Since its launch last year, Star Wars: Unlimited has gone from strength to strength. New mechanics, cards and characters have been steadily added, expanding the scope and gameplay of the game.
Star Wars: Unlimited has also done a great job of spreading itself across all eras of Star Wars, equally representing Prequels, Originals and Sequels. Something that has been included since the beginning is obviously The Force. But with Legends of the Force, Star Wars: Unlimited is bringing The Force to the forefront in a big way.
By focusing on Force users, this expansion is heavily weighted towards the Prequel era, when many more Force users existed, but even then, you’ll find characters from the Prequel Trilogy, Ahsoka and even Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order/Survivor. Star Wars: Unlimited doesn’t limit itself, and the way The Force is introduced in this expansion is brilliant.
Star Wars: Unlimited Legends of the Force
In this expansion, The Force is a token that players will need to activate and use special Force powers. I was given access to the Qui-Gon Jinn Spotlight Deck, which includes the Qui-Gon leader card, the Jedi Temple base and his Force powers. Interestingly, the Jedi Temple only has 28 health, but it allows you to gain The Force token every time a Force unit attacks. Once you have the token, you can use the Force by spending the token to activate special leader abilities.
Qui-Gon’s abilities allow him to return non-leader units to your hand as well as play a lower-cost unit from your hand for free. The intention is for players to return units with “When Played” abilities so that these abilities can be used over and over to create devastating plays. It works especially well with the new Hidden keyword mechanic.
Hidden prevents units from being attacked on the first turn they are played, preventing them from being removed before you even get a chance to use them. Should you be able to keep pulling them to your hand and playing them, you’ll have a stream of untouchable units for the enemy to try and deal with.
I didn’t have access to the other Spotlight Deck, which focuses on Darth Maul; however, when he uses The Force on attack, he deals 1 damage to a unit and 1 damage to a different unit in addition to his 5 attack power. Where Qui-Gon is meant to use strategy and wits to defeat the enemy, Darth Maul and his Dark Side cronies make use of brute force to go ham and deal as much damage as possible.
This use of lore to inform the cards and their mechanics is a good one. In fact, my favourite thing about licensed TCGs is when they use lore to flawlessly create mechanics and gameplay. Two that spring to mind immediately are The Silence and Weeping Angels from the Magic: The Gathering Dr Who sets. Both perfectly captured those enemies in ways that made sense and enriched the game.
Two cards in the Legends of the Force expansion that do this brilliantly are Tauntaun and The Tragedy of Plagueis.
The way I cackled when I read the Tauntaun card…absolutely brilliant. The same goes for the Tragedy of Plagueis, although that one didn’t make me crack up. It did give me a wry smile and rewarded my nerdy knowledge of Star Wars with getting the joke. These are only the two examples that really leapt out at me with Legends of the Force; however, with 260 new cards, there are bound to be many more cards that make excellent use of lore.
The addition of The Force as a usable token is an interesting and useful mechanic in Star Wars: Unlimited, and while it’s not as monumental an addition as some previous keywords or mechanics, it truly makes the game feel more like Star Wars. This is impressive in and of itself because it’s already one of the most ‘Star Warsy’ things available.
With Legends of the Force, Jump to Lightspeed and Shadows of the Galaxy expanding on the already phenomenal base that Star Wars: Unlimited started with, this is a TCG that continues to improve, expand and grow in all the right ways. If you’re a TCG fan and you’re not playing Star Wars: Unlimited, you really should be. And if you’re already playing, pick up Legends of the Force and marvel at the new ways to play this game.
A Star Wars: Unlimited Spotlight Deck and Booster Packs were provided for the purpose of this story.
