Level One - Lesson 5
Comprehensive Rules: Section 3 - Card Types
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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 three - Card Types. As with the previous lesson, some of this content was covered in Judge Apprentice Lesson 4 - Card Anatomy and Card Types, so you’ll definitely hear me repeat some phrases and examples, but this lesson, like with the other Level One Lessons will be a bit more thorough.
As I’ve mentioned before, each card type has some rules associated with it - these determine how and when you can play them, what actions you can take with them, how they leave play and more. All cards have at least one type, indicated by text in the upper left.
The six types are Bases, Events, Leaders, Units, Upgrades, and Tokens. Cards that have two types are Leader Units, Token Units, and Token Upgrades. Cards with multiple types follow the rules of both, with one explicitly taking precedence when their rules conflict.
3.2 - Bases
As we discussed in the last lesson, not every card has the same anatomy. All bases have a name, trait, HP value, and aspect, while some also have a textbox with an ability. Many bases have a flip side that is a token, but that is only representational - these cards are functionally single-sided.All decks must have exactly one base, which is owned and controlled by the player who started the game with it. It starts the game in the aptly named Base Zone, and never leaves.
The most important parts of the Base are the HP and the Aspect. The Aspect of a base is provided to the deck, which means that any cards in the deck that have a matching icon do not incur an aspect penalty. The HP is how much damage the base can sustain.
Bases can have an ability like any other card. Some are Epic Actions, which can only be used once per game, while others are triggers or constant abilities.
A base can be dealt damage through abilities or by being attacked by units. A base can be attacked by any unit unless prevented by an ability. Units that attack a base remain in the arena they started in - otherwise, effects like Kragan Gorr’s wouldn’t work.
Bases can be healed from the resolution of various abilities, most frequently the Restore keyword. A base cannot be healed beyond its HP value - any excess healing does not occur. That means for an ability like Redemption’s When Played, if the base had five damage on it, only five damage would be dealt to Redemption.
3.3 - Events
Events have a name, cost, at least one trait, and at least one ability. Most also have aspect icons.To summarize playing an event, a player reveals the card from where they’re playing it - usually their hand, pays its cost including modifications, then places it into its owner’s discard pile, before resolving its event ability.
This means that an event never enters play, and an event that affects cards in a player’s discard pile can affect itself. As an example, Restock can be selected for it’s own ability.
Events follow the golden rule, where as much as possible is resolved. Events can be played, even if resolving them would not change the game state. If you play Rebel Assault, but only have one readied Rebel, you can attack with that unit, but will not attack with another. You can also play Rebel Assault without any Rebel units.
If an ability triggers from a player playing an event, such as Bossk or Krayt Dragon, the ability triggers before the event resolves, then the event resolves, then the trigger resolves. Let’s do a quick example. Alex, our Active Player plays Force Lightning, choosing Nico’s Krayt Dragon. After playing the Force Lightning, the Dragon triggers, then Force Lightning resolves. Alex doesn’t pay any additional resources, so Krayt Dragon loses all abilities. However, the triggered ability has already been triggered, and will resolve, and Nico can choose where to deal the point of damage. Even if the Dragon had been defeated by the Force Lightning, the trigger would still resolve. Once an ability triggers, it does not depend on its source still being in play, but we’ll talk about that in-depth way down the line!
3.4 - Leaders
Leaders have two playable sides that are linked to each other. Both sides - Leader and Leader Unit - have aspect icons, a name, subtitle, traits, and abilities. The Leader Unit side also has Power and HP, just like a unit!Like with bases, all decks must have exactly one leader, which is owned and controlled by the player who started the game with it. It starts the game in the Base Zone, but can leave once per game if it’s Epic Action is used, and it is deployed.
For deck-building considerations, the most important part of the leader are its aspects. The Aspects of a leader are provided to the deck, which means that any cards in the deck that have a matching icon do not incur an aspect penalty.
The abilities that a leader and leader unit may have may be different, and only the face-up side is considered to be in play. Each leader has an epic action that allows it to be deployed. Deploying a leader does not count as playing it, but the leader unit does enter play. If a leader has an action ability other than their Epic Action, like on Jabba the Hutt, that ability can be used before the Epic Action is used. Because leaders are ready when deployed, you could then use the Leader Unit Jabba’s ability on the same unit you chose with the Leader action ability. Those abilities would stack, and if the bounty unit would be defeated, the next unit you play would cost 3 less.
While deployed to an arena, Leader Units function similarly to units, with one key exception - if it would leave play or change control for any reason, it is defeated instead, and returned to the base zone, exhausted.
3.5 - Units
Units have a name, cost, power, HP, traits, and arena type. They also may have a subtitle, aspect icon, and abilities.Like with playing events, a player reveals a unit from whatever zone they’re playing it from (the hand unless an ability allows otherwise), pays costs and then puts it into play exhausted in the appropriate arena as part of its resolution. At that point, “When Played” abilities trigger.
Units remain in play until defeated, or ability causes them to leave play - such as being returned to hand by Cantina Bouncer or captured, as seen on Discerning Veteran.
A unit is defeated when it has no remaining HP or when an ability defeats it directly. When defeated, a unit is placed into its owner’s discard pile.
While in play and ready, units can attack enemy units in the same arena or an enemy base.
3.6 - Upgrades
Upgrades have a name, cost, traits, power, and HP modifiers. Upgrades may also have aspect icons and abilities.Upgrades are played from hand for their cost and are attached to a unit. Some upgrades specify types or traits that the unit must have - these are only checked when the upgrade is played. For example, if you play Legal Authority on your Reinforcement Walker, and your opponent later plays Choose Sides on it, the Legal Authority remains attached.
Upgrades can be placed on friendly or enemy units, and there is no limit to the number of upgrades that can be on a single unit. The player who played the upgrade continues to control it, even if they don’t control the unit it is attached to.
All upgrades have a power and HP modifier (although some upgrades have modifier values of 0), which are added to the attached unit’s power and HP. These modifiers are cumulative.
Some upgrades give abilities to the attached unit, using the phrasing “attached unit gains...” These abilities are considered to be abilities of the unit they are attached to and can be interacted with directly. For example, if you played Vambrace Grappleshot on a Gideon Hask and your opponent played Force Lightning, Gideon would not have the on-attack ability from the Vambrace. The power and HP from the Vambrace would still apply.
Some upgrades have abilities that affect the attached unit but do not grant it that ability. For example, if your opponent played Entrench on your Gideon Hask, even if you played Force Lightning on Gideon, it still wouldn’t be able to attack bases, because Entrench isn’t granting an ability to the unit, instead it has an ability that applies to the unit.
3.7 - Tokens
All tokens have a name, trait, and a second type - and they follow the rules of the second type, with two exceptions. First, tokens are never played - they are simply put into play. This means that they won’t trigger “when played” abilities. Second, when they’re defeated or would leave play, they are set aside, out of the game.Tokens can not be shuffled into decks, cannot be added to hands or any hidden zone, and cannot be discarded. There is no limit on the number of tokens available to a player - while a player should arrive at an event with sufficient quantities of tokens to represent the game objects they need, sometimes these estimations are off. Using dice or other markers to indicate tokens is entirely okay, as long as it is clear to both players.
That’s it for card types! We talked a lot about where cards start, and where they go over the course of the game, and so next time we’ll explore exactly that in the next section of the Comprehensive Rules - Section 4 - Zones. As always, if you have any questions, comments, or insights, be sure to join the Discord and make your voice heard. Until next time, good luck and have fun!