All images courtesy of Fantasy Flight Games and Lucasfilm, Ltd.
We’re not even knee-deep into Jump To Light Speed (JTL) preview season and there have been great revelations and some bangers so far. Fantasy Flight Games (FFG) has indicated how they’re going to push forward into set rotations, new types of preconstructed (precon) decks, new types of packs called Carbonite Edition (CE), and adjusting the contents of Booster packs slightly, and there’s implications on what that means for Premier, Twin Suns, and limited formats.
I’ll touch on all of that a bit here and I hope it’ll get you as excited as I am for JTL and the implications for SWU players.
Boosting the Jump to Lightspeed Booster Packs
FFG has disclosed how JTL will adjust how Booster packs are sorted going forward, and they introduced new CE packs which will be regularly occurring with new sets starting with JTL. Boosters are still going to have the leader (with a possible Hyperspace or Showcase variant), a base/token (could be possible Hyperspace variant), nine commons, three commons, one rare or legendary, and a spot for a foil card (all of those can be Hyperspace variants as well). The big difference is they’re going to add about ten commons, two fewer rares, but four more legendaries to the set lists moving forward. This means legendary cards will be about one in five boosters compared to one in eight in the past… but you might have a slightly more difficult time pulling a rare you really want.
Furthermore, they’re adding a chance for S-rarity (an example is Grand Moff Tarkin – Death Star Overseer) cards in all foil, Hyperspace, and Hyperspace-foil to be inserted in a Booster pack. Normally S-rarity cards were only in the Two-Player Starter decks, or in a Hyperspace variant in the Weekly Play 3-Card Booster packs at the nearest LGS. That’s pretty cool because it means there’s a chance you can pull a card that’s normally exclusive to the precon decks in a Booster pack and really add some spice to limited play.
I’d say these changes are a net positive for collectors and people who love the limited experience in playing SWU.
Next, FFG will now be throwing their weight into the realm of packs that have all the cards with special treatment. I recognize this is a hot topic for a lot of players in TCG collectibles, and I’ll do my best to present a case on why I think this a good thing for the game and community as a whole. Before the argument for, let me touch on what is going to be in a CE box and a CE pack.
First and foremost, the cards in Carbonite packs are all variants of existing cards from the set, which means no mechanically unique cards will ever be exclusive to Carbonite Edition packs.
A CE box will contain 12 packs. Each pack will contain 16 cards, and one of those will be a leader that is guaranteed to be Hyperspace or Showcase (Showcases will show up approximately one per 2.5 CE boxes). The rest include:
- 7 foil cards like you’d find in the last spot in a Booster pack
- 5 Hyperspace cards
- 2 Hyperspace foil cards
- 1 Prestige card
Per FFG, “Scattered throughout all of them are more cards of uncommon or higher rarity than normal booster packs, with at least one rare or legendary among the foil cards and a higher-than-normal likelihood of rares and legendaries showing up as Hyperspace.” The Prestige spot is unique art and treatment for JTL’s unique ships. As a professional pilot, I’m geeking out about these. The foiling process for the Prestige cards will be unique, and there’s a chance to get a serialized card (x/250). Last, these are initial print run only and then that’s it for each CE in a set. It sounds like FFG intends to keep these limited to increase collectability.
I think CE Booster packs will be an overall positive for the SWU community. First and foremost, I’m against any games that creates extra pay-barriers to get “better” content that’ll give an edge in the game. These packs will have cards that are different aesthetic treatment only, according to FFG, so that passes my first hurdle. There won’t be a two resource-cost unit that is a 5/4 with no drawback that you can only get in CE packs.
Second: many people, like myself, are collectors as well as players of the game. Some players don’t care about the condition of the cards as long as they’re legal to sleeve up and go play in a tournament or at the kitchen table. Others are shiny connoisseurs. CE packs are a way for them to access alternate treatments.
Third: Star Wars is an incredibly popular franchise around the world. A famous TCG several years ago did a mash-up of another popular fantasy franchise and the 1/1 and 1/X variants made media attention because they sold for so much on the aftermarket. This drives the game into the greater public and brings more bodies to the community. FFG is in the business of making a great TCG, and to create more great content FFG has to be able to pay for overhead and the salary for the passionate and creative employees.
Speaking of great future content…
Rotation of Premier Play
Star Wars Unlimited has planned three sets a year through at least 2026. I was so excited to hear that on the FFG SWU Live Stream on 29 January. They mentioned that because people may have noticed this little “A” symbol on the all of the JTL cards. This is going to move in sequence A, B, C, and so forth, to show which sets will be legal in Premier. The most the Premier format will include is six sets, and sets will rotate with the first set of the calendar year.
For example, when the first set drops in March of 2026, SOR, SHD, and TWI will drop out of Premier. That’ll mean four sets will be legal. To put that into context, the card pool will be at a minimum of what we’ll be looking at when JTL drops. Exciting! Don’t worry, all cards will stay legal in Twin Suns and there will be an Eternal 1v1 format that will start when the first three sets rotate out.
Starters Out, Spotlights In
I’m just going to touch on the Spotlight Decks real quick because it’s a significant shift in product design. FFG has done away with the Two-Player Starter and is now moving onto creating precon decks that are more competitive, called Spotlight Decks. These decks are intended to be a step up in complexity and better able to hang with some of the more tuned Premier Decks.
They won’t be on par with a Sabine ECL deck or a Han1 Yellow deck, but I’ll be writing articles in March detailing how you can add cards to make the Spotlight Decks even more competitive. Here’s the link to SWU official website article on these Spotlight Decks and their deck lists, with full previews of the cards.
Speaking of previews…
Jump to Lightspeed Previews Ahead
I don’t have the space to talk about every single card that has been shown so far, but I’m going to talk about cool interactions that people might not think of or quite understand with new rules.
First, I am absolutely stoked about more When Defeated triggered abilities. It’s probably my favorite type of ability in TCGs. Let me explain this neat little sequence above, and hopefully it’ll explain some rules in the process. Cobb Vanth has a unique design template. Unlike U-Wing Reinforcement, Mr. Vanth can find a two-cost or less unit, discard it, then you can play that card for free as a unit or as a pilot upgrade onto a legal target vehicle.
Theoretically, you can have Cobb in the Ground Arena, play Chimaera in the Space Arena, find Nien Nunb (“MY BOY!”), and then attach him as a pilot onto your Chimaera.
Remember, “for free” means you ignore any aspect penalties. Is it worth throwing Nien Nunb into a Villainy leader deck? I don’t know, but it is certainly cool.
Twin Suns. “…deals damage equal to its power to each enemy unit in that arena.” (emphasis mine). So much carnage. I love it.
When I first read Lando Calrissian I thought it was well below average. Then I put on my judge hat and realized that all you need is one unit in play and a unit in the opposite arena in your hand to make Lando’s ability work.
For example, you have the initiative on turn three, you play Echo Base Defender (EBD) then keep the initiative. Turn four you activate Lando’s ability, play Blue Leader, and when it enters you now have the strategic choice to either give the shield token to EBD if there are threats in the Ground Arena, or you can put the shield on Blue Leader and ambush your opponent’s space unit with impunity… like LTP for example.
I just love this synergy between No Disintegrations and Darth Vader – Dark Lord of the Sith, and it is so thematic too. That’s all.
Theoretically, you can play Wolf Pack Escort, Cartel Turncoat, or Mining Guild TIE Fighter and use Wedge’s ability to play lil’ Anakin all on turn one. Lil’ Anakin could be a problem for control decks because he can be returned to your hand when he completes an attack. Just look out for “Dies to Confiscate” or Power of the Dark Side on turn two if you throw Anakin out there like that.
There Will Be More
We still have five weeks until JTL Pre-release, and that means at least four more weeks of previews. I’m super excited and I hope you are too. I think JTL is going to bust the already healthy meta wide open (I did say Boba1 was the best deck… and the devs did say on the livestream that they’re looking at it), and I cannot wait for Twin Suns to be raised to 80 card minimum. In the mean time, we’ll just keep our eyes peeled for more previews and new information.
Be cool to your fellow players, be cool to your judges, hydrate, eat well, exercise, and wear clean socks.
Hit me up anytime on Bluesky @TheFlyingWriter or Reddit at u/TheFlyingWriter
