Today is Thanksgiving for Americans, so I figured now would be as good a time as ever to reflect on some of the things I’m already thankful for in Star Wars Unlimited. P.S. We are 99 days away from Pre-release!

We have a Star Wars TCG again!

I love Star Wars. I love Trading Card Games. It’s no secret that combining the two is prime real estate for me (and likely several of you)! Though the dice presented problems, I really enjoyed my time with Star Wars Destiny. There’s just something different about playing a Star Wars game. I love good gameplay, but at the end of the day the theme will play a big part in whether or not I even take a look at trying a new TCG. There’s just something special about sharing nerdy quips from the Star Wars Universe while we sit at the table playing cards with each other.

The Action Turn System

I mentioned Star Wars Destiny above, it was my first time ever playing a TCG that used the action system as opposed to turn system for each player. Basically in games like Star Wars Unlimited, each player takes an action, followed by their opponent taking an action, and repeat until both players have passed (or taken the initiative). This creates a much more engaging gameplay experience, as I don’t sit around waiting for my opponent to finish their turn, and I constantly have to consider what I want to do over my next few actions the order of those actions. It’s no secret that this makes sequencing a very important part of the game (check out Jayson’s article here to learn more about sequencing), and I love discovering the fluidity of it from game to game.

FFG is a very different company now

4 years ago, when we were playing Star Wars Destiny, communication from FFG was few and far between. We’d get about 15 cards sent to various Content Creators every few months to spoil and a few articles previewing cards in each color. Outside of that, we got a few articles about Organized Play that were mostly empty promises in extra regional seasons that never happened, weekly play kits that showed up months later, and an overall lack of support.

Whether it was an Asmodee problem or not, it’s clear that at the very least since Embracer group bought Asmodee, FFG has had a rapid change in culture. There is a new position “Community Engagement Specialist” which has Xander Tabler delivering us a constant stream of spoilers, working with Content Creators, and hosting a few live streams a month with new Star Wars Unlimited information! Several game designers interact on Discord and on social media with insights into recently revealed cards or answering questions. Heck, FFG even ran a Q&A on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram where they answered almost any question asked.

We know of at least 7 people on the design team for SWU, where we never saw more than 3 on the Star Wars Destiny team! Everything leads us to believe FFG is heavily invested in SWU.

Organized Play has a clear focus

The Casual OP stream and Competitive OP stream both outlined clear objectives and a schedule of events we can expect. If Casual play is what you enjoy most, there are Weekly OP Booster packs to chase plenty of cool alt-arts and foil treatments with Store Showdowns every set to test your skills at a lighter tournament level. For the competitive-driven player, there will be planetary qualifiers every set starting after Set 2 release, followed by Sector and Regional Qualifiers available to travel to once every month which all lead to the World Galactic Championship in the summer ever year starting in 2025. There is a path for everyone to play the way they want to!

Tournament Streams will be supported

I don’t know about you, but if I’m not at a tournament on the weekend, then I really enjoy being able to watch the people that are! Reading tournament write-ups and recaps the following week are good insight, but nothing beats watching two players duel it out. On the competitive OP stream, FFG announced there would be streams at big events. Whether that means FFG is directly streaming events, paying a production company to do so, or enabling content creators to do so has yet to be seen. But, at the end of the day, it sounds like we can count on livestreams from major events.

Card Reveals are a steady stream

Xander has told us there is a plan, and its pretty evident in the cadence of card reveals we’ve seen. The spreadsheet trackers can break it down very specifically, but we’ve had a fairly consistent spread week-to-week of card reveals. I’m thankful we seemingly always have new cards to discuss and argue about how they completely change the meta or do nothing at all! This actually leads me to my next point..

The gameplay is fantastic

Even with a limited card pool, we’ve been having a blast deckbuilding and jamming games. This is the first time I’ve really played more than a few demo games for an upcoming game, and as much as I expected to hate it, it is a blast! With the steady stream of card reveals noted above, the meta is actually pretty dynamic and can change week to week. This might actually be the most interesting time to ever play Star Wars Unlimited! While I know my printer will be beyond thankful come March when we have real cards, I am thankful for the experience we’ve had discovering the set slowly through the card reveals.

There’s already a large, helpful community

Over 2,500 Facebook members, 1,680 discord members, 20+ podcasts, a handful of gameplay channels, and a handful of Deckbuilder sites, there are a lot of people already excited to talk and play Star Wars Unlimited! A community can help make or break a game, so I am beyond thankful for the friendly, welcoming, and helpful people that make up ours!

You

Thanks to everyone who reads our articles throughout the week and watches our gameplay on YouTube. It’s been awesome talking SWU and engaging with those of you that tag us in discord or leave a comment to keep the conversation going! We started off just recording our locals near the end of the Star Wars Destiny life cycle due to the lack of IRL gameplay. When SWU was announced, we really enjoyed written content in previous games, so we started this website to encourage people to join us in what we love! This led to Jayson joining our writing team, and we look forward to featuring more content written by the community on our site or their own!

Happy Thanksgiving! What are you thankful for? Hopefully this is the first of many, many Thanksgivings with the SWU community!