Birthday Surprise - December 8, 2018

Carbon Freezing Chamber

Everyone in our league, minus one poor bewildered soul, knew the 2018 Championship was NOT our last Duel of the year.  No, Grant's wife wanted to throw a surprise Duel for her husband's birthday, and who are we to deny our top ranked Dueler a memorable gift like that???

So we gathered at Grant's house while he was out on an errand and we invaded his living room.  Soon enough he was home, believing the glut of cars on the street were for a party at his neighbor's house.  As he rounded the corner his worst nightmare came true - eleven ruthless Duelers had invaded his home, were eating his food, and wanted to ruin his Saturday night!

We gave Grant the honor of picking the board, and he picked the Carbon Freezing Chamber.  It was a nice bit of revenge for showing up at his house unbeknownst to him!

Happy birthday, Grant!

It was a night of mixed blessings for Chris W.  The Birthday Surprise was his sixth Duel, meaning he's turned professional!  But he also got stuck with Luke Skywalker, right in the middle of the board.  And Rob's Zam Wessell drew two Sniper Shots in his first four cards, so he decided to drop them on poor Chris for a combined eight points of damage before it was even his turn.  It also produced a couple of defections as Kaleb's Obi-Wan moved to the dark side of the board and Grant's Anakin eventually Wrathed in too.  Ian's Super Battle Droid rolled forward to take additional shots on Skywalker and then Ryan's Emperor used Force Lightning to register the first casualty of the night.

Andrew's Mace Windu was starting to take hits, so Charlie's Han Solo tried to defect to the dark side too.  Except the dark side wasn't having it.  He was immediately attacked by Chris K.'s Greedo.  Ian would eventually swing in his Count Dooku to drop the final hit with a Taunt.  Poor Charlie!

Before Chris W. had died, he did manage to play an I Will Not Fight You on Ben P.'s Darth Vader.  He literally had to drop all eight of his cards.  As he was frantically trying to restock the rest of the dark side could smell the blood in the water and descended on him.  Ryan's Emperor claimed his second victim of the night when he laid the final shot, a four point attack.  It was rough luck for Ben P.

But Ryan wasn't done there!  He advanced one of his Royal Guards into firing range of the light side, where he had Andrew's Mace in his sights after Mace had moved in on a suicide run.  Andrew was gone too and the light side collapse was nearly complete.

Ben H., winner of our last two Duels, was piloting Yoda and trying to figure out a way to turn the tides.  It was slim pickings but he forced himself next to Kaleb's Obi-Wan clones.  Kaleb started getting nervous about his spot in the pecking order and took a hit and run shot on Rob's Jango, which he was none too pleased by.  That skirmish subsided and the rest of the Duelers agreed to finish off Yoda.  It took a concentrated effort, but Kaleb did land the last blow.

"I'm coming for you, buddy!"

JD's Darth Maul didn't like Kaleb's lack of commitment to pursuing Yoda, and didn't want to see Rob's Jango off the board either.  Rob used that to his advantage, hitting Obi-Wan with a Wrist Cable.  The other Duelers followed suit as Kaleb tried to find a safe haven on the board.  But Rob and Ian had boxed Kaleb out from the rest of the group, making him an easier target.  Eventually Ian used a Force Push to kill Kaleb in seventh, his second Duel in a row with Obi-Wan Kenobi.

That left six Duelers:  Rob/Jango, JD/Maul, Ryan/Emperor, Chris K./Boba, Grant/Anakin, and Ian/Dooku.  It was JD's turn and he was fully loaded with cards, but he agonized over what to do next.  At one point he indicated he would go after Grant or Ian, but after long debate, he switched tactics and went for Boba Fett.

Chris K. was ticked!

Boba planned to go after Ryan's Emperor but had to switch gears and tussle with JD instead.  It left the Fett badly injured and Ryan once again mopped the body, using his Royal Guard to put in the final shot.  However, that also left Ryan exposed and the remaining Duelers decided Emperor should go next.  Poor Ryan didn't have his You Will Die card or many of his Force Lightnings.  He did have two Meditations, though, which made eliminating him painfully long, especially as he kept calling them "Mediations."  He couldn't hold out forever, though, and Ian dropped him in fifth.

And then there were four!  Grant/Anakin and Ian/Dooku were both in good shape, while JD and Rob were less so.  JD started in on Padme, who was still Force Lifted from Yoda earlier in the game.  Rob's Jango didn't want to commit to a side quite yet, leading Ian and JD to think they needed to stick together.  They did in killing Padme, but then Rob and Grant reminded Ian that Maul was his biggest threat moving forward.  It pained Ian, but he stepped aside as Jango and Anakin tag-teamed Maul.  Maul was within an inch of his life when he promised to join Rob and Ian in now going after the birthday boy.  Sadly, Rob saw no reason to keep Maul around.  JD launched into a 10 minute diatribe, some of which Kaleb captured below:



There are many reasons JD is so fun to play with this, and that video is just one of them!  (And JD did shake Rob's hand a couple of minutes later...)

Ian vs. the Birthday Boy

With three to go Rob told Ian he was all in on helping him attack Grant's Anakin.  The two worked together...until they didn't!  Out of nowhere Ian dropped two Tauntings on Jango!  Rob survived and Rocket Retreated back to Grant, but he was too damaged to do much good.  Ian moved in and finished him off in third.

That left a classic set up as the two top ranked Duelers squared off!  Ian was card strong after playing his special card that allows him to draw three at a time.  But Ian was especially crafty in setting up a kill box with his two remaining Super Battle Droids.  He Force Pushed Grant into the kill box, a bold an unexpected play, straight out of Curtis' playbook.  Grant did manage to escape by Wrathing out, and even dropping an Anger on Ian.  It was just about all he could do in the situation.  But Ian saved one last Taunting to kill Grant on his surprise birthday Duel!  Second place wasn't too shabby for Grant, who didn't even know he was playing that night!  And a big congrats goes out to Ian - why did we all forget Dooku was his favorite/best character???  That's career victory number six, which moves him into third on the all time list.  Here's the final order of finish:

12.  Chris W./Luke Skywalker
11.  Charlie/Han Solo
10.  Ben P./Darth Vader
9.  Andrew/Mace Windu
8.  Ben H./Yoda
7.  Kaleb/Obi-Wan Kenobi
6.  Chris K./Boba Fett
5.  Ryan/Emperor Palpatine
4.  JD/Darth Maul
3.  Rob/Jango Fett
2.  Grant/Anakin Skywalker
1.  Ian/Count Dooku

Ok, for real this time, that was the last Duel of 2018!  We'll get back at it in January for...A NEW HOPE.  Stay tuned!