Valentine Duel - February 8, 2019

The Emperor's Throne Room

On a cold and snowy night twelve brave souls gathered to eat sweets, trade Valentine cards (thanks JD!), and...oh yeah...

...murder each other.  But not for real, this is just a game.  Right???  *gulp*

There was little reason to believe this night would be as intense as it turned out.  It started out kind enough.  Daniel was back in action for the first time as a married man, and he brought his traditional red velvet cupcakes with him.  Jack was debuting in his first ever match.  Courtney was turning pro, as this was her sixth Duel.  And Riley, the youngest Dueler at just ten years old, was wearing a sweatshirt with gold sequenced lettering that read "TEAM HAPPY."  But things went from happy to mad/sad real quick...

We made Ian look at the camera this time.

Jack drew the number one chair in his first Duel, and picked the Emperor's Throne Room and Obi-Wan Kenobi in his position of power.  Clearly he wasn't here to mess around.  After a round of drawing cards Chris W. made the first flip, running his Han Solo past Chewbacca towards the dark side.  Rob was getting the toe taps from JD/Luke under the table indicating he wanted to come over too.  But, he didn't move either of his characters to the other side so it was hard to demonstrate his intended loyalties. 

About that time Curtis decided he was coming over to the dark side for sure.  He sensed JD wanted to join but knew that was probably one too many defectors so he unloaded both of Padme's major attack cards on the exposed Luke Skywalker.  JD was stewing as Curtis beat him to the flip.  Chewbacca put the final hit on JD before it got back to him and he decided to vacate the premises without his Jar Jar Trophy.

Danny Cupcakes

The remaining light side characters were in a free fall.  Ian's Yoda started taking distance attacks from Ben/Vader and Riley/Emperor.  Jack's Obi-Wan was suddenly exposed as one of his Clone Troopers bit the dust.  Rob/Dooku suggested a tag team on Obi, and Daniel rolled in first with a fully loaded Darth Maul.  Turns out, it was only a solo mission!  Jack had jack-squat for defense and bowed out in eleventh.  Right after that Riley pulled the You Will Die card and dropped it immediately on Ian's Yoda.  There was nothing he could do as a volley of dark side lasers peppered the air with Joel's Greedo ending Ian in tenth place.

The mega-alliance turned their eyes towards Courtney's Mace Windu, the lone light side character left.  But Rob sensed a need to thin the herd of shooters so he dropped two Taunts on Chris' Han Solo and convinced Kaleb to finish him off with Zam.  From there the remaining players started attacking Mace, and it was actually Riley and a Force Lightning that finished off Courtney.  Don't feel too bad about her eighth place finish, though.  Now that she's a professional Dueler, she just debuted in SECOND place in the rankings!!!  Congrats, Courtney!

Daddy-Daughter Dance Duel

That left seven Duelers to go.  Ben and Kaleb made a head-nod to Rob which he interpreted as a signal to go after Joel's Boba Fett.  He was shocked to learn it was actually for Riley's Emperor!  Curtis moved in first, laying a hit that she defended.  Rob, going next, couldn't wrap his brain around attacking an alliance partner who was also his daughter so he improvised an attack on Curtis instead.  Ben and Kaleb were kind enough to follow suit and poor Curtis, who was only doing what he thought the group wanted, had to settle for seventh place.

Joel didn't like the looks of that at all, especially after Dooku's last remaining Super Battle Droid took a shot at Boba.  Joel and Rob engaged in an on-board and verbal spar as they tried to sway the remaining Duelers to their side.  Both were taking their fare share of hits, too, but it was Dooku who outlasted Boba and a Taunt sent Joel to the rails. 

That left five Duelers:  Rob/Dooku, Daniel/Maul, Jango/Kaleb, Ben/Vader, and Riley/Emperor.  Daniel started targeting Rob, who was now damaged but still engaged.  The other four seemed loosely determined to kill Maul, though, until a spacing error left Jango vulnerable for a fully carded attack.  Kaleb pinky-promised Daniel he wouldn't attack him and then promised Rob the same but ultimately attacked Rob.  Rob...was cranky.  Kaleb and Rob had their horns locked but Ben bartered a truce so they could finish off Daniel first.  Red Velvet bled red in fifth, but it was a nice Duel for Daniel who inflicted a lot of damage on the board.

With four to go Kaleb's Jango looked healthiest so he started receiving the attacks.  But his ability to move and take ranged shots started hurting Ben's Vader, especially after a Missile Launch.  Kaleb could smell the panic coming from Ben and bullied him into finally killing Rob, who was acting as a meat shield for Vader as he desperately hunted Jango.  Rob couldn't talk him out of it and his Dooku was done in fourth.

This was actually a fast paced game...until the final three.  Ben/Vader and Kaleb/Jango decided to team up against Riley's fully healthy Emperor.  And it took them over an HOUR to finally whittle her down.  She deftly deflected and healed as she chased both of them around the board.  Finally, though, they started to catch up to her.  Riley made a tactical error by not playing a Meditation before Ben played Your Skills Are Not Complete, dumping them from her hand.  But she did find a second You Will Die and hit Kaleb with it.  All Ben had to do was roll a 4 or more to use All Too Easy...but he rolled a three!  He finally Threw Debris at Riley and her best ever Duel was done in third place.  It was quite hilarious to see how hard she made those two earn her elimination.

Riley's You Will Die card was devastating for Kaleb but he still had the health advantage over Ben.  They circled each other around the board but Ben eventually pinned him with Vader and his last Storm Trooper.  On his second attack, a defenseless Jango got the All Too Easy right in the face.  That's back to back second place finishes for Kaleb, who slides up in the standings and is on a nice roll of late.  But all the glory goes to Ben, who won his third trophy of the season!  Nobody is playing better than him right now!

Final order of finish:

12.  Jd/Luke
11.  Jack/Obi
10.  Ian/Yoda
9.  Chris/Han
8.  Courtney/Mace
7.  Curtis/Anakin
6.  Joel/Boba
5.  Daniel/Maul
4.  Rob/Dooku
3.  Riley/Emperor
2.  Kaleb/Jango
1.  Ben/Vader

Stay tuned for more details for next month's Duel:  The Imperial March!  Also, JD, you can pick up your JD trophy in my office Monday...