FAILED CARD GAMES: Star Wars and Star Trek CCG

[@Lmatdhr]

Nothing failed about SWCCG. One of the best games of all time. Corporate politics sank Decipher. That was truly a devastating day.

[@maxdewitt9501]

Luke A hey if you did not know there’s still a Star Wars ccg community going on hold tournaments and match’s if your interested in getting back into sw ccg you can look up Star Wars ccg pc to learn more about what going on in the community and if you don’t have cards you can play online, if you have any questions you can pm me.

[@andrewjustice210]

@@maxdewitt9501man, when I learned about the Holodeck, I sent my brother a message and we went to nostalgia heaven…

[@strawberryrhubarbs]

Dude I wouldn’t say Star Trek failed, it lasted 15 years, they made two editions, about 20 expansions. There’s an “official” group still making new sets today. They only reason Decipher stopped making it is because their CFO embezzled millions in funds and collapsed the company. Had nothing to do with the game failing.

[@impassable]

I wish they had made a full Enterprise expansion

[@Juanito_Peligroso]

Somewhere, out there, someone has 52 pallets of Star Trek CCG waiting for it to come back.

[@kingfuzzy2]

I have about 20 small boxes of them so am one

[@messengerillustrations3514]

@@kingfuzzy2 same

[@orsonzedd]

I found and bought the pallet

[@MrTomemac]

I gots like 15 of the Star Trek ccg starter boxes and hundreds of other cards loose. Still very fun.

[@strawberryrhubarbs]

52 pallets of The Motion Pictures booster cases

[@shaneg9081]

Star Wars CCG wasn't a failure, it actually sold really well. There were other problems that led to its demise.

[@maxdewitt9501]

Shane G hey if you did not know there’s still a Star Wars ccg community going on hold tournaments and match’s if your interested in getting back into sw ccg you can look up Star Wars ccg pc to learn more about what going on in the community and if you don’t have cards you can play online, if you have any questions you can pm me.

[@elemantal]

Star wars didn't really fail, Decipher simply lost the rights to the game. It was a wonderful game and was the 2nd top ccg after magic. WOTC started their own version and that failed huge.

[@weaselton]

I was going to say the same thing. It ran for 6 years and only died when the license expired.

[@smurphftw2008]

Decipher's Star Wars CCG didn't die. It was murdered.

[@maxdewitt9501]

hey if you did not know there’s still a Star Wars ccg community going on hold tournaments and match’s if your interested in getting back into sw ccg you can look up Star Wars ccg pc to learn more about what going on in the community and if you don’t have cards you can play online, if you have any questions you can pm me.

[@GuiOmania]

Yeah they try that Young Jedi shit insted !!!

[@andrewjustice210]

@@smurphftw2008it wasn’t murdered, it IS your father

[@blazeku]

Star Wars CCG made MtG almost extinct in my area for over 5 years, it might've failed in the end, but it had its' hay-day (in Poland)

[@gschronom4108]

Same in my area!

[@maxdewitt9501]

Błażej Kucharski Shane G hey if you did not know there’s still a Star Wars ccg community going on hold tournaments and match’s if your interested in getting back into sw ccg you can look up Star Wars ccg pc to learn more about what going on in the community and if you don’t have cards you can play online, if you have any questions you can pm me.

[@sentino68]

Here in south Florida too!

[@NeoByteNL]

SWCCG didn't fail, they lost the license at the end. Still has a decent playerbase.

[@kamikazehansu]

I was about to type the same comment.

[@UltraDonny5000]

oh yeah I remember! The studio tried pushing that terrible prequel game so they just dropped SWTCG like it was nothing

[@BaroSerpentor097]

Specifically they lost the licence to Wizards of the Coast (Lucasfilm seemed to want Hasbro to all Star Wars licences) Wizards could have continued the CCG since the rights to the game mechanics were co owned by Decipher and Lucasfilm, but they passed on that got Richard Garfield to design a new Star Wars TCG that ended up failing to catch on. I assume it was a combination of the market of Star Wars products was oversaturated at the time and players of the old CCG mostly chose to not start over. I remember sitting with my friend who I played the game with listening to the interview Decipher had put up on their website with I think one of the game designers and the company president. They talked about their plans for the game like a second edition and some other things they wanted to do for the players before the end all of which was rejected. I also remember the unhappy players on this Decipher forums before they lost the licence who constantly exclaimed Lucasfilm should give the the licence to Wizards they would handle the CCG so much better. How wrong they were. Still love Star Wars CCG.

[@StephenDeChellisHMTKSteve]

Yup. Decipher made a great game while so many others back then just copied MTG.

[@shankzula6332]

@@BaroSerpentor097 thanks for sharing this. I found it very interesting. Is there any cards worth money? I assume there is.

[@justinsilvey4026]

I traded all of my big name first edition Star Wars cards for an Unlimited Black Lotus in 1995. I was given 320$ in store credit for Vader, Luke, Han, etc.... and spent 260$ for the lotus and bought 4 Alliances Balduivan Hordes when they were 15$ a card. Wish I would’ve kept the lotus but I sold it for 400$ about a year later, good times.

[@gattsgodai3]

I remember 4 drop 5/5s (juzaam sp?! djinn clones) were all the rage for awhile

[@bbkiljan]

The StarWars:CCG was so good. Easy to learn but had a lot of depth and later run games had a large element of card counting and deck building elements.

[@thebenis3219]

I always wanted to learn it because some of my class mates played, but they never wanted to teach me. So I went and hung out with the Magic kids and they taught me how to play instead.

[@maxdewitt9501]

hey if you did not know there’s still a Star Wars ccg community going on hold tournaments and match’s if your interested in getting back into sw ccg you can look up Star Wars ccg pc to learn more about what going on in the community and if you don’t have cards you can play online, if you have any questions you can pm me.

[@nathanmagro1]

I was the first state champion in Utah for Star Wars CCG. I can still teach you to play from memory. I played a LOT of Star Trek as well. Fun times.

[@aronhuffman1788]

i really miss this game

[@Nimby45]

Do you remember your decks?

[@piano8556]

go to GEMP (browsergame) and play online again! Its so fun and new/returning players are welcome

[@nathanmagro1]

@@Nimby45 Guy from Colorado's x-wing Echo Base Operations, and my personal Fat beef beats.

[@nathanmagro1]

And you were the head judge for that event.

[@MagiusPaulus]

I actually stopped playing Magic because i was a huge StarWars fan, so when Sw:ccg came out... I played it for many years and still have full collection from premiere to Death Star 2. However, i have quite some regret of playing it. The game was terrible for new players, especially at start. A single Darth Vader was like $100 and other main characters were about 50 each. AND they were printed half as much as crap rares too. And the power creep was bordering on insanity, to the point we called Decipher ‘deceiver’. Glad i am back to Magic for some years now :)

[@Redfoot80]

I went to a tournament back in the day at LGS in a mall. I remember being all proud of my, as you said, single Darth Vader, single Luke Skywalker, etc. The guy I played against had 3 or 4 Darth Vaders in his deck if I remember correctly and I felt so outmatched. I still have my collection, believe it or not!

[@BogWraith1]

The Star Trek game was and still is a great game. It had a huge player base back in the day and the game itself was very well designed and it WAS NOT a difficult game to learn at all! The game went through different versions throughout the years as it was reworked with a different rule set later in it's lifetime that replaced the original version. That too was a very cool game. I still own my collection and still play it from time to time.

[@GasFayce]

I remember how complex the Star Trek game was and that Picard was the holy grail card.

[@steffyschell1259]

You aint seen failure until you got 4 Boxes of Xena Warrior Princess CCG...

[@overweightactor]

But whyyy?

[@wrrlykam]

Had a couple of Xena starters which I sold to some unsuspecting fool at car boot sale.

[@DarkPaladin1130]

Guardians.....There I call your bluff. haha :)

[@heartfang13]

The Star Wars CCG still exists and is played to this day. The players have been running the game since Decipher lost the license.

[@SmuggyOcelot]

heartfang13 Thats very interesting actually

[@andrewjustice210]

Updated texts/effects and force costs and everything… I JUST sold my light side collection about 6 months ago… got about $1200 for it

[@Bionicleforever]

"we physically couldn't understand the rules, there are so many unknowns in the game" - me when trying to playing modern yugioh or mtg

[@Blakhawk1703]

I just got back into MTG (Used to play from Tempest to Urza's Saga) and i started showing my wife and i skipped the planeswalkers and sagas and all the weird shit they got out now. Not sure why they make it so complicated lol

[@JNPollard]

Love these random ccg openings thanks Rudy

[@greglockton6246]

I was massively into the Star Wars CCG, still have my collection and love going back and looking through it. The rules are pretty simple once you get a few games under your belt.

[@maxdewitt9501]

Greg Lockton hey if you did not know there’s still a Star Wars ccg community going on hold tournaments and match’s if your interested in getting back into sw ccg you can look up Star Wars ccg pc to learn more about what going on in the community and if you don’t have cards you can play online, if you have any questions you can pm me.

[@greglockton6246]

@@maxdewitt9501 I've seen a number of PC videos on KZbin so will have to investigate online play.

[@JustMonikaOk]

The Star Wars CCG still has a lot of players and a worldwide following - And even some investable cards!

[@todd8237]

I still have a ton of them. The last pack I bought gave me a Luke Skywalker Jedi Knight. I believe those go for over $100

[@JustMonikaOk]

@@todd8237 They do indeed, yes. The Ultra Rare Emperor and Jedi Knight Skywalker in mint condition are reliably over £100 every time. High demand + very short print run.

[@Rubberneck1965]

@@JustMonikaOkI have several copies of both and a few thousand cards total, including a bunch of foils from the set that had a variety of cards from every set in them. Those were out around 2001-2002 I believe. I should look into selling them. The game was great, and we were buying Coruscant right up til the license expired and the game ended :(

[@JustMonikaOk]

@@Rubberneck1965 I have a complete collection of all the non foils up to Episode 1, and almost but not quite every foil ever printed too! Took me almost twenty years to complete.

[@TenguTalks]

I still have a set of Darth Vader cards from the Decipher CCG. I think I played that longer than Magic when the dust settled. A little confusing, but fun as hell once you got familiar with the cards. Ditto for Trek, but ONLY when they added the Borg and alternate battle rules in Blaze of Glory. And I still remember how to play, even now. The lightsaber beams on the location cards were how you generated "Force" every turn to spend on buying cards or using effects. Most locations had 1 or 2, but certain major ones (like the Dark Side Death Star) had 3. There were different versions based on whether you played Light Side or Dark Side, and you could "replace" an existing location if you had the alternate version (which sucked for the Death Star). If you where the ONLY player occupying those locations, you could also "Force Drain," where your opponent was required to lose cards from the top of his library equal to those icons facing him. The cards you generated as Force resources could be drawn OR spent, and the deck itself ended up being your resources and draw pile. You would lose the game if you ever ran out of cards in your deck. Lost Interrupts would be thrown into your discard pile after use. Used Interrupts would be placed in your spent Force pile and cycled back into your deck at the end of turn (as was all unused Force resources). Destiny was that tiny number is the upper right corner and was the random effect that could either help you or hurt your opponent based on what you drew. The icons on the locations referred to cards specific to the set (like Binary Sunset or Death Star Plans) that could be played there for a sort of "environmental effect" unique to the set they were printed in... Was it confusing? Yes. Was it fun? Also yes, in the end. And at one point it was also EXPENSIVE, like almost Magic level. Envious of the Evazen pull, he was one of the few cards I never acquired for my deck when I could really have used him.

[@danslamusique]

This sums it up, except I think unused force could be saved turn to turn. Also, the icons on locations would tell you what types of things could be deployed there. Like, interior/exterior.

[@bigbake132]

@@danslamusique Yeah and also you could only deploy to locations where you had a force icon, or a character with at least 1 ability.

[@themagictraindriver]

Hi Rudy, Loved this video. I actually have about 10000 or so of the SWCCG card game. Haven’t played in about 15 years and it brought back a lot of memories. Thee was a thriving community of SWCCG players here in Australia. I used to travel 30kms each way every Sunday to play in local tournaments. My friend actually won an all expenses paid trip to the USA to play in the world championships back in the late 90s. There were actually 9 or 10 different sets of the SWCCG and the game was out for about 6 or 7 years. The limited edition was the first set and was exclusively based on the original movie. Then they released subsequent sets A New Hope, Hoth, Dagobah, Cloud City, Jabba’s Palace, Battle of Endor, Death Star 2 and Special Edition from memory. The black dot next to a character’s name meant that you could only have one of that character in play. If there were no dots, that meant that you could have as many of those cards out as you wanted. The white number in the bottom left corner was a deploy cost and the black number was a sacrifice number (not sure about this). There were 2 decks and you could only play lightside vs darkside. The lighsabres on the locations were force and what you used to deploy your cards. The more locations you played, the more force you had to deploy. The kicker was that the force could work against you too as if an opponent had characters at a location where you did not, they could ‘force drain (aka cause damage) to you for the amount of lightsabres were on your side of the location. You had to discard the amount of cards you were damaged for from the top of your deck. The game was over when one opponent had no cards left from memory. They would be the loser. No surprise that Limited Edition Darth Vader was the most valuable card in the set. I played both Magic and SWCCG at the same time, but i ended up swapping all of my Magic Cards away for Vintage Star Wars figurines back in 1997. Got back into Magic again a few years ago to relive my childhood and managed to get quite a few of the old sets which take pride of place in my collection now. I actually want to go back and get some of the old SWCCG cards to help complete my limited edition set as i seem to have misplaced some of those cards over the years. If you have any more questions, please ask below.

[@SoundwaveSG1]

I still play Star Trek CCG and the rules aren't that difficult to understand how to play

[@spiritknightshiro]

Agree! It's way less complicated than MTG!

[@beermageddon4323]

I still play/collect swccg and I've taught my daughter how to play.

[@c.kevintownsend7392]

I played the heck out of SW:CCG and ST:CCG. They might be failed, but boy did they have their heyday. And they weren’t too complicated. 13 year old me was grinding those tournaments every weekend.

[@Shatamx]

C. Kevin Townsend Same. Loved the game. Played from New hope to DS2.

[@Corclic07]

Lol same with me played the sw ccg like hel in Germany also on tournament 1995 and 6 with 13 and 14 years did the deck building myself with a friend. Not like today in Magic everybody plays the same deck in Magic from the internet... Good times...

[@c.kevintownsend7392]

J K no, everyone was just playing the same decks from other areas. In my tournament time playing, I ran across the same 2 or 3 competitive decks more often than not

[@Corclic07]

Oh ok, it wasn't like that here... I mean of course the base cards have been always the same like sense and alter I remember lol... well I only played up to cloud city...

[@Corclic07]

Remember the super op General Han coming in at cloud city LOL

[@ReMeDy_TV]

I played the Star Wars one. I can attest to its difficulty, and kept asking myself, "Why the hell am I spending money on both MtG *AND* Star Wars when I'm only 11 yrs old on a lawn-mowing budget?" That might be one reason the game failed; its core demographic of gamers was younger back then, and younger players lacked the revenue to play multiple card games. Now, these younger players have full-time jobs and are parking their money into MtG that they weren't able to do to the same extent when they were younger.

[@michaelmarcuri1506]

I still play the SWCCG and have all my cards. I am quite the collector. Aside from magic it is one of my fav games. My brother and I have a 200 plus page rule book on it and have studied it for years. Its super fun! I would love to show you all my rares and foils. I have some extremely valuable cards from the set. In my opinion this game is one of the most complex card games in history. Decipher also printed Episode 1 cards but then went out of print after that.

[@jasonb6897]

I remember these on our LGS and played both Star Trek and Star Wars CCG in the 90s. Crazy thing is some of those old Star Trek and Star Wars (limited edition boxes) can fetch decent money.

[@Tcgbuzz]

Looking back at old failed card games is so incredibly fun. There are so many games hat never made it. There are some really great one (Our favorite hidden gem is the History channel card game "Anachronism") and some really awful games that are also real fun to look at.

[@gggeeek]

Original 1995 Star Trek CCG booster boxes are showing up in our Ollie's Bargain Outlets locally. $5.99 for an entire box and there were cases of sealed boxes on the shelves.

[@mtgnoob9988]

I'd buy a box. Now going to scour the internet for them

[@colsectre4722]

Check out Hill's Wholesale Gaming. They took over Decipher's distribution towards the end and bought out the remaining stock when Decipher lost the license. They have a massive Star Trek inventory at incredibly cheap prices. I do most of my bulk purchases through them.

[@xxnwoxx0]

I still have my dark side deck sleeved up in the clear ultra-pros. Still in the ultra pro box from 96. One day, it will come back - and I will be ready!

[@ccggenius]

It never really left. From what I can tell, the game still has an active fan community that runs events and (I think) designs print-and-play expansions.

[@craighicksartwork]

It still has a community, gemp streams online tournaments every few weeks and cards are still selling on ebay.

[@ExoticMTG]

Rudy let me know when you want to interview me on how i sold all my MTG to buy Star Wars.

[@todd8237]

Uhhh, yep. I did that too

[@themagictraindriver]

I swapped my Magic Cards for Original Star Wars figurines. Still have all of my SWCCG cards

[@mtgnoob9988]

@MadeOfSyrup f

[@dr.winstonsmith]

Yep, traded a Diamond Valley for a black border Picard.

[@mattfox6288]

I used to play this Star Wars CCG called "Young Jedi" I played it all the time with my brothers. We loved it. Must have spent hundreds of dollars on cards. So many booster boxes opened, so many memories. Looking back I don't think we ever played a game using the official rules, we just made up our own! I can't for the life of me remember what the actual rules are if I ever knew them in the first place. I just remember being confused when I read the rule book. edit: I actually had some of these cards from the video too! Must have bought a pack on accident thinking they were Young Jedi cards. I never used them because we didn't have enough for a full game but I absolutely remember the card style.

[@chickenbananas]

Finally it’s ab time we covered these

[@Necrotog82]

Failed card game? Star trek ccg only had like 50 expansions if you count first and second edition together, what a failure.

[@timmcknight8624]

Yeah. I was going to say something about that. Games have a life cycle sometimes. Both Star Wars and Star Trek lasted for quite awhile.

[@Necrotog82]

@@timmcknight8624 And on top of all those expansions, there are a group of people called the Continuing Committee that is making new virtual cards and tournaments are still being held, all unofficial but there are still people who love the game.

[@fingolfinfinwe]

Star Wars CCG didn't fail actually, and it's still one of the best out there.

[@ccggenius]

You sure you aren't incorrectly attributing the LCG as the CCG? I know that the CCG still has a pretty active fan community, but there is LITERALLY no official support for it.

[@millennialmoney2281]

I just found a bunch of sealed packs!!! It's a gold mine!!

[@RetroMaticGamer]

@@ccggenius It ENDED, but it did not FAIL. Decipher's CFO embezzled so much money that the company fell into ruin, and WotC poached the license rights while it had the chance, forcing this game out of production before it could overtake Magic (which it nearly did). Star Wars started and ended hot on Magic's heels, and was the game that popularized netdecking way before anyone thought to apply mass online theory-crafting to Magic decks as well.

[@DanielKjeldal]

I was way more into the Star Wars CCG than Magic back in the day, I still say that the Force system is one of the most unique and innovative "mana" systems I have ever seen in any card game. And yeah it was complex and had some cool ideas that would blow people's minds nowadays, like the "land mine" cards in the Dagobah set that you could slip into your opponent's deck and when they reached the top of his deck could cause cool effects, I feel like that would be interesting to see make a comeback.

[@Categoryonegames]

As the owner of CategoryOneGames and the largest seller of Star Trek CCG singles and many other older "Dead" CCGs, I can tell you these were not failures. Star Wars CCG beat Magic in sales around the release of Hoth. It only stopped being made because the license was taken away from them. Also, that is the Star Wars CCG version and not the Hasbro TCG version. The Star Trek game lasted a lot longer and had two different editions with each having over 14 sets. These games had plenty of fans and still have Players Committees that run both games, releasing Virtual cards for the game and keeping them alive. The Star Wars CCG has a Worlds event each year with over 60 attendees. In those days, there was no way to tell the Rares, you just had to have the setlist memorized or check your Scrye or Inquest magazines. Magic was the same way at that point. As a 14 year old, I learned how to play Star Wars CCG at the release in November of 1995 and Trek shortly after that when First Contact came out. These were not impossible to learn. You just had to either read the instructions or have a game store that carried the game and learn from other players. Middle Earth CCG by ICE has to be the hardest game I ever learned with so many instructions and things to remember.

[@darthrooster1]

You don’t sell Star Wars CCG cards anymore?!

[@Categoryonegames]

@@darthrooster1 Not since June of 2016. I sold it all to the Star Wars Players Committee and can't sell it again until Jan of 2021 or 2022.

[@nathanmagro1]

Rarity for those Star Trek packs was 3 uncommons, then the rare, then the commons. The symbol he mentioned by the name is the Non-unique symbol. Star Wars was the exact opposite, if it had a dot by the name, that was how many copies you could have out at any one time. The rarity in the Star Wars decks was uncommons up front, then a rare, then, the book, then another rare, then the commons.

[@EngineerWilky81]

I kind of got into the Star Trek CCG but just didn't have enough people to really play it. Had a basic grasp on how it worked. The "location" cards were actually missions where you'd start out by setting up missions on the board. I think you had a certain number of missions as part of your deck, or something like that. It was fairly fun to play once you got into it. it's a bummer that it and others like the Star Wars didn't pick up, as you said it was probably because they were too complicated and no really place to go to understand better like we do today with KZbin. Very nice to see those cards again.

[@KevinJr77]

I played a lot of that Star Trek. I also still collect the unopened product. I always found the game fun once you figured out all the mechanics.

[@mrbobtehbuildah]

I have a whole (tray?) of them that I'm trying to get rid of. Rudy didn't even respond.. :'(

[@KevinJr77]

@@mrbobtehbuildah i dont think he would what them. Not his cup of tea.

[@cloudyskiesnow]

Star Wars CCG is an amazing game. A lot of the later sets around Episode I are still valuable, including the later Reflections cards, thanks to the low print runs. I remember it being a strong competitor to MTG back in the day at my LGS.

[@sluggo562]

I have a graded reflections future enterprise. :)

[@aethertech]

Yea, no one ever knew how to play the Star Wars TCG. We did figure out the Star Trek TCG, it was similar to the Star Wars one, with locations, and ships and characters (with differently named stats.) But none of that force stuff. Basically, the locations in ST gave you points for completing them (the whole Strength > 40; or Empathy x3 thing. Ships had to be crewed (using the rank insignia, such as 2x 4-leaf/star officers whatever on the Excelsior-class, required crew with at least that (or better). You'd play Dilemas face down to trap your opponent. You'd win with a certain amount of points (200?+)? It was a much cleaner game than Star Wars by Decipher. Data Laughing (black border) was about the only card of value I can remember back then. I had a Klingon deck, my brother had Romulans. He had like an actual PILE of D'deridex cards, easily 30-40 of them he was collecting. I had a ton of various Klingon ships. I also had a TON of Star Destroyers from Star Wars Decipher, and a few of the more valuable cards like Luke Skywalker, and Darth Vader. lost them over the years sadly.

[@andrewsaccal3771]

I loved the Star Wars CCG, played it along with MTG in the mid-late 90's.

[@ashketchup2383]

What about lotr tcg Rudy? I saw mines of moria starters in your case room:)

[@twitchster77]

lotr tcg is my second favorite tcg I've ever played. There wasn't enough people in my area into the game so I didn't play for long...but damn it was a good game! Did an AMAZING job capturing awesomeness of the books and movies, and I loved how you had to include both shadow and free people (essentially like good/bad or light/dark) cards in your deck.

[@ashketchup2383]

@@twitchster77 i am three time czech republic champion;))

[@twitchster77]

@@ashketchup2383 That's amazing!! :D

[@kingfuzzy2]

Ohh loved those beautiful custom art on some of the cards too.

[@DarkPaladin1130]

LoTR didn't come out till early 2000's I thought?

[@DarkPaladin1130]

I'm 44 years old Rudy! Been around sense the start. The new players today will never get the privilege of Magic in 1993/94....Oh the glory days. My LGS back then was called Dragon's Lair. When Alpha came out, they gave 1 free starter to promote the new game. Never before or sense have I seen anything or felt anything like it. Magic in the beginning was truly a special special game. I think it's why alot of us vets get such a nostalgia high with the old sets. It's not just the art folks, it's like a time capsule with these old sets. We get transported back and our memories just go wild. MAN, what times it was then. I still have my mono Black deck from 1993. First deck I ever built. Never dismantled it. All the power 9 cards in the world and in Rudy! basement can't replace the LOVE I have for that deck. It's priceless. Not the cards, it's the memories I have with that deck. The hundreds of games I put it thru, all the wonderful people I got to play with. Back when decks were built from imagination, packs were cracked to complete sets, not rares or money, Black Lotuses being traded for Drudge Skeletons, what are card sleeves? No Mom, Im don't worship Satan, it's just a Unholy Strength card, Ante...Oh yes folks, in the beginning we played for Ante (was really apart of the rules then!)....Oh how I miss them moments. Rudy! Can I borrow your Delorean?

[@TealGaming-fb8bs]

I still have a whole binder of Star Wars cards in my storage.

[@quantumaffected9982]

Pretty cool Black border Star Trek. They went Magic's route and reprinted the original set in White Border. It took me forever to get Picard.

[@averagerainfall]

I played Star Wars CCG when i was in Elementry School, I was buying packs and collecting and never could figure out how to play. I had a YMCA counselor try to read me the rules and figure them out himself, he could not, eventually i marched into my local card store and the owner sat me down and taught me how to play. I then started attending the local Star Wars CCG tournaments and even got my name in a SCRY magazine! It was a fun and confusing game, and seemingly at the height of its popularity it just disappeared.

[@joshuacrumley2031]

Star Wars! That was my game! Loved it. I never played magic heavily until Decipher lost the license to the franchise. i played Staw Wars competitively for several years, and got pretty good. It's not really all that complicated. Just too much redundancy in the rules. Attrition/battle damage is a thing that confused a lot of people.

[@jonknight4616]

Definition of 'Failed' seems very... iffy here. While you could go with the definition of failed meaning not lasting, which is a pretty poor basis, the more common definition would be unsuccessful and that is bogus on every level. The fact is the Star Wars CCG by Decipher was tremendously successful. Lucasarts had other plans, which is why they didn't renew with Decipher and that is when the main production came to an end (6 years in production, often in the top 2 spot in TCGs/CCGs. 12 main set releases, not including things like anthologies or other special releases). None of that points to the game being a failure. You don't release 12 main sets over 6 years if it's losing money. The game didn't get released and fail, it just came to an end because of the licensee. With that said, the game is still going around the world, with an active player community and a committee that releases new cards/sets as virtual slips that go over existing cards, so the game isn't even dead or ended.The community is much smaller than in its heydey, but that's to be expected. Yes, there was a lot of errata stuff. But you physically couldn't understand the rules? I find that hard to believe, so either this is a gross exaggeration or... maybe you over complicated things in your mind or something? How old were you? Maybe you were just too young for the game. I was around 15 when I first learned how to play and I didn't seem to have an issue learning the rules or building my first deck. I played in my first tournament in 1996 shortly after the release of Hoth. And you keep saying nobody fully knew how to play... and that is wrong. Maybe it was best that you stuck with magic? I stopped at 5:13. Maybe next time, reach out to the Star Wars CCG community (or whatever community you aim to talk about) and get a more balanced view? Instead of repeatedly saying no one knew how to play, find out if people actually did.

[@JasonRobinette]

I ran tournaments for hundreds of players for both games. I ran a 100-person Star Wars CCG tournament about 5 years ago with a large cash purse and buy-in. The games are both still very active.

[@barrypeirson3710]

One of the greatest concepts "Life Force: Reserve>Force>Used"..Lost. Forfeit and Destiny. Activate>Control>Deploy Battle>Move>Draw. Awesome game. There are some nuances but they are well designed.

[@ogunquit5]

I still have all of my ST:CCG cards. I loved this game as a kid because my parents refused to let me get into MTG. The guy who sent you the cards was right, the rules started off okay and then just got more and more complex. By the time it got to end, I was opening a box and trading away a lot of the rares in it for a few ones I wanted because I didn't care about many of the factions in the game. That said, I liked playing with my decks and kept 4 or so decks lying around for my friends and I to play. My "crown jewel" was a "bridge crew" deck from TNG/DS9. I'm pretty sure the investigate sighting mission in your 2nd stccg pack was your rare.

[@ExoticMTG]

Under my bed, that’s where thousands of Star Wars Cards are lol

[@DarthG33k]

The world championships for the Decipher Star Wars CCG are held at The Source Comics and Games in Roseville, MN. IIRC, it's usually in the summer. You should check it out, Rudy!

[@bballard65]

Great nostalgia, I still have my Star Wars CCG collection. Roughly 4 boxes full of cards and the "good" rares in plastic cases, like Vader and Obi-Wan. These were supposed to go up in value and much was invested back then for nothing. You're right, the game was nearly impossible to understand, don't think I ever completely figured it out. I believe they released an easier-to-understand version later on, but it was too late and people had moved on to the next 'big' thing. Thanks for the random openings, Rudy!

[@yotoyloko]

I played the Star wars TCG for a while, even participated in a couple of tournaments and won a couple of bucks and promos. Good times, but it was a VERY complex game.

[@munchanka]

Hey Rudy, SWCCG may be out of print but it's very much alive. If you ever find yourself in the CA Bay Area, hit me up and my gaming group will show you the ropes! The SWCCG is not as clumsy or random as today's CCG. An elegant card game for a more civilized age.

[@wesleydavis4288]

I miss Star Wars CCG :( so much nostalgia for me... Thanks for this Rudy... i feel like was starting to be a crazy person with "have you heard of that one game back in ancient times?!" I actually remember the majority of how to play the game. There was no common/uncommon/rare/etc indicator on the card itself... and you basically SHOULD have built a lightside deck and a darkside deck at the very least

[@rickkings2071]

Worked at a comic store that had a lot of card games. If I remember people would get a rare character card in the Star Wars packed about the 9th card or so worth anywhere from 10-15 bucks but Vader was super rare. He went for 60 bucks. Played it and it was fun but magic and L5R was always king at my LGS

[@jbstillman]

I have a pack of the Starwars CCG I've never opened, got it with a large MTG collection I bought. For those that love Starwars and CCG's, you need to try Star Wars: Destiny. That one is alive and kicking strong still. Fantasy Flight is doing an excellent job at it. It's going into it's 3rd year and just rotated it's original set out for Standard. It's very easy to learn, very tactile with the dice involved, it's just a well done game for those looking for Star Wars and something a little different than the standard CCG gameplay. Tournaments abound and value is holding for the more expensive cards still. Excellent game. Rudy: If you see this comment and ever want to give SW Destiny a try, let me know, a few MTG buddies and I would be glad to drive up (we're all in Orlando) and show you our collection and give you a quick how-to. It's really a lot of fun. You should get Edwin into it too ;)

[@alsimador166]

enterprise and Picard are worth something. I chased those cards in packs for a long time. Still looking lol

[@MacEifer]

No rarity symbols on STTCG cards. The cube next to the name just means it's not a unique character, like a legend in Magic.

[@auto_phoenix819]

Decipher's Star Wars was my first CCG I ever played. THANK YOU for doing an opening on this. I still have a deck or two sleeved and put together in the garage.

[@auto_phoenix819]

I knew the rules well but didn't "know" how to really play cards and build decks. it wasn't until i started playing World of Warcraft consistently as an adult that i started to really learn how to build decks and play card games competitively

[@theogballer5957]

You couldn’t figure out how to play the Star Wars CCG? I always thought it was easier to figure out than Magic. Can’t speak to the Star Trek CCG, but I loved The SWCCG back in the day, and it never seemed overwhelming, even for newbies.

[@overweightactor]

I played Star Wars once. You play locations in the middle of the playing field, and you can deploy characters to those locations. There's vehicles to get them to different locations. I think if you got enough characters on a location you scored that location. After Decipher lost the Star Wars license, they kept making the exact same game but with a more generic sci fi setting.

[@Y2KNW]

I loved the ST.CCG but no one else I know did. I bought a mountain of it but I couldn't get anyone to play it with me. :( Weirdly enough, the Star Trek mechanics were simply copied over for the My Little Pony ccg. :P For the Star Trek cards: *The symbol by the name is that the character/ship is a generic character, so you have have multiples of them in play. They represent the namless, background crew members with those skills or generic ships you see in episodes. *The stars on the left of the text box is rank; those are taken into account when meeting crew requirements for a ship, mostly. If a ship needs a gold star and two silver ones, the gold star's acting as captain and the silver ones are officers. *The atom in a box means the character's a hologram.

[@UnicowBoySlots]

I remember playing Star Trek and putting my Picard in a big slab and knowing where it was when I shuffled. It was ridiculous, but fun and nostalgic seeing those old cards

[@bd0negan]

Force is pretty easy to understand, almost intuitive, and very nicely designed. More symbols of your side generates you more force but if your opponent takes control, you're in trouble.

[@pathlafcsak8847]

Star Wars and Star Trek were our second and third most played games back then at our store!

[@randispoling]

There were SOOOOO many obscure TCGs back in the mid 90s... My dad even tried making a TCG out of Baseball cards, using their stats on the cards for the chance to hit, throw a strike or a ball, to hit a home run, to advance on bases...

[@larrywardlow2777]

First card revealed out of the star wars box Rudy's Grandma.

[@ValariaxSword]

My favorite dead TCG is the X-Files one. It was pretty cool. You would pick agents and build your decks around them. Kind of like commander in MTG. The point of the game was to guess your opponents x-file by figuring out the three key words. Pretty fun.

[@stormycat0905]

Used to play that Star Trek CCG all the time. The location cards are missions your supposed to complete. If you complete the mission you get the points in the box on the bottom right. To complete the mission any player needed to resolve all the dilemmas at the location and have crew with the skills matching those stated on the location. First to 100 points wins. The number at the bottom of the location is the distance for that space. The range on the ship can only move a total distance equal to or less than the ship range. The gold and silver icons on the characters are used to staff ships. The ship can't move unless the staffing requirements are met. The four-diamond icon next to the names mean that card is not unique and you can have any number of them in play. No icon means only one can be in play. God how do I still remember this?

[@politikh]

Man... all the old card games i own: STCCG 1E (3x BCW 4-rows) STCCG 2E (2x BCW 4-rows) Aliens Predator (1 BCW 1-row) Vampire: The Eternal Struggle (Jyhad) Babylon 5 CCG (1x BCW 4-rows) After the games plumetted, but before the rise of online buying like eBay/Amazon/Timmy's Emporium, you could get boxes of those games for peanuts (

[@arragoth]

Stars Wars is NOT a failed card game. I played the Star Wars CCG competitively. It wasn't actually that complicated. The rule book was pretty clear. The game was very successful during its 6 year print run, second only to Mtg in sales. There was a big issue with licensing rights between Decipher and Lucas and Lucas sold the rights to WOTC. The game is still played today and run by a player committee. They have been creating expansion and expanding the rule set ever since.

[@peternordstrom9991]

the rules weren't complicated, but certain interactions were. like slave leia had some weird rules, as did the dark effect that added 1 icon on both sides, when played on a system that wasn't a battleground and a ship that cancelled it's ability at a battleground- caused some kind of infinite back and forth that i don't remember if ever got a ruling to clarify/fix it

[@boosteraddict1243]

I absolutely remember wanting to get into the Star Wars TCG so bad but exactly as you mentioned - I never could fully wrap my head around it. I wonder what factors went into formulating the rule set for it and why they couldn't create a more practical experience for players.

[@ironicstan]

So strange. I was just thinking about the SW CCG this morning and here you are opening some. I would definitely play it today if it was still around. My adult self might be able to understand the overcomplexity of it now. Haha

[@unabashedindividualist6232]

The rules of Starwars and Star Trek were prohibitively complex to teach yourself using only the little booklet. You really needed someone who was well versed in the games to teach you how to play... Wyvern however? super fun, super simple to pick up. The game functions a lot like stratego. Set traps and dupe your opponent, brute force, bluffing, it was all there. Tons of fun!

[@marxistmccarthyist3954]

Star Wars CCG is the best card game ever made and I don't even like Star Wars anymore. This is the hill I die on.

[@robertjury3682]

There was an old Anime themed game named Ani-Mayhem that released just before these games started popping up. I was an official play tester and helped with a large chunk of the corrections and editing of Dragon Ball Z Set 2. When this game came out, I was tasked with teaching people to play Ani-Mayhem at gaming conventions and to be totally honest, even I didn't know all the rules of the game. It was pretty stressful basically being the only Judge of the game in my area, but even I could get caught off guard by how convoluted the rules were. The game was essentially designed with two ways to win. One was to simply "Bonk" your opponent. (IE: Kill them) The other way to win was to "out-cute" them with charm. Time and time again, every player I taught or came into contact with realized that the second way to win, charming, was completely inferior to bonking in every possible scenario, thus making half the cards in the game useless. It was not a well made game.

[@Redfoot80]

Wow! I was just packing my home up for a move and I have a large cardboard box filled with these Star Wars cards. Great nostalgia.

[@WolleWip]

"Back in the day" cards didn't have rarity symbols. It was part of the learning curve to find out which cards to trade and which to keep. There were sharks in every pool.

[@danielrouse1364]

I played both Trek AND Star Wars CCGs. The rules were complex and only got worse as time went on. Star Wars got to a point where they released a "Special Edition" set to coincide with the SE movie release that included a new rulebook and glossary because at that point there had been six or seven sets and each had introduced new rules. It'd be like if MTG had the same 3-5 new keywords per set, with no reminder text on any cards, and the internet was sketchy to get the info

[@GarbageKnight]

i had those card for star wars...and we could not even begin to understand...now i have tons of DESTINY...i love destiny. MTG will always have a place in my heart as the first one i ever played all the way to tournaments.

[@FrankRoosevelt32]

Jesus this is bringing back some rock hard nostalgia. I played the hell out of the star wars card game. I actually liked it, but we also didn't always play by the rules.

[@shadowmencer]

Me, my brother, and his friends used to play the Star Trek game all the time. It was actually not bad.

[@poketrader123]

Perfect. Another video over 10 minutes

[@TheAnobleone7]

Don’t you ever, ever call Star Wars CCG a failure! 90s it was MTG or Star Wars. George Lucas had/has shares in Hasbro. Decipher didn’t want to sell the the rights to Wizards aka Hasbro. Lucasfilm’s greed kill the game. Hasbro created crappy Young Jedi card game to replace SWCCG. Problem with Star Wars vs MTG is the power creep was the reverse. Older cards in MTG are much more powerful and in SWCCG cards simply got a lot better replacing old cards. Been playing card games since 1995 (35 years old) -MTG player now and Big fan of yours.

[@N8Miniatures]

That was a $180 Star Trek CCG box sealed, now worth about $10 worth of singles lol. Awesome content though rudy! Both Star Trek and Star Wars still have communities that actively make sets! :)

[@Helblind]

I emailed Rudy offering to send him a set of the XXXenophile TCG... he didn't bite. XD

[@cliveschoonover1367]

This is a family friendly channel

[@josephperry3700]

I loved star wars and star Trek. Ask me about my awesome Bridge crew for Star Trek. 😂 5:31 Dr. Evasan! That's a tournament staple for the dark side!

[@MacEifer]

Have full set first edition somewhere. Probably worth like 3 bucks and a Mountain Dew.

[@mtgnoob9988]

I used to play in tournaments for star trek. So fun

[@sneibarg]

No Rage cards, huh? Rage was the game our comic book store owner tried to get going before Ice Age was released and while Fallen Empires was still flooding the market. We played it a little bit but most of us just wanted to get more MTG games going.

[@davidpepin3017]

I remember getting a booster box of Star Trek when I was 14 (1995). It was not that hard to play and it was very fun! After that, I think I started playing doom trooper and of course Magic at the same time. I remember buying tons of fallen empires trying to get good cards (they were none) and same thing with Ice Age, I remember buying booster so I could get an other Jester's card (I had Jester's cap and mask and since Internet was not around, I did not know that was it). Fun times.

[@Bigbacon]

actually we really loved the ST:TNG card game.

[@joonyoungk]

I’ve actually assembled a cube of Star Wars CCG. (Needs more testing) Yes I still remember how to play. One of my favorite dead ccgs!

[@jarredlkling]

When i was a kid the local game store threw out entire cases the Star Wars prequels tcg when i was like 8. My friends dad dumpster dived the store and all the naborhood kids opened hundreds of boosters back in the day for free. Our parents would use them as rewards for chores and shit. Seeing the cards here is nostalgic. I rember i pulled the 1st Darth Sidius in the naborhood and everybody went bananas.

[@DavidLeeKersey]

Back in the day one of the Star Trek Cpt. Picard cards was selling for more then a Black Lotus.

[@michaelh878]

Yeah on another video someone said they traded their black lotus for a Picard.

[@jason_letts]

I'm a very active old school MTG collector, and as I was coming back to Magic it hit me that I really missed Star Wars CCG as well, but I found the online communities out there very cliquey and frankly abusive. I speculate that most of it has to do with a resentfulness that their cards haven't appreciated in value (but according to them a spike is always coming right after the next movie!). Anyway, it makes me appreciate how welcoming and enjoyable the Magic collectors community has been.

[@elrictchernovkov8083]

Locations have Force values. Destiny is the number at top right. Draw a card from yuour library for destiny draw. Play a location.. if it is planet bound you fight there. Need a location with a spaceport to play the actual planet location to play starships. Need a character to do anything, like take over a location, pilot a vehicle et al.

[@diyapia]

Others in the comments nail it exactly! ST:CCG was NOT a failure...the damn company was embezzling and ran the thing into the ground...1st Edition is still a true masterpiece of mechanics that capture the spirit and fun of the show!

[@voxkine9385]

I still have a BUNCH of the Star Wars cards. My brother really got into it and played at the LGS whenever he could. I was 7 years younger than him and could never wrap my head around the rules.