The Star Wars: Unlimited Map Boba Fett (Collecting the Bounty) is now excluded from gaming premier Format. The announcement, which may be the first of its kind for the young trading card game, was “a development error,” wrote chief designer Danny Schaefer a blog post Published Wednesday. Although the card will not be completely banned, it will have limited use starting November 8th.
According to Schaefer, the Boba Fett card in question – a leader card – was included in the decks of 55% of the winners of a recent competitive tournament. For a game with 54 different leader cards at the time of release, this presents a significant design problem. Schaefer writes that the decision to ban the card was not made lightly, but rather was preferred to alternative methods, including an outright ban or withdrawal, as was the case is common among competitors Flesh and blood.
“He is the most serious power outlier, and his power problems are exacerbated because he is a leader,” Schaefer writes. And he’s right: every time players sit down at the table, they have a choice of leaders to start each game on the table. Leaders also set the tone for the entire rest of the deck.
“Leaders have special meaning in this game because they define archetypes, because you are guaranteed access to them in every game, and because a deck can only have one leader at a time,” he writes. “Boba Fett’s combination of stats and skills proved too far ahead [preventing] other middle class executives […] from being viable in the metagame. No matter what specific card options in these decks change from set to set, having Boba Fett’s leader at the helm would probably still be optimal.”
Star Wars: Unlimited was released in March 2024 and received near-universal critical acclaim. Reviewers, including here at Polygon, praised developers Fantasy Flight Games for the TCG’s fast and powerful gameplay. Combining a popular IP with a novel two-pronged combat style, with ground and space forces spread across different sides of the battlefield, remains a winning combination.
Schaefer left the door open for Boba Fett (Collecting the Bounty) to return from suspension at a later date.
News of the suspension comes during a transition period for TCGs worldwide. Not only have more new, high-profile TCGs been released in 2023 and 2024 than in previous years, the 800-pound gorilla Magic: The Gathering is also making big changes to how often it reinforces its own unique narrative with its biggest fans. The magic The community also recently reeled from card bans that led to threats of violence, including death threats against volunteers.
Polygon has reached out to Fantasy Flight for further clarification and will update this story accordingly.
