Star Wars Unlimited: Jump to Lightspeed Set Review

Star Wars Unlimited has been my favorite Trading Card Game for a little while now which is shocking because of how much I’ve also loved Altered, and how much I love Disney. While I still prefer the collectible aspect of something like Disney Lorcana better than Unlimited, gameplay wise it’s not even close. With past releases having a heavy emphasis on ground units, it was nice to see things getting mixed up with a set focused very specifically on space units and a brand new card type, Pilots. Let’s take a look at the brand new Star Wars Unlimited set, Jump to Lightspeed!

It seems that the Star Wars Unlimited developers are almost resetting the game with this release. Let me be clear, I make this comment as this release features a slew of quality of life improvements to the game as well as some balancing changes. The game goes back to what the general audience really knows about Star Wars: cards featuring Has Solo, R2D2, Darth Vader, and more “classic” Star Wars characters.

The Pilot cards are the big addition to the game. They provide unit cards a second deployment possibility, with improved health and other various features such as dishing out damage when deployed. These Pilots are considered upgrades for space units, although it should be noted that they are not considered “upgrades” when cards allow you to search your deck for an upgrade card, as in your deck they are considered pilots.

There are some cards that are obviously meant to be deployed as pilots, as on their own they are pretty useless. Other cards, such as the Spotlight Deck heroes Hans Solo and Bobba Fett have more universal options depending on your current situation. The game, I think, still pushes you to deploy them as Pilots, but they make perfectly fine ground units as well.

It is the emphasis on space units that I particularly enjoy about the Jump to Lightspeed release. So many of my games of Star Wars Unlimited have focused so heavily on ground unit combat that I’ve found, looking back, the space unit area so sparsely utilized. The two new Spotlight Decks, which include cards from past sets and the new sets (and are now sold separately as opposed to in a bundle) really highlights the new card type in a great, informative and educational way, making these “starter” decks more valuable then they have ever been. I’ve always been a fan of the quality of Star Wars Unlimited starter decks, which strike a nice balance between showcasing new ideas while also being relatively competitive for average Unlimited players.

I’ve never been more excited to play Star Wars Unlimited. Although Fantasy Flight Games always sends over a nice box of goodies to celebrate the launch of a new set (more on those in another article, you don’t want to miss that!) I’ve made personal investments of my own into this game and its systems because of how much I enjoy it. So while some of this has been gifted to me for the purpose of this article, you better believe I’ll be loading up on more boosters soon.