Despite the history-altering implications of the battles on Endor and Yavin, the nature of war, especially within the Star Wars universe, is one of countless skirmishes in the furthest reaches of the galaxy. Unlikely heroes and allies come together to fight on land and in space, gaining small advantages along the way to achieve their version of victory. The same will apply to Star Wars: Unlimitedthe latest entry in the fiercely fought battle for players in the world of trading card games.
Are seventh project based on the Star Wars universe, Fantasy Flight Games' latest effort combines proven elements from previous ventures, along with inspiration from other popular TCGs, to Unlimited the most dynamic version of a galactic battle yet.
“We're trying to take a new direction with this game in terms of streamlining things and making a really quick back-and-forth game, compared to some of our previous games,” said Danny Schaefer, a designer at Flight of fantasy, in an interview with Polygon. “We definitely picked up some elements from our past (living card games) and also some of the older Star Wars games.
One of the Unlimited'S designers Jeremy Zwirn also worked on FFG's previous one Star Wars: Fate dice and card game, which used a fast-paced tit-for-tat action system, and helped translate that into the rules and vision for Unlimited.
“The turn structure is very fast, very interactive and simplified,” Zwirn explains. “You don't have anything like the pile in there Magic with confusing timing issues when things happen. That worked very well inside Destination, so we wanted to bring that to this game as well.”
Another fundamental feature of the game is taken from an entirely different body of work. Like many trading card games, Unlimited Cards have costs associated with them that must be paid in order to play them from your hand. But not like Magic: the meeting, which requires adding specific land cards that generate mana, Unlimited'S the resource system is closer Disney Lorcana And Meat and blood'S approach, games that allow you to use virtually any card in hand as a potential resource.
“The Call of Cthulhu LCG had a somewhat similar resource system where essentially any card could be used as a resource,” Zwirn explained. “You use one card per round, so you can eventually build up, get more powerful cards and play them at a higher cost.”
As these varied inspirations gradually came together over more than three years of design, they eventually paved the way for more defining elements that the game's creators introduced to create Unlimited exciting, replayable and, in its own way, challenging.
Deck building dynamics
Central to the card game design are the game's heroes and bases, which start on the board at the start of each game.
Equivalent to Meat and blood or Magic'S Commander formatUnlimited uses iconic Star Wars characters to serve as a deck's main hero. These include the likes of Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader, Boba Fett, Chewbacca and many others. Likewise, the base maps show classic locations from Star Wars stories, from the swamps of Dagobah to the Death Star Command Center and even the catacombs of Cadera on Jedha.
The heroes make several important contributions to each deck. First, they have built-in abilities that affect the game in different ways. These heroes can also serve as units that fight opponents more directly. But most importantly, heroes and bases have colored 'aspects'.
Unlimited uses six different “aspects” that determine the playing style and possible possibilities of the game cards. Think of them as colors Magic, the Pokémon TCG, Hearthstone, and countless other card games.
In Unlimited, the aspects are vigilance (blue), command (green), aggression (red), cunning (yellow), heroism (white) and roguery (black). A Unlimited card game must have a leader and a base. Your leader then provides a maximum of two aspect icons, while your base provides one. Together, the aspects of your base and hero form the cards that the rest of your deck can hold.
“All those permutations of mixing and matching a leader with different bases and different aspects can create a whole new deck,” Zwirn pointed out. “Sometimes those bases can really make or break a deck.”
To emphasize the basic appearance and structure of Unlimited'S future decks, the design team shared a few examples with different leaders and bases, along with some cards that fit well with these configurations. Zwirn points to the Cunning and Villainy Boba Fett deck as an example of the importance of maximizing heroes and bases to get the most value and synergy from the remaining cards in the deck.
“For the Boba deck, the card Cunning is an extremely powerful card with double Cunning aspects. So to play it for just four (resources), you need to have a base and leader with cunning aspects, which will help you gain pace,” Zwird explained. “And the map itself probably creates the best tempo in the entire game; it can deplete two units and bounce an enemy unit, all for four resources.”
When you break these aspects down further, you begin to see how they express the game's playstyles and color identities in classic card game archetypes.
“There are some very good aggro decks, especially on the hero side. Some very good control decks, especially on the villain side. And there are several midrange decks in between,” Schaefer said.
However, don't expect breakout combo decks when the game first hits shelves in 2024.
“We consciously don't lean too hard on combo, at least on the first set,” says Tyler Parrott, another designer at Unlimited. “There will inevitably be some combos eventually.”
“There are combo elements in the decks, but not really like 'we're going to kill you in one turn' or infinite loops,” Schaefer added.
“The Han Solo deck is about as combo as in Set One, with the ability to cheat expensive cards a bit ahead of time,” Schaefer explained. “You play You're My Only Hope with all the cards that appear at the top of your deck. It's not like a one-turn kill combo, it's more like my seven went down on turn five, or my five went down on turn three.”
Another intriguing aspect of Star Wars: Unlimited lies in the mechanics of deck building. Decks must contain a minimum of 50 cards, with a limit of only three copies of one card.
“It's obviously a little less consistent than when there are four of you,” Schaefer said. “Part of that was because you see so much of your deck in a given game. We didn't want it to be as easy to always see the same cards over and over again – especially in the first few turns.”
According to Parrott it is 50 cards is “also just a value we know. We have plenty of other games of 50 with three copies where we mathematically knew exactly how it would play.
Arenas of battle
One of the most unique elements to Unlimited, which Star Wars fans What we will certainly recognize as a recurring theme in the films and stories are battles that occupy both land and space.
Unlimited features two play arenas, ground and space, which are then occupied by respective units.
“One of the things we learned from the Star Wars LCG, it resonated with a lot of people for thematic reasons, because the idea that Chewbacca could fight a Star Destroyer was going a little too far,” Parrott explained. “That was one of the main reasons for keeping the two lanes separate.
However, this element does not only provide the taste Unlimited It is more authentic to the source material and also adds an important strategic element.
“Bringing the right ratio between ground and space units will make a big difference,” Parrott said. “If you go to a tournament and you expect the metagame to be tough for people playing space aggro, then I now have to add more space units to my deck to fight the space units, and now my ground units might be able to are less and they will get further into the game because that is now the uncontested lane.
Play modes and organized play
Looking forward, Star Wars: Unlimited will feature a variety of play modes, including 1v1 and multiplayer, where players bring pre-built or refined decks to compete in shops or other casual environments.
The game also features Draft and Sealed modes, where players can open a certain number of card packs to build a brand new deck on the fly.
Possibly, Unlimited will also introduce its own system of organized play, ranging from weekly shopping events to galactic championships, although more details on the details behind organized play are on the way.
Star Wars: Unlimited will launch in game stores worldwide on March 8, 2024.