With Star Wars Unlimited having already proven to be a success for Fantasy Flight Games, who’ve confirmed that the trading card game, in its first week alone, had “already far exceeded the sales of any game” they have ever released, it’s no surprise that they are keen to keep the momentum going, and pique the interest of players with newly revealed details on upcoming cards for the game’s next set.
Though the name of the second set for Star Wars Unlimited, Shadows of the Galaxy, had been revealed and we’d also seen some of the accessories that would accompany the new expansion, until now we’d only seen very fleeting images of the card art, the knowledge that the next Two Player Starter would feature The Mandalorian and Moff Gideon as leaders, but no specific details at all on what their (or any other) cards would look or play like.
Now, however, Fantasy Flight have revealed not just the two Leader cards, but several other cards too.
We also know that the set will shift away from the Rebel Alliance vs the Empire theme of Spark of Rebellion, and take us into far shadier territory, focusing on the scum and villainy of the Star Wars universe.
Let’s take a look at what we’ve seen, and what new elements of the game have been revealed!
Shadows of the Galaxy: Two Player Starter Set Leader Cards
First up, the two Leader cards, on their non-deployed Leader side, that will be heading up the cards in the Shadows of the Galaxy two player starter set’s decks.
This set will mirror the excellent starter from Spark of Rebellion, which provided two pre-constructed decks, cardboard deck boxes (with themed artwork for each deck), excellent play mats and a selection of tokens: damage counters, Initiative for each player and Epic Action markers, plus double sided Shield and Experience token cards.
Though not exactly a hero (at least not at first!), we have Din Djarin himself, aka The Mandalorian, broadly on the ‘good’ side of the galactic conflict.
A Leader with the Cunning and Heroism Aspects, The Mandalorian can be deployed as a 4 Power, 7 HP unit once you have 6 resources in play.
This puts him in the mid-range in terms of his speed of deployment; not the slowest, not the fastest, but he’s a unit you’re likely to be able to deploy against all but the fastest of aggro decks.
His 4 Power and 7 HP is pretty decent, however, and should see him standing his ground against most enemies.
He has the same ability on both his Leader and Unit sides, in that you can exhaust him when you play an upgrade, then exhaust an enemy unit with 4 or less HP remaining.
Given his pretty high HP, The Mandalorian’s ability is one that should come in very useful in the late game, with a strategic choice of which unit you’ll exhaust when you’re able to.
It’ll also hopefully lead to players taking more risks with upgrades; certainly in my experience so far, upgrades haven’t been a big staple of many decks, so perhaps The Mandalorian’s ability will shift things a bit in the meta when he’s chosen as a Leader.
Then there’s Moff Gideon, the ambitious and ruthless military commander; still desperate to restore the Empire to its former glory, despite several years having passed since the Battle of Endor.
Sporting the Cunning and Villainous Aspects, he just has the edge over The Mandalorian in terms of his deployment speed; he can move to the ground arena after his owner has 5 or more resources in play.
While still in play as a Leader, his ability allows him to exhaust, then attack with a unit that has a resource cost of 3 or less. The chosen unit even gets a +1 Power bonus if you attack another unit, rather than the enemy’s base.
Though Moff Gideon has slightly lower Power and HP than The Mandalorian (3 and 6 respectively), he does have Overwhelm, so when used to take on units with weak HP, he’ll also be able to chip away at the opposing base’s HP too.
That’s not all though; where Moff Gideon really shines is with the other ability text on his unit side.
Every friendly unit with a resource cost of 3 or less is granted Overwhelm while he’s deployed, along with +1 Power bonus, when they’re attacking an enemy unit.
So not only does his presence grant your lower cost units an attack bonus, used wisely you can cause some serious unit removal and base damage over the course of a few turns!
What Other Cards Have Been Revealed For Shadows of the Galaxy?
So we’ve looked at The Mandalorian and Moff Gideon, but what cards do they have in their decks to support them?
Three cards have been revealed with the Villainous Aspect; Gideon’s Light Cruiser (mono-Villainous space unit), Phase-III Dark Trooper (a ground unit with Cunning and Villainous; a perfect match with Gideon himself) and the Calculated Lethality Event card (which has the Vigilance and Villainous Aspects).
Gideon’s Light Cruiser, used in conjunction with the Leader’s ability, is going to be very interesting; when played, you’ll be able to immediately play a Villainous unit with cost 3 or less from your hand for free, or even recycle one from your discard pile! As Moff Gideon himself gives bonuses and Overwhelm to units with 3 or less cost, that is likely to be very useful indeed.
Speaking of units with 3 or less cost, we have the Phase-III Dark Trooper which costs, yes, 3 resources!
Not only will it get a bonus from Gideon while attacking another unit, but it also has Sentinel (forcing opponents to attack it rather than your base) and gets an Experience token any time it’s dealt combat damage, as long as it survives of course. So the old adage of ‘what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger’ definitely applies to the Dark Trooper!
Lastly, we have the Calculated Lethality card. This Event allows you to immediately defeat a non-Leader Unit with a cost of 3 or less.
That’s not all though. With The Mandalorian’s Leader ability making upgrades more viable, here’s Calculated Lethality taking advantage of that; not only can you defeat a card with this Event, but you can also give an Experience token to a friendly unit for each upgrade on the card you just defeated!
With just three Villainous cards revealed so far, we can already see that Moff Gideon will be holding his own against just about any other Leader we’ve seen in Star Wars Unlimited so far!
So, what about the Heroic cards for The Mandalorian?
Here we can see The Mandalorian’s ship (or at least, spoiler alert, his original ship), the Razor Crest, as a Vigilance and Heroism space unit.
It has the incredibly useful Restore 2 keyword; this means that any time the Razor Crest attacks, it heals your base for 2 HP.
It also takes advantage of The Mandalorian decks focus on upgrades; when played, you can return an upgrade card from your discard pile to your hand.
With a cost of 4, along with 3 Power and 4 HP, the Razor Crest is sure to be an important weapon in The Mandalorian’s arsenal.
Speaking of important weapons, next we have an upgrade in the form of The Mandalorian’s Rifle. A Heroic card with a cost of 3, it can be attached to any non-vehicle unit for a +3 Power bonus.
It also has an ability that’s entirely new to Shadows of the Galaxy, in that if it’s attached to The Mandalorian himself, you can capture an exhausted, non-Leader unit.
Capture debuts in this second set, and sees you able to place an opponent’s card face down under your own until the capturing unit leaves play.
Finally, we’ve also got Grogu, because there was no way we were going to get reveals without getting our glimpse of the artist formerly known as Baby Yoda!
With the Cunning and Heroism Aspects, Grogu is a 2 cost card with zero Power and 5 HP. He can exhaust to then exhaust any enemy unit, which is pretty powerful.
Though he does have zero Power, with The Mandalorian making upgrades pretty viable, it’ll no doubt assist Grogu in beefing up if you choose to do so.
Then again, exhausting Grogu to continually exhaust other units, especially with his decent 5 HP, also seems like a very viable tactic!
Finally, let’s take a look at the only card revealed which doesn’t strictly fit either the Heroic or Villainous sides: Wanted.
The last card revealed is one that, while it doesn’t have the Heroism or Villainy Aspects, does seem to fit quite neatly into The Mandalorian’s side of the story.
Not only does it have the Cunning Aspect (just like The Mandalorian’s Leader card), but it also features a new keyword that very much slots into The Mandalorian’s theme: Bounty.
So this is a card that you can play onto an opposing unit, then defeat it to ready 2 friendly resources.
Though it does take up one of your actions to play it, Wanted has zero cost; used wisely, it can really swing the balance of power in your favour!
What Else Has Been Revealed For Shadows Of The Galaxy?
Along with the two new mechanics (Capturing and Bounty), there’s a third that has yet to be revealed.
However, we do know that there are going to be 250 cards in the Shadows of the Galaxy set, with Hyperspace and Showcase variants that will also no doubt make a reappearance.
Beyond that, we’ve got a tantalising glimpse of artwork, featuring a post-bifurcation Darth Maul, archaeologist Doctor Aphra (ex-assistant to Darth Vader, no less!) and ruthless bounty hunter Cad Bane, so we’ll almost certainly be seeing them as unit cards!
When Will Shadows Of The Galaxy Be Released?
Though there’s no exact date yet revealed, Shadows of the Galaxy set for Star Wars Unlimited is due to be released in July, 2024.
We will of course be reporting on further reveals as and when they come to light, so with a pun very much in mind: watch this space!
