Does Mace Windu have to pay for upgrades that are acquired using his power action? "Look at the top 4 cards of your deck. You may play an upgrade from among them. Place the rest on the bottom of your deck in any order. If that upgrade was played on a Jedi, give it one shield."

I've noticed that other cards such as the Outer Rim Outlaw require you to pay ("Play a yellow card from your hand (paying its cost). Then reroll an opponents die or reroll up to three of your dice."), but Mace's text doesn't say anything about it.

The parenthesis are always reminder text they are not part of the text of the card. The reminder text is there on the starter deck card but not on the card you find from the booster because they did not want to print the reminder text on every card. So as always if it says "play" you have to pay it's cost unless it says other wise. If it says "put into play" you do not have to pay it's cost.

Follow up question... Does "It Binds All Things" work with Mace's power action?

As tunewalker said, any time it doesn't say that it's free to play something, you have to pay for it. As for It Binds All Things, that happens "Before you play a Blue upgrade", so it can be used regardless of how/why you're playing that upgrade.

I actually just made this deck, with Mace, a bunch of lightsabers (and a few cheaper upgrades), 2 copies of It Binds All Things, and 2 copies of Diatum Power Cell for extra damage. This is one of those decks that almost builds itself using cards from the new set, though most of your removal will come from earlier sets.

Mace is weird. His ability suggests you could have fewer upgrades in deck as you´ll have an easier time finding them, but you´ll not have more resources, so you end up trying to fill the "bonus slots" with zero cost cards. Not the easiest thing.

That's a good way of explaining it, Scactha. As I said, I just built a Mace deck, and I keep thinking of it as kinda weird and experimental. I think you put your finger on why.

I actually paired him with Padme, and I decided I wanted some dice with extra focus and resources, besides just the typical blue lightsabers for damage. So I included her starship, BB-8, and the Senate Chamber, plus Diatum Power Cell to make the sabers more effective. Then I realized I wouldn't have the resources for all that, plus the lightsabers, but putting in both Tech Team and It Binds All Things could help pay for more stuff, especially since Tech Team can deploy Binds for free. Those two cards have been around forever, but when have you ever seen both in the same deck?

I also considered a couple of 0 cost resource gainers (Logistics, etc), though I don't remember exactly how many I included. I also think having all that focus around will help find resources when I need them, though with Padme, you also have the option of using focus for damage. I haven't had a chance to try this deck yet. I'm curious to see how it will play.

I wonder if card draw wouldn´'t be a thing when trying to fill out the "extra space" as it is basically deck thinning. Insight and Foresight are things coming to mind. Now you can find that Royal Starship or Mace sabre more effective. Also to find your rebate supports faster and thus ramp more effective.

A thought ... can you play CRAFTED LIGHTSABER with Mace's PA if he has not been exhausted.

I would think that's a NAW, but I'd sure like to do it.

Mace's PA doesn't say ignore restriction, so no, crafted doesn't worked on ready character

I´ve noticed that both his own saber and Quicksilver baton could translate into extra dice. As he´s better than anyone else in finding and deploying the right upgrades I think this could be useful.

E.g. supposing he has a red partner

1. Round - find and play Quicksilver -> +1 die
2. Round - find and play his Sabre, overwrite Quicksilver, play Equip and move Saber to another char -> +1 die
3. Round - roll out the other char, PA back his saber, roll Mace out -> +1 die

There´s alot of vaule that´s easy to come by.