The second set of playing cards for Star Wars: Limitless, the brand new collectible card recreation from Asmodee’s Fantasy Flight Video games studio, is all-in the enduring franchise’s fashionable expressions. Titled Shadows of the Galaxy, it’s a full-sized launch with over 250 playing cards that includes everybody from Cad Bane to Dr. Aphra. However the set’s two-player starter set tells a way more intimate story. In movement it’s a intelligent retelling of the primary season of The Mandalorian, and it serves up some large modifications for the favored new TCG’s increasing metagame.
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Photograph: Charlie Corridor/Polygon
On one facet of the desk sits Din Djarin, the eponymous Mandalorian backed by a good group of allies, like The Armorer, Greef Karga, and Kuiil. On the opposite facet is Moff Gideon, commander of a well-resourced group of Imperial Remnants, represented by starships, stormtroopers, and the dreaded Section-III Darkish Troopers. With all these completely different parts in play, it’s no marvel that the motion is pretty asymmetrical. However what’s attention-grabbing is in how that asymmetry performs out.
Gamers piloting Mando’s deck will probably be doing plenty of capturing, a brand new mechanic that has gamers reaching all the way in which throughout the desk, plucking an lively unit out of their opponent’s unfold, and inserting them face down beneath their very own guarding unit. The captured card is out of play, however not “defeated” in recreation phrases. That locations it in a type of limbo that may solely be ended by eradicating the guarding unit from the desk. It’s an efficient strategy to lock down high-value playing cards that your opponent has dropped at bear, usually no matter their numerical power.
Gamers working with Gideon’s deck have utterly completely different targets. They’ll be smuggling (one other new mechanic), which permits them to play sure playing cards from their useful resource pile. In a recreation like Magic: The Gathering, that will imply casting one in every of your mana playing cards as if it have been a creature or a spell. It’s a intelligent strategy to conceal your true intentions, successfully burying playing cards in your useful resource pool with the intent to carry them again when it’s most advantageous for you. The opposite large mechanic right here, though it isn’t new, is known as overwhelm, and it permits extra harm to blow previous its meant goal to deal extra harm to your opponent’s base. Area a token pressure to guard your base, smuggle in sufficient models to discipline a superior pressure, after which overwhelm Mando and his mates to win the day.
The 2-player starter set has a lot of first rate extras for the $34.99 price ticket, together with two deck packing containers, harm tokens, and a pair of paper playmats with thematic posters on the bottom. Followers and newcomers alike ought to have tons to work with, and I’m excited to see how these new decks arise in opposition to the Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader from the unique starter set launched earlier this 12 months.
Star Wars: Limitless – Shadows of the Empire Two-Participant Starter was reviewed utilizing a retail copy offered by Fantasy Flight Video games. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These don’t affect editorial content material, although Vox Media might earn commissions for merchandise bought through affiliate hyperlinks. Yow will discover extra details about Polygon’s ethics coverage right here.
