We’ve usually been known to collectively write about the cards via a Round Table, but B-Saph did an early one, and NJCuenca did his like a Ninja all stealth like, so I guess it’s my turn to go at it. I originally considered listing them in an order, but I think at this point there has been a lot about why cards are good, but less so on why the bad ones are just plain bad so I’ll go over why that is. My hope is to check back on this in a few months and see what I was right and wrong about.

Palpatine 3

We all know that Palpatine is expensive to get right now with him being in about the $38 range (last i checked was a few days ago), but the real question is, is he worth it. Set after set, we have that “chase” blue legend that starts off in that $40 range, but the strength of the card in the meta is few and far between with Palp1 and Luke3 having never been worth their value, where as Snoke, Yoda, Force Speed, Ancient Lightsaber, and Vaders 1 and 3 have all been strong at one point or another. I’ve seen some good stuff from him in regards to the ramp decks, so he could very well end up being the real deal. If Vader3 stays around then he’ll have some massive issues without Force Illusion to give some much needed protection, but Palpatine/Watto looks like it is no worse than Tier 2, so I’ll give my thumb of approval with him in the $20-30 range and say that as a competitive player you should have it for your use.

End Result: Get 2 if you enjoy Big / Small decks and rolling out a 7 dice on activation.

Force Storm

By itself: This card is trash. The $15 price tag is “okay” for it when we compare it other stuff, but single target die removal is plentiful and it costs 4, has no redeploy, and is Blue character only. Yeah, good luck with your Mono Blue Villain deck unless you are Big Small and the Big is already getting focused down too fast usually before you can really get this going. I’d probably be fine having a couple for $10 but without Sith Holocron around any more, this just isn’t good enough. MAYBE i want them for Infinite???

With Palpatine3: Things change immensely here because we it will be pulling a double shift each round without fail. It may not get to resolve twice, but when we see the die twice, then it is now at Vader’s Fist levels of output and the goal is to make Palp3 super fat anyways. $30 for the pair for your Palp deck is a fine addition here, and VERY necessary in my mind.

End Result: Get 2 if you are picking up Palp3 or playing Holocron infinite, otherwise don’t bother.

Palpatine’s Lightsaber (Luke’s Rod Comparison)

Hey look, ANOTHER Palp card. Rat fink bastard took up all of the Blue Villain Legendary slots. I think this card is the most on point card with how upgrades should be for stats when we look at a minor power creep from Awakenings Block. Unfortunately, this is not how other cards have been done, BUT the ability is where it starts to get ridiculous. If you get to play the upgrade for 2 Resources and then get those 2 Resources back, it became the equivalent to a 0 cost upgrade which is absolutely OBSCENE. The drawback is that you’ve now loaded up a single character with 3 upgrades and it is beyond likely that none of them have redeploy and character death spells GAME OVER for you. I think in non-Palp decks, the likely scenario is that you run this because you needed a 2 cost upgrade that is viable and you might have a few upgrades where you can get a 1 Resource cost return on your investment. I can get down with that and in general Villain Melee has been struggling for viable 1/2/2/Resource upgrades that cost 2. We got a modifier for the second “2”, but it’s a small price that we have to pay for Villains version of Luke’s Rod. I’d be pretty content paying in the $10-$15 range for this even if hindsight, I know that I’m not going to use it. It’s an absolute necessity with Palpatine 3 and I don’t think I need to tell you why you want a “0-cost Lightsaber” with these stats.

until better 2 cost melee upgrades come out or we don’t use abilities

Mace’s Lightsaber (Obi Saber Comparison)

As you can see, my comparison for this is Obi-Wan Kenobi’s Lightsaber. Let’s talk about the 2 sides that don’t line up, because that and the abilities are all that matter. So it is No Requirement, 1 Melee, and a 2-3 unblockable special vs 2 shields and a 1 shield + 1-3 unblockable special. Unless I’m playing a single Blue character (exclusion coming after), I think Obi’s Saber just crushes Mace Saber and i probably never want any part of it. If you can actually Spot Mace Windu, then everything goes out the Window because using the die twice is a strong option that gets to outweigh minimal additional gains. I don’t even want to pay $10 for this thing unless I’m running Mace, but for $7 i’d keep one… maybe.

No Mace:

Mace:

Soresu Mastery (Force Protection)

So alright, my comparison here really isn’t amazing because you have WAY more useable sides on Soresu Mastery than Force Protection. Soresu Mastery is pretty much a completely defensive upgrade and whilst there is a ton of value on your way to getting it online (especially via Soresu Training), expensive defensive dice upgrades have always been in a terrible spot. This is probably the hardest review to give, because how do you argue with S-Training 2 shields into save a resource by swapping with Soresu Mastery into mitigating a damage die??? That’s already a +1 Resource profit in 1 Round (assuming you get it) and then you get to keep being a jerk with S-Mastery all game. The argument is that if your opponent is a Ramp deck, then your plans with being defensive are likely to be met with more dice than you can contend with. If the format ends up being aggressive then the S-Training into S-Mastery in an aggressive (character dice need damage) Mono Blue deck is likely to be a main player in the meta, but I expect a ton of ramp decks and this card to be absolutely trash level because defending doesn’t win you the game, it just delays it, so you need an end game worth defending for. $12-$15 is probably real fair value for the card because it’s power only shines in specific decks.

In Game Value Efficiency w/S-Training Combo:

Likely Competitive Value:

Yoda’s Spirit

Who the hell thought this was a great idea? Even if you could have Yoda in play at the same time, I don’t think I’d want it. We get stuff like Senate Chamber and Dooku’s Solar Sailer and then they print this crap. Why does this need to shuffle into the owner’s deck for the 3 damage?? (3 would be too much, but can’t it just be 2 and leave it there). So the value behind the die sides isn’t god awful, but like i mentioned before, defensive stuff is few and far between and it not having resource sides means you’d either have to be ramping a great deal without it and then using it for focus and to defend, or pretty much giving out your Round’s worth of resources to for it. This thing can definitely pay for itself in a timely fashion via usage, but that isn’t what we normally want when character death means losing output. Use-able but pretty garbage in my book.

If you run Yoda, make it 0 stars!

Megablaster Troopers

Need I say more???

(5 stars in Ramp decks. Not sure if others can afford it)

Value: $25+

Padme Amidala

Padme has probably the most potential for consistent Indirect damage output since Tarkin. If you can’t race to kill her, thing will likely be over by the end of Round 4 because you might be staring down at 6+ Indirect damage a round coming from whatever great deck gets built. Yoda Padme Armored Reinforcement for Padme ship is absolutely house against any slow decks, but struggles with pure aggro a bit since it is a 20 HP deck. You haven’t wanted multi-target die removal or Beguile as much as you want it after they resolve a 3 focus side for actual focus to flip all of their other dice to max damage. I’ve no idea what her Final Form will be, but I don’t see it being worse than Tier 2.

She got shafted a star for being Red Hero which struggles with actual mitigation and because she has 10 HP and if you build only around focus and she dies, you will have some might large issues.

Fair Value: $20-$25 without a question (if she was a fan favorite character her costs goes up by $5-$10)

Captain Phasma

Captain Phasma is reporting for duty as the only character ever carrying 4 actual dice. I think she’ll end up being best served as a 1 die (3 dice) with an elite 12 point character so that you can distribute your dice a bit better, but it’s too hard to know this early. Losing the game when she dies as an elite is probably the absolute truthful weakness of the elite CP plan. I think there is some interesting merit to 1 die CP + ePiett for flipping FOST dice to Resources, but then you are Mono Red and I can’t even condone that if your name is DHaus. I like where FFG went with this as an alternate way to get more dice for your big instead of jam packing it into removable dice as well as adding some new flavor into the game. There are some huge color concerns and how to win, but there are a few ways to take it, so I won’t shit on her soul until i’ve really gotten to play it. Probably shouldn’t be more than $12 unfortunately because she’s very niche and I firmly believe that you only need 1.

A very safe as 1 die, but

when elite!

Quicksilver Baton

It’s really hard to HATE and LOVE and upgrade like this all at the same time. Most of you know that i absolutely LOVE having additional dice and FN-2199 was my “hero”, so I think there is some really solid merit from the card when you put it on a Leader and get to try to use it twice, but 4 of the sides are pretty lackluster / trashy. You want to play the card before you activate, but if the Q-Baton is rolled out, only 3 sides are resolve-able on it’s own and 2 of those are BLAH. So then I need a Melee partner to go with the Leader this is going on so I can resolve the modified before rolling out, but now if that Melee gets controlled i might be stuck not using this “free” die i got. Paying 1 to roll in a trooper character dice into the pool is merely “So-So” in that we don’t play any of the cards with that effect, so the added benefit here is nice, but not wholly relevant. After all of that, it really looks like this card was made primarily for Phasma which is fine, but doesn’t make it wanted by everyone else. At that point, i put the value at $7 and really that is me just being nice because it can get the free usage, but it’s hard to actually do it. Where is my RESOURCE SIDE!!! Red Melee weapons…. BLAH!!!!

LAAT Gunship

Pre-Errata: $20+ Post Errata: $5-$7

I think it’s a very cool card and if it wasn’t for that pesky infinite that got missed, then it would’ve seen some play. The infinite with Kes had to be hit otherwise people would’ve lost their minds when they open with no mitigation and lose the game Round 1 because you can Armored Reinforcements this. Post errata, most of the power of the special is gone, and you’re looking at an overpriced ship that really doesn’t do enough. Add 1 value to all of the sides and then i’d still be wondering how this is supposed to equate to Megablaster Troopers level of usefulness. Single target die removal is plentiful and that means you likely don’t get to even do your cool tricks with this that you set up. The die sides just don’t do enough for a 4 cost ship.

Post Errata and I don’t need to show the Pre-Errata, do i?

Chewbacca

Are we back in Awakenings with a character having both a modified and pay damage sides. He’s a big boy with his 13 health and his ability to have his dice get +1 Value makes things interesting, but there was definitely way too much fear when they made him. The hairy fuzzball deserves to live in a trash can with Oscar the Grouch, because FFG did this to him. When he does get the 6 damage on him, his sides do becomes insanely scary, but by then it might be too late. Requiring a Scoundrel to get Guardian also limits his team options for him to really become viable and his die sides already did that too so he’s just crap in my eyes. He struggles to pair is modifier with his own dice which is another issue, so maybe if his 2r1 was ranged, he’d be better off, but at that point i’d change his costs and his ability values also and we just don’t have time for that. Value: $5-7??

Chewbacca’s Blaster Rifle

Unlike it’s owner, I actualy think the Blaster Rifle can be pretty useful. Getting two usages out of it and the sides being base and have 2/3/4r1 is enough to make it hit very hard. My concerns (like always) involve it costing 3 and not having Redeploy, but if you have a character that isn’t a main target, then it can definitely put some work in due to the damage sides being 50% and 2+ damage which is really where things start to go well for it. Disrupt and discard are nearly equivalent to blanks when you need damage, but overall are considered useful enough if your rerolls are limited. You may be wondering why I’m harsher on Quicksilver and not on this Rifle and it’s because with 50% useable damage sides, you’d be choosing to resolve the utility sides when you resolve them and not likely actually being stuck resolving them because there aren’t better options that probability dictates would actually come up feasibly on usage. I’m not saying it’s a world beater, just good enough to merit usage. Value: $8-10

Crime Lord

If anyone with pull at FFG is reading, for the love of all things holy, tell them to never reprint SHIT legends as Legend rarity for the 2nd time. People are already stuck with tons of these useless things and they’ve added the Donkey to the pack opening Prize like we’re playing “Let’s make a Deal!” You aren’t Wayne Brady and loveable, so you don’t get away with it.

Value: Not even Toilet Paper

There is no star rating, you get NOTHING, just like I did when i opened 3 of them in my case.

Seriously though, they buffed it so that you don’t lose to Mill Victory before you win with Crime Lord defeating their last guy. It costs too much, there is no Ace in the hole, and only Vader3’s, Palp3’s, and Phasma3’s should fear it. It’s an old card from our first set and needed a rework instead of a reprint. Which asshole decided to troll us, we must know who to give the evil eye to at Worlds!!!

Enfys Nest

I’m super conflicted on Enfys. You’d start off thinking it was absolute trash, but once you play it a bit and you find yourself resolving 3r1 or 2r1 for free, you feel like it’s christmas. Have you ever seen the Yoda Bitter Rivalry pairing flip to 2r1 Resource on both Enfys die then PA to get to 8 Resources for the round?? If you haven’t you probably don’t know the fear of a Vader’s Fist coming down in a deck that can both run and afford Easy Pickings and Entangles as well. Shit is scary. Villain with Easy pickings or Hero with Vader’s Fist is just stuff nightmares are made of. I’m conflicted about it, because Impulsive (for yoda), For a Price, and Rendezvous exist to cause some action cheaty / consistency/ resource constraint issues. Value $15-$20 seems safe

is going to be my gamble, because the potential is there and For a Price is my insane common of the set that people abuse!!!

Jabba the Hutt

I’ve stayed away from NJCuenca’s review once I heard that he loves Jabba and that was just so that I don’t change my mind during my review. I think deck filtering and searching for Yellow events is awesome (bounties not so much), but not at his point cost. Any of Wat Tambor, Watto, and Snoke all work better with the concepts that I could come up for him. There are some functional differences for each, but this guy seems TERRIBLE to me when you look at each of the other 3 so how does he even get a chance??? and I think the answer is that He Doesn’t! Value: $5.

Entourage

My thoughts on this can be summed up as:

Value: $30+

This thing is going to be the workhorse for every Yellow Ramp deck until it rotates out or gets nerfed. I think if the 2 Resource sides was a single Resource then things would be fine, but if someone jams it and tutors up the other one, then resolves 2 Resource side and another resource to play the 2nd and grabs Fickle Mercenaries or Hired Muscle, then things are going to become REAL REAL BAD… REAL REAL FAST. I like to think of Vader’s Fist, Megablaster Troopers, and Entourage as the new Trifect for Villain Ramp decks. Wat Tambor getting Entourage extra die in and focus to 2 resource only to do it a 2nd time seems MIGHTY disgusting. If there was going to be any card that should be $50 in this set, it should’ve been this one. That special isn’t likely to get super out of hand, but hitting for 3/4 is really good enough and it’s hard to ask for more from a card where the worst side besides blank is 2 indirect.

because it is Neutral and costs 3 which is not hard to do.

~HonestlySarcastc

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