Boosting Replayability

Published 17 July 2025 | Star Wars: The Deckbuilding Game Boosting Replayability Caleb Grace Talks About Expanding Star Wars™: The Deckbuilding Game Hi everyone! My name is Caleb Grace, and I am the lead designer for Star Wars™: The Deckbuilding Game. It’s a real pleasure for me to be working on the game that I designed several years ago. I remember when FFG began soliciting Star Wars: The Deckbuilding Game to our partners, they all asked the same question: “Can we get expansions?” Based on this enthusiastic response, the decision to move forward with a Clone Wars Edition was made before the original game was even released. Making an expansion based on the Clone Wars era was an easy choice considering all the iconic characters, ships, and vehicles introduced in the prequel movies and animated series. However, there was more to it than that: We also wanted to expand how the deckbuilding game could be played. When the base game was released in 2023, there was only one matchup available: Rebels vs Empire. By introducing the Republic and Separatist factions a year later in the Clone Wars Edition, that number increased dramatically. With only one copy of Star Wars: The Deckbuilding Game’s original edition and the Clone Wars Edition, players now have not 1 but 6 matchups to enjoy: Rebel vs Empire Republic vs Separatist Rebel vs Republic Empire vs Separatist Republic vs Empire Separatist vs Rebel Each of these matchups plays very differently from the others because each faction has its own unique strategy. Discovering how each of these strategies competes with the others is part of what makes exploring the various matchups so much fun. Yet there’s still more to explore: Each edition of the game comes with its own set of 30 neutral cards for the galaxy deck. This means that instead of 6 different matchups, there are actually 12 when you consider which neutral set to use. Because each set has a unique composition, using one over the other creates a one-of-a-kind experience. That makes 12 different matchups for 1v1, but what about 2v2? With a single copy of the original edition and the Clone Wars Edition, a group of four players can add a little cooperation to their competitive game by working with their teammate to defeat the opposing team. In this format, players have 3 different faction combinations to choose from: Rebel & Empire vs Republic & Separatist Rebel & Republic vs Empire & Separatist Republic & Empire vs Rebel & Separatist Once again, this number is doubled by the decision of which set of 30 neutral cards to include in each galaxy deck, increasing the total number of 2v2 matchups from 3 to 6. And each of those 6 matchups is truly distinct from the others, with many unique interactions to discover. For those of you keeping score, that’s a grand total of 18 different ways to play Star Wars: The Deckbuilding Game with the addition of the Clone Wars Edition! This was all planned in advance to provide players with the most engaging and replayable experience possible. But what if our plan didn’t stop there? (Spoiler alert: It doesn’t!) Fans of my work on previous games should know that I like to plan ahead. Far ahead. I can’t share any specific plans today, but what if we imagine for just a minute what it would mean to add another faction to the game? Assuming there are still two sets of neutral cards to choose from, the number of 1v1 matchups would climb from 12 to 20. And the number of possible 2v2 matchups would jump from 6 all the way to 18! That’s a lot of value added by just one faction. Almost makes you wonder what else we could do with the game, doesn’t it? If that piques your interest, please keep an eye out for more Star Wars: The Deckbuilding Game announcements this year. And in the meantime, I hope that you will enjoy any number of the 18 different ways you can currently play the game!   Written by Caleb Grace Discuss this article in our forums! © & ™ Lucasfilm Ltd.