You can find previous parts of this article on links below:
Spirit of Rebellion: First Impressions pt. 1
Spirit of Rebellion: First Impressions pt. 2
I finally managed to write about all cards with die and therefor, only common and uncommon cards are left. And despite being very often outside of public interest, they usually fill more than half of the deck and they have a significant influence on the game. Because large part of these cards is not good at all, I am going to mention only those I find interesting or worthy of discussion. Should you have a feeling that I missed any, do not hesitate to comment them below the article.
VILLAIN RED (COMMAND):
There is a trio of strong and interesting red cards among villain selection, which I would like to discuss more closer. First of them is Imperial inspection. Supports in Awakenings were (apart from few exlusions) outside of public interest, because they were slow, usually expensive and not too powerful. This was changed by a lot in SoR and Imperial Inspection is the proof. This support costs 0 resources and is not necessary to activate to use its ability because it includes trigger effect which is relesed by rolling a disrupt on one of your dice. It allows you to return an upgrade (even yours) with cost 2 or less to owner´s hand, which somehow negate the typical defense against the disruption decks – to play everything asap. Therefor it is truly one of the key cards for control disrupt deck and dramatically persecutes some of the aggressive decks which relates on a lot of upgrades with cost of 2. There is only one issue – huge lack of red disrupt sides, so you have to mix the red with a different colour to use this support at its full power. I would like to mention that there is similar support in each colour, but those from villains costs 0 and are also much more relevant than their counterparts from hero side costing 1.
We Have Them Now is another from new cards, which can massively change the outcome of game. You need the battlefield control to play it out, but it allows you to turn up to 4 of your dice to damage side, which can easily result in +/- 10 damage. In decks like eKrennic/Deathrtrooper you play this usually in very first round, which means 8 damage in opening turn. Last card is Lockdown, which comboes with the previous one. Red villain decks usually lacks the speed to be able to claim consistently and Lockdown can give you battlefield control in a different way. Best play is to resolve Lockdown and We Have Them Now after your opponent already claimed. Other two cards benefiting from battlefield control are Krennic and Dug In.
VILLAIN BLUE (FORCE)
Unfortunately there is not too many good cards in villain blue. Rise Again costs 5 resources and heals one unique blue character for 5 hit points and to top of that you may play an upgrade from your discard pile on him for free. The latter is especially dangerous as it usually brings cards like Mind Probe or Force Lightning. 5 resources is a lot but a deck with elite Palpatine or elite Vader do not play too much expensive cards usually, so it is possible to save the resources for it. In such a case, card like this breaks the outcome of game. Second card which I personally treat as dangerous is Lightsaber Throw. Damage from it is blockable and it is still only 2 damage for 1 resource, but it is damage from hand and you have to count with it. Unfortunately you make your melee dice vulnerable to mitigation one round longer, which is a downside. Price of Failure can be interesting especially with drawing through Boundless Ambition. The rest of card is not good in my eyes, there are two zero cost die removal/manipulation cards, but they are far too situational.
VILLAIN YELLOW (ROGUE)
Villain yellow traditionally posseses the best event cards in game and it is the same in SoR. Bait and Switch is cheaper and more situational variation to Force Strike and with some of the characters you really do not take care too much what side you roll (like Jango) plus with ambush you can resolve it together with modified sides. Second really good card is One Quarter Portion, currently the most universal die removal in game. It costs only 1 resource and in yellow control decks with disrupt, you really do not care about its downside of giving your opponent a resource. Last card I want to mention is Salvage Stand, which I believe is on same level as Imperial Inspection. It is not too much favoured option in current meta and you will not see it often, but according to my opinion the influence on your opponent is much higher than most of the people admit and recognise (especially for the decks which need resources to resolve their damage dice).
Also among other yellow cards are strong choices, but they are usually oriented to only some deck strategies, so I do not think it is worthy to talk about them too much. Finally we have Armor Plating, which I think is really much weaker than Force Illusions or any other shield options you can have in game.
HERO RED (COMMAND)
And I start now with hero cards. Red was quite popular in last set and because Awakenings included one of the most powerful events in hero red, the expectations were high. Planetary Uprising partially fulfills them. It offers an alternative to a gun, as it gives you 2 damage per turn for 2 resources should you be able to fulfill one condition – claim each round. Effect of this card is tremendous. It is included in the best current deck (Poe/Maz) and rightfully. The damage is inevitable and it usually ends the game when you claim as first action in new round. Red gun decks should be happy for Rebel Assault, as red hero really lacks die removal ad the rest is basically useless. Friendly Fire has its uses, but it is much more expensive than Deflect.
HERO BLUE (FORCE)
Blue has usually a large amount of utility cards and despite this, it seems they are not able to form a tier 1 deck. Guard can remove multiple dice from table and as such, the effect from it is supreme. Issue is, that Blue hero deck usually lacks the cheap dice you could sacrifice and only cheap source for it is Rey. Destiny works in similar way, but again you have the same issue – you do not want to pay with your precious dice. Plus you can not overwrite the equipment with it. Caution is really situational. Therefor, I believe, that the best new card is Synchronicity. Lastly, there is Your Eyes Can Deceive You, which again is relatively key card in blue shield decks, but shields are currently a little bit priceless thanks to Vibroknife.
HERO YELLOW (ROGUE)
The situation with yellow hero cards is similar to the blue ones. Few of the cards looks on the first sight as really good, but they do not work properly in reality. Planned Explosion is one of them, second is Never Tell Me the Odds. Both of them have too high cost, first in dice second in resources. Rebel fits perfectly to Jyn allowing you to cycle some really annoying cards like Thermal Detonator or Second Chance. I think the best new yellow card is Loth-cat and Mouse, which is in a lot yellow decks an example of free unlimited removal and it is a counterpart of (still more powerful) He Does Not Like You. The rest of the cards seems to be really strange. Long Con means a dead slot in your deck, Hold On does not offer you much, Double Dealing costs 1 resource to play, so it is slow, Life Debt costs you an upgrade slot on character etc.
NEUTRAL RED (COMMAND)
And now the neutral cards, where you have to think about an influence on both hero and villain decks. Suppression again offers you a way how to remove a die for free, which should be welcomed in hero red decks. Wingman fastens the game of full red decks (which si the case especially for red hero decks) and is quite strong. Finally Training is good upgrade for Rebel Commando and Deathtrooper and in some specific cases it can be good on Tie Pilot. There is also a combo with Cargo Hold and Training which allows you to transfer Training to other characters. The rest of the neutral red cards are not worthy mentioning in my eyes.
NEUTRAL BLUE (FORCE)
Blue neutral has three cards for dice removal. Decisive Blow is effective but really expensive and resolving of melee is usually worse than spoting it. Overconfidence is situational and its use requires caution while doing it. High Ground is not bad, but you have to be able to play really quickly with the deck, which is usally an issue.
Another interesting card are Premonitions. With its help you can get some really expensive cards into play (like Rise Again), on the other hand, second copy can be burried on the bottom of the deck and in that case you “killed” two deck spots with it and the card below Premonitions. There can be an interesting interaction when two blue Premonitions decks play against each other, as you can resolve your opponent´s Premonitions with yours and also there are ways how to setup a trap with cards like Noble Sacrifice and Price of Failure. Force Illusion is interetsing upgrade for 1 resource offering alternative to shields. It is ability so you can play it through Holocron special and while discarded from character it blocks all damage from one source if you mill a card for each damage blocked. Its use is little bit problematic, as you can not resolve it in case you do not have enough cards in your library and milled card can be crucial for you. However, it can still save you from death against high damage outputs from Poe or other decks. Last interesting card in my opinion is Meditate, which can change some of your dice into superb ones (like Holocron) in case you have enough specials to turn into or you play discard deck.
NEUTRAL YELLOW (ROGUE)
Neutral yellow offers a definitely best diceless card of this set – Fast Hands. It is not an automatical fit in each deck, you do not want to play it with deck full of modified sides or on characters which do not have solid sides by themself. Other key card is Sabotage, destroying supports and as a such, it is only one broad available option to do this. Finally is there Friends in Low Places, which allows you to look in your opponent´s hand for free and discard a key event from his hand with cost 1 resource or less. It removes your opponent´s removal or cards like Its a Trap. The rest of the yellow neutral cards is not bad but it is not usefull in each deck.
ALL GENERAL
All grey cards are in this category and it is not too many of them. Duo of removals Doubt (for villains) and Confidence (for heroes) is a way how to get conditional removal for zero resources into your deck and as such they do not work too well with some of the strong characters (like Palpatine). Ammo Belt is grey neutral and it made itself famous already for making an annoying combo with Second Chance. Last interesting card is New Orders, which allows you to switch a battlefield and use its claim ability. Poe/Maz players already found out power of this card and I still think that meta does not evaluate adequately the possibility to get away from opponent´s destructional battlefield.
And battlefields form the last group of cards. There is 10 of them in SoR and most just offers you a “safe” alternative in case you are not able to claim consistently. In this way Secluded Beach is good for melee decks, Otoh Gunga for mill decks, Ewok Village for most of villain decks that do not use shields and Secret Facility for anyone. On the opposite level of power is Carbon Freezing Chamber which eliminates one character die for the next round and this battlefield is a monster especially in combination with multiple claim through Outpost or New Orders. War-Torn Streets are of similar power level for discard decks. And finally my favourite Maz´s Castle significantly increasing consistency of you draws.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
The power level of average deck has increased significantly after release of SoR mainly thanks to enormous increase of cards in our pool. This also means, that some of the cards which used to be good are now mediocre. This is valid especially for events and mainly removals, where some of the colours have quite a lot of them (like blue and yellow villain). I also expect current decks to be much more optimalised in cost curve as there is more cheap cards doing something potent in game. However I do not think, there will be any change in base structure of deck spliting dice and diceless cards usually to 40/60.
There is also with an exception of Fast Hands no game breaking diceless card which would change the way of play. Only other card with such a potential is Imperial Inspection, which so far struggles due to missing red disrupt dice. From this point of view, I think SoR is really not more powerful than Awakenings and should there not be Fast Hands, it would not be anything to talk about.
