What up! Tyler “Falcon” Flockton here to help you to learn from my mistakes. This is a list of what I have learned from my time playing Star Wars: Unlimited.
Initial Resourcing Decisions
In the beginning of an Unlimited game, we shuffle, decide who is going to have the initiative for the start, then draw our 6 cards. I have made many mistakes here that can easily be cleaned up.
First, you need to know the number of Turn 1 plays you have in your deck. The absolute worst feeling in Unlimited is to have an okay hand after the initial draw, but you mulligan hoping for the dream starting hand, only to be stuck without a Turn 1 play and are left to just take the initiative. Oof. This varies by deck of course (a control deck will not care about not playing a card during the first phase), but for most other decks, missing a Phase 1 drop can be brutal.
The next first-hand mistake I have made is keeping my big play in my hand Turn 1 and not resourcing it. If you are playing with Boba Fett, Collecting the Bounty (SOR 15), it can be very tempting to keep the Darth Vader, Commanding the First Legion (SOR 87) you draw off the start. Vader is a big play in a Boba deck (or any deck really), but if you keep him in your opening hand, you are basically playing with a minus 1 hand size for 5 rounds. This will come back to haunt you.
Aside from resourcing any high costing cards that we cannot ramp in to, we must also look across the table at the enemy's leader. Seeing your matchup changes the cards we resource.
If you are playing against an aggro deck, you will want to match their pace, maybe hanging onto a Takedown (SOR 77) or something to deal with the leader or the swarm of units. If you are playing against control deck, you will not need your Repairs (SOR 74) or upgrades because those will be targeted by your opponent.
Starting the Game with a Plan
I like to start thinking about my first 3 turns and what I want to do. Then, obviously, be flexible to change it on the fly as you draw new cards. Having a good plan from the start has been super helpful for me, even though once the game starts that initial plan may shift a bit. Just make sure you factor your opponent's deck into that initial plan!
I remember this one time that I fell asleep while playing against a Darth Vader, Dark Lord of the Sith (SOR 10) deck. I went first, dropped a Jawa Scavenger (SOR 205) because that was my only Turn 1 play. Vader player then dropped a Death Star Stormtrooper (SOR 128). I took the initiative thinking all was good, but then my opponent used Vader's action to kill my Jawa and deal 1 damage to my base. The lesson learned after that was to do everything I can to either let the Vader player go first to see what they drop, or try and drop a 2-health unit that could survive the 1 damage from Vader's action.
Sequencing is Everything
Now we are a few phases into the game. This is when most of my mistakes usually happened when I first started playing Unlimited. It took me way too long to get in the habit of attacking with my units that are readied before playing new units, especially if you will not win a trade with said unit.
Too many times I played a unit with my first action of a phase, but then my opponent attacked my readied unit, defeating mine while their's survived, giving them a favorable action. That is a big damage swing that really hurts.
If you have a feeling that the enemy is about to kill one of your units – or if you see they have a good trade attack with targeting that unit – get the damage in before they are killed. An easy example of this is any sentinel unit. Your enemy must attack the sentinel, so you want to attack their base with your sentinel first. This maximizes your damage on the board because your opponent will likely be trying to kill your sentinel as soon as possible.
Correcting this and other attacking mistakes can happen simply by playing more games and gaining in-game experience. While this kind of sequencing is nothing new to people that have played a CCG before, if you are new to them – like me – this might take time to learn.
Now it's time to start hitting you with some of my biggest mistakes during my few months of playing Unlimited.
Don't Get Caught Off Guard
I highly suggest knowing what the big swings of your opponent's deck may be and when they may occur. Each deck typically has a target phase for when the correct number of resources are out to deploy their biggest threats. This tends to be the phase the leader comes out, but this is not always the case.
Boba Green (Command) is going to try and ramp Phase Three to get into 5 resources to deploy Boba early. Just knowing this possibility is very important, because now you can start to plan on how you will handle him when he appears sooner than expected.
Always be on guard around any green villain deck – like Boba, Vader, or Iden Versio, Inferno Squad Commander (SOR 2) – for an Overwhelming Barrage (SOR 92) play once they hit 5 resources.
Finally, let's say you're playing against a heroic Han Solo, Audacious Smuggler (SOR 17) deck. You know Han is going to have a big swing once he gets deployed, so be prepared for it: your opponent will use Han's action to first get their sixth resource, deploy him as a unit, then attack to gain an additional resource, all in the same phase.
Damage is Not Always Important
When I first started playing Unlimited, I would always attack with all my units to pump damage. Until this one game...
I had a great board state and an Overwhelming Barrage in hand with a good OB target on my side of the board, all ready for the next phase. But instead of taking the initiative, I attacked with an Inferno Four, Unforgetting (SOR 31) for 2 damage.
My opponent then took the initiative and played his own Overwhelming Barrage on me to start the next phase and killed my entire board. If I had taken the initiative and played my Overwhelming Barrage, instead of attacking with the Inferno Four for those measly 2 points, I would have wiped their board and won the game. Instead, Flockton lost. (Shocking I know.)
Passing can be a very good strategy to use. This allows you to let your opponent decide what you do by reacting. Passing can also be very risky at times. A Pass can give away what's in your hand.
Say I was playing against Sabine Wren, Galvanized Revolutionary (SOR 12). I'm playing a blue deck, and Sabine is coming out this phase as a leader unit. They see me holding 4 resources and passing, they know I have a Takedown.
Sabine is going to dance around, spending all her resources and pinging with her ability instead of deploying. Then, maybe they just take the initiative ending the round. I played no resources, and Sabine did a lot of damage to the base while I did nothing because I was gripping the Takedown.
There are countless times passing too much hurt me. This leads me to my next mistake: not deploying the leader.
Deploy Your Leader (Really)
I will say that I have forgotten to deploy my leader a few times early on in my Unlimited playing, which was bad. The real mistake I fell into a lot was not deploying my leader because I knew they are going to kill my leader.
It feels bad to deploy the leader and have them just die. This happens to Sabine, Iden, and IG-88, Ruthless Bounty Hunter (SOR 12).
But remember – if they are gripping those kill shots, it's not worth not deploying the leader knowing they will die, because they will eventually die. Get that kill card out of their hand by forcing them to use it.
Indeed, in most cases, you want to deploy your leader, even if they just die. What you want to do on the turn your leader comes out is to see if you can get the opponent to first spend their resources. That way, if they do, you know you can deploy your leader without it dying.
Once you see what they play – or what they don't play – it gives you insight into what may or may not be in their hand. If they play a sentinel on the turn you deploy your leader, for instance, you know that could be their only way to slow you down.
Resourcing Too Much
Mid- to late-game Resourcing is a very important part of Star Wars: Unlimited strategy, and resourcing too much can be a problem. I've seen many games with people resourcing too much and running out of cards in hand. There are some decks where it may make sense to get up to 12 resources, but there are other decks that you stay at 5 or 6 resources and only go up if you draw a card that requires one higher resource.
Quick Hits for a Better Game Experience
Lastly, here are some basic gameplay tips to improve games with your opponent:
• When playing, say what you are doing and read the card explaining what you want to do.
• When you do damage, tell them how much damage and where it is going.
• Count what damage your opponent puts on. People make mistakes and forget to add damage or they might heal too much. I'm bad with math so I make mistakes on my own sometimes, but if everyone counts the damage and pays attention, the games go much smoother. It's hard to retroactively figure out where the damage may be missing.
This is Not the Droid You're Looking For
Lastly – and probably my biggest mistake – was playing IG-88 and buying a showcase.
I love IG, but he has been a huge letdown. He is simply way too easy to kill when deployed with only 4 hit points (HP). Plus, in all the number of games I played with him, I maybe got his leader action ability off 3 times. You probably have a better chance of getting Hera Syndulla, Spectre Two's (SOR 8) ability off than IG-88's, lol.
Flockton
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