The game designers at FFG have so far done a great job at developing Star Wars: Unlimited. They’ve found ways to fix some fundamental issues that other games have shown (I’m looking at you lands) while keeping the game interactive and engaging. The card design also captures specific flavors of characters, creatures, ships, etc. to make the cards feel right in terms of their context and being part of the Star Wars universe.
It is also relatively well known that sets one, two and three were developed in concert with each other and later broken into three separate sets for the ease of release. This has aided in having the different themes from the different sets play well with each other while not creating any real overlap or power creep in each subsequent set that is released.
However, something has been and continues to be a personal concern of mine. Will the themes from the first three sets be continued in future sets? Will the specific mechanics continue to be supported down the road?
The best, but not only, examples are the Bounty and Smuggle mechanics from “Shadows of the Galaxy”. Via the app formerly known as Twitter (and still known that way in my mind, get off the lawn), Tyler relayed that the upcoming set will not have any Bounty or Smuggle cards.
Why is this concerning?
Both mechanics are fun. It would be a shame to see either or both not show up again or to get such limited support that they are almost an after thought. Smuggle specifically seems innovative in terms of card game mechanics in that it creates situations where the resources matter for more than just paying resource costs.
This concern is based on experience with prior collectible card games that I’ve played. One example of this relegation to the game mechanics dustbin are the various mechanics from Magic: the Gathering that show up in a single set and then disappear pretty much entirely, or certainly for multiple years until a specific setting could be revisited in a subsequent set after the original has long since rotated out of that games Standard format.
Another Star Wars related example comes from the Star Wars Collectible Card Game created and published by Decipher. A set would be released and have all kinds of asteroid field rules, never to be seen again. Another set would have Jedi train rules. Even Hoth shield generator rules only existed in a single set. Decipher eventually lost the license for Star Wars and stopped creating new cards. Their unmade future sets could have circled back on some of the unique rules, however nothing in their actual printed cards points to that being a likely outcome.
Again, the first two sets of Star Wars: Unlimited have been great. The first set was able to establish the new rules and mechanics while maintaining a healthy meta game through its showdown season. The second set added a couple new mechanics and built upon the health of the game with many events lately having extremely diverse leaders and decks. The third set looks to introduce some additional new mechanics which so far seem interesting based on the spoilers we’ve seen so far.
Hey developers, let’s keep supporting the mechanics that already exist and not relegate them to being in single sets never to be seen on future printed cards.
Not worried… yet. Get off my lawn.
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