http://www.gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?/20140424/log.51376a99e4b006f8dc8cca4c.1398376966382.txtEmbargo, Pearl Diver, Island, Noble Brigand, Counterfeit, Counting House, Merchant Guild, Pillage, Tactician, Peddler
This is the first time I've had pearl diver play an important role in my deck. Without pearl diver, my deck would have been much slower and harder to build. And no, Vineyards were not on the board. In this kingdom, there are only two cards that allow you to play more actions that turn: peddler and pearl diver (sort of tactician). Therefore, the only way to get peddler to cost 0 (without previously purchasing peddlers for 2+) is with pearl diver. Pearl diver was also good as fodder to get coin tokens with merchant guild with. There is +buy in the form of tactician, counterfeit, and merchant guild, so it is easy to stock up on $0 peddlers. Stacking up of $0 peddlers is especially good because of merchant guild, another generally below average card that was good here. I don't know if I would call my deck an engine (My hand size never increases except with tactician), but I don't know of any BM deck that can get 5 colonies and a Province in 16 turns! My deck is a sort of double-tactician, except I don't always play tactician on my tactician turn, so it is a hybrid of double and single tact. My economy comes from merchant guild and peddler, which is really quite a combo. Island and counterfeit provide a little bit of necessary thinning. Counterfeit isn't ideal because I can't play it on turns where I play tactician, but it does give me another +buy, which is nice with merchant guild and peddler. I buy a couple early silvers, which I don't really want, but I need to hit five early. Turn 8 is really important, because it lets me get 3 pearl divers which will be plenty to get peddlers, and I get 3 coin tokens as well. It allows me on turn 10 to get 10 coin tokens, a tactician, and 4 peddlers.
So, pearl diver isn't the real power card here, the real deck is around merchant guild/tactician/peddler, but it makes the deck a lot easier to build. Without it, I would have had a much harder time getting peddlers to start. And I did use the topdecking in a helpful way a couple times.
I think I did get above average luck here, but regardless, I think it is the optimal strategy for sure. Embargo could have really hurt it though... my opponent also got unlucky, not hitting $5 until T8. Perhaps we should have ignored island?