Magnificent Bastards

The Magnificent Bastard is the kind of character that you get when you combine Tricksters, masters of manipulators like playing a game of chess. They are described as being bold, charismatic, independent, and daring. These characters have shown themselves to steal the spotlight through these traits

They are brilliant and can be utterly devious,making up backup plans so that they win every time, and not to mention they operate smoothly smooth operators. They always know exactly what to say and never lose their cool (unless if it's in certain times when something goes wrong for some of them or if their buttons are pushed). They have motives that they don't stop until they are accomplishd, they are persuaive, and often charming.

A magnificent bastard can be aligned either good or evil - Most of them are evil, but there are few Anti Heroic verisons of this.

The magnificent bastards are named for the quote that first used the term, which comes from the historical film "Patton", where the title character, General George S. Patton, used the phrase, "Rommel, you magnificent bastard, I read your book!", upon realizing that Erwin Rommel, the man he was facing, wrote a book about deceptive warfare.

Due to the overload of characters in this section, these are the requirements for one   

They are brilliant and utterly devious. Call it genius, call it virtual omniscience, but they always seem to know what everyone else is planning at any given moment and makes them play right into his hands, and exactly how to arrange the game so they win even when they have been defeated.   

They are a smooth operator. They always has a backup strategy and never lose their cool. Even if on the remote chance something happens that wasn't in his plans, you'd never know it from his actions. Didn't See That Coming doesn't derail him; if his plans are foiled, he can always improvise.   

They have a goal, they're not going to stop until they've completed it, whatever it is. To that end they will do anything. They'll move heaven and hell. Despite their choice of tactics, they are rarely if ever pointlessly cruel, and those who are tend to be so creative in their cruelty that it practically becomes an art form.   

They are charismatic, often charming, their personality is like a physical force. People tend to like them, sometimes even when they know they aren't on their side, and even those who hate their guts have to admit respect. Even when at their darkest, they have traits which one can't help but admire.   

They are Genre Savvy. They do not fall for obvious traps, release the Sealed Evil in a Can or negotiate a Deal with the Devil before having devised The Plan to deal with it. Bringing them down is a long process of getting them cornered, although sometimes it is abrupt and played for shock value to show someone's awesomeness by comparison.

This term is taken from TVTropes.org. For more information see the original article.

The heroic equivalnt is a Guile Hero

Usually there is one in a story, but if there's is more than one, you can bet there's going to be a lot of pile up regarding what all the parties's plans are and it can get really confusing to know who's really on top. Slade Strikes Back is one example where we have 3 of these characters all acting in a battle of wits.