The Trash Compactor
Two Duels in the same day? Who is foolish enough to sign up for that kind of misery...?
These knuckleheads!!!
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| "Smile if you like chasing tie-fighter ties with Yoda soda!" |
We were back at Rob's house for the Doubleheader for the first time since COVID. The snacks and treats were abundant, as was the anxiety from cramming 12 Duelers into a literal trash heap with closing walls and a rabid dianoga.
There was heavy conflict right out of the gate. Neither side secured a flip, meaning it was all-out war to control the center of the board, the only safe space to be once main characters start dropping. The dark side managed to chop down a lot of the light side minor characters, including heart-wrenching deaths of Wicket and Jar Jar (ok, maybe not Jar Jar so much).
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| Shame on the Empire for not emphasizing recycling. |
It looked like the light side was close to losing the battle, but that's when a serendipitous turn of events occurred with Kevin's Obi-Wan Kenobi. He intended to use a Force Attack to run back to his secured corner of the board, but he layed down Force Control instead...the card that allows Obi to move every character in play up to 3 spaces each! The light side entered a prolonged discussion on how to maximize the card. They settled on boxing in Curtis/Snoke, Riley B./Emperor, and Michael/Moff Gideon. However, the dark side was clever and immediately started untangling the knot. The unexpected victim in all of this was Riley E.'s Qui-Gon Jinn. She followed along faithfully in the kill box order of attack, but before she knew it, the dark side was raining down attacks on her. She couldn't hold out forever, and just like that, she was out in last place!
The light side looked doomed, but Ian/Han started sweet talking Michael's Moff Gideon into flipping! The dark side tried to point out to Michael they were already up on the numbers, but Michael couldn't resist and the tide suddenly swung back against the dark side alliance. Curtis' Snoke thought he had escaped the light side punishment, but Elliot/Leia came in with a wicked Speeder Bike - Camouflage - Speeder Bike combo to bump Curtis off in 11th!
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| Victims of the Trash Compactor |
Characters on both side were banged up, missing their minor characters, or both. But through the chaos, Rob/Count Dooku saw an opportunity to drastically alter the game. He negotiated with both Michael/Moff Gideon and Ian/Han to set up a chain reaction of wall closures to eliminate most of the board! It started with a weakened Grant/Jyn (the new Han Solo) Erso. Rob used a Taunt to eliminate Grant, and that triggered the walls to close, where a Dark Trooper from Michael had trapped the Emperor and Corona/Jango was still stuck from the Force Control. Michael, Ian, and Rob were on the middle row - the only safe place to be - when Rob realized he could kill Ian too. For his second action he played Taunt again...and the walls closed again! This time Julia/Lando, Elliot/Leia, and Kevin/Obi were squished to death, along with Duncan's Cad Bane!
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| Just like that...the final two! |
Rob and Michael were quite pleased with themselves. Michael was no rookie to Epic Duels, but this was his first official 12-Way Duel. He was already in the top two! However, there was another factor he had to contend with...the dianoga! He must have done something to tick that thing off, because two of his minors got dragged into the muck pre-walls closing, and he got hit three more times in the final two. That was a big advantage for Rob's Dooku, who had spent most of his big attacks clawing his way to the middle row.
Michael and Rob couldn't run anywhere, so they started knocking each other silly. Both were taking significant damage. Rob had one last card before he'd need to shuffle, and had no defense in his hand. He drew Dooku's last 5-point attack, and went for it. Michael couldn't withstand it, and Rob won his second Duel in a row, and for the 23rd time in his league career. That's re-dang-diculous! It was also his first career win with Count Dooku, making him the first Dueler in league history to win with all six of the original dark side characters. Michael deserves a HUGE round of applause too - his defection and Kidnapping of Riley B. was super slick. What a debut!
The final order of finish:
12. Riley E./Qui-Gon
11. Curtis/Snoke
10. Grant D./Jyn
T8. Carona/Jango
T8. Riley B/Emperor
7. Ian/Han
T4. Julia/Lando
T4. Elliot/Leia
T4. Kevin/Obi
3. Duncan/Cad
2. Michael/Moff
1. Rob/Dooku
But this was just the first game of the night...on to round two!
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