Wednesday, January 15, 2025

Good vs Great: Star Wars Unlimited vs Star Wars Destiny

In our polarizing times, it's easy to have an extreme opinion. Gush, gush, gush, rant, rant, rant. With the recent release of Star Wars Unlimited, there is a lot of gushing happening. And rightfully so; it's a tightly designed game whose industry pedigree is evident. Part of that pedigree is Star Wars Destiny, a game which Unlimited borrows a huge amount of DNA from. As such, it seemed a fun idea to approach the release with a view more subtle: the difference between a good expandable card game and a great one. This article is going to assume the reader has played both games, or is at least familiar with expandable card games in general.

We will cover:

  • Gaining Resources

  • Spending Resources

  • Battlefield

  • Initiative

  • Color Pie

  • Art

  • The (Damned) Dice

  • Theme

  • Doing Damage

  • Deck Construction & Card Draw

  • Mulligan Rule

  • Exciting Endings (or Lack Thereof)

  • Conclusion

Resource systems are the foundation on which expandable card games are built, meaning there is no better place to start than how to earn the in-game money necessary to get those wonderful, fun, beautiful cards on the table.


Gaining Resources

Both Unlimited and Destiny have resource systems that have been used before. The mechanism from Unlimited can be found in one form or other in many games, including Alpha Clash, Lorcana, Altered, The Spoils, and many others. It's simple but effective. Each turn the player may play one card from their hand face down, converting it from a playable card into a resource. Economy thus escalates by one, with minimal deviation, round by round. Games ramp up, resource by resource, with increasingly bigger and more powerful cards possible to play. It's mechanical, fair, predictable, and keeps the game on rails.

Destiny, on the other hand, borrows more from the real world, as well as games like Warhammer: Conquest, Game of Thrones: The Card Game, Lord of the Rings: The Card Game and others which feature open economies more akin to real money. At the beginning of each round, Destiny players receive a “salary” of two resources from the game's bank. As the round progresses, they have the possibility of increasing and/or decreasing that amount (for themselves and their opponent) through card and dice effects. The amount of resources available per round thus does not ramp steadily. It begins predictably at two, but thereafter fluctuates based on evolving game state.

And lastly, I would be remiss not to note that Destiny has, in fact, has two resource systems. Cards in hand are also resources. A very specific type of resource, they can only be used (discarded) to re-roll dice or trigger certain card effects. One of the game's key decisions is: do I discard my last control card to reroll these mediocre dice? Or, do I accept these mediocre dice and hold on to the control card for next round as it may be useful? This decision can swing games.

Two resource systems, not to mention the ability to gain resources beyond the allotted amount throughout a round, makes Destiny the more dynamic game. Rather than being stuck on rails, players have agency—they control their <cue kettle drums> destiny. (Sorry about that.) You may have two resources at a turn's beginning but have a four-cost card you want to play in hand. Through dice, dice manipulation, and card play you have the chance of getting those extra two resources. You will have to sacrifice other things, but it is a legitimate possibility, and a possibility that might—might—swing a game. Comparatively, such large cost cards are not possible early to mid game in Unlimited, which feels limiting (sorry) in comparison to Destiny.

I'm aware Unlimited is only a short time into its first couple cycles of releases, and that future cycles will likely give players more resource agency. That being said, the designers cannot let the resource ramp become too variable. Unlimited is literally built on that ramp. Playing an eight-cost Palpatine on turn one should never be an option, unless of course, something else equally fundamental about the game changes. In Destiny, however, playing a high-cost card on turn one is not only a possibility but a possibility that does not break the game. Both players have the same potential, and the game is built to handle it fairly. Sure, save and play that big cost card, but you won't be able to do a lot of other, smaller things, things that are possibly equally good in sum. The difference is Destiny offers more freedom and options for interactive game play in its resource system.

Gaining resources is one thing. Spending them is another, however. Hence:


Spending Resources

Spending resources in Unlimited is relatively straight-forward. In the first three rounds, in fact, it's not often a real decision. The limited number of resources combined with inability to gain more means limited options for playing cards. I have three resources and only one card in hand that costs three or less. Guess I play the three-drop... Early game leans heavily toward this type of determinism. Mid-game (turns 3-4) does open up, however. Players have a few more options, making the game a bit more dynamic. It's late game (turns 5+), when things truly open up—the big cards become options and epic actions are possible. It is by far the most fun, exciting part of Unlimited.

In Destiny, spending resources is more complex. The decision tree has more branches. Like Unlimited, resources can be spent on playing cards and using card effects, but they can also be spent on resolving certain dice symbols—typically the most damaging or impacting effects. Choosing to spend one resource on A) a one-cost card, B) a one-cost effect, or C) doing X damage (or getting X shields, or X grenades, etc.) is a more complex decision. It's the dice which additional layer of meaning to the classic investment dichotomy of time vs. payoff. Investing in a high-cost upgrade is not enough to guarantee a payoff (i.e. good rolls), it just gives you the chance to have such a payoff, in turn adding a layer of nuance to choosing how to spend resources. It's the spectrum of mapping statistical potentialities to 'Do I feel lucky today?'.

But there remains one major difference: the satisfaction of playing high cost cards. As mentioned, high cost cards have greater potential to be played early game in Destiny. And they often are, leading to multiple uses. Dice are dice, meaning these high cost cards can still disappoint by rolling blank after blank. But over time, it's more likely the big, splashy effect you were hoping for does land, in turn giving the player a dopamine hit. In Unlimited, high cost cards—the big, fun ones—don't come out til late game. The disappointment inherent to this is that most games are essentially decided by the time such high-cost cards come out. The AT-AT arrives on the scene and it gets one powerful attack, if at all, before someone's base hit zero. The fun of playing such cards is not extended. A quick pinch of dopamine, and it's over. An argument can be made that these are precisely the moments Unlimited sings—when players feel most excited. And there is truth in that. I can't help but feel, however, that having high cost cards played out throughout the course of game, as with Destiny, delivers more dopamine hits. You feel like you've gotten your money's worth, like you've been part of a proper, grinding Star Wars battle, not just a quick, flashy skirmish for one round.


Battlefield

Note for Destiny players: “Battlefield” here refers to the table space, not the Battlefield card.

One of the few unique twists in Unlimited is that the battlefield is divided into two parts: space and ground. Units on one side are not allowed to attack units on the other, and vice versa. And while I feel confident saying future card cycles will allow players to play with this binary aspect, I also feel confident saying allowing players too much agency risks destroying one of the game's fundamental principles. Developers will likely keep this to a minimum. (What's the point of having separate battlefields when one side can attack the other at will?)

The battlefield of Destiny is, however, single, no separation, no barriers. Everything on the opponent's side is fair game (deck, characters, upgrades, supports, hand, resources, etc.). In almost all cases this means players have free choice where and how to resolve their attacks and where and how to apply card effects. The only limits are the game's first principle and card text—just what expandable card games were intended to be.

Bu we need to look closer at who is on the battlefield, the heroes and villains as there is another major divergence.

In Destiny, characters are active on the battlefield the whole time. They are the primary entities doing the attacking and defending and are the focus of their opponent's attacks. Dead characters = gg. In Unlimited, the main hero or villain sits on the sidelines most of a match. They mostly effect game state passively, not actively. Instead, the focus is the opponent's base. Dead base = gg. It's only when players perform their one-time epic action that their hero/villain comes to life on the battlefield. But even then: Dead hero/villain = back to the sideline.

The fact that players' bases are the target of the opponent's attacks in Unlimited instead of their hero/villain sums up why I think Destiny is better in this regard. The base simply does not have the personality, the lore, the love that Star Wars characters do. My nine-year old son playing Destiny, for example, gets giddy thinking about pitting our solo-Palpatine deck against ultra-saber Vader. A bit of this feeling exists in Unlimited. But just a bit. Such duels lack that certain something, that special ingredient of a face-to-face showdown with lightsabers swinging and blasters shooting directly at one another. It's more flavorful, more Star Wars. In your face, Vader! sounds so much better than: In your face generic green base!


Initiative

Taking initiative in both games is very similar, but there is a nuance. What they have in common is that it provides first-player privileges in the next round—a powerful advantage in many cases, particularly late game. Also, the games are designed such that the player who has played more cards will likely not be able to claim initiative, which is a nice, indirect, catch-up mechanism.

Destiny, however, has the added dimension of the action described on the initiative token, i.e. the Battlefield card. More than just first-player privileges, it also has an innate effect, depending which Battlefield card is chosen. Having the ability to resolve a die without paying it's resource cost, for example, brings an added dimension to late-round decision making. Do I take the Bbattlefield to prevent my opponent from having its effect at the expense of my last turn, or do I take my last turn and eat the advantage they will get from the battlefield? And all this goes without saying the ways in which a Battlefield effect does (or does not) synergize with deckbuilding and hero/villain special abilities.

To sum up, initiative in Destiny is essentially Unlimited+. The + adds a flavor of decision that impacts resources, card play, deckbuilding, dice, etc., making for a richer gaming experience.


Color Pie

With only a tiny change in ingredients, Unlimited implements Destiny's recipe for color pie. Yes, Unlimited features five colors and Destiny four, but each are broken down into: hero, neutral, and villain sub-types, each with their own style. Exactly the same. As such, it's difficult to argue Unlimited is good and Destiny is great. Both games are are at least good. Moreover, this is one area I feel hesitant to give a strong opinion given we've seen only one cycle of cards in Unlimited. Time will tell the fuller story.


Art

Art is the category I think Unlimited holds the clear upper hand over Destiny. I understand the comic book style is not for everybody, but it's clearly more consistent and vibrant than Destiny. For the unaware, FFG invested minimal resources in Destiny's art. They recycled many, many assets from previous games. Players see the exact same art in Star Wars: The Card Game, Imperial Assault, Star Wars: Rebellion, Deckbuilding Game, X-Wing Miniatures, and others. And the variety is real. Some cards feature tip-top quality while others feature artists cutting their teeth. Some feature super-detailed productions, while others are more impressionistic in style. Created over a period of ten+ years and through multiple studio art directors, Destiny's art is the definition of a mixed bag. Players may or may not like the style of Unlimited, but they can't disagree that it's more consistent in presentation and more vibrant in aesthetic than Destiny. This could change with time, but considering FFG are starting from a clean slate and are highly unlikely to abandon the overarching notion of 'comic book style', it's fair to say that when Unlimited is done and dusted, it will likely still hold the upper hand over Destiny.


The (Damned) Dice

Unlimited has zero dice, which is impossible to criticize. Games are not required to have dice to be great. But this whole post would be pointless without addressing perhaps the single reason Destiny is great: the dice, and the level of controlled non-determinism they bring to the table. Destiny goes beyond basic arithmetic into calculated risk. It is the deeper game when it comes to tactical decisions. To be clear, Unlimited is also controlled non-determinism. But it is of a simpler, more staid variety given the non-determinism is mostly found in card shuffle.

Before getting into the good, a word on the bad of Destiny's dice: Yes, it's possible to roll poorly 87 times in a row—and want to smash the table for it. But where Destiny fights back against these odds is the ability of both players to manipulate dice—their own and their opponent's. This can be done through Focus effects (manually changing a die to a desired side), rerolls (via card effects and discarding cards), and card effects (changing an opponent's dice, dice elimination, etc.). As long as the player's deck includes control cards and they reserve cards in hand for rerolls, they do not need to bow their heads to the fate of their or their opponent's initial die rolls. Undoubtedly gamblers in Vegas would love to have Destiny cards in hand at the craps table.


Theme

I'm just going to come out and say this: the designers of Destiny have me in awe time and time again the manner in which they convert theme into character/unit effects. Mostly this stems from the dice, but likewise includes the special actions most characters have. Rather than being single-sided representations (e.g. a card), they are able to capture nuance through six sided dice and special actions. Darth Maul's lightsaber does damage, damage, damage, then has the ability to do it again—exactly as you would expect a dual lightsaber to be. Jabba the Hutt is terrible at stabbing and shooting but he will mess with your money and hand of cards—just as an obese gangster should. Sabine plays with fire very well. Ezra is a small-time thief. Hondo is gangsta until you pay him. Seventh Sister starts with a droid upgrade. Vader does DAMAGE. Han Solo can play a couple tricks. Flame throwers do area damage. Droid soldiers activate all at once. Jar Jar Binks is annoying.* And Palpatine is a beast by himself. To be clear, Unlimited does a decent job of matching lore to effect. The simplicity and relative rigidity of Unlimited's structure, however, prevent the characters from popping in the same thematic fashion as Destiny. Luke gives a shield (yeah...), but other than that sits passively on the sideline.

In addition to the ways I described hero/villains taking a more central role in Destiny, there are other ways, including upgrades. Luke's lightsaber in Unlimited, for example, adds damage and shields. Fair enough. Compare to Luke's lightsaber in Destiny, however, and the thematic differences clearly reveal themselves.

Firstly, in Unlimited you are 95% more likely to attach Luke's lightsaber to another unit (e.g. R2-D2) than Luke. Luke sits on the sidelines too much to be a viable attachee. Making the “R2-D2 lightsaber” worse is the fact that once the little bot is dead (typically after one or two rounds, sometimes just a moment after being deployed), the lightsaber is discarded, meaning the player doesn't get full satisfaction of having spent the resources. It's here, then gone. In Destiny, Luke's lightsaber has the realistic possibility of being attached to Luke and sticking around the remainder of a match once deployed. Yes, you can also attach it to R2-D2 if you want, but Luke is the better option, and as long as he hasn't been defeated, he's waiting for it. Secondly, Luke's lightsaber in Unlimited has only two ways to impact the game: +attack, +HP (three ways if attached to Luke: healing). In Destiny, Luke's lightsaber has five different ways: bonus attack, paid attack, shields, a resource, or two unblockable damage. It means more.

And Jabba is another good example of thematic representation. In Destiny it's not necessary to build a deck around attacking. It's possible to build a deck around resource removal and deleting cards from the opponent's hand, and winning that way. I feel confident saying this could never be as strongly—as thematically—implemented in Unlimited given the fact economy can never be toyed with to such a degree without severely disrupting the game's first principles. Take away a player's resources pool and they can't play. Not fun. Do it with Jabba in Destiny, however, and it's “strategy” given the opponent is not permanently affected: they will get two resources at the beginning of the next round and refresh to five cards in hand.

And I would put a nail in this proverbial coffin: Unlimited feels reasonably Star Wars-ish. On the spectrum of Abstract to Representational, its needle stands in the middle. It's not as abstract or opaque as Star Wars: The Card Game or Star Wars: The Deckbuilding Game, but it is not as concrete and realized as Star Wars CCG or Star Wars: The Queen's Gambit. It's properly middling. The needle of Destiny, however, leans toward the side of representational. True, it's not as granular as Star Wars CCG or Star Wars: The Queen's Gambit, but the lengths the player needs to go to immerse themselves in the universe is shorter given the manner in which characters' dice and special actions represent who they are in the Star Wars universe.


Doing Damage

This is an easy one. Unlimited has two ways to do damage: attack, read the red number on a card, then do that amount of damage to an opponent's unit or base. Or, pay for an event card and deal the described amount of damage. Destiny, on the other hand, has three forms of “red” damage in addition to card-based 'deal damage' effects. They are swords, guns, and grenades. In addition, these three types of damage have blue + modifiers which can only be used in conjunction with standard damage—as bonuses. And further still, these three types of damage must sometimes be paid for to take effect, which brings the availability of resources into the decision making. Moreover, having a Block-All-Guns card when your opponent is showing only swords means something, and vice versa. And that is just the tip of the iceberg.

But sword/gun/grenade attacking is just the beginning of offense in Destiny. Two other options also exist: disrupt (resource removal) and discard (card discard). While players tend to reroll the related dice symbols, keeping an opponent's resources at a minimum and removing cards from hand can be viable paths to victory. The additional win condition of zero cards in hand and deck likewise adds nuance.


Deck Construction & Card Draw

In black and white, Unlimited's decks are max 50 cards with max three copies per card. Destiny is max 30 cards with max two copies per card. At the beginning of a round in Unlimited, players draw two cards, whereas in Destiny players draw back up to five cards in hand per round (typically between 2-4 cards per round), not to mention they can discard any unwanted cards before drawing back up to 5. Putting these aspects together, gives us how likely players are to see their decks while playing. In Destiny, players are likely to see 65-75% of their deck. In Unlimited it depends on deck size. Decks closer to 30 cards will also see about 65-75%, whereas decks 50 cards in size will likely see less than 50%.

Based on these numbers, Unlimited has the greater potential for disappointment, i.e. not seeing the cards you want. As Destiny more consistently allows players to see more cards, it is more satisfying for it. When you build a deck after all, you want to see the majority of cards you so carefully and thoughtfully added. The question in Destiny about Why haven't I seen card X? is more a question of 'when' rather than 'if'. A large deck in Unlimited can feel more 'if'.


Mulligan Rule

The difference in mulligans between the two games is small but important. Unlimited follows old school rules: draw a hand (six cards), and if you don't like it, shuffle everything, draw another hand, and live with what you've got. Like Magic and so many other games, starting hands in Unlimited can swing massively based on luck of the draw, including being entirely wrong-footed. It happens that games are essentially lost from round one. Not fun. Destiny's mulligan is different. Draw a hand (five cards), keep the cards you want, discard the ones you don't want, shuffle, and draw til you have five cards in hand. The result in Destiny is that players are more likely to start the game with cards they want, which in turn leads to more competitive, consistent gameplay from the start. Bad opening hands in Destiny do happen, but it's less often than Unlimited given the lenient mulligan rule.


Exciting Endings (or Lack Thereof)

I have played hundreds and hundreds of games of Destiny. I have played somewhere in the neighborhood of eighty games of Unlimited (about a third using one of the starter decks and the remainder using various constructed decks). It's my observation Destiny generates more tense, down-to-the-wire endings—at least as of Unlimited's current state, which will change, I assume. Close battles do occur in Unlimited, but more often the last round is perfunctory and foregone rather than unknown or mutable. Given that most units deploy exhausted and therefore have limited possibility of changing game state til next round, players can usually see the future by mathing out the X/X values on their units. Certainly events can spring surprises on opponents and swing games. It happens. It's just that more often than not there is either a runaway winner or the person who appears to be winning late game in fact wins. The end of the resource ramp means powerful units, powerful units which can take a base down in short time.

Yes, Destiny also has its blowout wins. But there are a couple things which make its endings less predictable and more exciting. First is that damage does not sit as a known, calculable factor on the table between rounds. A player needs to first roll dice in order to know the potential outcomes, after which their opponent has a chance to react. Rolling damage does not equal damage given how cards manipulate dice. It is a dynamic factor that sits closer to reaction than planning, which naturally leads to less planned results.

Secondly, a significant portion of cards in Destiny decks are control cards; i.e. cards which can change game state, including altering situations in which your opponent rolls out lethal damage on the last round. Add to this fact smaller deck size (i.e. greater chance of drawing needed cards) and you have a decent shot of stopping lethal once, maybe twice—more if you're lucky—in the last round. In Unlimited, the majority of a person's deck is units. There are extremely few cards which can change your opponent's entire board state—the equivalent of playing a control card in Destiny which forces your opponent to re-roll their damage dealing dice. Sentinel does occupy this role to some degree, e.g. forcing your opponent to expend their last bits of damage on a unit rather than your base. But this level of interaction in Unlimited (at least with the current card pool) is limited (again, sorry, but my lexicon keeps going there). Sentinel more often proves to be a temporary blocker rather than game swinger. Don't get me wrong. It does sometimes happen. Just rarely.

In sum, many of our Unlimited games peter out. The winner is clear before the final HP are lost. On top of this, many our games have lopsided scores, i.e. one player's base has more than a third of its HP remaining compared to the loser's. It more often feels anti-climactic. Yes, both games are technically races, but Destiny's race is more tactical and less predictable given the dice and control cards, not to mention the possibility of pitching your entire hand on the last turn to redraw up to five just to get the chance of having the card you want/need. Comebacks happen more often on the homestretch. Less often is the writing on the wall. And perhaps most importantly, players more often entertain hope a match is not lost no matter how dire things seem late-game.


Conclusion

There is no perfect expandable card game, and I don't think Unlimited or Destiny are. In Destiny, some of the cards are out of balance, bad luck is inherent when dice are involved, and vehicles, well, they should never have been expanded to the lengths they were. In fact, I would argue that Unlimited has the tighter design of the two games. Play is simpler, more deterministic, more mechanical, and therefore can feel more balanced and accessible. That being said, there is a nice list of things Destiny does to create a richer, more engaging game space that better implements the Star Wars theme. By playing things safe and simple, Unlimited doesn't evolve the expandable card game format in any innovative directions. In evolutionary terms, it's a step. Destiny is a leap. From color pie to dice, types of damage to claiming initiative, implementation of theme to resources, Destiny is a game apart. Its innovative risks/design pay off. Love them or hate them, the dice make for excitement of the estimable unknown. They push the player beyond basic addition and subtraction into the richer, more nuanced world of odds estimation. The face-to-face (as opposed to indirect way) in which heroes and villains battle each other also feels more thematic, more Star Wars. Dinking and danking on a faceless base is fun, but in Destiny players go at each other's throats, fighting vicariously through the eyes and hands of their favorite Star Wars characters. And late-game, while by far the most exciting part of Unlimited, still too often features runaway winners to translate those 8-cost drops into genuine balance. Destiny comes down to the wire more oten.

Unlimited is the chocolate ice cream of expandable card games: it's available, it's predictable, and it's tasty. It's TCG 101. With time and subsequent cycles of content, however, Unlimited has a chance of becoming more complex. But given the current fundamental principles of its design (resource ramp, limited card draw, base-kill win condition, X/Y damage/HP calculations, etc.) it's hard to imagine it becoming a third or fourth year university course. On the other hand, Destiny is rainbow cookie dough crunch. It's dynamic, it's multi-layered, it's rich, and it's unique in flavor. It's the niche, specialty course on TCGs. Chocolate is good, but rainbow cookie dough crunch is great.



*For the curious, I have to describe how Jar Jar is implemented in Destiny. It's annoyingly amazing, and amazingly thematic. His special ability reads: Any player may take an action to force you to activate this character. After you activate this character, reroll all dice showing a symbol not showing on his character dice. For people who haven't played Destiny, this means the opponent can force Jar Jar to activate, and that the result of that activation will potentially affect both players, i.e. rerolling all character dice which don't match Jar Jar's. Considering Jar Jar has zero swords or gun symbols on his dice, that means the swords and guns you have showing—your means to winning the game—will be re-rolled. Annoying if you don't force him to activate first. But that's not the best part. The best part is that because of his annoying special ability, opponents want Jar Jar dead. For all of you who hated Jar Jar in the movies, he's often the first to die in a Destiny match. Satisfying... And does it get more “thematic”? :)

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