With so many returning to the game, and some feeling alienated by the release of RAW, there are a lot of questions about the future of the game. This article is one of several that are being presented to show what there will be to look forward to in the future of the game.

Today we will discuss the use of counters. Counters are an important part of the SWTCG and are becoming even more important under the tutelage of the IDC. The tracking counter system is used to build cards, place damage on units and even vie for control of units with corruption. There's a lot that can be done with counters. Let us examine some of these ways starting with the most notable, corruption counters.

A Brief History of Corruption Counters
Corruption is a theme that was not very well explored by Wizards of the Coast (WOTC) in the Star Wars Trading Card Game. Corruption Counters first appeared on the Dark Cave Location from the Empire Strikes Back expansion. This allowed the DS player to place corruption counters on Dark Cave until the DS player chooses to gain control of a LS unit with a build cost less than the number of corruption counters on Dark Cave. Later, they made a second appearance on Emperor Palpatine (E) from the Return of the Jedi expansion, allowing the DS player to place corruption counters directly on LS units until all LS units have corruption counters on them, at which point DS gets an auto-win. Despite having only 2 cards in previous sets with corruption counters, it was actually a surprise that WOTC didn't include corruption counters in the Revenge of the Sith expansion with how much effort was made corrupting Anakin Skywalker.

The IDC, however, has run with corruption counters as a potentially constant part of the SWTCG gaming experience. The IDC has introduced 18 cards with corruption counters. Though they haven't become a game-changing mechanic, the potential is there. With corruption being such a prime theme in the Star Wars universe, especially in EU and the RPG, it only makes sense to work at making it a theme within the game. The power that can be gained from corruption still needs to be bumped up more, especially considering the more powerful units that were introduced in the Republic at War expansion.

How Corruption Counters Are Used
The rules for corruption counters are on the cards themselves. There are no set rules for them in the rulebook, but are a part of card text rules. Corruption counters are a means of giving you the opportunity to control a unit or get some other benefit at the risk of benefiting your opponent. The only way to use corruption counters is to follow the directions on the cards themselves. Let's look at some of those.

With Aggressive Feelings, no penalty is gained by placing corruption counters. In fact, if that card were the only thing you had to go from, you would think there would be something in the rulebook laying out how corruption counters work. Really, these corruption counters are completely innocuous on their own, having absolutely no effect on the game by themselves. However, if your opponent has a card like Emperor Palpatine (E) or Completing Your Training, the damage counters placed by Aggressive Feelings can end up allowing that player to gain control of your unit or even to win the game.

These corruption counters, though, can work both ways. A unit can be corrupted to the Dark Side, or it can be redeemed from the Dark Side with corruption counters, but only if a card says they can be redeemed. For instance, Anakin Skywalker (R) has an effect that works for both the LS player and the DS player. You can place corruption counters on him to gain an effect, but at a certain point you must hand him over to the control of the other player, no matter whether they are DS or LS.

Corruption counters are often used to gain a benefit at the risk of benefiting your opponent, but with the chance of not benefiting your opponent at all if they have no cards that take advantage of corruption counters. With Palpatine's Office, the player using this neutral card can gain a build point for having diplomats, but must place a corruption counter on one of their units. If their opponent has no cards to benefit from having corruption counters on your units, then it is a free build point. Aggressive Feelings can also be used in such a way. The interesting thing, though, is that there are no LS cards to take advantage of corrupting DS units, except if the DS gains control of Anakin Skywalker(R).

There are also cards to remove corruption counters as well, such as with Jedi Purity and Anakin's Redemption. Even now, cards like this will be a saving grace for your units with corruption counters, and as corruption counters become more popular, they will become even more useful.

Corruption counters can benefit your opponent in other ways as well. For instance, on Luke Skywalker (S), your opponent gains 1 Force for each corruption counter on Luke. I Can Feel Your Anger provides a similar benefit, which is really the ultimate Force Gain/Drain strategy if you are running corruption.

The Future of Corruption
Corruption counters are still in the beginning stages of development. Even with the major boost in BOE, while fun, a corruption counter strategy has not yet reached a competitive stage. In the future, however, this strategy will undoubtedly be boosted to have a greater impact on the game. We can look to other counters to figure out how these counters may be treated in the future.

One trick we have seen used with damage counters is moving counters from one unit to another. In the future this may be possible with corruption for both the DS player and the LS player.

Trading one type of counter for another could be an exceptional benefit. By trading damage counters for corruption counters, you would reduce the damage to your units. Perhaps even removing build counters from one of your opponent's partially built units and putting corruption counters on your own. Perhaps even trading build for corruption counters on the fly.

Dark Cave could finally be made useful if a card were created allowing a player to place corruption counters on any card in the arena, including Locations. This could speed up the corruption process from Dark Cave and give more options concerning which unit they can control.

Credit and Mastery
Damage, build, and corruption counters are not the only counters available in the game. Two other types of counters are also available, but on only one card each. Corridors of Power presents credit counters, while Palpatine's Sanctum introduces mastery counters. These produce some interesting concepts. These are the only two cards with these two types of counters on them, but what can be done with these types of counters?

Credit counters, a concept created by WOTC, introduces a prospect of possible trade even with your opponent and might be used for bribery and would be earned and spent separately from build points. A diplomat or some other official might have text that allows your opponent to build up for a specific purpose to their advantage. On Corridors of Power, credit counters can be built up to trade for build points. Perhaps credit counters could even be used to take build points from an opponent.

Mastery counters represent a growth in power, probably not with the drawback of being able to be removed, but like with Palpatine's Sanctum, allowing units to improve without having to stack. Future cards with these types of counters could have an interesting effect such as playing generic units that can be built up or building up unique units that you've stacked to the full or just don't have access to the other versions to stack with.

What other types of counters could be seen? Force counters could move from your Force pool to the cards themselves. Imagine being able to store up Force points on units to be used for effects by those units or even be able to spend them on other effects and they would never be able to be affected by cards that cause you to lose Force. That would be a great insurance policy.

Of course, these are just my own ideas. You may or may not see them in action in the future, but there is certainly much potential with this sort of mechanic. Keep an eye out for all these counter types in the future. There's no telling what the IDC pulls out to make corruption and other counter types into viable strategies. Who knows, maybe more counter types will be seen in the future.

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