a good direction to explore in Dual Impact for Blue-Red players.
