Level One - Lesson 4
Comprehensive Rules: Section 2 - Card Anatomy
Also available are archives of live broadcasts, where the Program Director goes over the lesson, answers any questions that folks may have and sometimes goes on tangets about other elements of judging. You can find the playlist of broadcasts on youtube.
Click for Translation
While proper translation and localization are among our long-term goals, we are currently offering Google Translate on the page. Please keep in mind that the translation is automatic, which means that specific game terms, names of cards or mechanics, or technical language used to describe the game may not translate well. As with the documents for the game itself, the English page is the authoritative document in case of any confusion or discrepancy.Join the discussion in our Discord and talk with other judges about what you learned, and ask any questions you may have!
Hello there and welcome back to the Judge Program for Star Wars™: Unlimited - Level One certification track lessons.
As always, I’m your host Jonah, and today we’ll be covering the comprehensive rules, section two - Card Anatomy. This lesson is going to be relatively short, as a lot of this information is explored more in-depth in other sections of the CR, but as I’ve said before and as I’ll say again, it’s important to develop a strong foundation. We’ll pull in some of those rules from other places, as the context will help you remember the importance of some of these elements, but otherwise, this one should be relatively straightforward. A lot of this was covered in Judge Apprentice Lesson 4, but this one is going to go a bit more in depth.
One thing that I want to mention as we get started here is that this card anatomy is regarding the standard presentation of cards - cards like leader showcases, convention exclusives, or other promotional cards may have different layouts. Generally, the key game elements will be in similar places and with similar formatting, but that won’t always be the case. In the event of discrepancies, the official database will have all required card attributes.
Okay - let’s dive into the different elements of the card.
Every card has at least a name, type, traits, and credit. The other elements that can appear on any card are subtitle, cost, aspects, and text box. Arena type and power only appear on units, hit points appear only on units and bases, and power and hit point modifiers only appear on upgrades.
All of these elements except the credit line are considered attributes of a card and can be referred to either by the rules or other cards.
2.2 & 2.3 - Name and Subtitle
For purposes of identification, each card’s name is considered to be the English name. All cards have their name at the top, but upgrades also have their name at the bottom, so you can identify them even if the physical card is placed under the unit it is attached to. Multiple cards can share a name - in fact, lots of characters already have two or three cards with the same name!This is important for a card like Regional Governor. If you play Regional Governor and name Chewbacca, your opponent can’t play Chewbacca - Loyal Companion or Chewbacca - Pykesbane! This is because they have the same name and Regional Governor is only checking for the name. You’d still be able to deploy Chewbacca - Walking Carpet, because he’s a leader, and is deployed, not played. While the name of one card can be shared, naming a card for an effect like this requires you to name a card in full, and it only applies to cards with that full name. For example, you couldn’t name “Admiral” because that is not the name of a card.
In the case of a partial match, it also won’t apply. You can name Maul - Shadow Collective Visionary, but your opponent will still be able to play Darth Maul - Revenge At Last, because Darth Maul, despite being the same character, has a different name than Maul.
There is a rule regarding uniqueness, and we’re going to jump all the way to sections 8.30 and 8.6 - “Unique” and “Copy” for a quick second.
Cards with a little star before their name are unique. In 8.30 it says that a player can only control one copy of any unique card at a given time. What’s a copy? Well, in 8.6, it lays out that a copy is a card with the same printed attributes as another card - and those printed attributes are derived from the card anatomy.
The biggest distinguisher between unique units is the subtitle. Unique units will have a title - like Loyale Companion, Walking Carpet, or Pykesbane. Other than that, subtitles don’t have a significant factor in the game. However, you should be sure to include subtitles while registering a deck, just to make sure there isn’t any confusion or ambiguity.
Speaking of ambiguity, when naming a card in a game, players should strive to name the card accurately and can call for a judge to ask for assistance in identifying the card - they should be able to provide enough information for the judge to concretely name the card. For example “the red removal card” isn’t enough but “the three-cost red event that deals four damage to a unit and nothing else from Spark of Rebellion” narrows it down to just Open Fire. Similarly, as long as both players are clear about what is being communicated, they can communicate with shorthand or description - some players refer to Super Laser Technician as “DJ Death Star”, which has absolutely no direct reference to the card name - but if both players understand what is being discussed, it’s totally fine! However, if either player feels as though there is an ambiguity, it is their responsibility to confirm with the other player.
For example, if one player plays Qi’Ra - Playing Her Part, sees Darth Maul in their opponent’s hand, and then names “Maul”, it is reasonable for both players to assume Darth Maul, but if there is any doubt it should be cleared up. One thing that we want to avoid is players intentionally communicating poorly to gain an advantage, or trying to take advantage of communication that was ambiguous, rather than getting that clarity.
Okay - maybe that was a bit more in-depth than when we talked about it during the apprentice lessons!
2.4 - Types
Types have rules baggage associated with how and when you can play them, what actions you can take with them, as well as how they leave play. All cards have a type, indicated in the upper left. The types are base, event, leader, unit, upgrade, and token.Cards can have multiple types, with Token Upgrades, Token Units, and Leader Units being in the game as of this lesson.
2.5 - Arena
Only Units have an Arena - they’re either Ground or Space. When the first unit of the game is played, its owner places it either to the right or left of their Base Zone, and that part of the in-play area becomes either the Ground Arena or Space Arena, depending on what unit was played. That side of the gameplay area will be that Arena for both players and the entirety of the game, even if there are no units in play. All ground units are played into the ground arena and all space units are played into the space arena.2.6 - Costs
The cost is located in the upper left of the card and indicates the number of resources required to play it, or, in the case of leaders, the number of resources you must control before you can deploy them with their epic action.Costs can be modified by abilities and/or the aspect penalty, which was just covered. When playing a card, all modifiers must be accounted for.
To determine the final cost of a card, begin with the printed cost, then add any cost increases, and then any cost decreases. Costs can not be reduced below zero. If a cost would be reduced to below zero, treat it as zero instead.
If a player is instructed to play a card “for free” it bypasses all cost increases and decreases, including the aspect penalty. Similarly, when an ability refers to a card’s cost, it looks at the card’s printed cost and also does not take into account increases or decreases.
That means, if you’re playing a Heroic/Command/Cunning deck and play U-Wing Reinforcement, you would be able to play Count Dooku, Darth Tyranus because his printed cost is seven. However, even if you had a cost reduction effect applying to it, you wouldn’t be able to play Reinforcement Walker, because its cost is still eight.
However, while cost modifiers are ignored if you play a card for free, you still have to pay additional costs, as seen on Saw Gerrera.
2.7 - Aspects
There are six Aspects in Star Wars Unlimited, each with a color associated with them. While the color carries no rules meaning players will frequently refer to aspects by color instead of the aspect name.The aspects and their colors are Vigilance - Blue, Command - Green, Cunning - Yellow, Aggression - Red, Heroism - White, and Villainy - Black.
Leaders and Bases, which have their aspects in the upper right and are selected during deck construction provide their aspects to a deck. Other cards require you to have those aspects provided or else pay a penalty of two resources for each missing aspect. If you have Heroic, Command, and Cunning, a card that has the Vigilance and Heroism aspects costs two additional resources because you are missing Vigilance, and a card that has double Command also costs two additional resources because you are missing the second Command. Finally, a Villainy and Vigilance card would cost four additional resources because you are missing both of those aspects.
Some cards have no aspects - these cards are considered Neutral.
This isn’t a mechanical note, but aspects lend some degree of theme and playstyle to the cards that have them. For example each aspect has a different way of dealing with opposing units - vigilance has a lot of effects that defeat them directly, aggression deals damage, cunning returns them to their owner's hand, and command increases the power and hitpoints of its own units. You can also see this in how keywords are spread out - Grit is predominantly in Aggression and Vigilance, while Ambush is on Cunning or Command cards.
2.8, 2.9, 2.10 & 2.11 - Power, HP, Power Modifiers and HP Modifiers
All units have Power and HP stats, located to the left and right of the card in the center of the card, below the art. Power is how much damage the unit deals when in combat, and can be referred to by other cards. For example, Grand Inquisitor looks to see how much power a unit has. Strike True also references a unit's power and uses this value to deal damage. However, even though a unit is dealing damage to another unit equal to its power, it is not combat damage. This value is dynamic and is looking for the current value after modifiers, not the printed value.HP is how much damage can be placed on a unit before it is defeated. Its remaining HP is its total HP including modifiers minus damage marked on the unit. If a card is healed, it cannot be healed above its total modified HP. For example, if you have a Separatist Super Tank with four damage marked on it, playing Redemption and removing all of the damage will only damage the Redemption for four. You can’t choose to remove non-existent damage.
Upgrades have Power and HP modifiers, located to the left and right of the card at the bottom, below the text box. These modifiers are simply added to the printed power and HP of the unit they’re attached to, and are cumulative with other modifiers.
2.12 - Traits
Traits carry no rules baggage on their own. There isn’t anything about how Rebels function or Vehicles - they exist so that other cards can refer to the class as a whole. A card can have any number of traits.It’s also possible for one card to grant another card a trait - as seen on the card Foundling.
2.13 - Textbox
Finally, we get to the most powerful and dynamic part of the card, the textbox. This has the abilities of the card, which we’ll explore in detail in a future lesson. This includes action, constant, event, keyword, and triggered abilities as well as other lasting, delayed, and replacement effects.Sometimes there will be italicized text in parentheses - this is called reminder text, and its purpose is a shorthand version of the rules to help you remember how the ability functions. As mentioned in the first Game Concepts lesson, reminder text is an exception to the golden rule that cards override the rules - reminder text is below everything in terms of precedence. As an example, the reminder text on Sentinel is incomplete. Reminder text is usually enough for a player to play the card correctly most of the time and can help jog your memory if you’re answering a question about a card. The reminder text on Fett’s Firespray or Gideon’s Light Cruiser is an example of reminder text that isn’t as clearly laid out in the rules as Sentinel is, so it can be very useful to newer players or if you want to verify something quickly. However, if you’re unsure of how a mechanic works, rather than relying on the reminder text, crack open the comprehensive rules and look up the full explanation.
2.14 - Credit Line
The credit line is the last element on all cards but is not a part of a card’s attributes and has no gameplay impact. It includes the name of the artist, licensing information, set abbreviation, language, rarity, and set number.And that’s it! Now that you know how a card is assembled, we’re really going to go deep into how they work. The next lesson will go into Card Types, and the rules associated with each of them! Until then, good luck and have fun!