Disclosure: Meeple Mountain received a free copy of this product in exchange for an honest, unbiased review. This review is not intended to be an endorsement.
Thrilla in Manila
Fellow Meeple Mountaineer Andrew Holmes recently published a review covering Unmatched: The Witcher – Realms Fall and Steel & Silver, and his opening comment mentioned that we at Meeple Mountain differ on our opinions of the Unmatched franchise. But that makes sense as different reviewers covering differently themed sets are going to land differently on their thoughts.
(The correct opinion is that Unmatched is awesome)
However, Andrew is right that Unmatched is a great system because of its simplicity, quick pace, and heavily contrasting roster of fighters. And like him, I’m the ideal demographic, but for different reasons. The original game, Star Wars: Epic Duels, was played dozens upon dozens of times by my friends in middle school and me. We even found custom heroes online and printed them out, and though they were wildly unbalanced, it was a blast nonetheless.
Fans of Unmatched will recognize Bruce Lee as a highly sought-after expansion, being the first single-character pack and, at times, running upwards of $250 on the secondary market. Fortunately for those patient enough, Bruce Lee has returned in both an affordable and memorable set, going toe-to-toe with the famous boxer Muhammad Ali. I wasn’t alive during their height of fame, but their quotes, stories, and larger-than-life personas live on through pop culture.
Unmatched’s fighters are predominantly fictional characters, spanning various IPs, but I enjoy the small group these two join: representations of real people like Shakespeare, Houdini, and Bigfoot. Yes, sasquatches are out there! Here, however, we have a set rooted in realistic combat, martial arts, and boxing, but still full of all the tactical fighting magic that Unmatched provides.
Utterly Unmatched
I won’t go into the specifics of Unmatched, as it’s been written about before, but this set pits two famous athletes against each other in melee-only combat using decks of cards to bring the opponent’s health down to zero. Each deck is specific and thematic to the fighter, and players take turns maneuvering and playing cards to defeat their adversary.
Like other sets, these characters and maps are agnostic, meaning they are completely compatible with the contents of other Unmatched sets.
Stick and Move, Be Like Water
Ali plays very much how you’d imagine boxing translated to cards. Jabs, weaves, ducks, and fancy footwork keep him mobile and ready to strike. Ali features two stances, aptly named “Float like a Butterfly” and “Sting like a Bee,” from his famous quote. “Float” allows Ali to hit from two spaces away, creating important distance, especially when fighting another melee battler. “Sting” automatically adds +2 damage to an attack, which can compound into lethal hits when comboed with his high-damage attack cards. The stances change automatically when Ali wins a combat, and some card effects only trigger when Ali is in a specific stance.
Lee, on the other hand (fist), comes to battle equipped with his legendary Jeet Kune Do, a hybrid martial art focused on counterattacking the opponent. His attacks focus on cycling Jeet Kune Do-tagged cards from the discard pile back into his hand, allowing for multiple attacks in a single turn. Most of his cards give extra actions, and while they are lower in damage, they deal death by a thousand cuts, draining the opponent of defense cards or striking when they are defenseless. Lee’s special power also allows free movement at the end of his turn, letting him strategically position himself for his next attack or defensive hold.
Fancy Footwork
I’ve played a good chunk of Unmatched pairings, both digital and analog, and I this is probably the best two-player set Unmatched has released yet. Both fighters are extremely straightforward but require deep mastery to play effectively. Since both are melee fighters, map mobility takes a backseat, and it becomes a straight slugfest. I’d even go so far as to say that this is one of the best sets to teach new players the flow of Unmatched, as both fighters are uncomplicated and fun to play.
The duality of their styles reminds me of my days playing the TCG Flesh and Blood, where players often describe characters as those who “go wide” and those who “go tall.” Going tall refers to characters who hit hard with a single attack, often stacking multipliers for one big damage blow. Going wide is the opposite, playing many cards in a row for small damage while draining the opponent of defense cards. Death by a thousand cuts.
Ali is fun to play, with self-healing and stances that let him move and hit hard. But hand management is really important, as many of his combos require positioning and another card play to swing those heavy haymakers. This becomes troublesome against Lee, whose multi-action style makes defending much harder. Lee is also fun to play, cycling his Jeet Kune Do cards from his discard pile back into his hand and getting into a nice rotational flow that always keeps the pressure on.
Both characters give the feel of a sparring match, but Lee feels a bit more overpowered than his Ali counterpart. Lee can do so much more on a single turn, and it often puts Ali against the ropes. Thematically, it’s a strong representation of his martial arts style, but comparatively, it feels like Ali needs a bit more versatility in his deck.
I actually helped playtest Ali a year or so ago, and I remember his repeated punches being overtuned, resulting in fast, one-sided fights. It seems like Restoration Games took that feedback and overcorrected his deck, making him not quite as competitive as other fighters.
HOOO! WHAAAAA!
However, both decks are still a ton of fun to play, though Ali has a bit of a higher learning curve. I don’t doubt that a few additional bouts will help nail down his strategy better.
And as always, the art fantastically captures the aura both fighters brought to their fighting styles. I especially love the historical headlines featured on Ali’s cards, giving his deck a little extra personality beyond the punches.
If you’re new to Unmatched, have a love for these athletes, or are just deciding between sets, this two-player pack throws a massive punch. It features what I feel are two of the best and most fun fighters Unmatched has rolled out yet.
Unmatched: Lee vs. Ali details
- Designer: Justin D. Jacobson, Noah Cohen, Rob Daviau
- Artists: Oliver Barrett
- Publishers: Geekach LLC, IELLO, Restoration Games, White Goblin Games
- Release Date: 2025
- Player count : 2
- Age range : 9+
- Time range : 20 minutes
- Mechanism(s): Action Points, Campaign / Battle Card Driven, Card Play Conflict Resolution, Hand Management, Line of Sight, Point to Point Movement, Team-Based Game, Variable Player Powers
- BGG Geek Rating: 8.44301 - converted to Meeple Mountain scale: 4.0.
- More articles about Unmatched: Lee vs. Ali.
