When Star Wars: Unlimited debuted in the TCG space earlier this year, we praised it for offering a fast pace with a solid amount of tactics. As with every always-evolving TCG though, it isn’t just about how you start; it’s about how you maintain your audience, add smart tweaks to the gameplay and offer up new cards and ideas, all while ensuring it stays balanced with each expansion. It’s a lofty task, but with Set 2, Shadows of the Galaxy, Star Wars: Unlimited is already proving it is up to the task.
Star Wars inherently has a lot of lore to draw from, and Shadows of the Galaxy is focused on the smugglers, scoundrels, and scavengers of the Outer Rim. It has a particular emphasis on bounty hunters, which brings with it some iconic characters and some juicy new mechanics that alter the way you play significantly.
Shadows of the Galaxy doubles the amount of cards that you can play with, which instantly makes for some intriguing deck-building combinations. With 262 new cards, 18 of those being Leaders who can make a serious impact on the battlefield, you have a lot of possibilities. The two-player starter (which again proves to be a great entry point for newcomers) includes a type of battle we’re used to seeing on TV, with The Mandalorian and Moff Gideon the two leaders to choose from. Mando allows you to slow down your enemy whenever you play an upgrade, exhausting one of their units, while Moff Gideon is more attack-focused, allowing you to do extra damage with one of your units. The variety of these always-in-play leaders makes for some interesting tactics.
“Grogu fans in particular (all of us) are in for a treat with this set…”
The artwork is consistently gorgeous. I’ve grown to really love the cartoon-esque quality of the designs, which offer a lot of detail and colour when played across the battlefield. They’re bold, readable and high-quality; I often gasped in delight when drawing new cards into my hand during my test playthroughs. Grogu fans in particular (all of us) are in for a treat with this set, with standout designs for Jabba the Hutt, Chewbacca, Boba Fett and others as well.
Where Shadows of the Galaxy really flexes its galactic muscles is with three new game mechanics, each of which offers something different to the mix. Where the introductory set, Spark of Rebellion, laid some very solid foundations in terms of how to use your Leader effectively, defend your base and decide how best to use the ground and space play areas, this expansion makes for some more compelling and competitive plays. In our Shadows of the Galaxy battles, they took much longer and felt like anybody could win, based on adapting to decisions from your opponents. That bodes well for the future of Star Wars: Unlimited, with Bounty, Capture and Smuggle mechanics now integrated into the experience.
As I said before, bounty hunters play a major role here, and with that comes bounty-hunter-like mechanics that make perfect sense within the broader Star Wars universe. The first, Bounty, works as an upgrade that you can attach to an existing unit on the field of play. When that unit is defeated or captured, its opponent collects this bounty. Bounties can do various things, like readying resources or offering shields, and the payoff is satisfying. Placing a Bounty on an opponent unit right before you land the finishing blow gives you an almost-instant benefit while attaching it to other units could sway your opponent to protect them as a priority. Placing a Bounty is a worthy consideration, but must be played carefully given they take up a turn that could be used to damage or protect.
If you want to disrupt your opponent, Capture might be the best way to do that. This allows you to take an enemy unit and place the card under your own active unit, and that’s where it will stay until your active unit is removed. When that happens, the captured unit is rescued, going right back into the field of play… but without any upgrades attached to it. If you have an enemy unit that is stacking shields and XP tokens to increase its stats, this can throw a spanner in the works. Capturing effectively removes the unit from play temporarily and gets rid of all of those upgrades. Ouch.
Smuggle is perhaps the trickiest new addition to Star Wars: Unlimited. Instead of playing cards only from your hand, you can place the card down as a resource (face-down) and then trigger it later in the game. This is helpful to keep building resources and keeping a secret ability in your back pocket for later, and it caught me off guard a few times when my opponent used it against me. All of a sudden, them playing a resource had me questioning whether or not a Smuggle action was nestled within. Of course, you have to have a good memory when putting a Smuggle card down as a resource; if you have to double-check its conditions, that gives away that a Smuggle is waiting in the wings in the first place, ruining the surprise.
These new mechanics had us jostling for position, and often diverted focus from the main goal of dealing damage to each other’s bases. With more rules to factor in comes more strategic plays, that are all the more thrilling to execute. Shadows of the Galaxy smartly evolves the core game, sure to captivate more experienced TCG fans from the other camps as it continues to become a more complex beast, while still feeling approachable to beginners.
The third expansion, Twilight of the Republic, is due for release in November, and considering the success of this expansion, it’s exciting to think about how Star Wars: Unlimited will continue to change the game in the future.
Star Wars: Unlimited: Shadows of the Galaxy is available now in all good hobby stores.
Star Wars: Unlimited – Shadows of the Galaxy packs were provided by Fantasy Flight Games for the purpose of this coverage.
About the Author
Luke Mitchell
he/him
Luke spends his time making radio, playing video games, binge-watching TV, getting unreasonably invested in wrestling, hosting bear events and hanging out with his beautiful pets.
