http://www.gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?/20140318/log.50a6c1abe4b03214bb7822e9.1395127269099.txtEmbargo, Ambassador, Swindler, Coppersmith, Procession, Worker's Village, Catacombs, Highway, Witch, Border Village
Border Village, Highway, Catacombs, Worker's Village, Ambassador, hurray! This looks like tons of fun! OK, I should be able to open double Ambassador and get thin quick before building into a big Highway megaturn. Plus if my opponent gets ahead, well I've come from behind in Ambassador games before when my opponent didn't handle the midgame right.
We both open double Ambassador and then our decks don't look similar for much longer.
michaeljb: turn 3
michaeljb plays 4 Copper
michaeljb buys Worker's Village
Probably should have got Silver instead of getting excited about the engine and multiple Ambassadors, but I could swear I've opened Amb/Amb/village before and it's worked out.
michaeljb gains Worker's Village
michaeljb draws Copper, Ambassador, Copper, Ambassador, Copper
Well that kind of sucks. Better thin down as much as I can though.
prozacraindrop: turn 3
prozacraindrop plays Ambassador
prozacraindrop reveals Estate
prozacraindrop returns Estate to the Supply
michaeljb gains Estate
prozacraindrop plays 3 Copper
prozacraindrop buys Silver
prozacraindrop gains Silver
michaeljb: turn 4
michaeljb plays Ambassador
michaeljb reveals Copper
michaeljb returns Copper to the Supply
michaeljb returns Copper to the Supply
prozacraindrop gains Copper
michaeljb draws Estate, Estate
michaeljb shuffles deck
michaeljb draws Copper, Copper, Estate
Well this doesn't bode well for me. Opponent returned one card instead of two, but hey I returned two, so I got that going for me, which is nice. Unfortunately I picked up a $2 hand (also note, this means I definitely won't be able to return two Estates this shuffle). At least there's Embargo for some cash I guess.
prozacraindrop: turn 4
prozacraindrop plays Ambassador
prozacraindrop reveals Estate
prozacraindrop returns Estate to the Supply
prozacraindrop returns Estate to the Supply
michaeljb gains Estate
prozacraindrop plays 2 Copper
prozacraindrop buys Embargo
prozacraindrop gains Embargo
michaeljb: turn 5
michaeljb plays 2 Copper
michaeljb buys Embargo
michaeljb gains Embargo
michaeljb draws Ambassador, Ambassador, Copper, Copper, Copper
Oh, come on.
prozacraindrop: turn 5
prozacraindrop plays Ambassador
prozacraindrop reveals Copper
michaeljb gains Copper
prozacraindrop plays 3 Copper, 1 Silver
prozacraindrop buys Witch
prozacraindrop gains Witch
michaeljb: turn 6
michaeljb plays Ambassador
michaeljb reveals Copper
michaeljb returns Copper to the Supply
michaeljb returns Copper to the Supply
prozacraindrop gains Copper
michaeljb draws Worker's Village, Estate
michaeljb shuffles deck
michaeljb draws Estate, Estate, Estate
Two reshuffles with 3+ Estates in the first hand. Opponent has 0 Estates, 1 Silver, and 1 Witch to my 5 Estates and 1 Worker's Village.
Clearly I should have got Silver instead of Worker's Village (or maybe not so clearly, would have just got me a second Embargo so far)...and if I had opened Amb/Silver, my first two Amb turns could have been return 2 Coppers, buy a Silver, or buy a second Amb, or even return 0 Coppers and start on Highways or get a Witch.
Maybe I should have also done return 0 Copper, buy a Silver instead of thinning down more. I was just thinking I would be returning 2 Estates at a time in not time. Guess I just murdered my own economy instead.
So, little bit of not-so-great tactical play on my part, little bit of bad shuffle luck to start off the game.
Eventually I do manage to get some Silvers, return 2 Estates at once, even get a Procession instead of Worker's Village--another thing that would have been great to do earlier than I did; it would possibly help me return cards more quickly, and actually help me get the engine pieces I need, instead of being prepared for them. So admittedly, this game is not without fault on my part, but I still cannot believe the shuffling that happened early on.
So I did end up making some good choices, but alas, I was not able to catch up, as my opponent made short work of me with the huge early lead and all those juicy engine pieces begging for a nice big Province-piledriver turn.
Oh wait, no, that didn't happen. This is the final turn of the game:
prozacraindrop: turn 30
prozacraindrop plays Worker's Village
prozacraindrop draws Border Village
prozacraindrop plays Worker's Village
prozacraindrop draws Highway
prozacraindrop plays Border Village
prozacraindrop draws Copper
prozacraindrop plays Highway
prozacraindrop draws Gold
prozacraindrop plays Witch
prozacraindrop shuffles deck
prozacraindrop draws Ambassador, Gold
prozacraindrop plays Ambassador
prozacraindrop reveals Copper
prozacraindrop returns Copper to the Supply
michaeljb gains Copper
prozacraindrop plays 3 Gold
prozacraindrop buys Province
prozacraindrop gains Province
prozacraindrop buys Estate
prozacraindrop gains Estate
prozacraindrop buys Estate
prozacraindrop gains Estate
Game Over
prozacraindrop cards: 6 Highway, 4 Border Village, 2 Worker's Village, 2 Witch, 2 Ambassador, 5 Gold, 3 Silver, 2 Copper, 8 Province, 4 Duchy, 3 Estate, 2 Curse
prozacraindrop total victory points: 61
prozacraindrop turns: 30
michaeljb cards: 4 Worker's Village, 4 Catacombs, 2 Ambassador, 2 Border Village, 2 Procession, 1 Swindler, 8 Copper, 7 Silver, 2 Estate, 8 Curse
michaeljb total victory points: -6
michaeljb turns: 30
1st place prozacraindrop
2nd place michaeljb
Yup, THIRTY TURNS. I was "mathematically eliminated" much earlier but stuck it out, mainly because I was (morbidly) curious about how long it would actually take him to end the game.
I was right about some opponents not playing Ambassador->Engine midgames right (disclaimer: no idea what his ranking is, I just play "all cards #vpon"); this guy got FIVE Golds, ZERO Catacombs, ended this game with multiple Coppers AND Curses in his deck, and was apparently scared off from buying a bunch of Highways by the Embargoes, even when he would have been able to engine his way through it and pass those Curses right back to me, or literally gain 0 Curses with the buy since the pile was empty anyway.
Lessons learned:
- if your real engine pieces are $5+, buy some gorram Silver early on (I swear I've learned this one before)
- you don't need that silly village till you actually need it
- seriously don't buy a second village if you still don't have that gorram Silver
- opening Ambassador/Silver guarantees you have some Silver no matter what shuffling or bad village choices happen
- still though, that shuffling really happened?
- even when the shuffling seems to be against you, you probably deserve it
- getting in just one (or two) quick game of Dominion doesn't always work out, sometimes it turns into (probably) the longest single-game report you've written
Anyone have some more lessons from this game that I missed?
edit: made the list formatted as a list, added one more item to it