Alexi Garyn, Head of the Black Sun, from Scum and Villainy





Alexi Garyn has two huge red herrings on his card - Ruthless and Vicious Attack simply aren't significant on a commander who won't attack too often, and are probably just there for flavour. What he does offer is a cannon CE, which is always very useful, as well as Doctrine of Fear on a relatively robust piece. The cannon CE arguably isn't as useful as it is on other pieces, as in most situations he'll be cannoning pieces who are cheaper than him, and it may be more efficient to have an extra attacker instead of Alexi. If he could cannon uniques, I'm sure he'd be popular with the new Guri or with the Cad Bane/Nautolan Black Sun Vigo combo.

Alexi Garyn has barely been used in Bloomilk listed squads to date, and I think perhaps the red herrings of Ruthless and Vicious Attack distract from his true purpose. But Cannon CE and Doctrine of Fear are both great tools for a squad, he's fairly priced, and I think there's some potential for Black Sun squads including him somewhere. 7/10.

Seems like a GM Tarkin/Xizor squad with Vigos could be fun.

Mace Windu, Legacy of the Light Side, from Renegades and Rogues






I'm almost reluctant to cover this Mace on Mini of the Day, as he's the most controversial piece to come out in the v-set era; threads like "Sooo... R&R Mace Windu..." were a big part of Bloomilk back upon Mace's release, and I don't really want to start another painful thread about how Mace is so broken. A 65 point melee piece needs to be very strong to have a chance in this game. The things that arguably push Mace over the top are Force Absorb, which means that he counters some pieces like Lord Vader and Mara Jade Jedi, as he can force absorb their Assaults, as well as his partnership with General Obi-Wan Kenobi (GOWK). While fast moving Mace squads with Panaka and General Skywalker have also been popular, his biggest success has been in tandem with GOWK - GOWK's own Soresu Style Mastery and CE provide Mace with some relief from shooters, which are his toughest matchup.

Mace is powerful, but he can have problems against shooters, especially shooters with high enough attack ratings to make a dent in his high defense - builds like a Thrawn/Cad Bane combo, a Talon Karrde fringe shooter squad, a Naboo Pilot squad, and a Daala Snowtrooper swarm should all be able to take him. On the other hand, Mace is a huge headache for melee based squads - with 150 hit points, Riposte, Absorb, Master of the Force 2, and a great stat line, he's a handful. He does have another achilles heel along with his vulnerability to shooters; he's very reliant on good dice to reach a reasonable amount of damage for his cost. If Mace doesn't roll any crits, he's only putting out 60 damage per turn, which isn't very impressive for his cost. If he is rolling well, he theoretically has an infinite damage limit, but in plenty of games with him I've never seen him create too much havoc in one turn - if you spread your pieces out sufficiently, you should be able to stop a second major piece taking damage if Mace's Flurries get out of control. A bodyguard or a Human Force Adept through Lobot's reinforcements can also keep him under control.

Mace is a really strong piece - even just his high stat line, especially in conjunction with GOWK's CE, can cause otherwise strong squads some headaches. He won GenCon in 2012, in the hands of TINT, in this build:

But on the other hand, every man and his dog played him during the 2012 Regional season, but only a couple of players, TINT and Hinkbert, enjoyed major success with him. And in the current meta, with Talon Karrde squads and Daala squads enjoying great popularity, I'm not sure that Mace is even a very good choice. I actually really enjoy playing him and, like almost every attacker in the game, I don't even think he deserves an 11 rating; most of the 11s are reserved for movement breakers, tempo control, and other uber-commanders, Mace is merely a strong 10/10.

I think the main reason so many people said "broken" or, in one case "borken", was that in their first exposure to Critdu he took down something big and expensive. In one turn. My case was a Leviathan, 200 hp's poof - gone. Instant NPE.

Agreed. Lost to Mace in the semis at the MI regional this year after I beat the Daala squad in Swiss that eventually won it. Mace came in and rolled crits on his 2 first rolls. I could have handled 1, but 2 made me barely lose the game. But I've seen it enough times to where a roll or 2 completely swings a game, and that's never fun. In the 2012 champs Trevor beat Deri when Deri riposted Mace with a full HP Corran Horn, and Mace rolled 2 crits. Trevor would have likely lost the game otherwise. Luck is always a part of SWM - but when a lucky roll or 2 creates swings that big it creates a huge NPE. It's akin to how Boba BH was in his Era.

GOWK being changed back was the bigger deal.

Did your opponents use FPRRs to chase crits? It's actually worth it with Mace in many cases. With 5 rolls, you'll get at least one crit more than two thirds of the time.

Mace, as a character, is portrayed as a BMF. (just take a look at his lightsaber)

i think so. You have all the things he can do now except you lose the knock on crits.

without flurry, he'll often move up and do 100 dmg, sometimes 140 and occasionally 180 (that's massive for a figure with no CE's to create that). He will often hit people back for 60 dmg but you won't get the situation where he ripostes once and then does 180 damage back (which is what happened in a top 8 game at gen con).

These days if he moves up and crits he does 120 minimum (60 damage crit and a triple attack), if he gets 2 crits that's 180 dmg (2 x 60 dmg, + the triple attacks).

He also has very little use for his force other than moving faster and re-rolling and he always has a bucket load. Chasing crits, as TJ says, is a valid strategy. That's a problem when one crit effectively equals 80 dmg.

I think the OR captain is closer to a 6.
I have tried several builds with him and Squad Assault is really hard to trigger, mainly he gets used for the defense boost.
With the Arkanian Jedi General I think he may possible be a 7, but outside of that he is a 6 IMO.


Personally I like Mace and I definitely think he is worth his cost like no other 65 point and above characters are. unless you count the BHC pieces pretty much everything over 65 is pretty much not competitive (Malgus may be another exception though I personally don't think so)
I wouldn't cost him higher or lower.

I like his Flurry and Vaapad on him, feels like he plays very much like I would expect him to. I think Vaapad Mastery granting triple damage is alittle crazy, if it was just double damage I could see him a little more balanced.
But I think it was a natural progression. I think what Juyo Mastery does should have been what Vaapad mastery should have been.
Higher chance to crit with a 50/50 chance to flurry, but then Mace wouldn't be ah huge a threat.

Flavorwise I think he is a spot on 10/10.
Absorb, Riposte, Mobile are perfect representations of the character.

I say 10/10 in today's game is a good choice.

In hindsight, I think he'd be a bit more balanced if he could only flurry on his turn (and maybe only once per turn). Doing a massive stack of damage on a riposte arguably is his most problematic area.

Also, I've taken the Old Republic Captain down to a 6. I was thinking low 7, so I'm fine with a 6. With a few tweaks - rangeless CE, that thing where all allies count as having the same name for squad abilities - he'd actually be a really worthwhile piece for the OR, I reckon. Although if you want to boost non-uniques in the Old Republic, the Arkanaian Jedi General is probably the first place to go.