‘Star Wars Unlimited: Twilight of the Republic’ TCG Set Review
Since we first reviewed it back in March, Star Wars Unlimited has gone from strength to strength. We didn’t spend much time with the second set of cards (Shadows of the Galaxy) but we have been lucky enough to get our hands on some early Twilight of the Republic product. This set consists of 257 cards and as with all of the sets we’ve seen so far, there are new leaders like Ahsoka Tano and General Grievous (who feature in the starter pack) and bases (such as Tipoca City and The Nest) but the bulk of the set is made up of units, upgrades and events that will make up a standard deck.
Twilight of the Republic includes a few different products for players to get stuck into. For new players, there is a starter set that features two complete 50 card decks, each with a leader and a base, as well as some cards to represent token units and a few health chips. What is perhaps most useful about the Twilight of the Republic starter (and which differentiates Star Wars Unlimited from other TCG’s) is the accessibility features included within the box. There are two play mats (one for each player) that include clear labels for how the board should be laid out, and provide insight into the phases of a turn. In addition to a nice little instruction manual, this means you can get going straight out of the box.
In terms of the two decks included in the Twilight of the Republic starter, then as with the original set, they make a very decent case for pre-construction as a means to learn a game at a certain power level. You’ll never win a tournament using either of these decks, but you can definitely see the basics of deck-building and how to optimise both your power curve and the consistency of your plan. Both leaders (Ahsoka Tano and General Grievous) want to do similar things, albeit on opposite sides of the Clone Wars storyline.
Grievous’ deck is focussed on creating lots of droid token units – with cards and units that synergise around this theme. There’s a general sense that many cards are expendable, and a few more powerful units use the Exploit keyword, which allows weak units to be sacrificed to reduce the cost of a more expensive one. Grievous hopes to flood the board with lots of 1/1 droid cards and tokens that often replace themselves when defeated, before ramping into either Grievous himself (with several items of attachable equipment) or one of the larger threats that use the Exploit mechanic.
Ahsoka Tano has a similar idea around troop synergy, but rather than using her clone troops as expendable cannon fodder, she wants to get at least three (but ideally more) onto the battlefield to trigger liberal use of the Coordinate keyword. This is printed both on her as an active leader, but is also present on many of the cards in her deck. Coordinate triggers when there are three or more units under her control, so with at least this many clones out on the field, multiple Coordinate triggers will become active creating a massive headache for the opponent.
In addition to the Twilight of the Republic starter set, there are also pre-release boxes (which you’ll only see at pre-release events really) which allow players to engage in a special kind of gameplay based on a mixture of limited deck-building and then rounds of tournament play. Pre-release events are my personal favourite across multiple TCG’s including Magic: The Gathering and Star Wars Unlimited, and if it’s a format you haven’t tried, then I heartily recommend it. If you can’t find a pre-release in your local area (check with your friendly local game store) then perhaps getting a few friends together (I’d suggest at least four) and a few pre-release boxes is a nice way to explore the new set in your own home.
For the more dedicated collectors and deck-builders out there, Twilight of the Republic also comes in booster packs much like most other TCG’s do. There’s no doubt that the excitement of opening a new booster pack and seeing which leader, shiny and rare cards you’ve pulled is one of the most exciting things about playing a card game like this, so it’s always nice to grab a couple of boosters when you can. For me, I still prefer using them to make a pre-release pool with friends, usually handing out five to six packs to each person and then working on the same set of deckbuilding rules as I might expect at a pre-release event (where we build a 30 card deck, rather than a 50 card one.)
In terms of new mechanics, well surprise – I’ve already covered the two major new keywords in both Exploit and Coordinate, but did you know that Twilight of the Republic is also the first set to introduce token units into the Star Wars Unlimited universe. These new additions are simple enough to understand and will be familiar to any experienced TCG player – with Exploit being super simple to understand but quite hard to master (the decision to sacrifice a couple of units to ramp into a big one is all about timing) and Coordinate being perhaps a little tougher to use. This latter keyword relies so heavily on building up board presence that it makes your starting hand absolutely crucial. Having your Coordinate cards switched “off” by your opponent can be a big problem, so you need to make sure it doesn’t happen.
With more than 250 new cards, there are loads of new and cool units and tactics that appear in Twilight of the Republic for the first time, but there are also some cards that present characters in new and interesting ways. For example, Anakin Skywalker now appears as a 5/6 Ground Unit (not a Leader) who gains Coordinate when you control three units and can gain a card with every attack he makes (massive.) On the Separatist side, the 7/6 Hailfire Tank makes an appearance for cost 8 – except that this one has Exploit 2 meaning that if you sacrifice two other units, you can save four resources from the cost. This is a massive unit to drop on round 4 assuming you have 2 droid tokens to sac and four resources to cover the remaining cost.
Twilight of the Republic does a fantastic job of expanding the Star Wars Unlimited universe which is now growing outwards and maturing really nicely. I am really beginning to enjoy the mechanics of this TCG and with the new set, I’ve been able to do a lot more deck-building. Overall Star Wars Unlimited has such a clever resource system, a streamlined round structure and it brings the magic of Star Wars really nicely to the tabletop. The combination of ground and space battles, the thematic use of leaders and the base system are all so well done, and with new and expanding keywords and more complex cards now entering the mix, Twilight of the Republic is definitely a set worth jumping in on.
Star Wars Unlimited: Twilight of the Republic is out now.
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