Earlier this evening I played a session of 15 games. The good: I won two of them. The bad? None of the others were ties.
I wasn't feeling too sharp (my eyes were half-closed and my head was resting horizontally on the palm of my left hand), but I still thought I was getting terrible luck everywhere, like winning the Gardens split in a Beggar-Gardens mirror but losing the war. The
following game, however, made me realize that I was being a bit too kind to myself.
Pearl Diver, Hermit, Storeroom, Baron, Bridge, Noble Brigand, Sea Hag, Rebuild, Witch, PossessionThe advantage of being P2 is that it forces you to spend a bit more time than usual looking at the board, time I fruitfully used to come up with something akin to the following read: there's Hermit and Sea Hag and not much else going on.
I decided that for my $3 I definitely wanted a Hermit, and what to do with my $4 would depend on what my opponent would get. Much to my surprise he opened Silver with $3, and to my complete bafflement followed it up with a Baron (Baron!?) on $4. Now Sea Hag was the obvious choice.
Quite a number of players with a ranking in the 5k-6k range at times make very odd openings, but then fall in line when you show them the ropes, when you lead by example. My present opponent did not belong to that group; with $4 on T3 he stubbornly bought a Silver.
On T4 he connected his Baron and was going to spend his $7 on the obvious Gol...
...Rebuild.If anyone is curious about the so-called "aha-moments" in my Dominion career--moments where things suddenly click, where you feel like having just made a leap of progress, reaching a higher level of understanding--well... this was certainly one of them.
Having awakened, I used my fresh, new-found perspective to look at the board as if for the first time. And indeed, what surprising discoveries I made! Not only could I confirm the existence of Rebuild, but there were even more cards I hadn't yet noticed before, like Witch, and Possession.
I realized that switching to a mirror would be hopeless, but then thought that if I would possess him with Rebuild in hand, I could name Estate to gain a guaranteed Province, a 6VP gain for me, while he could at most gain 3VP from any one Rebuild play.
I think the idea was good, but my execution wasn't quite optimal (I bought 2 Bridges thinking "hmm, Bridge makes Possession cheaper, yeah, that's good"--yes, literally), yet I still came really close, losing by only 3 points.
Lesson 1: Possession as a defense against Rebuild feels like it's worth exploring, provided you can get it quickly and you probably want a way to play it somewhat reliably. Apothecary sounds like excellent support. So does Wharf + Village, which by itself is weaker than Rebuild.
Lesson 2: Despite the many rooms that Goko kindly offers, they are not such a great place to sleep.
