It only seems like yesterday that players were opening packs of Spark of Rebellion for Star Wars Unlimited. Well, it might not be quite yesterday, but it has only been a few short months. This month sees the release of the second release for the new game – Shadows of the Galaxy. I have my issues with a release coming so quickly. Another of Fantasy Flight Games (FFG) games was Star Wars Destiny. This was an incredible game that originally had a release every six months. It was the perfect schedule to gradually bring new cards to players. It then went up and up, until the game became unplayable for casual fans who just couldn’t keep up with the releases. With three releases a year, could it be that FFG could be making the same mistakes again?
Not only would there be new cards but also new game mechanics. Again, I appreciate that new things needed to be added to a game. Yet, new mechanics after only a few short months? I had been sceptical when I first heard of this game. However, after playing game after game, it won me over and now I adore it. Changes – some which can be welcome – make me worry about the speed of change for a game. Would a new release make the game lose something from its initial release?
Lots of questions and only one way to find out! So, I bought myself a box of boosters for this release to try and get to grips with the changes of the game, as well as try and get some legendries. The box game, looking gorgeous, with fantastic art on the box and boosters themselves. I didn’t hesitate, showed no mercy, I ripped into the boosters immediately! I have heard of some poor distribution across boxes but for me, I was rather happy. Still no sign of a showcase but I did pull four legendries (ok, two are technically the same) and a wide range of rares.
Now let’s get to some of these questions that cause me concern. The release schedule. Straightaway when looking through the vast range of cards I pulled, it was very obvious that Rebel and Imperial cards were a bare minimum. There were a couple of cards for each, ones that I’d want to put into my decks. But other than that (Ok – Crosshairs for my Thrawn deck), there is nothing really for players of these affiliations that’s exclusively theirs. Now, some may say that’s very annoying for those players, for myself this was music to my ears. It means this set, and presumably the last set of the year, are all going to be focused on different factions. The adjustments to the decks is almost going to be yearly with some slight adjustments for new releases. These new releases don’t need you to buy loads and loads of cards, just one or two. It’s a perfectly well-balanced idea to allow players to not have to buy too many cards, while also providing releases for those players who just want more and more.
Which leads to the other concern: game mechanics. Before I detail the mechanics themselves, the mechanics present are more for the more focused factions and I don’t think will change the game too much but provide different factions with different focuses. To gradually bring these new mechanics over the next few expansions makes me very excited and also makes me want to try out decks I hadn’t even thought about. It appears FFG have learnt from past mistakes and seem to be doing right by players of Star Wars Unlimited.
So, the mechanics themselves. The two mechanics that are introduced in this set are ‘bounty’ and ‘smuggle’. ‘Bounty’ allows your opponent a bonus when they destroy a unit of yours with a bounty. This works two ways. Either you can put a bounty onto one of your opponent’s cards or you can play a unit that would usually cost a lot more (if you compare it to its equivalent sort of units) for less – but it can help your opponent. It makes bounties interesting and bounty hunter players are going to have to think carefully how to best use both these ways to help thwart their opponent.
The other mechanic is ‘Smuggle’. This allows players to play cards from their resource pile for a cost. In a lot of games, I have been torn between what to keep in my hand and what to place as a resource. ‘Smuggle’ allows you to work around this. Not only that, but some cards also give a bonus for you playing them using ‘Smuggle’. It’s a great idea for underworld players. Again, it’s going to take a lot of careful playing to pull this off, but when it does work, I’m sure it will be to the horror of other players.
Another thing I noticed in this set was a slight focus on Wookiees. There are some really good synergies present. Without a Wookiee leader though, it doesn’t quite feel complete. Until you realise there’s a Chewbacca leader in the first set! I’d love to be able to run a full Wookiee deck – I don’t think this set will let you do that just yet. There are also New Republic cards, again, not enough to make a full deck but it’s clear where FFG are planning to head with all of this.
So, what are the focuses of this set? Underworlds, bounty hunters, Mandalorians and the Bad Batch. With my pulls, I almost had a complete Bad Batch and I think I’m going to try and sort this out. It’s great to have such a diverse group of cards in the set. There are some repeats from the first set, which after it being so short of a time since the first set, seems a little odd.
This set seems to hold a lot of promise. Booster boxes have been extremely hard to get a hold of, but booster packs are out in the wild now. How these new factions play and mix with Spark of Rebellion is something only time will tell. I will be back soon after I have constructed some decks and tested them out to give a verdict on this release. For the time being, this set is setting some of my fears aside and allowing me to do what this game was designed for – having fun!
