Star Wars: Customizable Card Game
(
SW:CCG) is a
customizable card game based on the
Star Wars fictional universe. It was created by
Decipher, Inc., which also produced
the
Star Trek
Customizable Card Game and
The Lord of the Rings
Trading Card Game. The game was produced and continued
production from
December 1995 until December
2001. It then
began being run by the
Players
Committee and still is, in which they make
virtual cards.
History and Overview
Star Wars CCG was first released in December 1995 after
game play rights were purchased from a game designer. Over the
years, Decipher added 11 full expansions to the original card base,
as well as numerous smaller expansions, special purpose sets, and
promotional releases. The last set, Theed Palace, was offered in
the fall of 2001. The game spanned all of the classic Star Wars
trilogy (
A New
Hope,
The Empire
Strikes Back, and
Return
of the Jedi) as well as
The Phantom Menace. During several
years of the game's run, between 1995 and 1998, it was a
top-selling CCG, second only to
Magic: The Gathering and
occasionally surpassing
Magic, according to both
InQuest and
Scrye magazines.
At the end of 2001, after much negotiation,
Lucasfilm chose not to renew Decipher's license to
use the Star Wars intellectual property.
The license was
granted to Wizards of
the Coast
, which used it to create their own game, the
Star Wars Trading Card
Game. Decipher can no longer legally create new
expansions to SWCCG; many cards that were in development can never
be released to the public.
In addition to the appeal of Star Wars Universe itself, much of
Star Wars CCG s popularity derives from unique aspects
that are not as apparent in other trading card games:
- The game contains a real story telling aspect. As a game
evolves, it creates its own story. Also, each game played is quite
different from any other.
- The complexity level is far deeper than nearly any other card
game. Thus, the better player wins nearly all the time.
- There are a huge variety of decks at tournaments. Nearly any
deck played well can win. In addition, the game had a unique rule
governing tournament deck construction; rather than calling an
'unbalanced' card illegal for tournament play, Decipher would
introduce cards in later expansions to counter or cancel the card,
adding another layer of strategy to deck building.
As of 2009, SWCCG still has an active playing community. The game
is administered by a Players' Committee, which interprets rules,
organizes tournaments, and releases "virtual expansions" which give
alternate game text for existing cards. The new "virtual cards"
function as entirely new cards and keep the game environment
constantly evolving. The "virtual card" overlays are available for
free on the Players' Committee website, though players must have
the original card to use its "virtual" version. To date, the
Players' Committee has produced 17 virtual sets.
Gameplay
Each game requires one player to play the Light Side of the
Force while the other plays the
Dark Side. In friendly play, a player can specialize in one side or
the other, but for tournaments, players need both Dark and Light
decks. The Star Wars CCG seems unique among customizable card games
in this aspect. The action of the game occurs at various "Location"
cards (both interstellar and planet-bound) familiar from the Star
Wars Universe. Locations can be deployed as the game progresses;
furthermore, most locations come in both Dark and Light-side
flavors, and an on-the-table location can be "converted" (changed
to the other side) at any time. Most locations affect game play in
some way; all also provide "Force icons," which represent the
amount of "Force" a player can activate per turn.
Force is the game's resource, similar to "mana" from
Magic: the Gathering; however, it
is executed quite differently and is the game's defining trait.
Each unit of "Force" is simply a card from the top of a player's
deck, placed off to one side in the "Force Pile." When used to
deploy something, each unit of Force is placed on another pile, the
"Used Pile," which then cycles back to the bottom of the deck.
Unused Force remains in the Force Pile, and can be conserved for
the next turn or drawn into hand. The objective of the game is to
force the opponent to discard all of their Life Force (consisting
of Reserve Deck, Force pile and Used pile). This is accomplished
via "Force Drains" (forcing the opponent to discard cards by
controlling, unopposed, a location with their Force Icons on it),
battling opposing characters, and resolving certain climactic
situations (for instance, freezing a character in carbonite,
winning a pod race, dueling a Jedi).
The game system also features "Destiny draws," which represents the
elements of chance, uncertainty, luck, random chance and the Force.
Each card has a destiny number, from 0 to 7, at the top-right
corner (except locations, which count as destiny 0), and rather
than using dice for generating random numbers, players "draw
destiny" from the top of their deck, revealing the top card and
using its destiny number as the result. This is used for a variety
of purposes, from determining weapon hits to mandatory losses your
opponent incurred to resolving whether a character passes a Jedi
Test. The drawn Destiny card goes to the Used Pile and is recycled
into the deck. Through this system, a skillful player can legally
count cards, remembering where the high-destiny cards are in the
deck. Finally, the stronger (or rarer) cards generally had lower
Destiny values (though there were exceptions); as a result,
less-experienced (or economically-challenged) players are more
likely to find that "The Force is with [them]."
While Decipher oversaw the game, no card was ever banned from
tournament play. Instead, when a card or strategy was deemed
abusive or too powerful, Decipher chose to release "magic bullets,"
new cards which were specifically designed to counter the offending
strategy. In some cases, Decipher also used
errata, modifications to game text of a card that
supersede the actual printed version. The use of errata also
contributes to a steep learning curve, since players need to be
aware of the current meta-game at all times. Finally, the game was
known for its quirky humor and inside jokes: one card, depicting
Luke's protracted hand-stand during
The Empire Strikes Back, was
printed with all text upside-down. Another described a character as
being
Boba Fett's twin brother, since the
same actor (
Jeremy Bulloch) played
both roles.
Sets
Full expansion sets
The following full sets were created by Decipher:
- Premiere (1995) - This was the first set for
the Star Wars CCG and included the characters of Luke Skywalker, Han
Solo, Leia Organa, C-3PO, Obi-Wan Kenobi,
and Darth Vader as well as many other
very useful cards that formed the core of the game. Perhaps the
most potent strategies was to pair Vader and Grand Moff Tarkin at an important
location. Acting in concert, they can cancel an opponent's destiny
draw. All of the images from this set were taken from A New Hope. This set, along
with A New Hope and Hoth, were sold in packs of 15 cards that
retailed for US$3.00.
- A New Hope (1996) - This set featured
additional cards taken from the first Star Wars movie. Important
debuts in this set included Chewbacca and R2-D2. Also of note were
the introduction of the Death Star as a system card, the
introduction of creatures, and a new mechanic that allowed for the
destruction of entire planets.
- Hoth (1996) - This was the first set to
include images from The Empire
Strikes Back. It was also the first set to introduce the
mechanic of a "persona," a version of a main character with
alternate abilities (e.g., Commander Luke Skywalker vs. Luke
Skywalker). Also included in this set were the immense AT-AT
walkers.
- Dagobah (1997) - This set featured cards from
the middle part of The Empire
Strikes Back. Significant cards included Yoda, another new
version of Luke (Son of Skywalker) and all of the bounty hunters,
their ships, and weapons (except Boba
Fett). This set was also the first to be sold in packs of 9
cards with an original retail price of US$2.50 per pack, where the
last card in the pack would always be the rare. This was to ensure
that players and collectors could acquire more rares and fewer
commons and uncommons. When originally released, this set developed
a bad reputation among players because of the introduction of many
new strategies that focused the game on deck manipulation at the
expense of the intense battling that had originally made the game
so popular.
- Cloud City (1997) - This set included new
versions of Han and Leia and also introduced Lando Calrissian as a character card in the
game. He was also unique in that he had both Light Side and Dark
Side personas. It also finally added Boba Fett to the game
(although he had been available as a preview card in the First
Anthology released earlier in the year.) This set also introduced
"dueling" as a major strategic mechanic for the Dark Side and
provided for the possibility that Luke could be turned to the Dark
Side. Cloud City also attempted to correct the abusive "numbers"
strategies prevalent since the release of Dagobah. Due to a large
print run, this set, as of 2009, is still very easy to
acquire.
- Jabba's Palace (1998) - This was the first set
to feature cards from Return of the
Jedi and focused on the opening scenes of the film where the
heroes tried to rescue Han from Jabba the Hutt. Jabba himself was
an important card, as was the new version of R2-D2 (Artoo), but on
the whole this set was seen as being fairly weak, especially from a
tournament perspective, by players who complained that there were
simply too many aliens that had little or no competitive use. This
is, as of 2009, the cheapest and easiest set to purchase.
- Special Edition (1998) - This was the largest
set since Premiere and the first to introduce new starter decks
(which included many cards that could only be found in them). This
set was seen as something of an overhaul of the game since it
changed some game terms and attempted to make the entire play
experience more streamlined through the release of a comprehensive
rulebook and glossary. The most notable addition in this set was
the introduction of the "objective" mechanic. These cards allowed a
player to start many more cards and provided a movie-based goal for
a player's deck. Many players praised this addition, arguing that
it made little-used strategies (like freezing people in carbonite)
useful. Others argued that it limited creativity and led to
cookie-cutter decks based around various objectives that all looked
and played the same. The most popular card in this set is probably
"Darth Vader, Dark Lord of the Sith."
- Endor (1999) - This was the first of two sets
to focus on the latter two-thirds of The Return of the Jedi. It included a
vast number of characters and vehicles that were designed to be
useful in battles. Upon release, this set garnered a poor
reputation because of the sheer number of ostensibly new but
seemingly redundant characters and vehicles contained therein.
However, its reputation has improved since then, as later
expansions have allowed for new decks featuring large amounts of
Endor cards, and it is, as of 2009, one of the more valuable and
expensive sets to purchase.
- Death Star II (2000) - This set was the second
to focus on the end of The Return
of the Jedi and along with Endor forms a stand-alone
environment, in which all of the cards from those two expansions
can be played independently of the other sets. This was also the
first set to feature ultra-rare cards (Luke Skywalker, Jedi Knight
and Emperor Palpatine). The inclusion of these two very powerful
and iconic characters, in addition to many useful supplementary
cards, coupled with general praise for its elegant design, has
given the set lasting appeal and led to it being, as of 2009, one
of the more expensive sets to purchase. This set, and all after it,
were sold in 11-card packs for a retail price of US$3.29.
- Tatooine (2001) - Tatooine was originally
scheduled to be a set based on the Skywalker family; this idea,
however, was abandoned when Decipher decided to allow for elements
of the film The Phantom Menace,
the first of the prequels, to mix with the "Classic Trilogy" cards,
at Lucasfilm's request. Thus, this set includes Qui-Gon Jinn, Darth
Maul, Padmé Naberrie, as
well as a younger version of Obi-Wan, and
was heavily focused on "pod racing." Anakin Skywalker was not included either in
this set or the following ones to avoid problems with having both
him and Darth Vader in the game
(ultimately, no Anakin card was ever printed). This set, which
contained fewer total cards than previous expansions, seems to have
had a relatively large print run, and thus it is relatively easy
and inexpensive to acquire.
- Coruscant (2001) - Coruscant focuses on events
from the middle of The Phantom
Menace, especially Senatorial conflict. A very limited print
run along with powerful strategies has made it by far the most
expensive set and hardest to acquire. There are a number of notable
cards in this set, including new versions of Queen Amidala, Qui-Gon,
and Darth Maul as well as the
introduction of Mace Windu.
- Theed Palace (2001) - This was the last set
produced for Star Wars CCG. The most popular and notable card in
this set is Darth Sidious who was, at
that time, not considered by Decipher to be the same person as
Emperor Palpatine or Senator Palpatine in the "game universe."
For gameplay reasons, these three cards have still not been
combined into one persona. This set is also somewhat difficult to
acquire.
Decipher also reprinted four sets (Premiere, A New Hope, Hoth, and
Dagobah). These reprinted cards sometimes had slightly different
game text (or other parts of the card) to reflect erratas that had
been issued, and all of them had white borders which indicated an
unlimited edition. Also, packs of revised A New Hope and Hoth were
sold in 9-card packs rather than the original 15.
Premium and additional sets
Decipher also created several smaller sets and premium products
which included additional cards:
- Premiere Two-Player Game (1995) - This set
included two preconstructed decks and a Premiere booster pack. The
decks included six unique cards available only in this set.
Included beginners' versions of Luke and Vader as well as the card
Vader's Obsession which would later become very powerful with the
introduction of dueling. The entire set was packaged in a board
game style box and was, indeed, often sold alongside board games at
many retail stores.
- Jedi Pack (1996) - This 11-card pack was
released as a thank you to players and was distributed for free via
an email offer. It contained versions of Han, Leia, Tarkin, and
Motti with very limited functionality, but nonetheless allowed
players to play with the, at the time, difficult to acquire "main
characters." The general consensus is that there are few truly
powerful cards in this set, with the possible exception of "Gravity
Shadow" (although "virtual" versions of some of the Jedi Pack
characters have since become useful).
- The Empire Strikes Back Two-Player Game (1996)
- Like the Premiere Two-Player Game, this set included a light and
dark side deck which included well as six premium cards as well as
a Premiere booster pack. There were limited functionality versions
of Chewie and Veers, but the true star of this set were the
Imperial Walkers and the card Walker Garrison. The Imperial Walkers
were low-deploy cost versions of AT-ATs that facilitated the use of
Walker Garrison, an extremely powerful card which increased force
drains on Hoth for the dark side to devastating levels. This is the
centerpiece of several decks and continues to be very
powerful.
- Rebel Leaders pack (1997) - This was a two
card set that featured Red Leader in Red 1 and Gold Leader in Gold
1. These ships were originally very powerful, but their utility has
decreased somewhat over time. The cards were given out free at many
major conventions where Decipher had a presence. Also Decipher had
a mail-in offer on their website so that players could obtain these
cards.
- Official Tournament Sealed Deck (1998) - This
set included 18 premium cards, four Premiere packs, and one A New
Hope pack. As the name implies, this set was used in tournaments.
Each player would be assigned a Side and would open their packs.
They would keep their Side's cards and pass the rest to the next
player, who would be the opposite Side. Once all of the cards were
sorted, the players would create a deck with the cards they
had.
- Enhanced Premiere (1998) - This set featured
six new cards: versions of Luke, Han, Leia, Obi-Wan, Vader, and
Boba Fett with their personal weapons built into the character
card. These six cards were incredibly powerful at the time of
release, and indeed, many of them eclipsed the power of the
original character cards. Several of these EPPs (so called because
they are found in Enhanced Premiere Packs) are still very useful in
competitive play. Each character came with four Premiere booster
packs. You could tell which character you were getting through the
die-cut box face.
- Enhanced Cloud City (1999) - This set featured
12 new cards, three per box (which came with four Cloud City
packs). The highlight of this set was the introduction of bounty
hunter character cards wielding their signature weapons. Like
Enhanced Premiere before, these new characters were generally more
powerful than their original versions. Also of note, were the two
Cloud City objectives in this set, one of which would dominate the
tournament play for many years.
- Enhanced Jabba's Palace (1999) - This set also
included 12 new cards. The "face cards" were versions of Luke,
Leia, and C-3PO from the Jabba's Palace scenes in Return of the Jedi as well as the first
ever character card of Mara Jade, a very popular character from
Timothy Zahn's series of novels. "Mara
Jade, The Emperor's Hand" easily became the most popular card in
this set and for a while was arguably the most popular card of any
set.
- Jabba's Palace Sealed Deck (2000) - This was
new version of the Tournament Sealed Deck themed around Jabba's Palace. The set included several
Jabba's Palace packs and 20 premium cards (10 Light Side and 10
Dark Side). These were used in the same format tournaments as the
Tournament Sealed Deck.
- Reflections II (2000) - 52 new cards were
featured in this set. Each Reflections II pack came with two of
these new cards (along with a foil version of a popular card from a
previous expansion set as well as a random assortment of other old
cards). Many of these premium cards were characters, ships, and
objects from the Star Wars
Expanded Universe. As with Mara Jade, models were used for
these characters which included the likes of Talon Karrde, Corran Horn, Dash Rendar, and Prince
Xizor. This set also introduced "combo" versions of past
interrupts, effects, and characters which combined two different
cards into one. These combo cards were very popular and made the
individual versions of the cards see less gameplay.
- Third Anthology (2000) - This boxed set
included six new cards, including two new objectives based around
the Death Star. The most popular card in this set is Artoo in
Red-Five. It is unique and very useful for having a destiny number
of 0 or 7, making it the card with the absolute best destiny number
in the game.
- Reflections III (2001) - Included with the
foils and random cards from previous expansions found in all
Reflections sets were 104 new cards (including "Boba Fett, Bounty
Hunter," "Leia, Rebel Princess," and "Han, Chewie, And The
Falcon"). Among the new cards were characters, a vehicle, and a
starship with "maintenance cost". These cards were extremely
powerful (some fans would argue "broken" in their power level) but
you had to pay each turn to keep them on the table. The other
notable addition in this set were defensive shields, cards that
were separate from your 60-card deck and were designed to counter
abusive strategies. This set had a limited print run and is now the
most expensive to purchase on the secondary market.
Other products
Several other products were released that did not include any cards
unique to the set or were otherwise introductory game products:
- Premiere Starter Deck (1995) - Random 60-card
decks containing cards from the Premiere set.
- First Anthology (1997) - This set featured six
preview cards that, while at the time were unique, were later found
in the Special Edition card set. The most popular one, at the time,
was the first appearance of Boba
Fett.
- Second Anthology (1998) - This product also
featured six preview cards, one from Special Edition, two from
Endor, and three from Death Star II. It also included eight packs
of Unlimited Premiere, two of Dagobah and two of Cloud City.
- Special Edition Starter Deck (1998) - 60-card
deck made of cards from the Special Edition set, made up of "Fixed"
rarity cards, unique to this product, and randomized Commons,
Uncommons, and Rares. The product also came with an updated
glossary containing rule erratas and special
rulings.
- Reflections (1999) - Each 18-card pack of
Reflections contained one rare card from a previous set that was
deemed to be a fan favorite after a poll on Decipher.com was taken.
These cards were overlaid with foil that made them shine in the
light. The remaining 17 cards were a random mixture of past cards,
thus making it possible to find packs with multiple rares. Some
have even found packs containing only rares.
- Death Star II Starter Deck (2000) -
Preconstructed 60-card decks made of cards primarily from the Death
Star II and Endor sets (although it contained a few cards from
previous sets). Unique to these decks were the Admiral Piett and Admiral Ackbar cards.
Virtual Sets
Virtual Set Blocks
Due to the Revolution errata the previous virtual sets have been
lumped into "blocks". The blocks are:
- Virtual Block 1: A New Hope
- Virtual Block 2: The Empire Strikes Back
- Virtual Block 3: Return of the Jedi
- Virtual Block 4: Expanded Universe
- Virtual Block 5: The Old Republic
- Virtual Block 6: Reflections IV
- Virtual Block 7: Galaxy At War (forthcoming)
The plan from here on out is to release individual sets and once
enough sets are created to become a block; a new block will be
made. Virtual Set 19 will be the first set in the new block of
"Galaxy at War". Virtual sets 20, 21, and 22 will also comprise
this block.
Previous Virtual Sets
- Virtual Set 1: Legacy
- Virtual Set 2: Our Most Desperate Hour
- Virtual Set 3: Revolution
- Virtual Set 4: Battle of Hoth
- Virtual Set 5: A Dark Time
- Virtual Set 6: A City in the Clouds
- Virtual Set 7: Shadows of the Empire
- Virtual Set 8: Jabba's Court
- Virtual Set 9: Sanctuary Moon
- Virtual Set 10: Fourth Anthology
- Virtual Set 11: A Gathering Storm
- Virtual Set 12: Magistrates & Martyrs
- Virtual Set 13: Remote Outpost
- First set to be able to change card titles/names.
- Virtual Set 14: Armed & Operational
- Virtual Set 15: Galactic Frontier
- Virtual Set 16: Revenge of the Sith
- Virtual Set 17: The Force Unleashed
- First set to feature new card images.
- Virtual Set 18: Fifth Anthology
- Virtual Set 19: Galaxy at War (due February 2010)
Mass erratas and changes
- Redux 1.0 (2007)
- Re-Edit (2007)
- CBT Erratas (2008)
- "Non-Redux" (December 2008)
- Revolution (August 2009)
Canceled expansions
Despite the release of
The Phantom Menace in 1999,
Decipher planned to continue to release expansions based on the
original trilogy. This decision was changed following the success
of the Death Star II expansion and urging from both fans and
LucasFilm. Three expansions and one mini-expansion were planned for
release through to the end of their license agreement with
LucasFilm at the end of 2001.
- Shadows of the Empire (August 2000) -
Mini-expansion of around 20 cards based on the book, Shadows of the Empire
by Steve Perry. This was meant
as an intermediate expansion to test the grounds of expanded
universe material. This expansion merged with "Reflections II" in
the form of 16 premium cards.
- Skywalkers (November 2000) - The first full
expansion following "Death Star II" based on a character group
found in the card game, Skywalkers was designed around Luke
Skywalker, Leia Organa, and Darth Vader/Anakin Skywalker. It was to
be the first expansion to use the "Lichtenstein" game mechanic
which was to use new cards to add new capabilities to character
cards and promised to allow them to be used in new and 'intriguing'
ways. The ultimate fate of this mechanic is unknown. Some elements
of this expansion were merged with the "Tatooine" expansion based
primarily on The Phantom Menace.
- Jedi Masters (February 2001) - The second full
expansion based on characters, this on Obi-Wan Kenobi, Yoda, and
Emperor Palpatine. Following the failure to implement the
"Lichtenstein" mechanic and the shift toward more prequel
expansions, this expansion was canceled.
- Scoundrels (September 2001) - This was the
last expansion planned by Decipher and suffered the same fate as
its predecessor. It was designed to focus on Han Solo, Lando
Calrissian, Jabba the Hutt, and the bounty hunters. This expansion
never entered into the design phase.
- Reflections Gold (December 2001) - Decipher
lost their license to print SW cards to Wizards of the Coast in
January 2002, and these cards were not produced in time before
production on them had to cease. Scans of Reflections Gold cards
can be found online.
Tournament formats
There are two major constructed formats for tournament play - Open
and Classic, which differ only in deck construction rules.
In the Open format, every card is legal. The only deck restrictions
are that each deck must contain 60 cards from the same side of the
Force and no more than 1 Objective card.
Classic format is intended to recreate the environment of the game
before the Episode I sets (Tatooine, Theed Palace, Coruscant, and
Reflections III), which many players viewed to have unbalanced game
mechanics and broken continuity. The Classic format has the same
deck construction rules as the Open format, but includes the
following list of banned cards:
- Any card with the Episode I icon
- Any card with a Maintenance Cost
The World Championships and most events in the World Tournament
Circuit are played in the Open format.
Another type of tournament was a sealed deck tournament. This would
consist of players purchasing a Sealed Deck box (
see above) and using its contents to construct a
deck.
Past world champions
Design-A-Card contest
In February of 1997, Decipher launched a contest called the
"Design-A-Card" contest. People from all over the world would have
an opportunity to design the card they always wished were a part of
the Star Wars Customizable Card Game. Decipher said the winner of
the contest would win a display box of the "Special Edition"
expansion set, and (more importantly) the winning card design would
actually be printed and included in the "Special Edition" expansion
set. On May 23, 1997, Guy Kargl was announced as the contest
winner, with his S-Foils card design. In November of 1998, Decipher
released the Special Edition expansion set. An image of the S-Foils
card which was included in this set is posted on
the Player's Committee's web site.
Related games
Decipher produced two other TCGs based on the Star Wars universe:
Young
Jedi, based on the second
Star Wars trilogy, and
Jedi
Knights. Neither of these games matched the popularity of
SW:CCG. Both were discontinued when Decipher lost the
Star
Wars license.
In April 2004, Decipher announced a new game,
Wars TCG, based on the game
mechanics of SW:CCG. Wars TCG is set in a proprietary
science fiction universe created specially
for the game and owned by Decipher. Despite initial sales and
critical success, the game failed to catch on with players and set
2 sales were lackluster. After the second set, the game was placed
on "indefinite hiatus" by Decipher at the beginning of May 2005,
and was officially canceled in September 2005. There are still
ebooks by
Michael A. Stackpole and Chuck Kallenbach on the
Decipher website.
References
- http://www.geocities.com/fl_red61/s-foils/
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