Every card in the highly anticipated Iron Bloom starter deck has been revealed. Released alongside Dual Impact – Gundam Card Game’s second set – Iron Bloom is noteworthy as the first Gundam starter deck to contain the new Purple card color. In this guide, we’ll be looking at the highs and the lows of this new starter deck, as well as diving dep into some of the key mechanics to explain how it works.

Buy on TCGPlayer

Iron Bloom starter deck card list

Iron Bloom is all about reciprocal damage dealing

Iron Bloom – and the purple color – brings with it new mechanic to the Gundam Card Game – reciprocal damage. Perhaps even more importantly, it also brings the powerful new Suppression keyword into the game. To get a solid idea of how these new mechanics work, let’s look at this deck’s primary unit and pilot.

Gundam Barbatos 4th Form is a killer card

Let’s point out the elephant in the room right away – Gundam Barbatos is going to shoot straight up to the top of the meta with this insane Suppression keyword. I can’t say it’s necessarily going to be number one in the format, but it certainly could be. Let’s break down everything that’s great about Gundam Barbatos.

Solid stats: 6/6 when paired with Augus makes Barbatos highly competitive for a Lv 6 unit.
Suppression: take out two shields with a single blow, rapidly advancing how quickly you can move when your opponent is wide open to an attack.
Damage dealing effect bolsters peripheral units to bolster AP

Why damage your own unit?

While damaging your own units may seem like a sketchy idea, within the context of Iron Bloom, it comes with handy benefits – chief among them granting some pretty insane AP increases. Combo these effects together and you could take out some really big opposing units without sacrificing your own top guys. One unit to highlight in this respect is the powerful Gundam Barbatos 2nd Form.

Use the fourth form’s Deploy effect onto the 2nd form and suddenly you have a Lv 4 unite with 5 attack power – even more if you link it with Augus. As if that weren’t enough, you can further bolster this unit’s AP when damaged by an additional 2 AP if you have this Isarabi base in play.

Lastly, you have one additional unit capable of unlocking some solid interplay between damaging and boosting AP, and that’s your very low cost CGS Mobile Worker. This one also damages one of your units to grant it additional AP.

While it can be exciting to imagine how high you can get the AP of a single unit using all of these effects in tandem, realistically the biggest benefit of these effects is to boost multiple units to high AP degrees in a single turn. Doing so unlocks some very favorable trade opportunities where you can rid the field of your opponent’s biggest units without sacrificing your own.

Iron Bloom White units follow a different strategy

Not that this guide’s primary purpose is to provide a critique of the Iron Bloom starter deck, but I do sense some discord between the two colors included in the deck. While the purple cards seem to follow a coherent strategy, that strategy somewhat ends with the white units.

However, your white units do provide some excellent coverage via their blocking capabilities, while your Lv 4 McGilis Fareed brings forced resting into your repetoire. Anyone who has played the immensely popular Blue/White Blockers deck from set one knows how powerful this is thanks to Amuro Ray who has a similar effect. Fareed’s is even more solid due to the fact it, like Ray, activates without the need for a Link.

Fareed Links with his Schawlbe Graze – an interesting unit that has Blocker and can reduce the opposing AP of your foes by 2.

While that may not sound huge, at only a Lv 4 this is actually a pretty solid unit, capable of blocking and reducing AP, with the only real drawback being a relatively low HP stat – a fact which isn’t made better by purple’s proclivity to damage friendly units.

The Rebake Gundam adds a defensive/offensive layer to your strategy

Before diving into the Command Cards included in the starter deck and then getting onto the upgrade guide, there is another cool Pilot/Gundam combo that this deck has to offer – and also a new mechanic for the Gundam Card Game in general.

Starting with Akihiro – he’s an okay pilot. If you Link him (something which is sort of hard to pull off with just the starter deck since you only have one unit to Link with) he lets you bring back a Tekkadan unit card that is Lv. 2 or lower from your trash. However that’s only so helpful, and granting just 1/1 AP/HP isn’t the best. However, the Gundam Gusion Rebake is a very solid unit, with or without Altland equipped. Using this Unit, you can either provide a defensive layer by resting an attacking enemy unit, or on your turn sacrifice it with one of your many friendly fire focused effects and open up holes in your opponent’s defense.

It’s a highly useful card that should make its way even into fully upgraded, competitive-grade purple decks.

Iron Bloom Command cards

Iron Bloom comes with three Command cards - the new “With Iron and Blood”, command and the tried-and-true “Unforeseen Incident” – albeit with new art. With Iron and Blood is your nuclear option to grant a pretty insane AP boost to your units – hitting them for one damage but bolstering their AP by 3. Meanwhile, Unforeseen Incident remains a solid card that should be considered to be included in any deck that runs white.

Lastly, the strongest Command at this deck’s disposal is arguably the fantastic new Fatal Strike Command, one that straight-up destroys low level, enemy units. Its unlike any command we’ve seen so far, and a significant advantage to purple decks.

Iron Bloom starter deck easy upgrade guide

If you’re looking for an easy way to upgrade this deck, all you have to do is pick up two Iron Bloom starter decks, mash them together, and unlock much greater synergy. I’ve included an example deck list above that should help you get started playing this powerful new deck archetype, and stay tuned for another update soon which will include a fully upgraded, competitive-grade build.

For a starter deck, Iron Bloom is pretty solid. With plenty of interesting combos, a powerful new Suppression keyword, and new resting capabilities brought to white, I could see this being a very solid entry point for experienced Gundam players and brand new ones.

Gundam Iron Bloom Starter Deck Card List and Upgrade Guide