New set Spirit of Rebellion was just released week ago and for this occassion I decided to release second part article of my brief insight into cards of this set. Meanwhile in last part I looked on the characters, today I will write about other cards with die: supports and upgrades. Just before I start with the article itself, I just want to remind you, that there was a poll in previous part regarding the strongest character in SoR. The leader for now is Palpatine, who is definitely powerful character, we will see whether there will be someone else climbing to top spot in the future.
VILLAIN RED (COMMAND)
Legendary red villain upgrade is Z6 Riot Control Baton. It is a perfect weapon suited for melee decks (among the red villains you can think about FN-2199 and General Grievous). High damage, redeploy and reliable reroll forms this weapon into one of the best melee weapons in the game and it should replace classic Lightsaber in red/blue deck. Second really good and reliable card is Imperial Discipline, which costs only one resource (a die for 1 or 0 resources is always good deal) and despite its sides being mediocre, it is perfect reliable source of damage and resources in your deck like 4 characters red swarm. The rest of the card is not so interesting unfortunately. Red gun is not bad as its sides are not paid, but its redeploy is very situational and it does not have redeploy. E-Web Emplacement is dependent on battlefield control but as it is support, it logicaly slows down your deck and I do not think it will be played at all (but red deck has its ways how to speed up your gameplay, so it could still be viable).
VILLAIN BLUE (FORCE)
Lets start with legendary again – Force Lightning. Cost of 4 resources is terrible, so you are reliant on either Holocron or Rise Again. It also does not help, that 2 of 3 of its ranged damage sides are paid. Special offers you to reroll for removal of blank, which does not have to be on your die. This could work especially with other blue cards like Force Choke, Immobilize or new Manipulate. It is dangerous mainly because its reliability to deal damage every turn, other than that, it is really expensive.
The other three cards are not interesting neither. Command Shuttle is expensive, deals almost no damage and only characters with specials on them are so far Kylo Ren, Darth Vader and IG-88. Lightsaber Pike is even worse than classic Lightsaber in my opinion, it does not have redeploy and too many modified sides are dependent on other dice. The best of the new three rare cards is in my opinion Lure of Power. Its modified sides can be resolved with any die symbol, which is not so good for dealing damage but perfect for gaining resource or focus/dicard/disrupt. I think it will be played in some sort of control decks with blue on splash.
VILLAIN YELLOW (ROGUE)
As there was one less yellow legendary in villains than in red and blue in Awakenings, FFG tries to compensate for this by releasing one more in SoR. And both of them are excelent imo. Blackmail is gamebreaking card for choking control decks and it will become its main centerpiece. It does not look good isolated, but it will have tremendous effect in connection with Fast Hands. First your opponent usually do not manage to pay you before resolving it and second, if you open the round, than you can get rid of all of his resources or half of his hand. Furthermore disrupt sides are good base for another abuse with Imperial Inspection. I am almost certain, that we will hear more about this card in the future. Second legendary is Slave I, Jango and Bobba Fett’s spaceship. It has three ranged sides and crazy special which will slow down your opponent’s gameplay and it will become extremly dangerous for decks with large amount of low value dice. 4 resource cost is not cheap, but yellow has definitelly its ways how to get this card into play.
The remaining two rare cards are somehow mediocre and really situational. Personal Shield is meta dependent and it can be used in control decks, but on the other hand, shields are getting less relevant now. Vibroknucklers are good but expensive and except blue/yellow deck I can not imagine it beeing played.
HERO RED (COMMAND)
I was not excited from new red hero characters and I have to say, that the situation with upgrades and supports is totally opposite. U-Wing is a monstrosity with crazy amount of damage (is anyone asking why a transport ship has more damage capacity than Poe’s X-Wing?) and despite being extremly expensive, it can be used through Poe’s special and it is also possible to get this in play this way, as U-Wing has 2 resource side plus you can get help from new Quadjumper (see below). New A-180 Blaster is expensive, but its special dealing unblockable damage is good and currently its cost can help to get past the Imperial Inspection treshold. Overkill will be a new autoinclude in It’s a Trap deck, card with 4 modified ranged sides is a thing which was missing so far for this deck to be good. The last is the best: C-3PO, which is one of the top 3 rare cards of this set. It costs one resource, its die has two resource sides and focus which by itself is not bad, but its ability makes it special. You can remove its die to resolve one of your die with original value but any symbol on it. There is a lot of dice with absurd high amount on them and with C-3PO you can resolve them in a lot of ways which are actually helpful for you or you do not have an access to in any other way. You can also resolve blank a special.
HERO BLUE (FORCE)
You have to change your point of view on blue hero upgrades thanks to new card Destiny which changes the cost curve for hero blue decks. This also changed my view on Handcrafted Light Bow, new blue legendary card. Its damage is good, special offers something which blue was not able to handle well so far (shield removal), it does not have modified sides and despite the fact that it misses redeploy (so you can also lose it quickly), Destiny is the way how to get this card easily on table. I expect that Bow will consistently appear in new blue decks. The rest of the cards however looks strange and most of the players would not consider these to play at all. Force Heal is often compared to Lone Operative and loses for lower healing amount, but it costs less and you can heal anyone, not only the bearer. It is not a game-breaking card, but you can expect it to appear in blue decks. Delta 7 Interceptor is similarly as Command Shuttle expensive and slow. The most laughed card is Journals of Ben Kenobi. I do not think that this card is so bad and I actually find it in most blue decks better than Datapad (you have two unmodified resources and you can always remove its die to draw).
HERO YELLOW (ROGUE)
Same as in previous case for villains, also yellow heroes received two legendaries. First are Maz’s Goggles. It is most probably the best tech upgrade for one point in game, which step by step build your dominance over the game. Bowcaster on the contrary costs 4 resources and it has only 3 sides useful. I do not see this card as helpful so much, maybe just because of its redeploy.
Lone Operative is in my opinion on similar power level as C-3PO. I can tell from my own experience, that killing a character with this and Diplomatic Immunity is almost impossible. It will become a staple in yellow mill decks and maybe in some others, like Luke/Maz. I can not say anything to Smuggling Freighter, as that card is just horrible.
ALL GENERAL
There are all grey cards in this category and it is three of them in SoR. Interrogation Droid is villain card with three discard sides and an effect to immediately remove its die if you pick up an event in your opponents hand (and you can discard that event too). It has also one disrupt side and there are some combinations of deck where it can be used effectively. R2-D2 is hero support droid and is similar as BB-8, too slow and too insignificant for its cost. And last is neutral Vibroknife. It would be strong even without the obvious combo with Rey and this will most probably be the most looked for rare in SoR same as Holdout Blaster in Awakenings.
NEUTRAL ALL
There you can find all the colourful neutral cards. From each colour we have three, one is always legendary. Red Rocket Launcher has high amount of damage and special dealing with vehicles, but I am not convinced about its quality. It is quite expensive and all of its sides are paid. If it appears in game too early, it will significantly reduce your resource economy, when you play it too late, you will not benefit much from its massive cost. Supply line is solid for resource generation but slow, Astromech can be a good addition for vehicle deck, but I am not sure whether you will have slots in deck for such a card.
Probably the most discussed card from SoR is among the blue legendary – Force Speed. Meanwhile there is a hype wave on the internet, how this card destroys the game, I do not think so. It takes one slot on your character and its special loses surprise. Issue with Force Speed is only one – same as with Holocron, a die for 0 is just a bad design decision. It can be good in decks with a lot of specials or with focus, where it can help to solve them without a fear of die removal during the process. Force Push is little bit strange thanks to ranged damage, but it can be used in a lot of decks and Makashi Training is extremely strong melee booster card with built in anti melee ability (which is again bad design decision, to make anti melee card a melee upgrade which cycles the potential melee meta even deeper into melee).
Now last three yellow cards remains. Quadjumper is not popular, but it is not bad in my opinion and it opens a viable support option strategy for deck building. Also you do not have to bump it to play vehicles, it can be any support and finally you can even return it back for 2 through Finalizer battlefield. Ascension Gun is great (two ranged, discard, focus and good special), however it is only aggressive yellow damage card for villains in this deck, so the tactics around Fight Dirty is not exploited at all. Its apparent, that designers are well aware of risk around this card. Therefor I think we will see this gun much more often in hero decks. Last one is Con Artist, one of the key cards for mill decks, but its progress is slow and without the use of its disrupt sides, I am not sure it will be significant enough to appear in mill decks.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
Split of the cards from todays article most probably reverse the feelings from last part about the characters, that the villains again received some boost and are step over the heroes. Also it can be pretty obvious, that current top tier decks do not have too much added options in new set (maybe except Vader / Raider) and on the contrary they have new threats. Most probably the highest boost received control decks built around mill and blue and red hero, so players really have to get used to totally new meta.
In next part I ant to have a look on some of the best common and uncommon card.
The Guild 