what I love about this card is it works just like supressive fire. It exhausts the units AND you do not need to exhaust your own. 2 cost to direct damage an opponent is work the price. This card is very useful in a deck that focuses on being a warlord bully. I agree with the poster above that at times it will be used as shield if your opponent has the upper hand. 

Straight up great card with some limitations but a fantastic Event in AM seems to be a rare thing.

4/5

The limitation is HUGE though, as in the late game (when you generally really want those decisive event cards that swing combats) its more often than not the case that Warlords collide.

Something to think about though, is that if you can drive off the opposing Warlord by prioritising attack on him/her, you can open up an opportunity to use this card.

A weird thought here is that you could run an AM deck that uses this AND Honorifica Imperialis (and 3 x Barrage, for sure) for a total of nine 2-shielder cards, and then offer the opposing warlord a bad choice: turn up and be mauled by the Honorifica unit, or don't turn up and take a hit from this. Not sure how well that could pan out in play, but potentially could give a good outcome either way.

Its a shame Honorifica is wargear though, as it does leave us somewhat short of good survivable targets for it.

its pretty useful!

Added thought - If Tyrannid Synapse units are valid targets (and why wouldn't they be?) this could be a great anti-bug play.

Yeah, I'm think that when when Tyranids hit, the difference between "non-warlord unit" and "army unit" in ability text is going to become really important.

If all units are already exhausted, can you use this?  It doesn't say "Exhaust unit to.....", so I wasn't sure if you exhausting the unit was a prerequisite or not.

Exhausting the enemy unit is not a cost, but you still cannot use the event if all enemy units at the planet are exhausted. This is because exhausting a unit that is already exhausted doesn't change the game state (i.e., it doesn't DO anything), which is specifically prohibited by the rules. 

RRG says: "A card ability can only be initiated if its effect has some potential to change the game state, and its cost (after modifiers) has the potential to be paid in full.

A card ability may be initiated if all or part of its effect is able to resolve. Once initiated, players must resolve as much of an effect as they are able, unless the effect uses the word “may.”

Bolding mine. Clearly, a part resolves here.

Actually this can't be played if all enemy units are exhausted because it has a "then" clause.  Page 15 of the RRG states that all text preceding a "then" must be successfully resolved before the remainder of the effect can be resolved.  Since you cannot successfully exhaust a unit, then the rest of the effect cannot resolve, meaning the game state will not change at all and therefore the card cannot be played. 

Bolding mine. Clearly, a part resolves here.

And even if you weren't blocked from even attempting to resolve the part after the "then" when a unit fails to exhaust for the first part (as outlined by Koz), failing to exhaust a unit means there is no reference for the ATK value you deal as damage to the other unit - meaning you deal 0 damage, another failure to change the game state.

So I'm not sure which part of the effect is "clearly resolving" if all the enemy units are exhausted when you try to play this card.

I take for granted that you can shield the damage if you pull that trick off.

But what about a unit with Armorbane? If my opponent chooses and exhausts let's say my Iyanden Wraithguard (4 Atk, Armorbane) and then let it deal damage to my Starbane's Council...am I allowed to shield that damage?

Yes, you are able to shield. As per the RRG p3, "while a unit with the Armorbane keyword is attacking, the opposing player cannot use shields to prevent damage,"

Back on discussing this card, I'll happily admit now that my initial opinion of this card (see May 5 2015 above) was wholly underestimating it. If you send your warlord to a planet other than planet 1, there will always be at least one battle where you can play it (barring aun'shi based trickery, but aun'shi tends to leave windows for this card to be played more than any other warlord). Also, 2 shields!

This is a 4/5 card, easy.

Just to clarify, if there is a legal target to exhaust, but no additional target to apply the exhausted unit's attack value to - does not having a target to hit with the attack value prevent the card (exhaust) effect all together? Thanks.

I played a game as Coteaz vs. Baharroth the other night where this card really shined.

By turn three, my opponent had a Destructor with an Ion Rifle and an Iyanden Wraithguard on the first planet; I had nothing but the initiative, plus an Eager Recruit and a Warrant in my hand, so I was sorely discouraged from sending Coteaz there with only an exhausted Tallarn Raiders.

As this was obvious, we both commited on different planets upstream and resolved command. By then I suddenly realised the slim possibility that if my opponent didn't have any shield cards in his three-card hand, I could take the first planet using only the Recruit and the Warrant and three of my four resources.

So I went for it, using the Warrant on the Wraithguard and dealing four damage to the Destructor, and my opponent didn't shield it, so it was destroyed. Then I ambushed in the Recruit and swung for two, but to my dismay that got shielded. However, after readying, my opponent (out of shields) realised he had to retreat, since I still had the initiative.

Very situational, of course, but under the right circumstances this card can really be a game-changer, especially if one gets too confident in a solid presence of heavy-hitters on a planet and then commits somewhere else.

Just to clarify, if there is a legal target to exhaust, but no additional target to apply the exhausted unit's attack value to - does not having a target to hit with the attack value prevent the card (exhaust) effect all together? Thanks.

No, if you have a legal target to exhaust, it will happen normally. The second part will be ignored if you don't have any legal targets.

Extra nice thing about this card is that it does not say the "printed" attack value, meaning that boosted units do their boosted damage if targeted with this. Screws over Shadowsun a lot as well as Worr at green planets (obviously assuming that the warlord is not there in both cases).

This has become a MVP - Card, which can turn the odds of a battle single-handedly.