Star Wars Unlimited TCG and Big Covenant Updates - Live

A new Star Wars card game from FFG, it must be discussed. Also, significant changes at Covenant.
Copyright Covenant TCG Inc. All Rights Reserved. Thumbnail image is not ours, copyright LucasFilm, Asmodee, Fantasy Flight Games, etc.

[@IronShepherd5771]

Great summary around 32:00 on what makes FFG fun (innovation) and why many players are hesitant (management). Much appreciate the perspextive and overview. Your opinion is well-trusted. Reminds me why i keep my sub service for Marvel Champions. Thanks guys!

[@teamcovenant]

Thank you for watching!

[@WayOfHaQodesh]

Love you all over at Team Covenant. Hands down the best company, with the most amazing people, I've ever had the pleasure to do business with, in some 20+ years of card gaming. You truly encapsulate and are the epitome of that home gown, down to earth, heart and soul of old fashioned, all American customer service driven business model with quality built to last products. Essentially, every great thing I fondly remember, growing up in Indiana and Ohio USA, as a child in the 80s-90s. I truly cannot say how much you've all impacted the lives of myself and many friends and family members over the many years now, since I first discovered you and I'm positive you'll smash out TC 3.0 in due time. Wishing you all, plus Jonathan, Tim, Bryce (all versions 1, 2, and 3.0) and everyone else, who makes TC my Nr 1 premier and favourite card, and general games company, the absolute best moving forward. None come close to providing the unique and immensely restorable, yet entertaining content, that also is informative, fresh, yet always you. Should you ever open up an Australian distribution hub over here in Australia, I'd be all over your subscription services haha. Much love from Brisbane, Australia.

[@rossaldogaming5034]

A couple of months ago I stumbled upon your content, including blogs, for SW Destiny. Have been down the rabbit hole ever since and played a few online and in-person games. Even managed to get some of the kids into it at school (I am a teacher!). Obviously much of the content I have had my eyes glued to is about 5-6 years old at this point. I then watched a stream from two years ago and had to do a double take as both of you have such different hair styles (in the best way!) Here's to Unlimited and Cov 3.0 being a runaway success, enough for me to justify a London to Tulsa trip one day! :P Keep up the great work.

[@teamcovenant]

Amazing story. So happy to have you as a part of all of this! If we ever get to London, we'll give you a shout!

[@RybackStun]

Loved hearing the thoughts of the TC crew on Unlimted and Star Wars TCGs as a whole. Makes me really want to grab some of the old WotC TCG and really dive into the LCG again with the collection I already have. Excited to play Unlimited when it drops and I'm gonna have to go back and watch some more TC TCG and LCG gameplay from the past!

[@teamcovenant]

Great to see you here in the comments Ryback!

[@RybackStun]

@@teamcovenant Always happy to be around!

[@GoobertownHobbies]

Thanks for the history lesson! I played a TON of SWCCG back in the day, but I skipped the more recent ones... I'm curious to see what is next :-)

[@FishHookEXE]

I feel like I'm a lot more optimistic about this game than most? This is a new version of FFG owned by a company that has its logistics on point, Marvel Champions is releasing on a pretty good schedule and maintaining quality. I totally get the caution, I think it's justified, but I think a lot of the caution will go away when people actually see the game. Cautious optimism is the phrase I keep hearing, and I think that's bang on. Love the content, gang.

[@Bhedrick13]

I couldn't be more skeptical of a competitive TCG from FFG, and really can't believe they won't just break down and make a cooperative Star Wars LCG.

[@j_atkinson]

So much this!

[@brandtsanderson4665]

Agreed but it will be awesome if they pull it off!

[@braveng7909]

Especially with how they handled Star Wars Destiny

[@swvi9459]

Because old SW TCG from WoTC was maybe best TCG ever

[@kennh.3321]

I’ll never love again after Destiny

[@kingofslivers]

Where is my spirit island content that was coming?? :P Great video like always. It is facinanting how we, card game fans, get disappointee with games being discontinued but we dont lose hope and keep seeing the new games as the special thing they could be

[@teamcovenant]

It's still in the pipeline! Staring at the box currently.

[@Conduit23]

Congrats on the next big move! I'll cross a few state lines to get an Old Fashioned in person when the next TC store is ready. 🍻

[@philt3924]

Great video. I collected Deciphers CCG from the start to it's finish and also some of the fan based community cards afterwards. By the way The 'Gimick' with the CCG was that the location cards created a board spaces and the gane was based around area control and moving from one place to another. That's what set it apart from MTG during its existence. I was so deflated when decipher the lost the licence, and have not played another Star Wars card game since. Although i do have many of the lcgs. I felt i was burned by the licence crash with Lucy's and Hasbro.. which Lucy's owned a stake in. It felt like a money grab to be honest. i'd spent £1,000s collecting the entire set. Once the licence was lost, no one really wanted to play it and it was no longer supported. And everyone was selling sets. I kept mine for about another 10 years unplayed before selling it on. This is why FFGs LCG format really drew me in. No collecting rares and solo play. Never looked back. Now that FFG is just a stripped down company focusing on card games It feels like FFG needs now to emulate MTG in a game for fear that WOTC aquire the licence to do so, based on their sucess with MTG. The new character cards feel like MTG's commanders and the game play will be streamlined to attack and defend just like MTG.

[@ryanbartlett672]

First off....traditiional retro, classic hero art!! This alone could push my purchase.

[@joesolo1836]

100% agree... 3yrs in development, with that Team, I do gave faith it will be good. if it helps negotiations, Joe Solo is in for a subscription. I would love to see a CCG/LCG combo where the planets are objectives. make them a second, stand alone deck that double as resources. might be too complicated... but TCG style arenas. each person has their home base divided into the TCG arenas. and when you attempt a mission(attack, etc...) you chose an arena or multiple to send units to. I'm also a big fan of the Conquest mechanics... chose a hero and faction, and fight over the planets awesome stream. love the speculation and the history lesson!! Thanks TC!!

[@teamcovenant]

If Joe Solo is in, it's a guarantee.

[@markcoucke7008]

The planet system from Warhammer 40k conquest, would be amazing with a star wars theme 👌

[@madspedersen5968]

It already exists. It's called Star Wars CCG and was released by Decipher. That being said, I do agree that the rule set from Conquest would work very well with Star Wars.

[@teamcovenant]

So many of those existing rulesets could easily be put on the IPs they've had in the past. How about Conquest system in Lord of the Rings? Oof, so good.

[@Big_Dai]

From all that has been shown (and the available gameplay videos), certainly not very different from what "Magic clones" and current TCGs are doing lately.. and while I consider that a bit disappointing, still has some interesting design ideas (keeping the Arenas from this one) and I can see it attracting many. Will it have staying power? It's rather simplistic and games could be quick. The art is good! I'm not sure I like the "not blocking even if you have refreshed Units".. with quick and high-damage-dealing Aggro decks going directly to Bases. Some cards might become necessary (Sentinels), and some strategies better than others. IF the starter decks are REALLY cheap, I might dabble.. otherwise, I'll watch it from afar! Specially since I don't trust FFG as a company.

[@brandondaly4703]

Now with three months till launch of Star Wars Unlimited with half the cards shown now , 15 card booster packs , foils ,chase cards ,sealed format everything looking good so far I’m hyped. What are Team Covenant thoughts on it now.

[@jdub-replicant]

if they add an element of asymmetric type playing in addition to the regular face-up battling gameplay then it could be really great.

[@teamcovenant]

Very curious to see how it plays!

[@ryancain6012]

You guys are convincing me to give Andor another try. I couldn't make it through the first episode when I tried the first time. I think that Star Wars doesn't need to be gritty. It should be a little campy. I think the draw of the original trilogy is that the surface is very rated G, but there was just a *little* depth to the philosophical side of it, and even that is pretty shallow. Honestly, Book of Boba Fett feeling more like a 90s after-school live action show (like Hercules or something) hits what Star Wars is about just about right; Mandalorian is as dark as anything Star Wars should get, I think. But I'm just a guy on the internet.

[@teamcovenant]

Ryan, you must watch Andor! When Star Wars first hit, it wasn't trying to be Star Wars - it was trying to be an incredible story set in an expansive, overwhelmingly imaginative universe just begging to be explored. After it hit, we've had so much derivative emulation of what Star Wars "was" on the surface. Andor is what happens when you are, once again, just trying to tell an incredible story in an expansive, overwhelmingly imaginative universe. I mean this is all controversial like any subjective Star Wars opinion, but it demands to be seen! -Steven

[@ryancain6012]

@@teamcovenant All right; I'll give it another go!

[@tesla6938]

they kind of had to do all new art because this new art style will allow them to more seamlessly blend together different sources in the star wars universe like the comics, cartoons and movies. which they said they would be using

[@professorstewart6379]

I'm cautiously optimistic. What we've seen of the game so far looks good. I'm glad to see a major focus on classic trilogy era in the first set. I have zero interest in Disney era Star Wars so I hope to see plenty of Lucas era Star Wars material.

[@srpad]

From what little I have seen of the rules and cards it feels like they are trying to tap into the popularity of Magic's Commander format but with a Star Wars IP. That is actually not a bad idea right now if they can pull it off.

[@teamcovenant]

Not a bad idea at all!

[@TheSpaceNinjaPirate]

There was so much bloat in the CCG (which I loved) because it didn't have rotation and was stuck at 60 cards decks. I have been thinking how the CCG would actually be improved by adopting the pod system from the LCG. It simplifies deck building, makes you use weaker cards that you normally wouldn't and possibly stops some super power combos. It would just involve a lot of effort to work out which cards would go in which pods. I would do it, but sadly mu rules and knowledge of the CCG is long gone from my brain. The LCG could have benefited from the back and forth, you go, I go interaction of Destiny. There were too many little tiny action/reaction windows that made the LCG so new player unfriendly. The LCG simplified and streamlined would have been truly great. Destiny would still be going had they included foils in packs. You basically didn't have to buy that many boxes to complete sets, so once people had got most of the cards there was little reason to keep buying, other than draft, which was great once they got that going. As a friend liked to put it, limited destiny was the best destiny. Also I don't know why FFG never increased prices of boxes to compensate for the expensive dice. Their profit margin must have been so slim, and I think people would have tolerated some price increases, maybe at the same time as including true chase cards. Destiny tried to be too friendly to players in terms of $$$ commitment and suffered for it. My hesitation with Unlimited is that it might lack cohesive themed play since they are drawing from across the whole of everything. That means Revan could show up, along with things like the High Republic era, and the and all the trilogies and TV shows, comics, and books and crazy future Rey movie etc. Assuming that you have to pick a side, light or dark, it could get pretty abstract when you are mixing eras. My suspension of disbelief might struggle, but that was an issue with Destiny too. I suppose it might be a bit like Lorcana though that has a tenuous storyline reason for the mix. I'm not sure Unlimited can sell the premise as well as that. A great battle for control of the force across time? We shall see. Unlimited looks to lean into model that F&B rekindled with crazy collectable rares that has been replicated by everything that has followed it (if only Destiny had done it first).

[@teamcovenant]

We've been talking about Era formats; it's a way to have soft "blocks" of content that are all balanced within themselves rather than the entire card pool. And it solves the theme issue. Like an event might be "Original Trilogy", which entails only certain sets, or certain cards, can be used.

[@johnfraney4268]

Look, FFG has a heinous track record when it comes to production, we know that. I loved Destiny, and i was sorry to see it go. Like you said, though, all I want is to have those memories and experiences, and FFG just announced a way to have that again. I say bring it on.

[@NerdFrequency]

Destiny was my favorite game of all time and I swore I'd never play an FFG game again after they killed it.

[@teamcovenant]

We rode the Destiny rollercoaster as well, of course, but realistically 9 sets puts it in probably the top 1% of CCGs in terms of content created/success.

[@paxgamer3003]

I'm very excited to see another competitive card game from FFG. But I am bummed it's a damn ccg. But I am excited that Danny Schaeffer (sp?) is a lead designer. Game of Thrones is the #1 top game for me of all time (actually, tied for Pax Renaissance, which is what my youtube channel is dedicated to). So, I am wearily going to stay updated on development of this game. Regarding FFG killing their games: it's expected. No game lasts forever. Games have a run and then they're done. Especially if they don't sell well. Unfortunately competitive LCG's are cursed.

[@joshwomack1954]

I loved Magic as a kid back in the mid 90's but wasn't allowed to play because it's 'satanic'. I played a lot at a friends house though and abaolutely loved every minute of it. I wanted to get back into a CCG of some kind over the years but never had friends to play with. At this point in my life, with my daughter about grown and having plenty of disposable money for a new hobby, depending on how things look as more is reveraled about Star Wars Unlimited, I might just go all in on it. Try playing at a local store like I always wabted to do with Magic as a kid. Maybe actually make some friends in the gaming hobby. We'll see how it all shakes out. Fingers crossed.

[@teamcovenant]

Zach was similarly limited by the satanic panic. Would love it if you got to fully embrace the hobby now - it's really worth it if you find the right people.

[@mikloslipcsey7923]

Could the Star Wars Unlimited (SWU) announcement be a followup of the release of Star Wars, The Deckbuilding Game (also from FFG)? Presumably, SWTDG was dipping the toe in the water to see if the market was ready for a SW deck building card game (collectable, trading, living, whatever) and its modest critical and commercial success was the green light for SWU. Thoughts?

[@HerrHarlock]

Different target audiences, so not likely.

[@scottgrieb8095]

Also in the polygon interview. The designer said this game has been in the works for 3 years. So unlimited is not a reaction to the deck builder.

[@teamcovenant]

We wouldn't be surprised if the TCG was in development well before the Deckbuilding Game even got on the white board. But if the Deckbuilding Game had seen dismal sales, and may have changed the trajectory, for sure.

[@Ariranhaa]

I like Destiny and will keep playing and collecting it until the boxes get too expensive. Every few months I grab a box and that's fine for me. Creatures would have been cool tho...

[@jimalexander687]

Yes, Star Wars LCG and Destiny were inconsistent (at best) with projected releases. (Likewise, to some extent, X-Wing and Armada). But, it's not just them. Wiz Kids were notoriously always late with Dice Masters -- and have now even changed the format (which prompted me to finally leave that game). It seems that they're always either late, or changing things -- neither of which is acceptable to many gamers.

[@stropes.]

You glossed over Metazoo a little bit but a lot of its initial success was from riding the wave of 'collectible' and 'investment' hype during and after COVID. I know you're not around a lot of Magic content but so many finance channels and forums had individuals pushing Metazoo as the next-big-thing in collectible cards (channels like AlphaInvestments, etc). The Magic 'Finance' subreddit ballooned in membership and posts during COVID also. People saw what was happening to 90s CCGs and wanted in on the action. The problem with a lot of this, from a long term value standpoint, is that the older games that saw the most gains were tied to long-running IPs which have large fanbases (SWCCG, etc). People buying into these new, IP-less, games primarily an 'investment' opportunity are likely in for a 90s-era shock after the dust settles...

[@teamcovenant]

It's awfully similar to the 90s, isn't it. To be honest, we've been glossing over MetaZoo since seeing its initial pitch, art, and gameplay. Eyes will be peeled as this all shakes out, but games like Flesh and Blood and Sorcery are pointing us to a future that isn't driven exclusively by the big IPs.

[@frantic9783]

I really wish someone would buy out the rights to the decipher game and make a new version of it…. I loved the old SWCCG game but the rules were so convoluted and near impossible for new players. The general system was fantastic though.

[@teamcovenant]

Maybe in a decade we'll be in a place to do that - and who knows maybe even get the license! Let's go!

[@shawnvaljean9260]

The LCG model is why i fell in love with FFG. Releasing another TCG is preditory and disgusting. I will miss the pre-asmodee FFG, but it looks like they are truly gone.

[@ubergamejunkie]

Netrunner been here for 10, going on 11 years... Just saying. There's no only 3-4 year ride here.

[@ironmankc8142]

isnt netrunner a dead game?

[@PondoSinatra680]

It died twice.

[@scottgrieb8095]

I dont understand the decision to release the competitive 1v1 deckbuilder and then announce unlimited. The deckbuilder should have been the coop equivalent to marvel champions.

[@kamb26]

Agreed. I have no idea why a tcg is even in the table when you have Magic dominating the space. Then with Lorcana being a thing it makes less sense. I also have no idea why FFG just doesn’t do what the fans want and make a Star Wars Coop LCG.

[@truce11]

Will it be compelling game design (with popular IP)? - likely. Will it actually be fun to play? Likely. Will there be a smattering of content to sink teeth into? Likely. Will we endear and hope it has a decent life before the game mechanics get bloated? Likely. Will FFG suddenly cease making more Star Wars TCG content with ambiguous silence leading to a pitiful sorry it's over? Likely.

[@teamcovenant]

Might not be a more perfect summary of the community reaction to this announcement.

[@truce11]

@@teamcovenant that may be... Likely.

[@fm1102]

F#£* no. I’ll believe it when I see everyone else is still playing it after 5 years and they have reliable OP with decent prizes that aren’t shitty AIs of cards that no-one cares about. Except I probably won’t because I’m happier playing ded games in the pub than I ever was in the game store.

[@teamcovenant]

So you kind of win either way, right? Either it's active after 5 years with reliable OP, or it's dead and you can play it at the pub.

[@ironmankc8142]

FFG's has done themselves zero favors with TCG, or gaming in general. I find it difficult to get motivated for one of their games, let alone a Star Wars game

[@tyrinkuper3218]

After Destiny, I learned to NEVER support an FFG TCG again!

[@teamcovenant]

But we had so many good times with Destiny!

[@kingofslivers]

Do you guys ever miss the golden era of FFG? Where they had multiple ongoing lcgs and i remember that literally every day there was a news article on their website regarding their existing games or announcing a new game This new game could be the step that makes them closer to a new golden era. I myself dont quite like the TCG format but i am still hopeful nonetheless :)

[@teamcovenant]

Absolutely! Those were incredible times for us as players. Very difficult on the business side, but going to events and playing the various LCGs was a highlight!