A New Hope - January 9, 2016

Geonosis Arena

There was a cool chill in the air as the sun had set over North Village.  The warriors began to emerge at the Community Center, with visions of riches dancing in their heads.  Of course, that was just the hopes of winning the Power Ball. Alas, for eleven combatants, winning the Power Ball was just as likely as conquering the Duel! Was that a dramatic enough introductory paragraph for you???

Nathan had the honors of picking our game board as the previous victor of the 2015 Championship.  We were once again back on Geonosis.  Rob screwed up his own protocols by having Nathan pick the first character too, despite the fact Daniel had drawn the #1 chair.  My bad!  Grant (Emperor) got his same character from the previous Duel, as did Chris (Obi-Wan) from his last two Duels!  But even more ridiculous was Rob picking Darth Vader for the second game in a row and seventh time in 21 Duels!

The cards were shuffled (or randomly displaced in six piles and then regathered) and we were off. Ryan (Luke) used his favorite Geonosis move, "The Cohenour Run," with the Skywalkers, shooting JD's Anakin as they escaped the columns for the dark side of the board.  JD used the same strategy, taking a shot at Yoda as Anakin "Wrathed" over to Leia and Luke as paybacks.  Ryan and JD held a tenuous no-conflict pact after that.  Rob followed JD's defection with a double "Throw Debris" at Nathan's Yoda.  Grant's Emperor followed suit and Christian's Han picked off his former alliance partner to put Nathan out first, a steep fall from two first place finishes and only the second time Yoda has ever finished last (Sakina in the 2014 Championship, #neverforget).

Chris Kuhl, personal avatar for Obi-Wan Kenobi, tapped into his military strategy strengths and suggested the light side advance to the dark side to better their odds of survival.  Rob got nervous that Stevie's Boba Fett was going to thermal detonate the dark side and rallied an attack with Ian/Maul and Daniel/Dooku to oust poor Stevie in eleventh.  Not long after that Ian made the surprise move of turning on Dooku, and played numerous "Sith Speeds" to send Daniel home in a shocking tenth place finish.

Christian and the Agony of Defeat

With Boba and Dooku off the board, the dark side alliance once again focused their attentions on the light.  A battery of dark side shooters had infiltrated the opposite end of the board, and a Royal Guard finished off Han/Christian for ninth.  David P. got caught unprotected by the columns with his Mace Windu.  Despite a valiant defense, he eventually fell to a Padme blaster shot and had to settle for eighth place.

With that, the strong alliance of six had only one target left, Chris' Obi-Wan, but General Kenobi was strongly fortified behind the columns and had wreaked his typical havoc of forcing everyone to discard and draw three and moving folks around the board.  Knowing it would take time to whittle him down, the alliance began to turn on each other.  Rob botched this social discussion, though, and nearly cost himself a shot at winning.  Instead of proposing to off the Emperor, he clumsily started a debate on who to kill next, Ryan/Luke or Ian/Maul.  Ryan held everyone's fate in his hands, but decided on playing the "I Will Not Fight You" on Ian.  It took a couple of rounds, but Curtis' Zam put the finishing shot on the Sith Apprentice and Ian bowed out in seventh.  Rob, seething at his own incompetence, played the "All Too Easy" on Ryan, who had loyally played another "I Will Not Fight You" on Chris' Obi-Wan.  He couldn't defend himself, so he had to eat the 20-point attack from the evil Vader.

Right before the end of Grant's Emperor...

Curtis/Jango and Rob/Vader began to surround an unsuspecting Grant as JD's Anakin finally took down Chris in fifth place.  It cannot be emphasized enough how well Chris played in this Duel!  He used every Obi-Wan trick to perfection and survived a long time against impossible odds.  Meanwhile, Rob played the "Your Skills Are Not Complete" on Emperor Palpatine, dumping his numerous special cards.  Vader eventually struck Grant down in fourth, which was the second time in a row for Grant/Palpatine and continues Grant's strong run of Duels as of late.

That left three:  Vader, Jango, and Anakin.  JD was looking for a partner, but Rob shared that he and Curtis had aligned from the start.  They began their attack on JD, knocking him down a number of health points.  After that, though, Curtis had a long string of picking Zam cards.  That made Rob paranoid and nervous that he was holding back to better attack Vader in the final two, so Rob shifted and began Throwing Debris and Wrathing Jango!  In the chaos JD began healing himself as Jango slowly died.  With Rob's weakened Vader, unable to heal because nobody would kill his last Storm Trooper, JD chased him around the columns and finally clobbered him for the victory!

Little Orphan Ani Wins!

Congrats to JD!  This is his second victory, and his first since the Birthday Bash in August.  It also marks the first ever win for Anakin!

Final order of finish:

12.  Nathan/Yoda
11.  Stevie/Boba
10.  Daniel/Dooku
9.  Christian/Han
8.  David P./Mace
7.  Ian/Maul
6.  Ryan/Luke
5.  Chris/Obi-Wan
4.  Grant/Emperor
3.  Curtis/Jango
2.  Rob/Vader
1.  JD/Anakin