Thanksdueling! - November 9, 2019

Geonosis Arena

Eighty Duels.  Eighty!!!

Who would have ever thought, five and a half years ago, we'd be sitting at eighty Duels!  With fifteen travelling trophies!  And who would have thought we'd get new Star Wars movies, and tv shows, and Thanksgiving porg recipes?!?

To all of you who have contributed to the madness over the years, thank you.  To all of you psychologically scarred by the experience...sorry?

It's almost as if Kaleb knew...

We had another calendar crisis when two Duelers showed up late because they forgot they were playing.  That's two Duels in a row this has happened.  Prepare yourself for Outlook calendar invites from now on, Duelers.  (Do students even use their Outlook calendars?)  What's the point of a 7PM start time if we don't start at 7???

Thanksdueling featured a few firsts, which is great.  Delaney and Rachel made their 12-way debuts while Christopher marked his arrival as a professional as this was his sixth Duel.  Why is six the mark of a professional?  I honestly can't remember the logic of it.  Delaney also got the first chair, and she picked Geonosis Arena for the board.  This is the fourth time in six Thanksduelings! we've been in Geonisis.  Ryan brought the Hoth board, which was ironic because it was hot as a freakin' sauna.

All-Pro Christopher

We might as well address the bantha in the room.  There was another first at Thanksdueling!, but not as exciting for one particular Dueler.  Kaleb, the second ranked Dueler and the person who hasn't finished below sixth in 2019, finally, for the first time in his Dueling career...finished last.

Whoa.

It was a rough start out of the gate as he was Luke and Leia, which is a tricky character pick for Geonosis.  He ignored the flip overtures from the dark side, and it ultimately cost him.  Right out of the gate Lucas, playing Emperor Palpatine, used the You Will Die card!  Nobody could remember that card being played so early in a  Duel.  He added a Force Lightning and Ryan's Dooku kicked him while he was trying to recard by forcing him to drop two more.  The final blow was a Missile Launch from Christopher's Jango Fett.  Pour one out for Kaleb, who fought against the inevitable for all these years.

Look closely and you can see Bagby

You would think the dark side had the advantage, but Viktor's Darth Vader unexpectedly turned on his own alliance and punched Ben's Greedo in the mouth.  His strong health forced the dark side to turn their attention on him instead of the light side.  They wasted a lot of cards before finally offing him with Boba's Kyber Dart.

Rob, playing Han and Chewey, encouraged the light side to move forward.  Rylie, operating Obi-Wan Kenobi, agreed and used a Force Control to put Ryan's Count Dooku in a kill box.  Ryan managed to escape without much damage, but Rylie did cluster the remaining dark side in a way they couldn't easily untangle.

The light side couldn't take advantage of the chaos as they were too tentative to keep moving forward.  The Super Battle Droid, who Chewbacca threw into their alliance, surviving for as long as he did was a good example of the ineptitude.  It was Natalie's Mace Windu who ultimately paid the price.  She joined Chewbacca and Obi-Wan in trying to take down the dark side, but she got diced up and went out in a disappointing tenth place when Christopher used a Rocket Retreat to both eliminate Mace and move to a better spot on the board.

So...much...talking...so...little...Dueling...

Earlier in the game Rylie played the Force Balance to try and save Kaleb, but it wrecked Rob's Han Solo hand.  But he kept aggressive by using Chewbacca, and he finally got a Wookie Toss and Bowcaster combo ready.  Ben knew it was coming, and after the Wookie tossed a Royal Guard, he unloaded on Boba for seven points of damage and tried to convince the dark side to finish off the Fett.  Chewbacca got off another attack to further injure the bounty hunter before they turned him into a throw rug.  Rob thought his Han might actually survive, but Count Dooku surprised him by Giving Orders deep into the light side area and Force Pushing Han into a dark side kill box.  Rob got two more attacks in on Boba, bringing him within to two points of death, before Boba got revenge with a Wrist Cable and Carbonite nap.  Rob encouraged the board to join together against Alex/Maul, Ryan/Dooku, and Ben/Boba before he died, but if fell on deaf ears as the other Duelers started infighting.  Rylie officially flipped to the dark side, leaving Rachel/Yoda and Delaney/Anakin all alone.  Delaney couldn't withstand the multi-front attacks, and Ryan's Dooku chopped her down in eighth.

Lucas lectures on the experienced and the inexperienced

Rachel's Yoda started wreaking havoc, including dumping two of Rylie's 12 defense cards, but the little green Jedi succumbed to her wounds (and I'm not talking about her bloody nose) in seventh, from another Boba Fett Wrist Cable.

And then there were six...who had no idea what to do next.  I'll save you from describing the 45 minutes of hemming and hawing that followed, but by the end, Alex's Maul made a surprising move by going after Christopher's Jango Fett, who was fully healthy and looking to go much deeper into the game.  It was a stunning move that Alex justified by his perceived cozy partnership between Rylie and Christopher.  It was a career-best finish for Christopher, who turned pro, but also back-breaking in that it was so unexpected.

An artistic rendition of Ben's final two performance

With five to go there were more cranky exchanges of who should be next.  It looked like Alex/Maul and Lucas/Emperor were together, but Lucas was also fighting for Rylie's Obi-Wan to go deeper.  Ryan's Dooku eventually became the target, and he finally died when Boba Fett threw a Thermal Detonator at him.  How was Boba still alive, you ask?  Because nobody attacked him and he healed over half of his damage!

Alex's Maul was sitting very pretty at this point.  The other three had no interest in joining together to fight the horned Sith.  Instead, Ben and Alex concentrated their attacks on Rylie's Obi-Wan, who was already battered and bruised after navigating the middle of the board for most of the game.  A four point attack from Boba had her in fourth place, but congrats to Rylie who had another strong showing.  From there Lucas ran out of partners, as Alex gleefully watched Emperor and Boba go at it.  Ben used a Deadly Aim to eliminate Lucas in third.  Lucas is now the top ranked amateur and goes professional at his next Duel!

That left Darth Maul vs. Boba Fett, and it went about as well as you'd expect for Boba.  He got off a couple of shots and then ran for his life as Maul stalked him around the columns snow drift.  Alex finally rolled a five on the dice and absolutely unloaded on Boba, who died by Athletic Surge.  Congrats to Alex, who earned his fourth career win and now has the highest career win percentage among active Duelers!  And it wasn't even a doubleheader!!!  Kudos to Ben, too, who I still can't figure out how he survived after his near death experience with Han and Chewey!

If you see Kaleb this week, give him a hug.  And the Golden Jar Jar, he conveniently forgot that when he left...

The final order of finish:

12.  Luke Skywalker/Kaleb
11.  Darth Vader/Viktor
10.  Mace Windu/Natalie
9.  Han Solo/Rob
8.  Anakin Skywalker/Delaney
7.  Yoda/Rachel
6.  Jango Fett/Christopher
5.  Count Dooku/Ryan
4.  Obi-Wan Kenobi/Rylie
3.  Emperor Palpatine/Lucas
2.  Boba Fett/Ben H.
1.  Darth Maul/Alex C.

Our next Duel is the 2019 Championship - the Super Bowl of our league, and the toughest Duel of the year.  The top 12 ranked Duelers have first dibs, and this year's battle will be INTENSE!  Stay tuned for that, and remember, we're playing the Rise of Skywalker Duel on the afternoon of December 19th!

Here's to another eighty Duels!!!