Game Review: Star Wars Card Game

Star Wars: The Card Game is a popular game based on the Star Wars Universe. There's a world championship and many local competitions, it's produced by Fantasy Flight Games, one of the largest board game companies, and it's rated 7.4 on boardgamegeek, which is pretty good. It's for two player, head to head play.

Being a "living card game" means that the game designers release new cards periodically so you have a chance to modify your decks and keep things interesting. The two most popular living card games are Android: Netrunner and Magic: The Gathering; those have an 8 and 7.4 rating at Boardgamegeek so Star Wars is right up there with them. My favorite LCG and one of my all time favorite games in general is Star Realms, which is rated 7.6, so again, Star Wars is reputable.

Before getting too much further into the details of the game, I'll go ahead and tell you that I really like Star Wars: The Card Game. The artwork is absolutely beautiful so if you love Star Wars and you like card games it's a no brainer. It's full of characters and places from the SW universe, old and new(a lot of card pictures further down). I also like the gameplay and I intend on playing it more in the future. If I have time; I'm very busy.

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As I mentioned- similarly to Netrunner, Magic, and Star Realms- Star Wars is a "living card game". Since its release in 2012, it has had many expansions - 6 expansion cycles and 5 deluxe expansions to be exact. However, like the other games mentioned, to be a casual player of SW and have fun, you don't need to worry about keeping up with the expansions. You can buy the core set and start playing. If you like it, you will, however, need to buy a couple expansions to really enjoy it.

Below is what you need to build a really fun deck. Probably not a championship deck, but fun enough to play indefinitely with your friends. The reason for two copies is that for a good deck you need two copies of the best objective sets(6 cards=1objective set, 10 o.sets = 1 deck), i.e., two Luke Skywalkers or Darth Vaders. You're allowed two copies of objective sets in your decks. In the later expansions, Fantasy Flight started putting two copies of objective sets in the boxes. Way to go FF. That's called listening to your customers, you're doing it right.

aaaand expensively I might add.

In this game, besides the rules, you need to learn about deck building. In many games, like Star Realms, everyone starts the same and you customize your deck as you go. In this case, you have to create the deck you want before you start. Until you learn this, if you play someone who does know how, they will crush you. The thing is, you have a lot of choices as to how you build your deck, so the learning curve is a little steep. I myself am learning, but I'm having fun at the same time. How many choices you ask? I will give you the numbers, but first a quick definition.

Star Wars Card game has a really cool game mechanic called objective sets. An objective set is a group of 6 cards, and all 3000 cards(approximately) in the core set and all expansions are divided into objective sets. So... 3000 cards = 500 objectives. All objectives belong to one of six factions, three are dark side, three are light side. The three light side affiliation are: jedi, smugglers and spies, and rebel alliance. The three dark side affiliation are: Sith, Scum and Villainy, and Imperial Navy.

My sorted collection, before choosing objective sets.

Two objective sets, dark side affiliation, Sith Faction

A starting deck consists of 10 objective sets, and can only be light side or dark side, not both.

That being said, a light side deck can contain any objectives from the three light side factions - jedi, smugglers, or rebels. On top of that, usually a deck will be mostly one faction, with a few objectives from other ones, so when you pick your 10 objectives, you'd only really be considering 10 out of 50 objectives at most, and that's if you have all the expansions, which you won't :-)

A note about card quantity in this game:

-Core set - 240
-Five deluxe exansions - 300
-36 Force pack expansions - 2160

Das alotta cards. However, making your deck is technically pretty simple. Follow the following steps:

1. Choose your affiliation, for example light side.
2. Choose your main faction, for example Jedi.
3. Choose your objectives, most from your chosen faction, for example 8 Jedi and 2 Smugglers and Spies objectives.

Here's Chris and I choosing our objectives.

Basic gameplay is as follows:

1. Objective sets consist of 1 objective card and 5 other cards. They are numbered on the card, for example in the above Darth Vader Objective, the set number is 19, each card says 19 1 of 6, 2 of 6, 3 of 6, etc.

2. Once your deck is made, you separate the 10 objective cards from the rest of the cards and shuffle each.

3. Each player picks the top three objective cards, it's random, you get to mulligan one, lays them out, and then you draw the top 6 of the deck of the other 50 cards, and use those to start playing.

4. Both players are trying to destroy the other's objectives, and protect their own.

5. The dark side player wins by turning the death star dial to 12, and the light side player wins by destroying three of the dark side players objectives.

Then basically you take turns fighting battles - deploying units, events, and enhancements, which cost resources. You can destroy enemy units and eventually the objectives. I won't get into too much detail. The mechanics are original, interesting, and fun. Hopefully I've gotten the point across and you know whether you want to try it out or not. There are plenty of playthrough videos on Youtube you can check out, and like anything Star Wars, a veritable crap ton of websites and forums.

It's a great game, I highly recommend it.

I'll end with some pictures of some of my favorite cards: