Having recently released Star Wars Unlimited, after months of hype and to critical acclaim (including our own, as you can see in our Star Wars Unlimited Review), designers and publishers Fantasy Flight/Asmodee have been revealing new details on the game’s next set.
Star Wars Unlimited’s first set, Spark of Rebellion, focused mostly on what is the most universally beloved period of the entire Star Wars franchise: the original trilogy.
Though characters and settings from films Rogue One and the animated series Rebels did make their presence known quite heavily in Spark of Rebellion, with Leaders, Units and even Bases from those two sources featured in the set, they’re each set in roughly the same time as the events leading up to, and alongside, events shown in the first Star Wars films.
With the second set intriguingly named Shadows of the Galaxy, which is something we’ve known for some time, where are we headed next as the battle for galactic dominance (or freedom!) on the tabletop continues?
Who And What Will Feature In Shadows Of The Galaxy?
During the GAMA 2024 trade show, in which game manufacturers reveal new products for the upcoming year, Asmodee’s accessories label, Gamegenic, revealed some Shadows of the Galaxy news that set Star Wars Unlimited fans heart’s racing.
From this, we can see a play mat featuring The Mandalorian (aka Din Djarin) wielding the Darksaber, as well as another showing the Rancor from the pit beneath Jabba’s Palace.
Both are intriguing enough images on their own; their presence on play mats will mean that these illustrations feature on cards from Shadows of the Galaxy, so we’ll see The Mandalorian and the Rancor cards in the set.
The same can be said of the sleeves and deck crates (which is what Gamegenic call their softer plastic deck boxes for Star Wars Unlimited), which feature images of Din Djarin, his nemesis Moff Gideon, plus sequel trilogy protagonist and antagonist Force users, Rey and Kylo Ren.
We know, as Fantasy Flight have already revealed, that Din Djarin and Moff Gideon will be the Leader cards heading up the decks in the Shadows of the Galaxy Two Player Starter.
This follows the Spark of Rebellion Starter decks which feature Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader as their leaders; you can check out more details on our article covering the product list for Star Wars Unlimited: Spark of Rebellion.
A tweet from the Golden Dice Podcast also stated that The Bad Batch will feature in Shadows of the Galaxy; this information was revealed at a Star Wars Unlimited-specific panel at GAMA:
As an aside, The Bad Batch also featured its own, fully playable, original card game in a recent episode!
Finally, Fantasy Flight have also confirmed that the Shadows of the Galaxy set as a whole will focus on smugglers and bounty hunters, which was revealed in an interview with YouTuber, Starrapter.
When Will Star Wars Unlimited: Shadows Of The Galaxy Be Released?
Though players are only just getting Spark of Rebellion in their hands and onto their tabletops, the wait for Shadows of the Galaxy is a lot shorter than you may expect.
That’s because it’s due out in July 2024; those of you who are new to Collectable Card Games/Trading Card Games (CCGs/TCGs) in general may be surprised that you’ll only have three months before the second set arrives and adds an entirely new selection of cards to Star Wars Unlimited, but this is a very common release pattern for games in this category.
Do We Know Anything About More Sets For Star Wars Unlimited?
Again, if you’re new to CCGs and TCGs, you may not be aware that players are often very hungry to test out new cards, discover new strategies and combos and keep up with an evolving meta.
The fact that CCGs/TCGs can be endlessly updated, evolved and customised by the designers and players alike is what gives them such lasting appeal, but this does mean that the game’s publisher needs to be constantly thinking ahead and, in many ways, reassuring the players that their game will be fully supported for some time to come.
You can see how important longevity is to CCGs in my History of Star Wars CCGs feature.
So way ahead of the launch of Spark of Rebellion, Fantasy Flight confirmed that they had mapped out plans for the first nine sets for Star Wars Unlimited.
Beyond the first three sets, they have not revealed anything further; however, we already have Spark of Rebellion on our hands, Shadows of the Galaxy is mere months away and we also know that the third set, Twilight of the Republic, will launch in November 2024.
We also know (again, thanks to Starrapter’s interview) that Twilight of the Republic will be a set focusing on the Clone Wars era, though of course that’s already foreshadowed by the set’s name!
How Can I Get Started With Star Wars Unlimited?
Though CCGs and TCGs are constantly moving forward, the release plans for Star Wars Unlimited’s sets mean that new players will be able to jump in at any point.
We know that sets will each launch with their own Two Player Starters, so you’ll have access to the most recent card types, keywords and characters whenever you decide to jump in.
Right now, however, there’s no better place to get going than with the Spark of Rebellion Two Player Starter, which provides full decks, deck boxes, tokens and two of the best play mats we’ve ever seen to help guide new players through learning and playing the game!
If you still need assistance or clarification with the rules or a bit more insight into certain elements of Star Wars Unlimited, check out our Star Wars Unlimited Card Rarities guide, our primer on Aspects in Star Wars Unlimited and our clarification on Star Wars Unlimited Keywords.
Finally, if you want to check out how to play in different formats of the game, our How to Play Draft and Sealed Games in Star Wars Unlimited has you covered!
