My defense of Vader's deck is that although others see two divergent and incompatible PtV's, I see only one, with each talent card contributing to that single PtV. It is effective because it works -- Vader doesn't lose every game. Is it as effective as Obi-wan's deck? No. Is it as effective as the Emperor's deck? No. In fact, an argument could be made that it is overall the least effective of the Hasbro decks. But let's think about a bigger picture here: each of the other decks also has a PtV -- only one is going to end up being successful in each Duel. That doesn't mean the losing deck didn't have a well-supported PtV, it just means it was foiled by the other's. Could Vader's deck be better-supported? Certainly, but with DD it's much easier to go overboard and make a character over-powered. I think it currently sits in a place where it is neither too effective nor too ineffective, or in other words, it is "effective enough."

I'm anxious to hear Sultan's "own thoughts" on the subject...

In Italy for thirty years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love, they had five hundred years of democracy and peace. And what did that produce? The cuckoo-clock.
- Orson Welles