With the 2024 release of the CCG Star Wars Unlimited, I thought I'd post a short article about the history of all of the Star Wars themed card games over the last two decades. It was inspired by this humorous post on BGG: Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me five or six times.
Over the years, I have owned and/or played nearly every one of these games. Some are good, some are less good. But they are all Star Wars, so none are bad... lol
If you are iffy on what a CCG is verses a TCG, you might find this article helpful: CCG vs TCG vs OCG vs LCG.
During the 1990s, CCGs were the hot, new rage. Not only did players love the format, it was fun and exciting to collect cards covered with art or stills from their favorite movies. And they were a HUGE cash-cow for publishers. So, on the heels of their successful Star Trek CCG in 1994, Decipher published the Star Wars CCG in 1995.
The SWCCG had a unique design element amongst the many CCGs of the day in that it had two separate sets of cards: Light Side and Dark Side. Moreover, these sets could not be mixed because the card backs were side specific. Most cards were unique to each side, but Location cards often had a version in each that was favorable to that side. This asymmetrical design wasn't common and made for interesting strategies in both deck-building and game play. Moreover, if a player didn't know which side they were going to play, he/she would need to build two independent decks - one from each side's cards.
The game's main resource was Force, as one would expect from a Star Wars game. Locations generated this and was used to buy other cards out of a player's hand. These cards could be characters, vehicles, weapons, or effects. Further, the main object was to deplete your opponent's Life Force via Force Drains which is a thematic way of saying getting all of your opponent's cards in the lost pile.
Over the course of the following six years, Decipher published 11 major expansions and numerous promo-style expansions. In all, the card total amounted to over 3,000 cards! The sets covered the original trilogy, of course, as well as the first prequel The Phantom Menace (1999). In an interesting twist of the SW canon, the final set, Theed Palace (the royal palace on Naboo), treated Darth Sidious, Emperor Palpatine, and Senator Palpatine as three separate people (how could Yoda or Mace Windu not sense this?!?!).
When Decipher lost the rights to Star Wars, a non-profit group called the Star Wars CCG Players’ Committee took over maintenance of the game. To this day, they still publish digital expansions and host online play and tournaments.
Twenty-some years later, finding cards or sets to buy is extremely challenging. They can be found on eBay and the like, but expect to pay a pretty penny.
These two esoteric, and largely forgotten, games were published by Decipher before they lost their license.
Young Jedi CCG was based on Episode I: The Phantom Menace and targeted younger and/or beginner CCG players. Decipher did this by drastically simplifying the rules to make it easy to learn and play. Its deck-building was straightforward making the game popular at the time. However, older fans of the SWCCG were turned off by its lack of strategic depth. It continued the concept of Light Side / Dark Side decks, which ultimately became a "thing" in Star Wars CCGs for years to come.
Game play included pod-racing and lightsaber duels and was won by controlling two of the three battleground planets or simply by running your opponent out of cards. Controlling a battleground planet meant at the end of any turn, your opponent had no cards in play at the planet while you do. In all, Young Jedi released 8 sets over the course of a couple of years. Fans of InQuest Gamer magazine voted Young Jedi as "CCG of the Year" in 1999.
Jedi Knights TCG was published just before Decipher lost their license in 2001 and thus it was only available for less than a year. It was largely lampooned for its use of computer graphic based imagery that didn't go over well with fans and certainly hasn't aged well. It produced only three sets (the base and two expansions) before being ended.
It, too, used simplified mechanics. The goal of the game was to gain control over as many locations as possible by using characters and starships to battle one another on ground locations or in space. Unlike Decipher's other games, Jedi Knights it didn't have clear cut Light Side / Dark Side decks. But it did support up to four players, though most players agree it only played well with two.
- Young Jedi CCG
- Jedi Knights TCG
In 2001, Hasbro-owned Wizards of the Coast obtained the coveted Star Wars license. Designed by CCG mega-star Richard Garfield, the creator of Magic: The Gathering, Star Wars TCG took an entirely different direction from the original SW CCG. Kept were the Light Side / Dark Side decks and photo imagery, but that was about it. Added were various counter tokens and several dice.
In SW TCG, players simultaneously battled in the game's three arenas: Space, Ground, and Character. Similar to Young Jedi, the goal is to control two of the three of the battlegrounds, however, some cards added additional win conditions. This gave the feeling of fighting on all sides at once which was reminiscent of the films.
SW TCG had easier rules and mechanics than the SW CCG had, but that simplicity inevitably divided fans. Also, the game was released during a time when the prequels were putting a bad taste in the mouths of Gen X Star Wars fans who weren't thrilled with them. In the end, Wizards of the Coast released 10 expansion sets before they lost their license.
Like the Star Wars CCG Players’ Committee, a similar group called the Independent Development Committee took over creating cards and expansions as free downloads after Wizards of the Coast but the game on hold in 2005. However, they weren't official like the Players’ Committee was and continue to do their best to avoid copyright infringement. That said, they've created a lot of expansions, far more than the published game ever had.
This quirky and short-lived game was published by WizKids for only a year. Its shtick was, in addition to normal cards, a booster pack contained plastic cards from which you would punch out vehicle parts that you then then assembled into little mini-vehicles. The game was played with decks of 30 rather than the traditional 60 and had fast game play. Several expansions were released and players could amass quite a fleet of vehicles, but the game died when the rights to produce PocketModel games changed owners, but didn't include the Star Wars brand with them.
Star Wars fans were ushered into the Fantasy Flight Era with the release of this game in 2012. Fantasy Flight Games published under its Living Card Game model rather than as a collectable card game. What that meant for players was that there would be no chase (or cost) for the powerful, rare cards amongst endless booster packs. Instead, every expansion pack released would have the exact same cards in it, meaning players would all have the same cards to build their decks from.
Fantasy Flight Games kept up the Light Side / Dark Side deck structure. It also included several non-card components and added asymmetrical win conditions. The Dark Side would win if a Death Star Dial reached 12 (on the 12th round or earlier if various game effects advanced it mid-round). The Light Side won by destroying three Dark Side objectives before the Dark Side won. During the game, players attacked their opponent's objective cards during a "Force Struggle." This was one of the ways the Dark Side could advance the Death Star dial.
The game was hailed for its custom, painting-style Star Wars art throughout. It was a welcome contrast to the movie stills and photo art used by its predecessors. The style made the overall ascetic reminiscent of Magic: The Gathering and, thus, well-liked by fans.
The Living Card Game style appealed to many players who were burned out on the CCG-card chase or just didn't want to enter it. That, and FFG's reputation for quality, made Star Wars - The Card Game one of this list's most popular games. Today, despite being a decade old, it still ranks well on BGG and remains in the top 1,000 games.
Destiny was a relatively short-lived, yet fairly well received, trading card game published by Fantasy Flight Games and was a divergence from its traditional LCG model. It maintained the Star-Wars-card-game standard of Light Side / Dark Side card distribution. Interestingly, it allowed characters from different periods of the Star Wars canon to be played in the same deck; so you could have Mace Windu in the same deck as Rey.
Much to the chagrin of many players, however, Destiny had a dice-based, albeit interesting, combat mechanic. Each character had its own D6 which character-specific stickers on each side that were rolled during that character's combats. While it added an element of randomness, honestly, the dice looked cheap and players ended up with lots of them! And undoubtedly they were not very well balanced.
In the end, despite its qualities, Fantasy Flight dropped it in 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic basically squashed all organized play indefinitely. Nevertheless, it holds second place in this list with a BGG rank in the 650s.
Unlike the other games in this list, Star Wars - The Deckbuilding Game is not a type of CCG. In fact, as of the writing of this article, there are no expansions; it's simply a one-box game. As the name implies, it is a deck-building game which means players are building their decks as the game progresses instead of before the game starts. They do this by buying new cards from a central tableau of cards available to both players. As such, this game play has more similarities to Star Realms or Dominion than it does the other games in this list.
Players start with a small deck comprised of basic cards unique to their side. As the game progresses, they purchase cards from Galaxy Row. Some cards can only bought by the Empire and some cards can only be bought by the Rebels, but some cards are neutral can be bought by either side. The goal is to destroy three of your opponent's bases with your character cards and vehicle cards all the while protecting your own with capital ship cards.
The game's central deck is tightly balanced as is game play; in every game I've played the outcome has been incredibly close. This well-deigned game is arguably the most popular game on this list; currently, it holds a BGG rank in the 250s, the best in the list. Only time will tell if Star Wars Unlimited can surpass it.
With Magic: The Gathering's 30th Anniversary, 2023 saw a big resurgence of CCG / TCG interest. Fantasy Flight Games responded with its newest Star Wars CCG: Star Wars - Unlimited. It seemingly came out of now where and took gamers by surprise, but the buzz was loud after it was announced. Again, diverging from its traditional LCG model, Unlimited is a CCG and from very early on FFG announced numerous expansions and, perhaps... well, unlimited. (ugh!)
Wisely, Fantasy Flight attempted to attract players from the hugely popular table-top genera with mechanics designed to feel more mainstream and simplified than traditional CCGs. First, the typical 60-card deck was reduced to 50 cards making deck creation from booster packs easier. Decks can contain cross-era cards (like Destiny) adding to more interesting game situations and games are only expected to last a mere 20 minutes. Plus, its all-custom art and visual design is fresh and absolutely beautiful.
Game play is fairly simple and the goal of the game is to hit your opponent's base 30 times - which will destroy it - with unit attacks. There is some overlap with the mechanics with Star Wars - The Deckbuilding game in terms of card activating and usage, but it is definitely a different game. Also, while it supports up to 4 players, I think it's fair to say Unlimited is really just a 2-player game.
As a modern CCG would require, a dedicated and well-designed online presence existed from the start. All of this leads me to believe FFG has invested heavily in this CCG and expects it to be around for the long haul. I think my 100%-complete SW CCG collection is about to get a neighbor on the shelf.
| Game | Year | Publisher | Sold As | BGG
Rank | BGG
Rating | Weight | Deck
Size | Play
Time | Sets / Cards |
| SW CCG | 1995 | Decipher | CCG | ~2,400 | 6.7 | 3.17 | 60 | 60 mins | 12 / 3,000+
Virtual: 22 / ? |
| Young Jedi | 1999 | Decipher | CCG | ~26,000 | 5.0 | 1.64 | 60 | 45 mins | 5 / ~560 |
| Jedi Knights | 2001 | Decipher | TCG | ~25,500 | 4.8 | 2.00 | | 20 mins | 3 / 434 |
| SW TCG | 2002 | Wizards of the Coast | TCG | ~10,500 | 5.9 | 2.00 | 60 | 45 mins | 10 / 1285
Virtual: 42 / ~6,000 |
| SW PocketModel | 2007 | WizKids | TCG | ~14,500 | 5.8 | 1.62 | 30 | 20 mins | 3 / 300 + 54 plastic unit cards |
| SW The Card Game | 2012 | Fantasy Flight Games | LCG | ~900 | 7.2 | 2.97 | | 30-60 mins | 11 (6 cycles + 5 Deluxe) / ~580 |
| SW Destiny | 2016 | Fantasy Flight Games | CCG+dice | ~650 | 7.4 | 2.45 | | 30 mins | 10 / ~450 |
| SW Deckbuilding game | 2023 | Fantasy Flight Games | Deckbuilding | ~250 | 7.9 | 2.03 | 10+ | 30 mins | 1 / 140 |
| SW Unlimited | 2024 | Fantasy Flight Games | CCG | ~1,200 | 8.2 | 2.24 | 50 | 20 mins | 2+ / 262+ |
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