The Gundam Card Game Turns One: Freedom Ascension, Link Rares, and Whether It Is Worth Starting

The Gundam Card Game just finished its first year, and the anniversary set that closed it out is the reason a lot of collectors are looking at the game for the first time. Freedom Ascension [GD05] arrived July 24 with two of the franchise's most recognizable mobile suits making their debut in the game and a brand new rarity that does something genuinely different.

Strike Freedom and Nu Gundam Finally Show Up

For anyone who came to this from the anime rather than from card games, the significance is immediate. Strike Freedom Gundam from Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny and Nu Gundam from Char's Counterattack are two of the most iconic designs in the entire franchise, and neither had appeared in the card game until this set. Holding a first printing of a character that fans have been asking about since launch is the kind of thing that drives a set's long-term demand more reliably than any pull rate.

Link Rare, Explained

The set's structural innovation is a new rarity called Link Rare. Rather than being a foil treatment applied to an existing card, Link Rares are built around paired Units and Pilots. They print as parallel versions of cards already in the set, but with artwork specifically composed around the pairing.

The distinction matters. Most premium rarities in modern TCGs are the same card with a different finish. A Link Rare is the same card with different art, drawn to depict a specific pilot in a specific machine. That gives the chase card an actual narrative reason to exist, which is the sort of design choice that tends to age well in a collector market that has grown skeptical of foil-for-the-sake-of-foil.

Freedom Ascension also carries a record five LR++ cards, the set's top rarity tier, which gives it a deeper high end than any previous Gundam release.

The Anniversary Set and the Lottery

Running alongside the booster release is the Gundam Card Game 1st Anniversary Set [PB03], distributed by lottery rather than open sale. It includes EX Resources and sleeves with exclusive illustrations that differ by language edition, which is an interesting wrinkle for collectors who chase regional variants. Language-specific art in a limited, lottery-allocated product is a recipe for a very thin secondary market.

Lottery allocation is worth understanding before you chase it. You are not buying a product, you are entering a draw, and the secondary price reflects the odds rather than the print run. Budget accordingly.

Should You Start Collecting Gundam Cards?

A few honest considerations for anyone considering an entry point:

• The IP is enormous and the card game is tiny. Gundam has been running since 1979 with a global fanbase measured in tens of millions. The card game is one year old. That gap is the entire investment thesis, and it is also the entire risk.
• Anniversary sets are natural entry points. They tend to feature the most recognizable characters and get the most retailer attention, which means better availability now and better name recognition later.
• Play support determines everything. A TCG's singles market lives or dies on whether people play it. Check whether shops near you run Gundam events before you commit to building a collection around it.
• Link Rares are the cards to watch. New rarities introduced in an anniversary set are the ones that get referenced in every future set's marketing. First-appearance Link Rares of the two debut suits are the obvious long-term targets.

Where It Sits in a Crowded Year

2026 has been the most competitive year for non-Pokemon, non-Magic trading card games in a long time. Riftbound launched, One Piece kept expanding, the Naruto Card Game debuted at Gen Con, and Palworld shipped a card game with 3.5 million packs sold before release. Gundam's advantage in that field is a fanbase that predates most of its competition by decades, plus a set design team that is clearly willing to try ideas rather than copy them.