The upcoming Star Wars Unlimited TCG set, Twilight of the Republic, is almost here with the release slated for November 8. This is the third installment since the game premiered back in March. It’s still quite young, but there are already so many different types of decks that one can make. In fact, a two-player starter comes with every new set for anyone interested in jumping into SWU for the first time. The Twilight of the Republic starter includes a deck themed around the aggressive and heroic Ahsoka Tano and the Republic’s Clone Trooper army, as well as a deck led by the cunning and villainous General Grievous alongside the Separatist Droid army. With both decks in one package, it’s an easy way to kickstart a player’s venture into a new card game like Star Wars Unlimited with a friend.
When a card game is based on an existing series, we usually see game designers attempt to match what’s on the card with how the character or object is portrayed in their respective medium. It guides the playstyle and creation of other cards in the set, and we see some of that in both SWU starter decks. For instance, the Ahsoka Tano deck includes characters from the 501st Legion that she’s a part of, like General Anakin Skywalker and Captain Rex. The Jedi alongside the Clone army are known for skilled and organized combat, which brings us to one of the new mechanics in this set, Coordinate. This keyword or ability activates when a player controls three or more units on their side of the field. When its requirement is fulfilled, the player can then reap the reward of the newly activated action associated with the card’s Coordinate ability. In Ahsoka Tano’s case, she can command a unit to attack with a +1 power buff as long as her side of the field has at least three units. So if you’re playing with the Ahsoka deck, part of your goal is going wide on the board with units so you can always have more than enough to fulfill the Coordinate ability across all your cards that have that special keyword. That means your opponent will try to dwindle your numbers to prevent that from happening. Thankfully, the deck does include supporting cards to reflect the need to bolster an army like Batch Brothers or Jedi Master Shaak Ti, which can create clone trooper tokens to add to the unit count.
On the villainous side of this starter pack, we have General Grievou,s who leads the Separatist droid armies in their quest for dominance. Similar to the Ahsoka deck, the General Grievous deck has options to bolster the unit count as well with the help of Battle Droid tokens. Instead of the Coordinate ability, though, the Separatists rely on another new mechanic to the Star Wars card game: Exploit. Unlike Coordinate, Exploit does not buff or support the units already in battle. Instead, this new ability sacrifices units to play more powerful cards for a cheaper cost. For instance, if someone wants to play the Admiral Trench card, that player can defeat up to 1 unit they already control on the field to reduce his cost. Usually, this isn’t such a great trade, since you’re losing one of your units in the process, but cards like the Confederate Courier or Battle Droid Escort have a benefit from being defeated. If you combo the right cards, General Grievous can easily be joined by heavy hitters like the Separatist Super Tank or Hailfire Tank without losing too many units in the process. Of course, using the Exploit ability to its full effect means having units to sacrifice, so in a similar fashion, the General Grievous deck tries to go wide with units just like Ahsoka, but for a different purpose. Meanwhile, cards like Poggle the Lesser and Droid Deployment are a couple of notable options that can help the Separatist army stay in the fight.
Overall, both decks do a pretty good job of representing the two main factions of the hotly contested Clone Wars. Both rely on large armies, and you can see how different each deck plays with the lore in mind. For a dual starter deck package, it really showcases the new mechanics well, and they both seem pretty balanced right out of the box. In the end, these are starter decks and ultimately they are a jumping-off point to making unique and stronger decks with other cards in the new set, Twilight of the Republic. For more Star Wars Unlimited, check out both our review of the base set, Spark of Rebellion as well as a quick preview below of the Prerelease Box that will be available at your local game stores leading up to release.
The Star Wars Unlimited Two-Player Starter deck comes with:
- Rules
- Tokens
- Two playmats
- Two deck boxes
Ahsoka Tano and General Grievous pre-constructed decks lists:
