“It’s not wise to upset a Wookiee.”
    –Han Solo, Star Wars: A New Hope

In February, we announced Edge of Darkness , the first deluxe expansion for Star Wars ™: The Card Game . Focused on the dark side’s Scum and Villainy affiliation, as well as the light side’s Smugglers and Spies affiliation, the box introduces twenty-two unique objective sets. In turn, these new objective sets and their cards bolster the game with more tricks than you can fit into a customized suit of Mandalorian armor!

The dark side’s Scum and Villainy affiliation focuses largely on capturing light side cards, but it also benefits from an array of cards that “cheat” the standard rules for placing focus tokens on cards and determining edge battles. Likewise, the expansion’s Smugglers and Spies objective sets are full of ways for the light side player to “cheat” situations as well, utilizing cards like Lando Calrissian ( Edge of Darkness , 328) and Cloud City Operative ( Edge of Darkness , 324) to sneak past enemy lines, unopposed, and strike against dark side objectives.

Sometimes, however, you don’t want to focus on stealth and trickery, even as a Smugglers and Spies player. Your dark side opponent might, over several turns, manage to build an army of units too numerous for you to exhaust and bypass. Just as likely, he may build a force capable of overwhelming your defenses on strikes against your objectives. If you can’t stop such strikes, the dark side will quickly advance the Death Star dial, and you’ll lose. Thus, if you can’t win early, you’ll want to consider some way to tear down the army your opponent builds.

Enter the Wookiees

This is where the first light side objective set in Edge of Darkness excels. Wookiee Life Debt ( Edge of Darkness , 318) and its five associated cards provide plenty of ways to tear your opponent’s forces apart, limb by limb, demonstrating the truth of Han’s words, “It’s not wise to upset a Wookiee.”

•   We’ll begin our review of the objective set with a look at the objective itself. While it does little to tear apart enemy units, it does nicely represent the seriousness with which honor-bound Wookiees seek to protect those to whom they owe life debts. Chewbacca repaid his life debt to Han Solo by serving as his companion and protector, even in the heat of some of the largest battles the Rebellion fought against Imperial forces, and the objective grants each Wookiee the ability to serve as another character’s protector.


• Yes, Chewbacca ( Edge of Darkness , 319) appears in this objective set! Certainly, one of the most iconic and important characters not to appear in the game’s Core Set, Chewbacca is a mighty warrior and a rather strange Smuggler . Where other Smugglers may focus on sneaking about, Chewbacca is better suited to ferocious rampages and destroying enemy units with his two  icons and his Bowcaster ( Edge of Darkness , 363). And if your opponent hesitates to throw fodder in Chewbacca’s path, then this Wookiee can easily cause nightmares for the dark side with his two ( ) icons.


• However, despite the strength of his combat icons, it’s Chewbacca’s Reaction ability that makes him truly great. “ Reaction: After this unit is dealt damage during an engagement, it deals twice that much damage to a target participating enemy unit.” Here, we begin to locate the synergies within the objective set, especially when we consider that Chewbacca doesn’t even have to be part of the engagement during which his Reaction is triggered. With the “Protect Character ” text granted by Wookiee Life Debt, Chewbacca can punish your opponent for striking with his  icons. Even if your opponent doesn’t declare attackers that can deal unit damage, you can find your own ways to trigger Chewbacca's ability. Then, if Chewbacca is in your deck to protect Han Solo ( Core Set , 64), you might be able to trigger Questionable Contacts ( Core Set , 69) after you refresh, to move a damage from Chewbacca onto another of your opponent’s units.


• Of course, Wookiee Life Debt would be somewhat limited in its effectiveness if Chewbacca was the only Wookiee character it could target. Accordingly, the objective set also features two copies of the Wookiee Warrior ( Edge of Darkness , 320). When Wookiee Life Debt is in play, this unit, like Chewbacca, gains “Protect Character ” and offers your other characters a highly efficient buffer of three damage capacity for a mere two cost. Moreover, as soon as you redirect a point of damage to your Wookiee Warrior (or he takes a point of damage otherwise), he gains a second  icon and a  icon. Again, this objective set reminds us that Wookiees are prone to tearing apart their opponents’ limbs when they’re enraged, and that makes them quite effective when you need to tear apart an opponent’s army.


• In any other context, Let the Wookiee Win ( Edge of Darkness , 321) is a card that might look like a fairly modest or feeble trick, but when we see how Wookiees react to damage, we realize that the event triggers a win-win situation. We win by doing a point of damage to our opponent’s non- Vehicle unit, and we win by doing a point of damage to one of our Wookiees, which suddenly becomes enraged and, thus, more effective.


• The objective set’s final card is a copy of Heat of Battle ( Core Set , 65). Fate cards are always handy during an edge battle as they make for nice surprises, and Heat of Battle is often good for the surprise destruction of an opponent’s unit, and its sudden departure from an engagement. When he knows this fate card is in the objective set and while he’s staring at the muscle provided by your slew of Wookiees , your opponent is likely to consider the Heat of Battle a very unwelcoming place!  

Letting the Wookiees Win

With all the ways the Wookiees have to rip apart the units that your opponent might consider throwing against them, it’s entirely possible that he’ll just let them “win,” and strike unopposed against his objectives.

Whether or not they’re opposed during engagements, though, the Wookiee units in this objective set are certain to be welcomed heartily into the growing card pool for Star Wars : The Card Game. You can look to add them to your decks when Edge of Darkness arrives. This deluxe expansion is coming soon, so head to your local retailer to pre-order your copy today!

The characters, starships, and situations of the original Star Wars trilogy come to life in Star Wars : The Card Game , a head-to-head Living Card Game ® of tactical combat and strategic planning that allows two players to wage cinematic combats between the light and dark sides of the Force.

© and ™ Lucasfilm Ltd.