Editing The Horus Heresy: Legions (section)

==Card Attributes==

Whilst various legions specialize in a few unique abilities, this doesn't necessarily mean only they will have them. Blue abilities cost energy to activate. Grey Abilities are persistent. Red abilities are Siege - an (almost) Iron Warriors exclusive - and works a bit like a regular Blue ability, except that it takes a turn to charge and then can be activated at the controllers discretion. They're usually a lot stronger than most unit abilities and your opponent will try to murder them first. Purple Abilities are Psychic abilities and can only be activated with Psychic Energy. They're Thousand Sons exclusive. Some abilities will also cancel out the effects of others ; you can apply Stealth to a Front Line unit, but then Front Line won't work until the unit is unstealthed. Troops are also designated a type such as Astartes, Infantry, Vehicle, Custodes, Daemon, Structure etc, that affects how they interact with certain other cards and abilities (such as Chaos Marks only being usable on non-Daemon cards).

In addition, some troops from the neutral decks will have an additional identifier, like Cultist or Solar Auxilla (or Wing if you're playing DA), which enables synergies with other like cards.

* Backlash : Triggers an effect when the troop dies.
* Battle Honour : Does something when one unit defeats another, although it has to actually survive too.
* Berserk : Unit has to act every turn. World Eaters have a lot of these. Doesn't necessarily mean the unit has to attack ( Warlords could use their ability, for example) but most cards with it are just beatsticks or glass cannons. 
* Blood Thirst: Unit can act twice per turn. World Eaters, Space Wolves, and Iron Warriors love these. Usually on cards that don't have lots of health as a check. As with Berserk, it doesn't have to be used for attacking twice. Seriously - fuck this attribute.
* Can't Attack : Self explanatory, usually on Structure type troops but occasionally an applicable debuff. Night Lords like this a lot. Still lets abilities be used though.
* Cleave : Deals a set amount of damage to the units on either side of the unit attacked. Good at circumventing Front Line.
* Courage: When your opponent has more troops than you (including their warlord) this activates additional effects. Ultramarine's unique attribute. 
* Daemonhost : Word Bearer's unique attribute. Confers a random attribute buff from a list onto the troop. They can stack and if you get all of them, any additional Daemonhost counters will just add +2/+2. However, you'll have a hard job keeping the troop alive long enough to do so. Also adds the Daemon troop type to the unit.
* Drop Pod : Gives the troop a 2 hp shield until their next turn after being played, giving cheap or fragile cards a chance to do something. The Blood Angels get ways of adding additional HP to Drop Pods, as well as Landing to compliment it.
* Duplicitious : Defenders of Caliban unique ability (unless you count Outraged Noble. The prick). A unit with this can't be attacked by the enemy warlord or targeted by their abilities until the unit attacks or Duplicitous expires. Blanket targeting or random targeting are still fine.
* Fast : Troops can attack the moment they come into play. Usually on glass cannon cards.
* First Strike : Custodes almost exclusive. You won't take damage attacking if you kill the opposing troop (and technically the Warlord but that's a very rare scenario to avoid drawing).
* Flank : Like fast, but can only attack other troops out the gate. They can also activate any abilities they have, which is often just as useful. It is worth noting that despite its name, it does not allow you to circumvent front line troops (or warlords). Fairly common, in contrary to Fast.
* Front Line: Troops with this have to be attacked first before attacking the warlord or non-frontline troops. You will need them in your deck.
* Jam : Gets rid of any buffs, malus', or special abilities on a card. Using it on your own units can result in some fun things, like buildings attacking or getting rid of Maintenance on Daemons..
* Landing : Blood Angels signature attribute. Attached to Drop Pod units, it triggers an additional effect if the 2hp Drop Pod survives till the next turn.
* Mark of Chaos: Gives the (non daemon) troop one of four random Mark of Chaos buffs. Get all 4 on one troop and they'll turn into a greater daemon card.
* Maintenance: Daemon exclusive - subtracts a given amount of energy from your total pool whilst the deamon card is in play. Can be really bad news if your opponent is able to stun that unit, rendering it useless, and hobbling your energy supply. Can also be applied to other troops in very rare circumstances.
* Meltdown : A card attribute applied to Titan Weapon cards for Warlords. Killing the individual weapon will deal a substantial amount of damage to adjacent units - usually the other Titan components. Only applies to one warlord in the main game but the special event warlords have random titans more often.
* Mission : A new type of card debuting in the 3 year expansion update. If you achieve a specific goal (giving 6 chaos marks to your troops, for example) you'll get an additional benefit like giving your warlord more abilities. 
* Mutation : Ruinstorm signature ability. Gives a daemonic buff - always good - AND reduced maintenance for Daemons. Nice synergy with the Neutral daemon cards too.
* Pack : Space Woof unique ability. Activates an effect whenever another friendly unit attacks. With board control, this is incredibly powerful. 
* Perfection : Emperor's Children signature ability. Causes additional effects if the card being played uses all the remaining energy from your pool.
*Plasma : Generates x amount of Plasma for your Knight to pew pew with. Knights only, obvs.
* Poisonous : when applied to a troop, makes it's attacks kills the affected troop at the end of the controllers next turn. Usually used to prompt the affected player to throw that troop away, as it's going to die anyway. Death Guard have most of these but a few other decks have cards that can remove the effect.
* Psyker : Thousand Son's exclusive. Generates x amount of psychic energy per turn, which is used by the TS's to pay for tactics and unit abilities. You will want a lot of it.
* Precognition : Thousand Son's unique ability, with few exceptions. Units with this (usually a buff, but a tiny number of units have this PERMANENTLY) cannot be attacked by other units. Kill them with abilities or tactics instead. Good against Space Wolves. 
* Quest : Dark Angel's signature ability. On playing a card with Quest, you'll be given a choice of 3 tasks. Achieving it will then trigger additional effects. You can leverage these against a negative result happening to the unit, like having it be killed but then triggering it's Quest effect.
* Rage : Triggers an effect when directly damaged. World Eaters have most of these.
* Rally : Does something when the card is played out of the hand. Nice and easy.
* Relentless : Iron Hand's favorite. Triggers an effect at the beginning of every turn AFTER the card is played. Kill them quickly before they snowball out of control.
* Reflection : Thousand Son's unique ability. Usually a base part of their tactics but some of their troops can confer this on other cards. It lets you cast a Psychic Power tactic as many times in that turn as you have Psychic Energy to cast it. A few neutral cards have this, with regular energy being the cost instead.
* Requiem : Blood Angel's signature ability. A unit or warlord with this will trigger a specific effect when an adjacent troop dies. Notably easier to use than Sacrifice as this would work regardless of whether it's your turn or not.
* Resolution : The opposite of Relentless ; an effect that takes place at the end of each turn. This means that it will activate the turn the card is put into play.
* Sacrifice : Salamanders and Word Bearers exclusive - originally activated an effect when a troop died whilst attacking another unit. Now works when a troop dies during their turn, enabling you to trigger the effect yourself. Synergies nicely with Survivor.
* Secret Order : Alpha Legion exclusive. Applied to an opponents troops, and triggers negative effects under certain conditions, like playing another troop, or attacking a warlord. The kicker is that you don't know which trap Secret Order was played until you activate it's condition.  Have now been heavily nerfed by only taking effect once when triggered but are all now equally reduced in costs.
* Sentenced: Raven Guard exclusive - applies a malus to enemy units to a given value. Attacking that unit then causes additional damage to the value of how many Sentenced markers are on the target. Usually only a debuff for one turn but a few cards can apply it permanently to enemy troops.
* Sentinel : Custodes exclusive. The only flatout negative effect in the game so far. If a troop with this is in play, you won't draw any cards at the beginning of each turn. You'll want to find ways to get around it.
* Shield: Nullifies the first source of damage - no matter how high - an applied unit takes, then disappears. Useful on those glass cannon troops.
* Sneak Attack: Attacking doesn't damage you back.
* Stealth: The unit is untargetable until it attacks or the duration specified expires. Doesn't prevent random or blanket targeting though and there are a few cards that are specifically designed to reveal stealthed units.
* Streak: New ability for the White Scars (at the moment). It creates additional benefits for playing multiple cards in a turn whilst having a Streak card on the board. You'll want the ability to either generate more cards or recycle existing cards back into your deck or you'll risk milling yourself.
* Stun: Self explanatory, lasts till your next turn and also stops units from using abilities. They'll still deal damage if attacked though.
* Survivor: Keeps the troop (and irritating warlord - looking at you, Vulkan) alive after being destroyed, to a set value of health. This doesn't trigger effects that are conditional on killing an enemy unit, like Battle Honour.
* Terror : Night Lord's signature attribute. Attacking units don't take damage if their attack power is higher than their opponents. Does not apply to attacking the warlord. Thematically appropriate for the Night Lords.
* Trap : Alpha Legion exclusive - these are shuffled into the opponents deck and cause a negative effect when drawn - one forces you to draw more cards, so you can mill your own deck or get caught drawing more Trap Cards. As with Secret Orders, they aren't identified when initially played ; you'll know a trap was played but not which one. They also all draw another card for the opponent, which is hilarious when it daisy chains even more trap cards.
* Unstoppable: Allows troops to circumvent Front Line troops. Usually represented by assault marines, which is a nice thematic touch.
* Ward : Space Wolf exclusive (unless you count Pyramid of Photep). Makes the unit untargetable by enemy abilities and tactics - as with Stealth, random or blanket targetting will still work. Good against Thousand Sons. Wordbearer Demonhosts and demons can get Wards as well, and their's have a different look. 
* Wing : Dark Angels exclusive. It doesn't actually do anything itself, but a unit with it will trigger various synergies with other cards from the Dark Angel's deck.