Don't have time to elaborate here, but the relationship with Maul's basic red deck with respect to its path to victory and counterproductivity is not the MAIN issue here. The issue was with Vader's TALENT cards working against each other. Maul's TALENT cards work exceptionally well together (with the the possible exception of blinding surge as you mentioned), and they don't weaken each other at all. For example, Maul's 8 attack allows him to escape after unleashing a tremendous amount of damage with his Sith Speed talent cards --- it allows him time to heal and build a hand again --- a perfect complimentary card.

Lee