Iconic Musings

October 21, 2026 | Written by Tyler Parrott

One of the exciting things about Icons is that it’s unprecedented. A smaller set? All-new rare and legendary units? What kinds of exciting cards could it include? I’ve rounded up some details about some of the more memorable cards in the set to give you a glimpse into what you can look forward to, even if I can’t tell you the whole story. I look forward to seeing everyone’s speculation in the weeks to come!

We’ve already announced that a bunch of reprints in the set receive new art. This was one of my favorite details to add to make the set more fun to collect. In the end, we got new art onto 20 reprints, many with new art concepts as well. But did you also know…

• This set intentionally includes the largest quantity of high-cost cards of any set to date to ensure there’s plenty to do in the late game, distributed among all the aspect combinations.
• Six prominent factions receive trait support payoffs, distributed evenly throughout the four main aspects.
• After a year with lots of multi-aspect cards, Icons returns to having duplicate aspect cards instead—two per aspect at different rarities.
• There is a keyword that has appeared in all of the first nine sets that does not appear in Icons.
• There is a cycle of 2-cost uncommon unique units across the four aspects that all have good stats and a single keyword to help define the aspect’s identity for newer players. (Aggression unintentionally ended up with two such units.)
• Reprints are included from the first eight sets, with the majority pulled from Spark of Rebellion.
• A group of new thematically-related units reinforce a mechanical subtheme established by one of the leaders in Spark of Rebellion.

With Icons, we wanted to have a bit more fun with our subtitles, and so you’ll find a lot more humor in them than what we’ve done in the past. Here are some personal favorites—who do you think they could belong to?

• Architect of Annihilation
• Sometimes I Hate Being Right
• Scream Machine
• Cool Backpack
• The First Protagonist
• How the Mighty Will Fall
• Golden Menace
• Not on My Death Watch
• Impulse Buy
• A Disturbing Puzzle
• Whale Watching
• Cracking Down on Lothal

One of the most famous scenes in the original trilogy is referenced in this set on two different cards—a reprinted event and a new unit—and both lead to the same game result. That’s just one of plenty of fun trivia about the cards in the set, such as…

• One of the legendary units in this set has the most words we’ve ever put in an ability text box.
• Despite the main focus of the set being on the most generally well-known Star Wars media, there is a unique unit from Andor, from Resistance, and from the High Republic to introduce players to the larger galaxy.
• The iconic characters of the galaxy have appeared in the game in previous sets, but there is still one new-to-Star Wars: Unlimited character that we slipped into the lineup!
• For the first time, both the word “double” and the word “half” appear in card abilities in the same set (on different cards).
• A beloved character gets a new design that, like previous versions of the character, rewards you for playing lots of upgrades on him.
• A card design returns from a previous set, on a unit with the same name as before, but this time in a new aspect and with different stats.
• A pair of mirrored 2-cost units each care about having cards that cost 6 or more in your deck.
• A 5-cost unit in this set can deal 10 damage to an opponent’s base in a single round, without needing synergy from any other cards.
• One of the leaders in the set changes the details for how you set up the game.

Finally, I know fans are always eager to know what the new cards will 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?

• …while that unit is defending, the attacker gets +4/+0.
• When you heal damage from your base:
• On Attack/When Defeated: Resource the top card of your deck.
• Draw a card for each friendly unit defeated this way.
• Prevent all combat damage that would be dealt to and dealt by that unit this phase.
• If a friendly non-leader ground unit would deal combat damage while attacking a base…
• When you resource a card (including during the regroup phase):
• …cards your opponents play cost [3] more.
• Each opponent can’t ready more than 1 ground unit and…
• Other friendly [Heroism] units get +3/+3.
• …loses all “When Defeated” abilities.
• …that costs 12 or less and play it for free.
• If you have 7 or fewer cards in your hand, draw a card.
• If it’s not a Night or Undead unit, deal damage equal to its cost to…

That’s all the clues I have for you today! Feel free to let me know on social media what cards you expect to see in the set!

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