Character Cards

Character Cards

Michael Mikaelian

01 - Where to Begin
02 - Anatomy of a Card
03 - Space Cards
04 - Ground Cards
05 - Character Cards
06 - Using the Force
07 - Card Abilities and Strategies
08 - Grand Battles
09 - Game Setup
10 - Deck Building

Although Star Wars is known for its grand space battles and sweeping planetside engagements, its stars that shine the brightest are its characters: Jedi Masters, Sith Lords, bounty hunters, politicians, and even droids. In the Character arena, good and evil get up close and personal and fight toe-to-toe.

The rules of combat are the same in the Character arena as they are in the Space and Ground arenas. Instead of starfighter squadrons, incredible walkers, or infantry platoons, each Character card represents a single, usually unique, personality in the Star Wars galaxy. There are the most popular characters: Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Padmé Amidala, Darth Sidious, Darth Tyranus, and Jango Fett. There are less well-known ones as well: Zam Wesell, Watto, Elan Sleazebaggano, and Dexter Jettster. Of course the most popular supporting characters can also be found there: Yoda, R2-D2, C-3PO, Boba Fett, and Jar Jar Binks.

Of all the arenas, the units you play in the Character arena have the most varied of the three types of abilities: activated, static, and triggered.

Activated abilities are those that you choose to perform by paying a cost. For instance, the ability " Your opponent chooses one of his or her units in the Character arena. Tap that unit unless your opponent pays 3 Force," is an activated ability. Activated abilities are easy to spot: they always start with a cost, followed by an arrow (), and then the effect.

Static abilities are always "on." For instance, "As long as this unit is in the Character arena, each of your Clones gets +1 power," is a static ability. Generally, static abilities last "as long as" a specific condition exists.

Triggered abilities are perhaps the trickiest of the three, because you have to remember to use them when the opportunity arises. For instance, "When the battle phase starts, if Obi-Wan's Starfighter is in the Space arena, remove all damage counters from Obi-Wan's Starfighter," is a triggered ability. Abilities that start with the word "when" are always triggered abilities.

Character abilities run the gamut from the most benign ("When this unit is discarded from the Character arena, draw a card") to quite powerful (" Your opponent chooses and discards a card from his or her hand.") Some Characters can even use the Force to increase their battle prowess, prevent damage, or deflect it to an adversary.

Another, more advanced, element that is unique to the Character arena is called stacking. Stacking allows you to combine different versions of the same unit together to make it faster, stronger, and more durable. You can stack up to four different versions of the same unit. You do so by choosing one version to be the top of the stack and putting each other version underneath it. Use all of the top unit's card features and ignore the one's stacked underneath it. For each card stacked underneath it, the top one gets a +10 speed, +1 power, and +1 health.

Next - Using The Force