Birthday Surprise #1 - April 22, 2017

Emperor's Throne Room

He took the bait!

In honor of Curtis' 40th birthday, our fair league of Epic Duelers staged a surprise DOUBLEHEADER for the birthday boy.  And it worked!  With the help of his wife Monica, she dropped him off at Rob's house under the guise they needed a coupon for the new restaurant in town.  As he walked into the kitchen he was met with a host of Duelers eager to destroy him welcome him to his Duel!  He was completely surprised!  Monica even tricked him into wearing a Star Wars t-shirt.  The pizza was bountiful, the Yoda Soda flowed, and the combatants took their seats.

It doesn't get much dorkier.

Jonathan drew the number one chair and picked the Emperor's Throne Room for the field of battle.  He also grabbed Yoda with the first character pick, breaking his streak of handicap points.  Rob got the Emperor for the THIRD game in a row and Grant got Jango for the second straight time.

The view from the Emperor's Throne.

The game was underway and it started as a traditional light vs. dark affair.  Rob's Emperor began raining down Force Lightnings and Let Go of Your Hatreds on JD's Obi-Wan Kenobi, and even dumped his hand with the You Will Die card for good measure.  But JD eventually broke the status quo with his Force Control.  After the massive board rearrangement Liz's Count Dooku got caught deep on the light side.  Despite crafty use of her Force Push, Austin's Han Solo shot her to her death in last place.  Jacob, playing in his first ever Duel, died next when Grant's Zam Wessel shot him on the bridge above the Death Star's core reactor.  Right after that Ian's Darth Maul went ballistic on Han and he got stuck in tenth place.

Just as it looked like the dark side was going to mop the floor with the remaining light side characters Ian pulled a surprise out of his dirty bag of tricks and attacked his own alliance!  Poor Chris/Boba Fett got caught in the treachery, bowing out in ninth place in his first Duel since the 2016 Championship.

Things slowed to a grind after that, as some Duelers *cough the light side cough* took their sweet merciful time in deciding a course of action.  After the merciless heckling from the remaining dark side they finally sprung into action.  Curtis/Anakin Wrathed in to jack up Jango/Grant and others, but it would be two uncharacteristic Emperor attacks that finished Curtis in eighth.  He might have lost a step now that he's in his fourth decade.

Luke's Darth Vader (the Dueler Luke, not the character Luke) was getting aggressive with his Storm Troopers and started whittling down Yoda/Jonathan's health points after going through most of the game unscathed.  But it would be Sakina's Mace Windu, sensing she was on the bottom of her alliance, who put down the Jedi Master with a Whirlwind Attack that flipped the script on the rest of the game!

No caption necessary.

With six to go it was Luke/Vader, Rob/Emperor, Grant/Jango, Ian/Maul, JD/Obi-Wan, and Sakina/Mace.  I know there was a lot of jostling between the Duelers at this point, but  playing two games in a row and staying up to 2AM has made my memory a bit fuzzy on the exact details.  Obi-Wan and Maul zeroed in on Luke's Darth Vader, trusting Sakina/Mace to take down Rob's Emperor.  Ian was in the driver's seat, as his Darth Maul was full bar health and stacked with cards.  He made short work of Vader in sixth place and then stabbed Jango in fifth.

But just as it looked like Rob's Emperor would go down in fourth, Sakina made a quick signal that the tables could be turned.  Jumping on that crack of hope, Emperor played his Let Go of Your Hatreds on Maul and then used Meditation, leaving Ian unable to card up for an entire round...and then Rob used Meditation AGAIN, even though he was full health!  Sakina took the lead and used her attacks on Ian to put him out in fourth place.  JD, who was still somehow alive and kicking despite getting so jacked up by the Emperor at the start of the game, fought for his life and offered his two attack cards as a sign of trust to make it to the final two.  Rob politely declined, revealing is allegiance to Sakina/Mace.  They trapped him in the corner of the board and Mace added another trophy to the shelf when Obi-Wan died in third place.

That left a final two of Sakina and Rob, which isn't the first time that has happened!  Just as Sakina was powering up to unleash a wave of Battleminds, Rob redrew his You Will Die card, dumping Sakina's hand and paving the way for Rob to eventually secure the win!  It was the first time (I think) the Emperor has ever won on his home board, and just his second ever victory.

Final order of finish:

12.  Liz/Dooku
11.  Jacob/Luke Skywalker
10.  Austin/Han Solo
9.  Chris/Boba Fett
8.  Curtis/Anakin
7.  Jonathan/Yoda
6.  Luke/Darth Vader
5.  Grant/Jango
4.  Ian/Darth Maul
3.  JD/Obi-Wan
2.  Sakina/Mace Windu
1.  Rob/Emperor Palpatine

...and we're only half way done!  Read the next post for game two results!