The clock is ticking and the stars are aligning: The launch of the Starcrossed Limited Edition Base Set is in sight, and it’s time to start taking a deeper dive into the cards that will soon be in our hands. Today’s preview highlight is a mechanic created to answer one of the greatest issues of the trading card genre: randomness.

Randomness is both the greatest tool and the greatest pitfall of trading card games. If players have too little control, deckbuilding becomes meaningless, as strategy takes a backseat to the luck of the draw. However, if that draw can be made too consistent, a game risks losing the unpredictability that makes the genre so exciting. 

This presents a challenge that all trading card games must answer: players should be able to play powerful cards, with consistent strategies, without games becoming too repetitive. While Starcrossed offers many answers to this challenge, today we’ll take a look at one of the boldest: super cards.

Super cards follow a simple rule: If you run a full play set of a card, you can replace one copy of that card with its super variant. For example, I can play up to three copies of Strike, seen below. Therefore, if I wanted to play one copy of Super Strike, I would need to play two copies of Strike alongside it, to make a total of three.

Super cards are often more powerful than a typical card, so drawing one during a game creates an exciting spike in power. They can alter the course of a game, but are hard to reliably draw every game. Weaving them into a well-made deck can be a challenge, but that challenge is half the fun!

Too many card games ask players to build the best deck simply by spending the most money to buy the best cards. Game balance is never easy, but in this genre of game it can be the difference between an accessible hobby and a financial burden. Starcrossed has always been about resisting some of the worst trends in the trading card genre, and this trend is right at the top. While super cards are hardly an answer all by themselves, this attitude informs every level of Starcrossed’s design: super cards are just one feature of a game dedicated to building a healthy game environment.

When Starcrossed begins shipping in June, will the cards featured here today be your ticket to victory? We’ll find the answer on the other side of the stars!