Secrets of Power
Rules Update
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Hello there!
Welcome to the Secrets of Power rules update lesson! Today we’re going to go over Comprehensive Rules 6.0, what’s changed, and what that means for the game! This lesson isn’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 policy documents 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 Secrets of Power.
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. We also don’t cover card-specific interactions in this lesson.
Section 1 - Game Concepts
Starting off in section 1.5 we see some updates to ownership of tokens - token upgrades are now owned by the player who controls the units those upgrades are attached to. This makes managing Shield and Experience tokens a bit easier.
An eagle-eyed reader may notice that there isn’t explicit ownership of token units now - this is something that we have already clarified with the developers, and will be in the next update to the Comprehensive Rules, but the player who created a token unit will be its owner (this does mean that Sly Moore from Twilight of the Republic isn’t getting a crazy buff, if token units were treated the same as token upgrades).
We have also expanded the rules that were added in Legends of the Force for Snoke, regarding “most” power - we now have rules for “least” power, which unsurprisingly function as you would expect. Additionally, there’s some clarification that if multiple units are tied for the most or least remaining HP, any of those units is valid - again mirroring the language from Legends of the Force.
Section 1.13 helps clean up some language around Rey from Legends of the Force - the card being shown to all players isn’t a “reveal”, but rather just showing and demonstrating the existence of the card. This is generally how it was ruled and played, but the clarification is nice to have. This is reinforced later in section 7.6.3A, which also helps cover the mechanics for cards with Plot.
Section 3 - Card Types
Our old friends the pilots return in section 3.6. An ability can override the standard upgrade attachment restrictions in limited circumstances. For example, the Millennium Falcon from Jump to Lightspeed, allows players to bypass the one pilot clause.
Section 5 - Game Steps
In section 5.4, we have what looks like a relatively minor update, where it says that any triggered abilities waiting to resolve do so - previously, there was language that indicated that delayed effects resolved, then triggered abilities resolve, and this is how we taught the mechanic. This will have relatively little impact on how the game is played, and it will be more intuitive to players - they no longer need to discern the difference between a delayed effect and a trigger.
Section 6 - Action Timing and Clarifications
We have a couple more formalizations of clarifications.
First, any abilities granted to a card from a “Play a Card” ability are granted while the card’s intent is being declared. This means that an action or ability that lets a player play a card grants keywords at this point, before costs are determined, and consequently, the Leader Unit Morgan Elsbeth from Twilight of the Republic and other similar effects do come into play.
We also have the rules text that explains how cost reducers, like Director Krennic from Jump to Lightspeed interact with Exploit. This means that a player can choose to defeat a unit either before or after applying constant abilities - so you can get the discount from Krennic even if you defeat him if you want to. Or, you could defeat him before you evaluate his discount, if you wanted to pay more, for whatever reason.
Section 7 - Abilities and Effects
We have a new rule for our legendary friend Oppo Rancisis from Legends of the Force - which says that if conditional constant abilities are only met by other conditional constant abilities, they are not met. If you have Oppo, a clone of Oppo, and a third unit that has some keywords, and that third unit leaves play, the Oppo’s aren’t able to learn from each other.
Later on in the section we have our new rules for Plot, one of the two new mechanics coming to the game in Secrets of Power.
When a leader is deployed, a player shows as many cards with plot from their resources as they would like, and then can play these cards sequentially. These cards are still resources until they’re played, and can consequently be exhausted to pay their own costs, just like with smuggle. Similarly, the card moves to whatever zone it resolves to simultaneously with a new resource being put into play.
When a card is played with Plot, if it has any When Played triggers, those triggers must be resolved before the next card is played.
A player can choose to play fewer cards than they showed, but can not play more - so if a player wants to see how a plot card with some non-deterministic elements (such as drawing a card or the opponent making a choice) resolves before deciding if they want to play the next card, they can do so. However, they can not play any cards with plot that are added to the resource zone as part of the resolution of another card with plot, because they were not revealed when the leader was deployed.
Finally, all cards with Plot are played and resolved after the Leader has finished entering play, but can be resolved before any other When Played effects that are dependent on the Leader being deployed.
Section 8 - Additional Rules
There’s a small update in section eight - additional rules, that covers a refinement in Unique identification and what makes a card a copy. A card that changes another card’s “printed characteristics” changes the reference values for other abilities, but doesn’t change what’s printed on the card.
So Size Matters Not does some interesting things, but not everything. It doesn’t change the attributes in such a way that you can have two of the same unique unit as long as one is upgraded with Size Matters Not. However, if you use Clone on a unit upgraded with Size Matters Not, the Clone will be a 5/5.
Uniqueness is now further determined by name and subtitle only, not other characteristics, so granting a unique unit a new trait doesn’t change what you can have in play.
Section Eight also introduces the new mechanic Disclose. When a player is instructed to Disclose aspects, they may reveal cards from their hand. If the revealed cards have at least the aspects required by the ability, the condition is fulfilled.
A player can reveal additional cards beyond what would be necessary to fulfil the condition. However, if a player cannot meet the Disclose requirement, cards shown are not considered to have been revealed for the purposes of other abilities.
For example, if you have the Leader Padme Amidala for Secrets of Power, and are resolving a card with a Disclose ability, if you don’t meet the requirements, you can’t still reveal a single card to trigger her.
Section 12 - Twin Suns (Multiplayer Format)
Finally, wrapping us up in section twelve, with Twin Suns, the leader requirement in deck construction has been revised - it now says that you can’t have both Heroism and Villain on the front face of your leaders - this allows you to play the new Secrets of Power DJ leader in Twin Suns - and he can be played with either heroic or villainous counterparts!
And that’s it! Thanks so much for joining us, and I encourage you to take the Secrets of Power 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!