Gundam ST11 Aquatic Assault: Full Card List & Deck Review

ST11 Aquatic Assault is one of four starter decks released together in late September 2026 — see the full ST11–ST14 comparison for how it stacks up against the other three. It is the first starter deck to pair Blue and Purple, and it introduces the Marine trait.

What Is ST11 Aquatic Assault?

Bandai frames the deck as “many units skilled in underwater combat.” In practice that marketing line translates into two mechanical ideas: effects that stop your units being targeted, and effects that bring units back from your trash. The theming is genuinely present in the two Legendary Rares — Char's Z'Gok bottom-decking a unit, Shamblo surfacing one from the trash — and fairly thin everywhere else.

The more interesting thing about ST11 is what it is not. Earlier starter decks were built around a single anime series. This one pulls from Mobile Suit Gundam, Gundam SEED, Gundam X, Turn A Gundam and Unicorn at once, because it is organised by battle style rather than by show. The consequence is that ST11 quietly hands support to four archetypes that have nothing to do with Marine — and for most buyers, that is the actual reason to pick it up.

Full Card List

ST11 Aquatic Assault — 16 different cards making up a 50-card deck, with copies as listed. Card data from the official GUNDAM CARD GAME card database.

Effect text quoted from the official card database. Released September 25, 2026 · MSRP $15.99.

Deck Composition

Bandai built all four decks to the same skeleton — 10 units, 2 pilots, 2 commands, 1 command/pilot and 1 base, 16 different cards making up the 50-card deck. What separates them is the curve and the colour split. ST11 is the cheapest deck in the wave — half its cards sit at level 3 or below, which is what a deck wanting bodies on board to switch on its Marine conditions should look like. It leans Blue nine cards to seven.

The Two Legendary Rares

Char's Z'Gok

A level 4, cost 3 body at 3/3 with the Zeon and Marine traits, linking to Char Aznable. Two effects, both good. While two or more other friendly Marine units are in play, enemy units cannot choose it as an attack target — and critically, those units do not need to be active, so parking two small bodies is enough to make it permanently untouchable in combat. On deploy, with another Marine unit out, it returns a level 2 or lower enemy unit to the bottom of its owner's deck.

Bottom-decking rather than destroying matters more than it looks. A lot of current decks treat their trash as a second hand — Mobile Fighter recurs commands, cruise-control builds count cards there — so removing a unit from the game loop entirely is a real upgrade over killing it. It also cleanly answers tokens.

Shamblo

Level 6, cost 5, 4/5, Zeon and Marine, linking to Lonnie Garvey. At the start of your opponent's turn, if another Marine unit is in play, effect damage to your shield area is reduced by 5 for the turn — which in current terms means Breach and Master Gundam's burn stop working. At level 6 you reliably land it before an opponent deploys their big finisher.

The deploy effect is the one that actually wins games, though: add any Marine unit from your trash to your hand, with no restriction. It can fetch another Shamblo. In the late-game scenarios where you are down to one or two cards and cannot build a board, that is the card that keeps you alive.

Kapool: The Best Card in the Wave

Kapool is a level 1, cost 1 unit with a 1/1 stat line and the Militia and Marine traits. Its effect: when destroyed, if it is your opponent's turn and a friendly Marine unit is in play, draw 1.

On a first read that looks conditional and mediocre. It is neither, because of how the game handles a unit checking a condition as it leaves play: Kapool counts itself as the friendly Marine unit. The requirement is satisfied by the card that is dying. So the effect is functionally:

When this is destroyed on your opponent's turn, draw 1.

That is a one-drop that replaces itself, and it does not need to be in a Marine deck to do it. The wording means it only refunds on your opponent's turn — blocking with it on your own turn does not draw — but in practice aggro decks are handing their one-drops to the opponent to remove anyway.

Why it changes decks

Bandai previously limited how many vanilla level 2, cost 1 units a deck may run, to stop lists stacking 16 to 20 one-drops. That restriction only bites on vanilla 2/2 stat lines, so one-drops with text have been steadily routing around it. Green accumulated several. Purple had Gundam Exia Repair.

Kapool adds four more to purple, and it is a better card than most of them. The arithmetic that follows:

• Any purple deck — 12 one-drops, whatever the second colour
• Purple / blue — 16 one-drops
• Purple / green — up to 20 one-drops

It also plays well with the rest of the format. Aggro decks normally have to skip turn one going first; Kapool gives them a play. It fills the trash by one when it dies, which feeds the exile costs on the purple Banshee from ST12. And once an EX Base is gone, a 1/1 that keeps attacking into shields is a genuine clock.

The honest counterpoint: it is still a 1/1, and decks with cheap removal on their own turn can kill it before it refunds. But doing that advantageously — spending a card and the right timing window to deny one draw — is harder than it sounds, and most decks have no clean way to do it at all.

What It Upgrades in Your Decks

This is where ST11 earns its price for most buyers. Four archetypes outside Marine get something:

• Vulture — the biggest winner. Gundam Leopard is a generic 4/3 at level 3, cost 2, and Daughseat is a 2/2 one-drop. Neither has any text, which is precisely the point: Vulture has been short on plain playable bodies to curve out with and to fuel the trash for Gundam X and DX effects.
• Zeon — several units with the trait, and Char's Z'Gok is a strong body in its own right.
• Phantom Pain — Abyss Gundam is Phantom Pain in purple for the first time, which opens red/purple builds for a deck that was effectively locked to one colour.
• ZAFT — Ash is a blue ZAFT unit with a ZAFT link trait. On its own it is an unremarkable 4/4 with Repair 2. What it does is make red/blue ZAFT a legal colour pair, which simply was not possible before.

The deck's best constructed card after Kapool is probably Poorly Planned Offensive. It bounces a rested enemy unit with 3 or less HP on burst, and does the same on main or action while drawing you a card. Same effect on both halves with a bonus for using it proactively is unusual, and the 3 HP threshold catches grunts, tokens and the entire level 3, cost 2 tier. It will drift in and out of lists as the format shifts, and it is a strong sideboard card against aggro even when it is not maindeckable.

A Twinkle from the Abyss is the other one worth noting — deploy a level 4 or lower Marine unit from the trash, rested, with no cost payment, for two. Reanimating Char's Z'Gok for two is a real rate. Its limitation is that it is main-speed only, so you cannot surprise anyone with it.

Is It Worth Buying?

Yes — but understand what you are buying.

Marine as an archetype is not finished. The units are fine, the two Legendary Rares are genuinely strong, and there are two good commands. What it does not have is a pilot worth building around: Char is locked to Marine and does nothing anywhere else, and Lonnie Garvey is close to skippable because Shamblo does not need the link to function. There is no card in ST11 that makes you want to play Marine on its own merits. Multiple reviewers landed on the same read — this archetype is waiting for support in GD06 Stardust Trails, and nothing Marine-related has been announced for it yet.

So buy ST11 for the parts. Four Kapool is worth the price of the deck by itself if you play purple at all. Vulture and Zeon players get real upgrades. If you want to actually build Marine, the standard recommendation is two copies, which gets you to four-ofs on most of the shell.

If you only want one or two Kapool rather than a playset, buy the singles — the deck is priced as a product, not as value.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is ST11 Aquatic Assault worth buying?

Yes, but for the splash cards rather than the archetype. Four Kapool, plus Vulture, Zeon and Phantom Pain support, justify the price. Marine itself lacks a payoff pilot and is likely waiting on GD06 support.

Why is Kapool considered the best card in ST11–ST14?

Because it counts itself as the friendly Marine unit its own effect requires, making the condition free. It is a level 1, cost 1 body that reads as “draw 1 when destroyed on your opponent’s turn,” and it pushes purple aggro from 12 one-drops to 16, or 20 in purple/green.

What are the Legendary Rares in ST11?

Char's Z'Gok and Shamblo, two copies each. Char's Z'Gok is untargetable while two other Marine units are out and bottom-decks a low-level enemy unit on deploy; Shamblo blanks 5 effect damage to your shields and recurs a Marine unit from trash.

How many ST11 decks should I buy?

One if you want the splash cards — that is four Kapool and four Daughseat. Two if you intend to build Marine properly, which gets you to four copies of most of the shell.

Is Marine a good archetype?

Not yet. The shell pieces are reasonable and the two LRs are strong, but there is no pilot that rewards committing to it, and most of the remaining units are vanillas. Treat it as an archetype in waiting rather than a deck you can take to an event.

Which cards from ST11 will see play in other decks?

Kapool in any purple deck, Poorly Planned Offensive in blue decks and as an anti-aggro sideboard card, Gundam Leopard and Daughseat in Vulture, and Abyss Gundam if purple Phantom Pain becomes a build.

Disclaimer: The card list is compiled from the official product reveal and is being confirmed against the English printing — entries marked “name TBC” are still provisional, and effect summaries are our reading of each card rather than official rules text. Card evaluations are pre-release and early-format analysis, not tournament results. Verify current prices before buying or selling. This is not financial advice.