Trading card games have seen a stunning resurgence of late and Magic The Gathering is leading the charge with crossovers out the wazoo. Just recently we’ve seen Dr Who and Fallout enter the world of Magic The Gathering, but one IP you won’t find joining the ranks is Star Wars.
And that’s because Star Wars: Unlimited is a brand-new card game built from the ground up, using Star Wars as a basis. Thanks to some early access to the Spark of Rebellion two-player starter kit, I’ve been able to dive in and get into the action.
Right off the bat, Star Wars: Unlimited immediately seems friendlier to new users than most other TCGs I’ve played. The starter deck comes with a handy rulebook that lays everything out in simple-to-understand terms. It doesn’t take long, when playing for the first time, to fully understand how Star Wars: Unlimited works.
Star Wars: Unlimited
In Star Wars: Unlimited, you play as an iconic leader from Star Wars who, using troops and units, must lay waste to an enemy base. Each deck is built with a leader and base at the core. In the starter pack, players are given access to Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker. These leaders and bases somewhat inform how your deck is going to function, but they aren’t restrictive.
Think of them as a guide as to how your deck should be structured, though, in playing, I found that there are multiple ways to construct decks to maximise the potential of the leader. Decks themselves are filled out with units, events and upgrades that can synergise in interesting and unexpected ways. The cards themselves have their own aspects, such as Vigilance, Command, Aggression, Heroism, Villainy and Heroism which govern how they interact with your leader.
For example, if you include cards in your deck with icons that don’t match that of your leader, they cost more resources to play. Unlike other card games that truly restrict how you build your decks, Star Wars: Unlimited allows players to mix and match cards as much as they like, however, it does come with a price during the game.
This is only important when building your own deck as the pre-made decks in the starter deck keep aspects related to the two heroes, Vader and Luke. I mostly played with the pre-made decks as I was playing with someone new to TCGs and didn’t want to overwhelm them. It’s a testament to Star Wars: Unlimited just how enjoyable it is, that this newbie was keen to play over and over, despite losing 99% of the matches we played.
Combat takes place across two distinct battlefields; ground and space. Players will need to ensure their decks have a healthy combination of both, lest they be unable to fend off an attack and find their base being crumbled to pieces. Iconic units like TIE Fighters and X-Wings aplenty are available of course, but there is so much to draw on from Star Wars that you’ll find all manner of wild and wonderful inclusions at your disposal. Star Wars: Unlimited is a true bounty for fans of the IP.
Your base is the centre of your power in Star Wars: Unlimited and is how your health is calculated. Units can choose whether to attack the enemy base directly or a specific unit, further emphasising the focus on choice in the game. Attacking the base directly deals damage and reduces your opponent’s overall health, however, should you leave too many enemy units on the board, you risk a swift annihilation.
A lot of the gameplay in Star Wars: Unlimited is heavily focused on choice and risk versus reward. And in typical TCG fashion, you can feel as though you’re chasing one or two specific cards to get your synergy going and wipe the enemy out. That being said, the Sparks of Rebellion starter kit decks show off just how much utility the cards have and just how much choice players really do have in how they play.
Even at this early stage, with the game only just being released, it’s clear that a huge amount of work and effort has gone into creating and designing a game that makes it easy for players to learn and build their own decks and doesn’t make it prohibitively expensive. One major differentiator for Star Wars: Unlimited is deck size. Decks only need to be 50 cards in total and you can only have 3 of the same card in your deck. This is a reduction from the standard 60-card decks of other TCGs and the ability to have 4 of each card.
What this does is two-fold. First, it makes it easier and cheaper to build decks. Second, it gets players to think more carefully about the decks they build and how they want to build them. Combine this with the freedom to include any and all cards in any deck and you’ve got a TCG that is far more open and customisable than any we’ve seen of late.
Like all new games, of course, Star Wars: Unlimited takes some getting used to. However, thanks to a clever design and a whole lot of freedom of choice, it’s one of the easiest TCGs to get into and learn. Being based on one of the most popular IPs of all time certainly doesn’t hurt either.
I can see big things in the future for Star Wars: Unlimited and it never hurts to have another robust game on the market as the juggernaut of Magic The Gathering has almost become monolithic and monopolistic. Competition is a good thing, especially in the TCG space, and with the success of Star Wars: Unlimited, other games will be looking at ways to innovate and break into the market.
Spark of Rebellion is available now. The next set, Shadows of the Galaxy, will be available this year. If you’re a fan of TCGs this is definitely a game that you should check out. Even if you’re not a traditional TCG player but you love Star Wars, Star Wars: Unlimited is so good, it might just make you a convert.
Star Wars: Unlimited was played using pre-release access to the Spark of Rebellion starter kit.
