A New Hope - January 13, 2018

Kamino Platform

The first two victims of A New Hope - the 50th Duel in league history! - were eliminated before the game was even played!  Ryan, who worked so hard to create the 3D board we played on, had to make an unexpected trip to the hospital for his daughter (no worries, they're fine).  And poor Toby had that nasty flu bug going around.  Did you know Waco, TX, is one of the worst flu sites in the country right now?  What's that, you're reaching for your hand sanitizer as you read this?  Fortunately, Kaleb and Ethan could jump in for the first Duel of 2018...a decision that would prove to be fateful for one of them!  #foreshadowing

Kaleb drew the number one chair and, wouldn't you know it, he got to roll first too.  On the opposite end of that lucky break was Curtis.  He got chair #12 and would be last to have a turn.  And did I mention he got stuck with Han Solo on Kamino?  Possibly the worst starting position of any board and character in the game?  It's not the way you want to ring in the new Dueling year...

Curtis chose to flip the first chance he got, and it looked like the dark side was in great position to route the light side.  But JD/Yoda and Ian/Mace rallied the troops and convinced them to stick together and move forward.  Furthermore, they talked Kat's Count Dooku into flipping on the dark side!  It was an unexpected turn of events that immediately balanced the odds.  But the bad turn of events for the dark side continued when Ben H.'s Obi-Wan Kenobi drew an early Force Control to move everyone around on the board!  They put Han in a kill box and Luke R.'s Princess Leia (yes, Luke picked Luke - this will stay confusing for the rest of the recap...) used Latent Force Abilities to eliminate Curtis in 12th.  The Golden Jar Jar went home with the Last Jedi Standing winner, so I guess Curtis has a trophy streak?

Dueling by Committee

With Dooku aligned with the light side, Yoda got a free pass to move behind Slave 1 and Force Push Jacob's Darth Vader to the light side of the board.  Jacob grovelled but Ian/Mace wasn't having any of it.  He dropped a 9-point Battlemind on him and Jacob was gone just like that in 11th.  It was a rough followup after his career best 6th place at Last Jedi Standing.

The dark side was down to a 4 on 6 disadvantage, and that was enough for Jonathan to peace out with his Boba Fett.  He turned on Kaleb's Jango (Fett on Fett crime!) and Rocket Retreated to the other end of the board.  That left Kaleb/Jango, Maul/Stephen, and Rob/Emperor as the odd Duelers out on the board.  Those aren't good odds.  All three began to ask the superior alliance who they would go after first once the three of them were gone.  The light side either didn't know or wouldn't answer, and it was clear to Kaleb, Stephen and Rob that all hope was lost.  Or was it...?!

Kudos to Ryan for his superior board making abilities!

The remaining dark side Duelers had the advantage of hiding behind Slave 1 and forcing the light side alliance to come to them.  With no clear pathways that alliance took a loooooooong time deciding how to advance.  It was painful for the dark side not only for it's obnoxious consumption of the clock but it's inevitable outcome. 

But the three amigos had one last trick to play!  With Rob's Imperial Guard displaying a Spartan-esque ability to prevent Yoda or Dooku from penetrating one side of the ship, the Emperor finally drew his You Will Die card.  JD's Yoda had just wandered around the other side of Slave 1 and suddenly had to dump all of his cards!  The dark side tried to convince JD's allies to finish him while they had the chance, but they refused.  Stephen's Maul was down to two points of health so he made the sacrificial decision to roll forward and drop nine points of attack on the cardless Yoda.  A shooting lane was left open for Kaleb's Jango to fire two shots and kill JD in 10th.  JD went from visions of a final four to the grim specter of death.  It was a moral victory for Stephen, Kaleb, and Rob...who were the next three to die.  D'oh!

The actual final four...JD not included.

That left a final six of Jonatha/Boba, Luke/Luke, Ian/Mace, Kat/Dooku, Ethan/Anakin, and Ben/Obi.  I'm not really sure how to describe what happened next...but here we go.  Imagine you're at a middle school dance.  And all the boys and girls are standing around the perimeter of the decorated gym, awkwardly looking at each other, wondering who is going to make the first move.  AND THEN NOBODY MAKES THE FIRST MOVE FOR OVER 40 MINUTES. 

That's pretty much what happened.

I've never seen anything like it.  Usually there's a smaller alliance within the larger alliance...or a strategy of who should die next.  It's like a bad Jeff Foxworthy joke - "If you're in the majority alliance and you don't know who will die first, you might be a redneck you're going to die first."  Except...nada.  Outside of a strong partnership between Anakin and Obi-Wan, everybody was open to killing anybody - but a consensus couldn't be reached.

The infighting eventually commenced.  A major player in the various squabbles was Luke's Luke.  He constantly changed his mind and was eager to hear the serenades of others.  It wasn't a bad strategy given Skywalker's relative weakness compared to the remaining characters.  It looked like four of them were going to move against Obi/Ben and Anakin/Ethan, but then Kat's Dooku attacked Ian's Mace!  Ian was stunned, believing Kat was loyal to his side.  This produced a multitude of skirmishes across the board and none of the remaining six were immune to the resulting damage on their health points.  And Ben dropped a Force Balance at one point too.  But after over THREE HOURS OF DUELING, we finally had a sixth place finish...Kat's Count Dooku.  Kat wins the award for longest amount of time playing a game and only getting 6th place.  Sadly, nobody wants that award. 

Love Wins

Ian was mortally wounded at that point too.  Ben's Obi-Wan rolled in to finish him off, but he misplayed his Force Quickness and drew a card before moving, meaning he used up two actions.  That allowed Mace to get some shots in, as well as Boba from long distance, but Ben Kenobi (how did that not hit me until just now???) took down Ian in 5th. 

Obi-Wan was by himself on the light side of the board and Jonathan's Boba Fett was black and blue, just a couple of points from expiring himself.  But he went for the hail mary and dropped his Kyber Dart on Ben...who couldn't defend!  At one point it looked like Ben was in the driver's seat for a win, but he'll take the career best finish in fourth.  He's also just one game short of professional status, just like Kat too.

With three to go it looked like the Lukes would partner with Jonathan's Boba to go after Ethan's Anakin, who still had Padme on the board but had lost a third of his health.  Luke got concerned, though, when Jonathan healed a point instead of drawing a second card.  That was enough of a crack for Ethan to talk Luke into attacking Jonathan.  Jonathan was furious as Luke threw him into the proverbial Sarlacc pit for third place.

To the victor goes the Pez.

With two to go Ethan and Luke agreed on a bathroom break.  That made sense since we were past the four hour mark at that point.  After their bladders were empty the fight was on.  Ethan finally killed Leia, but Luke had just flipped a Justice off the draw pile and immediately advanced on Anakin.  Ethan was holding two Counterattacks but made the unusual choice of playing a separate defense card instead.  It was a costly choice because he was getting dangerously close to being eliminated.  After that Luke played an I Will Not Fight You, figuring it wouldn't hurt since he was low carded anyway.  But Ethan didn't have to drop anything!  He only had specials and defense cards!

Ethan rallied when he got an Anger card.  He immediately paired it with his Calm.  Again, it was another risk since he had to dump both Counterattacks.  Fortune favored the bold, though, because with five new cards in his hands it only took a couple of more attacks for the league to crown a first time champion!  A huge congrats to Ethan, who won his first Duel at a match he wasn't even supposed to be playing!  Furthermore, this marked his sixth Duel, meaning he's now in the professional ranks!  What a way to make that debut!  And let's not overlook Luke!  He took his namesake character and finished second in only his second career Duel.  Bravo!

The final order of finish:

12.  Curtis/Han Solo
11.  Jacob/Darth Vader
10.  JD/Yoda
9.  Stephen/Darth Maul
8.  Kaleb/Jango Fett
7.  Rob/Emperor Palpatine
6.  Kat/Count Dooku
5.  Ian/Mace Windu
4.  Ben H./Obi-Wan Kenobi
3.  Jonathan/Boba Fett
2.  Luke/Luke Skywalker
1.  Ethan/Anakin Skywalker

I want to thank everyone for helping us reach fifty Duels.  In a million years I didn't think our little league would take off like this.  It's been an amazing three and a half years...here's to many more!

Do you have a favorite Duels memory from these past 50 battles?  Share it in our comments below!