Egork and I got our match finished right away, so here are the games.
Gamw 1:
http://www.gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?/20140324/log.514cd37de4b0fe3236619906.1395695304148.txtBeggar, Moat, Loan, Horse Traders, Procession, Quarry, Mandarin, Pillage, Tribute, Grand Market
We both have the same idea here: Use Loan for trashing and Get GMs. We both pair our Loans with Horse Traders. There's an argument for Quarry, I'm sure, but I really hate pairing Loan with another Treasure. We both decide to pick up the Quarry later. Things go terribly for me and great for him. His Loan just really efficiently gets rid of his Coppers, whereas mine misses the Turn 5 shuffle and never quite recovers. Losing the GM split is pretty huge here, and my foray into Procession never really has a prayer.
Game 2:
http://www.gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?/20140324/log.514cd37de4b0fe3236619906.1395695674339.txtDevelop, Forager, Loan, Trade Route, Trader, Count, Mint, Soothsayer, Tactician, Upgrade
Just sort of the opposite of the first game, I get significantly better luck executing essentially the same strategy. Not much to say about this one. Its probably possible to play it differently than I did, but Foragers and Soothsayer with a single Tactician was good enough.
Game 3:
http://www.gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?/20140324/log.514cd37de4b0fe3236619906.1395697145423.txtChapel, Haven, Vagrant, Forager, Lookout, Salvager, Golem, Tribute, Border Village, Nobles
Tense, tense game. I'm not so sure about my strategy here. Initially I am thinking to really use the Vagrant-Nobles interaction and probably get Golem. But when I draw $3P with Salvager I decide I dont need the Golem after all, and jettison it for other stuff. I feel like I have a big leg up on my opponent, but he smartly pursues Tribute, which is a card I just never pay any attention to at all. It's really strong against me, though, and he has much more stable draw. His money is a little uneven though, and we get into this kind of standoff where we could both Double Province if we drew dream hands, so we are both reluctant to buy the penultimate penultimate Province, for fear of a double after that. Salvager and Border Village are creating a lot of analysis paralysis, too. Eventually I Salvage a Gold so that I can buy Border Village, pick up Duchy, and buy another Salvager. In the end, I can Salvage a Province, Salvage a Duchy, buy two Provinces and an Estate to win by a point (after thinking about it for 10 minutes).
Game 4:
http://www.gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?/20140324/log.514cd37de4b0fe3236619906.1395698270140.txtBeggar, Death Cart, Gardens, Pirate Ship, Counterfeit, Market, Mystic, Tactician, Adventurer, Border Village
This was my favorite game. We pursued wildly different strategies here. He wants to do a big, big time Pirate Ship Double Tactician deck. I don't believe in Pirate Ship, ever, and I know Beggar/Gardens is extremely strong, so I go for that. In a sense, my strategy helps Egork execute his strategy, because he can really reliably hit Coppers to up his ships (and does indeed get them to $7 pretty quickly). But with so many Beggars, it's not really going to hurt my deck size, and it actually helps me resolve Beggar collision, because I can discard one, gain two Silvers, lose one to his Ship, and then play my other Beggar on my turn. Since I know he isn't interested in Gardens, I build more than I would in the mirror, taking a couple Markets that really help me get Gardens + Beggar on subsequent turns.
My post-Gardens moves are pretty cool. I can play Beggar, buy Border Village, gain Deathcart, gain 2 Ruins... for a net gain of 7 cards per turn!
He is really going off at this point though. With a big hand and ample villages, he can play lots of Ships for lots of money and pile drive the Provinces fairly effectively.
Once the Ruins are out my best chance is to drain Beggars, so on an off hand I buy a single Border Village-Beggar to set myself up for the win next turn. He needs a lot of points to catch me, though it is possible if he has a really good draw off his Tactician. What I should have known was that I had Markets coming up, and would likely have been able to double Beggar anyway, making Border Village-Duchy a much better play. In any case, he doesn't get it and I win. Very exciting game. I do feel like it was close, and though I have a lot of faith in my strategy and zero in Pirate Ship, it's conceivable to me that I could be wrong here.
Thanks for the games!