Duel of the Fates - April 18, 2020

Geonosis Arena

Here we go again, Duelers!

Everyone is still stuck in quarantine, so we played the sixth annual Duel of the Fates match online, like we did last month.  God bless Zoom for making all of this possible!

We also had fun with one of the Zoom features, the ability to alter your background.  For those who had computers of the less ancient variety, you could create a backdrop of your character.  Otherwise, you were stuck renaming yourself with a clever character related twist.

My daughter Riley drew the board before the evening started, and we got Geonosis.  Folks were once again thankful to avoid the Emperor's Throne Room.

They're smiling now...

Ben H. was a last minute sub, coming in as Obi-Wan Kenobi, and he made a huge impact in his first turn.  He moved up next to Diego's Mace Windu and attacked with a Force Control.  That rearranged the board by putting Diego in a kill box and squishing the rest of the light side together, minus Sam's Yoda, behind the pillars.  Kaleb's Luke Skywalker sought safety on the dark side too, but all he heard were crickets in return.

Ben H. wasn't done - he then used a Jedi Attack to retreat all the way to the last row of the dark side.  Poor Diego!  To make matters worse, Diego didn't have a defense card in his first four cards.  It was Lucas' Zam Wessell who landed the kill shot with a three point attack.  For just the fourth time in league history Mace Windu finished last.

Diego with a good sense of humor about his demise.

With Yoda left exposed, Grant's Emperor Palpatine decided to rock Sam's world with the You Will Die Card.  Rob moved his Count Dooku all the way to the back line to Force Push Sam into a kill box deep in dark side territory.  With a naked hand there was little he could do.  It was a one point attack from Christopher's Storm Trooper that killed the diminutive Jedi in eleventh.  Brutal!

Hand it to Ben P., he wasn't going down without a fight.  He Wrathed over to Rob's Dooku to take a swing.  They tussled but the dark side advanced on him faster than he anticipated.  Cut off from retreat, it was Ben H. who sent him packing with his second Jedi Attack of the night.  His card luck was outstanding.  Give Ben P. some love, though, this marked his sixth Duel, meaning he's now professional.  Congrats Ben!!!

Kaleb was desperately trying to improve his situation, and he even landed a sneak attack on Christopher's Vader with Leia, but his last alliance member betrayed him when Elliot's Han and Chewbacca attacked Luke.  Lucas used a controversial Rocket Retreat attack on Christopher's Vader to fly over and finish Kaleb in ninth with a four point attack.

Kaleb's sense of humor was on point

With eight Duelers left Ben H. tried to paint Alex's Maul as the next victim.  The rest of the Dark Side was reluctant to go there, so in an attempt to appease them, he turned against Rob's Dooku, who was now nestled behind the columns with Han and Jango.  This made Rob/Dooku and Lucas/Jango cranky, so they focused their efforts against Obi.  Ben H. had a trick up his sleeve, though.  He played Force Balance, making everyone drop their hand and draw three new cards.  As his never-ending luck would have it, he got a Force Control as one of his three and played it on Dooku.

The realignment of the board ended up working against him, though.  Alex hadn't forgotten the original target Ben placed on him and he finished him off with a four point attack.  That left seven.  Elliot's Han had saved Rob's Dooku earlier, so Rob had intentionally not attacked him.  But he could tell the rest of the dark side wanted the smuggler dead, so he used two Super Battle Droid attacks to end his night in seventh.  That's a career best finish for Elliot, though!

Light saber on in the brain

With six to go Lucas Fired Up the Jet Pack back to the dark side to try and prove, once and for all, he was still loyal.  But with six to go...somebody had to go next, and that ended up being Lucas when Ryan's Boba stung him with his Deadly Aim attack.  And then there were five!

Obi's Force Balance had left Rob's Dooku weak carded, and he saw Alex's Maul creeping towards him behind the columns.  Dooku rolled out on his move, and landed near Ryan's Boba.  For his first action, he drew a Taunt, and hoping to keep the attention off his wounded Dooku, he played it on Boba.  As it turned out...Boba drew two Thermal Detonators on the redraw!  He promptly used them on Rob, much to his amusement, and the Count was done in fifth place.

This left a final four of Ryan/Boba, Christopher/Vader, Alex/Maul, and Grant/Emperor.  This was pretty much the core alliance for the entire game, so the end politics was fun to watch.

Ryan was the first to break the ice, and suggested Alex's fully healthy Darth Maul seemed to be the most dangerous character left.  The others reluctantly agreed, and committed to whittling him down.  Beside's Grant's Emperor, though, they weren't getting many attacks in.  Grant used three Force Lightnings to severely damage the horned Sith.  But that also managed to move the target to himself, as he was the last character left with full health.

Ryan pointed this out, and did a combo of Deadly Aim and Kyber Dart.  Grant wasn't expecting that level of attack and, shockingly, died in fourth.  It was good to see Grant back in the top four, though, after a minor slump as of late.

With three to go Christopher and Ryan made a shaky alliance to try and finish off Alex's Maul.  Christopher wasn't using distance attacks, though, preferring to use his Storm Troopers while Ryan's Boba feigned attempts at lining up shots he couldn't make due to Maul hiding behind the columns.  Boba finally got too close and suffered a near fatal attack from Maul.  Ryan knew he couldn't attack Maul after that, or Alex would use Blinding Surge to kill him.  In desperation he attacked Christopher.  Vader was forced to use a Throw Debris on Ryan.  That's two top five finishes with Boba for Ryan in the last two games - well done!

Pay no attention to the unnamed Dueler holding the
Duel of the Fates trophy on Alex's phone pic.

Everyone watching the Duel assumed Christopher was saving his two Throw Debris for his final confrontation with Alex's wounded Maul.  What we didn't know, though, was Vader lost the first Debris on the Force Balance and, in a terrible bout of deck luck, had yet to retrieve it again.  Alex could sense the weakness and moved in to attack.  Hand it to Christopher, he played his last Wrath and attacked twice, but Alex was prepared and finally killed Vader to secure the win!!!

That's Alex's sixth victory, improving his first place standing in the league, and moving him less than a percentage point behind the all-time leader in career win percentage!  That's incredible!  This was also career win number ten for Maul, who is now the second character in league history with double-digit victories.  There's no doubt he's been the hottest character in the league over the past year.  Let's also tip our caps to Christopher, who finished a career best second place!  A little better card luck and he might have been able to pull of his first win.  He'll get there one day!

Final order of finish:

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

We have two Duels coming up in May to finish out our Dueling season.  The first is our traditional May the 4th Be With You Duel, which, naturally, occurs on May 4th.  But, we have a special Birthday Duel the very next day.  Riley, the youngest winner in league history, was born on May 5th, aka Cinco de Riley, aka, Revenge of the 5th!  And it's also her TWELFTH BIRTHDAY.  You know what must be done - we're having a 12-Way for the 12 year old's birthday.  Those invites will go out soon, look out for the email.

Thanks everyone, that was a solid night of Dueling!  If you want to see how the final three played out, enjoy this video!