I had an opponent a few weeks ago that said that when you jam someone you have to declare the token type (green or lock) that you want it to affect regardless of whether the target has either of those token types yet. Since then I've tried to find this in the rules and haven't found it.

1. Can anyone cite the rule or official clarification on this?

1A. If that's true and I'm jamming someone who has a target lock, but no green token, can I declare "green token" and allow them to keep their lock?

You could choose a type they don't have I guess but if you did you'd then default to the rules for a ship that HAS a Jam token which would then discard it and a token of the type you didn't choose, so it wouldn't make any difference.

So the way it is worded in the rules reference:

• ... When a ship becomes jammed, the player whose effect caused the ship to gain the jam token chooses for the ship to remove one of its green tokens or break one of its locks. If either effect is resolved, it removes the jam token. If the ship does not have any green tokens or it is not maintaining any locks, it remains jammed.

So the player assigning the Jam does indeed get to choose -if- there is a choice to be made. If the ship being Jammed only has green tokens or only has Locks, there is no choice to be made.

I want to add that at one of the most recent major events (the Glendale System Open), judges lead by marshal Iain Hamp interpreted the wording of the Jam rule to allow the jammer to choose not only the specific token or lock (relevant to a heavily-tokened Upsilon, for example). Their collective interpretations are below:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1R_-C9oDQsCzutV59nVNOhs0LnUSY0ivU/view

I personally have come to agree with that. There was an initial interpretation that the Jammer would choose only green or lock, and the Recipient would pick which token, but the more I look at the rule, I can't really support that interpretation. There's nothing in there (see what Innese quoted above) about a Recipient's choice at all.

I think it works out better as a plain-language reading this way, too. If presented with a large array of cakes and pies, and told to choose one slice of cake or piece of pie to eat for desert, most folks would interpret this to allow a choice also between the kinds of cakes, if someone wanted cake. I guess that's mostly just to say: it doesn't seem odd to interpret the wording "remove one of its green tokens or break one of its locks" as choosing the specific token (focus, reinforce, etc) or specific lock (on someone like Redline or R3 Astromech)

19 hours ago, theBitterFig said:

I want to add that at one of the most recent major events (the Glendale System Open), judges lead by marshal Iain Hamp interpreted the wording of the Jam rule to allow the jammer to choose not only the specific token or lock (relevant to a heavily-tokened Upsilon, for example). Their collective interpretations are below:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1R_-C9oDQsCzutV59nVNOhs0LnUSY0ivU/view

I personally have come to agree with that. There was an initial interpretation that the Jammer would choose only green or lock, and the Recipient would pick which token, but the more I look at the rule, I can't really support that interpretation. There's nothing in there (see what Innese quoted above) about a Recipient's choice at all.

I think it works out better as a plain-language reading this way, too. If presented with a large array of cakes and pies, and told to choose one slice of cake or piece of pie to eat for desert, most folks would interpret this to allow a choice also between the kinds of cakes, if someone wanted cake. I guess that's mostly just to say: it doesn't seem odd to interpret the wording "remove one of its green tokens or break one of its locks" as choosing the specific token (focus, reinforce, etc) or specific lock (on someone like Redline or R3 As  tromech)

agreed. this is the most common consensus as well. the jammer gets to pick a specific token that gets removed. not 100% clear RAW, but it seems pretty common for TOs to announce this is how they will rule during their event ahead of time.

Thanks to all. Very helpful.