Completely outclassed the Saelum Pioneer.

But completly outclassed by Carnivore Squad as well, right? There's no way this one will pay for itself consistently.

well with the fair few cards tau are getting now to move units to another planet I think this could be a fair card. Aun'shi definitely seems to get the most out of kroot atm. 

Wouldn't be surprised if we see a kroot warlord eventually, or some type of tau warlord that brings the forces of the greater good together somehow... 

But completly outclassed by Carnivore Squad as well, right? There's no way this one will pay for itself consistently.

Well, maybe.  The command icon certainly helps...  He's pretty much guaranteed to be no worse than 1/2/3 for 2, which is fair (better than the 0/2/4 Black Guardians or the several existing 0/2/3 units with a minor ability), so you just need him to survive one battle to eventually be a 1/2/3 for 1.

Doesn't blow me away, but not awful.

Sadly with deck space getting tighter and tighter,mediocre cards like this will just be discarded as an afterthought

IDK, another target for Shuriken Catapult and a surprise 5 armorbane (with Aun'shi) ain't bad.  And with Aun'shi's moving tricks (albeit a stretch), could get 2 resources back in same turn.

Yeah. This card could be "worse" than other 3-drops, but it has unique traits, and an unique ability, and those things end up being more important that stats. Because you cannot keep getting "strictly better" cards as time goes by.

If you have, lets say, Saelum Pioneer, you could think that this is strictly worse. But Saelum Pioneer ask for a red planet, and for command, so you'll end up deploying the pioneer on a late planet, while you'll want this guy on combat. Even if they had the same stats for the same price, they ask for different situations to work, and I'd prefer this on hand when I'm trying to go for the offensive, than a Saelum.

And, second, and the most important part, Saelum Pioneer is an Scout, and it is an Ally, while this is a Kroot, and a Warrior. Ally is usually a negative trait, and will be very harmful as time goes by and cards are released. While Scout have little synergy besides the Mandragoran, Warrior have multiple uses, and, by comparing with other equally-traited cards, Warrior cards tend to be more combat oriented, in a more clasic, decent drop way, while scouts seems to be small, command-heavier, and gimmicky (ambush, ranged, flying, the mandragoran...). Only by that, you can see that, even when they are alike, and one could seem "strictly better" than the other, they are to fit on quite different decks, or to fill different roles.

Also, remember that not every card need to be straight way competitive. Even when cards seems mediocre (which isn't bad by itself), and later on they end up being good because of synergy, certain cards need to be released for... fun sake, could you say. MTG, and AGOT, have different terms for different deckbuilding strategies, and one of them is, in agot, Nedly, which is more interested on lore-oriented decks, instead of competitive decks. Having kroots, and speciall kroot-like cards, is really important,  because they enable certain players to play certain decks, and you cannot release any card as a kroot, but you need it to fit. If the card needs to be a Warrior, because kroots, and it needs to be a Kroot, because... eh, its stat, price and abilities needs to work in that direction, and this card does.

And, again, this card is "mediocre", which means average, good in some scenarios, but not gamebreaking. That is awesome. Having mediocre card along with great cards is good, because everything can't be "good" without at the same time becoming mediocre by doing so, and because having plenty of mediocre means variety. If we all got "good" cards all the time, that would be that those new good cards would be replacing old good cards, because, as you said, "with deck space getting tighter and tighter"... In fact, if anything, I think we sort of need less "good" cards, and that is accomplished by transforming already mediocre cards into good cards through trait-synergy.

This is a very interesting card.

On the surface it isn't compelling.  1 command, 2 ATK and 3 HP is very poor for a 3-cost unit.  Vanilla stats on 3-cost I expect to be 1/4/3 or 1/3/4.

However, 1/2/3 is a vanilla stat for a 2-cost with no ability. So this unit includes an embedded interest rate that you gain from in the future when a battle occurs at planet.  If this battle is at planet 1 and unit survives, next HQ commit they will gain you a second resource.  1/2/3 for 2 is fine, 1/2/3 for 1 is very good.  This is basically the concept of the time value of money. Typically money in hand is more valuable in the present than in the future.  This is why Warlock Destructor is so favored.  Warlock Destructor is the opposite of this card, a 3-cost vanilla unit for 2 with a surcharge each following round.

You need to view this as a 2-cost unit.  You cannot compare it to other 3-cost units.  I am not ignoring the fact that you are paying 3 for it and out 3 resources during deploy.  I understand this is a huge impact.  So, when is this unit worth it?

1. When 2-cost and lower hate is prevalent.  Planetfall started with the 2-cost hate and Legions and Deathworld is ramping it up.  A 2-cost unit that carries a 3 price avoids the 2-cost hate.

2. When your deck features a lot of Deep Strike.  This unit's ability triggers at start of battle.  Deep Strike takes effect during battle pre-ranged.  So, if you are going to hold onto resources anyway to ensure a Deep Strike opportunity, then embedding that resource into this unit isn't a bad play.

3. When your deck features cards that boost based on card cost.  See Clearcut Refuge.

4. Discard recurrence that can take advantage of resource gain - see Necrons Drugery.

5. Kroot or Warrior trait boosts.  Haven't seen a Kroot warlord yet but it does feel like one is on the way

There are certainly downsides to this card, including the upfront cost, the fact that it leads you to play it into a battle, the fact that 2 ATK isn't threatening (which is a good thing for survivability).  It is susceptible to route and Deception (though better that opponent uses those on this unit than another).

I will be testing out this card in Vezuel to see how it plays.  Maybe it will be a bust, but I think from a design standpoint it is a very interesting card.

My issue with that is that in many cases, a Carnivore pack seems like a better deal. It costs the same, it has better combat stats, and when it dies you get 3R back, rather than 1R when a battle begins. True, it doesn't have a command icon, but at least for Necrons using Drudgery, that drawback is largely mitigated. Sure, there are other situations where the hammer is useful, but... then it becomes a really expensive command unit instead.