Darth Maul is perhaps my favourite Star Wars character but I've found him a little underwhelming in IA. I primarily play campaign and I'm trying to focus my Imperial build on maximizing Maul's potential.

Easiest option is to use Nemeses class and pick Maul as the Scum villain. I've played Nemeses recently so trying to go away from that. Next best option is to do the Heart of the Empire campaign as Maul is featured a fair amount and include Maul's agenda deck to try to earn him as a villain. Third option is to use Overwhelming Oppression and get Personal Flagship to earn Maul as a villain. However, my one play through with OO was not that fun. None of the classes seem to suit Maul specifically so still thinking about it.

As I've been looking over agenda decks I've found a couple of effects that I'm uncertain how they would work with Maul's Sustained by Rage ability.

Example...

If Maul was in position to attack and was selected as one of the Imperial figures would he simply not be defeated by this card? It doesn't add damage to Maul, simply says the figure would be defeated. If Maul hasn't activated yet he can't be defeated. Nothing indicates that this effect would linger like damage counters would. Once Maul activates in this round it seems Acceptable Margins would be forgotten and he would only be required to check on damage counters to see if he is defeated.

Similarly would be...

Less useful but same idea I think.

In short, looking for some clarification on Sustained by Rage ability and any Maul tips to make him a campaign centrepiece.

By RAW the "be defeated" would indeed be ignored because Maul cannot be defeated if has not resolved an activation this round.

Being a 2-influence agenda card and once per mission (and only a few times per campaign) doesn't warrant an errata.

If you want to house-rule it, change "defeated" to "suffers damage equal to it's health, then is defeated" (to disallow recovery on other figures than Maul).

It's also worth pointing out that Acceptable Margins only gives an attack (not a move and attack). Maul would already have to be in a suitable position for this to trigger.

And Abandon Contract takes an action, simply to gain 2 threat, which would be during Maul's activation & he would become defeated (instantly ending his activation)

Since he has then resolved an activation he would be removed from play correct?

Maul has resolved an activation only after he ends his activation. He hasn't yet resolved his activation during it (so Sustained By Rage prevents his defeat during his activation).

(Similarly the activation tokens and deployment cards are exhausted at the end of the group's activation.)

Definitely very specific scenarios so unlikely to be worth the investment. Probably be able to find better agenda choices once I've settled on a class.

14 hours ago, a1bert said:

Maul has resolved an activation only after he ends his activation.

Fair point