Gar Saxon is a bit of a glass canon, but he also brings a lot of mobility to a strike team. He's a flexible piece that can do his thing at range or in melee. If you want to roll fistfuls of attack dice Gar is your man.
Gar Saxon, Merciless Commander is available in the Shatterpoint core set.
Main card
4PC is pretty normal for a secondary, not much to see here. Being a Clone Wars era character he can't go in squads with The Mandalorian, if/when he comes out, but Gar has some keywords to combo well with Mandalorians of any era.
Abilities
For a secondary, 9 stamina and 2 durability is just fine. No problems here.
Pride of the Mandalore is an ability that gets better the more Mandalorians you have. Being able to jump someone around at the start of Gar's turn can be big in the objective game. If you draw Gar early it can help move a Mandalorian Super Commando up the field to get closer to melee, where they love to be. Mandos don't love being pinned, so you can also use this to make a friendly mando try to move and lose the pin instead. Note that Gar can't use this on himself, but he can use it to put someone in an optimal position to trigger Mandalorians Are Stronger Together later in his turn, see below.
Jet Pack is a standard Mandalorian ability and it's good! Gar doesn't always need to use it since he's fine sitting back and sniping, but it's great to have the option.
Mandalorians Are Stronger Together is a pretty standard Mandalorian ability. As mentioned, Gar can use Pride of the Mandalore to get a friend in position to proc this reaction. Note that it does require a move action, so Jet Pack won't trigger it. Once you are injured you're probably still paying force to use this reaction because, uhhh, see below.
I've Got You in My Sights is really getting into what makes Gar, well, Gar. It's three persistent effects that are all good. Ignoring cover can help a lot against hunker shenanegins. Additionally, a focus gives you two extra dice (at range) and a hunker token. The clear combo is move within 2 of another mando, take a free focus action, get a hunker, and shoot someone with 9 dice, ignoring their cover. Not too shabby.
But what if you want extra dice in melee? Never fear, Pack Hunter has you covered! It does require another Mandalorian in the engagement with Gar, so it's a bit harder to pull off than In My Sights. Super Commandos do like being in melee though so it can work. Gar's largest potential dice pool is 10 in melee, one more than 9 at range, but I often run him in a sniper role to keep him mobile and get some extra defensive dice.
Concentrated Assault
As previously mentioned, Gar can often get 9 dice at range (6 plus focus plus Sharpshooter 2) or 10 in melee (7 plus focus plus Pack Hunter). Not too bad. His expertise trees add some crits to bring the floor up, but nots tons of sheer results. A jump on square 2 of the tree is good for mobility, but no push until 3 successes isn't necessarily ideal. Not a lot of conditions either. It's a decent tree with good damage, but not much of other effects. However, one thing to note is the push on his ranged expertise. The keyword Steadfast only prevents the first push in the attack tree, so you can get around that with the expertise shove. With 9 ranged dice Gar has a 69% chance to get at least two expertise.
Defensively, Gar is a bit squishy. Only 4 dice base, but it does get better with his easy hunker access. That's another reason I like his as a sniper mainly: his defense is usually better. The armour expertise is nice with 2 blocks for only 1 expertise, so that helps too.
Synergy & Wrap Up
+ Pros | - Cons |
Lots of attack dice in most situations | Lackluster defense without cover |
Great mobility for himself and friendly mandos | Attack tree a bit one-dimensional |
Gar's best attributes are mobility and damage dealing. Those are two important things in a game of Shatterpoint. Since he ignores cover and gets free hunker tokens I personally prefer to keep him in sniper mode, but his melee profile is still pretty good.
For synergy he needs to have a Mandalorian friend around to move and get free stuff from. I could see using him and Clan Krze Mandalorians as a strong ranged contingent pushing people around. If you're going full mandos, pairing Gar with Mandalorian Super Commandos works well to throw them forward in melee while Gar can join in or stay back to add a ranged threat.
If you want to shore up Gar's defense, Bo-Katan Kryze is a good call to give him Protection and Steadfast in the right circumstances.
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