Ok, it's hard to have a 12-Way Duel when you don't have 12 Duelers. It's especially hard when THREE of the Duelers aren't there for the start time! We quickly tracked down Nathan and Noah at a hall event, which left one lone Dueler, NAY, one SOLO Dueler to go.
Where was Curtis?
We called, we texted, we sent messenger pigeons. Heck, we even tried to Force Time him like Kylo and Rey. We finally reached him. He thought we started at 8 instead of 7. It would prove to be a bad omen for him...
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| There's a lot going on in this picture... |
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| General Grievous |
As satisfying as that retribution was for Ian, he was seriously exposed. It was six dark side characters against four light side, and now Anakin was left without any cards to defend himself. The dark side took notice and started peppering him with gunfire and distance attacks. It was ultimately two Sniper Shots from Alex's Zam Wessell that finished off Ian. He took the death in stride and was happy to go watch the Astros beat the Yankees.
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| Lucas enjoys tossing Jedi's |
Noah wasn't going down without a fight, though. He suggested Troy, playing with Yoda and a tshirt wrapped around his head, Force Push Jordan's Mace into the dark side too so they could cause as much disruption as possible before their presumed demise. That was a major decision point, but Troy eventually decided not to sacrifice Mace. That wasn't what Noah wanted to hear, though. Rob's Boba was the first to attack Obi-Wan, and he checked in with Sam to make sure his Darth Maul would follow suit. When it got to Sam, though...he only attacked once! With a normal 4 attack! That caused immediate confusion and distrust within the dark side alliance.
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| Coach Rhule not happy with Rob |
From there the dark side was forced to deal with Sam's Darth Maul. Rob's Boba fired a double Wrist Cable to neutralize his attacks, and it was ultimately a 4 point attack from Lucas' Count Dooku that ended Sam's night in eighth.
That left seven Duelers to go, including the two remaining light side players. Troy's Yoda and Jordan's Mace, though, weren't playing nicely with each other. Jordan dropped a Whirlwind on Troy to begin the tense exchange, and the dark side troopers started in on the little green Jedi too. For as many cards as Troy had, it turned out his deck was very unlucky as he was missing several of his juicy defense cards. It would be Jordan, though, who delivered the kill shot by jacking him with a Battlemind. It was a tough night for Troy, but it was good to have the Summer 2019 Singles Tournament champion back in the fold with us!
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| A Tale of Two Faces |
That left five dark side characters and the moment of truth. Who would they target first? Alex's Jango and Rob's Boba tried not to make eye contact while Kaleb deferred to Nathan. Nathan finally offered Lucas' name. Lucas was none too pleased by that suggestion, and tried to throw it back at Nathan. Nathan got to go first, though, so that set the tone. Dooku was the target. He couldn't defend all the different attack angles and it was Greedo who used a one point attack to end Lucas in fifth. That's three top-five finishes in four career Duels for Lucas, though. Impressive!
Rob and Alex couldn't believe the rest of the board had permitted two shooters to make it to the final four, as that presents obvious problems for the light saber characters. Nathan's Vader wanted Alex's Jango gone next, and Rob happened to reveal he was holding his first Thermal Detonator of the evening. Rob faced a dilemma, though. He could throw it at Alex's Jango or throw it into a cluster of Royal Guards and Storm Trooopers and even Darth Vader. Rob would have preferred to throw it at Kaleb's Emperor, who was full health and had yet to use his Meditations, but he wasn't in range. The logical move would have been to follow Nathan's order...but as Rob always says...Fetts don't attack Fetts! He threw caution to the wind, along with his Thermal Detonator, and the board was in chaos. Nathan and Alex were essentially locked in battle with each other as were Rob and Kaleb.
It didn't initially look good for either Fett, but Alex's Jango persistently attacked Nathan's Vader from long distance and was really taking him down. Kaleb, sensing Nathan would team with Rob against his Emperor, wouldn't use his remaining Guard to shield Vader. A late Choke on Rob's Greedo forced Rob to shoot Nathan too, and with two points of health left Alex Shot a Wrist Cable to send Vader and Coach Rhule to the showers. But Baylor Football is undefeated!
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| Father and Son |
This did not make Boba happy.
Kaleb and Rob finally stopped attacking each other and focused on Jango's near perfect health. Boba started the party by tossing a Thermal Detonator while the Emperor played a Force Lightning. The tables were suddenly a lot more even.
All three Duelers had reshuffled their discard piles at this point, and Rob's Boba once again had the Kyber Dart. The benefit of the Kyber Dart, besides being a 9(!) point attack, is you get to draw three cards with a kill. Rob really needed those extra cards, and knew he could kill the Emperor, so he took a page out of his Last Jedi Duel playbook and offed Kaleb in third.
That left the two Fetts! Jango was hurting, especially after Rob launched his second double Wrist Cable of the game. Rob was holding mostly Greedo cards, but he used one of his last two cards, a 4 point attack,
12. Han Solo/Curtis
11. Luke Skywalker/Christopher
10. Anakin Skywalker/Ian
9. Obi-Wan Kenobi/Noah
8. Darth Maul/Sam
7. Yoda/Troy
6. Mace Windu/Jordan
5. Count Dooku/Lucas
4. Darth Vader/Nathan
3. Emperor Palpatine/Kaleb
2. Jango Fett/Alex C.
1. Boba Fett/Rob
Thanks to everyone who (eventually) came out to play!
We do have some major news on the horizon. First, Thanksdueling! will likely be played on November 9th, but we might add a second Duel in honor of the Mandalorian, stay tuned for that.
AND!!! The final trailer for Rise of Skywalker debuts Monday night, and tickets go on sale Monday too. Our tradition is to play a Duel before the movie debuts. That will likely be the late afternoon of Thursday, December 19. I'll email tomorrow with more details!!!
