Gundam Card Game Timing Keywords: All 13 and When They Fire

ST13-006 Gundam Aerial has two effects in its text box and four coloured tabs in front of them: a pink During Pair, a teal Attack, a light-blue Activate･Action and a red Once per Turn. They read like decoration. They are four different rules. The first is a condition, the second a trigger, the third an ability you can use on your opponent's turn, and the fourth a limit on how often the rest of the line may happen.

Bandai's Comprehensive Rules call these keywords and define 13 of them in section 13-2. The angle-bracket keyword effects - <Repair>, <Blocker>, <Breach> and the rest - are a separate list, covered in the rules walkthrough. This piece covers the 13: what kind of rule each one is, when it fires, how many cards print it, and the rulings that settle the edge cases. The four pairing keywords get the most space, because their names differ by a single word and they do not behave alike.

How I checked

On 11 October 2026 I read section 13-2 of Comprehensive Rules Ver. 1.9.0 (11 September 2026) alongside the sections it leans on: 10-1 on the five types of effect, 8-2 on the attack step and 3-3 on Pilots. Rulings are from Bandai's official FAQ - its eight Keywords categories, its Main Phase and Pilot categories, plus all 368 card-specific rulings on its 19 product pages, searched for pairing and linking.

Card counts cover all 956 main-deck card numbers in the English card database: 600 Units, 157 Commands, 127 Pilots and 72 Bases from GD01 to GD05, EB01 and ST01 to ST14, with parallel art collapsed and tokens and Resources left out. One of them, GD01-020 Anksha, is banned in tournament play. I counted a card for a keyword only when the keyword opens one of its effects. GD03-037 Bertigo, which mentions "an enemy Unit with a 【Destroyed】 effect", does not count as a 【Destroyed】 card, and neither does a Command that hands another card an effect opening with a keyword. The Burst odds further down use the 38 one-on-one lists among the 53 on Bandai's DECKS page; the other 15 are built for Team Battle or Battle Royale.

All 13 keywords on one table

Rule 10-1-4 sorts every effect in the game into five types: constant, triggered, activated, command and substitution. The 13 keywords map onto those types, except three that are not effect types at all: 【During Pair】 and 【During Link】 are conditions on an effect, and 【Once per Turn】 is a limit on one.

Rule 10-1-6-1 names 【Deploy】, 【Attack】, 【Destroyed】 and 【When Paired】 as triggered effects, 10-1-7-1 names the two 【Activate】 keywords as activated effects, and 10-1-8-1 ties 【Main】 and 【Action】 to Command cards. 715 of the 956 main-deck cards open at least one effect with a keyword from this table.

Three gaps in the "Printed on" column are worth knowing:

• 【Deploy】 is on Units and Bases only. Rule 5-8-1 defines deploying as a Unit or Base being placed on the field. Pilots are paired and Commands are played, so the word has nothing to describe on them.
• 【Once per Turn】 is on none of the 157 Commands. A Command's effect activates when the card is played, and the card then goes to the trash (rule 3-4-4).
• 【During Pair】 is on Units only - 42 of them, and none of the 127 Pilots. The Pilot section below explains why it would be redundant there.

【Main】 and 【Action】 split the 157 Commands three ways: 66 are 【Main】 only, 32 are 【Action】 only and 59 print both. The Commands guide covers the action-step windows those two open, and the Commands that also carry a 【Pilot】 line - 68 of the 157 today.

The printed card uses colours, not brackets

The 【】 brackets are how Bandai's card database, FAQ and rulebook write a keyword. The printed cards checked for this guide do not show them. Each keyword sits on a coloured tab instead, and the colours group the 13:

Keyword effects such as <Blocker> print in a white box rather than angle brackets, and an activation cost written ② in the database prints as a number in a white circle. I read those colours off the official images of the five cards in this guide plus ST04-015 Archangel, ST02-013 Peaceful Timbre and GD05-060 Gundam Flauros (Ryusei-Go) - between them, all 13 tabs appear at least once.

When Paired, During Pair, When Linked, During Link

Two questions sort all four. Does it fire once, or work for as long as the Pilot stays? And does any Pilot do, or only a link Pilot?

"When" is a trigger. Rule 13-2-9-1 says 【When Paired】 activates "when a Pilot is paired with a Unit", and 13-2-11-1 says 【When Linked】 activates "when a pilot that meets the link condition is set". Each fires once, at the moment of pairing, and resolves like any other triggered effect.

"During" is a condition. Rule 13-2-10-1 calls 【During Pair】 "an effect that is possessed by the Unit while a Pilot is paired with it", and 13-2-12-1 says the same of 【During Link】 with a link Pilot. What follows can be any kind of effect. ST01-001 Gundam's 【During Pair】 is constant - during your turn, all your Units get AP+1, and ruling Q113 confirms the Gundam counts itself. ST13-006 Gundam Aerial's 【During Pair】【Attack】 is a trigger that only exists while it is paired (ruling Q77). ST12-006 Unicorn Gundam 02 Banshee (Destroy Mode) opens with 【During Pair】【Activate･Main】, an ability that does the same.

Linked is pickier than paired. A link Pilot is one that satisfies the name or trait in the Unit's link box (rule 3-2-6), and the Link Units guide maps which Pilots answer which requirements. Any Pilot at all satisfies "paired". No card in the database prints both 【When Paired】 and 【When Linked】.

Paired can be picky too. 12 of the 56 【When Paired】 cards and 11 of the 42 【During Pair】 cards put a Pilot qualifier after the dot - a trait, a colour or a Level. GD01-025 Gundam Deathscythe's 【When Paired･(Operation Meteor) Pilot】 fires only for a Pilot with that trait (ruling Q75). A qualifier is not a link requirement, though. Deathscythe's link box reads [Duo Maxwell], so pairing ST02-010 Heero Yuy, an (Operation Meteor) Pilot, fires the effect without making Deathscythe a Link Unit.

Four more rulings mark the edges:

• Pairing by an effect counts. GD02-071 Gundam Mk-II (AEUG) pairs an (AEUG) Pilot from your hand with its 【Deploy】, and ruling Q184 confirms that Pilot still triggers 【When Paired】 and 【When Linked】 effects.
• A During keyword covers its own line only. ST03-001 Sinanju's 【During Pair】 grants <High-Maneuver>. Its second effect - during your turn, when it destroys an enemy shield area card with battle damage, deal 2 damage to an enemy Unit - works with no Pilot at all, because ruling Q164 treats the two as separate effects.
• An unpaired Unit does not have its During effects. GD03-037 Bertigo's 【During Link】 gives it <First Strike> during your turn while it battles an enemy Unit with a 【Destroyed】 effect. Ruling Q222: if that enemy Unit's 【Destroyed】 sits behind 【During Pair】 or 【During Link】 and it has no Pilot, Bertigo does not gain <First Strike>.
• A During trigger still fires in a trade. ST02-003 Gundam Heavyarms' 【During Pair】 damage trigger works even when both Units are destroyed in the battle (ruling Q115).

What a Pilot keeps when the link misses

A Pilot card carries two text boxes. Rule 3-3-9-1 gives the text above the name to the Pilot card itself, and 3-3-9-2 gives the text below the name to the paired Unit, treated as the Unit's own effects while they are paired. So a Pilot's 【When Paired】 belongs to whatever Unit it goes under, and fires there. Its 【When Linked】 and 【During Link】 only work on a Unit whose link requirement it meets.

The 127 Pilots split cleanly on that line. 50 put every effect below the name behind 【When Linked】 or 【During Link】, and the other 77 put none of them there. No Pilot mixes the two.

GD05-097 Domon Kasshu, above, is the second kind. Its 【When Paired】 draws one and discards one on any Unit you pair it with. GD03-099 Emma Sheen, below, is the first kind: her only effect below the name is 【During Link】【Destroyed】, so on a Unit she does not link with she adds +1 AP and +1 HP and nothing else. Ruling Q89 - covered in the rulings guide - says a Pilot that misses its link still adds its AP and HP, and its plain 【Attack】 effect still fires. For those 50 Pilots, the AP and HP are all there is to keep.

Two more things follow from the lower text belonging to the Unit:

• "This Unit" on a Pilot means the Unit it is paired with. GD02-091 Haman Karn's 【When Paired】 deals 1 damage to an enemy Unit whose Lv. is equal to or lower than "this Unit", and ruling Q189 reads that off a Lv. 7 red Unit it is paired with. Q243 does the same for Emma Sheen.
• The numbers include the Pilot. GD03-035 GFreD's 【When Linked】 lets it attack an active enemy Unit with AP equal to or less than its own. Paired with GD03-092 Nyaan it is a 5 AP Unit, and ruling Q221 says that 5 is the number the effect uses.

It also means a 【During Pair】 tab would add nothing to a Pilot, and none of the 127 prints one. The tab would switch a Pilot's effect on while it is paired, and rule 3-3-9-2 already limits that text to the time it is paired.

Losing the link halfway through a turn

Rule 3-3-5 stops you removing or swapping a paired Pilot by choice, but card effects can do it, and two rulings settle what happens to the link.

GD03-110 Eliminate Target destroys a Pilot paired with an enemy Unit that is Lv. 5 or lower. Ruling Q249: the Unit stops being a Link Unit. If it was deployed on an earlier turn it can still attack, as any Unit deployed on an earlier turn can. If it was deployed this turn and was relying on the link to attack, it cannot.

GD04-001 Gundam, above, does it to itself. Its 【During Link】【Attack】 may return the blue Pilot paired with it to your hand when it attacks an enemy Unit. Ruling Q262 covers the case where the Gundam was deployed that turn, attacked as a Link Unit with ST01-010 Amuro Ray, and then sent Amuro back: the attack already declared stays valid.

Everything behind 【During Link】 switches off the moment the link goes, because rule 13-2-12-1 only gives the Unit that effect while a link Pilot is paired with it.

Deploy and Attack

【Deploy】 is on 191 cards: 119 Units and all 72 Bases. It fires whenever the card is deployed, including by another card's effect. ST03-010 Full Frontal's 【When Paired】 deploys a Unit from your hand without paying its cost (ruling Q145), and that Unit's own 【Deploy】 still activates (Q146); GD01-045 Duel Gundam (Assault Shroud) draws the same two answers at Q131 and Q132. The rulings guide has the wider "free deploy" cluster.

【Attack】 is on 88 cards: 67 Units and 21 Pilots. Rule 13-2-7-1 fires it "when the Unit declares an attack during your attack step", and rule 8-2-2 puts it inside that attack step. The block step comes next (8-3), so your opponent decides whether to block after your 【Attack】 effect has already happened.

That ordering has a trap. Rule 8-2-4: if the attacking Unit or the Unit it is attacking has been destroyed or moved by the end of the attack step, the battle skips straight to the battle end step - ruling Q33 gives the same answer. GD05-060 Gundam Flauros (Ryusei-Go) prints 【Deploy】/【Attack】 - the same effect at either timing - and destroys an enemy Unit that is Lv. 2 or lower. Attack a rested Lv. 2 Unit and use that 【Attack】 on the same target, and the target dies before the damage step, so nothing that reads "destroys an enemy Unit with battle damage" can fire. Ruling Q373 adds that if Flauros becomes a Link Unit and attacks on the turn its 【Deploy】 half already fired, the 【Attack】 half triggers too.

One more limit: a battle started by an effect skips the attack step, so 【Attack】 and "when a Unit attacks" effects do not trigger in it (rules 5-22-3-1 and 5-22-4-1). The errata and rules-updates guide covers why Ver. 1.9.0 added the second of those rules.

Activate Main and Activate Action

These two are the abilities you choose to use. Rule 10-1-7-2: when the timing permits, doing what is printed before the colon activates what is printed after it. A number in a circle means paying that many Resources (rule 10-1-7-3, ruling Q72), several conditions separated by commas must all be met (10-1-7-4), and an ability with no condition is activated by declaring it (Q73). GFreD, above, needs both ① and exiling a Pilot card from your trash before it deals 1 damage to every enemy Unit.

【Activate･Main】 is on 56 cards: 37 Units, 17 Bases and 2 Pilots. It works in your main phase, and ruling Q30 confirms a Unit can use it on the turn it is deployed - when, by rule 3-2-4, it usually cannot attack. <Support> is one of these in disguise: rule 13-1-3-1 defines <Support (amount)> as an 【Activate･Main】 that rests the Unit to give another friendly Unit AP.

【Activate･Action】 is on 15 cards: 11 Units, 3 Pilots and 1 Base. Ruling Q71: it works in your action steps or your opponent's. Rule 9-2 lists two things a player may do in an action step: play an 【Action】 Command or activate an 【Activate･Action】 effect. So outside the Commands in your hand, these 15 cards are what you can choose to use in an action step on your opponent's turn. Gundam Aerial's version rests one of your own Units as its cost to deal 1 damage to an enemy Unit that is Lv. 4 or lower.

Once per Turn is a limit, not a timing

Without it, a triggered effect fires every time its condition is met (rule 10-1-6-1-1). The errata Bandai issued for ST12-001 Gundam Epyon on 4 September 2026 added nothing but a 【Once per Turn】, which is that rule in action - the errata guide has the details.

The limit is per card, not per name. Rule 13-2-13-2 and ruling Q79 both say that two copies of the same card in play each get their one use.

It is on 85 cards in the database - 54 Units, 16 Bases and 15 Pilots - or 86 in play, since the database still shows Epyon without its errata. Its most common partner is 【Activate･Main】: 23 cards open an effect with 【Activate･Main】【Once per Turn】, GFreD and ST04-015 Archangel among them.

Burst: your shields are probably holding one

【Burst】 is the most-printed keyword in the game, on 252 of the 956 main-deck cards. Three card types carry most of them:

Your six Shields are the top six cards of your deck, placed without looking (rule 6-2-2), so every Pilot and Base in your list can land in that pile as a Burst. Across the 38 one-on-one decklists on Bandai's DECKS page, Burst cards run from 12 to 22 per 50, 15.5 on average, and Pilots and Bases supply 13.1 of that average. Run the numbers on a random six:

Averaged over all 38 lists it is 89.8%, and the expected number of Bursts in a starting six is 1.9. For the attacker, that means most opening shield walls hold at least one card that does something when broken - and if it is one of your opponent's Pilots, breaking that Shield lets them add the Pilot to their hand.

The rules around it are short. A 【Burst】 is optional (rule 13-2-5-2, ruling Q81), it is activated before the card reaches the trash (13-2-5-3), it resolves ahead of any other triggered effects (10-1-6-8), and a Shield moved to your hand by an effect does not get to Burst (Q83). The rulings guide works through those, and the Bases guide covers the Base template in detail.

Reading a stacked line

153 of the 956 cards stack two or more keywords at the start of an effect. These are the shapes you will meet:

<Development> is a keyword effect that rides on a timing keyword. It appears on 9 cards, all from Eternal Nexus [EB01] or Generation Pulse [ST10]: six behind 【Deploy】, two behind 【When Paired】 and one behind 【When Linked】.

Stacked tabs come in a fixed order: the condition first, then the timing, then the limit. I checked every stacked line on the 956 cards and found no exception. ST13-006 Gundam Aerial's first line is a condition (During Pair) wrapped around a timing (Attack). Its second line is an ability (Activate･Action) under a limit (Once per Turn). If you are coming from Magic, the same triggered-versus-activated split exists there, and its stack and priority guide covers how Magic resolves them. The Gundam rules order simultaneous triggers by owner and by choice instead (rule 10-1-6), and the rulings guide walks through them.

What this does not settle

• When Linked and During Link have no FAQ category. The FAQ's Keywords section lists Activate, Burst, Deploy, Attack, Destroyed, When Paired, During Pair and Once per Turn. The two link keywords, added to the rules in Ver. 1.1.0 (24 July 2025) and printed on 112 cards between them, have rulings only on individual card pages.
• A 【When Paired】 Pilot on a 【When Paired】 Unit. Both trigger off one pairing. The rules on simultaneous triggers (10-1-6-5) let you order your own, but no ruling addresses the combination directly.
• Stardust Trails [GD06]. It releases on 30 October 2026, and none of its cards is in the English database yet, so every count here will move. Whether it prints the first 【During Pair】 Pilot or a second 【Deploy】/【Attack】 card is unknown.
• Other languages. This is the English (US) database and the English rules. I did not check the Japanese site's card text.
• Anything after 11 October 2026.

For the deck-construction side of Pilots - how many to run, and what it means that every one of them costs 1 - see the deckbuilding guide.