Judge Apprentice - Lesson 6
Actions, Abilities and Effects
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Hello there and welcome back to the Judge Program for the Star Wars™: Unlimited - Apprentice Lesson Track.
As always, I’m your host Jonah, and today we’ll be diving into actions, abilities, and effects - or to take out the technical language - things players can do and things cards can do. So far, we’ve mostly been talking about the framework of the game, but haven’t really explored the details of these more complex actions.
If I asked you - Do you know how to play a card? Do you know how to attack with a unit? You’d almost assuredly say yes, if you’ve played a game of Unlimited, you’ve probably done both of those things, so you know how to do them. Right?
Do you know what kinds of abilities there are in the game? I’m sure you know action abilities and likely triggered abilities, but you might not be as confident about constant abilities - at least by that name. What about lasting, delayed, and replacement effects?
Well, we’re going to make sure that you understand all that, and dive into a bit more of the technical detail that makes them work. Right - that was a barrage of specialized vocabulary, so let’s just get to the explaining!
Play a Card
We’re going to start with some fundamentals to playing a card, covered in 6.2.0.In order to play a card, a player must have a card in hand or be resolving an ability that allows you to play a card from another zone, like Kylo’s TIE Silencer, or any card with Smuggle. You can also play a card that will have no effect, like playing Rival’s Fall with no units in play - the resources will be exhausted and the card will be placed in the discard.
When a card is played, it is considered a new copy - for example, if you had a Qi’ra, Playing her Part, and she is returned with A New Adventure, when she re-enters play, her controller will name a card, and the card that was named previously won’t be under the restriction (unless, of course, it was named this time as well).
There are five steps to playing a card. One - declare intent. Two - check restrictions. Three - determine costs. Four - pay costs. Five - resolve the card. Let’s go through those step by step.
The first step is the easiest - all you have to do is reveal the card from the zone that you’re playing it from and announce that you are playing it.
The second is to make sure you’re not violating any restrictions if you play it. Regional Governor is one such restriction, but upgrades have a built-in restriction that may not be apparent. Upgrades with “attach to a...” require a unit in play with the appropriate attributes. If no such unit is in play, the upgrade can not be played, and the active player must select a different action.
Third, we determine total costs. You begin by taking the printed cost in the upper left corner, then any cost increases, such as Del Meeko, then any cost reducers, like Jabba the Hutt, Cunning Daimyo or Bib Fortuna, Jabba’s Majordomo. These cost modifications do stack additively and the cost of a card can’t be modified below zero.
After totaling the resource costs, you must also calculate additional costs, such as the one from Saw Guerrera. Notably, when an ability instructs you to play something “for free” it ignores all increases or reductions in cost, including aspect penalties, but does not ignore additional costs.
Let’s do a quick walk-through.
You activate Bib Fortuna to play Waylay. You control a Jabba the Hutt, and your opponent controls Del Meeko.
We start by looking at the base cost of three. Then, we add any cost increases, which brings us to a total of four, then any cost reduction - we have two, and we get to apply both of them, bringing the cost down to two.
In step four, the player pays those costs, by exhausting an appropriate number of resources. A player can not exhaust more resources than required to play the card. This is also when the player pays any additional costs. If a player cannot pay all of these costs, they reset to before step 1 and choose a different action.
Finally, once the card is paid for, in step five, the card resolves. Units and upgrades are put into play in the appropriate arena and attached to the appropriate unit respectively. Events are put into the discard pile, and then their abilities occur. This means that if an event, like resupply, affects cards in a discard pile, it can select itself.
Units are considered “played” as soon as they enter either arena, and "when played" effects trigger. Events are considered played as soon as they enter the discard pile, but abilities that trigger when an event is played, such as Bossk, won’t trigger until after the card’s text has been resolved.
Attacking With a Unit
This brings us to attacking - the way to win the game! You can only attack with ready units and only with one unit per action unless an ability instructs you otherwise. If you attack with an exhausted unit (say, due to Frontline Shuttle) you don’t further exhaust the attacking unit. If you’re instructed to attack with multiple units, the attacks occur sequentially, and resolve fully, including all triggers, before proceeding to the next.If an ability calls for a player to attack, that player must make an attack if able, even if strategically disadvantageous.
Like playing a card, attacking a unit is broken down into a few smaller steps - but only three of them this time.
First, the player declares the attack - this involves choosing the unit to attack with, exhausting it, and then choosing what they are attacking. An attacking unit must attack an enemy unit in the same arena as it, or an enemy base unless otherwise restricted. Similarly, it must attack a unit with Sentinel if one exists in its arena. If a declared attack is illegal because of these restrictions, reset entirely to before the attack occurs, and the active player chooses a new, legal action. (Which can be attacking with the same unit, just a legal choice).
Presuming everything is legal, the active player becomes the attacking player and the player who controls the unit or base they’re attacking becomes the defending player for the turn. Similarly, units become attackers and defenders as appropriate, and “while attacking” and “for this attack” abilities become active. After all of that, On Attack triggers occur, including Saboteur, Restore, and “When this unit is attacked” abilities.
The second step is combat damage. The attacker deals damage equal to its power to the defender, and the defender deals damage equal to its power. This damage is “Combat damage” - all other damage is not considered combat damage, even if it is a unit dealing damage to another unit or happens during an attack action.
If the attacker was defeated before this step, no damage is dealt. If the defender was defeated before this step, no damage is dealt, unless the attacker had overwhelm, in which case it deals its damage directly to the defending player’s base. Damage is marked on units and bases, and units are defeated appropriately. Finally “When defeated” and “when this unit deals combat damage” abilities trigger and resolve in this step. Abilities such as Rukh’s or Jango Fett’s will still trigger and resolve, even if he is defeated.
The third and final step is ending the attack.
Players cease to be attacking and defending player, units cease to be attacker and defender, and “while attacking” or “while defending” abilities end.
Furthermore, “When this unit completes an attack” abilities trigger - which requires that the attacking unit is still in play after the damage has resolved. These are distinct from “When this unit attacks and defeats” triggers, even if they check to see if the attacking unit has defeated an enemy unit.
Use an Action Ability
The third large action a player can take is using an Action ability. These have a bolded “Action” followed by a colon. Most have a cost that requires resources or exhausting the unit. Epic Actions also count as actions, but can only be used once per game.Using an Action ability follows all the same rules as playing an event - declaring intent, ensuring that it’s legal, determining total costs, paying those costs, and then resolving the ability. One cost that Action abilities have that events don’t have is the “exhaust” cost, indicated by the curved arrow. To pay that cost, a unit must be readied before activating the ability and must then be exhausted to pay the cost. A cost can also have multiple parts, separated by commas - all of these costs must be paid.
Other Actions
The other two key actions, taking the initiative and passing have been covered previously in lesson 4, Core Structure - Zones and Rounds.Types of Abilities
Next up we’re going to talk about abilities - these are a variety of things that cards can do. There are Action Abilities, Constant Abilities, Event Abilities, Keyword Abilities, and Triggered Abilities.We’ve already touched on Action Abilities in the previous section - they’re on upgrades, units, leaders, and bases with the word “action” or “epic action” followed by a semicolon.
Constant Abilities are always in effect while the card is in play. These look like the abilities on Lurking TIE Phantom, Wedge Antilles, or Han Solo - Reluctant Hero. Constant abilities cease as soon as the card leaves play.
Event Abilities are the text of events. Resolving the instructions of an event is resolving an event ability. When resolving event abilities, do as much as you can, and ignore anything that cannot be resolved.
Keyword Abilities are in bold, red text on cards, and are used as shorthand to reference a more complex set of rules - the keywords, as of this lesson being published, are Ambush, Grit, Overwhelm, Raid, Restore, Saboteur, Sentinel, Shielded, Bounty, and Smuggle. More keywords will be added as the game grows.
Triggered Abilities
Triggered Abilities are the last of abilities and one of the most complex - triggered abilities have bold text that indicates their triggering condition and starts with the word “When” or “On” - this includes When Played, On Attack, or even some Keywords, such as Restore or Ambush.For a trigger to resolve, the card must be in play when the triggering condition occurs - but it can leave play before the triggered ability resolves - for example, “When defeated” cards will be in play when they are defeated, but the trigger can resolve, even though the triggering unit is in the discard pile. If a trigger’s condition is based on a unit or upgrade being defeated, the trigger occurs after the ability or effect that defeated the unit finishes resolving. For example, if the Active Player plays a Death Trooper, and the damage dealt to a friendly unit defeats it, while their opponent’s Gideon Hask will trigger, the two damage from Death Trooper will apply before Gideon Hask’s trigger.
Triggers, like events, must resolve as fully as possible unless they say “you may”.
If a player has multiple simultaneous triggers, they choose the order in which they resolve. If both players have triggers, the active player chooses which player resolves their triggers first, but does not choose the order in which their opponent’s triggers resolve. For example, after Alex plays Superlaser Blast, both players have multiple “When Defeated” triggers. Alex, the active player, gets to decide which of the two players’ triggers will resolve first. Then, when Nico’s triggers begin to resolve, Nico chooses the order in which they resolve their Yoda and Black One triggers.
There’s also something called nested abilities - these are abilities that trigger during the resolution of another ability while multiple abilities are waiting to resolve. The most recently triggered abilities or actions resolve first, and then any that had been waiting. However, this is a somewhat complex topic, and details beyond this are not required for a Judge Apprentice.
Types of Effects
There are also effects that are different from abilities - they’re parts of an ability that have an effect beyond just the immediate resolution of the ability or affect other abilities. There are three kinds - Lasting, Delayed, and Replacement.Lasting Effects have a set duration such as “for this phase” or “for this attack”. They last beyond the resolution of the ability that created it and end immediately when the specified period is reached. A card can be affected by multiple lasting effects, such as Rallying Cry and Surprise Strike, both affecting the same unit. If there’s a conflict between two lasting effects, the more recent one takes precedence. For example, if AP plays Gladiator Star Destroyer and targets a Deathstar Storm Trooper, and then their opponent plays a SpecForce Soldier, the Stormtrooper would not have Sentinel. If played in the opposite order, it would.
Delayed effects are abilities that indicate a future time when something will occur, such as “At the start of regroup...”. These effects occur after lasting effects wear off, but before any triggered abilities. Notably, Delayed effects are not triggered abilities and they’ll resolve even if the card that created the effect left play.
Finally, Replacement Effects use the phrases “instead” and “would” to indicate what isn’t happening and what it is replaced by. A replacement effect replaces the event, so a shield token will prevent any abilities that trigger from damage being dealt. These can occur during the resolution of other abilities or effects.
There’s a lot more detail and complexity to a lot of these mechanics, but you absolutely don’t need that knowledge to start answering rules questions and helping people out. This is the last lesson in the Judge Apprentice track, so now you have all the knowledge you need to take the Judge Apprentice test!
You can find the exam at Nexus.CascadeGames.com/exams. If you've got questions, are seeking clarification or just want to chat with other judges, join the Official Judge Discord.
Once you finish that up, of course, there’s a whole galaxy more to explore, and you can start by diving into the Level One lessons immediately!