Valentine's Duel - February 8, 2020

Geonosis Arena

Nothing is sweeter than a Valentine's Duel!  And not because any chance to Duel is special.  No, this is the sweetest day of the year because of the FOOD!  JD brought his customary red velvet cake, including a Star Destroyer cake topper, the Brooks crew brought a whole batch of awesome cookies, and some lunatic brought a bunch of full-sized Skittle bags.  It was fun watching people get sick eating it all as a way to burn nervous energy!

Dueling Love

There were a few momentous moments before the game even started.  Elliot and Savannah were making their Dueling debuts, which we always love to see.  And Savannah really did us a solid by subbing for a sick Dueler at the last minute.  You can't teach heart!  And Rylie was playing in her sixth Duel, meaning she has now become a Professional Dueler.  That looks really good on your grad school resume, Rylie.

Lucas sees what's going on...

Rylie also picked chair number one, meaning she got to randomly select our playing surface.  Everybody was glad the Emperor's Throne Room wasn't a choice!  Rylie chose the Geonosis Arena, and Ryan brought along his 3D Hoth board for us to play with.  Somebody noted how appropriate that was since it actually snowed in Waco this week.  Synergy!!!

Things started off rough for the dark side.  The key to most Geonosis games is what Luke and Mace decide to do.  Luke/Lucas and Mace/Ben decided to stay on the light side of the board.  Ben moved up his clones and Ryan's Obi did the same.  Ryan operated outside of his normal style of play by playing general for the light side.  Meanwhile, Rob/Anakin sweet-talked JD/Dooku and Delaney/Maul into joining the light side.  They eventually agreed and the remaining dark side was in trouble...especially after Ryan played Force Control!  Curtis/Boba and Rylie/Emperor were put into kill boxes.  Rylie was taking a lot of damage, but it would be Ian's Chewbacca that ended her night with a Bowcaster.  Ouch!  Last place is never fun, but congrats to Rylie again, who enters our professional rankings in 11th place.

We're killing people, high-five!

Curtis managed to Rocket Retreat over to Rob/Anakin, Lucas/Luke, and Ian/Han, and swore up and down he was loyal to his new alliance.  Sadly, they weren't taking new members at the time.  Rob's Padme unloaded his Precise Shot and Lucas attacked too.  It would be Savannah's (Yoda) Clone Trooper that zapped Curtis in eleventh place.  The top two finishers from the New Hope Duel were the first two dead at Valentine's.  Brutal!

Elliot, playing his first Duel and now grossly outmatched, had little he could do as the attacks began to rain down on him.  He certainly didn't play poorly, but that's just how the Dueling fates turn sometimes.  He made the best stand he could, but a cross-court blast from Ian's Han sent the rookie home in tenth.  Come and play with us again, Elliot!

One of the critical moments of the Duel occurred next.  Ian named Delaney's Darth Maul as the next target, despite her loyalty in flipping early.  She wasn't pleased about it...and neither was Lucas!  He called out Ian's seeming dictatorship and attempted a coup.  Unfortunately, folks had trouble committing to it, and the negative attention turned to him.  He caught shots from around the board, but it was JD's Dooku who landed the kill shot.  That made it a 9th place finish for Lucas.

JD always knows when the camera is on him.

With eight Duelers to go, folks were getting full carded and itching to make moves.  Rob's Anakin had two 5-point attacks he was ready to burn, so he rolled in on Alex's Jango Fett, much to Alex's chagrin.  He managed to Rocket Retreat away from Rob and Delaney's Maul, landing near Savannah's Yoda and Ryan's Obi.  Rob expected them to finish Jango off, but Savannah declined.  That made Rob grumpy.  Ryan was reluctant to do it, but doubled down on his commitment to the alliance and shot him with his Clone.  That marked Jango's fourth straight game finishing in eighth place.  I don't know what that means, exactly, but it's statistically interesting. 

That left seven without a clear target, but Rob suggested Savannah/Yoda since she didn't take a shot on Jango.  They engulfed Yoda in a kill box, but JD ended up Force Pushing her towards Delaney's Darth Maul.  They traded blows but Ian's Chewey shot her out in seventh place.  That was a more than solid debut for Savannah!

Snack time

And then there were six!  JD's Dooku was eyeing Ryan and getting worried about Obi-Wan running the table straight to a victory.  He and Delaney's Maul were standing next to Obi, and he suggested the two of them take out Ryan.  She agreed, and started off with a Sith Speed attack, and then she drew a card for her first official action.  Ryan lobbied hard for her to hold off and, amazingly, she agreed!  JD released an audible sigh of disappointment, and the board was once again in chaos.  The attention moved off Ryan and on to Delaney's Maul.  Ironically, it was Ryan's Obi that finished her off in sixth place.  Delaney played hard and avoided early negative attention to finish in the top half.  Good job Delaney!

The final five were Rob/Anakin, JD/Dooku, Ben/Mace, Ryan/Obi, and Ian/Han.  After Maul was out it was Rob's turn, and he had to decide who to go after.  It was clear that Ian/Ben/JD wanted to eliminate Obi-Wan, but Rob felt bad because he was trying to stay loyal to Ryan.  In the end, though, he went with the majority and used a Shot on the Run to start the attack.  Ryan curiously started using his 12 defenses, but we soon learned why.  He played Force Balance and dumped everyone's hand.  In the end, he couldn't withstand the onslaught.  JD killed him with back to back Tauntings.

Partners!

Even though it was cool to kill somebody with double Taunts, it ended up being a tactical error.  Everybody was still low carded from the Force Balance and JD's Dooku was now defenseless.  It was Ian's turn at the table, and he knew what to do.  His Han rolled out and started firing on him.  Ben's Mace followed suit.  Rob's Anakin and Padme were stuck behind the snow drifts and couldn't immediately reach him.  JD tried to turn the attention on Rob, but that's when Padme finally got into shooting range and used two attacks to eliminate him in fourth place.  He consoled himself with more red velvet cake.

Then there were three!  Rob/Anakin, Ben/Mace, and Ian/Han.  All three also had their minor characters still on the board.  Initially Rob chose to side with Ben, but at the last second, his gut said to ride with Han and Chewey.  Ian agreed to stay together until Mace was dead.  Padme used her last attack card on Mace, but Mace killed Padme.  Mace was hiding behind the snow drift but his Clones were on the other end, where Han, Chewbacca, and Anakin were.  Han put holes in both of their helmets to eliminate their pestering shots.  Nobody could remember a kill collection like Ian had this game.  Anakin and Han started moving in on Ben's Mace, and Ben tried to reason with Ian that they could work together to go after Rob's healthier Anakin.  Ian stayed true to his alliance, causing Ben to throw his pretty new Boba Fett hat across the room.  Ian used a Never Tell Me The Odds on Mace to kill Ben in third.  Ben was the defending Valentine's Duel champion and nearly retained his trophy.  Nearly.

Sweet 16

Rob's hand was almost exclusively Padme cards, but he did hang onto two Wraths for the final two.  He immediately used them on Chewbacca, killing the Wookie and leaving Han all by his lonesome.  Ian was crestfallen as he forgot Anakin had those cards (and, to be honest, Rob forgot about them too until he drew them).  But Ian wasn't going down quietly, as he landed quite a few hits on Anakin while Rob desperately drew for any card that wasn't a Wrath or had Padme's picture on it.  Eventually Rob pulled both of his Angers, and in a bit of a risky move, played them back to back.  Ian didn't quite have enough defense to withstand the barrage, and bowed out in an outstanding second place with the lowest ranked character in the league.  That means Rob won the Anakin trophy while playing with Anakin...and Anakin was the BB-8 pick to win.  That's the trifecta!!!

Final order of finish:

12.  Rylie/Emperor
11.  Curtis/Boba
10.  Elliot/Vader
9.  Lucas/Luke
8.  Alex C./Jango
7.  Savannah/Yoda
6.  Delaney/Maul
5.  Ryan/Obi-Wan
4.  JD/Dooku
3.  Ben H./Mace
2.  Ian/Han
1.  Rob/Anakin

That was a great night of Dueling.  I hope everybody brushed their teeth after all that sugar.  Next month's Duel is the IMPERIAL MARCH!  We'll get the date picked a little later - stay tuned to your emails!