Twirl, Feign and Block:
The Secrets of Parry Revealed
by C.J. Williams

Along with the new Fall of the Republic (FOTR) dream card expansion, we are also releasing an FOTR Annotated Rulebook a little after the set's release. This Rulebook is based from the ROTS Rulebook and makes no changes to the original text save for striking out a few words while they remain in their entirety. This is because it is "annotated", and is not a complete revision. However, don't let this fool you. The rulebook has been completely upgraded with all pertinent entries from various Rulings, Errata, and FAQ's, collectively referred to here as REF's. While the IDC has made some rulings to clear up confusion and various contradictions, they have not changed any rules outside of those.

In the FOTR Annotated Rulebook, original ROTS Rulebook entries are in its original color text, while annotations inserted from other documents appear in green. These annotations may be slightly reworded to accommodate language continuity or clarify meaning. Then there are annotations made by the IDC Rules Sub-committee that will appear in blue. All in all, the rulebook will be around twice its original size. However, don't let its size overwhelm you. You will undoubtedly find having all the rulings in one place to be much more convenient.
One such entry in the Rulebook will be the new Parry ability.

Parry: A triggered keyword ability written as "Parry X," that means "When this unit is attacked, prevent X damage if the attacking unit rolls at least one natural 1."

That's how the Rulebook definition of Parry begins. Everyone has heard for a long time about the Parry X text that allowed prevention for "each natural 1." However, after much deliberation, the ability was changed to read similar to Critical Hit, allowing only prevention for "at least one natural 1." As a result, the next portion of the definition also reads like Critical Hit:

No matter how many dice come up as 1's, the unit still prevents only X damage.

Okay, so now the rules are the same for Parry as for Critical Hit, right? Not exactly. Now we're dealing with a prevention ability instead of auto-damage. The next sentence is important even though it covers what many already know:

Parry can't affect unpreventable damage.

Inexperienced players often ask about whether they can play specific damage prevention abilities against unpreventable damage. It's likely due to their lack of experience with the Rulebook and trading card games in general. For this reason this clarification has been included. Parry is a prevention ability and like all prevention abilities, is unable to stop unpreventable damage.

Next is a bit of text also added for the benefit of new players, and which answers a question that might pop up from time to time:

Parry only prevents damage to the unit with the Parry ability. It can't prevent damage from the unit with the ability.

Since Parry is a prevention ability, and since the text without this line might be considered ambiguous, this line was added for clarity. While a player may be able to play prevention Battle cards on attacks from their own units, a unit may not apply prevention abilities to their own attacks.

Despite the difference, though, there are still similarities.

If your unit gets the Parry ability after your opponent rolls attack dice, it's too late to affect the damage.

This means that you can only apply ability-granting effects during the attack PoP. You can't play them during or after the die roll to grant Parry to a unit to affect the result. It's too late. At that point, only the die roll PoP can occur, followed by the prevention PoP, which, as explained before, is not affected by and has no affect on Parry.

Note, also, the words "the controller of the attacking unit" instead of "your opponent". Reference to a card's "controller" is also mentioned in the ability text. This allows for the ability to be used against units that you cause to attack your own unit. This could also be important to game play in a way that could benefit or negatively affect your overall strategy, based on the tactic used. If it is your goal to attack your unit to kill it, Parry could make this harder. If it is your intent that the unit should minimize the damage done when you have one of your units attack that unit to gain some kind of bonus, then Parry would work well.

Is Parry what is referred to as "stackable"? Just like Critical Hit, all Parry abilities trigger at the same point. The rule states:

If one of your units already has Parry, it can get a second Parry ability. If that happens, both Parry abilities reduce the damage if you roll a natural 1.

Of course, Accuracy also affects Parry in the same way it affects Critical Hit, so the text is nearly exactly the same:

Penalties to the attacking unit's attack dice from Accuracy with a negative value can't create "natural 1's" and increase the chance of doing less damage with Parry. (A "natural" 1 occurs when one of the dice actually shows a 1, before any bonuses or penalties.)

Nearing the end of the Parry definition, we get the familiar reminder:

Parry applies only to dice rolled for an attack, not to dice rolls for abilities like Retaliate, or spillover damage like Overkill.

Retaliate is "dice of damage"; it is not an attack and is therefore not subject to Parry, as Parry's ability text addresses the dice rolls of attacking units. You'll note that the additional clarification regarding Overkill has been added. While Parry does decrease the amount of damage done, and thereby the amount of damage available to Overkill, it does not apply to damage received to the unit with Overkill if spilled over from damage applied to another unit that is being attacked, because Overkill damage is considered auto-damage, not an attack.

Finally we look at a new clarification that is also being added to Critical Hit:

You or the controller of the attacking unit may apply reroll effects to attempt to affect the number of natural 1's.

This regards a frequently asked question about whether you can reroll the attack dice to alter the chance of getting a Parry or a Critical Hit. This should reduce the frequency with which this question is asked.

The thought behind this definition of Parry that I explained in full here is that your unit is exploiting a weakness in your opponent's attack through that unit's own attack. The damage is prevented from hitting your unit full force. It is not just a skill for Jedi, Force sensitives, or units helped by the Force. It is a skill of trained warriors in general, from Jedi to field commandos, from Yoda to clone field commandos.

All-in-all this ability should prove a great asset to game play and make for decent prevention. Stay alert as we release two more articles in this series, regarding Rulebook entries.

Thoughts or comments? Visit the message board thread for this article here.

About the Author
C. J. has been a player of the game since 2003 and is currently the Text Finalization Leader of the IDC Rules Sub-committee. He has written seven articles for Rebelbasers.com and is the SWTCG Hope of the Jedi tournament coordinator and founder of the Free-League. C. J. Williams has been a member of both the Wizards and Rebelbasers forums since January of 2004, posting under the name Corjay.