Star Wars: Unlimited Premier Format

The Premier deck rules

A Premier deck has the same shape as an Eternal deck. What separates the two is the card pool. These are the rules in the Comprehensive Rules (version 9.0, October 9, 2026) and the Event Guide.

The Comprehensive Rules say two-player starter decks and Spotlight Decks follow the Premier format. For a step-by-step first build, see How to Build a Star Wars: Unlimited Deck.

Premier-legal sets as of October 2026

Seven products are legal in Premier: the six main sets of 2025 and 2026, plus Intro Battle: Hoth, which the publisher's Event Guide lists as Premier-legal. A new set is legal from its official release day.

Each set has its own guide: Jump to Lightspeed, Legends of the Force, Intro Battle: Hoth, Secrets of Power, A Lawless Time, Ashes of the Empire and Homeworlds.

Icons 2027 Edition, a smaller set scheduled for November 20, 2026, joins the list at launch. The publisher has said its cards, reprints included, are Premier-legal on release and rotate with A Lawless Time, Ashes of the Empire and Homeworlds in March 2028.

Some products are not Premier-legal at all. The new cards in the 2026 Twin Suns decks (set code TS26) were made for Twin Suns and Eternal, and the publisher has said they are not legal in Premier. Demo and beta versions of cards are never legal, even when the text matches.

How rotation works

Rotation keeps Premier's card pool to roughly the last two years of sets. The publisher releases its main sets in yearly batches of three, and each batch is meant to stay legal for about two years. When a new batch starts, the oldest one leaves.

The first rotation came with A Lawless Time in March 2026. Spark of Rebellion, Shadows of the Galaxy and Twilight of the Republic, the 2024 sets, left Premier on its release. The next in line is the 2025 batch: Jump to Lightspeed, Legends of the Force and Secrets of Power. Following the same pattern, that would be when the first main set of 2027 releases, but as of October 24, 2026 the publisher has not announced the date.

Each card shows which batch it belongs to with a rotation symbol in the center of its credit line, at the bottom of the card. Every set in a batch shares a symbol, and Premier allows the two most recent. The three 2024 sets have no symbol, so a card with a blank rotation spot is from a rotated set. The card reading guide shows where the credit line sits.

Rotation goes by the card, not the printing. If a card has the same title and subtitle as a card in a Premier-legal set, every printing of it is legal. The publisher's own example is Death Trooper: first printed in Spark of Rebellion, reprinted in Secrets of Power, so the Spark of Rebellion copy is still Premier-legal.

Rotated cards still have formats. They are legal in Eternal, in Twin Suns, which never rotates, and in Trilogy when an event uses Eternal's card pool.

The Premier suspended list

As of October 2026 one card is suspended in Premier: the leader Cad Bane, Still Faster Than You, from Ashes of the Empire. The publisher announced it on August 24, 2026, saying Cad Bane made up over 20% of the metagame and called the leader "a development mistake."

Cad Bane, Still Faster Than You

Ashes of the Empire #011

Suspended in Premier since August 2026. Still legal in Eternal, Twin Suns and limited.

A suspended card can't be played at any event in that format, Competitive or Casual. It stays legal everywhere else: in Eternal unless Eternal suspends it as well, in Twin Suns, and in sealed and draft. The publisher reviews the list at least once per set and has said it doesn't suspend cards preemptively.

Every earlier Premier suspension was a card from the 2024 sets, and those ended when the sets rotated out. The publisher's June 26, 2026 Event Guide listed no Premier suspensions, and Cad Bane is the first since rotation.

Premier at events

Premier is the default format for Competitive-tier Organized Play. For Organized Play Season Two, which began in July 2026, a Planetary Qualifier host can choose Premier, limited (up to 25% of events) or Eternal (up to 20%). The season's Regional Championship runs a Premier tournament beside a limited one.

Competitive-tier events also ask for a deck list. A drawn game doesn't count toward the two wins a best-of-three match needs.

Checking a Premier deck in TurnZero HQ

The TurnZero HQ deck builder's Premier format checks the construction rules: one Leader, one Base, at least 50 cards, a sideboard of up to 10 and 3 copies of a card by full name. It flags a card with no printing in a current set as rotated out and a card on the suspended list, which is kept by hand from the publisher's announcements, so check the publisher's current list before an event too. Off-aspect cards stay legal, and each one shows what it really costs in your deck.

A deck you no longer want to rebuild after rotation is still legal in Eternal, where every set is legal.

Frequently Asked Questions