So I'm thinking about getting into this game and I want to know the good and bad about this game, before I spend 200 dollars to get all the cards I need.

I love the intellectual property of Star Wars so that is not a problem.

I like the idea of a competive game and tournament scene.

I have played many RPGs, board games, CCGs, and a few LCGs so what are the good and bad things about this game and its mechanics?

Ive began to watch the videos and read the articles about the game and deck building.

Thanks in Advance.

GOOD

• It is a thoughtful game, parallels L5R in terms of strategic depth

• Easy to get into (one of the newest LCG options)

• Mechanics reflect the cinematic atmosphere of Star Wars effectively

BAD

• It is a VERY thoughtful game, sheer amount of important choices during play can be overwhelming at first

• Not all factions are perfectly balanced...yet (though the game doesn't favor LS or DS in general)

• Netrunner seems to be the more popular game right now

UGLY

• The deckbuilding mechanic feels like CCG heresy at first, though it sounds as though most players have come to enjoy the new deckbuilding decisions it inspires. Thematically, it forces the named characters and ships to coexist with the objectively inferior "trooper" types, so that alongside Luke, Vader, etc. you have lots of bit players who don't matter, as seen in the films.

I want to echo what Marth said about Star Wars being a thought-intensive game. It makes it incredibly satisfying to win, but I have a hard time getting casual games going because of the complexity of choices and consequences that one has to make. It sounds to me like you'll be playing mostly competitively, though, so that shouldn't matter.

I LOVE the card cycling mechanic and how you fill your hand up to your reserve every turn. I think this contributes greatly to the amount of choices available because it means the board state has more chances to change quickly compared to a game where you only draw one card each turn.

I answered on cardgamedb. Bottom line up front: you should get into it.

Yeah Im looking like im going to buy into as long as I can find enough players when i move to seattle by then I will have an understanding of the game and its meta, and have alot of deck ideas

So mechanically there are not any problems with this game?

Nothing intrinsic to the game. The main negatives commonly expressed tend to be a matter of taste (theme, set-based deck building, etc.), inexperience (learning curve, lack of card knowledge, etc.), and human error (incorrect play, lack of experience, presuming taste = fact, etc). There's a learning curve to the game- first understanding all the mechanics, then developing card knowledge- which can lead to premature judgments...

• Unnecessary complexity / finicky bookkeeping - If you're a seasoned card gamer, then it shouldn't be a problem, but for people approaching this as a casual boardgame (often coming from X-Wing or other FFG marketing), the amount of phases, timing windows, rules, etc. may seem too much. However, once you've played enough games, that mass of rules becomes second nature and rewarding to navigate... it means there's going to be a lot of design space for future cards to play with, and juggling all the mechanics is quite fun. That said, I think there is a valid point here about complexity to a degree. Even watching the World Championship, you can see players make mistakes (forgetting a beneficial reaction, drawing the wrong card, forgetting a refresh token, etc)... and even players who've played the game dozens of time sometimes still need to consult the timing-charts for action windows, which aren't completely intuitive. It is relatively easy to accidentally put the game into an illegal state. That said, it hardly happens with experienced players and those playing online even have scripting assistance to (in theory) mitigate the issue (though I tend to find players correcting the scripts, rather than the other way around).

• Edge Battles are Stupid / Random - A common early criticism is that edge battles are far too random and the choices therein almost deterministic (roughly calculate one force pip per card and go from there). This is overcome by experience, card knowledge, and bluffing. Edge Battles introduces a really enjoyable aspect of hidden knowledge to combat, which for many other games is either based on dice roll or quasi-perfect knowledge and events played from the hand. SW LCG battles have that hidden knowledge in every battle, BUT it is qualified by the nearly perfect knowledge you can have about your opponent's deck after only a turn of play. The deck construction system means you can definitively know 30% of your opponent's deck before the first turn and estimate with accuracy the remaining 70%, particularly if you're meta-savvy. That means, you develop an acute awareness of what cards are going to be relevant in the Edge Battle and they become that much more engaging.

• The Game is Swingy / Brutal - There's some truth to this. So many games come down to a single point of damage, one tick of the dial, etc. Most games revolve around two major edge battles which end up deciding the outcome. However, I don't think this is necessarily a bad thing... it means the game is engaging from beginning to end and that if you don't scoop, you can have surprising come backs. I can't tell you how many times someone has had an incredible opening hand / 1st turn, where the other player seemed doomed, only to have the underdog come back and win it. There is a luck factor, but it is mitigated and a better player will reliably beat a worse player, even with the exact same deck lists.

• The Game is Slow - Only at first and depending on your decklists, but once both players are familiar with the game it plays quickly and smoothly. The grain of truth is that the asymmetric nature requires, in competitive play, everything to be decided by matches (or a pair of games, with each player playing each side once). That changes the logistics of tournaments and, as a practical matter, limits the number of matches that can be played in a tournament. Despite those alleged issues, the benefits you gain from the asymmetric nature of the game far outweigh them.

• Deckbuilding is Stupid - There's arguments both ways with respect to the objective system. Reasonable minds can differ, it's an entire discussion on its own. At a minimum, I think it's different and worth trying. At best, it's brilliant.

• Finding Opponents - As with most card games, if everyone you play is not as engaged as you, skilled as you, or has a weaker cardpool, it's not going to be as fun for you. All that means is that Star Wars takes skill to play, that the cards matter, and that it can be and is extremely engaging to study... the LCG model means that access, at least, is equal for all and even if they don't buy everything, very strong / competitive decks can be built with less.

Anyways, those are some of the alleged mechanical issues and my responses.

I can compare to Magic, the game I know better than anything else.

SW has lot more important decisions/dilemma during the average game. You need to cover lot of skills: metagame knowledge, edge/bluffin ability, reading opponent and _planning_ a strategy.

In Magic terms, there's no stack (apart some few interrupts) and all units have haste. This and the fact that cards hand is replenished each turn make it a very different beast.

Once you "master" it, there's no space to say "You had more luck than me".

This game have no mana screw, this game is difficult to play, the better player always win.

These are the reason why this game will never takeoff.

I love it.

As a casual player (for now), I can't really add to a lot of the things said here. I'm still a beginner and have a long row to hoe before I get any good. But I will say, as someone very committed to theme and flavor, that the game is very good at 'feeling' like Star Wars, especially with the big guys like Yoda, Luke, Vader, etc. It's been really hard for me so far but I enjoy it. I hope you decide to pick it up!

The good

-Its a fantastic and unique cardgame with a lot of depth and strategy. (edge battles aren't random they are extremely strategic)

-The theme is amazing,

-Since its an LCG its cheap, way cheaper to play than any CCG

-Good OCTGN community

-Chewbacca

The bad

-the way the deck building works makes the small cardpool seem even smaller, so you play a lot of the same deck (I do however like the pod system and I can't wait for a bigger cardpool with diverse decks)

-Delays, this game gets hit with a lot of delays sadly

-can be hard to find players, a lot of people got into netrunner since it came out just before star wars

-ffg is not the best with how to handle tournaments, seems to be getting slowly better though