...and then I realized that in the moving process, I somehow completely forgot to actually repost the first custom. I am off to a wonderful start this week, aren't I? The original post is unrecoverable, so I'll have to completely re-do my writeup, so without further ado - here's
Drax:
The figure used here is
SW Minis Legacy of the Force #47 Human Scoundrel
Earlier Revisions and Concepts
Drax started out fairly similar to the current iteration you see above - I wanted to make a hero variant of Deathreavers - something which would potentially ooze strategic value if used properly. The original version was very similar, but had Stealth Dodge instead of the third special power listed (which I'll get to in a bit) - I realized that in doing this, I had basically only slightly modified Agent Skahen, reduced the cost, and halved the attack potential, and that just didn't seem... interesting enough.
This got me thinking - what could I make this fellow do to make his abilities go hand in hand? Naturally Thief Sense and Phantom Walk were like two peas in a pod, but what could compliment them both so naturally?
Mechanics
This is where we get to the big mechanic at play here: Shiv.
I wanted something that would not only fit the flavor of the card, but also work well in tandem with the abilities already present. Originally, the idea was to have a sort of backwards passing swipe mechanic, but at 50% wounding potential, I realized that scaling it back to 15% would be for the best.
Currently the 18 is rather arbitrary - I'm not sure if 17 is too low, or if 19 is too high, and quite of a lot of consideration was put in to how the triggered. Moving through a figure seemed flavorful enough, so it was just a matter of balancing things out. This is where the two limiting factors come into play: You can only attempt to Shiv any given figure once per turn (including when Thief Sense is triggered), so there's no dancing back and forth around a unit, and secondly you have to move into an empty space before attempting to Shiv a different unit, so as to effectively reduce the amount of dicerolling which can happen in any given turn.
This results in a natural maximum of 2 units Shiv'd per Thief Sense movement, and 3 units Shiv'd per normal movement - which felt about right, as these are very dicey situations for Drax to be in, so the risk-reward tradeoff seemed fair enough: more attempted backstabbing meant leaving Drax in a more dangerous position.
Stats
So that's where the stats came into play - the 3/6/6/3/3 70 points statline seemed about right - 3 life makes Drax squishy enough that risking his hide for an extra Shiv or two can spell his end, 6 move felt fair, and the 6 range is moderate but not too high. 3/3 attack/defense is par for the course and with only one attack per OM, it's fairly obvious that Drax isn't the type of figure who is going to see a lot of OM-dedication, instead being carried by his abilities. The obvious synergy which resulted from Agent Skahen was only icing on the cake.
Considered Changes
As for changes, I've considered making his stats a little more lopsided, leaning towards a 2/4 figure as opposed to 3/3, or perhaps reducing his range, though keeping his point value around 70-80 is key - I want this unit to be a semi-filler, meaning that it isn't taking up a significant fraction of your army's point total. The idea was to have a unit which could be leveraged for strategic value, but being at least some amount of risked points in doing so. As for Shiv - I'd have to give the unit a try at least once or twice to get a feel for how frequently I want him successfully stabbing units - 18 might very well be too high, and I've considered going as low as 16 (it's currently 15% chance, 16 is a 25% chance).
Strategy
In play, I forsee this fellow as being an early game leverage unit - getting him out into the fray, clogging chokepoints, hopping onto valuable positions, or nabbing glyphs just long enough to keep your opponent off them for a turn. He can dance between squad figures tying up attacks just long enough for you to get your more valuable units into position. Perhaps he takes out a squaddie or two along the way, perhaps he chips one life off of a Hero, perhaps he keeps advancing ranged units from reaching the high ground before you, perhaps he just gets turned into swiss cheese right away.
Bio/Background
Drax comes from the same alt-future Earth that the Agents inhabit. In a twist of ironic fate, he finds himself fighting alongside the very same Agents who would otherwise have shot him on sight.