From the Ashes

May 18, 2026 | Written by Tyler Parrott

There’s a lot to look forward to in our next era-focused set, Ashes of the Empire. So much so that I can’t even tell you about it all! But I’ve scavenged up some exciting details that give you a glimpse into what the set is up to, even if I can’t tell you the whole story (yet). Hopefully this provides some interesting fuel for speculation and debate.

Thematically, this set is about the fall of the Empire and its aftermath, which means plenty of Imperial cards. Mechanically, however, this is really a set all about upgrades, with more upgrades than usual and more ways to utilize your upgrades. Did you also know…

• A cycle begun in A Lawless Time continues in Ashes of the Empire.
• There are a handful of notably unique stat lines in the set, including:
  • A leader unit that’s a 0/3
  • A 1-cost 3/3 unit
  • A 15/15 unit in space
  • A 6-cost 8/4 common unit
  • A 1/4 unit with Overwhelm
• As you might expect, there are more New Republic cards in this set than in any other set we’ve made. (The same is true for Mandalorian units, but you already knew that.)
• While the set is filled with content from Return of the Jedi, The Mandalorian, Book of Boba Fett, and Ahsoka, the existence of Mandalorian tokens means that there are 9 Clone Wars and 11 Rebels cards for fans to look forward to as well!
• Four of the legendary cards in the set are a cycle of exciting, powerful, novel upgrades
• With so many armored soldiers running around, there are more Shield tokens in Ashes of the Empire than in any other set!
• While we were developing the set, we kept several leaders from the previous year in mind. You’ll find more When Defeated abilities for Grand Admiral Thrawn (Jump to Lightspeed, 2), more Force cards for Rey (Legends of the Force, 12), and more ways to trigger Padmé Amidala (Secrets of Power, 16).

I’m particularly impressed by many of the subtitles in this set, so of course I want to show them off! Many of my favorites are too obvious to make the list, but I’ve collected a dozen of the less-obvious ones so that you can try to guess who they belong to:

• Adventure Awaits
• Captured From the Empire
• Life Abandoned
• Power Beyond Dream
• We Can’t Keep Running
• For All of Mandalore
• Strike the Reactor
• We Don’t Want War
• Your Aptitude Falls Short
• Bargaining on Belief
• Introductions are in Order
• No Problem Groveling

Now that we’re on our eighth set, it’s harder to get “firsts” into the game. But we do have one: this set includes a fan-favorite character who gets the Jedi trait for the first time! Some other fun trivia about cards in the set include:

• One of the leaders in this set has the highest resource deploy condition of any leader we’ve made (but more than just resources can count towards it).
• A returning mechanic appears on only a single card in this set.
• Aggression gets a new leader who can deal direct damage to bases without attacking with units!
• A character from The Rising Storm (a High Republic-era novel) gets their first card.
• A villainous event in this set does something similar to a card that was previously deep in the Cunning aspect.
• One of the heroic commons is a functional reprint of a villainous common from a previous set, now in a new aspect and with slightly (but not entirely) different traits.
• A character who last appeared in Year 1 returns with a new card, doing something very similar to what they used to do but this time with a more neutral twist (less Heroism or Villainy).
• Can I interest you in either a Mandalorian / Vehicle / Speeder or a Force / Droid unit?
• A number of Sentinel units in the set have weird corner cases: one punishes your opponent for defeating it outside of combat, one changes its abilities while upgraded, and a third has zero power while attacking.

Finally, I know fans are always eager to know what cards do. I can answer some of those questions…but I can’t promise you’re seeing the whole story with each of these abilities. What cards do you think they’re on, and what else could they do?

• If you would search a number of cards from your deck…
• If your base would be dealt more than 4 damage…
• For this attack, this unit gains the discarded unit’s abilities.
• You may deal up to 6 damage to your base.
• This unit may attack units in either arena.
• Advantage tokens on friendly units lose all abilities.
• While attached unit is defending, the attacker loses Overwhelm.
• Damage dealt by friendly Underworld cards is unpreventable.
• This unit gains each of the following Keywords if…
• …for each other unit (friendly and enemy) with 0 power.
• While a leader unit has been defeated this phase…
• Play it for free. It enters play ready.
• All units lose Sentinel.
• While you are paying costs, this unit provides its aspect icons.

That’s all the clues I have for you today! I look forward to seeing everyone’s speculation on social media as we begin preview season in the next few weeks.

Until then, may you feel inspired to try something new.