We’re just a few days away from the launch of the newest entry in the venerable Star Wars canon – on March 8th, Star Wars Unlimited TCG: Spark of Rebellion from Fantasy Flight Games hits the shelves!
We’ve been lucky enough to take a look at a prerelease set and the starter set and we’ll be giving one lucky winner the chance to win the Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker promo cards! Ready on for details of how to enter, as well as the winner of our Space-Themed February Giveaway.i
NOTE: This article is not supported by or affiliated with Asmodee UK in any way.
OVERVIEW
Star Wars Unlimited is like other Trading Card Games where you build a custom deck from your collection assembled from the random cards you pull from boosters. The two-player starter set (RRP £35.99) is a good entry-level product – it’s effectively the same cost as, say, two Lorcana starters – in which you get a Heroism and Villain deck starring Luke and Vader respectively. There are a number of starter exclusive cards which definitely you’ll want, and you also get a couple of deck storage boxes, tokens and nice playmat / posters.
Let’s dig into that box, shall we?
THAT’S NO MOON!
Deck Construction is based on 3 of the 6 game Aspects (usually). To start, you choose your leader, who has either the Hero or Villain aspect, plus one other of the 4 colours: Aggression (Red), Vigilance (Blue), Command (Green) and Cunning (Yellow). Cards are broadly thematic across colours: the Emperor and his lackeys are Green, as are Leia and the Rebel commandos; Vader is Red, as are Sabine and the insurgent rebels; Krennic and inferno squad blue, as are Luke and the Echo base gang; and finally Han, Thrawn and Bounty Hunters are yellow. This doesn’t preclude the possibility of, say, Vader as your leader with the Emperor in your deck – indeed there’s a Red/Villain Emperor character in the Vader starter.
Your base will usually be of the 3rd colour you wish to include, although there is an advantage to mono colour decks. The reason for this is Resources: each card (usually) has one or two aspect symbols, a colour and / or Light/Dark; for each one that you lack, the card’s resource cost increases by two. However, there are some VERY powerful cards that are double coloured (Kylo Ren’s Aggression for example is Double Red) so only the most focused decks will be able to play these at printed cost.
You start the game with 2 cards from your opening hand of 6 cards facedown as resources (yes, this does feel like Ink), and by Exhausting (your usual turn 90°) you pay for cards in hand. At the end of each turn, you draw 2, and Resource 1, gradually building your power in the galaxy. Although, yes, there are similarities with Lorcana here, the same can be said of most CCG/TCGs with a cost mechanic from MTG onwards: it’s the GAMEPLAY that makes this really stand apart, and stand outs.
STAY ON TARGET
The aim of the game is to destroy your opponent’s base – and, yes, you may immediately think of FFG’s Star Wars Deckbuilding at that point, which isn’t an unreasonable analogy but this is FAR superior. Typically bases have 30 health, or 25 if they have a special, Epic Ability – a once per game feat (ahem) which gives you a significant boost, like the ability to play and immediately attack with a powerful unit.
Units are divided into ground and space, so you have 2 fields of conflict to attack and defend. Typically, a 50 card deck will be around 1/2 ground units, a mix of generic troops and unique characters (you can have 3 copies of any one card in a deck), 1/4 space and 1/4 other cards (one-time events and upgrades). Some characters have standard abilities, notably Sentinel, which have to be attacked before your base can be targeted, and Saboteur, that _avoid_ Sentinel. As you would hope, these are very thematic and feel very fitting – so for instance Saw Guerrera’s various guerrillas typically have the Raid ability (bonus to attack) when you control other Aggression units.
I’D RATHER KISS A WOOKIE
On the subject of thematic cards, events are the real superstars here – particularly for fans of the’ 90s CCG. For all its flaws, one of the great joys of that game was the ridiculous comedy text on some cards (Han 2 – Luke 2 – Chewie 0 springs to mind). For example, Don’t Get Cocky Kid is a Cunning event that allows you to reveal cards from the top of your deck and do damage to an opposing unit, but does nothing if you reveal more than 7. But to really drive this home, the Dark Side Starter comes with this gem:
It’s just spot on because it’s a reminder not to take things too seriously – and given this actually a pretty fiercely tactical, competitive game, that’s no bad thing.
I LOVE YOU… I KNOW
Aesthetically, I was really unsure when I heard this was illustrated rather than using stills – anyone remember the abomination that was Young Jedi? But there’s a couple of reasons why it’s such a good choice for this. Firstly, the cards are damn pretty – especially the Hyperspace (full art) variants, of which one is randomly in most packs, as are foils. But also it enables each era – classic trilogy, clone wars, rebels, rogue one – to feel part of the same unified whole. A very clever and successful choice.
EVACUATE? IN OUR MOMENT OF TRIUMPH?
This feels like an ideal moment to discuss rarities and distribution. Firstly, because you’re limited to 3 copies of a card, the hunt for key cards in the aftermarket is going to be a bit less brutal. A major bonus. Also, boosters are BIG at 16 cards. Now, you’re always guaranteed a base in that, which could feel redundant after a while, but the reverse of every base is a status token, so that they are infinitely useful. You’re also getting. 12 Commons, 3 Uncommon and 1 Rare or Legendary (1 in 8)… plus foils and alt arts.
Ooh, shiny.
Rare Leaders are generally very powerful, but you’ll only ever need a single copy, which kind of mitigates this. So there’s going to be a bit of craziness in the collector’s market… but then there’s the Showcase cards. These are chase, foil, alt art versions of each of the leaders… and are 1 in 12 booster boxes ! Mind. Blown. It’s the only fly in the ointment of the collecting side, really, to my mind. And you thought Enchanteds were hard to get… Still, you do get fantastic playmats in the starter boxes. Give and take.
YOU WERE THE CHOSEN ONE!
On balance, this feels like a really superb game. It remains to be seen how the meta shakes down and if there are some monstrous combos to be unleashed, but my gut is that this is a very well designed game that has learned a lot of best lessons. Deckbuilding is intuitive, the product quality is superb, and as long as the game is supported and developed properly, this may well be your new favourite game.
GIVEAWAY TIME!
Make sure to check back next week for our main March Geeking Out, where we’ll be doing a cracking (ha) easter giveaway with a fun family games review and bundle! Consider this a wee bonus giveaway, if you will.
In the meantime though, if you want to get your hands on the Star Wars Unlimited TCG: Spark of Rebellion Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker promo cards, just drop your favourite Star Wars quote in the comments section below. Simple as that, ya scruffy looking nerf herders!
And remember to Like, Comment and Share across your socials (FB, Insta and/or the artist formerly known as Twitter, if it survives) tagging us @bigcomicpage & @games_with_graven to bag yourself a bonus entry!
And finally, the winner of our last giveaway is… DarthTater! He’s good at this, he is ;)
The Writer of this piece was: Sam Graven
Article Archive: Geeking Out
You can follow Sam on Twitter and Instagram
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