Third Place Match: AdamH defeats michaeljb 4-1Entire stream on TwitchVideo Playlist on YouTubeI had tons of fun playing the designed kingdoms. Hopefully I'll get to making videos for the rest of them soon, but I don't know when that will be just yet. I felt no pressure coming into this match since it's just for-funsies, but I felt like I was playing pretty well and hopefully people got what they wanted out of seeing my perspective of things.
Game 1: michaeljb 12,
AdamH 31Game Log Twitch Highlight YouTube VideoKingdom Cards: Squire, Shanty Town, Urchin, Bridge, Marauder, Apprentice, Haggler, Library, Harem, Hoard, with Shelters
We both open Urchin/Marauder, I collide mine and he doesn't. Yeah the game is pretty much decided at this point but he doesn't get more Urchins as soon as he could to fall a little further behind. I have a really good position throughout and though I have a little bit of a weird second-to-last hand where I don't want to empty piles, I'm able to win comfortably.
Game 2: AdamH 11,
michaeljb 20Game Log Twitch Highlight YouTube VideoKingdom Cards: Stonemason, Storeroom, Tunnel, Watchtower, Bishop, Fortress, Rats, Catacombs, Minion, Hunting Grounds, with Shelters
Well I don't play this one very well and he does, so I'm just several turns behind him. He uses Rats/Watchtower to get really thin and I don't bother to trash Coppers so I'm just several turns behind going into the endgame.
Reading the chat log from this game, I must say that jsh357, you are hilarious. "Dive into furry Nirvana" "Embrace chaos" these are some of the best Rats one-liners I've ever heard and I just about died laughing.
Also, they're pointing out all of the terrible decisions I made and all sort of tactical things I missed -- my Stonemason trash was pretty bad, and there was a time I could have trashed a Catacombs to his Bishop to get a Fortress, trashing that to put it in my hand which would have stopped a dud hand. This is one of those Dark Ages games that makes your brain hurt.
You make your own shuffle luck.
Game 3: AdamH 43, michaeljb 6
Game Log Twitch Highlight YouTube VideoKingdom Cards: Poor House, Hamlet, Doctor, Oracle, Tunnel, Remake, Sea Hag, Inn, Merchant Guild, King's Court
KC+Poor House -- michaeljb misses the Remake+Poor House thing which appears to set him back. I get thin pretty quickly and I'm able to pile Provinces pretty quickly. The chat is upset at me for missing a 3-pile win the previous turn.
jsh you're once again hilarious -- "Oracle > Sea Hag in hotness" I'm dying here.
Game 4: michaeljb 52,
AdamH 52Game Log Twitch Highlight YouTube VideoKingdom Cards: Scheme, Storeroom, Trade Route, Gardens, Plaza, Throne Room, Counting House, Festival, Inn, Mountebank, with Platinum/Colony
Counting House with all the enablers. Reading the chat there's apparently some kind of infinite combo here that neither of us saw. He puts together a better deck with the use of some tactical Inns that I never found the time for, but I green a little earlier. I'm still in bad shape, but a couple of endgame blunders for michaeljb and he ends up handing the game to me on turns.
From the chat:
<mic_qsenoch> adam is better than me and this proves it, i don't want to see another "what do the pros think thread ever again?"
<polk5440> oooh
<polk5440> that's quite a compliment
<jsh357> adam's humility is a FACADE
Granted, I wasn't able to build this deck, but there's a takeaway from this kind of thing that's really valuable that I want to hit on: dream big. Whenever I see a board, I make it a point to take a moment and have that pipe dream where my deck does the most awesome thing it possibly can, then I evaluate how realistic it is to achieve. Knowing the coolest, sexiest thing you can do on a board is really valuable for evaluating the strategic landscape of the game.
MQ,
let's not forget something, here. I know it's been a long time since then and I'm a MUCH better player now than I was back then, but there's no doubt in my mind that you're a better player than I am. The moment I think I'm the best player of anything is the moment I stop getting better, so who knows how much of my humility is a facade, but I'll never stop it.
This tournament has been so strange for me because I'm the last person who expected me to do this well -- I'm probably going to have trouble reconciling the fact that I can now play with the big boys with the fact that there are still so many weaknesses in my game (Familiar, anyone?) But to have the guy on the top of the leaderboard say this about me is very... wait for it... humbling. Thank you for your kind words.
Later in the chat:
<mic_qsenoch> ok, adam isn't better than me, i have to take it away, he's just tied with me now, because i would probably play it like this
Better...
Game 5: michaeljb 33,
AdamH 52Game Log Twitch Highlight YouTube VideoKingdom Cards: Storeroom, Wishing Well, Coppersmith, Mining Village, Salvager, Throne Room, Mint, Tactician, Bank, Forge, with Platinum/Colony
Well there's Tactician/Storeroom, but the only support is Salvager with Mint to gain extra Salvager food. Once you're doing that, Storeroom kinda leaves the equation. The trouble is, there are only 12 Platina in the pile and it becomes much harder to keep up the pace. Michaeljb goes for the double Tactician deck while I use Tactician to set up a Mint/Platinum turn and get my chunk of Platina. With this high-powered deck I'm able to take enough of a lead that he can't triple-Colony when he needs to (because there aren't enough Platina to go around) and that seals it for me.
Shout-outs to my bro <3
<megan_omcf> i swear, adam is made for streaming
[...]
<megan_omcf> he's got the personality for it
Yeah I've been broadcasting for a while. I'd say it's a good fit for me
The one thing I noticed was that the chat was a lot harder on me when I misplayed than normal -- I suppose everyone else had already seen these kingdoms and they were played already by AI and JOG so there's a high bar to live up to, but I'm proud of the way I played this match. I'm excited now to catch up with the forums and the finals match -- I'll try to stay unspoiled for the rest of the kingdoms but it's not as big of a deal as before.
Again, this tournament has just been surreal for me. A third place finish and the way I got there is something I'm exceedingly proud of and it's awesome that lots of people got to live the dream with me.