Star Wars Unlimited has revealed the two Spotlight starter decks for Secrets of Power, the game's next set. Chancellor Palpatine is a conniving schemer who makes ready use of the new Plot mechanic to play cards secretly hidden among your Resources; while Padmé Amidala puts pressure on your opponent's board, dealing damage when you discard or reveal a card from your hand - which you'll be doing a lot, thanks to the new Disclose mechanic.
It's interesting to see Star Wars Unlimited represent Star Wars' politics - one of the most intriguing parts of the world building, but often the clunkiest part of the movies - via game mechanics. It's not a part of the franchise that many game systems touch on, and the best Star Wars board games tend to focus on combat and adventure, not political skullduggery.
The two Leaders for the upcoming Spotlight decks are built around the set's flagship mechanics. They're a great window into how the new set will play, and they do a good job capturing the vibes of their characters. You can find the full deck lists on the Star Wars Unlimited website.
The front side of the new 'Chancellor Palpatine; How Liberty Dies' has a powerful exhaust ability, which costs one resource and lets you search the top five cards of your deck for a Plot card, reveal it, and put it into your hand.
Plot is similar to the existing Smuggle mechanic: if you've used a Plot card as a resource, you can play it for its cost when you Deploy your Leader as a unit (and replace the lost resource with a card from the top of your deck). This effectively means your 'hand' keeps expanding as you play out Resources. Palpatine's ability lets you craft the perfect scheme that you'll get to unleash when you finally Deploy him.
You need seven resources to Deploy Palpatine, but you'll get a very big effect when you finally do. When Deployed, he discounts the next card you play using its Plot ability by three resources. This means you can easily fire off two or three Plot cards right after you Deploy Palpatine. And as plot cards are all played at the moment your leader Deploys, not as separate actions, you can fire off a massive flurry of effects out of nowhere, with no opportunity for your opponent to respond - a great representation of the man behind Order 66.
One clutch card for Plot decks has been revealed for the set, the Villainy event 'When Has Become Now'. For a single Resource, this allows you to play a Plot card from your resources and replace it with a new resource from the top of your deck. This card is a safety valve that makes your deck less dependent on a single great turn when you Deploy. With enough Plot cards in your deck, it's halfway between a draw card and a tutor - it could have a lot of potential if the Plot card pool is deep enough.
If Palpatine is all about constructing a carefully concealed Plot that fires off in one explosive turn, Padmé wants to bring everything out into the light of day. On her front side she has an exhaust ability that allows you to deal one damage to a unit whenever you reveal a card from your hand or discard a card; and once you have six resources and Deploy her as a unit, this ability will trigger every time you discard or reveal a card.
The set's new Disclose mechanic is one of the best ways to reveal your cards. Some cards may give you the option to Disclose a specific set of Aspect symbols by revealing cards from your hand, and granting you a bonus if you do. Thinking about this in political terms, Disclosing feels like the part of a movie where a powerbroker shows off all the assets at their disposal to intimidate their rival.
Most of the revealed Disclose cards go from being slightly underpowered if you can't Disclose, to very solid if you can. For example 'Ahsoka Tano, I Learned It From You' is a two attack five defense ground unit for three resources: if she survives making an attack, and you can Disclose a Command and Heroism icon from your hand, you can immediately attack with another unit.
Once Padmé is deployed, her ability to ping enemy units will trigger each time you reveal or discard a card - she never was one to give up. But there is an obvious limit to the effectiveness of Disclose, whether you want to trigger Padmé or get its bonus effect on a card - you need to have cards in your hand to trigger it.
Not only will your deck feel underpowered when you can't Disclose, some cards may feel like very risky includes because of it. The event 'Charged with Corruption' costs three resources and lets one of your units capture an enemy unit - but you must disclose two Heroism Aspects from your hand, or it does fat nothing. That's an awful card to top deck.
What do you think - which is the bigger flavor win? Palpatine's plots, or Padmé's blazing integrity? Which deck sounds like more fun to play? Let us know in the official Wargamer Discord Community.
Secrets of Power releases in November, though an exact date hasn't yet been specified. Star Wars Unlimited doesn't have quite as many new sets as you'll find on the Magic: The Gathering release schedule - much to our relief!