The last few years have been absolutely huge for Trading Card Games (or TCGs; sometimes known as Collectible Card Games, or CCGs). Magic: The Gathering celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2023, Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh! both celebrated their own 25 year anniversaries, and several new, high profile games have launched to hugely positive critical and commercial reception, comfortably finding their own dedicated player bases in the sector. Disney Lorcana has quickly established itself as a firm favorite of the team at Card Gamer; however, as that launched in 2023, it’s not eligible to be the top choice for new TCG of 2024. Despite it being a close call, thanks to games such as Altered also debuting this year, our pick for the overall favorite new TCG of 2024 is the phenomenal Star Wars Unlimited.
What Is Star Wars Unlimited?
The latest in a long line of Star Wars TCGs, Star Wars Unlimited launched in March 2024, and is primarily a two-player game, in which each side seeks to attain galactic dominance by destroying their opponent’s base. Players each have their own leader, who can deploy onto the battlefield once a certain number of resources are in play; each turn, players will use their ground and space units to chip away at opposing forces or the enemy base, with plenty of clever combos and strategies possible thanks to an ever-growing selection of cards, with numerous keywords and abilities. Players can use preconstructed decks found in Starter sets, or build their own from cards found in booster packs, with the aspects on a player’s leader and base determining which cards can be most effectively used in a deck.
Publisher Fantasy Flight Games have shown admirable restraint in introducing Star Wars Unlimited, with just one booster pack type and one type of Two-Player Starter pack for each of the three sets released in 2024. Even the different card rarities found in booster packs have been pretty understated, with the game adopting a very play-centric, as opposed to collector-focused, approach thus far. That’s not to say that the cards don’t hold appeal for collectors, or that the art isn’t appealing even on the standard variants of cards; check out our interview with Axel Hutt, one of Star Wars Unlimited’s most sought after artists, for more insight.
Booster packs were designed to be able to support draft and sealed play immediately, with the simplified approach making the different play formats extremely accessible, even for less experienced players. The simplified product range and low cost of entry thanks to the small number of packs needed to play draft and sealed, or to acquire the very comprehensive, cleverly designed (and fully featured) Two-Player Starter packs make Star Wars Unlimited one of the easiest, and cheapest, TCGs to get into.
Of course, that would mean nothing if the game itself wasn’t fun to play, but it’s a superb, highly thematic experience that should hold appeal to card game players even if they aren’t die hard fans of the source material. Of course plenty of TCG players are already Star Wars fans too! Check out our review of Star Wars Unlimited for a much more in-depth overview of the game, which became a firm favorite of the team at Card Gamer almost immediately upon release.
What’s Next For Star Wars Unlimited?
With three Star Wars Unlimited sets already released in 2024, covering the original trilogy era, the seedier, scum-and-villainy infested underbelly of the universe in Shadows of the Galaxy, and the Clone Wars in Twilight of the Republic, some of the most popular characters and settings have already made an appearance in the game. However, Star Wars Unlimited’s second year is already shaping up to be pretty exciting, with the set Jump to Lightspeed arriving in March 2025, and featuring a (some may say overdue) focus on vehicles.
The game is going to see a much bigger shakeup in the form of its new preconstructed deck type: Spotlight Decks, which will replace (somewhat sadly) the peerless Two-Player Starter sets. The single booster pack type will also be joined by Carbonite Edition boosters, pictured above, which feature only the most highly collectible, alternate art and foil-treated variants of cards, and will be strictly limited in their print runs.
Of course, as we’ve mentioned, Star Wars Unlimited is far from the only exciting new card game to have released in recent years. Titles such as the One Piece Card Game, the aforementioned Disney Lorcana, and even the long-running UniVersus (which has been rebooted and expanded significantly in the last few years) have all become familiar presences at game stores, events, and on tabletops in general, proving that there’s definitely more room in the TCG market for games beyond Magic: The Gathering, Pokémon, and Yu-Gi-Oh! TCGs have enjoyed far more mainstream acceptance and availability in the last few years, and the next few years look to be a no less exciting time for TCG fans. We here at Card Gamer will be covering all of the latest games and developments in 2025 and beyond!
Want to take a look at another excellent, Star Wars related game? Check out our review of the standalone title, Star Wars: The Deckbuilding Game – Clone Wars Edition!
