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Virtual cards

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For printing and sleeving the PDF overlays, see V-slips. For the three eras, see Virtual Original, Virtual Legacy and Virtual Modern.
A Virtual card slip: the label above the card ("•Bail Organa (V)") is the card's title, the face prints "•Bail Organa" (its display title) and the margin names the Decipher card it covers, "Kirdo III Operative (V)". Virtual Set 16: Revenge Of The Sith, slip 01.[1]

Virtual cards are Star Wars CCG cards published by the Players Committee (PC) after Decipher stopped making the game. They are not printed and sold: the PC publishes them as PDF sheets, and a player prints the new card, cuts it out and sleeves it over a real Decipher card, which then plays as the Virtual card.[2][3] Virtual versions are marked with (V): Decipher's 2002 announcement of the first set said that "anything related to the Virtual cards will be marked with a (V). This includes references to the cards in rulings, deck articles, and deck lists."[2]

Eras and publishers

Every Virtual card is published by the Players Committee. The wiki divides them into three eras:

Era Span Packaging
Virtual Original 2002–2009 Numbered Virtual Sets 1–17 and Defensive Shields. The first set was tournament-legal on 9 March 2002.[2]
Virtual Legacy 2009–2014 Virtual Blocks 1–9 and Virtual Shields, beginning with the 2009 Virtual Block Reorganization (sheets dated 7 December 2009).[4]
Virtual Modern 2014– Virtual Sets numbered again from Virtual Set 0, after the 2014 Virtual Card Pool Reset.[5]

Before the Players Committee, every card was a Decipher card; see Decipher era.

From slips to full cards

  • March 2002: the first Virtual Set's Luke Skywalker (V) slip was a small replacement text box sleeved over the Decipher card.[6]
    March 2002: the first Virtual Set's Luke Skywalker (V) slip was a small replacement text box sleeved over the Decipher card.[6]
  • The later Virtual Set 1 sheet: the same card with a full stat bar and icons. The label above ("•Luke Skywalker (V)") and the margin ("•Luke Skywalker (V)") are the same name.[7]
    The later Virtual Set 1 sheet: the same card with a full stat bar and icons. The label above ("•Luke Skywalker (V)") and the margin ("•Luke Skywalker (V)") are the same name.[7]
  • August 2008: a near-full card. Everything is there except the top margin, and the label above no longer matches the margin.[1]
    August 2008: a near-full card. Everything is there except the top margin, and the label above no longer matches the margin.[1]

The first Virtual cards were small slips. Virtual Set 1 (March 2002) gave twelve Premiere cards "new and balanced game text"; players printed the PDF and inserted the game text boxes "into an opaque sleeve with the appropriate card".[2][6] Over the following sets the slips covered more and more of the card, until they were almost full cards: everything was printed except the top margin of the card, which was cut off. To label each slip on the sheet, the PC printed the card's name above it. At first this label was just a copy of the card's name, and it matched the name printed in the slip's lower margin, as on the Virtual Set 1 sheet's "•Luke Skywalker (V)".[7]

That stopped working once the PC began renaming cards. The margin then became a note of which Decipher card the slip goes over, with "(V)" to show that it is a Virtual card, while the label above usually kept the card's own title (see How the sheet labels vary).

Title and display title

A Virtual card shows up to three names and is sleeved over a fourth card. They mean different things:

Where What it is Bail Organa example Booster In Pulsar Skate example
Label above the slip on the release sheet Normally the card's title •Bail Organa (V) •Booster In Pulsar Skate (V)
Title line on the face of the card The Display Title (what the card shows) •Bail Organa •Booster In Pulsar Skate
Lower-left margin The Margin Note: the Decipher card the slip goes over, usually with "(V)" Kirdo III Operative (V) •Pulsar Skate (V)
The real card in the sleeve The Underlying Card Kirdo III Operative Pulsar Skate

The label above the card is normally the card's title, even when the title printed on the card is different (Bill Bisco, 11 November 2026).[8] So the title includes "(V)", and almost every Virtual card has a display title that differs from its title, if only by the missing "(V)".

The labels are not always right, though: some name the base card instead of the new one, some have typos, and renamed cards carry a new name in the PC's later documents (see How the sheet labels vary). So the wiki records the label but does not take it on trust. A card's title is its official name, and when the PC later renamed a card officially, the new name is the official one (Bill Bisco, 12 November 2026).[9]

Bail Organa (V)

The Virtual Set 16: Revenge Of The Sith sheet labels its first slip "•Bail Organa (V)". The card it prints is titled "•Bail Organa", and its margin reads "Kirdo III Operative (V)": the slip goes over the Decipher card Kirdo III Operative and borrows its art.[1] Strictly speaking Decipher never printed a card called Bail Organa, but the PC put "(V)" on every Virtual card to show that it is a Virtual card. The card's title is Bail Organa (V); its display title is "Bail Organa"; "Kirdo III Operative (V)" only says which card to sleeve it with.[8]

Booster In Pulsar Skate (V)

  • The Virtual Block 4 sheet: label "•Booster In Pulsar Skate (V)", face "•Booster In Pulsar Skate", margin "•Pulsar Skate (V)".[4]
    The Virtual Block 4 sheet: label "•Booster In Pulsar Skate (V)", face "•Booster In Pulsar Skate", margin "•Pulsar Skate (V)".[4]
  • The Players Committee's card image of the same card.
    The Players Committee's card image of the same card.

On the Virtual Block 4 sheet, the slip labelled "•Booster In Pulsar Skate (V)" prints "•Booster In Pulsar Skate" on its face and "•Pulsar Skate (V)" in its margin (sheet page 12).[4] Its title is Booster In Pulsar Skate (V) and its display title is "Booster In Pulsar Skate".[8]

Virtual Modern: Admiral Ackbar (V)

Admiral Ackbar (V) (Virtual Set 3): no "(V)" on the face or in the margin.

Virtual Modern cards are full card images and no longer print "(V)" anywhere on the card. Admiral Ackbar (V) prints "•Admiral Ackbar" in its title line and "Admiral Ackbar" in its margin, but the PC's card list for Virtual Set 3 lists it as "•Admiral Ackbar (V)".[10] Its title is still Admiral Ackbar (V); "Admiral Ackbar" is its display title.[8]

Display Title

Dorme (Virtual Set 0): the face prints "•Dormé", with the accent; the margin reads "Saché".

The Display Title is what the title line on the face of the card prints. The wiki's card infobox shows it in the Display Title row, filled only when it differs from the card's title. For most Virtual cards the only difference is the "(V)", which the faces leave out: Admiral Ackbar (V) prints "•Admiral Ackbar",[10] and on the Virtual Block 4 sheet Booster In Pulsar Skate (V) prints "•Booster In Pulsar Skate".[4] Some faces differ in other ways, such as accents that the titles leave out: Dorme prints "Dormé", Yane (V) prints "Yané" and Padme Naberrie (V) prints "Padmé Naberrie". Uniqueness dots are not part of the display title, and site names, which the faces print in capitals, keep the wiki's title case.

Margin Note

Leave Them To Me (V) (Death Star II) on the Virtual Block 6.1 sheet (revised copy, 2010), slip 23: label "•Leave Them To Me (V)", margin "•Leave Them To Me (Death Star II) (V)".[11]

The Margin Note is the name that the slip or card prints in its lower-left margin. The wiki records it exactly as printed, with dots, capitals, "(V)" and typos. It names the Decipher card that the slip is sleeved over, usually with "(V)" added: the Virtual Set 16: Revenge Of The Sith slip of Bail Organa (V) prints "Kirdo III Operative (V)",[1] and the Virtual Block 6.1 slip of Leave Them To Me (V) (Death Star II) prints "•Leave Them To Me (Death Star II) (V)".[11] Location slips that are printed sideways carry the note along their side edge: the Yavin 4: Jedi Academy slip reads "•Yavin 4: Massassi Ruins (V)" there.[12] Virtual Modern cards print the name without "(V)": the margin of Dorme reads "Saché".

The margin note is not the card's title. The PC's rulebook says that "a virtual card need not precisely match the entire title of the card it is used with (only the card named in its lower left-hand corner, which is not used for any other purposes)."[13][14] The 2007 rules had still required a virtual card to "precisely match the entire title of the card it is used with".[3]

Underlying Card

The Decipher card Leave Them To Me (Death Star II), one of the two cards that Leave Them To Me (V) is printed over.

The Underlying Card is the Decipher card that the Virtual card is printed over: the real card in the sleeve. The margin note says which card that is; the wiki's Underlying Card row links that card's own article, without "(V)", because it is the Decipher card and not a Virtual one. The underlying card of Bail Organa (V) is Kirdo III Operative, and that of Leave Them To Me (V) (Death Star II) is Leave Them To Me, the Death Star II Effect.

A few Virtual cards were printed over two different Decipher cards. The Virtual Block 6.1 sheet prints two slips side by side, both labelled "•Leave Them To Me (V)": slip 22 goes over the Reflections III Defensive Shield Leave Them To Me (Defensive Shield) (margin "•Leave Them To Me (Reflections III) (V)"), and slip 23 goes over the Death Star II Effect Leave Them To Me (margin "•Leave Them To Me (Death Star II) (V)").[11] Both are legal printings of the same card and do the same thing, but they look slightly different: the Reflections III card is already a Defensive Shield, so its slip only replaces the text box, while the Death Star II slip covers the whole Effect with a Defensive Shield frame. The wiki gives each printing its own article, named with its base: Leave Them To Me (V) (over Reflections III) and Leave Them To Me (V) (Death Star II). (The 2010 revised copy of slip 23 briefly dropped the last two sentences of the game text; see its article.)

How the sheet labels vary

  • Virtual Block 1, slip 102: label and margin both "•Jek Porkins (V)".[15]
    Virtual Block 1, slip 102: label and margin both "•Jek Porkins (V)".[15]
  • Virtual Set 13, slip 04: label "•Yavin 4: Docking Bay (Light) (V)" over the card Dantooine: Base - Docking Bay.[16]
    Virtual Set 13, slip 04: label "•Yavin 4: Docking Bay (Light) (V)" over the card Dantooine: Base - Docking Bay.[16]
  • Virtual Block 4, slip 105: label "•Yavin IV: Jedi Academy", face "•YAVIN 4: JEDI ACADEMY".[12]
    Virtual Block 4, slip 105: label "•Yavin IV: Jedi Academy", face "•YAVIN 4: JEDI ACADEMY".[12]
  • Virtual Block 3, slip 16: "•Nizuk Bek (V)" for the card Nizuc Bek.[17]
    Virtual Block 3, slip 16: "•Nizuk Bek (V)" for the card Nizuc Bek.[17]
  • Virtual Block 1, slip 03E: "•Boba Fett (Special Edition) (V)".[18]
    Virtual Block 1, slip 03E: "•Boba Fett (Special Edition) (V)".[18]
  • Virtual Block 7.1 sheet (2010): label and face "•Ice-Heart", margin "Swilla Corey (V)".[19]
    Virtual Block 7.1 sheet (2010): label and face "•Ice-Heart", margin "Swilla Corey (V)".[19]
  • Final Master List (2013), page 15: the same card, now labelled "•Ysanne Isard", margin still "Swilla Corey (V)".[20]
    Final Master List (2013), page 15: the same card, now labelled "•Ysanne Isard", margin still "Swilla Corey (V)".[20]

The labels above the slips were never a careful record of card titles, and the PC used them in different ways from sheet to sheet:

  • A copy of the card's name. Often the label just repeats the name in the margin. The Virtual Block 1 sheet labels Jek Porkins (V) "•Jek Porkins (V)", and the slip's margin reads "•Jek Porkins (V)" too: the Decipher card Jek Porkins with "(V)".[15]
  • The base card instead of the card. On the Virtual Set 13: Remote Outpost sheet, the labels over fourteen location slips name the Decipher location that the slip goes over, not the new card. The slip labelled "•Yavin 4: Docking Bay (Light) (V)" prints "•DANTOOINE: BASE - DOCKING BAY" on its face: it is the card Dantooine: Base - Docking Bay (V), sleeved over Yavin 4: Docking Bay. In the same way, Alderaan (Blown Away) (V) is labelled "Asteroid Field (Light) (V)".[16]
  • A spelling the face does not use. On the Virtual Block 4 sheet, the label "•Yavin IV: Jedi Academy" (Roman numeral, no "(V)") sits over a slip whose face prints "•YAVIN 4: JEDI ACADEMY", for the card Yavin 4: Jedi Academy.[12]
  • Typos. The Virtual Block 3 sheet calls Nizuc Bek (V) "•Nizuk Bek (V)", with a k, in both the label and the margin; the Decipher card is Nizuc Bek.[17]
  • Set qualifiers. The Virtual Block 1 sheet labels Boba Fett (V) "•Boba Fett (Special Edition) (V)", naming which of Decipher's Boba Fett cards it goes over (Boba Fett (Special Edition)); the card itself prints "•Boba Fett".[18]
  • Renamed cards. The PC sometimes renamed a card after its release, and its later documents carry the new name. The Virtual Block 7.1 sheet labels a slip "•Ice-Heart"; its face prints "•Ice-Heart" and its margin "Swilla Corey (V)", for the Decipher card Swilla Corey.[19] By March 2013 the PC's card list named the card Ysanne Isard,[21] and the final Virtual Cards Master List labels the slip "•Ysanne Isard", with new art, over the unchanged margin "Swilla Corey (V)".[20] The wiki has an article for each: Ice-Heart (the original printing) and Ysanne Isard (Virtual Block 7) (the renamed version).

So the wiki writes down what each label says, but follows the card's official name for the title: not the base card a label names, not a label's typo, and, once the PC has renamed a card officially, the new name (Bill Bisco, 12 November 2026).[9]

(V) and the game rules

"(V)" only marks a card as a Virtual card. It does not make a new game title: Hunt Down and Hunt Down (V) are both the "Hunt Down" objective, and a card that refers to one refers to both. In the same way, Wookiee Roar and Wookiee Roar (V) are both Wookiee Roar, so where only one Wookiee Roar may be used, only one of them can be.[8]

The rule has stood since Virtual Original. The PC's Advanced Rules 1.7.1 (2007) say:[3]

Virtual cards, regardless of version, are considered to have the same title as the original card (thus meaning they are identical cards for game purposes). Thus, if your opponent plays Monnok and you have a copy of Luke Skywalker and Luke Skywalker (V) in your hand, both cards will be lost. Also, all Virtual cards retain the same degree of restriction or uniqueness as the original card.

The earliest copy found is in the PC's Star Wars CCG Rules Supplement of 19 June 2003, which applies the same rule "for purposes of uniqueness and any game action that uses card title", with the same Monnok example.[22] The later rulebooks keep the Monnok example but say "Some virtual cards (those with "(V)" in title)".[13][14]

So Luke Skywalker and Luke Skywalker (V) are both lost to Monnok, and a unique (•) Virtual card shares its uniqueness with the card it is a version of.

How the wiki and GEMP record it

  • Article title: a Virtual card's article is named for its title (its official name), with "(V)", plus the qualifiers needed to tell printings apart (for example Bail Organa (V) (Virtual Set 16: Revenge Of The Sith)). See Style guide § Card page titles.
  • Infobox: the Title row shows the title. Below it, the Display Title row shows what the face of the card prints (filled only when that differs from the title), the Margin Note row what the margin prints, and the Underlying Card row links the Decipher card that the slip goes over.
  • GEMP: the online client matches cards by their title without the "(V)" marker, which it keeps separately and adds back when it names the card, so a card and its Virtual versions count as the same title for game purposes, as the rules require.[23]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 VirtualCards16.pdf (Players Committee sheet), official text as of 15 August 2008, slip 01. Preserved copy: Internet Archive.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Virtual Card Set #1 is Away!, Josh "Red 84" Radke, Player Relations & Marketing, decipher.com (5 March 2002). Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 10 June 2002.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 AR1.7.1.pdf, Players Committee Advanced Rules version 1.7.1 (PDF created 6 July 2007), section "Virtual Cards", page 9-28. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 24 October 2007.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 VirtualBlock4.pdf, Virtual Block 4: Expanded Universe, official text as of 7 December 2009, page 12. Preserved copy: Internet Archive.
  5. ↑ Reset of Standard Format, Advocate Council (byline darkjediknight11), Players Committee (25 July 2014). Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 6 March 2017
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 VirtualCards1a.pdf (Players Committee sheet, starwarsccg.org). Preserved copy: Internet Archive.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 VirtualCards1.pdf, swccgpc.com Resources (Virtual Set 1 sheet, official text as of 4 December 2006). Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 24 October 2007.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 Bill Bisco, personal communication (chat with Holocron Claude), 11 November 2026.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Bill Bisco, personal communication (chat with Holocron Claude), 12 November 2026.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Set 3 Card List – Light Side – By Type, res.starwarsccg.org. Preserved copy: Internet Archive.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 VirtualBlock6_1.pdf (Players Committee sheet), Virtual Block 6.1 (Reflections IV), official text as of 4 September 2009, revised copy (PDF dated 20 April 2010), page 4, slips 22 and 23. Preserved copy: Internet Archive.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 VirtualBlock4.pdf, Virtual Block 4: Expanded Universe, official text as of 7 December 2009, page 11, slip 105. Preserved copy: Internet Archive.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 ar_version-2-0_final.pdf, Players Committee Advanced Rulebook 2.0, section "Virtual Cards", page 9-27. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 7 August 2015. Wiki copy: File:AR-version-2-0-final.pdf.
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 SWCCG_2023_AdvancedRulebook.pdf, Players Committee Advanced Rulebook (2023), section "Virtual Cards", page 101. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 8 October 2026. Transcription: Players Committee Advanced Rulebook#Virtual Cards.
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 VirtualBlock1.pdf (Players Committee sheet), Virtual Block 1, official text as of 7 December 2009, page 7, slip 102. Preserved copy: Internet Archive.
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 VirtualCards13.pdf, swccgpc.com Resources (Virtual Set 13: Remote Outpost sheet, official text as of 22 July 2007), page 2, slips 01 and 04. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 24 October 2007.
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 VirtualBlock3.pdf (Players Committee sheet), Virtual Block 3, official text as of 7 December 2009, page 2, slip 16. Preserved copy: Internet Archive.
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 VirtualBlock1.pdf (Players Committee sheet), Virtual Block 1, official text as of 7 December 2009, page 2, slip 03E. Preserved copy: Internet Archive.
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 VirtualBlock7_1.pdf (Players Committee sheet), Virtual Block 7.1, official text as of 18 June 2010, page 2, slip 5 (position on the sheet; the slip prints no number). Preserved copy: Internet Archive.
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 Players Committee Virtual Cards Master List (Dark Side) (wiki copy, File:Virtual Legacy Final Master DS.pdf), cover "official text as of April 27, 2013", page 15. Original: http://www.starwarsccg.org/Resources/MasterDS.pdf#page=15. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 4 July 2017.
  21. ↑ Players Committee website card list (VBlock7Type), as captured 14 March 2013 (Internet Archive): "Ysanne Isard".
  22. ↑ rulessheet06192003.pdf, Star Wars CCG Rules Supplement (06/19/03), 2003 SWCCG Player's Committee, page 3, "Virtual Cards". Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 27 April 2005.
  23. ↑ GameUtils.java (getFullName: title plus " (V)" suffix) and SwccgCardBlueprint.hasVirtualSuffix(), swccg-gemp source code, GitHub.
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