I just played my match against Marin. It was a strange match, not really living up to the expectations.
Somewhere in between all the resigning, frustration moves and misclicks there were some good games but you'll have to look closely to find them.
Game 1: Provinces / Estates - Altar, Copper, Cultist, Curse, Duchy, Estate, Gold, Graverobber, Island, Outpost, Province, Ruins, Scavenger, Silver, Smithy, Vault, Worker's Village, Lookout
Cultist is clearly going to be important but it won't be just Cultist-BM. Cleaning up is too strong with the combination of Altar and the best $3 trasher in the game. The payload of some combination of Outpost, Island & Graverobber is huge.
I decide to open Scavenger/Silver because of this (rather the the usual silver/silver on a cultist board). Marin took it one step further and opened lookout/Scavenger.
On turn 3 I had $7 and was a bit in doubt between Altar and Cultist. In the end I took Altar and it payed off bigtime.
Game 2: Provinces / Estates - Armory, Bureaucrat, Copper, Curse, Develop, Duchy, Estate, Gold, Haggler, Marauder, Merchant Ship, Monument, Province, Ruins, Sea Hag, Silver, Trading Post, Cellar
A bit of a boring set without any villages. He gets to open Trade Route/Cellar and that frustrates me. I shouldn't let it happen but it does. On turn 4 I buy a Trading Post of my own, but that's just a bad card by now. It should have been a gold and it's the play I'm least proud of. I should lose this and I do.
Game 3: Colonies / Estates - Bazaar, Chancellor, Colony, Copper, Curse, Duchy, Estate, Gold, Mint, Pearl Diver, Platinum, Potion, Province, Sea Hag, Silver, Tactician, Treasure Map, University, Village, Duchess
Again no real trashing and a Sea Hag, but this is a lot more interesting. Tactician, Mint and University may see play still, because it's a Colony game.
We both decide to skip University. He gets a second Sea Hag and I decide not to. I'm fine with losing the curse split 6-4 because of this. I add a second Tactician where he doesn't.
I'm not really playing double-tact, just single-tact-with-two-tacticians. I like it because first I want to hit $9 and then I want to combine Mint with Platinum a lot, but I can't say I'm sure of it. It does work though.
Game 4: Provinces / Estates - Bandit Camp, Baron, Butcher, Copper, Curse, Duchy, Estate, Gold, Knights, Pirate Ship, Province, Rabble, Scavenger, Silver, Tactician, Treasure Map, Storeroom
double tact, knights, no real trashing and Dame Anna on top. Whoever hits $5 first is likely to win here. Because of that I want to open Scavenger/Silver against his Baron/Silver. Unfortunately he gets it, and goes on to have really nice draws. Anna clears out both his deck and mine, except on my side it's not the coppers that go.
His turns take longer and longer while I just click&go. When I'm about ready to resign I realize what happened here... he went first for the 3rd time in a row now. Ugh!
He offers to replay but since he's already as good as won this game that feels a bit unfair. We agree that he can have this one and I'll go first on the remaining two games.
Game 5: Provinces / Shelters - Armory, Band of Misfits, Copper, Curse, Duchy, Estate, Feast, Gardens, Gold, Golem, JackOfAllTrades, Plaza, Potion, Province, Silver, Treasure Map, Venture, Fool's Gold
Here something really strange happened. I clearly consider this an engine board, but somehow Marin wanted to play a slog. First time for everything. On turn 5 he even gets a Gardens, intending to win the split. However, when I take the Golem on turn 6 he switches plan dramatically. It works out reasonably well but he is off course behind after that. Then he makes a misclick with Jack and resigns in frustration. It wouldn't matter though because at that point I had around 12 coin tokens and just wasn't going to miss province anymore, and was likely to hit more feasts then he would.
It's a tricky engine to play - much trickier then I realized at first. Really hard to control reshuffles with Golem and if you go wrong you could be dead in the waters for 3 turns long.
Game 6: Provinces / Estates - Black Market, Copper, Courtyard, Curse, Cutpurse, Duchy, Estate, Gold, Hamlet, Ill-Gotten Gains, Junk Dealer, Plaza, Potion, Province, Remake, Silver, University, Cellar
Black Market!
It's my favorite card and I think his as well. Maybe I should have suggested playing all 6 games with it. Because of the lack of draw we both decide to skip university, opening remake/courtyard. After that I get extremely good t3/4, where he doesn't. This puts me a mile ahead. After that we're both digging for gems with our double-black-market deck. His main village is Hamlet and unexperienced with goko that just screams for misclicks. His first is on turn 11, discarding Courtyard for a +buy. Then I join the party on my turn 12, which implies I miss the $7 for KC (I knew it was coming). On his turn 12 he again gets a +buy out of his courtyard. This, and my lead, is enough to call it a day.
One good thing though... I told Marin about the extension, he installed it somewhere between game 2 & 3, and now we might see him more often on Goko.