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How Budget Pilots Actually Work

A Pilot is not a creature. It is a modifier that pairs onto a Unit you already control and hands it extra AP, extra HP, and usually a trigger. Budget pilots matter more than budget units because a 1-cost Pilot reading AP+2 / HP+1 grows a stat line you already paid for, in the middle of combat maths your opponent already committed to. If you have not read the core turn structure yet, start with the beginner’s guide to playing the game — this article assumes you know what resting, pairing, and shields are.

Every Pilot here costs 1, so cost never differentiates them. Four things do: the AP/HP bump, the printed Lv, the trigger bracket, and whether the card interacts with a keyword. Read the Lv line especially carefully, because a striking number of effects check it — Quatre Raberba Winner rests an enemy Unit that is Lv.5 or lower, Ennil El destroys an enemy Unit that is Lv.5 or lower, and Tokwan turns off battle damage when it is blocked by something Lv.4 or lower. If you are still learning where Lv, AP, HP, and the trait line sit on the card face, the card anatomy guide lays out the frame piece by piece.

The second thing to read is the bracket in front of the effect. 【When Paired】 and 【When Linked】 are not the same trigger, and several of the strongest budget pilots use the narrower one — Orga, Crot, and Shani (GD02-087) uses 【When Linked】 and then stacks a second condition on top, "If this is a blue Unit". 【During Link】 effects, like the one on Andrew Waldfeld, are continuous rather than one-shot. Getting this wrong is how new players build around a trigger that never fires.

Third, and the reason budget pilots are quietly excellent value: every one opens with 【Burst】Add this card to your hand. Flipped off your shield area they come back rather than being lost. Our shield management and Burst guide covers why shield composition is a deckbuilding decision and not just luck.

White: Keep the Blocker Alive

White owns Blocker. Across the whole card pool, Blocker is the single most-printed keyword at 65 printings, and White holds 23 of the 44 units that carry it — 52 percent, more than any other colour. Blocker’s reminder text is "(Rest this Unit to change the attack target to it.)", and the dedicated Blocker guide covers the timing rules in full. Here is the honest part: no Common or Uncommon White Pilot in the current pool grants Blocker. Not one. Blocker lives on White’s units, and White’s budget pilots exist to make those units survive being blocked into repeatedly.

That is why the White budget pilots skew toward HP. Suletta Mercury (ST01-011), a Common from the ST01 starter deck, is Lv.4 for AP+1 / HP+2 and reads "【Attack】【Once per Turn】Choose 1 of your Resources. Set it as active" — a blocker that refunds you a resource every time it swings. Riddhe Marcenas (GD04-098), the White printing rather than the Blue one, is Lv.4 for AP+1 / HP+2 with "【During Link】When this Unit receives effect damage from an enemy, reduce it by 2", the budget pool’s cleanest answer to opponents who kill blockers with pings instead of attacks. Trowa Barton (GD05-099) is the third HP+2 option at Lv.4, adding a draw-then-discard whenever it destroys an enemy Unit with battle damage on your turn.

The best White budget pilot, though, is Quatre Raberba Winner (GD05-100). It is a 1-cost Uncommon at Lv.4 for AP+2 / HP+1, and the text is "【When Paired】Choose 1 enemy Unit that is Lv.5 or lower. Rest it." Resting a defender on your own terms, for one resource, at the moment you are already committing to an attack, is exactly the effect a defensive colour needs to stop being purely reactive. Note the trigger: 【When Paired】, the broad one, so it fires on any pairing rather than needing a proper Link.

Elan Ceres (Enhanced Person Number 4) (GD01-098) is the best Common in the colour on raw stats: Lv.4, AP+2 / HP+1, with "【Activate･Action】【Once per Turn】If an enemy Unit with 1 or less AP is in play, this Unit recovers 1 HP." That condition will not always be on, but the stat line alone justifies the slot. Ali al-Saachez (GD04-099) is the spice pick at AP+2 / HP+1, bouncing an enemy Pilot to hand on attack. Skip Guel Jeturk (GD01-097) unless your local meta hoards cards, because it only turns on when the opponent holds 8 or more.

Blue: Repair, Rest, and Rewind

Blue owns Repair even harder than White owns Blocker. Repair appears on 19 units in the pool and 15 of them are Blue — 79 percent. Repair does exactly what the name promises: at the end of your turn, the unit recovers HP. It is the keyword that makes trading favourably feel effortless, because damage that would be permanent for your opponent is temporary for you.

Andrew Waldfeld (GD05-082) is the best budget pilot in the game, and one of the few that genuinely grants a keyword. Lv.4, AP+2 / HP+1, and "【During Link】This Unit gains ." Two HP back at the end of every one of your turns, on a unit that is now two AP bigger. Against decks that chip you down with 1 and 2 damage triggers, a Waldfeld link is close to unkillable outside a clean overpower or a removal card. To work out exactly when a Repair link flips a trade from bad to good, read our combat maths breakdown next.

Amuro Ray (ST01-010) is a starter-deck Common at Lv.4, AP+2 / HP+1, reading "【When Paired】Choose 1 enemy Unit with 5 or less HP. Rest it." That is the Blue mirror of Quatre Raberba Winner, and the HP condition is often easier to satisfy than the Lv one on a board that has already traded. Banagher Links (GD01-088) is the most generous stat line in the colour — Lv.5, AP+2 / HP+2 — with "【When Linked】Draw 1" on top. A 1-cost card that replaces itself and adds four total stats belongs in any Blue deck that can meet the Link condition.

The rest of Blue is situational and you should treat it that way. Cagalli Yula Athha (GD05-083) bounces an enemy Unit with exactly 1 HP on pairing — excellent after a trade, blank before one. Orga, Crot, and Shani (GD02-087) is a Common at Lv.5 for AP+2 / HP+1 that rests an enemy Blocker, which is genuinely underrated given that White holds half the format’s Blockers. Rosamia Badam (GD04-082) offers AP+2 / HP+0 and one damage to a rested Unit; the HP+0 matters more than new players expect. Jerid Messa (GD02-086) needs another (Titans) Unit to reach AP+2, Marbet Fingerhat (GD04-083) and Odelo Henrik (GD05-084) only function in a (League Militaire) token deck, and Sleggar Law (GD04-084) wants (White Base Team) bodies. And to repeat the warning: Riddhe Marcenas (GD01-089) does not give your unit Repair — it gets AP+1 only while the unit already has it, so it is a payoff for a Waldfeld build, not a substitute.

Green: Breach and High-Maneuver on a Budget

Green is the aggressive colour and it owns Breach: 41 printings across the pool, with 21 of the 35 Breach units sitting in Green — 60 percent. Breach turns a kill into shield damage, deals the specified amount to the first card in your opponent’s shield section when this unit’s attack destroys an enemy Unit, and it is the reason Green decks can win without ever drawing a big finisher. High-Maneuver, the evasion keyword that stops a unit being blocked, is spread more evenly — Green 4, Blue 3, Purple 3 — but Green has the best budget access to it. Both keywords, plus Suppression, are dissected in the aggressive keywords guide.

M’Quve (GD01-092) is the best budget Pilot in Green and one of the very few that hands over a keyword: a Common at Lv.3 for AP+1 / HP+1 reading "While this Unit is (Zeon), it gains ." The stat bump is the smallest here and it does not matter — you are buying a permanent shield-damage engine for one resource on a Common you can pull out of a bulk box. The condition is the trait, not the Link, so any (Zeon) unit turns it on.

Lauda Neill (GD05-087) is the other true grant in the colour: Lv.3, AP+1 / HP+1, "While this Unit is (Academy), it gains ." An unblockable attacker for one resource is the kind of effect that decides races, and it is the reason a budget (Academy) shell is more competitive than its price suggests. Lalah Sune (GD02-089) grants sideways rather than to itself — "【When Paired】Choose 1 of your other (Zeon) Link Units. It gains during this turn" — which is worse than M’Quve on rate, and only lasts a turn, but it lets you put the Breach on the unit that is actually going to connect.

Chang Wufei (GD01-091) is the best stat line in Green at Lv.4 for AP+2 / HP+1, but read the whole sentence: "During your turn, while this Unit has , it can’t receive battle damage from enemy Units with 3 or less AP." It rewards Breach, it does not grant it, so it belongs in a deck that already has M’Quve or Breach units. Same category, Challia Bull (GQ) (GD02-090): Lv.5, AP+1 / HP+2, and AP+1 more only while another High-Maneuver unit is in play. Tokwan (GD04-088) is an aggressive Common at AP+2 / HP+0 that shrugs off battle damage when blocked by a Lv.4-or-lower unit, Elan Ceres (Enhanced Person Number 5) (GD04-087) redirects battle damage to another (Academy) unit, Kayra Su (GD05-086) forces non-Link enemies to attack it while rested, and Garma Zabi (GD04-086) places an EX Resource when it dies with none out — useful if you are building around the economy covered in the EX Base and EX Resource explainer. Prospera Mercury (GD05-088) is a Lv.5 HP+2 Common whose pump only applies to two specifically named units — a narrow build-around, not a generic playable.

Red: Cheap Damage and Cheap Draw

Red owns Support — 8 of the 9 Support units in the pool are Red, 89 percent — and Support reads "(Rest this Unit. 1 other friendly Unit gets AP+X during this turn.)" Red also has the largest share of First Strike, whose reminder is "(While this Unit is attacking, it deals damage before the enemy Unit.)", with 4 of its 16 printings. And not a single Common or Uncommon Red Pilot grants either keyword. Both are unit abilities. If a guide tells you to build a budget Red deck around a Pilot that hands out First Strike, that card does not exist. Red’s budget pilots deal direct damage and draw cards instead — the First Strike and Support guide covers where those keywords actually come from.

Michael Trinity (GD04-092) is the pick: a Common at Lv.4 for AP+2 / HP+1 with "【When Linked】Choose 1 damaged enemy Unit. Deal 1 damage to it." The damaged-unit condition makes it a finisher rather than an opener, which suits Red’s plan exactly. Deux Murasame (GD04-091) is its mirror image: same Lv.4, AP+2 / HP+1 body, but "【Destroyed】Choose 1 undamaged enemy Unit. Deal 1 damage to it", wanting a fresh target from the other end of the board. Run both and you have a damage trigger whether your unit lives or dies.

Auel Neider (GD05-092) is the pure aggression Common: Lv.3, AP+1 / HP+1, "【During Link】【Attack】If you are attacking the enemy player, this Unit gets AP+2 during this battle." Read the condition — it does nothing when you attack a unit. In a deck built to go face it is a 1-cost AP+3 — the best rate in the colour, and completely blank in a board stall. Shagia Frost (GD02-092) at Lv.4 for AP+1 / HP+2 hands AP+2 to any of your (New UNE) Units during your turn, and Olba Frost (GD02-093) draws when it destroys a unit paired with a (Newtype) Pilot — narrow, but the format is full of Newtype pilots, including several in this very article.

For draw, Dearka Elthman (GD01-095) is a Common that loots on Link ("Discard 1. If you do, draw 1"), and Yzak Jule (GD01-094) draws once per turn when an enemy Link Unit is destroyed with damage while it attacks. Hallelujah Haptism (GD04-090) is Lv.4 for AP+2 / HP+1 and pays off only when you hit a (CB) card off the top after a kill, so it wants a dedicated Celestial Being list. Sting Oakley (GD05-091) gets AP+1 and HP+1 on top of its pairing bonus while the enemy player has 7 or more cards in trash — a late-game switch, not an early one.

Purple: The Colour Everyone Forgets

There are five colours in this game — White, Blue, Green, Red, and Purple — and Purple is real, with 80 cards in the pool. It gets skipped in a lot of coverage because it does not own a headline keyword the way White owns Blocker or Blue owns Repair. What it has instead is access to Suppression, 3 of the 16 High-Maneuver units, and a general theme of grinding value out of the trash. If you are pairing Purple with a second colour, the two-colour deckbuilding guide covers how to keep a 10-card resource deck honest across two colours.

Gyunei Guss (GD05-095) is the best budget Purple Pilot and one of the four permanent keyword grants in this whole article. Lv.4, AP+2 / HP+1, Common, and "While this Unit is (Neo Zeon), it gains ." Purple getting the format’s most-printed defensive keyword off a Common, on a body that is also AP+2 bigger, means a Purple deck can play defence without splashing White at all.

Ennil El (GD04-096) is the scariest text box of any budget Pilot: Lv.4, AP+1 / HP+2, "【During Link】When this Unit deals battle damage to an enemy Unit that is Lv.5 or lower, destroy that enemy Unit." That is destruction on damage, not on lethal damage — you do not need to get through their HP, you only need to connect. The Lv.5 ceiling is real — the biggest chase-rare bodies sit above it — but against the mid-sized units that make up most boards it is a one-resource execution order. Lafter Frankland (GD02-095) is Lv.4 for AP+2 / HP+1 with "【Attack】If this Unit is damaged and Lv.5 or lower, it gains during this battle" — conditional, self-referential, and a genuinely good comeback card, because it turns your damaged units into unblockable ones.

Desil Galette (GD02-096) is the recursion card, a Common at AP+2 / HP+1 that lets you pay for and deploy a Lv.2-or-lower (Vagan) Unit out of your trash on Link. Quess Paraya (GD05-094) reduces enemy battle damage to a (Neo Zeon) Unit by 2 for the turn when it dies, Lunamaria Hawke (GD04-095) redirects damage away from a (Minerva Squad) Unit onto itself, and Chad Chadan (GD05-096) is a HP+2 (Tekkadan) healer that pays its own HP to do it. Pala Sys (GD04-094) returns a purple Suppression unit from trash to hand — good in a dedicated Suppression list, blank elsewhere, and once more, it does not grant the keyword.

The Full Budget Pilot Table

Here are the budget pilots worth a deck slot, in one place. Cost is 1 for all of them, so the column that matters is the last one. "Grants" means the card actually gives the keyword to a unit; everything else is a stat bump plus a trigger.

A note on scope: this is a card-by-card reference for the Common and Uncommon Pilot slot, not a decklist. A deck is 50 main-deck cards plus a separate 10-card resource deck, maximum 4 copies, up to two colours, and pilots are only ever a slice of those 50 — a hand full of pilots with no units to pair them onto is a dead hand. For the full 50-card process, work through building your first deck; for why the same character appears at Common in one set and a premium rarity elsewhere, see the rarity guide.

On buying: every card here is a Common or Uncommon, so singles are cheap — buy the exact playset rather than opening packs hoping to find them. TCGplayer is the usual first stop in the US, and prices move, so check before committing to a list.

Budget Pilot FAQ

Which colour has the best budget pilots overall? Blue, narrowly: Waldfeld granting Repair 2 for one resource is the biggest single swing in the group, and Banagher Links is the best raw stat line at AP+2 / HP+2. Green is a close second, with M’Quve and Lauda Neill both being genuine keyword grants. Purple is the most underrated — Gyunei Guss handing Blocker to a (Neo Zeon) unit off a Common beats anything White gets in this rarity band.

Do any budget pilots grant Support or First Strike? No. Not one Common or Uncommon Pilot in the pool grants either. Support (11 printings, with 8 of the 9 units carrying it in Red) and First Strike (16 printings) are unit abilities, and if you want them you build around units that already have them. This is the clearest example of a budget limit that no amount of clever pilot selection gets around.

How many pilots should a budget deck run? Roughly 10 to 14 of your 50 main-deck cards is a sane starting range, then adjust from playtesting. Skew higher if your pilots are doing something the deck genuinely needs — a Repair or Blocker grant, say — and lower if they are mostly stat bumps, because pairing costs you a resource and a card and you need enough units on board to make that trade worthwhile.

Is it worth chasing rare pilots instead? Eventually, but not first. The gap between a good Common Pilot and a premium one is far smaller than the gap between Common and premium units. Spend on units and removal, upgrade pilots last. The chase card rundown is a useful reality check on what you are not missing.

Why do two different cards say "Riddhe Marcenas"? Because the game reprints characters across colours with different text. GD01-089 is the Blue Common that rewards Repair with AP+1; GD04-098 is the White Uncommon at AP+1 / HP+2 that reduces incoming effect damage by 2. Elan Ceres is the same trap twice over: Enhanced Person Number 4 is the White Common (GD01-098), Enhanced Person Number 5 the Green Uncommon (GD04-087), and they do completely different things. Build shopping lists from card codes, not names.

What is the single biggest mistake with budget pilots? Pairing early out of excitement instead of holding the pilot as a combat trick. Most of these effects trigger on pairing or on attack, so committing early hands your opponent full information. Holding a 1-cost AP+2 pilot until the block is declared is often the difference between a trade and a two-for-one. The meta primer covers what the common opening boards look like.

Should I run four copies of my best pilot? Four copies of a keyword grant like M’Quve, Lauda Neill, or Gyunei Guss is correct if your deck can reliably meet its trait condition — (Zeon) for M’Quve, (Academy) for Lauda Neill, (Neo Zeon) for Gyunei Guss. Waldfeld is the exception, because its grant checks nothing but the Link itself, so four copies is right in any Blue deck that links consistently. If your unit base only half-supports a trait, drop that pilot to two or three and fill the rest of the slots with unconditional stat pilots like Elan Ceres (Enhanced Person Number 4) or Michael Trinity that are never dead.

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