Star Wars TCG

Star Wars TCG is the Wizards of the Coast game, the one that replaced Decipher's long-running Star Wars CCG after WotC won the license in 2001.

The game

Released in 2002 by Wizards of the Coast, designed by a team including Richard Garfield, Star Wars TCG is a two-player combat duel where the Light Side and Dark Side fight across three arenas (space, ground, character) simultaneously. Build points limit each arena's deck size, and each turn players resolve battles in every arena before scoring Force advantage. The system was designed to be faster and more streamlined than Decipher's deep-lore CCG.

The context

The WotC license acquisition was a hot-topic story in 2001: Decipher's CCG had been the gold standard for Star Wars CCG for seven years, and Lucasfilm's decision to move to WotC (already running Pokémon TCG and the Star Wars miniatures game) created overnight shockwaves. The WotC TCG was built to cover the entire saga (original trilogy, prequels, Clone Wars) rather than focus on any one era.

The collector angle

Eleven main expansions ran from Attack of the Clones (2002) through Revenge of the Sith (2005), before WotC discontinued the line in 2005. The Scum and Villainy and Rogues and Scoundrels expansions are the fan favourites, and the final Revenge of the Sith cards command a premium because the product ran down before the license expired. Foil rares and the rarer Star Destroyer-art promos are the usual chase, with the Mace Windu foil from the 2003 tournament promos being among the harder Jedi cards to pull clean.