Welcome, Star Wars Unlimited players! Whether you’ve been playing since the prerelease of Spark of Rebellion, or you learned how to play at PAX Unlimited (I hope you got your Grogu exclusive card signed by the devs. I did!), we’re glad you’re here. I’ll be taking you on a little journey through how we got here, where we are, and what to look forward to in the future of Star Wars Unlimited (SWU). We’re turning the corner into the next block of Planetary Qualifiers (PQ) in Season 0, and I’m excited. I feel like everyone else will be as well.
The Beginnings of Star Wars Unlimited
First, we should acknowledge what Fantasy Flight Games’ (FFG) vision is with SWU. Their intent with the SWU experience is rooted in “The Three Cs,” or “Connect. Collect. Compete.” Spark of Rebellion (SOR) was the first set, and it was intended to kick off the first C, Connect. It was so incredibly well received that product sold out within the first few months. That was a great sign for the game because it showed that the game was good, and it wasn’t just because the Star Wars IP was slapped onto a shoddy TCG.
To many, the game felt fresh and clean to the already crowded TCG market. The Star Wars IP made it much more iconic. However, the sellout turned out to be a double-edged-sword. Local gaming stores were unable to restock product, so drafting and sealed stopped almost everywhere. Supply dried up, and costs skyrocketed. The game became cost prohibitive, and the meta was solved pretty quickly for Premier (the constructed format that is meant for 1v1 gaming) because SOR only had 252 cards. This caused a stall on the rising popularity of SWU, and people lost interest. FFG was in a bit of trouble because companies can’t just print product on demand, much to everyone’s chagrin. “Connect” became strained because product wasn’t available. The community was forced to hold tight through the drought, and some respite finally occurred with the release of Shadows of the Galaxy (SHD).
The new set allowed FFG to turn the corner, reignite the first C, and focus on the next two Cs: Collect and Compete. The new set had a higher print run and it allowed players to jump in fresh as they waited for the reprint of SOR, and it opened up the scope of the Premier format by adding another 250 cards. FFG also announced their plans for competitive play to include PQs, Regional Qualifiers, and Sector Qualifiers.
A big reminder here is we’re currently in “Season 0,” and FFG has said that “Competitive-Tier Organized Play, which we’re referring to as ‘Season 0,’ is designed to welcome as many players as possible to the tournament scene. Competitive play should always be about friendly competition, and Season 0 takes this a step further by lowering the stakes for more accessibility.” That should make sense to everyone because there needs to be time to train judges, like myself, and gives players time to get comfortable with the game. Furthermore, it makes sense to have a lower stakes competitive format because it won’t take long to solve a meta with a pool of a little over 500 cards. This brings us to the first Planetary Qualifiers that kicked off in October of 2024… which many people referred to as “The Season of Boba.”
The Season of Boba
Boba Fett – Collecting the Bounty is an incredibly efficient leader. He allows a soft ramp by letting you ready a resource if an enemy unit leaves play, he deploys at very low five resources, and he has great body at 4/7. These stats leads to a midrange style of play, and in the competitive iron-triangle of Aggro vs Midrange vs Control, Boba quickly ran away with the first PQ iteration in Season 0.
Traditional hard control doesn’t quite exist in SWU because there aren’t really ways to disrupt your opponent from playing cards, and there aren’t efficient ways to hinder their card draw/hand composition. No matter what, a player is drawing two cards every regroup phase. Hard removal isn’t very cheap in SWU, thus the cost advantage is hard to come by.
In addition there’s really only one board wipe. This storm culminated in the various Boba Fett decks (and there were all colors making the Top 8) running away with the PQs. Which led to the November 8th announcement, one week after Twilight of the Republic (TWI) pre-release, that Boba Fett – Collecting the Bounty was banned in the Premier format. FFG’s reasoning was “Boba Fett decks represented around 40% of Top 8 finishers and more than 55% of winners. That’s far above the line of an acceptable metagame share for a single leader. It’s making the experience of playing in Premier events difficult to an extent that we need to take direct action.” It did indeed shake up the meta, and there has only been a little over a month of medium to larger sized Premier competitive events to see where the dust has settled.
Where does that leave the SWU Season 0 Premier competitive scene? It’s allowed a couple of the decks that were able to eek out Top 8s in larger competitive Premier events to do better, and it allowed new leaders from TWI to rise up in competitive win rate. Sabine and Energy Conversion Lab (ECL), and Rey with Tarkintown (TT for short) made regular appearances in the Top 8s. They still do, but Rey TT has become much more infrequent. Emperor Palpatine – Galactic Ruler and his iterations have stepped up their Top 8 appearances, as has Bossk – Hunting His Prey and a Vigilance base (known as Bossk Blue). Bossk Blue and Emperor Palpatine tend to be the closest to hard control, and Sabine ECL solidifies itself as the best aggro deck. Turns out using ECL to give Wrecker – Boom! or Poe Dameron – Quick to Improvise Ambush is still good!
Last, Han Solo – Audacious Smuggler (Han1) is a contender from the first two sets. It’s one of the best decks out there, but it’s incredibly difficult to pilot. The deck has multiple decisions to make on any given play, and that can be mentally taxing to take to a Planetary Qualifier if you’re not extremely familiar with the deck. One of these interactions is the use of Tech – Source of Insight to use its rules text to give Smuggle to give a resourced DJ – Blatant Thief a cost of five instead of its Smuggle cost of seven (it checks the cost of card due to Tech’s special ability). Then, you use Han1’s ability to put a card from your hand as a resource, and then defeat the resource stolen from your opponent.
The Future of Premier Is…Difficult to See
The PQ that ran 7-8 December in Bologna saw Cad Bane TT take the crown over Sabine ECL. Where did Cad Bane come from? The biggest thing holding Cad Bane back was Lurking TIE Phantom (LTP). Why’s that? Well, LTP was a three-of in every Boba deck in the first PQ season. Cad Bane’s ability is when an Underworld card is played it let’s the opponent choose one of their units and deal one damage to it. LTP can’t be damaged by enemy card abilities. Maybe Jango Fett can step up to Cad Bane, but then it has to compete against Sabine ECL. In smaller showdowns (around 50 or fewer) we’re seeing Anakin Blue decks push into the top 8s. That’s a very high risk/high reward deck because the player is constantly pinging their base for damage to buff their units. The margin for error is very thin with Anakin Blue decks.
The TWI Premier PQ season ramps up January 4th, 2025 through February 22nd. Jump to Light Speed (JTL) pre-release is March 7th, just two weeks after PQ season ends. FFG has previewed three leaders, and they’re introducing a new ability where the leader can be played as unit or an upgrade and Pilot a vehicle. Not going to lie, I’m very excited for that keyword and interaction. My favorite leader, Gar Saxon, is definitely going to benefit from Pilots because they’ll be played as upgrades. I expect Gar Yellow, which Top 8’d in a SHD PQ in Portland, to get a major boost. The previewed art of JTL has Thrawn, Hera, TIE Interceptors, and X-Wings, so hopefully Leia and Tarkin leaders get more tools for their decks and become viable again.
Thank you all for reading, and I’m so happy to be a part of this burgeoning SWU community. Look forward to my next article where I’ll break down the major decks I mentioned and throw in a couple rogue decks that have an outside chance to place in the Top 8 during PQs. Also expect an article on Twin Suns, a singleton card format where you use two leaders and a base. I’ve played it with three people, and I’ve talked to people who have played up to five. Nothing but good times. See you next time.
