I've compiled a top 10 list based on the games I've played/seen thus far post-SoR. I won't be ranking them individually because these are all great, but they will be going from bottom to top.
10. Destiny
Blue hero's problem in Awakenings was paying for anything. While blue villain got Sith Holocron, blue hero got...nothing. Now they have this and it's very good, particularly with Rey. The ability to roll in Rey's dice and essentially make 2-3 free resources is a massive swing. Expect a lot of the following and expect it to hurt:
- Vibroknife on Rey, +2 actions
- Roll in Rey
- Destiny, play a new weapon on Rey's partner
9. Otoh Gunga
Let me pose a question: what if there was a battlefield that only benefited you?
With the correct deck Otoh Gunga is that. Mill decks love this battlefield. With enough mill and discard in your deck you can afford to take this instead of Command Center. If you claim, great! You've just undone some of your opponent's work (assuming they aren't also milling). If they claim they gain literally nothing from it because mill and Crime Lord do not care how much damage anyone has taken.
This is the most controversial card in this list but it's incredibly good in its niche. Give it a try.
8. Manipulate
Remember He Doesn't Like You? This is the exact same card, but with blanks instead of removal. It loses a bit of power in comparison because of that, but blue villain is uniquely positioned to take advantage of it.
If they don't immediately reroll the blanked die Feel Your Anger is now online. If you keep your own die blank you're halfway to being able to play Anger. The vast majority of blue villains can turn that blank into surprise damage via Force Strike. There are other lines of play as well, but that should be enough to make the case for Manipulate.
7. High Ground
This is an incredible amount of value for one resource. Removal and a mini-reversal in one card? The math on this card is brilliant.
The battlefield limitation is hardly an issue for the decks that can best use this card. You're looking mostly at 2 character decks, often including Rey or Maz, that churn through actions like butter. You will be able to play this card, and you will be glad when you do.
6. Ammo Belt
Second Chance. Thermal Detonator. Anti-Disarm tech if that ever matters. This card solves and arguably creates a lot of problems. It's been explained to death all over the place, but expect to see this in almost every yellow hero deck. It will only get stronger in future sets as more self-trashing cards get printed.
5. Friends in Low Places
Remember Probe? This is an almost objectively better Probe. Let's outline why:
Probe: pull two cards. If they're events you get to discard them. If they aren't, they stay in hand and you know they exist.
Friends in Low Places: Reveal their hand, showing every hidden line of play your opponent has available to them this round. Remove (probably) the best event from their hand guaranteed, limiting said lines of play.
See what I mean?
4. Aftermath
This card is free money. Lots of free money. Like, frightening amounts of free money. Let me explain.
Almost every economy card in SWD has some sort of additional cost, even the free ones. Logistics requires a red spot and a resource die. Enrage forces you to damage one of your blue characters. Despite that, both of these cards are excellent. Now consider the fact that Aftermath has no additional cost besides the game proceeding as scheduled.
The more characters in play, regardless of who controls them, the better Aftermath gets. It helps you recover from character losses and keeps pressure on when you land a kill. It makes every 3-4 character deck VERY rich, and all it costs you is a single action early in the game. The potential of Aftermath is staggering. This is the biggest sleeper card in SoR.
3. Wingman
Wingman is the Aftermath of action economy, with the downside of needing an upgrade slot. This is a minor hindrance though, especially considering what a free activation can achieve in a predominately red deck.
Red hero in particular gets a tremendous amount of power from Wingman. Hit and Run becomes two activations with an additional action after the fact. That action could very well be It's a Trap, meaning your opponent has no window to stop you from doing the absolute top end of your potential damage. This isn't even an unrealistic scenario, especially considering the sheer quantity of errant ranged sides on cards that non-range focused decks want.
Even outside of this optimal scenario Wingman is still a free action every time you use it, and it costs you nothing but an upgrade slot. That's powerful in and of itself.
2. Doubt
As I mentioned earlier, every card has a cost. A zero resource card just costs a different type of currency, be it dice, actions, health, etc. Doubt is unique in that it costs you nothing. Rather, you give your opponent an action that is almost always suboptimal. This is more often than not incredibly powerful.
Once an opponent's die is on its best side there is no reason not to Doubt it. The worst case scenario is that it lands back on where it was, but even that can have its benefits. Forcing your opponent to leave unusable modifiers on the table by resolving their only damage die into a character is a great trade. Removing modifier-heavy dice is a tremendous swing for 0 resources. Forcing your opponent to utilize C-3PO's die for its face and not its ability is rude. And of course, remember that if the die blanks out that's a free removal.
What's perhaps most impressive about Doubt is that it's never a dead draw. Sometimes you can't play Electroshock, whether or not you have a spot-able yellow character. Flank gets worse over the course of the game. He Doesn't Like You requires you to dump a die as well. Regardless of board state, regardless of game state, Doubt does what it does. Sometimes what it does is nothing, but a card that works 83% of the time (and often more than that) is good enough for me.
1. Bait and Switch
Picture your dice, especially your character dice. Now imagine them slightly modified, where all of their resource sides are also their highest damage side and you may use them for either. Terrifying, no?
Most characters now have 3 usable damage sides, but some are stronger. First Order Stormtrooper, Grievous, Veers, Raider, FN-2199, Tie Pilot, and Aurra Sing all have 4 functional damage sides. Jango and Guavian Enforcer are particularly scary at 5, yes 5, damage sides. Are you scared now?
This card would be playable without Ambush, but Ambush makes it the best burn card in the game. Bait and Switch belongs in all of your yellow villain decks, even in non-damage, because turning a die to exactly what you need and being able to immediately follow that up is an unprecedented amount of power. You'll wish you could run more than two copies.
Bonus points for getting to look at art of a Trade Federation goon getting ganked every time you play it.
CONCLUSION:
The commons in this set are very, very good, especially for villains. Play them, enjoy them, and enjoy the infusion of power Spirit of the Rebellion has brought.
