Power Creep or Power Nap? Thrawn vs. Cad

Here we go again.  Another day, another Legendary.  Now we have the new 7-cost Grand Admiral Thrawn.  A Cunning Villainy 7-cost card that captures units.  Wait….that sounds familiar. 

Is Grand Admiral Thrawn a horrible card?  No. 
Is he not very different and maybe worse than a card in the same aspects and cost that we already have in Cad Bane TWI?  Yes.

Thrawn has 1 more power.  No one will ever complain about having extra power.  How do they stack up from there though?

Grand Admiral Thrawn

When played, the opponent chooses if you capture a unit and which one.  If they have a smaller, inconsequential unit on the board then Thrawn essentially whiffs.  This is round 6 we’re talking about, so your opponent handing you something like a late game crafty smuggler is oftentimes a whiff.  If they have removal in their hand, Thrawn whiffs.  This comes down to letting your opponent choose out of a pool of options, even if all options are good on their own, will rarely be good in actual gameplay.  

When Thrawn dies, another friendly unit can capture any unit.  This is a nice side effect but slow, and you ideally want a second unit with reasonable stats on the board to take full effect so it isn’t immediately dealt with.

So Thrawn is a 7-cost unit with no guaranteed immediate effect on the board.  This is not what you want from your 7-cost units.

Cad Bane

Captures up to 3 units of your choice, within the HP restriction of 8.  If they have removal for him, their 3 units still return to play exhausted.

They can get their units back but at the cost of 2 cards for you.  Cad bane is arguably the best late game unit Cunning Villany has.

So…?

With that in mind, what purpose does Grand Admiral Thrawn provide as a new legendary card?  He doesn’t bring anything new or better to the game, let alone even his own aspects.  I guess Admiral Thrawn is… bluer?

Players may/will disagree, but it feels like we’ve heard this song before. And every time the design team walks in, I can’t help but shout: “I’ve got a fever… and the only prescription is better legendaries!”

We actually got an exclusive recording of the design session…

Designer A: I want to make a new Thrawn, but I’m not sure what to have him do.
Designer B: I got a fever, and the only prescription is more Cad Bane!
Designer A: More Cad Bane?  Don’t we have enough Cad Bane?
Designer B: MORE CAD BANE!

So which is it? Is Grand Admiral Thrawn power creep or just a power nap?