Star Wars Unlimited Two-Player Starter Deck review: A New Hope for card games

As I've got a little older, I've started to appreciate the intricacies of card games more than ever. While I still love a digital card game as much as the next player, I've taken to collecting cards and building decks, mostly in Magic The Gathering ahead of regular Commander format nights with friends.

I break out Yu-Gi-Oh, too, I've picked up some Lorcana, and I'll always have a soft spot for Pokemon's TCG, but when I heard about Star Wars Unlimited, I wasn't sure if I could find room for it in my rotation - especially as a lapsed Star Wars fan.

Thankfully, the Starter Set is pretty affordable and comes with everything you need to, well, get started. It also goes beyond what some sets offer, even including a pair of playmats, too, and it's a great introduction to Unlimited's almost conversational gameplay.

The Force is strong

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I still find it a little strange that Disney's Lorcana Starter Decks were sold on their own, but Star Wars Unlimited thankfully bundles two, ready-to-play decks into the box. When kicking off a card game like this, I feel having a recognisable face for each deck is key (one of the reasons Magic's Lord of the Rings Starter Set likely did well was having Aragorn, Arwen, and Sauron on the box), so it makes sense to have Luke and Vader here.

Some of these are exclusive, too, although we're already seeing versions of Luke with a Green Lightsaber. Ten exclusives are in there, though, making it well worth picking up the Starter Decks to kickstart a collection.

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It's not just about the cards, either. You'll find tokens and fairly flimsy deckboxes, too (although I like that they're identical from one side so you can randomise which one each player uses), but I'm particularly impressed by the playmat. Magic's Commander decks don't include these, nor do the starter sets. It's a nice touch, both because there's something very enjoyable about laying out your cards in each lane (more on that shortly), and because you're unlikely to have sleeves yet - so you don't have to put them face down on a table that may not always be entirely clean.

The rulebook is nice, too. That's a weird thing to say without context, but while I loved the Yu-Gi-Oh! Starter Set approach of making it a cartoon-style affair, the lack of colour made the pages blur together when putting together your first match, so having a colour one here is very welcome.

Red Five, checking in

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So how does it play? In many ways, it plays faster than many other TCGs. Turns in Star Wars Unlimited are almost conversational—you act, and then your opponent can react. It's a "call and response" style that I've loved in games like Legends of Runeterra. It removes that feeling of being frozen (in carbonite) while your opponent gets things ready.

You also have two separate lanes of cards, with 'Ground' and 'Space' units that very rarely interact with each other. That means you'll need units for each, as well as some ways to counter tricky opponents wherever they appear.

That deckbuilding is arguably easier than with many competitors because cards have 'Aspects'. These initially feel like theming, helping keep units of a certain kind together. There are six at present, and your deck's makeup is guided by your Leader and your Base, two specific cards that offer three Aspects between them.

Take Luke and the Administrator’s Tower from Bespin's Cloud City, for example. The base gives Cunning, while Luke offers both Vigilance and Heroism. Those three aspects will help guide your deckbuilding as you pick cards that match those, but unlike, say, Commander, you can still add cards of different Aspects to your deck - you'll just have to pay more resources to play them.

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That resource can come from anything, though. Similarly to Ink in Lorcana, you can play a card as a resource by placing it face down, and that helps you ramp things up by tapping it for bigger cards to enter the game. I found it much more engaging than fellow TCG upstart Lorcana at launch, partially thanks to a more detailed starter guide and the increased pace of interaction.

All of this dovetails with some great artwork that recalls the Star Wars comic books I used to read in the late nineties. Everything looks incredible, and I'm excited to see how deep into the library of characters Fantasy Flight will go, both for adding to my collection and for building decks around niche characters.

The Verdict

If this is a first draft for Star Wars Unlimited in a crowded TCG space, then it's an excellent one. Between the two lanes of combat, the plentiful exclusives in the starter set, and a much less restrictive approach to deckbuilding, I'm excited to see where it goes from here.

If you want to find out more about Star Wars Unlimited, check out SWUResource.

4.5/5

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