Star Wars: The Deckbuilding Game Card Game Review - Second Opinion

Star Wars: The Deckbuilding Game 

WBG Score: 8

Player Count: 2

You’ll like this if you like: Star Realms, Hero Realms, Ascension  

Published by: Fantasy Flight Games

Designed by: Caleb Grace

This is a review copy. See our review policy here

We don't cover games twice on the site very often. There are just so many games, and not enough time to play and review them all! But this game is getting a second run, because after I read Steve's brilliant review which you can check out here, I was keen to try it myself and offer my own opinion. There are a lot of things in game reviews that affect why we score things high or low. Do we like the theme, mechanics, designer? Did we buy it for a lot of money and want to like it to convince ourselves our investment was worth it? And Steve as much as he loves Star Wars, is not a massive deck building fan when the mechanic is used in isolation like this. He prefers it incorporated into a wider game such as seen with Clank or the Undaunted series which he has brilliantly covered here. So, if you want to review a great peice about this game from someone who is not a huge deck-building fan like this, check out Steve's review. If you want to read a piece from someone who loves deck-builders and actively seeks them out, then read on. For the record, I also adore Star Wars, love two-player games, and played this mostly with my son who also adores the theme and mechanic.

How To Set Up Star Wars: The Deck Building Game

First, each player must decide which side they want to play on: the dark or light side. Will you be on the Rebel Alliance or the side of the mighty Empire? As a former Total Film employee, obviously, I sided with the Rebels. Take the base cards for your chosen side and find the starting base, shown clearly on the front of the card. For your first game, the rules suggest using the four other starting bases shown in the rule book. But I see no reason why you cannot go straight in and use all ten bases as described in the Full Galaxy advanced option. The only other rule that changes is that now you play to destroy four bases instead of three. But ultimately, you can dictate this yourself. Based on the length of game you want. I just see no reason why you wouldn't want to see all bases in the game from game one.

Place your starting base on top of the others, be that four or nine, and place this in front of you so you can just see the starting base. The order does not matter as you will choose which base you want to use next from all available options. Now, take the ten starter cards for each side and give them to each player. These are shown on the front of the cards with the words Empire Starter or Rebel Starter shown clearly. Each player will shuffle these together and then draw a starting hand of five cards, placing the other five in a face down pile.

Next, shuffle the main deck of cards and deal the top six out. Place the red Rebel cards facing the Rebel player, and the same with the blue Empire cards, with these facing the Empire player. You will notice these have upside-down text areas on the bottom. You face them to their respective players, so they can read the top half, and the other player can easily read the bottom. Place the grey neutral cards normally. Then place the ten Outer Rim pilot cards at the end of this array of cards with the remaining deck on the other end, face down.

Finally, place all purple damage counters and the yellow resource counters into a general supply. Then lay out the Balance of the Force track and add this to the table so both players can easily access it. Place the white cube onto the far left side, on top of the red Rebel logo. You are now ready to play.

How To Play Star Wars: The Deck Building Game

Now, taking it in turns, players will use all five cards in their hand to try and advance their deck, buy new cards, attack their opponents base, and potentially get rid of starting cards. When have used your five cards, you will place them into your personal discard pile. You will draw five new cards from your personal deck. The other player then does the same. As you start with ten cards, your first two hands will simply be your starting cards in various combinations. But, if you buy a card in your first two turns, which you should do, this will then be shuffled into your discard pile and from your third turn onwards, potentially drawn into you new hand of five cards. As you buy more cards and get rid of the starting ones, you will quickly develop more powerful hands to use. This is classic deck-building.

When you play a card, it will show various powers on the top left of the card: your attack value, resource generation, and Force power. There will also be some text showing a potential card power. You can activate all of these icons, collect the resources it generates, move the Force marker on the Balance track the number of spaces shown on this card towards you (if you can), and then you can use the card's text ability and/or commit it to an attack. One card really can do it all!

Committing to an attack simply means saying that this card will attack a specific opponent's card, either an enemy card within the array or their base. You want to attack the cards in the array so your opponent won't be able to buy them, and they also offer a reward to you if you are successful, as shown on the reverse text. You will want to attack the bases because, well, that's how you win the game!

When you use the card's ability, rotate the card 90 degrees to remind yourself you have activated this power this round. When you attack a card in the array, you need to have an attack value equal to or higher than the card's target value, as shown on the bottom left of each card. You can use multiple cards to attack one card or base. When you attack a base, your opponent will place damage tokens equal to the attack on the base. If they have bought additional ships to defend their base, these must be attacked first. When they are entirely eliminated, or if there are none there, the base takes the damage. When the base takes more damage than it can hold, it is destroyed and removed from the game. Remember, first to destroy three bases, or four in the full game, wins.

But the main part will be buying cards. Building up your deck to create the hand of cards you need to get the edge over your opponent. To buy a card, you will spend resources generated by your played cards, this round or previously (you can save them up) to cover the cost of the cards shown in the array. The costs are on the top left of the card. You can only buy cards faithful to you, or neutral cards. Your opponent's cards can be attacked, of course, or bought by them, but not you. So, there may be times when the array offers you minimal options. That is just the luck of the draw.

Some cards have the option to let you exile cards. This means removing them from the game. It is a great way to thin out your weaker starting hand, so the more powerful cards you have bought cycle through your hand, discard, and replayable deck quicker. You get to use them more often. There are also Capirak Ship cards. These are placed horizontally in the array, and when bought, are placed in front of your base, not into your discard pile. They stay there, offering additional powers that can be used each turn, and also offering protection to your base from incoming attacks.

When your base is destroyed, remove all damage tokens on it and give the base to your opponent to place next to their end of the balance track. Any additional damage this base could not take is wasted and placed back into the supply. It does not transfer to the next base. At the start of your next turn, you will choose a new base from your remaining options, picking any one, and adding it face up on top of your remaining bases. Each new base will offer a new power as shown on the base card itself, and its own damage limit, as clearly marked on the front of the card.

You can play with the starting bases as mentioned, or all of them. Or pick four in secret at the start of the game, and place these under your starting base for a more covert game. There is a two-versus-two mode, and you can adjust the game length accordingly based on what each player wants. Finally, there is also an option to play whereby the Neutral cards can be paid off. You do this by paying the cost of the neutral cards you do not want, but also you do not want your opponent to get. Pay the cost, and remove the card to the discard pile. You may do this as the card doesn't work for your strategy, but you know it will help your opponent. And talking about strategies, onto my thoughts...

Is It Fun? Star Wars: The Deckbuilding Game Card Game Review - Second Opinion

As mentioned, I love deck-builders. I am a fan of two-player games. And I also love the Star Wars universe. So this game is perfect for me. It plays fast with an incredibly simple setup and rules teach. Especially if people are familiar with deck-building as a concept, this is incredibly simple. Almost non-existent. We started playing straight away after a quick five-minute glance at the rule book. Don't worry, I studied it more for the above teach!

But this game does not really do anything new. There are no new rules, mechanics, or even keywords that offer something radically different in this game to something along the lines of Star Realms or Hero Realms. However, what it does offer, is a slick version of these deck-building classics, within the universe of a beloved IP, with all the heroes and villain's Star Wars fans love, in a very polished and easy to play package. It doesn't do anything new, but it does the old tricks really well.

That said, there is some very clever card play generated by the Balance of the Force tracker, which is somewhat of a new concept. When the force is with you (the tracker is on your side), the cards you play have additional powers. For example, this X-Wing card lets you draw an additional card, this U-Wing lets you repair three damage, or Luke Skywalker himself, who has the awesome power of being able to destroy entire ships (not bases) when the force is with you. The Empire has less cards that benefit from this, with less characters having the force themselves, but Darth Vader's power to gain an additional four attack power to his existing six is pretty formidable!

There are also some interesting powers that can be used for Unique cards, such as The Millennium Falcon, which lets you add another Unique card from your discard pile into your hand. This means you could play a card such as Han Solo, another Unique card, which lets you draw an additional card as well as offering three attack value and two resources. Then, on your next turn, you can play the Millennium Falcon, with its five attack value and two resources, bringing back Han, which now lets you draw two cards as it has a stronger power with the Millennium Falcon in play. You will have not only a hand of seven now, instead of five, but a total attack value of eight just from these two cards. It's a lovely little combo, and the game is littered with these beautiful, thematic, and intriguing plays.

Personally, I have not used the Neutral cards as much. They are interesting and certainly do balance out the deck, meaning it is less likely that one player can dominate the array. Both players being able to buy these cards does make for a more interesting and balanced game. I just don't like the powers as much. The Twi'Lek Smuggler card, for example, costs three resources and simply lets you place the next card you buy straight to the top of your deck. As someone who likes to thin my deck, this is not overly useful for me; so I am more of a fan of Jabba, who lets me Exile one card, two if the force is with me! This works great with cards like Kel Dor Mystic, who also has an Exile power. I like to get rid of my starting hand, buy few but powerful cards, and cycle through them quickly and efficiently. This game has a great way of allowing you to do that. And I have found when I get that sort of deck running quickly, it is hard to beat.

Another strategy that has worked well, especially when playing as the Empire, is buying as many Capital Ships as possible, especially when Admiral Piett is in play. He adds one additional attack value to all Capital Ships, and with a few in play, can make your attacks devastating. I especially like pairing this with the Imperial Carrier, when available, and the Gozanti Cruiser. These cards work hand-in-hand to let you cycle through your deck faster, helping you find the cards you need more efficiently, and also adding additional fighting power.

And it is these thematic combo turns that feel deeply rooted within the Star Wars universe, served up game after game in these easily digestible 25-minute sessions, that keep me coming back for more. I agree with all the points Steve made in his review. I am just approaching this game from a slightly different perspective as I love this mechanic. So, I thought it was worth a second opinion. If you too love deck-builders and are a fan of Star Wars, then if you are looking for a new two-player game that plays in under half an hour, I would not look much further than this. All your favourite characters are there. The game oozes theme. And the card interplay is fantastic. May the Force be with you, unless you are playing against me.