Much like my topic for the SoR Heroes, a topic for discussion on the SoR villains, potential teams, synergies and strategies etc.
Blue Villains
Asaji Ventress (12/15) - She's got a solid dice (though the disrupt being discard would have been much, much better) and a very annoying ability that has great synergy with the 'blank all their dice' strategy Blue villains received. But 9 health feels very low. It's particularly bad when you compare her to her obvious partner in crime Count Dooku, because who's going to go after Dooku first in that match up? Ventress has a hell of a target on her, and she lacks the aggro power to live fast and die young. I think any Ventress deck is going to have to put particular focus on keeping her alive long enough to get her points worth. Though there's also the other option of pairing her up with someone who's an even bigger target, like one Jabba the Hutt (or Darth Slugius, as I prefer to call him when he's got access to Holocron). I'm not sure how well she's actually going to do; but I do think she's going to be a very fun and interesting character to try out.
Darth Vader (Anakin) (13/17) - Aggro aggro aggro. Four damage sides, and even the 1 ranged damage is potentially deadly thanks to No Mercy. Good health, and the slightly lower cost point at 17 means he can play with elite Kylo or FN. Which I'm pretty sure we'll be seeing a hell of a lot of. Not much to say about him, except the first person to use Cunning on a Tusker Raider to kill Anakin deserves some kind of prize.
Palpatine (21/28) - Plenty has been said about Palpatine, so I'm not going to go into it as there's no real team options (Palpatine/TIE Pilot is terrible, don't do it). My gut instinct is that Palp is going to end up being a kind of deck tester, but not that great himself - if your deck can handle him without having to specifically tech against him, it's probably pretty decent.
Royal Guard (9) - Guardian and solid damage. The 'no abilities' text is fairly irrelevant due to Holocron; it's not like you want to 'hard cast' them on him anyway. He'll probably be a fine filler in certain decks, namely anything that wants to splash blue and get Guardian, while being able to avoid his slightly high cost. Specifically, with a 13 point elite you can take Guard and another 8 pointer; with a 14 point elite you can only take Guard and Stormtrooper which may be worse than taking two 8 pointers.
Red Villains
Death Trooper (10) - Shoot all the things; that's about all that these guys do but they do it very well. I'm not sold on playing three of them, due to the lack of resource sides - resources you usually want to pay for things that shoot people, or things to stop your people getting shot. It also likely kills the dream of bringing them back with Endless Ranks, because that would nasty. If people can work out the economy issue, maybe it'll be a thing. Other options, at 17 points you can take them and a Stormtrooper, then 13 points for something else - again a bit of a magic number. This might actually give you some more options for getting money to pay for them. Or of course, you can just run one with...
Director Krennic (15/19) - I love Krennic's design concept. I'm not sold on him actually being good. A lot of elements feel at odds - you really want to be claiming to maintain his ability, but at the same time his dice is a mix of nice, varied effects that you may not be able to resolve quickly. He's somewhat forced into Mono Red because of cards like Wingman and Lockdown, but again he's a control orientated support dice that would probably play better with other characters. Elite, the obvious choices are a Deathtrooper (so obvious synergy with his 'free' one), or Elite Bala-Tik to get access to Yellow. But I'm wondering whether he maybe works better at 15 points, but there isn't really any obvious choice at 15 points.
FN-2199 (10/13) - Okay, so dice/stat wise he's essentially Kylo Ren in disguise - his 1 ranged damage is probably about equal to Kylo's average damage from his special. Being Blue is arguably a large advantage due to Force powers, but I think the gap has closed with better 'Red Character only' effects in SoR. And honestly? Kylo's pretty bad, cheap with good health but a kind of bad dice. But then there's FN's ability, his crazy crazy ability. Honestly, I feel it's probably easier to talk about what decks he *doesn't* fit into, rather than what he does - I think he's going to be everywhere, particularly since his ability doesn't care whether he's elite or not. Anywhere you can fit 10 or 13 points, he'll be around.
TIE Pilot (8) - Meh. Kind of a boring, filler character. I don't think he's bad per say, but I don't think there'll be any real surprises with him. He'll fit into weenie decks that have an extra point to spare over a Stormtrooper.
Yellow Villains
Aurra Sing (14/18) - Much like Krennic, I love the concept but I'm not sure how it will work out. Lots of damage sides, potential for a surprising amount of non pay side damage, and the option of 2 resources or disrupt is nice. But at 14/18 points for 10 health, with no defensive ability or way to really protect her ala Second Chance...She might be too fragile to take advantage of it. She's also hurting for an obvious partner at 12 points or less - eBala, maybe? Perhaps taking her at 14 points is an option, where she can team up with a 16 pointer like Jango? Maybe two 8 pointers?
Guavin Enforcer (8) - Generic generics. Kind of okay dice that needs to work with other good dice, horrible ability. Good health for 8 points, they might see play in decks that really just want warm Yellow bodies for things like Crime Lord, Cunning or Con Artist. After playing a Jabba/ 2 Nightsisters mill deck, I'm thinking these guys could be a good fit as Yellow guys that enable Loose Ends. Otherwise? Probably just Ranged Yellow guys for weenie decks.
IG-88 (15/20) - I'm pretty sure he's quite bad. The 2 shields for 1 resource feels like a slap in the face. His damage stats are on par for his cost, but he lacks the support characters that Heroes can play. His special is interesting, but at that cost I would have liked it to roll into the pool - you're giving up a dice for no immediate benefit, and I don't think that's a great deal. Still, it's probably his main draw, so I think his main partner is likely to be FN. Play weapons, replace them, recur them onto to IG for cheap. That at least feels like something to build towards, compared to just running him with a Deathtrooper or something. (I would also consider teaming him up with Kylo, simply because teaching a Droid to use the force is funny).
Unkar Plutt (10/13) - Well, he's definitely following in the footsteps (Uh, metaphorical footsteps) of everyone's favorite Hutt, by opening a whole lot of nasty things you can do to your opponent while doing even less to help you actually win the game. Unlike Jabba's more rounded team support, Unkar really does two things - he makes money and he takes money. Any deck that wants to do those two things will like him, and (again) much like Jabba, he's cheap enough that he'll fall onto a lot of potential teams.