With the release of Twilight of the Republic, the first year of Star Wars™: Unlimited has come to a close. Of course, this party is only just getting started. Now, it’s time to turn our gaze to the stars, because a new set is on the horizon, and this time, it’s all about space.
Welcome to the official first look at Jump to Lightspeed, the thrilling fourth set of Star Wars: Unlimited!
All three of the first year’s sets had a heavy focus on ground battles, with far more ground units than space ones. The first set of the second year flips that formula on its head, with a heavy emphasis on iconic starfighters, transports, and capital ships from across multiple eras of the Star Wars galaxy. There’s so much of a focus on space that this set introduces a brand-new keyword to the fray: Piloting!
We’ve got a lot to cover today, so let’s dive right into Jump to Lightspeed!
Spotlighting Leaders
To kick things off, we have a pair of leaders to show you. In past sets, the first two leaders revealed would come from the set’s Two-Player Starter. However, starting from Jump to Lightspeed, and for every set onward, a Two-Player Starter will no longer be part of the product lineup. Instead, this set introduces a new product type to the fold: Spotlight Decks!
Spotlight Decks are pre-built decks that contain a mixture of cards from multiple sets, with cards from the new set making up the majority of the deck. Each Spotlight Deck contains five Special-rarity cards that are unique to that product, one of which is the leader card. Two Spotlight Decks will release with every set, which means there are ten Special-rarity cards in total, the exact same number as there were in previous sets’ Two-Player Starters.
The first of the Jump to Lightspeed Spotlight Decks is none other than Boba Fett (Jump to Lightspeed, 9). This fierce bounty hunter specializes in indirect damage, a new mechanic introduced in this set. When his leader side’s ability is triggered, you can exhaust Boba to deal 1 indirect damage to your opponent, which means they must choose one of their units or their base and assign 1 unpreventable damage to it.
Boba Fett (and the other Spotlight Deck leader that we’ll cover in a moment) is also our first instance of a leader with two different deployment options: the first lets him deploy as a leader unit as normal, while the second lets him deploy as a “Pilot upgrade.” This turns Boba into a beefy upgrade that you attach to one of your Vehicle units, turning that unit into your leader unit and seriously bolstering its stats. He also has an ability that triggers when he is deployed as an upgrade, letting him deal a decent chunk of damage to your opponent’s units.
Leaders aren’t the only cards in this set that can turn into Pilot upgrades. Many unit cards, such as Bossk (Jump to Lightspeed, 187), can be played as an upgrade instead thanks to the new Piloting keyword. Similar to the Smuggle keyword from Shadows of the Galaxy, Piloting comes with its own alternate cost that you pay to play the card instead of its usual cost. This means you could choose to play Bossk as a 4-cost unit or pay 2 resources to play him as a Pilot upgrade on a Vehicle unit.
As for Bossk’s ability, being able to ping enemy units for little bits of damage synergizes well with Boba Fett’s leader ability. Any time you can get an enemy unit’s health low makes the opponent’s decision on where to assign indirect damage all the more difficult, doubly so when a card like No Disintegrations (Jump to Lightspeed, 144) can bring a unit down to just 1 remaining HP. Combine all that with potent, indirect damage-focused ships like Hunting Aggressor (Jump to Lightspeed, 165), Zygerrian Starhopper (Jump to Lightspeed, 183), and the iconic Fett’s Firespray (Jump to Lightspeed, 240), and your opponent will have to make these hard decisions throughout the entire game!
Our second Jump to Lightspeed Spotlight Deck features Han Solo (Jump to Lightspeed, 17) as its leader. As with his other iterations in Star Wars: Unlimited, Han comes into the new set with an adaptable playstyle that encourages you to think on the fly. His leader ability has you check the top card of your deck and then perform a boosted attack with one of your units, so long as those two cards have different odd costs. Naturally, this means Han’s whole deck is full of odd-cost cards to maximize his effectiveness. Similar to the Boba Fett leader, you can choose to deploy Han as a Pilot upgrade, and when you do so, you can immediately ready a resource for each friendly unit or upgrade with an odd cost. If you play your cards right, you could potentially ready all of your resources at once, opening up lots of options and keeping your opponent guessing.
Speaking of options, Han Solo’s pre-built deck wouldn’t be complete without the Millennium Falcon (Jump to Lightspeed, 249). This iconic ship allows you to attach an extra Pilot upgrade to it (and gains a power boost for each one), which means you could have Han Solo pilot the ship alongside his faithful first mate Chewbacca (Jump to Lightspeed, 103), turning it into an absolute powerhouse. It will be hard for your opponent to deal with the ship when it has 11 power, 11 HP, and can’t be removed from play by enemy card abilities!
Of course, the Millennium Falcon isn’t the only ace up Han Solo’s sleeve. Cards like Never Tell Me the Odds (Jump to Lightspeed, 208) and the Death Space Skirmisher (Jump to Lightspeed, 217) can help you deal with enemy units, while cards like Tandem Assault (Jump to Lightspeed, 124) can let you attack with two units at once. With careful planning and a bit of good luck, Han’s deck can clear a path and let you cruise your way to victory!
Packs of Prestige
The Spotlight Decks are not the only new product type arriving with Jump to Lightspeed. This set also introduces a brand-new type of booster pack geared for collectors: the Carbonite Edition booster packs! These premium packs have the same number of cards as normal boosters, however, while normal booster packs have a single foil card and only a chance of containing a Hyperspace or Showcase variant, all cards in a Carbonite pack have some form of special aesthetic treatment. This means that when you open up a Carbonite Edition booster pack, every single card is guaranteed to be a collector’s item, whether it’s foil, Hyperspace, Hyperspace foil, Showcase, or the new, Carbonite Edition-exclusive Prestige variants. That said, as a quick emphasis, these are all variants of existing cards in the set; no unique cards will ever be exclusive to Carbonite Edition packs, just unique aesthetic treatments.
We’ll have more information to share about Carbonite Edition booster packs in the future, but for now, we just have one more note to make: not only are these booster packs premium, they are also limited. Only a certain number of Carbonite Edition booster packs will be printed for each set, and once they’re gone, they’re gone. These are designed to help bolster the collections of dedicated collectors and diehard fans, and they won’t be reprinted, so if you fancy grabbing ahold of one, make sure you do so right away once the set releases!
With over 250 new cards, the new Piloting keyword, and new product types in the lineup, Jump to Lightspeed is a strong opening act for the second year of Star Wars: Unlimited. Stay tuned for more news, previews, card spoilers, and gameplay as we look forward to the fourth set’s release in March 2025!
Written by Peter Schumacher
