Today, we’re joined by our guest contributor, wooooo! This is the fourth in a multi-part series on draft for SWU. We’re excited to watch him break down every card in the game for its utility in draft. Check out his initial guidelines for these ratings in the intro article here. Take it away wooooo!

Cunning common and uncommon card review:

Asteroid Sanctuary [c]: (C)

Pretty decent effect if you can guarantee the shield, especially if you can straight up use that shield to kill something that was played that turn.

Auzituck Liberator Gunship [c]: (B-)

The trend of me rating cards with ambush high continues. This will usually enable two-for-one trades in the sky, so it gets a favorable grade.

Bamboozle [u]: (D)

Just doesn’t do enough for the cost, but if your opponent is playing a ton of experience generating effects, it may be something worth running.

Bib Fortuna [u]: (D+)

In an event heavy deck you can consider raising the grade on this guy a bit, but most draft decks don’t play enough events to justify a very weak body in their two drop slot.

Bossk [u]: (B)

A banger in villain cunning, the grade here is for the body and the ambush. The bonus effect to deal damage off of events is more upside, and this is a great pick up.

Bounty Hunter Crew [c]: (C)

For just one more cost than Bossk you get a slightly smaller body with a nice buy back effect. Unfortunately, at six cost, the ambush body is now on the weaker side. This is definitely way stronger in more drawn-out games and will have even more value if you can buy back events like Overwhelming Barrage, which will help offset some of the negative tempo you get from playing the weak body.

Cantina Bouncer [u]: (D-/B-)

Unfortunately, most of the time this is close to unplayable (not interested paying seven for it), but on the off chance you get in to mono-cunning, this is fantastic.

Cartel Spacer [u]: (C)

The effect here is decent, and can help in some racing situations, but the primary mode on this is a 2/3 space unit, which is decent, although a bit unexciting.

Chewbacca [u]: (B-)

Chewy can be really annoying for your opponent to deal with, and at five cost we start really wanting immediate effects from our units, and sentinel qualifies.

Crafty Smuggler [c]: (C)

Decent two-drop, rarely gets blown out when you lead with it.

Disarm [c]: (D)

Similarly to the cheap upgrades, this cheap de-buff will also be hard to justify.

Ezra Bridger [u]: (B-)

A strong body with a positive effect, it’s pretty easy to get at trigger off of Ezra in draft due to how few removal cards will be floating around.

Gamorrean Guards [c]: (C+)

These guys are incredibly annoying when you run mostly yellow units. 4/4 sentinel for four is nothing to sneeze at.

Greedo [u]: (C+)

3/1 for one is good, the added effect here will almost never trigger in draft, but when it does, prepare to gloat (or rage) depending on what side this is on.

ISB Agent [c]: (C-)

Assuming you can get the one damage ping effect, this can do some cute things. This card is elevated significantly if drafting for Tarkin.

Jawa Scavenger [c]: (F)

Useless body, not worth a deck slot. (Editor’s Note: hey! That’s a family photo!)

Lothal Insurgent [c]: (C+)

3/2 is a solid stat line for a two drop, and this has the rebel trait. The effect here is basically irrelevant.

Mining Guild TIE Fighter [c]: (D-)

Almost useless, rarely worth a deck slot, might be useable in extremely grindy games.

No Good to Me Dead [u]: (C)

A constructed all-star is not quite as valuable in draft. It’s still decent, and will make most yellow villain decks, but stalling matters less when you can’t capitalize as much on the positive tempo.

Outer Rim Headhunter [c]: (C-)

You can mostly ignore the tap effect, as it rarely gets enabled, but the body is still decent enough to make the cut.

Outmaneuver [u]: (D-)

It’s very hard to pull off a strong play with this card in limited, as your cards and your opponent’s cards will generally be split between arenas, and not many games trend towards pure base races.

Pirated Starfighter [u]: (D-)

I have yet to find a way to make this effective in draft. The price of bouncing your own units is incredibly high and there aren’t many ways to get positive value from it.

Rogue Operative [c]: (C+)

Due to this card being weak on defense, the best use for it is usually to bash it in to something to get your positive value (this can often take out things a bit bigger than it). It’s also hits hard for aggressive decks.

Seventh-Fleet Defender [c]: (B)

One of the strongest turn two plays in draft (and still a beater later in the game), this is a premium pick up for villain cunning. This will almost always enable a two for one trade while also being an aggressive space unit.

Shoot First [u]: (C+)

I’m close to pushing this in to the B range just because it often straight up kills a strong unit for one cost, but the pre-requisite of having a unit in play that enables that trade is what keeps it in the high C range. But this is really close to moving up, and wouldn’t fault anyone for rating it higher.

Smuggling Compartment [u]: (D-)

Kind of awkward to use since you need to play cards before attacking with your unit in order to actually get use of the resource readying. It’s mostly too clunky to be worth a slot.

Snapshot Reflexes [c]: (D+)

I don’t value the cheap upgrades that much in limited as it’s hard for them to return a full card in value, but if you have a lot of shield units (Crafty Smuggler, Seventh-Fleet Defender say hi), this gets a bit better.

Surprise Strike [c]: (C+)

Very solid card that can be used to pressure bases, but more importantly, kill leaders. This is one of the best leader snipers out there, as most leaders have chunky health pools with not so chunky attack power.

Swoop Racer [c]: (C+)

Just a good body, will sometimes trade down, but hey, it can also trade up!

Syndicate Lackeys [c]: (B+)

These guys are beaters, and the fact that they are in a single aspect means they are incredibly flexible. Ambush is amazing, five power is hard to come by, and being able to fit in any deck makes it a truly valuable asset.

Vanguard Ace [u]: (F)

Don’t try to enable this unless you drafted U-Wing Reinforcements (green rare card).

Waylay [c]: (C)

Solid card, a decent way to play catch up in draft, as it can buy you a decent amount of time when bouncing something much more expensive than it.

Top 5 Cunning Commons:

Syndicate Lackeys: (B+)

Seventh-Fleet Defender: (B)

Auzituck Liberator Gunship: (B-)

Surprise Strike: (C+)

Swoop Racer: (C+)

Closing:

Cunning is filled with what I would describe as a bunch of decent units. They have access to one of the best commons in the set (the single aspect Syndicate Lackeys), and some powerful tempo-oriented events. Cunning also represents the two best draftable leaders in the set (Jyn and Boba), and as such, always needs to be a strong consideration for your drafting needs.

Previous Articles in the Series

Intro & Leaders/Bases

Aggression Commons & Uncommons

Command Commons & Uncommons