Star Wars Unlimited Review
This trading card game is trying to Jedi mindtrick away your money.
Grab a 50 card deck to pit your Star Wars leader against theirs! Filled with popular TCG-isms, this is a 30 minute, 2 player centric accessible card dueler. Spark of Rebellion featured.
Video published March 28th, 2024
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Use classic Star Wars units in fighting over space or ground.
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Tight gameplay where TCG veterans will feel right at home.
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Use your leader's action every round, then eventually spawn him!
Story
We played this game plenty, with a proxied version, then on TTS with net decks, then in person with the real game, then back to TTS with the Spark of Rebellion decks!
1x Proxy Starter Kit
2x Red Aggro Deck vs. Chewie deck
2x IRL Starter Decks
4x TTS Starter decks
Total plays: 8
This review will mostly cover Spark of Rebellion, the Starter box, with some commentary on the overall Trading Card Game (TCG) system thrown in.
Need to learn how to play? Or want more reasoning for our points? Our review video’s got you!
Art Pros
Totally new art compared to previous FFG games
Total 62 uniquely made cards
2 token cards have a lot of character
Card Layout Pros
Easy to see all numbers
Clear borders for each color category
Events have swapped art placement to stand out more
Leaders’ horizontal side showing spawned stats is convenient
Accessibility Pros
Setup is blazing fast
Take out deck, get leader and base out, draw 6 cards, then play!
Game mats describe setup, round structure, and reference
Really easy to learn if played TCGs before (MTG/Hearthstone), just learn:
Just resource a card every round
Trade off actions
Worry about leaders
Choice to claim initiative
Well organized and efficient rulebook
Gameplay Pros — Resource System
Opening hand of drawing 6, resourcing 2 is a cool decision
Especially paired with built in free mulligan
Need to resource thinking about copies of cards left in deck, and space vs. ground units
Resourcing loosens up deckbuilding possibilities: situational cards more viable b/c can just resource it away if not good in a matchup
Resourcing in the middle of games is excellent
Every turn draw 2, then resource 1
See more, then decide what to do
Can hold onto both cards, then resource older card
When do you decide not to resource?
Resourcing is technically losing card advantage for tempo
Gameplay Pros — Leader System
Abilities every round allow more decision making
e.g. Vader/Luke have 1 resource cost abilities, meaning that 1st round you have the option to use them
Spawn 1 cost and trigger leader?
Spawn 2 cost and forgo leader ability?
Epic action to spawn allows great consistent uptick in tempo
Players have to plan around later rounds when leaders will spawn. Set up boards accordingly
Starter leaders both do something on attack, so lots of tempo gained when you use them
Defeat your opponent’s leader before they can do much damage
Leader spawn does a consistent job of marking turning point in game
Luke is early-mid game
Vader is mid-game
Gameplay Pros — Claim Initiative Mechanic
High skill cap in permanently passing to go first later next round
e.g. What will you sacrifice to have have first attack next round?
Can be punishing letting opponent take actions back to back
Claiming allows for more counterplay where you would otherwise mostly just full spend resource to play on tempo (Hearthstone sometimes)
Allows for mind games in baiting opponent to claim first, then you shake up the board state
Asymmetry Pros — 2 Starter Leaders are very well paired
Luke gives shields to negate damage of 1 instance
Vader does 1 damage to take off shields efficiently
Easy to learn how to play around shields
Asymmetry Pros — Luke (Rebel) Starter Deck
Puts on pressure early with great started mid-range units
Combat events to attack well on the board
Use strong ground units like Han Solo (first strike) and Leia (can refresh a resource when played)
Luke (leader) to shield important units
Bounce Empire strong units (Waylay)
Push for late game fast (Asteroid Sanctuary to exhaust enemy unit, shield your unit)
Asymmetry Pros — Vader (Empire) Starter Deck
Scales up for late game to get strong units (Star Destroyer, AT/AT, Emperor Palpatine)
Stormtroopers need numbers because have great attack with awful health (1 HP), complement big vehicles
Technicains who die for the empire to become ACTIVE resource
“Resupply” card to forgo tempo to accelerate mid game (spend 3, get 1 permanent resource card)
Asymmetry Pros — Neat Rebel vs. Empire Details
Rebels have no direct removal of Vader, need to set up attack maneuver
Or keep exhausting him (e.g. Leia)
Rebels are basically scrappy rebel army to survive well for cost
Obi wan can die and give 2x EXP (+1/+1) to Luke
Empire playing bureaucratic units early to wait for Vader
Drop all the big vehicles late game
Starter decks feel very well made for being starter decks which usually miss a lot of pieces
Leader always spawns, don’t need to buy more packs to get him more consistently
Resource cards away you don’t feel are as good for more value
Good replayability with drawing 6 cards and using 4 every opening
Vader vs. Luke will always be spawned though
Thematic Card Interactions
Chewie protects his comrades with sentinel, then he can get readied
Great combo with Han Solo (unsurprisingly)
3CPO/R2D2 help spy ahead
Space Probe to look at rebel hand
Snow Speeder can exhaust an AT-AT after attacking
General Dadonna +1/+1 entire rebel board
Vader and Luke Lightsaber can be equipped to any unit for hilarious interactions
e.g. C3PO attacking with Luke’s saber
If equipped to owner, get huge boost to reward good planning
Force Choke is cheaper with Sith out on the board
“I Am Your Father” has the Rebel player say “no” as an option
General Veers can play “Maximum FirePower” to blow up Rebel board
Component Cons
Starter kit cardboard box is awful
Meant to be destroyed upon opening
Included deck boxes work but feel much thinner than older games (MTG)
Not being penalized too hard because this is a TCG
1 card misprint
1 “I am your Father” is missing, instead we have 4 “C3PO”
Sharpie used to correct
Time Length Cons
Box says 20 minutes, more like 30-45 minutes
Choosing to attack, pass, or claim initiative can be tricky
Deciding what to resource does add time
More units you have the more decisions need to make
Could be 20 minutes if not thinking too hard, or surrender early
Gameplay Cons — 2 Starter Deck Cards
Grand Moff Tarkin
Combo-oriented within a pure ramp deck, which is out of place
Gross noob bait to suggest noobs to play him, then get punished
Should be 2x at most instead of 3x
Overwhelming Barrage
Too strong, gets around restrictions of ground vs. space units not affecting each other, and lets your buffed unit attack again
Only 1x in box, meaning imperials might not get it every game, so weird randomness
Why not make card cheaper, then exhaust unit? Or target only 1 combat area?
Our buddy who plays SWU a lot reports it is a rage quit card
Recommender Score: 7/10 Good
Note that it’s currently March of 2024, when this game JUST came out, and so I’m sure the TCG as a whole will evolve as time progresses. Perhaps this review will be obsolete in 6 months and we’ll have to do another video, but at least you know about this package as a standalone thing.
Spark of Rebellion on its own is good! It would’ve been higher, but there’s just too much component jank to call it great. But yes, it is a TCG so it does get leeway on components, like I’d imagine you’d end up using your own mat and tokens very quickly if you’re serious about this. Then you can use the back of the mats hahahah maybe man these would make very creased posters.
So sure, you don’t get included deckbuilding is a bummer… but hey look at HOW much art you get, with with how replayable and appropriately paired the thematic STARTER decks are for only $35!
On first glance on gameplay, it was like, oh this game feels kind of standard, like you’re tapping resources to play units, combat is extremely similar to Hearthstone, basically everything here has been done before. But there’s tons of merit for blending together the cream of the crop even if you didn’t strictly invent the parts yourself. Star Wars Unlimited isn’t a flashy invention, but an innovation that steals, copies, mimics, etc. so many other favorable elements of TCGs.
The thing you have to know about Unlimited is that it’s ALL about your leader. Setting up your board, resourcing accordingly, and even deckbuilding if you get into that is all around that pivotal moment when they come out, do their cool thing, and stay out as long as possible. To that degree, Star Wars Unlimited is meant to be a consistent experience where you can resource away your weird draws, set up board accordingly, and squeeze the most out of your father and son here. And it’s not very long meaning that you can probably play a LOT of rounds…
My goodness, Star Wars Unlimited is probably going to be an incredible cash cow for FFG. The game is really easy to get into with trading off turns for 0 downtime, its so short that you have to try it out if you like Star Wars, and you’re going to get to play around with your favorite characters as guaranteed leader spawns! And this Spark of Rebellion package is a insidious way to get people HOOKED for better or worse: if you don’t know anything about card games, who cares you can just enjoy the interactions and work your addiction up as you learn the TCG-isms. For TCG veterans, you’ll feel plenty of Hearthstone in the combat and heroes, and might be impressed by how fast the game is if you’re ok with the single action turn structure.
We can easily see TCG noobs and veterans going like… well I wonder how that feels to just boost my leaders a little bit… hey prerelease a while back had me pull some cool cards… oh where did my money go? Oh yeah beware of scalpers too right now.
Also you can just play this game on TTS if you’re still on the fence, and you can currently have access to a TON of decks online using the online database and just grabbing decks that interest you. There’s also a free for all mode we haven’t tried but seems to be very similar to MTG commander.
There’s a LOT of money to potentially spend here, but trust me there’s a lot of value out of this starter deck and purely playing on TTS. Then, depending on how much of a disturbance in your pants you get from the resource and leader mechanics, you can let that disturbance come out and commit your credits… but hey that’s on you ok, we’re only recommending the starter kit. We at Shelfside are not responsible for you buying booster packs and pulling bad, it does happen.
Lastly, if you really like what this game is doing but don’t like the conflict… well do you like deckbuilding? Because the asymmetry in these starters felt like a huge deja vu of Star Wars: The Deckbuilding Game, so feel free to check out our review where it’s also rebels versus empire.
