Galactic Illusionary Gaming would like to once again welcome back all of our players and collectors to our preview series. Following on from the popular and well received set of the Ancient Cycle, the design team at the company have focused on developing a set that draws upon another source of ancient conflict: the ever present struggled between Imperialism and the resistance organizations that rise up to challenge them. Whereas the Ancient Cycle focused heavily upon Force Sensitive individuals and organizations and the struggle between the light side and dark side, our new set is a complete turnaround on that concept with a heavy focus upon non-Force Sensitive individuals and organizations, although there will be some Force users among their ranks. Many of the organizations and individuals present within this new set, The Imperial March, will be recognizable to the citizens of this galaxy we call home as we have striven to showcase such Imperial factions as the New Imperial Order or Galactic Empire as they were later known as, the First Order that emerged in the galactic west and Unknown Regions, and the Empire of the Lost that arose in the Tingel Arm. To combat these factions, we have included representation of various rebel factions, although the two most prominent within our set are the Underground and the Foundation, with a scattering of other prior rebel factions present.
To start off this preview of the cards we have developed for the set, the team continued iterating upon the design mentality we developed during the Ancient Cycle. Each color pairing was assigned a military terminology or strategy to shape how it would be constructed in a draft format, and then the team was split into smaller groupings to work on each color pairing and develop or redesign a mechanic for the set. We are quite pleased to showcase some of that work here today, starting with our White/Blue pairing and mechanic.
For White/Blue, the team was assigned the strategy of Levee en Masse, which is a Ghorman term to describe the massing of infantry forces rapidly. To represent that, the team has made White/Blue care about the number of Trooper Beings you control and creating Trooper Being tokens to create a Go-Wide strategy for players. Helping facilitate this is the new keyword action known as Reserve, which allows players to pay a supply cost equal to the card's own supply cost when it is in their Netherworld to exile the card and create a designated number of white 1/1 Imperial or Rebel Trooper Being tokens.
For Blue/Black, the team was assigned the concept of a Counteroffensive, to strike back at an enemy after they have already attacked you. To represent that, the team created the keyword action Counterattack, allowing you to play cards with it at Action speed if you have been dealt damage during a turn. If the card enters the field during an opponent's turn, an ability on the card will trigger to debilitate an opponent in some manner such as giving a card reduced stats or destroying a target outright or affecting their hand or deck in some manner. If a card enters the field from Counterattack, during the next end step, it returns to its owner's hand to allow them more opportunities to counterattack. Because of this, Blue/Black as a draft theme is centered around Commando and Agent Tempo and Control strategies.
For Black/Red, the team was assigned the concept of Friendly Fire for a greater goal, creating an easy avenue for a Sacrifice Aggro theme for the color pairing. While the theme did not develop a new mechanic or keyword for Black/Red, it became an interesting avenue to explore what sort of effects could be created for abilities when you sacrifice something. Returning to help this archetype is the Exploit keyword we introduced in the Ancient Cycle for the Black/Red Sith, along with a few guest appearances of older abilities such as Atrocity. When designing these cards for the pairing, the team also took advantage of the new Mandate type known as a Tactic to create cards that allow for multiple sacrifice outlets for advantages.
For Red/Green, the team was assigned the concept of Blitzkrieg, or lightning war as it is known on Prefsbelt, creating the comfortable design space for what they called Trooper and Vehicle Stompy. Like with Black/Red, the team didn't develop a new mechanic or keyword, but they instead focused their efforts on developing Vehicles and cards that created Vehicle tokens to beatdown an opponent with power. Many of the cards developed in line for this color pairing also focus on putting +1/+1 counters or keyword counters onto Trooper cards to run through an opponent's defenses and reduce their Vitality total to 0 in big attacks.
For Green/White, the team was assigned the concept of Supply and Fortify. With that direction, they created the Fortify keyword action, which allows a player to pay the designated cost on a card to activate a first ability. If that cost is paid again, a second ability will activate, and if that cost is paid a third time, a third powerful ability is activated. The team, although not shown above in the signpost uncommon for the color pairing, also reworked the Procure keyword action from previous sets where it now can be activated when a card enters if an additional supply cost is paid when the card is played to search for various Tech and Vehicle cards. Many Green/White pairing cards thus feed into a Tech and Defense Midrange strategy where the player hunkers down and builds up their board.
For White/Black, the team was assigned the concept of Command and Control, giving them easy avenue to create a draft pairing where Officer Beings Matter. While no new mechanic or keyword was developed for this pairing, many of the Officer Beings created for the color pairing provide bonuses to other cards you control or control the field in certain ways such as tutoring for needed cards or giving you additional draws or hindering an opponent's strategy. A secondary strategy, though not shown in our signpost uncommon, was the further implementation of the Amass keyword action, creating a black 0/0 Imperial Army Being token that you can rapidly grow.
For Blue/Red, the team was assigned the concept of Conscription and Rebellion. As we have hinted in prior sets with one or two cards as prototypes for testing the mechanic, this color pairing heavily focuses upon the Revolt keyword. Revolt allows you to gain control of a card with a defense value less than or equal to the Revolt value and make that card into a Rebel Being unless its controller pays a supply cost equal to the Revolt value. Because of this, the team leaned into a Rebel Go-Wide strategy with a secondary strategy of gaining control and playing cards from an opponent's deck or hand or Netherworld.
For Black/Green, the team was assigned the concept of Search and Destroy, allowing them significant space to create cards that focus on tutoring for other cards in your deck or destroying the cards an opponent controls. Many of the cards developed for this pairing center around the Commando Being type, and while this pairing did not receive a new mechanic or keyword, it can rapidly gain you resources with moderately powerful cards and wiping out the cards an opponent may have, leaving them open for surgical attacks.
For Red/White, the team was assigned the concept of Shock and Awe. Like with Red/Green, this color pairing has a heavy focus on Troopers and Vehicles, but unlike Red/Green Stompy strategies, this one is focused on Trooper and Vehicle Aggro. Many cards designed for the pairing are cheaper to play and enter the field with either Haste or a way to get damage in quickly. The team also reworked Support Fire into a keyword that appears on Vehicles within this pairing to further bolster the attack power of Beings you control that are attacking. A secondary theme that feeds into this archetype are Pilot Beings that Crew a Vehicle (where a number of Beings or Droids need to be equipped to a Vehicle for it to attack, defend, and use its abilities) for two Beings rather than just one, drastically reducing the number of resources you need to spend to Crew up your Vehicles. And for those of you worried about that investment, you can always unequip Beings from your Vehicles as a Command speed action.
Last but not least, for Green/Blue, the team was assigned the concept Guerrilla Warfare. To help facilitate this idea, the team created the keyword Ambush, which functions similarly as the Counterattack keyword action, but for a few important differences. Ambush allows you to play a card at Action speed at any time you could play an Action, but if played during a combat phase, the card enters either attacking during your combat phase or defending an attacking card if it's an opponent's combat phase. In addition, like the Blue/Black pairing, the cards for this pairing have additional abilities that trigger if they enter during an opponent's turn or to interact with an opponent's move such as our signpost uncommon here.
We hope you enjoyed this first look at The Imperial March, which we are excited to announce will be available for pre-orders at the time of publication for this article and will go fully on sale for galactic release in just two Galactic Standard Weeks' time. We will release a second preview of the set in-between now and release to further showcase some of the cards developed for the set, but until then players, we look forward to sharing more and enjoy what is to come.
