Thanksdueling! - November 8, 2025

Arvala-7

There was a quiet air around the board as we awaited Thanksdueling! to begin.  Perhaps tensions were high, knowing this was the last chance to qualify for the 2025 Championship.  Perhaps folks were nervous about which character they were going to pick.  Or perhaps the Duelers knew mom and dad were going to fight and wake the baby!!!

Grogu, is that you??

It's hard to believe it had been over a year since the married duo of Joe and Michaela had graced the table with their chaotic energy (ok - to be fair - it's Joe's chaotic energy, lol...), but they were back with their new padawan in tow!  And just as you would expect, Joe was fighting every urge to immediately attack his better half and mother to his first born!  Curtis/Fennec and Jonah/Obi convinced him to hold court with the light side, though, enabling the good guys to outmaneuver the "chill corner" and use a Force Control to pull Justin/Count Dooku into a light side kill box!  Justin countered by Force Pushing Joe's Saesee Tiin back to the dark side!!

Meanwhile, Nayshaun/Cad Bane made his own big play, turning against Eric/Moff Gideon and hoping Junior/Jod Na Nawood would join him.  It was all a whirlwind, especially when Junior didn't immediately follow suit.  But when the dust settled, it was poor Eric who was gone first, as Rob's Sabine Wren rushed through an alleyway to hit him with a Mandalorian Warrior attack.  Justin fell next, and give him credit - he tipped his hat to the light side for their tactics!  Jonah landed the parting shot.

The "chill corner" seems to be anything but...

Though the dark side was in tough shape, they still had Joe trapped...until James/Darth Maul turned on his alliance partner, Jordyn/Emperor!!!  Jordyn had just dumped Michaela/Sol's hand with You Will Die, making the betrayal that much more bitter.  Junior/Jod Na finally found his nerve too, landing the final blow on poor Jordyn.  She was gone in tenth, but this did mark her turn to the professional ranks.  Congrats, Jordyn!!!

Things were very topsy-turvy after that, as sides were in flux all over the board.  James took advantage and returned his focus to Joe's Saesee Tiin.  Joe chose not to defend an Athletic Surge, and that was all James needed to park the new dad in ninth.

James the big, bad, Sith.

It was Rob/Ahsoka's turn and Nayshaun was making it clear he wanted Maul off the board.  But he wasn't going to be able to immediately help in that pursuit.  Junior liked that idea too, but pressured Rob by turning one of the timers on him!  That made Rob very cranky, so he used both Jar'kai attacks on Jod Na Nawood!  Junior ran away...right into the blade of Jonah's Obi-Wan Kenobi.  Junior was done in eighth and hopefully learned a lesson or two in just his third career Duel.

With Jod Na Nawood eliminated the focus returned to Darth Maul.  Curtis used Black Krystalmeth Krrsantan to start hits on Maul.  But when James didn't defend the second attack...Curtis used CANNONBLAST for eleven points of damage!!!  Maul was blown off the board with a smoking hole through his sternum!!!

Sneaky Shooters

That left six Duelers in the game, and it slowly turned into the three shooters (Ally/Lando, Curtis/Fennec, Nayshaun/Cad) versus the three blades (Rob/Ahsoka, Jonah/Obi, Michaela/Sol).  Michaela was still reeling from the You Will Die and the clock striking 10PM, and decided to use every card as she got them.  That left her under-carded for Ally's Lobot attacks.  She was mercifully eliminated in sixth.  But not by her husband!  So, you know...improvements!

At this point we should give a shoutout to Nayshaun, who could easily have been the first Dueler out after his coup against Moff Gideon didn't go as planned.  But his luck finally ran out in the final five.  Sabine and Obi were done with him, and Sabine got the final blaster round.  Nayshaun has certainly impressed this semester - he'll turn pro early next year!

Curtis' favorite board.

And then there were four!  Curtis and Ally both had their minors still in the game, meaning they had four shooters against Jonah and Rob's blades on a shooter's board.  That put Jonah and Rob in a tough spot.  They made the call to concentrated on taking out Black Krrsantan, knowing Curtis would continue to use him to retreat behind the single space passageways around the center of the board.  It took a lot of maneuvering, but they pinned Lando and Fennec in a corner and got Fennec down to her last two points of health.  That's when Rob proposed a crazy deal!  If Ally/Lando would finish off Curtis/Fennec, Rob would go after Jonah/Obi!

That was a little too out of the blue for Ally, so she passed.  Rob was using that as a bit of a red herring anyway, hoping to save shots on Curtis, but went after him anyway.  Jonah took more damage than he anticipated, so he played the tried and true Force Balance, dropping all cards.  Curtis some how top-decked his two 7-point attacks against Rob!!!  Rob went from full health to half dead.  He luckily pulled an additional attack card to finally knock out Curtis in fourth, though.

Epic Drooler!!!

Rob went from likely first place to the most vulnerable in the blink of an eye.  To save his backside, he told Ally he would join her against Jonah's Obi-Wan.  Jonah was aghast, but he was so far away he started healing up Obi-Wan to a point where Obi-Wan really was the primary threat again.  Rob recovered to a degree he could be helpful again, so he joined Ally in taking down Obi-Wan.  Jonah fought valiantly but finally succumbed to his wounds in third place.

The nuance of the next hour of Dueling is hard to describe in this recap, but Ally turned the tide of near certain death to flip the tables on Rob.  Everyone knows how hard Lando is to beat one on one, let alone on Arvala, but Rob got her to within two points of dying.  On his reshuffle, he top-decked his 8 point attack (I Am No Jedi).  He felty guilty as he played it, assuming he had just won.  But Ally had just drawn Evacuation - completely blocking it!  She spent the next dozen or so rounds slowly recovering while whittling down Rob's health and cards.  The absolute backbreaker was when she played Hello, What Have We Here?  She was able to discard BOTH of Rob's I Choose To Live defense cards!!!  A few turns later, she attacked and Rob couldn't defend...Ally won her first career Duel in just her fourth game played!!!  JUST IN TIME TO QUALIFY FOR THE 2025 CHAMPIONSHIP!!!  Way to go, Ally!

The final order of finish:

12.  Eric/Moff Gideon

11.  Justin/Count Dooku

10.  Jordyn/Emperor Palpatine

9.  Joe/Saeasee Tiin

8.  Junior/Jod Na Nawood

7.  James/Darth Maul

6.  Michaela/Sol

5.  Nayshaun/Cad Bane

4.  Curtis/Fennec Shand

3.  Jonah/Obi-Wan Kenobi

2.  Rob/Ahsoka Tano

1.  Ally/Lando Calrissian

We'll have more info coming soon on the December Duel - the 2025 Championship!  Those spots are reserved for the best and the brightest from the past year - stay tuned.  Congrats again to Ally on her first career win!!!

12x12-Way Weekend Episode VII: The Force Was Mistaken - June 20, 2025 (8PM)

Narkina-5 Prison

This Duel marked the first time in league history that we played FOUR Duels in one day!!!  And this one, like the night before, went DEEP into the night before it was resolved.  Once the prison floor stopped pulsing with electricity, it would be Curtis' Lando Calrissian who survived!  He was the perfect character on the perfect starting spot to make it to the end.

Episode 7 - all-shooter Duel.

 

A New Hope - January 26, 2021

 

Arvala-7

It was a history-making night on many levels.  The first time in league history officially playing with the new characters, the first time a non-original character would win a Duel, and the longest...Duel...ever...

We picked Arvala-7 because it's nice and spread out and would give the new characters some options, but good gracious, what a disaster.  We've played Arvala-7 twice, the first time clocking in at 8 hours, and the second time...NINE HOURS!!!  Do we need to deep-six this board and never play it again?

The first to ever play with the new characters!

Enjoy the pic above because...Rob forgot to take pictures during the match!  This was just about it.  C'mon Rob, get it together next time.

There wasn't even a kill in the first two hours of the game, but that wasn't because nobody was doing anything.  It was quite the opposite in fact!  One of the most dramatic moments came when Ryan's Moff Gideon had a Dark Trooper Kidnap Grant's Rey and bring him/her back to a dark side kill box!  Grant has NEVER FINISHED IN LAST and it looked like his card was finally going to be pulled...except...Duncan/Mando broke the new cards with a daring move.  He wanted to use a combination of Rising Phoenix (fly around the board during your turn) and Grappling Line (bring somebody to a spot near you).  The wording on the cards were murky, and we even consulted outside sources, and the ruling was made that...it was a legal move!  Snatched from the jaws of death!!!  How does Grant do it???

During that same turn Duncan used Whistling Birds, which ended up killing one of Rylie's Knights of Ren, marking the first minor character death of the new decks.  With Rey disappearing from their grasp, the dark side started to infight, aided by Ben's Jar Jar throwing the Oopsa Bombad and injuring a bunch of them.  Rylie got especially twitchy, fearing they'd go after her Kylo first, so she made a play to take out Elliot's Krennic.  Ryan/Moff Gideon and Kaleb/Beckett joined in, but Elliot and Delaney/Snoke returned fire on Kylo, aided by Ian's rogue MagnaGuard.  In the end it was the MagnaGuard who would send Kylo out in last.  Brutal!

Underestimate at your own risk!

Despite Hannah's Jyn Erso siding with the dark side, Kaleb thought the best path forward was to eat their own, so he and Ryan continued by taking down Elliot's Krennic with Beckett's Trust No One.  The light side stayed strong together (with Ian's General Grievous, who followed Ben's Qui-Gon to that end of the board).  As the light side started to penetrate the dark, Delaney made a deal with Grievous to Force Lightning Moff Gideon to the light side of the board.  Despite Ryan really playing well with Gideon, he wasn't prepared for the true terror before him...WICKET THE EWOK!!!  David's Wicket had already thrown Whirling Rocks at Snoke for four points of damage before he sprung the furball on Gideon.  Ryan chose not to defend, but it was a Surprise Attack!  That resulted in eight points of damage and Gideon was dunzo!

The light side was torn a little bit on how to proceed, largely because Kaleb's Beckett was making some very compelling arguments.  Rob's Lando, though, feared Hannah's Jyn Erso staying on the board, especially after Cassian assassinated poor Jar Jar.  David's Princess Leia agreed, and he would get the final shot on Hannah, who in ninth place, finished outside of the top six for the first time in her career.

Ian's Grievous had been eyeing Leia for the whole game, though, and it was a Make Them Suffer that dumped her hand and led to David dying in eighth.  He played a heck of a game from the back line, though, everyone was impressed.

You would not believe the day she had...

That left seven to go!  Kaleb tried to swing a four-person alliance with him, Delaney/Snoke, Ian/Grievous, and Duncan/Mandalorian.  However, Rob/Lando and Grant/Rey talked Duncan and Ian into staying loyal with them and Ben/Qui-Gon.  Beckett was still in scramble mode, so he offed Snoke in seventh to try and buy himself some more time.  Despite his best efforts, he couldn't turn the tide and it was Grievous who finally bounced him out of the game in sixth.  Delaney played great with Snoke, and watching Kaleb in last-stand mode is always a delight.  He's very convincing!

That made it five to go, and though Grant had lost his nerve and attacked Rob's Lando once earlier in the game, the attention on who to attack fell on one of either Grant/Rey and Duncan/Mando, or Ian's Grievous.  You couldn't blame Grant for sticking with the Mandalorian - he saved his hide from last!  But when he and Duncan agreed to go after Grievous, Duncan didn't fully commit and that caused concern from Grant, which Rob gladly highlighted!  Grant decided to partner with the other three to take down Duncan, who was offed by Rey's The Last Jedi.  But this was Duncan's sixth game, meaning he's turned professional!  And with yet another fantastic finish, he debuts as the top ranked Dueler with a SICK 4.00 average and 33% win percentage!  That is mind-blowing, well done Duncan!

From there Rob's Lando waited to see what Ian/Grievous and Ben/Qui-Gon wanted to do.  They decided Rey was the scariest character left, much to Grant's annoyance after going against his former alliance partner.  It was even worse for him after Lando played Hello What Have We Here to discard Rey's Rise of Skywalker for the second time of the game!!!  Lobot landed the last blow with a four point Activation shot.

Final Two

With three left, Ben/Qui-Gon tried to get Ian to join him against Rob's Lando, but Rob said he was all in on attacking the last Jedi left in the game.  Ian saw Rob prove it with a couple of attacks and they joined together to take down Liam Neeson.  But Ben went into BEAST mode, continually using Jedi Meditation, Chance Cube, and There's Always A Bigger Fish to out-card Lando and Grievous.  It took no less than TWO HOURS for Rob and Ian to finally whittle him down, with Lando's Altered the Deal landing the kill shot.  The 2020 Champion almost pulled off a victory, with his real life minor character in his arms at the end.

And then there were two!  Ian and Rob had both exhausted their hands battling Qui-Gon, so their cat and mouse game began as they traversed Arvala-7.  Twice Rob put big hits on Ian, only to see Spare Parts played and the damage erased.  After almost an hour, Rob caught Ian with low defense and comboed a Battle of Tanaab and Altered Deal to win the game by one attack point!  Ian played outstanding, but inexplicably, he has now finished in second place in the last FOUR GAMES!!!  That's amazing.  And for Rob, he gets to win the first game with the new characters, making Lando the top ranked character in the league.  You know it baby!!!

Your first two-time A New Hope winner!

So...after nine hours...(NINE HOURS!!!)...Ian and Rob were finally able to go to bed.  What a crazy night.

Here's the final order of finish again:

12.  Rylie/Kylo Ren

11.  Elliot/Orson Krennic

10.  Ryan/Moff Gideon

9.  Hannah/Jyn Erso

8.  David T./Princess Leia

7.  Delaney/Supreme Leader Snok

6.  Kaleb/Tobias Beckett

5.  Duncan/The Mandalorian

4.  Grant/Rey

3.  Ben H./Qui-Gon Jinn

2.  Ian/General Grievous

1.  Rob/Lando Calrissian

The Dueler and Character rankings have been updated, and they both look a lot different!

For the Dueler rankings, the handicap points (points that favor you if you play with a bottom-ranked character) have drastically changed since new characters occupy five of the bottom six characters.  You'll notice just about everyone's average took a hit as a result.  Once the new characters have played a few more games we'll see that balance out.

On the Character ranking side, we've now got all 24 listed.  Starting next month, we'll randomly choose six light and six dark from the pool of 24 - any combo of new and old!  

And speaking of next month...it's February, and so that means the VALENTINE'S DUEL!!!  We'll have a date for that soon, stay tuned.  And we'll be debuting yet ANOTHER new board!  This one is the most chaotic yet...the Eravana Cargo Hold from The Force Awakens.  You do NOT want to miss this one...

Until next time...as Lando might say, stay beautiful!