Star Wars: Unlimited rarities and variants explained
Common to Legendary, Special cards, and the Hyperspace, Showcase and Prestige versions: what Star Wars: Unlimited packs hold and what changed in 2026.
By the Rip.fan Editorial Team.
Published 7 min read
Star Wars: Unlimited sorts its booster cards into four rarities, Common, Uncommon, Rare and Legendary, and adds a fifth, Special, for cards found only in pre-built decks. Rarity is only half the story: every card can also come in other versions, such as a Hyperspace card that shows more of the artwork, a Hyperspace-foil, a Showcase leader or a Prestige card with new art. What a pack holds changed with A Lawless Time, the seventh set, in March 2026. Regular black-border foils ended, every pack gained a Hyperspace Common and a Hyperspace-foil, and non-foil Prestige cards began turning up in standard packs.
Which rarities does Star Wars: Unlimited use?
Four rarities fill the booster packs: Common, Uncommon, Rare and Legendary. Fantasy Flight, the maker, describes packs by those four, and its article on the first set’s products said every pack holds at least one Rare or Legendary.
The fifth rarity, Special, belongs to pre-built products. For the first three sets, each set’s two-deck starter box held 10 cards that could not be found in booster packs. From Jump to Lightspeed, the fourth set, in March 2025, Spotlight Decks replaced it. Each Spotlight Deck holds five Special-rarity cards unique to it, one of them its leader, and two decks come with every set, so a set still has ten Special cards.
Rarity and version are separate. A Common can be a Hyperspace card, and the Hyperspace-foil in an Icons pack can be of any rarity. When you price a card, you need both: its rarity and which version you hold.
What do the different versions look like?
| Version | What sets it apart | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Standard | The normal frame and art | Standard and Icons booster packs |
| Foil, black border | The normal frame in foil | Standard and Carbonite packs up to the sixth set; not made from A Lawless Time |
| Hyperspace | Art that shows more of the full illustration than the standard card’s small frame does | Standard, Carbonite and Icons packs |
| Hyperspace-foil | A Hyperspace card in foil | Standard, Carbonite and Icons packs; every card has one |
| Showcase | A version of a leader card | Standard and Carbonite packs |
| Prestige | Its own alternate art and graphic design, in three tiers: normal, foil and serialized | Carbonite packs; the non-foil tier also appears in standard packs from A Lawless Time |
| Promo | Event-exclusive cards with their own visual treatments | Store events and some boxed products, such as the first set’s Prerelease Box |
Every card already has both a Hyperspace and a Hyperspace-foil version. These versions let you see the whole piece of art, not just the small frame of the standard card. Our alternate art and holofoil entries explain those terms across card games.
What is in a standard booster pack?
Sixteen cards, always including one leader and one base. Fantasy Flight’s article on the first set’s products described the rest as a mix of Commons and Uncommons, at least one Rare or Legendary, and a foil card, with a display box of 24 packs.
Its December 2025 article set out what changed from A Lawless Time. The count and the rarity breakdown stayed essentially the same; the versions changed:
| Feature | Before A Lawless Time (sets 1 to 6) | From A Lawless Time (March 2026) |
|---|---|---|
| Cards per pack | 16, with a leader and a base | 16, with a leader and a base |
| Foil card | One foil, sometimes a Hyperspace-foil instead | Always a Hyperspace-foil; black-border foils dropped |
| Hyperspace Common | About once every 3 packs | In every pack |
| Hyperspace and Hyperspace-foil at every rarity | Lower rates | Rates raised at every rarity; Rare and Legendary versions still hard to find |
| Prestige | Not in standard packs | A non-foil Prestige card in about 1 in 18 packs |
| Showcase leaders | The launch rate | The same rate as at launch |
| Bases with abilities | Could sit in the Rare position | A Lawless Time is the last set where they do |
Fantasy Flight said it dropped the black-border foil because its community saw it as the least exciting version, offering little over the basic card. From the sets after A Lawless Time, any base with a special ability goes in the pack’s base position.
What is in a Carbonite Edition pack?
Carbonite Edition packs arrived with Jump to Lightspeed as a premium, limited product. Fantasy Flight prints one wave per set and does not reprint them, and a display holds 12 packs. Each pack has 16 cards, all of them a special version of a card from the set, so no card is exclusive to Carbonite, only certain looks.
The layout has changed once:
| Position | At launch (Jump to Lightspeed, March 2025) | From A Lawless Time |
|---|---|---|
| Leader | Always Hyperspace or Showcase; a Showcase about once every 2 or 3 displays | Showcase rate cut back significantly |
| Foils, black border | 7, with at least 1 Rare or Legendary among them | None |
| Hyperspace | 5 | About 3 more than before, so about 8 by Rip.fan’s arithmetic |
| Hyperspace-foil | 2 | 6 |
| Prestige | 1, in one of three tiers | 1, in one of three tiers |
By Rip.fan’s arithmetic, the new layout still adds up to 16 if the leader is unchanged: one leader, about 8 Hyperspace cards, 6 Hyperspace-foils and one Prestige card. The foil and serialized Prestige tiers stay exclusive to Carbonite.
How many serialized Prestige cards exist?
For the first three Carbonite sets, Fantasy Flight printed 250 copies of each serialized Prestige card for the whole print run. From A Lawless Time, most still run to 250, but some subsets are printed at 100 copies each and some at 50. A serial-numbered card shows its own number, and our guide to how serial-numbered cards work explains how to read one.
How does an Icons pack differ?
Icons 2027 Edition is a mini-set releasing on November 20, 2026, with 194 cards against more than 250 in a normal set. All of its Commons are reprints from earlier sets, some with new art, and it has no Spotlight Decks and no Carbonite packs.
An Icons pack holds 9 cards and can come without a leader or a base. The breakdown, which varies from pack to pack:
- 1 Hyperspace-foil, which can be of any rarity
- 1 Rare or Legendary
- 2 Uncommons, which can be upgraded to a Hyperspace Uncommon, Rare or Legendary
- 1 Hyperspace Common
- 3 Commons
- 1 more card: a leader in about a quarter of packs, and otherwise a fourth Common
An Icons booster 4-pack adds an alternate-art Cassian Andor card found nowhere else.
How often do new sets come out?
A new set arrives every four months, in line with the three sets a year Fantasy Flight announced in 2023. Icons adds a smaller fourth set to the yearly cycle. Homeworlds, the ninth set, was due on October 9, 2026. In a September 25, 2026 update, Fantasy Flight said most stores worldwide would have few or no Carbonite packs at launch, and that some regions would get other products late. Australia and New Zealand moved to October 16.
What should you check before you buy a single?
- Name the version. A standard card, its Hyperspace and Hyperspace-foil versions, a Showcase leader and each Prestige tier are separate cards with separate prices.
- Check the serial number on a serialized Prestige card against its stated run of 250, 100 or 50.
- Use sold prices. Our guides to market, listed and sold prices and finding what a card sold for show how.
- Think about grading only for the right cards. CGC says it grades virtually all trading card games, and our guide to whether a card is worth grading covers the sums.
For other card games, see the trading card hub, Magic card rarities or Lorcana rarities. The sibling guide to which cards to collect sets the main ones side by side.
Frequently asked questions
Who makes Star Wars: Unlimited?
Fantasy Flight Games, a subsidiary of the Paris-based Asmodee Group, makes it with Lucasfilm Ltd. It announced the card game on May 9, 2023, with original art commissioned for every card.
Which leaders head the Jump to Lightspeed Spotlight Decks?
Boba Fett, card 9 of Jump to Lightspeed, and Han Solo, card 17.
How many leaders are in Icons 2027 Edition?
Eight, none of them reprints, including Darth Vader and Leia Organa.
How many cards are in a Star Wars: Unlimited starter deck?
In the first set's Two-Player Starter, each pre-built deck holds 50 cards, and the Icons Starter Box holds two 30-card decks and a pair of Icons booster packs.
Who drew the Prestige cards in A Lawless Time?
Vincent Dutrait drew the whole A Lawless Time Prestige lineup, including Boba Fett, R2-D2 and Salacious Crumb. He has worked on Star Wars: Unlimited since Jump to Lightspeed and works mostly in traditional media.