Analyzing the Core Set - Smugglers and Spies - Questionable Contacts

Alright so now that we are done with Jedi, I'm going to skip ahead a bit to the lone Smugglers and Spies objective set in Core.  I wont speculate as to what the themes of S&S are until we see more cards, just say that the faction is off to a great start if this set is representative of what we will see in the future.

Objective Set 15 - Questionable Contacts

Objective:
The usual 5/1 stats and a pretty strong, if very limited, ability.  Being able to heal your own guys while simultaneously killing your opponents is really strong, since 1 use can quickly swing the board position in your favor.  Downside is if none of your guys are hurt, you can't use it and that you have to also poke the objective for a damage, making it easier to kill.  While I have rarely used this ability for one reason or the other, the few times I have it was really critical.  Not bad overall; limited, but strong when useful.

Han Solo
Fanbois rejoice, welcome to the best unit in the Core set for LS. 4 cost for 2 damage capacity 2 combat icons, a tactics icon, and an edge blast icon is already pretty good.  Throw on targeted strike and his reaction and even Luke looks kinda average by comparison.  Obviously his react will mean one of your opponents units will either die or be damaged before the battle, then in the battle another will be killed while still another will be locked down.  So lets just say turn 1 play Han, attack, kill a 1 capacity guy with react, win edge and kill/lock 2 others is what hes all about.  This is a huge tempo swing for the LS, even if the DS ends up killing him afterwards, and very few units stand up to him.  Three force icons to top it all off.  Obviously, the 2 damage capacity is his weakness, and it helps if you can protect him a bit until he gets some backup.  Only things he has to be cautious about is Royal Guards, Darth Vader, and AT-STs, but all of those except Vader are managable depending. He gets stupid if you give him a way to remove tokens as well (like Trust In Your Feelings or Leia), since then he can attack multiple times, triggering his react several times.

Twi'lek Smuggler
Yikes, another strong character. 2 cost for 1 damage capacity but a combat icon and a tactic icon.  The tactic icon is what really makes her strong, since people cant just ignore her without having their best people locked down.  Really good price for her.  Obviously the 1 damage is her weakness, but can be very problematic for the DS if they let her swing.

Cloud City Casino
Standard limited resource with a new name. Yay!

Swindled
This card is pretty cool.  1 cost to bounce a cheap annoyance back to the DS's hand is really nice, and very strong in first couple turns.  Gets you by Royal Guards, Heavy Troopers and other annoying guys with lots of combat icons.  Alternatively, can bounce your own people to get rid of tactic tokens/damage or to trigger "leaves play" reacts.  Leia and the Xwing escort in Rebels really love this card since its cheap, dual purpose, and can result in game-changing effects.  Really strong/interesting card.  I am glad they didnt limit it to "enemy only' units.

Crossfire
This card is very situational, but can make all the difference in the right ones.  1 cost to add an icon mid-battle can really turn the tide.  Adding a combat icon to kill something outright, a tactic icon to lock out multiple units, or a blast to finish off an objective are all great uses of this card.  It fits alot of combat situations, and is very flexible.  Kinda meh if you dont need the icon when you get it because it only has 1 force icon, but those times are pretty few and far between.

As a Whole:
This set is why you will see a lot of people starting S&S affiliation.  Way too much good stuff to pass up, and if you dont play any of the neutrals (which I think all stink anyway, more later), you can take the affiliation and just make the Questionable Contacts the objective you always pass on if you can.  Han Solo alone is more than enough reason to take two of this set, and he gets a lot of backup from the twi'lek, the events, and also the added resource, which never hurts.  I consider this to be mandatory for the LS, he just does too much for you to pass on it.  No cards that will be dead or wasted here.

As an additional note, a lot of the S&S stuff that has been spoiled so far makes me think they really will be one of the strongest of the LS factions once they get support.  A lot of nasty tricks so far, looks really fun in my opinion.