Star Wars Unlimited - First Impressions from a Destiny and Decipher Player

[@SamuelGrahamDoesTCGs]

Someone asked me if I was getting into this. I said "I've been suckered into WAY too many Star Wars games. So yes." I later updated after opening some with "Help, It's Again." Big SWCCG and Destiny fan ... loving Unlimited so far. GREAT VIDEO! 🙂

[@SeaRaptor]

Glad you enjoyed it! I caved as well, the box opening stream is tonight at 7pm US Central time. =D

[@bl4ckfl4g]

I miss the decipher game. This is the first Star Wars I’m playing since then

[@SeaRaptor]

I avoided the WotC TCG, but really enjoyed Destiny. This game certainly isn't as deep tactically as SWCCG is, but it is not without challenging tactical choices during play. I find that part a ton of fun: the challenge of solving the "how do I get out of this mess and earn a win?" puzzle.

[@ralex3697]

I played it two times and I want to play it again. I like the game

[@eldergeeks7301]

it's hard to go back when they break your heart.

[@SeaRaptor]

It's been tough. I've got people on both sides of the aisle whispering in my ear. ;) I'm still on the fence, though by virtue of the fact that I made this video you can probably tell which way I'm leaning.

[@RollDiceTakeNames]

Good review. The simplicity and speed of the game is what I really enjoy

[@SeaRaptor]

Same. As much as I still love the look and feel of the old Decipher mechanics, I'm not sure I would enjoy that level of depth in a CCG any more. Destiny was just about right for me that way, and Unlimited strips away some of the clunkier mechanics that Destiny had (and the dice, obviously) while retaining most of the tactical play and strategic deck construction.

[@salv.6948]

This is the first time that FFG has a dedicated studio working on one game, I think thats gonna be a big difference. No longer are the days that after a boardgame reveal, the team had to jump to a X-Wing release or design an Armada wave etc etc . FFG doesnt have that many systems to worry about atm, and the focus on SWU may be the game changer.

[@SeaRaptor]

I want to believe!

[@jansonvocmf]

The Decipher game is a classic. I still have a lot of it, but it's hard to teach my 9 year old. He immediately understood this game and was tickled to kick the crap out of me with a shielded Luke deck. The game has some great potential, but regardless of the longevity it will be a fun and quick game to pull out for years to come. One thing that makes this game great is that every pack is like opening the Decipher Reflections packs! Opening packs is great fun and holds interest through the whole pack.

[@SeaRaptor]

I hadn't drawn the Reflections comparison, but it's a very good one because of (a) the foils and (b) Reflections went to 15 card packs in an era when Decipher had cut back to... I think 9 card packs for Endor and DS2.

[@jansonvocmf]

@@SeaRaptor and like Reflections, it's like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get. It's pretty fun to open something unique, or a mix of a lot of unique cards. The hyperspace variants, the foil, and the possibility of 4 rares/legendary cards is a lot like Reflections... Maybe even better.

[@Matt_in_TEXAS]

Great content! Former Destiny player here, I'm looking forward to Star Wars Unlimited... Keep up the great work!

[@MyFireVideos]

Big swccg fan. I still play it. Big destiny fan. I still play it. I just got the starter for swu. I hope it's good and I hear it's good. Can FFG actually do it? Time will tell...

[@SeaRaptor]

I'm loving SWU right now, I just hope FFG can keep the game going without kneecapping themselves.

[@paranoiarisinggames]

I’m also an old Decipher player (LOTR was my favourite of theirs). Been looking for something to scratch that itch for a while. This isn’t a Decipher game, but it’s a heck of a lot of fun!

[@SeaRaptor]

I have thoroughly enjoyed it thus far.

[@subodhsrinivasamurthy6866]

I am a star wars fan and when I saw your detailed description of the game I just fell in love with the game(though I haven't played before and didn't even knew those type of games existed and we're made by star wars). I will buy it in the future. Searaptor when will you play subnautica ?

[@SeaRaptor]

I have played Subnautica, but I haven't streamed it. I should probably do some of that; I completed the original game, but never finished Below Zero.

[@subodhsrinivasamurthy6866]

@@SeaRaptor Nice :)

[@user-by1dq3dz6g]

It’s so good I got commander players playing the Twin Suns format with some proxy decks. Then I got them to preorder some boxes😂 Nothing against Destiny which I played but, I could never do that with it. This game will and is pulling players not because it’s Star Wars but because it’s just that good.

[@SeaRaptor]

Some of my locals are also talking big about the Twin Suns format. I am looking forward to trying it at some point.

[@chrisharrison2900]

limited needs to best of 1, the majority of the players at pre-releases struggled to finish 2 games within the 55 minute rounds.

[@SeaRaptor]

I experienced this in my second pre-release, but not my first. With players who understood the basic mechanics, getting 3 sealed games in 55 minutes was pretty easy. With those who didn't it was much more challenging.

[@dustinchristiansen3381]

I think the real turn off for me is that the game has been played online for months before actual release. iI don't like that at all

[@SeaRaptor]

I am similarly not a huge fan of this (saw it with Destiny, too). Sadly it seems that this is simply the new normal in tabletop gaming, particularly in TCGs that release spoilers in advance of a new set.

[@chrisharrison2900]

There are too many tokens for this game. I played and really enjoyed the superior game, the LCG, and there were just as many tokens in that game. The use of dice save a lot of space and confusion. For me the game still needs refinement to reduce the amount of tokens.

[@dcrbdh]

I was hoping for a Decipher vs Destinies vs Unlimited and which one you liked better. So a little disappointed. I've never seen your content. You popped in my recommendations as I've been curious about Unlimited. This isn't my first FFG rodeo, and I don't want to end up with boxes of cards I can't do anything with. I'm gonna take a watch and see right now.

[@SeaRaptor]

Reasonable. The game is significantly lighter than Decipher, and slightly lighter than Destiny. Thus far I feel like Destiny had more interesting tactical decisions to make because of how dice rolls and dice resolution timing worked. Unlimited veers away from that. The decision to attack or not is usually pretty easy to make, it's simply a question of where that damage is applied (base or unit). This game shares a bit more with SWCCG than Destiny did because of the split between ground and space, and having to manage resources and units in both theaters. Destiny oversimplified space by making everything a support card.

[@erikpatterson120]

The hardest part for me is will I invest in building a deck and then a year later the game stops being support and they reboot the game again. I was huge fan of the Decipher game and tried to get into the following iterations, but each time they last a year or so and cancelled and rebooted. I don’t want to have to buy into a game that will be dead soon.

[@SeaRaptor]

100% my concern as well. I am trying to take it slow with Unlimited. I don't know if I will be successful. My content creator brain is tingling at the opportunity to explore something new on both of my channels.

[@BlueSapphyre]

That’s the catch-22. Do you start in the ground floor and hope it doesn’t die shortly, or try to get in later when there’s highly experienced players, a huge card pool, and the barrier to entry is much much higher.

[@SeaRaptor]

@@BlueSapphyre Bingo.

[@Big_Dai]

While I can appreciate the game design and systems (and some art).. I don't see this being anything outside of Limited events and casual play. You say Decipher's Star Wars CCG took at least an hour.. but it did something no other game has managed to date! It really felt like a Star Wars, and it had moxy to boot! Unlimited feels like a lesser excerpt of that gameplay, with modern sensibilities. @7:32 Regarding the game being "solved", you'd be surprised what the Magic the Gathering Community has done with Spoilers and how fast Content Creators can "solve the meta" on the first day they are given an early access to new cards nowadays!! Not to mention we've been able to play Unlimited online for a while now. People now crave MORE more often ("game isn't even out yet" > @9:27 😂). It's not like in thr past, where a few releases were enough to keep a game alive. The amount of games coming out, the accessibility of most of them.. and a lack of a Player base on LGSs. Tell me, how is Sorcery doing near you?

[@Legaleagle0200]

Deciphers game was not good 😂

[@SeaRaptor]

I concur about the Decipher game "feeling like Star Wars". The vast "spaceline", moving units around it, the (eventual) variety of those units and what they represented.... it managed to translate that epic Star Wars feel to the table in a really nice way. I wanted to use the word "elegant" there, but I don't think you can really apply that word to where the game eventually landed with all of the various rules that were added along the way. The Special Edition rulebook was a nice fix, but the problem still remained. I am skeptical of calling the meta of any set "solved" because we went through this with every Destiny set a few years ago (or so it felt). The set would be spoiled, the self-proclaimed pros would declare X to be the best deck, and 4-5 weeks later they had all moved on to something else because everyone had learned how to beat X. I am disappointed folks hear the same song every expansion and seem to fall for it each time. With a brand new game, seeing people declare that it's solved before the game even officially releases and people have really opened a notable number of cards I find irritating. It sucks some of the joy out of playing and discovering things on your own, as well as - in my opinion - being kind of insulting to some of the more creative deck builder types that don't hang out on YT or Twitch or wherever all day. I'm not sure about Sorcery, I genuinely haven't paid any attention to a CCG/TCG since they announced the discontinuation of Destiny. I took a brief look at Lorcana, but the difficulty in obtaining product meant that it was a very brief look indeed.

[@Legaleagle0200]

@@SeaRaptor Lorcana was only short product a few months. But it has the same problem of people claiming to have solved the meta before a set is out because Pixelborn and then people copy those decks and lose and completely different decks win big events. Like oh god Pawpsicles in unbeatable and broken. Oh it’s actually tier 2. Oh man these combos decks break the game. Oh actually they are pretty easy to stop. 50 dollar cards drop to 10 dollar cards because they didn’t live up to hype.

[@SeaRaptor]

Right, and it will happen again next set and the set after and the set after and so on. At some point you would think people would tune that stuff out - or at least learn to take it with a grain of salt - but here we are.

[@obsidianroost9197]

I was worried about speed at first but after seeing how the game plays it is not too fast, just fast. And obviously some match ups go faster than others but generally the flow of the game seems pretty nice.

[@mr.horseshoe2301]

Its nice that people are giving FFG another chance. Not me. Got burned by them too many times.

[@SeaRaptor]

I am still on the fence, but leaning towards them. So... maybe? LOL.

[@Webhead123]

Decipher was *the* CCG for me from '95 until '01. Yeah, I dabbled in Magic and L5R...but the Star Wars CCG was my passion. I had an embarrassing collection of cards for it by the end. I never got into the WotC/Hasbro card games. I tried the Star Wars LCG (didn't like it) and avoided Destiny (I felt the dice were too "gimmicky"). When Unlimited was announced, I was pretty disinterested at first but slowly found myself getting on board the more details we got about it. I don't know if this game will have longevity. I don't know if the community will give FFG enough of a chance to let it bloom. All I can say is that I see some potential and will try to enjoy what it is for as long as it holds out. Here's hoping. I love the draft-friendly nature. I love the speed of play. I love the incorporation of the "Leader" mechanic, allowing every deck to have a fun and flashy "centerpiece" to stay exciting. I love the relative simplicity combined with the various elements of flexibility in deck-building and board control strategy. It just looks like a solid foundation from which a great game could spring.

[@SeaRaptor]

Concur with all of this.

[@CigarChompinSarge]

The art is definitely the worst part of SWU, though that can easily improve over time! The game itself is incredibly fun.

[@SeaRaptor]

There are definitely more than a few odd art choices, but at the end of the day I am here for the gameplay (and the alt art cards can sometimes help).

[@ralex3697]

I like the comic book art. I understand it’s not for everyone

[@SeaRaptor]

@@ralex3697 There are definitely some pieces I like more than others.

[@MattB619]

Just curious -- why didn't you try Star Wars Living Card Game?

[@SeaRaptor]

Good question, actually. I'm not sure. Probably in part because I never saw anyone else around these parts playing it. When the Game of Thrones LCG came out I bought into that for a while - and thoroughly enjoyed it - but finding other players was a challenge. That probably soured me a bit on the LCG experience going forward.

[@MattB619]

@@SeaRaptor Good point, it wasn't very popular. I have to say I really liked it. Looking forward to trying Unlimited. Nice video! 😀

[@mortichro]

Darren Tan is busy with MTG art right now.. so you wont see him doing ffg stuff anytime soon.

[@SeaRaptor]

Boo!

[@xDASxBOOTx]

This is not world of warships it's a trap

[@SeaRaptor]

Nope, it ain't. Warships isn't all I do. =)

[@meltingkrayons5830]

Not hating on the new game, but IMO Destiny is way better and I so wish they had put this effort into reviving it.

[@SeaRaptor]

I miss the hell out of Destiny. My last big tournament there was the Denver GQ in spring of 2019. I got to play Jyn/Cassian and had an absolute ball. It was so thematic and fun; that deck could win by running you out of cards or shooting you in the face, it all just depended on the rolls and how the draws worked out. Destiny was in SUCH a good place from a theme and variety standpoint when it folded. I have to assume that either the timing of the acquisition by Asmodee was not in time to save the game, or that their new corporate overlords looked at the margins for it and decided it was not worth continuing.

[@telemakotv]

@@SeaRaptor Destiny died because it was production hell because of the dice, according to inside sources.