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Freedom Ascension [GD05] released July 24, 2026 in a globally synchronized launch — and it's no ordinary booster set. Bandai built it as the Gundam Card Game's official 1st Anniversary release, marking a year since the game launched worldwide in July 2025. About five weeks after release, it's already the most-discussed set in the game's short history, and the numbers explain why: 138 base card types plus 10 extra card types for 148 distinct cards total, ballooning to 181 total printings once you count every alt-art, SP, and parallel version. The rarity spread runs 50 Common, 36 Uncommon, 32 Rare, 12 Legend Rare, 8 Special, 2 Token, and 8 Special EX Resource. Packs sell for $4.99 MSRP at 12 cards each, with 24 packs to a box — a $119.76 MSRP-equivalent that real-world listings have not exactly respected, which we'll get into below.

The bigger story for collectors is what GD05 adds to the card pool. Four series join the Gundam Card Game for the first time — that's the precise count straight from Bandai's official product page, which gives each series its own individual "joins the game" announcement, rather than the looser "two series" shorthand you may see floating around elsewhere. The four are Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny (headlined by Strike Freedom Gundam), Mobile Fighter G Gundam (Shining Gundam and pilot Domon Kasshu, plus Master Gundam), Mobile Suit Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz (Wing Gundam Zero EW), and Mobile Suit Gundam Char's Counterattack (Nu Gundam and Sazabi). On top of that, the set debuts an entirely new parallel rarity — Link Rare — plus SP-treatment EX Resources, eight SP pilot cards, and a record five LR++ chase cards, more than any prior set has printed at that tier.

This guide profiles all five LR++ headliners, explains what Link Rare actually is and why it matters as a collecting angle, and covers the SP pilots and SP EX Resources as the set's secondary chase targets. Prices here are volatile — GD05 has only been out a matter of weeks, and early secondary-market numbers on a hot new set move fast — so treat every figure as approximate rather than fixed. For the underlying rarity system, see our Gundam TCG rarity guide, and for the bigger strategic picture, our Gundam TCG strategy hub.

New in GD05: Rarities, Mechanics & Debuting Series

Freedom Ascension runs the standard Gundam rarity ladder underneath it all, but it's the additions on top of that ladder that make this an anniversary set rather than just another release. Four brand-new things debut here, and every one of them is a first for the game:

• Link Rare (new parallel tier). A brand-new parallel rarity built around combined artwork — a Unit and its Pilot rendered together in a single memorable composition. These are the first cards ever printed at this tier, and they read as a distinct collecting lane from the standard alt-art chase.
• SP Card EX Resources. The first-ever EX Resource cards done in SP (special) treatment, illustrated with female characters as part of the 1st-anniversary celebration. Resource cards are rarely a collecting focus in most TCGs — giving them a premium SP pass is itself a small piece of Gundam TCG history.
• 8 Pilot SP Cards. Eight popular pilots each get a dedicated SP card version — a more accessible chase tier than the LR++ cards, built for players and collectors who want a specific character rather than the single rarest pull in the set.
• A record 5 types of LR++. GD05 prints five LR++ cards — a new high-water mark for the game, with no prior set coming close. That record count is the headline reason this set's chase list looks so different from anything that came before it.

All of that new rarity structure exists to spotlight the four series making their Gundam Card Game debut in this set. Per Bandai's official product page — which announces each series individually rather than bundling them — the four newcomers are Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny (Strike Freedom Gundam), Mobile Fighter G Gundam (Shining Gundam and Domon Kasshu, plus Master Gundam), Mobile Suit Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz (Wing Gundam Zero EW), and Mobile Suit Gundam Char's Counterattack (Nu Gundam and Sazabi). If you've seen this set described elsewhere as adding "two series," that's a looser marketing summary — the specific, individually-announced count is four, and it's the more accurate one to build your expectations around.

Practically, this means GD05 isn't just handing existing archetypes a fresh coat of foil — it's introducing four new casts of characters at once, each with its own flagship LR++ chase card. That's a lot of new collector demand landing in a single set, and it's the biggest reason Freedom Ascension has been harder to find at MSRP than a typical release.

The 5 LR++ Chase Cards

Here are all five LR++ cards, one per color, each anchoring one of the four debuting series (Char's Counterattack gets two). Prices below are approximate TCGplayer market snapshots from late July 2026 — days after release — sourced via gundamcardlist.com's card database. These are early numbers on a hot new set and will move as more copies surface, so read them as a snapshot rather than a fixed figure:

• Wing Gundam Zero (EW) — GD05-067, White, LR++, approx. $3,582. The flagship of Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz, and currently the single most expensive chase card in Gundam Card Game history outside the ultra-limited Beta print. See the dedicated spotlight below.
• Strike Freedom Gundam — GD05-002, Blue, LR++, approx. $2,622. The headliner of Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny's debut, sitting at card number 002 — effectively the face of the whole anniversary set. Strong franchise recognition plus first-appearance status makes this a natural second-most-chased card.
• Nu Gundam — GD05-017, Green, LR++, approx. $1,530. Amuro Ray's final machine from Char's Counterattack, and one of the most storied Universal Century suits ever printed — the fin-funnel legend that's been the subject of Gundam nostalgia for decades. Its debut in the game carries real weight for longtime fans.
• Sazabi — GD05-049, Purple, LR++, approx. $1,231. Char Aznable's crimson flagship, and Nu Gundam's rival from the same film — Char's Counterattack is the only series in this set to land two LR++ cards, splitting them across Green and Purple.
• Master Gundam — GD05-033, Red, LR++, approx. $1,228. Master Asia's machine from Mobile Fighter G Gundam. Unlike the other four, this one also has a stated in-game effect worth knowing: it deals 5 damage to the top card of the opponent's Shield area, giving it genuine table relevance on top of the chase appeal.

Notice the spread: three of the five cards -- Nu Gundam, Sazabi, and Master Gundam -- sit in a fairly tight $1,200–$1,600 band, Strike Freedom Gundam sits well above that at roughly $2,622, and Wing Gundam Zero (EW) sits alone at the very top, running about $960 higher than Strike Freedom. That gap is worth understanding on its own, which is why it gets its own section next.

The Priciest Chase: Wing Gundam Zero (EW)

Card GD05-067, the White LR++ printing of Wing Gundam Zero (EW), is the standout of the standouts. As the flagship of Mobile Suit Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz — one of four series making its Gundam Card Game debut here — it's carrying both first-appearance weight and the deep nostalgia of one of the franchise's most recognizable "angel wing" designs. Approximate late-July 2026 pricing puts it around $3,582, which currently makes it the single most expensive chase card in the game's history outside the ultra-limited Beta print.

If you're chasing this specific card by ripping packs, understand the odds are brutal — this is exactly the kind of pull it's usually more sensible to buy as a single once the market has had time to settle than to gamble sealed product against. We'll come back to that timing question in the pricing section below.

Link Rare: A New Collecting Angle

Separate from the LR++ chase, GD05 debuts an entirely new parallel rarity called Link Rare — and it's worth understanding on its own terms rather than treating it as "just another foil." Instead of reprinting a single card with a fancier finish, Link Rare cards pair a Unit with its Pilot in one combined piece of artwork, capturing a specific character-and-machine combo in a single frame.

That framing matters for collectors in a few ways. First, it's a genuinely new print concept for the game — these are the first cards ever released at this tier, so there's no prior Link Rare market to compare prices against. Second, because the appeal is the specific pairing rather than just the Unit or just the Pilot, certain combos will naturally resonate more than others depending on how iconic that pilot-and-machine relationship is within the source anime. And third, Link Rare sits as its own lane alongside — not above or below — the LR++ record chase, which means it's a separate thing to watch rather than a stepping stone toward it.

For a set built around four newly-debuting series, Link Rare is a natural fit: it gives Bandai a way to spotlight the signature pilot-and-suit combos that make each of those series recognizable in the first place. Expect Link Rare to become a recurring collecting angle in future sets now that it's established here, but for now, GD05 is the only place to find it.

SP Pilots & SP EX Resources: The Secondary Chase

Not every collector is chasing a four-figure LR++ card, and GD05 gives that audience two lower-tier — but still notable — chase categories:

• 8 Pilot SP Cards. Eight popular pilots each receive a dedicated SP version. One retailer blog reportedly lists SP pilot cards such as Kira Yamato and Heero Yuy trading in roughly the $40–$76 range — a much more attainable price point than the LR++ tier, and a sensible target if you want a specific character rather than the rarest possible pull. Treat that pricing as secondary color rather than a firm figure; it comes from a single retailer source, not the structured card database behind the LR++ numbers above.
• 8 SP EX Resource cards. The first-ever EX Resource cards printed in SP treatment, illustrated with female characters as part of the anniversary celebration. Resource cards almost never get premium collector treatment in this game, so these stand out simply for being a category first — a curiosity chase for completionists as much as anything.

There's also a useful comparison point worth flagging: the standard (non-++) LR printing of Strike Freedom Gundam has reportedly traded around $95–$113, according to that same single-retailer source. That's a full order of magnitude below the roughly $2,622 the LR++ version of the same character commands. It's a good illustration of just how much the new record-tier rarity is driving GD05's headline prices — the character and series appeal is present on both printings, but the LR++ treatment is doing most of the work on price.

If your budget doesn't stretch to four figures, the SP pilots, SP EX Resources, and standard LR alt arts are where the set's collecting appeal is still very much alive — just without the record-breaking price tags attached to the top five.

What Actually Drives the Value

Pulling the threads together, GD05's chase prices come down to a handful of overlapping forces — and where a card sits among them says a lot about how durable that price is likely to be:

The takeaway: no single LR++ card is valuable for just one reason. Wing Gundam Zero (EW) stacks record scarcity on top of a fresh series debut and franchise nostalgia, which is exactly why it stands apart from the other four. Master Gundam is the outlier in the other direction — its price is backed by scarcity and nostalgia the same as the rest, but it's the only one of the five with a documented in-game effect giving it an additional, purely competitive reason to be wanted.

Booster Box Pricing & the Deck Build Box

A quick honesty note before you go shopping: there is no single "the price" for a GD05 booster box right now, and be skeptical of anyone who quotes you one flat number. MSRP works out to $4.99 per 12-card pack, or roughly $119.76 for a 24-pack box at that rate — but real-world booster box listings varied enormously in the weeks after release, from close to that MSRP figure to well over $200, driven by launch sellouts rather than any change to the box's actual contents. This tracks with a broader pattern in the game's short history: early sets like GD01 Newtype Rising and GD02 Dual Impact reportedly sold out quickly enough that Bandai scheduled rereleases within months of their original launch, and hobby press has repeatedly compared the Gundam Card Game's early growth trajectory to Bandai's other TCG successes like the One Piece Card Game and Dragon Ball Super: Fusion World.

Released alongside GD05 on the same July 24, 2026 date is the Deck Build Box [SC01], a separate product worth knowing about if you're weighing your options. It bundles 125 curated reprinted cards — 25 per color across all five colors — designed so a buyer can combine two colors and build a deck immediately, plus 8 packs of Freedom Ascension boosters included in the same box, Resource and Token cards, a playsheet, a half-storage box, and a bonus pack containing one of three random EX Base card types. Bandai positions it as a strong option for both new players and existing players who want to jump straight into deckbuilding with the new set. US retailer pricing has generally been seen around $99.99 MSRP, though regional pricing varies — some European listings ran lower — so treat that figure the same way as the booster box numbers: a starting point, not a guarantee.

The practical upshot for chase-card hunters: if your goal is specifically to pull one of the five LR++ cards, cracking loose packs is a long-odds, potentially expensive bet given how volatile box prices already are. Buying the specific single once the market has had more time to settle is usually the more predictable route — packs and boxes are better suited to players who want the playable cards and the fun of opening product than to collectors targeting one exact chase card.

Common Mistakes

FAQ & Where to Buy

• What's the most valuable card in GD05? Wing Gundam Zero (EW), card GD05-067, at the new LR++ tier — approximately $3,582 as of late July 2026, currently the single most expensive Gundam Card Game chase card outside the ultra-limited Beta print. Prices on a brand-new set move quickly, so treat that as a snapshot rather than a fixed number.
• What is Link Rare? A brand-new parallel rarity debuting in GD05: combined artwork pairing a Unit with its Pilot in one piece. It's the first time the game has printed cards at this tier, and it sits as its own collecting lane separate from the LR++ chase.
• Are the SP pilot cards worth chasing? If the LR++ tier is out of budget, yes — SP pilots like Kira Yamato and Heero Yuy have reportedly traded in roughly the $40–$76 range, a far more attainable price for a set-specific collectible. Treat that figure as secondary, softer-sourced color rather than a locked-in price.
• Should I buy boosters or the Deck Build Box? If you want to build a deck fast, the Deck Build Box [SC01] bundles 125 reprinted cards plus 8 GD05 booster packs for around $99.99 MSRP (regional pricing varies). If you're specifically chasing an LR++ card, buying the single once the market settles is generally more predictable than gambling on either product. See our beginner's buying guide for a fuller breakdown.

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