The Structure of a Sabacc Deck
We get a lot of different questions from people asking if they can just buy one deck and then use it for all of the different variations of sabacc. The short, and simple answer, is no. Most of the different variations include completely different decks that have different specialty cards or completely different layouts than other variations.
The exceptions to this are that Spike and Shift both use the same deck, and you can get away with using a Spike/Shift deck to play Kessel Sabacc if you remove cards and use some imagination.
Here is an in-depth look at each of the three main deck layouts and their similarities and differences.
Traditional Sabacc Card Deck
A Traditional Sabacc deck consists of 76 cards. These cards are divided into four suits: Coins, Flasks, Sabers, and Staves. Each suit has 15 cards, numbered from 1 to 15. Additionally, the deck includes 16 face cards that are negative or neutral. These face cards have special values and effects, adding complexity and excitement to the game.
Here’s a breakdown of the cards:
- 60 Numbered Cards: 1-15 in each of the four suits (Coins, Flasks, Sabers, Staves).
- 16 Face Cards: These include two copies each of the Balance, Demise, Endurance, Moderation, The Star, The Evil One, The Idiot, and The Queen of Air and Darkness.
Learn to play traditional sabacc
Corellian Spike & Coruscant Shift Sabacc Card Deck
Both Corellian Spike and Coruscant Shift use the same 62 card base deck, just with a different ruleset and different dice. Spike uses the same traditional Sabacc Dice and Shift uses a special pair of number/suit dice.
The deck is made up of 3 different suits, circle, triangle, and square. Each suit has cards numbered +1 through +10 and -1 through -10. Each suit has ten negative and ten positive cards for a total of 60 numbered cards.
The deck also contains two Sylop (Idiot) cards that are equal to zero.
- 60 Numbered Cards: 1-10 in each of the three suits (Circle, Triangle, Square).
- 2 Sylop Cards
Learn to play Corellian Spike sabacc and Coruscant Shift Sabacc
Kessel Sabacc Card Deck
The Kessel Sabacc deck is different still, only containing 44 cards. The deck is split into two suits, each having 22 cards. Each suit is called a family. The deck’s number cards are 3 sets of numbers 1-6 in each family. That makes up 36 of the cards. You can remove some cards from a Spike/Shift deck to make it work for Kessel Sabacc, you’ll just need to follow this guide on Playing Kessel Sabacc with a 62-Card Deck.
The rest of the deck is made of two specialty cards—the Imposter and the Sylop:
- 36 Numbered Cards: Three copies of 1-6 in each family.
- 6 Imposter cards: Three copies in each family.
- 2 Sylop Cards: One copy in each family.
