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[amalloy]

I just played a game against temron, on this kingdom:

Code: [Select]

Beggar, Pearl Diver, Vagrant, Menagerie, Steward, Bridge, Conspirator, Fortress, Tournament, Fairgrounds
This looks like a really fun board, and I think a Bridge engine should be able to outrace a Tournament player, but I'm not sure. I opened Tournament/Steward, but I now think that was a big mistake - the extra coin from Tournament quickly becomes irrelevant, and he can block me from using it in the lategame, so another Steward or maybe a Fortress would have been better.

Anyway, just as I'm really starting to fire he buys his fourth and fifth Province, which means I don't have long to come back. After drawing and playing everything, I count things up and realize I have just enough buys to end on a win...as long as I don't trash the Curse he gave me last turn! It's my 10th unique card, making Fairgrounds better than Duchy and getting me the extra edge I needed.

So, I dunno, probably nothing unique here, but I thought you guys might enjoy this kingdom, and I'd be interested to see how well a player better than I am could have built the Bridge deck.

[shark_bait]

The opening is fine.  When you open Tournament you do 2 things.  First, you decrease the chance of Steward coming up on Turn 5.  Second, you allow for Steward trashing to get a $3 cost card if both Steward and Tournament are in the same hand. 

T5 - You want Menagerie, cycling is so important here and another steward is another terminal.

T6 - You get Silver here, better to buy Menagerie on T5 and then make this a Menagerie.  You probably don't want a Silver in this deck.

T7 -  Nothing exciting here.

T8 - Get a Bridge.  You want Bridge before Fortress.  What does this do?  Getting Bridge first allows for getting a $5 hand and obtaining two keys cards.  You can get a $4-cost and a Menagerie (there is no other card at $3 that you should be getting at this point)

T9 - Had you gotten Bridge on Turn 8, you get 2 engine components.

I'll stop here.  But the thing is, these little things and nuances in buy order change the pace of your engine drastically.  Your opponent never had a chance to block you before Turn 10.  Your engine should be almost ready to win the game by Turn 10.

This engine is honestly so strong that you can easily lose out on some prizes and win.  Menagerie provides draw from the Followers' attack and Steward can keep up with trashing the incoming Curses.

Look at some of these games to see how you can do better.  Look specifically at the deck state at the end of Turn 10 compared to yours.

http://www.gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?/20140402/log.50ea2963e4b0429cfe091cec.1396444729857.txt

http://www.gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?/20140402/log.50ea2963e4b0429cfe091cec.1396445275641.txt

http://www.gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?/20140402/log.50ea2963e4b0429cfe091cec.1396445549546.txt

Hopefully these help you see how you could get your engine going a couple of turns earlier.  The tl:dr version of things would be as follows.  Get one Steward, get Bridge before Fortress.  Focus on building while still trashing with Steward.  Alternate getting Bridges and Fortresses while picking up Menageries with extra Buys.  You should be able to be get a couple of turns faster which makes a big difference.

[shark_bait]

Double post but this is different.

This game plays completely differently in the mirror.  For the mirror match the 3-pile will be likely.  Menagerie, Bridge and Fortress are all highly contested piles.  You must always be aware of exactly how many buys your opponent has.  If they have exactly enough buys to deplete piles, you'd better be ahead.  If they can empty piles with a extra buy, you'll want a Province.  I think what will be important in the mirror is getting an edge in the Bridge/Fortress split.  Getting this edge prevents your opponent from having more buys than you and gives you end-game control.  Conspirator can become a useful card when Bridge/Fortress/Menagerie are close to empty.  You will almost always be able to activate them and they will help you get to multi province turns while only having say 4 Bridges in play as opposed to 7.

But yeah, this mirror will be so different but it does have relevance to non-mirror building.  The similarity to building the engine in non-mirror is that every turn matters.  With Bridge your engine does not scale linearly but it scales exponentially to some extent.  If you are a turn slower than you could have been, your opponent could use that extra turn to obtain 2xBridge and 2xFortress putting them at a distinct advantage.  In that way you need to make sure that you are playing your engine optimally giving you the best chance of winning those key splits.  In a non-mirror you can be a turn or two slower and still win easily.  However in the mirror, those 1 or 2 turns will easily make you lose.