In case you missed it, one of the hot topics from last Wednesday’s 2 player starter pack reveal stream was the surprise picture of Thrawn on the back of the official packaging.

While Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Palpatine and the likes are more or less the face of Star Wars, Thrawn is a fan favorite with an unconventional strength in the Star Wars universe. He is the true tactical mastermind, described as being many steps ahead of his enemies and winning the Chess matches of warfare. Since he is also shown in the trailers of a currently running Star Wars show on Disney+, it seems like a decent assumption that his appearance on official product could mean he is in the first set of Star Wars Unlimited. Naturally that leaves us in a place to speculate what his card could look like!

Previously, FFG gave us 2 different versions of Thrawn in their previous Star Wars card game, Star Wars Destiny pictured below.

The first design was featured in the 3rd set release “Empire at War.” His die sides featured a lot of focus to turn the other dice in play to sides of his choice reflecting his command of the battlefield. More interesting though, his card ability allowed him to demonstrate his tactical knowledge by knowing the meta/card pool, deducing what type of cards his opponent might have in hand, and calling out a number to potentially remove a card from the opponents hand. Thematically, this felt pretty true to Thrawn’s tactical prowess, and played well to a player that was tactically strong knowing the card pool, and what they would want removed from their opponent’s hand. Mechanically, this led to Thrawn being in some of the most disgusting control decks over the years of Star Wars Destiny.

The next iteration appeared near the end of Star Wars Destiny and seemingly topped the previous version thematically. Now Thrawn on activation could look at the top 4 cards of a deck (look at an opponents) and then later in the round take a once per round action to reveal those 4 cards and play one of the events (typically control/removal). Thematically it really nailed the idea of Thrawn being strategically ahead of his opponent and using their moves against them. Mechanically he seemed like a pretty strong card, but the announcement that Star Wars Destiny was coming to an end came out, and we never truly dove into testing him out.

So where does that leave us for Thrawn in Unlimited? All of the previous ideas for Thrawn in Star Wars Destiny would probably carry over pretty well to Unlimited. The original iteration of guessing a number, looking at the opponents hand, and discarding a card matching that resource cost probably would be a little too strong in Unlimited on its own, given that Destiny had fresh hands potentially every round where Unlimited generally will always have cards carrying over to the next round. If the second iteration of Thrawn was designed for Unlimited, his look ability would probably need to be brought down to 2 cards to match the draw limit each round. His reveal would probably still need to be 4 cards or maybe more, as I expect events to make up a smaller percentage of decks compared to Star Wars Destiny.

So what if we got a little freaky…

Option A

Thrawn’s leader card: 1Resource, Exhaust – Give an experience token to a Command card you played this round.

Epic Action: If you control 7 or more resources, deploy this leader

Thrawn Unit: 7 Resources, 0 power, 10 HP – While you do not have the Initiative, you may spend your opponent’s resources as if they were your own.

This idea has Thrawn empowering his troops and reacting to his opponent by using their resources against them. Broken card? Terrible card? Not real sure, but I like the idea of something zany going on to really hit on the thematic nature of Thrawn being strategically/tactically better than his opponent. Thrawn is one of the most unique characters in a universe of the force, laser swords, cocky pilots, and degenerate smugglers winning fights with his brain over strength. I really hope FFG leans into that strongly and gives us a unique leader!

Option B

Thrawn’s leader card: 1Resource, Exhaust – If you played a command unit this round, you may ready a unit.

Epic Action : If you control 9 or more resources, deploy this leader

Thrawn Unit: 9 resources, 2 power, 5 HP – When Played – Ready all of your units.

This leans into the already established mechanic of Command readying units and leads to a big closeout turn if Thrawn can survive that long.

Option C

Thrawn’s leader card: 1 Resource, Exhaust – Give an experience token to a Space Unit.

Epic Action: If you control 6 or more resources, attach this leader to a space unit.

Thrawn Upgrade (attaches as an upgrade to a space unit) : 6 Resources, +5 power, +5 HP – When defeated, Thrawn returns as a leader card, exhausted.

This leans more into Thrawn’s naval leadership, giving him an advantage in that battlefield before coming in to command of a ship increasing its power. This type of leader will probably make more sense with “Pilot” leaders such as Wedge Antilles, but it intrigues me.

Option D

Thrawn’s leader card: 1Resource, Exhaust – If you played a space unit this round, you may deal 3 damage to a space unit.

Epic Action : If you control 8 or more resources, deploy this leader

Thrawn Unit: 8 resources, 0 power, 8 HP – While in play, your other space units have +2/+2.

This lean’s more into the Admiral status of Thrawn than Option C, bringing him in as commander of the Space battlefield after his leadership ability helps control that area up to that point in the game. Ultimately this is the kind of flavor design I’d love to see for several of the Imperial Admirals if they are designed as leaders, as they directly influence the space battlefield without attacking space units directly as a unit since they are just the commander.

Are you excited to see Thrawn in Star Wars Unlimited? Are Justin’s ideas crazy? How would you design Thrawn in Star Wars unlimited?