Cardboard Corner: Review of Star Wars: The Card Game

If there is any IP that has been exploited by table top games, it is Star Wars. (Lord of the Rings is having a go at the top spot currently...) Dozens of different playable experiences have appeared, and in many cases, disappeared. Star Wars Monopoly to Star Wars: Legion, Star Wars Deckbuilding Game to X-Wing Miniatures Game, and on and on. Old to new, there are dozens of games available for people looking to immerse themselves in Jedi, lightsaber duels, the dark side, blasters, and spaceship battles. One of the most divisive Star Wars experiences ever released is Star Wars: The Card Game (2012).

Star Wars: The Card Game is a TCG / CCG type experience but within FFG's LCG model (fixed releases as opposed to random). The top-down view is classic: players construct decks and bring them to the table to duel with an opponent, generating resources to play cards to achieve the win conditions. The bottom-up view, however, highlights many exceptional features that distinguish the game from every other TCG and CCG. Let's start with the asymmetry—the dark and light side.

In Star Wars: The Card Game, players must build two decks instead of one. One player takes the role of the light side and the other the dark side, each having their own deck and win conditions. The dark side is trying to push a Death Star dial from one to twelve. It advances automatically once per round, and can advance faster when certain conditions are met, for example every time one of the light side's objectives is destroyed. The light side wins if they are able to destroy three of the dark side's objectives.

The second unique element to Star Wars: The Card Game is the Force battles that occur every round. A mini-game of ante-ing, bluffing and trickery, players try to take control of the Force through card play, characters' special abilities, and cards assigned to the Force. Having the Force gives the player different in-game benefits but at the expense of losing cards from hand and removing characters from the battlefield. It's an excellent mind game for each player: how to optimally and strategically use their cards to win on two fronts: combat and the Force, and in turn force their opponent to lose efficiency through the same choice.

The third point which distinguishes the game is deck construction. Rather than one by one, cards are added in preconstructed sets of six called objective sets. Each objective set contains the same number of characters, events, and Force cards. Rather than mix and match cards, players mix and match objective sets. On one hand this type of deck building might seem limiting; there is undoubtedly the desire to take cards from objective set X and switch them with Y. But the game was designed around the set principle, meaning balance and fairness have deeper roots. But perhaps best of all, winning becomes more skill- and experience based—something not every such game can have a claim to. Looking at you Magic mana...

Those are the three key points which distinguish Star Wars: The Card Game, but there are lesser points, too. The resource system has a degree of uniqueness: it's not throw away a card and get a resource, nor is it wait and hope to draw mana. Instead, it's based on the aforementioned objectives, with different objectives granting different amounts of resources. Another minor point is combat. The 10,000 foot view is the same as any other TCG: line 'em up and let 'em loose. But a little closer reveals different types of attacks and defense which do give the combat a touch of nuance—not a huge amount, but more than just checking who has the bigger number. Which leads to the question:

How “Star Wars” is Star Wars: The Card Game? How much does theme come through? The answer is that the game is more abstract than representative. The Star Wars pieces are all there. The Force battles are heady. The four factions (Jedi, Sith, Rebellion, and Empire) have clear boundaries. And everybody's favorite characters are present on the table. But the Star Wars flavor doesn't comes through as strongly as it does in Star Wars Destiny, for example. And if we're being honest, thematic flavor is where the rubber hits the Star Wars road. Players will need to use more imagination than usual to connect those dots here.

One last note before closing this review. Star Wars: The Card Game is on the more sophisticated, think-y side of the LCG/TCG/CCG spectrum. It's not like Lorcana, Pokemon, Magic: the Gathering. You can't sit down and play one game and understand what's going on. A rich, nuanced experience with mind games, players will need multiple games to understand the indirect and direct manner of conflict and achieving victory conditions. A player's first instinct will be to play powerful characters and events and smash heads. This type of gameplay exists, but the game is more. An experienced player will quickly shut down this type of play in ways that will befuddle the newbie. It's not I think my guys are bigger than your guys, let's math it out. Rather, it's a gamer's game. Finding players may be more difficult as a result, but the rewards are greater for those who invest the time.

In the end, your view to the success of Star Wars: The Card Game will likley depend on two factors. First is how much you want theme to come through (vs game mechanisms). For players looking at Star Wars as a universe of clashing ideals, the game has a chance to be good. This conflict is abstracted in how the battlefield takes places across several factors, not all of which are blasters and lightsabers. And second is how complex/accessible you want your TCG/CCG/LCG experience to be. Star Wars: The Card Game is a semi-complex game. It will require multiple sittings to fully grasp—a challenging but potentially rewarding process for the right players.