Duel of the Fates - April 16, 2016

Carbon Freezing Chamber

For the love of....!  We can't stop picking Geonosis and the Carbon Freezing Chamber!  Kamino hasn't come into play since August, and the Emperor's Throne Room has been dormant since October.  Who wants to play so many matches on the toughest board in the game???

Despite our inability to diversify playing surfaces, the Duel of the Fates had to proceed.  Serving as the penultimate game of the 2015-16 season, eleven ranked Duelers sat at the table with a lone noob...that's right, Blake made his debut in the most dangerous way possible.  Would he stand a chance...?  Read on to find out!

The match started, as so many do in the Freezing Chamber, with Luke and Vader deciding who to side with.  Ryan/Vader convinced Stevie/Luke not to start slugging.  Stevie not only agreed, but he defected to the dark side!

Selfie-Stick Fail

Stevie also drew first blood when he fired on Rob's Padme.  It wasn't long before she was dead and the light side was at a serious disadvantage.  That bad streak continued with poor JD.  Controlling Yoda, everyone's favorite Jedi, he suffered the brutal long distance attacks of Ryan/Vader's "Throw Debris" along with Nathan/Emperor's "Force Lightning."  The unceasing toil resulted in JD going out first, unable to defend a single damage point.

Meanwhile, Stevie's Luke was having trouble retreating to the back line of the dark side.  As a result, Leia died quickly and Ian's Chewbacca bowcasted Luke on an undefended shot, meaning Stevie's night was done as well.

God Bless the Whirlwind

Fast forward two hours, and the light side was bleeding out.  They realized something drastic needed to happen.  That's when Grant/Mace and Daniel/Obi did something AWESOME.  Obi-Wan used the attack card that can move every character up to three spaces, and he arranged as many dark side characters as he could directly adjacent to Mace Windu.  Grant's turn was next, and he dropped the "Whirlwind."  He killed FIVE minor characters with one swing, which was all kinds of hilarious.

A few rounds later the dark side was still strongest.  Once again the light plotted a major move.  This time Rob's Anakin wrathed in and put five points of damage on Chris/Darth Maul.  Daniel once again moved everyone three spaces, dragging Maul into a circle surrounded by Anakin, Maul, Obi-Wan and Han Solo.  The light side thought it could take out Maul, but Chris played his 10-defense card on Maul's Battlemind and suddenly things were in jeopardy.  Sensing the doom, Ian, in classic Ian fashion, flipped!  It was brutal after that.  Maul Sith-speeded Grant's Mace into tenth place.  Alex/Dooku force pushed Obi-Wan into the back corner of the dark side and Ryan/Vader put the finishing blow on Daniel for ninth.

Anakin:  "TOP OF THE WORLD, MA!!!"

Somehow Rob/Anakin missed the first wave of dark side retribution, so he chased down Ian's Han Solo in a vain attempt at revenge.  During that time the dark side alliance started to turn on itself.  Dooku started cracking Boba Fett/Curtis upside the head, sending the Fett flying away in wounded anger.  That's also when Chris/Maul mouthed to Rob to go after Nathan/Emperor.  Rob started running his mouth and Nathan shut him up by force lightning him into eighth place.  Maul finished off Curtis too, leaving six to go.  Ian's Han met his maker in the form of Count Dooku, as Alex sent him to the rails.  That left a final five of Alex/Dooku, Nathan/Emperor, Ryan/Vader, Chris/Maul, and...what?  Blake/Jango?  The little rookie that could???  Amazing!

Chris finally carried out his threat of attack against the Emperor by rallying the others to take out the ol' wrinkled Sith Lord.  Nathan lasted for a while, but couldn't avoid a fifth place spot.  With four to go the dark side alliance started sizing each other up.  That's when Alex/Dooku recognized Vader was his biggest threat and commenced a coordinated attack against Ryan.  It was Jango that put the final shot on Vader and Ryan came to rest in fourth.

Alex staring down his final two threats.

Once again Alex and Chris were deep into the game, just like the Imperial March last month.  The two worked well together, but Alex had to cut bait with his trusted partner and got Blake/Jango to join in on the attack.  It was Alex's last remaining Super Battle Droid that blased Maul to his third place finish.  Chris is on a nice run as of late, finishing second and then third place.

The big story of the night was rookie Dueler Blake trying to win his debut Duel, something that hasn't happened since Curtis did it in 2014, and Alex trying to become the third Dueler to ever win back to back matches.  Blake was nimble and Alex was rolling terribly so the end result was certainly contested.  But Blake had used his two "four defense" cards as attacks earlier in the game, leaving him vulnerable to a final "Taunting" attack from Dooku.  Blake nearly did the impossible, but Alex brought home his second win in a row and his fourth overall, tied with Grant for second on the all-time list!

The final order of finish:

12.  Yoda/JD
11.  Luke Skywalker/Stevie
10.  Mace Windu/Grant
9.  Obi-Wan Kenobi/Daniel
8.  Anakin Skywalker/Rob
7.  Boba Fett/Curtis
6.  Han Solo/Ian
5.  Emperor Palpatine/Nathan
4.  Darth Vader/Ryan
3.  Darth Maul/Chris
2.  Jango Fett/Blake
1.  Count Dooku/Alex

Congrats to all on a great Duel!  The final Duel of the season will be our "May the Fourth Be With You" match.  Details and reservation information coming soon!