Raistlin and Roman seem to support my theory: despite evidence from the movies, our fervor as Darth Vader fans distorts our vision of what the deck should be. The opinion that Vader's deck is "far inferior" to the other decks is just that, an opinion. In fact, in all the many rankings we've had for these decks, I don't think I've ever seen one that has Vader at the bottom.

(Raistlin also brings up a good point: while I'll stand by all the Hasbro decks and their accuracy to representing the characters, there is a heavy leaning towards Ep II characters. Anakin, Padme, Yoda, Obi-Wan, Mace, Dooku, Jango... that's half of them right there. There's also a big push towards the "cult" popular characters, like Boba. It still baffles me that Greedo is represented by Hasbro and Qui-Gon is not. I don't think this makes the original trilogy decks weaker, but let's face it, the big power cards fall with Prequel decks.)

...but back to Vader. Does anyone feel that Vader and Luke's decks were designed together? They seem to cancel each other out. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised at this at all. The game "engine" allows any deck to face another ("Create your own battle!") but "Re-live Classic Battles" is right on the box. And seriously, I don't think the game designers ever imagined the game to be used for tournaments. I feel like this is a moot point, I agree that all the decks should be competitive with each of the others, but a mention it shall have.

So, how bad does Vader suck? I think he's arguably the most difficult deck execute (Luke and Leia is another viable theory). Does that mean he lacks power? Is he helpless? I dont think that at all. In fact, in my circle, Vader's win frequency is fairly decent, and even better in multiplayer matches. He crashes hard, but is hardly a push over. Frustrating is fine to me. A challenge. Isn't Anger frustrating? Royal Command? Three IWNFYs? This game is teeming with cards that only seem to dazzle in a minority of situations. If you want to argue that Vader's deck has more than necessary, fine, I'll sign that petition, but is his deck "broken"? Inferior? I don't think so. No way.

"There's always a bigger fish."
--Qui-Gon Jinn