I have to throw a shout-out to the Viper Probe Droid. It's perhaps slightly overcosted at 2 for a 1-health unit with a single Edge blast icon, but its ability is far more valuable than it may appear on first glance. We all know that Edge battles are the key to winning the game, which means that you need to be able to play units without emptying your hand; the delicate balance between cards in play and cards in hand is one of the most exciting elements of SWLCG. Every time you pull a Viper Probe Droid, you've effectively increased your hand size by one in a very limited fashion -- you can throw it away in an Edge battle or ditch it during your next draw phase to pull another card, but having it in your discard pile is effectively as good as having it in your hand, as you can play it just the same. In other words, you get the benefit of discarding it without losing literally anything at all.

Nice Thread Idea!

I'll nominate Ancient Monument.

It's easy to pass by at first glance (especially for new players), since it's a a play area enhancement that doesn't give you any resources, but it's ability to contribute a force icon to your side during the force struggle is pretty awesome. Even though it's only 1, non character enhancements are extremely safe at the moment (You'd need something like Tear this Ship apart, or Interrogation (while it's in hand)" to get rid of it.

The importance of the balance of the force, like hand size, cannot be understated - Especially if you are playing the Light Side. Having a permanent +1 bonus without having to commit a character, is good - especially for just 1 resource, AND the card provides 3 force icons for edge battles, which are another key to the game.

Xenu's Paradox said:

I'm new to the game and still learning, only having played a handful of games. But Viper Probe Droid seems like it might be overpowered to me. Do you really get to just grab one or even multiples for every edge battle? That's insane if you have two or three (or all four even) in the discard pile, is it not? At most, you'd have four extra edge battle points per edge battle without even taking from your hand. Hmm, I need to put this in one of my decks I was thinking about building.

Heart of the Empire

Doesn't look all that great, if you lose it you lose the game  

but you are the Empire, time is on your side - build a deck around it and lull that filthy Rebel into your trap

plus 3 resources right off the bat - get those powerful Sith units out early in the game 

dbmeboy said:

I know what the original poster meant. It just made me look at the card again and then I thought about playing it from the discard pile in the Edge Battle. And why can't you? You play edge cards from your hand. 

videinfra said:

The Viper rule states, 

You may play this unit from your discard pile as if it was in your hand.

when you play a card it gets played into the play area paying any needed costs 

cards in an edge battle are not played 

After today's game where I taught my 12-year-old son how to play and saw him almost defeat the Imperial Navy with the Rebel Alliance, I'm a big fan of the X-wing Escort. Time it right and this little fighter can make them take down their own mighty Devastator. I think it could be great in combo with A New Hope because they're likely to keep their big powerful vehicle units in play, then you use the X-wing Escort's death to make them sacrifice one of the few units they still have on the table. I wonder if it would work well with  Heroic Sacrifice? 

I have never used Viper Droid, but I can totally see its utility. It's annoying when you get to those turns where you have a bunch of cards you can't play, and therefore have too many resources. Viper Droid lets you spend those extra resources. I'm a fan.

I also have to second Ancient Monument. I LOVE that card. It has great versatility because it's so good in the edge battle, but if you get it on the table, it'll make your opponent think twice about exhausting all of his Force-committed units.

Honestly, I think It Binds All Things is one of the best and most skill intensive cards to play.  You really have to be thinking about when and how to play that card.

Darik said:

It's not really that great with Heroic Sacrifice as your opponent will just choose to sacrifice the vehicle that is cost 4 or less that you have targeted with Heroic Sacrifice to be destroyed by the X-Wing Escort interrupt as the interrupt will resolve before Heroic Sacrifice which will then make your Heroic Sacrifice have no effect and just fizzle out and their Devastator will still be there. .

I hope that sooner or later they come out with a Star Destroyer unit that costs 4 or less, so that the action depicted in Heroic Sacrifice's art can be performed through gameplay.

agnos said:

I disagree on that card.  It only works on the top 1 or 2 cards and does not net you a card advantage for such a high cost.  I think Return of the Jedi is better. 

Badmojojojo said:

But that's just the thing, by restricting it to the top (two) card(s), you prevent it from becoming too abuseable while still allowing one of the most powerful effects in the game. You have a lot of control over the top of your discard pile, and while you can do things like "use Yoda in an edge battle and get him back," it is the only Light Side card that allows you to recover events (Extra Jedi Mind Trick? Swindled? Rebel Assault? Yes please!) and the only card in the game that can pull Fate cards out of the discard pile. I also personally consider Jedi Training a better objective set than Last Minute Rescue, but that's debatable.

It Binds All Things is borderline broken. It's the linchpin of the game's first infinite combo, and while said combo is extremely difficult to pull off, requiring 5 cards, it speaks to the potential of IBAT to fuel all kinds of crazy shenanigans. I wouldn't be surprised if FFG had to errata it at some point to remove the ability to fetch more than one card.

Xenu's Paradox said:

Requiring 5 cards?  Only requires 3: 2 IBAT and 1 useful event (Jedi Mind Trick, Swindled, Rebel Assault, etc.).  The problem of said combo is that if you don't already have board control or close to it, then it's just a huge resource sink where you don't really get to see many new cards to advance board state.