Star Wars: Unlimited · Aspect Combinations
Cunning Heroism (Yellow-White) in Star Wars: Unlimited
Cunning Heroism is the hero side's trick deck. Its leaders exhaust enemy units, return and replay their own, and turn gambles into tempo, and it has more leaders than any other pairing as of October 2026.
Cunning Heroism means a leader with the Cunning (yellow) and Heroism (white) aspects. Smugglers, spies and Jedi tricks: exhausting and bouncing units, Ambush, and events that win on timing.
Also called Yellow Heroism or yellow-white. As of October 2026, 14 of the 108 leaders in the six Premier-legal sets have exactly these two aspects.
How Cunning Heroism Plays
Cunning has the most Ambush and Hidden units and the most events, and it leads in exhausting enemy units, returning units to hand and discard effects. Heroism adds the Rebels, the Republic, smugglers like Han Solo and Lando Calrissian, and Jedi.
The leaders mostly control the timing of the round. Admiral Ackbar, It's A Trap! exhausts a non-leader unit for 1 resource, and its controller creates an X-Wing token. Cal Kestis makes an opponent exhaust one of their ready units. Qui-Gon Jinn, Student of the Living Force uses the Force to return a friendly unit to hand and play a cheaper non-Villainy unit from hand for free, so When Played abilities happen again. Han Solo, Never Tell Me the Odds attacks with a unit after revealing your top card, with +1/+0 if both have different odd costs.
An exhausted unit can't attack, so a round where the opponent's best units are exhausted is a round you attack freely. Cunning Heroism wins by stringing those rounds together, then landing a capital ship like Home One or Liberty that keeps the pressure on.
How aspects and the aspect penalty work →What It Does Well, and What It Doesn't
Strengths
- Controls the round: exhausting an enemy unit stops its attack without spending removal.
- Ambush units attack the round they arrive, which punishes an opponent who leaves units damaged.
- Returning and replaying units reuses their When Played abilities.
Weaknesses
- Tempo effects don't remove units for good, so a deck with bigger units gets them back next round.
- Many leaders need setup: the Force, odd costs or an exhausted unit.
- Villainy cards cost at least 2 more, which keeps the dark side's capture and discard out at printed cost.
Cunning Heroism Leaders
Four leaders that show what the pairing does, not a ranking. Each has exactly the Cunning and Heroism aspects; the leader's front is shown, and its card page has the deployed side.
Han Solo, Never Tell Me the Odds
Jump To Lightspeed #017
Odd-cost gamble
Qui-Gon Jinn, Student of the Living Force
Legends of the Force #016
Return and replay
Admiral Ackbar, It's A Trap!
Jump To Lightspeed #016
Exhaust, then X-Wing
Cal Kestis, I Can't Keep Hiding
Legends of the Force #015
Forces an exhaust
- Han Solo, Never Tell Me the Odds: Reveals the top card of your deck, then attacks with a unit, which gets +1/+0 if it and the revealed card have different odd costs. As a pilot, he readies a resource for each friendly unit or upgrade with an odd cost.
- Qui-Gon Jinn, Student of the Living Force: Uses the Force to return a friendly non-leader unit to its owner's hand and play a non-Villainy unit that costs less from your hand for free.
- Admiral Ackbar, It's A Trap!: For 1 resource, exhausts a non-leader unit, and that unit's controller creates an X-Wing token. On an enemy unit it costs them an attack; on one of yours it makes you a ship.
- Cal Kestis, I Can't Keep Hiding: Uses the Force to make an opponent choose a ready unit they control and exhaust it. Deployed at 4 resources, he does it on every attack.
Signature Cards
Cards printed in exactly these two aspects, so any Cunning Heroism leader plays them at printed cost whatever the base.
Han Solo, Has His Moments
Jump To Lightspeed #203
Ambush or pilot
Liberty, Draw Their Fire!
A Lawless Time #224
Exhausts on attack
Home One, On My Mark
Jump To Lightspeed #204
Cheaper against fleets
- Han Solo, Has His Moments: A 5-cost unit with Ambush, or a Piloting upgrade for 2 that may attack with the ship he joins. On the Millennium Falcon, it deals its combat damage first.
- Liberty, Draw Their Fire!: An 8-cost 9/7 Sentinel. When played and on attack, it exhausts an enemy unit and returns its upgrades that cost 4 or less to their owners' hands.
- Home One, On My Mark: A 9-cost 7/8 with Ambush that costs 3 less if an opponent controls 3 or more space units.
Choosing a Base
Your base adds one aspect icon to the two on your leader. A base of another aspect gives the deck a third aspect; a Cunning base gives it a second Cunning icon instead. The third column counts the cards each choice plays at printed cost, out of the 1,409 non-leader, non-base cards in the Premier sets as of October 2026 (a reprint counted once).
Tempo needs a way to cash in. Aggression adds damage so the free attacks Cunning creates end the game; Command adds units that outsize the opponent once they are exhausted, and the widest pool of the four; Vigilance adds removal that makes the tricks permanent. A Cunning base gives up about 220 cards for Cunning's double-icon cards and the base's ability.
Only 5 cards in the Premier sets print two Cunning icons, such as Zuckuss, The Findsman and Libertine, Under New Ownership. That is why a doubled base is the exception. Every Villainy card costs at least 2 more whichever base you pick, since bases never provide Heroism or Villainy.
Other Aspect Combinations
Frequently Asked Questions
What leaders are Cunning Heroism in Star Wars: Unlimited?
As of October 2026, 14 leaders in the six Premier-legal sets have exactly Cunning and Heroism, the most of any pairing, including Han Solo (Never Tell Me the Odds), Qui-Gon Jinn (Student of the Living Force), Admiral Ackbar (It's A Trap!) and Cal Kestis (I Can't Keep Hiding).
What base should a Cunning Heroism deck use?
A third aspect raises the cards you can play at printed cost from about 323 to between 536 and 545 of the Premier pool, and Command gives the widest pool. Aggression turns tempo into damage, and Vigilance adds removal.
Is Cunning Heroism hard to play?
It asks more of you than an aggressive pairing, because its effects are about timing: which unit to exhaust, when to return a unit and replay it, and when to take the initiative. The rewards come from reading what the opponent wants to do that round.
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