March is upon us and that means it is finally the time for Star Wars Unlimited, the new card game from Fantasy Flight Games. The very first weekend of March, saw a prerelease pack available to players who wanted to start playing and building decks before the official release the following week. I was lucky enough to get a copy and thought I’d do a quick summary of what you can find in this set.
The prerelease set for Spark of Rebellion, has everything you need to start playing with your friends who also have the set. It comes with six boosters, cardboard tokens, a quick play rulebook, guide to building a prerelease deck, a card box and exclusive Luke and Vader commander cards. For the price, you are certainly getting a lot for your money.
As this is the very first release, most players are going to want to know about the boosters. At the typical price of £5, they aren’t as cheap as I remember when I first started playing card games. Yet in each pack you get 16 cards; this includes a base, a commander, at least one rare and a foil. With six packs that’s a lot of cards. I opened mine and I can’t lie, there was a lot of anticipation to what I would find. I haven’t taken a photo of all the cards I pulled but I have of the rares, foils and hyperspace borders that I found in these six packs. As you can see, there’s a lot! I initially wasn’t too fond of all these variants, foil is enough for me, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t happy when I saw a hyperspace border. I’d never hunt them down, but it’s a rather pleasant extra bonus to find one in your booster. Not only that, but I also got a rare foil hyperspace card in one of the boosters (I think I’ve written all that right!). Between that and finding a rare foil (General Krell), meaning that in one pack I actually got two rare foils, you can see that just with the initially prerelease boosters, you can get a very good variety of cards.
The cardboard tokens are ok. They are not going to handle much damage as they are rather thin. I imagine the thinking is that most players will upgrade to the plastic tokens that will be released at the official launch. Having seen these, which are certainly usable, it might be one of the first upgrade purchases I make.
The cardboard box is exactly what it says, it’s a simple box, like the tokens, that won’t hold up to too much damage. But for the time it takes to upgrade it will certainly suffice. It does have a divider and will fit sleeved cards, which certainly pleases me! It seems to be the common theme with the box and tokens and part of me was initially frustrated that they weren’t better. But like most players, I know I will upgrade to something that is far more robust. Why have Fantasy Flight Games charge me more for thicker tokens, a thicker box, to then charge me more for something I probably won’t use once I’ve upgraded? It actually shows an understanding of the player base, as well as encouraging players to upgrade to the Gamegenic products that are coming out for this game.
The exclusive cards. Luke and Vader. There are a lot of variants of these commanders and I’m sure it’s only going to get worse. I understand these are the commanders that will come in the starter sets on official release, so it makes sense to allow players at the prelaunch to try them out.
I haven’t even had a chance to try building a deck yet, although looking at the options available from my boosters, I think I’m going to be spoilt for choice. When I went down to my local gaming shop, Tritex Games, they had their demo decks to try. I grabbed my son’s friend Callum and thought we’d give the game a go. It has been several months since I’ve played, and I was a bit worried I’d forget how to play; I shouldn’t have been. The game almost instantly came back to me, and Callum, who had never played before, understood the game in minutes. It reminded me exactly what impressed me so quickly when I first saw the game all those months ago. Callum equally loved it and ended up playing another game with my son straight after we finished ours. Both games took around twenty minutes, and it was a joy to play as well as watch. All over the store, fans were playing with the prerelease pack and I’m sure it’s going to become a staple very quickly for game nights.
The prerelease pack is exactly that, a pack with everything you need to get started, to keep you going until you are ready to fully commit and dive into this game. The game itself still feels as incredible as the day I first played it. Now with cards being released and boosters soon to be readily available, the popularity of this game is sure to soar.
