Fight Night - October 19, 2019

Emperor's Throne Room

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... 

There's a lot going on in this picture...

I swear it was just a coincidence, but Curtis did have horrendous luck in the board and character draw.  He wasn't there for either, but we promise we were on the up and up.  That being said, Emperor's Throne Room was the board, and Han Solo was his character.  That's tough sledding.  And he lost Chewbacca pretty quickly too.  Rob's Boba Fett, fearing a Bowcaster, launched a Kyber Dart and Rocket Retreat and Nathan's Vader then choked out the Wookie for the kill.  Turns out that was smart thinking, because Curtis did indeed have the Bowcaster!!!  But then everyone else started attacking his Han!  After Kaleb let loose a Force Lightning, Curtis was driving back home, probably in a more lawful way than his trip to campus...

General Grievous

That was a tough loss right out of the gate for the light side.  Ian, playing with Anakin, tried to hold his alliance together, but Christopher's Luke Skywalker got nervous and tried to make a flip.  Luke got in on the Han kill, but didn't use a Children of the Force to run all the way over to the dark side.  That left him exposed to his former allies.  If you've ever played with Ian, you know how he reacts to a flipper.  He made it his mission to punish Christopher.  Aided by Noah's Obi-Wan, they whittled down Luke until Ian, playing his last card, dropped an Anger for the kill.  It feels like Christopher has bad starting luck each time he plays!  That being said, this was Duel #5 for him, so in his next match he goes professional!

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.

Lucas enjoys tossing Jedi's

Noah's Obi-Wan appeared to be the next target.  While Rob's Boba suggested a distance attack, Lucas maneuvered his Count Dooku to Force Push Kenobi into a dark side kill box!

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.

Coach Rhule not happy with Rob

Troy of all people reminded the dark side that Noah might be holding the Force Balance, so that meant the dark side needed to kill Obi-Wan before it got back to him.  Noah had run out of defense, and it was Kaleb's Royal Guard who sent him packing in ninth place. 

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!

A Tale of Two Faces

That left six Duelers, and the remaining dark side wanted to stay united more so out of fear of suggesting who to betray first instead of malice towards Mace.  The safe bet, though, was to finish off Jordan, and that they did, when Greedo Bandito played his Desperate Shot.  Give credit to Jordan, though, who really had to grind for that nice sixth place finish.

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!

And then there were four!  Kaleb's Emperor, Nathan's Vader, Rob's Boba, and Alex's Jango.

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!

Father and Son

That left a final three of Rob/Boba, Kaleb/Emperor, and Alex/Jango.  Kaleb and Rob had been relentless in attacking each other, and both were showing signs of damage, but Jango soon joined the fight and the Emperor was down to his bottom row of damage.  As Kaleb chased Rob towards the actual throne in the Throne Room, Alex made a bold choice to Flame Thrower both Kaleb and Rob.  Though Rob wasn't as damaged as the Emperor, Jango was certainly in much better health. 

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, to kill knock Alex's Jango to one point of health.  One turn later, he used his last Boba card, a three point attack, to win the game!  Congrats to Alex, who by outlasting Kaleb takes over the top spot in the Dueler rankings!  This win was victory #15 for Rob, which is just plain stupid.  It also propelled Boba Fett up two spots in the character rankings.

Your final order of finish:

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!!!