Swap having such a high variance: This seems like its usefulness depends heavily on the kingdom. I gave it a 0, not because it's completely useless but because I was only doing an inter-set comparison and this definitely seemed like the weakest card relative to its cost. It's basically a cross between Advance and Transmogrify, but it lacks the main thing that makes those two useful: the fact that they're "always there when you need them". With Swap you have to collide with a good target when you play it, which can be difficult. If you're relying on Swap to save your engine in case it duds, it seems like it would be better just to buy more villages, especially since villages are usually cheaper than Swap.
I know it's bad to rip people on their first-impression votes, but this is quite frankly embarrassing. Do you really think that Donald X would've greenlighted this card if this was really 0-worthy? Especially considering this has no expansion-specific mechanics and Donald is now extremely experienced with designing Dominion cards?
It is absolutely nothing like Advance. The comparison with Transmog is slightly more sensible, but it is still very flawed. First, it only works on starting hands, so it is definitely not "always here when needed". And it is also hindered by the fact that is played over two turns and is a stop card.
From my limited experience, Swap is a powerhouse. You can swap Ruins, cheap actions and actions that outran their usefulness for 5-costs with Swap, which is very nice with +Buy. And tech that is situationally useful like Library also becomes much more valuable. But Swap requires to approach Dominion differently and it is also somewhat difficult to gauch if it is the next Recruiter, or if it is the next Rebuild. (and it also had a fairly high chance to pop up with Sycophant, which biases the experience considerably)
Lol @ Townsfolk being within the top 20%, as a "9" would imply. Absolutely ludicrous.
Sycophant, Merchant Camp, Forts, Galleria are the only piles the community rated lower than Townsfolk. That's fair -- but all those piles do something/serve a role that can add an interesting angle to a kingdom, whereas Townsfolk mostly take up space. Lamest pile of the set, give me any other random pile instead.
Townsfolk's claim to faim is that Town Crier is pretty sweet for a $2 cost early on. And there are also a few boards where Elder is good, but with almost any "Choose N" card, it screams Nombo.
I'm also quite surprised at AdamH's take on this, but I also know he is a very good Dominion player, so he might be right.