Outside the Box #1: Biggs Darklighter
Outside the Box #2: Darth Vader, Champion of the Sith
Outside the Box #3: Luke Skywalker, Jedi Master
Outside the Box #4: Darth Malak
Outside the Box #5: Anakin Skywalker, Sith Apprentice
Outside the Box #6: Obi-Wan on Boga
Outside the Box #7: Bastila Shan
Outside the Box #8: Corran Horn

And the board's current contender for most ignored series of threads continues with a new entry sure to be forgotten for years to come.

Still no suggestions, so I picked Darth Malak, because I wanted to do a different faction than the last three, and I've never seen him played anywhere.

He looks pretty pitiful compared to the other Sith Lords (well, maybe not Nihilus)... Actually, he looks pretty bad next to the similar Count Dooku from Clone Strike. But he does have an interesting commander effect that I plan to exploit in 2 out of 3 of these squads.

Darth Malak [52]
HP: 120
Defense: 20
Attack: +15
Damage: 20
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Unique
Melee Attack
Double Attack
Lightsaber Duelist
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Force 4
Force Stun
Lightsaber Throw
Sith Rage
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Followers who combine fire grant +6 Attack instead of +4.

Try to come up with a 100 point squad that could take on Bane and 6 Ugnaughts. A 150 point squad that could take on Black and Blue (LV or JH). And a 200 point squad that could be decent at a tournament. For mine, I'm also trying to make squads that haven't been posted on swshoebox yet.

Here are mine:

-100 points vs. Bane & 6 Ugnaughts-
"Malak's Guard"
Darth Malak [52]
Mistryl Shadow Guard x2 [48]
(100 pts. - 3 activations)

With two 60 HP bodyguards, it will take Bane 7 hits to bring down Malak. Spread the damage around to maximize the time that each character is alive. Also Paralysis could come in handy. Bane gets two chances to reroll, so it's unlikely to actually work, but maybe you'll get him to waste 2 Force points.

-150 points vs. Black & Blue-
"Bespin Malak"
Darth Malak [52]
Boba Fett, Young Mercenary [17]
Lando Calrissian [16]
Bespin Guard x13 [65]
[150 pts. 16 activations]

Look at that! I made a B&B counter that actually, you know, outactivates it. Although that advantage kind of goes away when you start combining fire... With all the boosted combined fire, the Bespins should be able to pick off even super defense Stormtroopers, I think. Also you'll need to effectively whittle away at Vader with the little guys, because Malak really can't handle any of the Vaders 1-on-1. Not my best squad ever, but I did get a chance to use Rebel Storm Lando again. Ah, the memories.

-200 pts. Tournament Quality-
"Malak the Hutt"
Darth Malak [52]
Jabba, Crime Lord [15]
Rodian Scoundrel x2 [28]
Aqualish Spy x6 [66]
Mon Calamari Mercenary x3 [30]
Ugnaught Demolitionist x3 [9]
[200 pts. - 16 activations)

You'll have to keep the shooters back with Jabba because of the 6 square limit on his CE. The Aqualish Spies and Malak can charge in so the Spies get close enough to Spotter for the Mon Cal and Rodian cannons. The shooters are pretty fragile, but the Spies have a little more beef. If an accurate shooter for some reason picks off all the little shooters (5 rounds with Boba BH to get them all), then just have the Spies combine with each other.

Please take the challenge and post your squads! It's all about exercising your squad-building creativity. For all we know, the new Revan could give Malak a big boost and everyone will be playing him. You can get a headstart on building around him now!

I welcome any feedback on the Outside the Box posts or my squads. Please, please suggest someone for next time.

Your 150 B&B counter won't work against B&B, while the bespin guards can combine fire, most B&B squads use either Vader JH or LV, and they both have dark armor, which could reduce the damage to 0 since your bespins only do 10 dmg per attack.

You realize they could fail that save correct?

I only have enough creativity in me to come up with a 100 point squad right now, so here goes. Will try to add others later.

100 points vs. Bane and Uggies:

Darth Malak [52]
Jabba, Crime Lord [15]
Duros Mercenary [6]
Snivvian Fringer x4 [24]
Ugnaught Demolitionist [3]
8 Activations

Snivvians can fire at +12 for 20 damage against Bane before he activates (+18 with combined fire) to whittle his hit points from a distance. The Duros has a high enough attack to take on the Uggies and other Snivvians can attack them as well. Do enough damage to let Malak finish off Bane. It won’t work against any other squad, but uses some little known figures. Jabba can soak up damage from Bane after he gets close enough to engage.

I love these outside the box threads! Great fun to read, and they give me all sorts of ideas... anyways, could you do Anakin Skywalker Sith Apprentice? Of all the Darth Vaders, he's the one I see played the least (I'm not including the RS ones...) and I love his figure. Keep up the awesome work man!

Yeah, like Drew said, you just have to hope they fail the saves. It would almost be better to get them to spend some Force points rerolling saves...

One idea for strategy I had was to try to set up a wall of fodder between Malak and Vader and let Malak Lightsaber Throw without immediate retribution, but that doesn't seem like a great idea either.

Anyway, like I said, it's not a great squad... Probably someone can come up with a better 150 Malak squad.

Yes, I'm just saying its unlikely that the squad will work though.

Maybe if you put in a Rodian Hunt Master, you're damage would increase enough to compensate for your minus 4-5 Bespin Guards. So even if Vaders got their save, you'd still inflict 10dmg.

Or you could take out Lando and all the Bespin Guards and bring in 11 Duros Explorers. You lose 3 activations, +1 attack on each attack, and +2 Defense in cover, but you gain Spotter 10 and Evade on each of them (and +2 Defense out of cover).

What good would Evade do against a Bane squad?

Great writeup, always a great fun to read.

I'm wondering about 100 point band activations....back in DDM, any less than 8 activations at 200 points was considered poor. Whats the "advised number of activations" in SWM?

Thanks!

It really depends on your local meta, but on average, you'll want around 3-4 activations per 50 points.

Oh the irony...I just came back from my LGS with a CotF pack and pulled Malak...>Should I be happy or sad? @_@

EDIT: Btw I also pulled a Darkside Enforcer in the same pack....are there any uses for this? I just took a glance at it and I was like "Crappy Jedi Guardian for 3 points more! Woohoo!". But uh, really. Why is it so bad @_@

Not particularly.


Because for 3 points more, you can get the Dark Jedi Master, who has +10 HP, +1 Def, +1 Attack, +2 Force, Sith Lightning, Master Speed, and has a lightsaber.

I actually knew "why its so bad" per-se, so what I really meant was "why did WotC have to make it so bad"

This was talking about the B&B counter squad. Evade is nice against Stormtroopers.

Granted, the Mistryl Shadow Guards in my anti-Bane squad have Evade, too. The only chance they'd get to use it is against a Lightsaber Throw, I think.

I like it. Having all those Cunning Attackers really makes it so that Bane has to activate first, then you can react to whatever he does. Once you start combining fire, he'll outactivate you, but he won't be able to use that to his advantage.

Just make sure you pick a map with an open Gambit area that you can shoot at from close to your starting position (so you don't have to move Jabba far).

Why is everyone so down on Malak? I think he compares pretty good to Dooku.
Okay, for the same price you get 10 less HP, 1 less D, and 1 less Att. But they both have Double and Lightsaber Duelist. Instead of Sith Lightning, Malak has Force Stun, which also has a lot of uses and only costs 1 FP instead of 2. Sith Rage instead of Precision - I'll take that any day. Lightsaber Throw instead of Block - Block is probably better. Plus, he's got an okay CE.

Is he as good as Dooku? Probably not. But he's "not pretty bad", either.

LOL Shinja - I'm not attacking you. I just want to know why so many people dislike Malak.

I think you pretty much outlined the reasons why he's not as good as Dooku.

Given a choice between the two, I'd take Dooku every time--unless I needed Malak's CE for some reason. I tried to make my squads use Malak's CE, since that's the main thing he has going for him.

Honestly, Dooku's one of my favorite pieces in the game, so the fact that I don't think Malak stacks up to him, doesn't mean I hate Malak. I think they did a pretty good job with him. If he had any sort of defensive Force power, though, he'd be much better, in my opinion.

It seems to me that if they'd just made his CE a little better, he'd be worth it, and comparable to Dooku.

Also, Dooku was supposed to be this great leader, so I'm still waiting for a version with a cool CE.