Legends of the Force
Rules Update
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Hello there!
Welcome to the Legends of the Force rules update lesson! Today we’re going to go over Comprehensive Rules 5.0, what’s changed, and what that means for the game! These aren’t a part of any specific level or certification, but it’s important to keep up to date. There will also be a lesson available on the updates to the Tournament Regulations and Master Event Document for this set as well. Once both lessons are available, there will be a small quiz that you can take to prove your mastery and understanding of the changes for Legends of the Force.
We’re just going to go through these in order they’re presented in the comprehensive rules, and then tie things together as it makes sense to do so. Let’s dive in!
There are some clarifications and minor templating changes that don’t change how the game is played or the rules function in any meaningful way, and we won’t be covering those in this lesson.
Section 1 - Game Concepts
We have a couple of rules under Power and HP (1.10 and 1.11) that have been added to account for Size Matters Not. This pair of rules indicates that if a card changes a unit's printed power or HP, the game uses those values as the new starting point for any calculations. This means that modifiers use the new values instead of whatever the printed values are.
However, this doesn’t actually change the printed attributes, so using Size Matters Not doesn’t actually help you get around the uniqueness rule.
There’s also a section that says that if an effect like Supreme Leader Snoke - In the Seat of Power looks for a unit “with the most” power, any unit that is tied for the most is an eligible target.
Rey - With Palpatine’s Power also presents us with a new rule. If a card triggers from being drawn, it must be revealed before touching the set of cards that have been in the hand zone. It triggers from the hand zone, but has not yet joined the hand. This is somewhat similar to cards being played by U-Wing Reinforcement being in the deck zone, but being set aside physically from the deck.
If a player does add Rey to their hand, and then says that they want to reveal her for the trigger, they are not able to - the opportunity has passed.
In the section covering actions, we have updates that affect primarily Kazuda Xiono - Best Pilot in the Galaxy. It is now explicit that we progress through the game only when players pass on consecutive actions, not consecutive turns. This means that if you pass, and your opponent activates Kazuda’s leader side, the action phase doesn’t end.
Section 2 - Card Anatomy
Here, we have a clarification that the cost on a leader unit is not how many resources you pay, but instead is a number related to when you can deploy that leader - however, not all leaders require that many resources to deploy - Avar Kriss - Marshal of Starlight being the notable new example.
There’s also some new language regarding visual reminders, such as the split textbox of Pilots or the watermark for Force units.
Section 3 - Card Types
There’s a lot going on under card types, especially under upgrades, but it’s all mostly formalization of previously expressed rules regarding pilots.
Upgrades can only be played or moved onto units that meet their attachment restrictions. The inherent restrictions of pilots stay with them, even if they’re moved to another unit.
We also get some language refining tokens, to make space for Force Tokens, which have a subtype of “Force”. The Force token has no traits, and is created in a player’s base zone. This means that even if a card like Padawan Starfighter said “While you control a Force card...”, it wouldn’t be active, because that is looking for traits. A Force Token is also not an upgrade, although players may frequently treat it like one.
A player also can’t control more than one force token - if they’re instructed to create one but already control one, they ignore that part of the instruction, and continue to resolve the ability as normal.
Section 7 - Abilities and Effects
In section seven, we get some refinement of the language regarding “soft passing” or using effects that don’t change the game state. Effects that have a limited number of uses, even if their activation and resolution don’t otherwise change the game state are considered to have changed the game state. Mystic Monastery from Legends of the Force has a per-game limit and MagnaGuard Wing Leader has a per-round limit. This is a previously mentioned clarification.
There’s also explicit language that says that keywords resolve like, but are not shorthand for other abilities. For example Bounties are not When Defeated abilities, although they resolve in the same time frame, Ambush and Shielded are not When Played abilities, and Saboteur and Restore are not On Attack abilities.
Furthermore, we get a minor clarification that indicates if a player is instructed to “play a non-unit card,” they may play a pilot as an upgrade because it is considered a non-unit when played in that way.
We also have our new keyword, Hidden! A unit that is Hidden can’t be attacked if it was played, deployed or created this phase. A unit that has hidden, if it’s put into play (for example, being rescued from capture) does not get a new layer of protection.
If the hidden unit also has sentinel, it can be attacked, as abilities can’t prevent units with Sentinel from being attacked.
Finally, at the tail end of this section, we have explicit rules laying out that multiple replacement effects can’t apply to the same thing - in particular, you can’t use multiple alternate costs, such as Bamboozle, Piloting, and Smuggle.
Section 8 - Additional Rules
There’s some clarification on a few elements of the additional rules - “If you do” clauses only apply to the sentence that they’re in. This means that with Always Two, you always defeat all other friendly units, even if you don’t choose 2 friendly Sith units.
There’s also clarification that “Last Known Information” is only for reference, but abilities that were on the card while it was in play are not active. This means that Targeting Computer does not apply to units that deal indirect damage When Defeated. However, if an ability was checking to see if the unit was upgraded or had a “when defeated” ability, those would be taken into consideration.
Section eight is also where the Force is explained to us (and no, no reference to Midichlorians in the CR yet). As mentioned above, the Force Token is created in the base zone, and a player can not have more than one. The Force is with a player while that player controls a Force Token. If a player is instructed to Use the Force, they may defeat their Force token. They may not choose to defeat their Force Token if the Force is not with them.
Section 9 - Formats
There’s a whole new format, Trilogy!
Trilogy is a format where players bring three decks, and play a modified best-of-three match with those decks. For deck construction, the restrictions that apply to an Premier deck apply to the set of three decks.
That is to say, the decks have one leader and one base each, with no repeated leaders or bases, no more than three copies of any unit, event, or upgrade, and a minimum of fifty cards. These are, of course, modified by the usual suspects like Swarming Vulture Droids and Data Vault. Trilogy decks also do not have sideboards. Furthermore, Trilogy currently uses the Eternal banlist, not the Premier banlist.
The modified best-of-three begins with a ban phase - each player presents their leader and base pairs to their opponent, and then each player secretly selects one deck to ban from the match. Players reveal their choices and the chosen decks are unavailable for the rest of the match. Then players secretly choose which deck they will play for game one.
After a game finishes, the winning deck is put aside, and that player must select their remaining deck for any remaining games. If there is a drawn game, players play another game with the same decks.
Finally, there’s a quick clarification that may be one of the most important for prerelease - instead of any common base with 30 HP and no abilities, players may use any common base of the appropriate set - ie. the set for which they have opened packs.
And that’s it! Thanks so much for joining us, and I encourage you to take the Legends of the Force mastery quiz after you’ve looked at the policy updates. This quiz is not required, but it’s a good way to make sure you’re up to date with the new rules and mechanics! You can find more details about mastery quizzes on nexus.cascadegames.com/lessons/mastery
Until next time, good luck and have fun!