Valentine's Duel - February 7, 2025

Narkina-5 Imperial Prison  

Quick question: how many Golden Oreos can you eat in one sitting?  Follow up question: what if some of them in the package are randomly soggy?  Is that an issue?  Final question: when do candy canes expire?  Is February too late to be eating them?  These were some of the many culinary inquiries our Valentine's Duelers faced, as our annual February Duel encouraged the participants to bring a sweet treat to share!  Kudos to those who remembered - and shame on the league organizer for forgetting!!!

Scared Straight: The Narkina-5 Prison Documentary

The Valentine's Duelers gathered in the Narkina-5 Imperial Prison and, I know you're wondering...how soon did Duelers go off program?  The answer: almost immediately!  And it stayed off program for most of the night...except for two crucial rounds late in the game when the last four Duelers standing were too delirious NOT to raise their hands over their heads!  But I'm getting waaaaay ahead of myself...

Nobody can remember the last time this happened, but the six light side and six dark side Duelers were all sitting six-in-a-row at the table, meaning the respective sides could coordinate extremely well together.  The dark side quickly eliminated Caden's Cara Dune, but the light side hatched a bold plan when The Mandalorian played Grappling Line and pulled Rob's Darth Maul into a kill box!  But Rob somehow used his Martial Defense to completely block Mando's Disintegration!  James/Leia and Elliot/Ahsoka whittled down Maul to near death, but in the first flip of the game (and maybe, maybe aided by Rob running his mouth...), Alex G./Bo-Katan didn't lay the final two hits...and instead joined the dark side!  

Prison sucks!

The light side was equal parts nauseated, disgusted, and disgruntled with Alex, while Rob laughed evilly.  This allowed the dark side to concentrate their fire on The Mandalorian!  Darth Maul got the kill shot with one of his many Sith Speeds, and poor Caden went from hero to the sidelines in last!!!  Rob managed a couple of more hits on Ahsoka too, but with zero cards left in his hand, his blaze of glory left him in eleventh.  What a way to go, though!

Elliot was still gob smacked by Alex's betrayal, and couldn't believe the position he found himself in.  The light side was imploding and he was next to go.  Cate's blood lust was satisfied when her Jango Fett used a three point attack to retire Ahsoka in tenth.  It was a sound tactic, Elliot, don't beat yourself up!

Austin, which Dueler got blind-sided?

The light side tried to rally.  Justin/Mace hopped off the safety of his table to rush Alex's table.  He landed a Whirlwind, but didn't use Wisdom to retreat.  The dark side launched a silo at poor Mace, with Alex using an Ariel Assault for the knockout punch.  Way to go down swinging, Justin!

The only two Duelers left in the light side alliance at that point were James/Princess Leia (Green Leia) and Riley/Luke Skywalker (White Leia).  They were sure they were next, especially once Josiah/The Stranger murdered Wicket.  But everyone knows Cate can only contain her urge to obliterate others for so long, and when she couldn't get an angle on the light side she Missile Launched/Rocket Retreated Mark's Moff Gideon!!!  Alliance disfunction at it's finest!  Mark was bewildered, especially when the rest of his alliance followed suit.  To add insult to compounding injuries, Moff Gideon was eliminated by being electrocuted by the floor!  The next Brooks College staff meeting is going to be AWKWARD.

Look at that face - full of Missile Launch glee!

The crazy twists and turns kept coming.  James and Riley got quiet as mice tiptoeing through a room full of sleeping cats when Josiah threw out Ian/Snoke as the next target.  The debate came fast and furious, as Ian moved the negative attention to Alex/Bo-Katan and his hesitancy to shoot the light side remnants.  Nobody had any idea what to expect from Cate, and Josiah decided her killing spree necessitated the end of her night.  In a risky move, his Mae used A New Acolyte to off Jango.  That was probably just as well - Cate had a 3AM alarm set for her rugby trip!  😦

The animosity towards Alex couldn't be ignored at that point.  He had no friends left on the board.  And in a bit of a control-his-own fate move, he chose to stay off the tables and take his kill shot from the electric floor!  The Narkina-5 Prison fried two Duelers on the night!!!

The wolves circle Austin...

Austin/Cad Bane was a loyal dark side alliance member throughout the night, and it was cool he made it to the final five because he took some damage out of the gate.  But Ian/Snoke didn't look too keen to have extra shooters on the board, so he named Austin as his target of interest.  Austin tried to shake his hand several times to indicate no hard feelings (this is a classic "you had to be there" moment...).  Nobody would rescue Cad Bane, but Austin finished a career-best fifth place.  Nicely done!

Rather than work together as the last two dominant dark side members, Josiah and Ian declared war on each other!  James, who had recently played The Stranger last semester, knew full well Josiah's character was a handful.  He and Riley joined Ian...but it took a LONG time for them to finally oust Josiah.  I'm talking poorly played Tied To A Strings, I Will Not Fight You's...the works!  But Josiah couldn't hold out forever, and James landed the final blow.  There's a reason The Stranger is the top ranked character in the league right now - well done Josiah!

How did these two make it to the final three???

This may not be fully appreciated by those who weren't at the Duel, but it was nothing short of a miracle James/Leia and Riley/Luke went from a seemingly 8th and 7th place finish to the top three.  They worked extremely well together, but the reality was James' Princess Leia had up to 16 points of automatic damage in her deck, and Riley and Ian were roughed up on their damage indicator cards, so they chose to partner against James.  The problem was 8 of those points of auto damage come from Leia's I Know defense cards, so neither wanted to go forward with a frontal assault.

Ian managed to use some Force Lightnings and Riley's minor Leia kept shooting major Leia (yes, it was trippy), but James smartly killed the minors, forcing the issue by making Ian and Riley stand adjacent to Leia.  Ian felt Riley wasn't doing enough, so he ended up turning on Riley, heavily damaging Luke.  It was a controversial move as Riley professed she was still with him.  But the attack allowed James to finish Riley/Luke in third.  Riley had the best hat at the table, though.

The final two was James/Leia and Ian/Snoke!  Both were badly damaged and searching for their automatic damage cards (Covert Operation for Leia, Force Lightning for Snoke).  Ian had some uncharacteristic mistakes throughout the night, but the worst one was when he lost count of Leia's I Know defense cards.  She has two of those - the ones that do four points of damage to whoever attacks - but Ian thought one was already in James' discard pile.  As it turns out, he pulled the second one from his draw pile.  Ian healed enough to take four points from one of them, but his jaw dropped when he attacked a second time only to get four MORE points of auto damage and lose the game!  That's right - James won his first career Duel.  Way to go!!!!  That's another Dueling trophy for the Teal trophy case.  This also marks Princess Leia's second career win.

Final order of finish:

12.  Caden/The Mandalorian

11.  Rob/Darth Maul

10.  Elliot/Ahsoka

9.  Justin/Mace Windu

8.  Mark/Moff Gideon

7.  Cate/Jango Fett

6.  Alex G./Bo-Katan

5.  Austin/Cad Bane

4.  Josiah/The Stranger

3.  Riley E./Luke Skywalker

2.  Ian/Snoke

1.  James/Princess Leia

It's always fun when a Duel produces a first-time winner!  James becomes the 41st Dueler in league history to win a Duel!

Due to the basketball schedule and Spring Break, the March Duel - THE IMPERIAL MARCH - will be played the weekend of March 22nd/23rd.  We'll have to wait for the tournament bracket to figure out which night Baylor plays (stay above the bubble, Bears!!!).  So that means we'll go silent for a few weeks.  

Until then...PEW PEW!

Thanksdueling! - November 6, 2021

 

Rancor Dungeon

It was mentioned during the preview but we need to mention it again here.  The 2021 Thanksdueling! battle marked Alex's last Duel in the league.  He's moving down to Austin and plans to start wearing a lot of ugly orange in his wardrobe.  But we can't fault him for his new career opportunity - we wish you well, Alex!  In his time in the league he played 33 times (tied for 11th all-time) and won six times (tied for 7th all-time).  He also retires as the top ranked Dueler!  For all of these reasons we inducted Alex into the Duels Hall of Fame.  Congrats!!!

Two grown men trying not to cry.

Ok, ok, enough with the mushy stuff.  We have a Duel to recap!  We were playing in the Rancor Dungeon, and Rob came with a fresh new Rancor t-shirt along with matching stickers for all the Duelers.  The big intrigue, though, was who would be randomly picked for the Rancor!  After entering all of the names in the random list generator, the lucky Dueler was...Evan!!!  This was supposed to be his sixth/professional debut Duel, but he got the Rancor instead!!!

Evan wearing a Jabba shirt - he must have known!

The rest of the Duelers took their seat, knowing Evan/Rancor couldn't join them until a character died.  Surely nobody would want to do that early in the game...right?!?  Wrong!  To absolutely nobody's surprise, Miguel (The Emperor) just couldn't help himself.  He got a Force Lightning right out of the gate, and decided to fry one of Kevin's (Maul) Battle Droids!  The gate opened and The Rancor was loose!  He immediately ate one of Karson's (Mace) Clone Troopers.

In one of the more ironic moments in league history, Ian (Dooku) took great offense at Miguel's shenanigans.  The same Ian who did the exact same thing as Miguel at the last Thanksdueling! in the Rancor Dungeon!  He, combined with an outraged Kevin (who had ever seen someone so attached to a measly Battle Droid before???) lobbied the board to go after the Emperor.  Despite being in the best position on the board, Miguel had his hands full as the attacks started coming from everywhere.  He retaliated by...using Force Lightning on the other Battle Droid!  God bless Miguel, he was entertaining all the way to his last place finish - a kill shot of retribution from Kevin's Maul.

The rest of the board did little to stop the Rancor, so it made it's way into the center of the board and kept eating minor characters and attacking majors.  On one end of the board Karson/Mace and Rylie/Grievous found themselves fully carded and needing to attack.  They took out their aggression on an unlucky Juan/Beckett.  Juan couldn't do anything, stuck between a Rancor and the Whirling Arms of Grievous.  Poor Juan was out in 11th.

Behold the Rancor buffet!

JD/Boba finally started talking sense into the rest of the Duelers, encouraging them to band together to take care of the elephant Rancor in the room.  Folks complied and the Rancor started taking damage...but not before he ate two Clone Troopers, a Super Battle Droid, Lobot, and Padme!  My goodness, that guy's appetite is disgusting.  But after Rob's Lando got the Rancor within a point of dying, it would be Alex's Clone Trooper #1 that killed him with a one point attack.  Well played, Evan!

Remember that time we were friends, lol?!?

With the Rancor mercifully off the board, the next phase of the game commenced.  Peach/Han and Fiona/Anakin had been whispering furiously for most of the game.  A lot of folks assumed they were thick as thieves, so Ian's Count Dooku Force Pushed Han into a kill corner at the other end of the board while Rob's Lando took a shot at Anakin, followed by a Maul attack.  While it looked like both of them were in trouble, only one would fall...and that was Peach!  She took hits from Obi-Wan and then was shocked to see her tablemate Rylie move in to attack with Grievous!  Han fell to the Whirling Arms in 10th.

Fiona went next, and she used a Wrath to get the heck out of Dodge.  Some folks thought she was still the target...but then a surprise occurred!  A group of Duelers had conspired to go after Ian's Dooku!  Obi used a Force Control to place Ian in a custom-made kill box!  It was a shocking turn of events, and Ian had no hope for survival.  In what would be a theme for the night, Rylie's Grievous delivered the final blow and Ian, out of nowhere, was gone in 9th!

A doomed Dooku.

JD's Boba had made it known earlier he was keen on working with Ian, but he suddenly found himself without an alliance.  Rob was equally nervous, having been unaware that the hit was on for Ian.  So he positioned himself near the leftover kill box and attacked Boba with an Altered the Deal, meaning he could switch places with the Fett!  The lingering kill box participants thought, "eh, why not?", and roughed up JD's Boba.  Alex's Clone, the same one who killed the Rancor, eliminated Boba Fett too!  JD was ousted in 8th, but Boba Fett has a new series coming out on Disney+ so I think he'll be fine.

That left seven to go, and folks were getting antsy.  Kaleb (Leia) casually threw out Rob's Lando, but in a surprise twist, the majority of folks remaining went after Kevin's Darth Maul!  Kevin wasn't expecting it, and got caught low carded.  It would be Fiona's Anakin, who once looked doomed for 10th, that landed the elimination.  Kevin was gone in 7th.

Of course we didn't forget to take a group pic!

Once it was down to six Duelers, some folks were back to being fully carded, and Rylie's Grievous decided it was Anakin's turn to walk the plank.  Fiona was outraged but funny about it.  She didn't last long, and using a MagnaGuard, Rylie had yet ANOTHER kill!  Congrats to Fiona, who has played before but never in person.  Top six!

Immediately after Fiona's exit it was Rob's turn, and the board waited to see what he proposed.  A grown man wearing a cape should never be the leader in that type of situation, but alas, that was the predicament.  After some deliberation, Rob's Lando attacked Karson's Mace, noting he still hadn't used his Whirlwinds and he was at full health.  Karson went on the defensive, but his hand was unluckily weak so he had to retreat.  This had the unfortunate effect of making him look vulnerable.  Other Duelers started to attack him too.  Despite his best efforts, Karson had to bow out when - GUESS WHO - a Grievous MagnaGuard took him out in 5th.  (On a side note, Rylie looked like a Duels hustler with her hat pulled low and her eerily silent demeanor all night!)

Final Four Focus

And then there were four!  Rather than stick with his fellow shooter, Kaleb proved the only things certain in life are death, taxes, and Rob and Kaleb not working together at the end of a Duel.  He decided to use Wicket's Whirling Rocks...but rolled a 2-all!  That means they hit Wicket instead of Lando, hahahaha!  Thought it was temporarily three against one, Rob warned Alex's Obi that he would likely land in third without Lando at his side, so it turned into a Rob/Alex vs. Kaleb/Rylie battle.  This went on for quite a while before Alex played Force Balanced and dumped everyone's hand.  Not long after a badly injured Lando once again faced Whirling Rocks, but this time the Ewok's coordination was better and Rob got concussed in 4th.

Meanwhile, Alex's Obi and Rylie's Grievous were trading blows.  They were both weak and starting to turn their attention against Kaleb's Princess Leia.  Kaleb sprung into action and eliminated Rylie's Grievous in 3rd place with a You're Going to Regret This attack.  Alex was also badly wounded and now risked an automatic death if Kaleb defended with an I Know card.  But Obi had his two best attack cards in his hand, so he risked the homerun swing.  Alas...Kaleb had I Know, and Alex, in his last Duel, finished second, eliminated by his BFF and fellow Duel Hall of Famer Kaleb!  Well done to both of them, but especially Kaleb who came out of retirement to pad his resume!  This also marks the first character win for Princess Leia.

Who invited this guy???

Let's see that final order of finish one more time:

12.  Miguel/Emperor

11.  Juan/Beckett

10.  Peah/Han

9.  Ian/Dooku

8.  JD/Boba

7.  Kevin/Maul

6.  Fiona/Anakin

5.  Karson/Mace

4.  Rob/Lando

3.  Rylie/Grievous

2.  Alex/Obi

1.  Kaleb/Leia

The December Duel is the 2021 Championship!  This is a special invite Duel and the biggest Duel of the year!  Any Dueler who won a game in 2021 gets an automatic bid, and the remaining slots will be filled by the top ranked Duelers.  And now that we have 24 characters, we're doing the same for them!  Characters who won in 2021 will be used in the Championship.  Rob will contact those who qualified, but it looks like Saturday, December 4th, will be the date for the best and toughest Duel of 2021!!!

New Character Test - December 18, 2020

 

Carbon Freezing Chamber (not that it matters when it's just a test)

Ohhhhhh doctor!!!  For the first time in league history, we (unofficially) played with 12 brand new characters!!!  This new character test drive was intended to see if the new characters Rob created were league-worthy.  The goal is to play the A New Hope Duel in January with all the new characters, and then integrate them into all future Duels, randomly picking six light side and six dark side characters each month.  But first...we need to see how they do in action!

This will be a truncated recap, where I'll reveal who played, who they played with, how they died, and a cool card in the new character's deck.  Here we go...

12th Place - Duncan

Character - Supreme Leader Snoke

How He Died - Double Blasters from Krennic (Kaleb), which is a cool card, similar to Han's Never Tell Me the Odds, but it does three points of damage instead of two (because he's holding two guns!)  Duncan had a lot of fun early, playing some cool cards that scared the crap out of everyone, including...

Cool New Card - Tied To A String.  This one stirred some controversy as it enabled Snoke to bring any character on the board adjacent to him for two points of damage.  It pairs with Snoke's version of Force Lightning, which he does for three points of damage to an opponent adjacent to him.  After using it he can then move that character to any open space on the board!

11th Place - Miguel

Character - Rey

How He Died - Jyn Erso's I Rebel card, an eight point attack that does additional damage to surrounding characters.  Miguel had a volatile night as he locked horns with several characters, including Kylo.  He was the victim of Snoke's Tied To A String, but used his Backflip to move out of his kill box!  His light side allies eventually turned on him.

Cool New Card - The Rise of Skywalker.  This is a 12 point defense card that heals up to ten points of damage!

10th Place - David

Character - General Grievous

How He Died - Moff Gideon's Accute Pain, a six-point attack that, if it causes damage, makes the victim discard the next two cards in their draw pile.  David had one of the most jaw-dropping moments of the night when he played Reinforcements.  Both of his MagnaGuards were dead, but this card allowed both of them to reappear at full health!!!  It pairs with Spare Parts, a card that allows Grievous to heal at the expense of his minor character's health points.

Cool New Card - Trophy.  David used this 8 point attack but couldn't use the bonus, which allows you to pick up an attack card from your enemy and put it in your hand if you kill them!

9th Place - Rylie

Character - Kylo Ren

How She Died - Cara Dune's Heavy Weapon, a 5 point attack that doesn't count as an action if it does damage.  Rylie had a blast, shaking things up and flexing new cards all over the board, all in a desperate attempt to get to bed early for her holiday travel the next morning.  One eye-opening moment was when folks realized both Kylo and Rey have Force Dyad cards, that turn 5 attack/5 defense cards into 7's if Rey and Kylo stand next to each other!

Cool New Card - I Know What I Have To Do.  This is now the most powerful attack card in the game...12 points!!!

Crash Test Dummies

8th Place - Ryan

Character - Orson Krennic

How He Died - 3 point attack from Moff Gideon.  Krennic's troubles came when Wicket the Ewok used a Surprise Attack, which doubles the damage of the target.  The board turned on Ryan's Krennic and Elliot's Lando at the same time.  He also caused a collective groan when he played Peace and Security, a special that requires opponents (but not Krennic) to discard their hands and draw four new cards.

Cool New Card - Execution.  For the first time we saw unique attack cards for non-distinct minor characters.  This card is a 4 point attack, and allows the card to be used again by the other Death Trooper if he can attack the same opponent, and the second attack doesn't count as an action!

7th Place - Elliot

Character - Lando Calrissian

How He Died - Moff Gideon's Dark Saber, an 8 point attack and defend card!  Elliot was kind of running things on the down-low until Kaleb called him out.  One of the big impacts of the game was when he played Lobot's Disarmed, which forces any opponent Lobot can attack to discard two cards of their choosing.

Cool New Card - Evacuation.  Lando has three of these 8 point defenses, that allows him to move all adjacent characters to him as well as himself.  Lando is the first defense-oriented shooter, and he proved really hard to take down!

Anybody know how to produce these 3-D?

6th Place - Chris K.

Character - Jyn Erso

How He Died - The Mandalorian's 6 point attack, called This Is The Way.  Chris had to fight and scrape his way through the game, especially after his minor, Cassian Andor, died early.  But Jyn had a few tricks up her sleeve, including Stardust, a defense card that allowed her to change the attack card used against her!

Cool New Card - Trust Goes Both Ways.  This special card provides another league-first: it allows Jyn and Cassian to switch who the main character is!  If Jyn is hurting but Cassian is healthy, they can flip!

5th Place - Grant

Character - The Mandalorian

How He Died - a 4 point attack from Moff Gideon.  Perhaps no other character had as an exciting array of unique cards than Grant, including his 10 point Disintegration (which you have to sacrifice your next three draw cards to play) and Rising Phoenix, a special that allows Mando to fly in the air for the duration of his turn.

Cool New Card - Whistling Birds.  Oh yes, the series-favorite weapon inflicts two points of damage on up to 12 different characters!  But, BUT, it can only be used ONCE per game, so choose wisely!

4th Place - Natalie

Character - Qui-Gon Jinn

How She Died - a 4 point attack from Leia.  Hand it to Natalie, neither of her characters were shooters and that's all she was surrounded by.  Her use of Jar Jar throughout the night was humorous but effective, especially when she played Humble Servant, a card that doesn't count as an action but allows for three actions on a turn!

Cool New Card - There's Always A Bigger Fish.  This special is pretty cool, and she used it brilliantly against Leia earlier in the game.  Qui-Gon picks an opponent with more cards in their hand, draws cards until they have the same amount, and then the opponent has to discard by choice the same number of cards in return!  Ouch!

3rd Place - Kaleb

Character - Tobias Beckett

How He Died - Leia's Camouflage attack, good for 6 points and the victim can't attack them back on their next turn.  Kaleb really channeled his inner-scoundrel and had a blast playing Beckett, especially his 6 point defense called One Step Ahead.  It allows Beckett to pull back the card and replace it with another defense card if he wants to adjust after seeing the attack card.  The final two Duelers found that VERY frustrating!

Cool New Card - Kaleb didn't get a chance to play many of Val's cards, and the one he had hoped for but couldn't is called It's Been A Ride, Babe!  This special card is a 5 point self-destruct, injuring Val and all characters adjacent to her!  BOOM!

Look at these new damage indicators!

2nd Place - Riley

Character - Moff Gideon

How She Died - Covert Operation, an auto-4 points of damage special from Leia.  Riley, or the "Tiny Titan of Terror" as Kaleb dubbed her, took a lot of hits early but partnered with Beckett to make an unexpected deep run, all the way to second place.  She got jacked up when Leia played her two best defense cards, I Know, which does no damage to Leia but 4 to the attacker!

Cool New Card - The Dark Troopers were dead before she could use it, but they have a new card called Kidnapped, which allows a Dark Trooper to move itself and a character adjacent to it to any two empty spaces on the board!

1st Place - Ethan

Character - Princess Leia

How He Won - Our old Dueling friend Ethan won by laying low, taking distance shots, and using Speeder Chase cards to move all over the board!  One of the chief complaints about the original 12 characters is that there were no female leads, and here in our first test with the new characters we see women heroes of the rebellion are just as capable as the fellas!  Ethan played great.

Cool New Card - Wicket died before he could use it, but Whirling Rocks allows 4 points of damage to any character if you roll the dice and DON'T get a 2-all, otherwise, that two points of damage to Wicket!

It was a lot of fun playing with the new characters!  I would like to do another test Duel on the afternoon of December 30th, 1PM.  Let Rob know if you can play in that one!  He's going to tweak the cards based on feedback and what we saw in this first test drive.  Speaking of...

...if you would like to see all the new character cards, let Rob know!  He'll forward you the PDFs.  He would love any feedback or suggestions you have before they go into permanent rotation!

These are exciting times!!!  Thanks for being part of the insanity!