Twin Suns in Twilight

With the upcoming release of Twilight of the Republic, there will soon be three sets of Star Wars™: Unlimited out in the world. While this naturally means that all sorts of new possibilities will open up for Premier decks, the other constructed format, Twin Suns, will also see lots of additions to the playing field.

Today, MJ Cutts from the Star Wars: Unlimited design team is here to provide some insights into how the Twin Suns format will grow and evolve with the release of the game's third set. Let's see what they have to say!

What are your thoughts about the Twin Suns format from a designer's perspective?

We knew from the beginning that Twin Suns needed to bring a diverse range of player types together around the table; this is both the “biggest” format Star Wars: Unlimited has and a format that adheres to the overall game's commitment to quick, pacey gameplay. Trying to balance those two desires—to make Twin Suns both an exciting, strange playground for our fans, and to make it an accessible format that doesn't abandon new players to tedium and confusion—was our biggest challenge and my greatest pride upon completion. As more and more cards are added to the game, I'm confident that Twin Suns will grow exponentially greater and more imaginative without ever buckling under its own weight.

How will Twin Suns change with the addition of cards from Twilight of the Republic?

Twilight of the Republic is our last set to release before Twin Suns changes its minimum deck size to its true final form of 80+ cards. In that time, there are some pretty big additions to the format! Force decks will get a lot more units with the Force trait for deck synergy, for one. We also reach a critical mass of double-aspect cards (cards with two Command aspects, or two Aggression aspects, etc.) that I think make going two-and-one with your leader and base aspect choices exciting and worthwhile; I can definitely say there's at least one card in double-Aggression that my fellow designer Joe likes to play…

There are a few specific cards that will also introduce completely brand-new potential to the world of Twin Suns deckbuilding. One of those cards, The Invasion of Christophsis (Twilight of the Republic, 78), is the first card we've printed that lets Heroism decks remove all enemy units from the board without going out of aspect. Another card hasn't been revealed yet, but I can give a hint: one of our rare leaders in this set will allow completely new deckbuilding possibilities, possibilities that are especially potent in Twin Suns when paired with another leader.

Do you have some Twin Suns deckbuilding tips and tricks for the first three sets?

I've got a smattering of tips that I would tell any new Twin Suns player before building their first Twilight of the Republic deck:

• This set has some rare bases that care about controlling leader units. In a format that has double the leaders, these bases can give double the benefit!
• Keep in mind that card abilities that refer to “an opponent” let you choose which opponent to be affected. This can turn risky abilities on powerful units like Jesse (Twilight of the Republic, 145) into a gift to give to a potential ally.
• Quick ways to deal base damage are much more important to seizing victory in Twin Suns. If your deck doesn't have as many ways to ready units, look for ways to combine Ambush and Overwhelm for sneaky base damage. The Maul (Twilight of the Republic, 9) leader and Gor (Twilight of the Republic, 118) unit are two cards that are very well suited to this strategy.
• Don't forget about cards from previous sets, even if you didn't previously care for them or include them in decks; new synergies can appear in surprising places. Try playing a Bombing Run from Spark of Rebellion before deploying the Mace Windu (Twilight of the Republic, 13) leader and see what I mean!

What is your favorite Twin Suns deck using cards from the first three sets?

One of my favorite decks to run in year one of Twin Suns is a deck featuring the Yoda (Twilight of the Republic, 4) and Rey leaders with a Command base. This is a deck that has two Vigilance aspects available to it, which—like I mentioned in my tips above—has gotten more new double-Vigilance cards to leverage. This deck uses that extra aspect to bring in Duchess’s Champion (Twilight of the Republic, 54), a unit whose powerful Sentinel ability is a lot easier to bring online when battling multiple opponents.

Twilight of the Republic also brings a couple strong, new “win-cons” (cards that can help finish games and come out on top). One of these cards, Clone Commander Cody (Twilight of the Republic, 114), is a unit that can suddenly strengthen your entire army, changing end-of-round math in your favor (or even eliminating an opponent before other players knew you could)! Another one of these strong finishers is actually the Yoda leader card. Yoda is a 7-deploy leader with the ability to filter his deck to draw cards he actually wants, helping you find your best cards to stay in control. However, he's not just there to help smooth things out; when Yoda deploys, he can potentially defeat any one unit in the game, leaving behind a high-HP leader unit with lots of Restore. Yoda's ability to turn games around and take your opponent's best unit off the board is this deck's biggest strength, but it requires timing and skill to pull off successfully.

The launch of Twilight of the Republic is just around the corner. As we count down the days and preview more cards, players can look forward to building new decks for both Premier and Twin Suns alike. Look forward to seeing how Twin Suns evolves when Twilight of the Republic launches fully on November 8^th!

Written by Peter Schumacher