Think of any collectable card game or trading card game (or, as they’re often abbreviated, CCG and TCG), and you’ll note that each has a system of colours, used to denote factions, energy types or specific characteristics.
Magic: The Gathering (or MTG) has its famous colour wheel, which is on the back of every single MTG card.
The Pokemon Trading Card Game has its array of different Energy types, which you can find out more details on in our Pokemon Energy Types guide.
Disney Lorcana has Ink types, which you can take a closer look at in our Lorcana Ink types guide.
Newly launched TCG Star Wars Unlimited has a colour system itself, referred to in game as Aspects.
Let’s take a look at each Aspect in Star Wars Unlimited, what they mean and, lastly, how they affect the way you play the game!
What Are Aspects In Star Wars Unlimited?
There are six different Aspects in Star Wars Unlimited, each with their own symbol and colour, making it easy to identify them at a glance.
It’s not necessary to know the names of each Aspect during play, but becoming familiar with the colours and symbols is definitely helpful when deck building.
Aspects, according to the Star Wars Unlimited Quick Start Rules, each represent a different philosophy or motivation; they’re highly thematic, so if you’re a Star Wars fan and you’re already familiar with its sprawling cast of characters, vehicles, objects and settings, you’ll be able to build decks that feel ‘right’ within the context of the saga’s universe.
What Is Each Aspect Called?
The six different Aspects in Star Wars Unlimited are as follows, in alphabetical order:
- Aggression
- Command
- Cunning
- Heroism
- Vigilance
- Villainy
There are a small number of cards without an Aspect, which are intended to be Neutral and will fit into any deck that you build, without penalty; we’ll cover how Aspects affect your deck and gameplay in a section below.
Most cards have 1 or 2 Aspects; whether it has no Aspect, 1 or 2 Aspects, the colour of the card’s frame is determined by what it has (or doesn’t have!).
How Do I Know Which Aspect Is Which?
Let’s take a look at each Aspect in turn, checking out the colour and symbol of all six, so you can easily identify them when you play Star Wars Unlimited. Though we’ve observed what cards you’ll tend to find in each Aspect type, these aren’t hard and fast rules; you may find that some cards have Aspects that more closely fit their character or simply seem to be best suited to a different Aspect.
We’ve also highlighted each with a circle, so you can see exactly where the Aspect is on each card, as well as what they look like.
Aggression
Red in colour, Aggression features a Shuriken-type shape on top of a circle.
You’ll tend to find trained military personnel, Sith, Rebel fighters and lower level combat vehicles using the Aggression Aspect, along with Upgrades and Events that deal damage.
Command
The Command Aspect is coloured Green, with a circle shape that has chevrons and a smaller circle at its centre.
Command often features bigger ships, highly trained soldiers or military leaders. It also has support for other Units with its Upgrade and Event cards.
Cunning
The Cunning Aspect is depicted as yellow, with crescent shapes surrounding a small circle, in an almost circular pattern.
Spies, rogues and the scum and villainy of the universe, along with their vehicles, can be found using the Cunning Aspect.
Control and manipulation of your opponent’s Units features heavily in the non-Unit cards for Cunning.
Heroism
A gold or tan colour, Heroism’s symbol looks a little like simplified Rebel Alliance insignia; an upward crescent with a smaller circle in the middle.
As you may expect, you’re only likely to find Rebels and their vehicles using Heroism, along with cards that support them.
Vigilance
Blue coloured with two thin, wide, diagonally downward-facing crescents cradling two smaller circles, you’ll find a good deal of support in Vigilance, with guard-type Units that have strong HP and can often deflect or stop attacks.
Villainy
As you are very likely to expect, Villainy is coloured Black, with two angular, outward facing arrow shapes around a belt-like arrangement of rectangles and a hexagon.
It will not surprise you that this is the flip side of the Rebel-populated Heroism, featuring Imperial characters and vehicles that offer good support to other Imperial Units.
What Effect Do Aspects Have On Gameplay?
Though you are not limited to using specific Aspects in your deck (hey, this is Star Wars Unlimited, after all), there is a penalty for using Aspect symbols not covered by your Leader or Base.
To rewind a bit, in Star Wars Unlimited, you have a Leader and a Base card that you start the game with, in addition to the deck that you either build yourself or buy in pre-constructed form.
So it makes sense to build your deck around cards which can be ‘paid for’ using only the Aspect symbols on your Leader and Base card.
If you do not have the matching symbols, then cards cost an extra 2 resources per symbol you cannot use from your Leader or Base; this is known as the aspect penalty.
For example, if you have Luke Skywalker as a Leader and Administrator’s Tower as your Base, you will have one Cunning, one Vigilance and one Heroism Aspect symbol.
If you want to play a card that has a Villainy symbol, it’ll cost you the card’s resource value plus 2 extra resources!
If you want to play a card that has Villainy and Command, such as Grand Moff Tarkin, it’ll cost you an extra 4 resources, taking its cost to 8!
If a card has two of the same symbol, but you only have one of them across your Leader and Base cards, it’ll still cost you an extra 2 resources.
So that’s everything you need to know about Aspects in Star Wars Unlimited.
While you’re still here, why not take a look at our Star Wars Unlimited: Spark of Rebellion pull rates article, to see how lucky you are if you find a rare card in your booster packs?
We’ve also put together a guide to teach you exactly how to play draft and sealed games in Star Wars Unlimited too!
