I'm sure everyone here has heard of PPR - in a game without or with unreliable +Buy it's dangerous to get the second-to-last Province because the other player might have more VP than you blah blah blah. There's also that tactic of trashing all but one opening Estate so you can win on an even Province split.
But there are definitely other ways you can trick your opponent in the greening phase/endgame. The one I've noticed a lot when I play my default Base deck is what I call the "Three Province Trap". It happens when both players are aiming for engines that get double Province and goes something like this:
Player 1 buys one Province before their engine is finished
Player 2 finishes engine and buys two Provinces
Player 1 finishes engine and buys two Provinces
Now there are three Provinces left and the split is Player 1: 3, Player 2: 2. This normally goes in one of three directions:
Player 2 buys two more Provinces
Player 1 buys the last Province plus some combination of Duchies and Estates and wins
Player 2 buys just one Province and some combination of Duchies and Estates
Player 1 buys the last two Provinces and wins
Player 2 buys some combination of Duchies, Estates, and non-VP cards
Player 1 buys two more Provinces
Player 2 buys the last Province and some combination of Duchies and Estates (and then loses from not enough VP)
Obviously this is in a game where the only VP come from Province/Duchy/Estate. The only way I've managed to beat people who pull this off is by them getting bad draw on their would-be winning hand. Are there ways to avoid this trap? What would you do?
But more importantly, what other greening traps are there out there? There are a lot more VP cards than the basic three, so there have got to be more tactics like this.
