How to Play Star Wars Unlimited - Rules & Keywords

1. Deck construction

• 1 Leader in the Leader area. Your Leader sets your two aspects (one Alignment, one Style).
• 1 Base in the Base area. Your Base has HP. When it reaches 0, you lose.
• 50 cards minimum in your main deck (Units, Events, Upgrades). No upper limit, but most competitive lists run exactly 50.
• Maximum 3 copies of any card by name.
• Cards whose aspects all match your Leader play at their printed cost. Off-aspect cards cost +2 Resources each.

2. Card types

Leader

One per deck. Sits in the Leader zone. Each Leader has a passive ability and an Epic Action that can be used once per game. After triggering its Deploy condition, the Leader flips and enters the Ground arena as a Unit with its own Power and HP.

Base

One per deck. Sits in the Base zone with a printed HP value (typically 30). Defeating the opponent's Base wins the game.

Unit

The fighters. Have Power, HP, and an Arena (Ground or Space). Units only fight other Units in the same arena, but any Unit can attack the opponent's Base directly. Newly deployed Units have "deployed this turn" and cannot attack unless they have Ambush.

Event

One-shot spell-like cards. Pay the cost, resolve the effect, place into the discard pile.

Upgrade

Attached to a Unit. Adds Power, HP, or abilities. When the host Unit is defeated, attached Upgrades are also discarded.

3. Turn flow

SWU uses an action-based system: players alternate single actions until both pass. There are four high-level phases per round.

1. Action Phase: players alternate one action at a time (play a card, attack, use an ability, take a Resource, or pass). The phase ends when both players pass consecutively.
2. Regroup Phase: ready (untap) all exhausted cards, draw two cards (skipped on turn 1 by the initiative player), then optionally smuggle a card from hand to be a Resource face-down. Hand size resets if needed.
3. Initiative Claim: the player without initiative may claim it for the next round (forcing them to go second), or pass.
4. Next round: resume action phase with the initiative player going first.

4. Attacking and combat

Units attack other Units in the same arena, or attack the opponent's Base. To attack, exhaust the attacker, declare the target, and resolve combat:

• Both Units deal damage equal to their Power simultaneously.
• If a Unit's HP is met or exceeded by accumulated damage, it is defeated and goes to the discard pile.
• When attacking a Base, the attacker takes no return damage. All Power goes to the Base. Overwhelm lets a Unit attacking another Unit deal excess damage to the Base.
• When the opponent's Base HP reaches zero, you win.

5. Keyword abilities

Keywords on cards reference standard rules text:

Ambush

This Unit can attack and use action abilities the turn it is deployed.

Grit

This Unit's Power is increased by the amount of damage on it.

Overwhelm

If this Unit's combat damage to another Unit exceeds the defender's remaining HP, the excess is dealt to the opponent's Base.

Raid X

When this Unit attacks a Base, it gets +X Power for that attack.

Restore X

When this Unit attacks a Base, heal up to X damage from your own Base.

Saboteur

This Unit ignores opposing Sentinel Units when choosing attack targets.

Sentinel

Enemy Units must attack this Unit if able. Saboteur bypasses this restriction.

Shielded

When this Unit is deployed, it gains a Shield token (negates the next damage taken, then is discarded).

Smuggle

You may play this card from a face-down Resource at the cost shown next to "Smuggle".

6. Aspects (the deckbuilding rule)

Every card has zero, one, or two aspects out of the six total:

• Alignment aspects: Heroism, Villainy. Each card has at most one.
• Style aspects: Vigilance, Cunning, Aggression, Command. Each card has at most one.

Your Leader has two aspects. Cards that share all their aspects with your Leader play at printed cost. Each aspect a card has that your Leader does not adds +2 to the cost when you play it. This penalty is what makes mono-aspect decks faster and dual-aspect decks more flexible.