Thanksdueling! - November 12, 2016

Emperor's Throne Room

In the thirty-first match of our Epic Duels league  an appreciative dozen combatants gathered in North Village to feast on Thanksgiving snacks and eventually try to ruin each other's night as they clawed their way to victory.  But they ate snacks first!  It was quite a bounty.  Eggnog, BB-8 cake pops, ooey-gooey pumpkin spice treats, chips and salsa, and all kinds of candy.  If only the taste of defeat was half as good...

We drew for spots on the table and the newly engaged Stevie grabbed the number one chair!  From there he picked the Emperor's Throne Room as the scene of battle.  Our streak of non-Carbon Chamber matches continues!  And there were a lot of repeat draws of characters, too.  Rob got Jango for the second straight match and Grant made it two in a row with the Emperor.  But Nathan had what we all assumed was the worst draw of the night - Boba Fett!  That's right, after finishing 10th and 12th with the bounty hunter at the Doubleheader and taking the next two Duels off, poor Nathan was stuck with Boba again.  Perhaps his luck would change though...?  #foreshadowing

Chewbacca under attack!

At the start of the game it looked like Daniel, playing Luke and sitting next to Grant at the table, was trying to defect to the Dark Side.  But Brannon wasn't picking up on the signals and blocked off the path from the bridge as he moved his Super Battledroids up to defend his Count Dooku.  That forced the sides to stay even at six on six.

Dooku, stuck out front in the Dark Side alliance, began taking fire from Stephen's Han Solo and Chewy.  The damage started flying back and forth.  The Wookie landed his Bowcaster on Dooku but it was two Chokes from Liz's Darth Vader that set up the furball's death.  Not long after that, Nathan/Boba broke the "no shooter-on-shooter violence" code to kill poor Stephen in last place.  It's an all too common plight in our league - win one month, be first out the next.

"What the Fett!?!"

Despite some early skirmishes with Ducky's Obi-Wan, the younger Kenobi was the first to defect, joining the Dark Side.  The remaining Light Side held the line, though, and slowly started marching forward to engage the Sith head-on.  That's when Rob/Jango and Nathan/Boba hatched their long-brewing plan:  FETT DEFECT!  Jango started the party by firing at Stevie's Darth Maul and Rocket Retreating behind JD's Yoda.  Boba was next - he stepped out of a cluster of baddies, chucked a Thermal Detonator and jet packed out of there too!  That inspired the Jedi as Daniel's Princess Leia gunned down Brannon/Dooku in eleventh place.  Luke Skywalker also dropped an "I Will Not Fight You" on Stevie's Maul in order to soften him up for the invading Jedi.

But the Dark Side wasn't going down without a fight!  Just as Sakina's Mace Windu was going to unleash hell on the Sith, Grant's Emperor played "You Will Die!"  Sakina was STACKED with attack cards and had to dump them all!!!  Stevie struck her down in a shocking tenth place finish.  Poor Sakina...  Revenge was quick for the Light Side, though.  Maul was down to one point of health and was about to unload some attacks when Nathan's Boba Fett Wrist-Cabled him to death!  Liz's Vader was the next to depart, again thanks to a Boba Fett knockout!  Liz inflicted a lot of damage, though, Wrathing and Throwing Debris all over the board.

With seven Duelers left, Ducky made a desperate play.  He flipped the Obi-Wan card that forced everyone to dump their hands and draw three new cards!  The collective groan from the Light Side alliance was proof that it was a solid play.  Jonathan's Anakin, who was twitchy with his loyalty to the Jedi as his paranoia increased during the game, went all in and chased down Obi-Wan.  He landed some blows, but also caught a Thermal Detonator upside his head from Natha's Boba Fett, which also damaged Ducky who was out in seventh.  The weakened Jonathan was finished off by Daniel's Luke to end his night in sixth.  That was a career best finish for Jonathan, though!  His next Duel moves him to professional status as well.

Daniel and "The Decision"

The final five was Grant/Emperor, Nathan/Boba, Rob/Jango, JD/Yoda, and Daniel/Luke.  Grant tried desperately to advance his cause, creating distrust in the alliance of four, but they held strong and sent Grant home in a perfectly respectable fifth place.  With four to go Daniel declared open season on Rob's Jango!  Rob was stunned but weakened, and Daniel TWICE played an "I Will Not Fight You" on the Fett.  With Leia long dead, Daniel finally drew a Justice card (twice), and killed Rob in fourth place.

Just as it looked like Boba and Yoda would team up to kill a bleeding Luke, JD took a surprise turn by Force Lifting Nathan's Boba!  With Nathan's turn next, he then DEMANDED that Daniel discard three of his own cards to stand up Boba, otherwise, he promised to kill Luke!  It was a stunning threat and forced poor Daniel to squirm for a good ten minutes as JD and Nathan debated the pros and cons.  Daniel eventually decided to decline Nathan's request...resulting in a Kyber Dart to his face and a third place finish!  That was Nathan's FIFTH major character kill of the Duel!

Force Rebound is the BEST CARD
IN THE GAME!!!

That left a final two of Yoda and Boba Fett.  It was remarkable that JD's Yoda made it all the way to the end with relatively little damage or even nefarious attention from the other Duelers.  Boba, though, was short carded due to the Force Lifts and kept rolling low in his attempt to run away from the Jedi Master.  Yoda kept whittling him down, and the specter of death hung over Boba's head.  Yoda had all three of his best defense cards...including FORCE REBOUND!  Sure enough, with Nathan's Fett down to two health points he fired off a shot at JD.  JD took that shot, put it in a nice box, used expensive wrapping paper and a big pretty bow, and promptly sent it right back to him.  Boba Fett, having received the present, eagerly opened it only to find his four-point blaster shot SCREAMING RIGHT BACK AT HIS NOGGIN,  KNOCKING IT CLEAR OFF AND GIVING JD THE WIN!!!  It was such a poetic way to end the match.

Congrats to JD, who seemingly sneaked in from nowhere to pull off that victory.  And kudos to Nathan and Boba Fett, who were on a rampage the entire game!

JD's victory and Stephen's last place finish bumps JD back to fourth and Stephen down to sixth.  Han Solo also entered the bottom three ranked characters, causing a change in handicap points that helped Grant saw off a couple of tenths of a point off his average due to his numerous games with the space gambler.  There were other changes on the character list too.  Yoda is now up to second place and Luke climbed to fourth!

The final order of finish:

12.  Stephen/Han Solo
11.  Brannon/Count Dooku
10.  Sakina/Mace Windu
9.  Stevie/Darth Maul
8.  Liz/Darth Vader
7.  Donald/Obi-Wan Kenobi
6.  Jonathan/Anakin Skywalker
5.  Grant/Emperor Palpatine
4.  Rob/Jango Fett
3.  Daniel/Luke Skywalker
2.  Nathan/Boba Fett
1.  JD/Yoda

December is our annual CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH!  It's our Super Bowl and World Series, all wrapped into one exciting Duel where the top twelve ranked Duelers come together to try and win the toughest, most respected match of 2016.  They are never short of EPIC!  Stay tuned for invitations soon...