Coheed played well, and I made some errors, but boy did I catch every bad break imaginable in these games. Oh well.
Game 1: I figured Jack is good for getting rid of estates and Trading Post would be good for getting rid of Coppers. I still think it could have worked, but probably Spice Merchant is the safer bet.
Game 2: I think you have to buy the last City, even though it gives your opponent the first turn with better cities, if doing so is necessary to avoid a 7/3 split in his favor. I probably should have just sucked it up and bought a City for $9 instead of that first Province.
Game 3: Border Village + Wharf is very strong. Embassy + Tunnel is also quite strong. Probably all four could make for a decent strategy, but Jack's simplicity is also very strong. Coheed's attempt to incorporate Jack into the engine strategy was just asking for trouble. I think this game was closer than it might have been.
Game 4: If any play sums up how this series went, it's my buying a Province when Coheed's five-card hand was Library, 4xFG. Talk about a punch to the gut. It's not just that he gained a Province, or even that he did so without losing a turn. The worst part was that on a single turn he largely extricated himself from a losing FG strategy. Even though I won this game I got the distinct impression that the universe had it out for me tonight.
Game 5: Once again my rhythm was off in this game. Obviously in an IGG game you've got to hit $5 consistently, and once again I pull an early $8. How do you ignore that in an IGG game? You've got to buy a Province when you can, right? Because it's going to come down to a Duchy race, right? Not if you have such a hard time reaching $5 afterward that you end up swallowing 8 Curses. There's simply no way that a Fool's Gold strategy is the right play on an IGG board -- I mean lots of IGG games never even touch the Provinces! So with all due respect to Coheed, the outcome of this game was simply ridiculous. I will note that I overbought Nomad Camps, but I did so in a desperate attempt to reach $5 before Coheed had handed me all the curses.
Game 6: I didn't play this one well, partly due to the soul-crushing defeats I had already suffered up to this point. I'm still unsure about Oasis vs. Silver here (I am in most games with Oasis actually). Silver is worth more and you can play it if you draw it from Ironworks, but Oasis should give you better cycling so you play your key card (Ironworks) more often. Oasis should be especially useful when your strategy is to flood your deck with green cards. Regardless, I think I bought too many Oases and switched to Estates too late. For all the bad luck I had in the other games, this one comes down to poor play.
Game 7: I think Coheed's play was actually quite clever here, and my claim that his strategy should never have worked was clearly the result of Coheed's having mopped the floor with me over seven games. I do, however, think Coheed's draws couldn't have been
planned much better. Despite using finicky drawers (Crossroads needs green, Stables needs treasure) his cycling over the course of the game is
excellent. He reshuffles after turns 3, 4,
and 5, and after that is off and running.
My expectation - which I have learned was incorrect - was that Coheed's Pirate Ships would make up for one of Jack's few weaknesses: the inability to trash copper. But look at the treasures Coheed's ships trash from my deck: Silver, Copper, Silver, Gold, Silver, Silver, Copper, Copper. By the time the last two coppers were trashed the game was long over. His excellent cycling and very effective crippling of my economy (in a double Jack deck!) was a killer combination.
Thanks for the game Coheed. I hope we get a chance for a rematch.
We certainly aren't ignoring cost differences.