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I'm not sure if you're asking the right question here. You say you don't want the reader to feel like your villain is cheating. I think what you should ask is how you can make the reader feel that ...
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#3: Attribution notice added
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/35208 License name: CC BY-SA 3.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision
I'm not sure if you're asking the right question here. You say you don't want the reader to feel like your villain is cheating. I think what you should ask is how you can make the reader feel that you as a writer are not cheating. As a reader, I don't care whether or not the antagonist is a Mary Sue / Marty Stu or not. I want the protagonist(s) and his/her/their journey to be believable and relatable. **Does the protagonist have the ability to overcome the antagonist, without becoming unbelievable?** And is it still satisfying to read? As long as you do not create a 'Deus Ex Machina' plot device, you should be fine.