I was delighted to win the right to lose gloriously in round 2.
Ha! True enough, and well-fought. Some quick thoughts:
Game 1: This was just awful for both of us! Such a slog.
Game 2: The more I look at this, the more I think TP was the right move. I nearly grabbed it on T1, then thought, no, wait, HP stack will be faster, and with Hoard there's no need for a terminal. I think taking the Province on T8(?) would have been a better move, but would have slowed me down enough for you to catch that up.
Game 3: Forge was the key here. Being able to pull off the double-Duchy meant I went from a winning battle to a losing battle in one turn.
Game 4: The T5 Potion was bad, but it was actually Turn 12 that was worse. Not only did having Potion on the very bottom deny me buying a fifth Alchemist, it also disrupted my stack. If Potion had been two cards earlier, this game would have ended differently, but such is Dominion! I'm thinking Loan would have boosted either of us.
Game 5: I think the Baron/SR strategy here was just far more powerful than you thought--in fact I went for it specifically because it was "immune" to shuffle luck. My T3 Baron doesn't connect, but that actually doesn't matter; SR wants the extra Estate anyway, and it makes Baron collision that much more likely. I was, however, quite lucky to get four SRs in two turns.
Game 6: I'm wondering if I should have gone ahead and taken Thief with that first BM play... but not getting a Witch in the second shuffle, as you say, was the real key problem. Perhaps half my play here was desperation moves.
Great series! I was out of practice, but this was a good set of games.