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[TheMirrorMan]

"Russian roulette" - TheMirrorMan - EgorK : 4 - 2

Next match : up against EgorK (EK). A very nice Russian guy that amazed in the GokoDom match. So I knew I had to watch out. And boy did I feel it.


Game 1 : "Black market rules" - EK begins, EK wins.

Log : http://www.gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?/20140530/log.505d7a160cf2ef979299a48e.1401457375684.txt

Code: [Select]

Black Market, Great Hall, Bishop, Caravan, Cutpurse, Plaza, Walled Village, Embassy, Outpost, Witch
No shelters, provinces.

Ah here we go again. The black market. This time, a lack of trashing and +buy. Egor owns the very special Walled Village card which to me is ... often utter useless. Witch is there for junking.

So what to open here ? Plaza is probably a bit too early here, so I go Caravan/BM, while Egor takes BM/cutpurse. Bit surprise, but hey, there's enough villages on the board to play them.

The cutpurse ends up working nicely, since he 2x hits my hand getting it to $2. But the worst thing of all ...

T6 he picks up Ambassador (oh dear, I am in deep trouble), I pick up a Horse traders.

T9 he picks up ... chapel. Yeah, and then I get serious snowballing. I need to pick up witch to do something but all the curses just get thrown back to me and I still can't get any trasher out of the deck.

Even when he buys golds and I shove back silvers in with Embassy ... His deck is just too clean.

Conclusion : just got screwed by the Black Market. Not much more to say.


Game 2 : "Here comes the mirror man" - MM begins, MM wins.

Log : http://www.gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?/20140530/log.505d7a160cf2ef979299a48e.1401458421973.txt

Code: [Select]

Doctor, Fortune Teller, Masquerade, Plaza, Quarry, Remake, Young Witch, Butcher, Inn, Library, Wharf
No shelters, provinces.
Bane : Fortune teller.

I start in game 2 and on this board I am really happy with first player advantage. We both have 3/4. YW is out of the question with such an engine going on and Masq on the board. 3 is Masq, what is 4 ? We both opt for Quarry, given Inn/Plaza/Wharf/...

It's a back and forth but as starting player I always have that starting edge. For the endgame, I pick up a quick Butcher. The moment the greens are almost over, he stocks up on coins but he needs about $20 to get anywhere. He tries to, but just too little.

Not much more to say, stupid mirror.


Game 3 : "Is rebuild really that good ?" - MM begins, MM wins.

Log : http://www.gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?/20140530/log.505d7a160cf2ef979299a48e.1401459047190.txt

Code: [Select]

Beggar, Stonemason, Armory, Bureaucrat, Gardens, Island, Remodel, Rebuild, Tribute, Wharf
Shelters, provinces.

Yeay, no estates Goko ?! And you reward us with ... Rebuild.

Now, there's a lot of stuff on the board. To me this seems to be centered around Gardens somewhat, with beggar, bureaucrat, armory ... But maybe Wharf ? Rebuild (with shelters, I dunno) ?

It's a bit of a think. I've got 4/3 and at one point I even consider doing SM for 2 beggars ... Then think ... that's going to be REALLY slow. So I decide on bureaucrat/beggar.

In hindsight, this could be an error - if he picks up a beggar here, he gets 2 silvers which of course get his gardens count up too.

However, Egor doesn't pick up any of them and just goes for plain Silver/Silver. I'm surprised, this means he's NOT going for gardens.

No, he goes straight for rebuild. So I follow suit. Now of course, this requires some precaution : you don't want to trash your gardens, so you need to buy an extra green inbetween.

He is quick in getting the duchies - which signals me not to pick up estates but beggars at $2. He does get to the five duchies (rebuilding some islands, I think he should have taken the gardens instead), but I've already remodeled 2 into provinces and am getting my gardens in. Since the duchies are gone, he needs to contest the gardens now but his deck is just too small to get any points out of it and he can't rebuild them anymore into decent stuff.

In the end, I have him cornered - he can't get a province anymore (1 left), the islands have one left too, so his rebuilds become useless. I don't really get much extra money, but now I can piledrive estates. I win.


Game 4 : "In Russia, Gold fools YOU!" - MM begins, MM wins

Log : http://www.gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?/20140530/log.505d7a160cf2ef979299a48e.1401459639403.txt

Code: [Select]

Fool's Gold, Forager, Village, Bishop, Gardens, Mining Village, Spice Merchant, Golem, Merchant Guild, Upgrade
No shelters, provinces.

Well I don't know what Egor was thinking here but this looks like a FG board to me. He apparently had Villages/MG/Gardens in mind, but that seems so awfully slow.

He opens nothing (?) first turn - that means he doesn't want FG - and then Upgrade.

It gets ugly prettly fast with Spice merchant/forager. I'm already at 7 FGs and 1 province on turn 8. He decides to go for the Gardens as an outer, but it's just not that good, since he needs to trash some stuff again with forager ... I just pick some gardens up myself and he's left without any decent way to end the game.


Game 5 : "In Belgium ... Gold fools ME!" - EK begins, EK wins.

Log : http://www.gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?/20140530/log.505d7a160cf2ef979299a48e.1401460123126.txt

Code: [Select]

Crossroads, Fool's Gold, Alchemist, Caravan, Coppersmith, Rats, Cultist, Market, Saboteur, Torturer
No shelters, provinces.

Cultist is central on this board and with CR being the only village ... It's going to be Cultist Big Money.

So I think, "hey, let's be smart - take Fool's Golds!" - even though there is no +buy you will get them in your hand with your cultists.

Well, no. especially since Silver/Silver for EK gives him a quick cultist ... or 5. I've got 8 ruins in my deck. and I'm down by two provinces ... I take in some extra FG (hey, stick with the plan!) but Egor empties the cultists with 2 provinces up and then just takes the remaining FGs. No question here : outplayed. Well done Egor.


Game 6 : "Shot by the greens" - EK begins, MM wins.

Log : http://www.gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?/20140530/log.505d7a160cf2ef979299a48e.1401460505582.txt

Code: [Select]

Steward, Swindler, Bridge, Silk Road, Cultist, Journeyman, Margrave, Merchant Ship, Witch, Forge
No shelters, provinces.

Safe to say - this is SURELY a cultist board.

And I'm of course delighted with my 5/2 here against his 3/4. My cultist appears t3 but I then have some trouble finding them in my deck.

We split cultists 4/4 but I hit Egor with the ruins harder : 6 for him, 4 for me. We build up the money Now I see an ending appearing of course : out of cultists and you're already two piles down. So at $5, I decide to buy an intermediary duchy. Egor does not follow and continues buying money. Consequently I just pick up more cultists. I've got more draw, he's got an extra gold.

It turns out this just worked a little bit better. Duchies suddenly get low and with stuff like a silk road at a cheap $4 ... I take the last win.


Thanks for the games EgorK! Nice to have played with the Walled village (even though we didn't buy it).

Four down, two to go ...

[assemble_me]

D8, QwertZuiop vs. assemble_me, the "German duel"

Here we go again, game 4 for me, another game against one of our division's top players who will probably fight for the promotion against TheMirrorMan. I'm not too worried, I'm sure I can reach a draw against him as well . Turns out he is German, too, so we can chat in Deutsch. Sehr schön .
As always, I'm very happy to read about your thoughts on these games. Thanks
/E: Logs added

Game 1

Code: [Select]

Duchess, Pearl Diver, Apothecary, Menagerie, Familiar, Advisor, Farming Village, Highway, Stash, TreasuryProvinces, Estates

http://www.gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?20140530/log.50e7525ee4b0b5b74140a6c0.1401451914256.txt

QwertZuiop starts, assemble_me wins

Not an exciting board here with Duchess being the only terminal. There's Highway, but no +Buy, Apothecary, but it's only the consolation price for a missed Familiar, because there's no trashing either. We both open Potion/Silver on 4/3. I get my Familiar on the first reshuffle while he has to pick up an Apothecary. He gets the first Province while being behind 3-6 on curses but manages to give me the last one. Finally, the two Menageries I'd put up by the way prove to be good and activate on my last two turns for Province buys No. 4 and 5, while he's buying Dutchies and Estates

1-0


Game 2

Code: [Select]

Haven, Squire, Advisor, Militia, Tournament, Contraband, Journeyman, Merchant Guild, Outpost, ForgeProvinces, Estates

http://www.gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?20140530/log.505f03ecfca2893af1cba622.1401452669928.txt

assemble_me starts, QwertZuiop wins

So here is Squire as a Village, Journeyman for the draw, Forge as trashing and Merchant Guild as nice engine payload and +Buy but then, there's Tournament .
We both open Militia/Squire. He can get a Journeyman on turn 4 which helps him to a very early Province on turn 5 which is almost game. My deck is not really coming together, he can connect his Province and Tournament for Followers buying his second Province while I haven't gotten one. I continue to do nothing, he continues buying Provinces and I resign on turn 19 being behind 5-1 on Provinces and 4 on Curses/Estates.

1-1


Game 3

Code: [Select]

Haven, Develop, Scheme, Smugglers, Coppersmith, Moneylender, Young Witch, Merchant Ship, Royal Seal, Grand Market, ForgeBane: Develop
Provinces, Estates

http://www.gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?20140530/log.50e7525ee4b0b5b74140a6c0.1401453452426.txt

QwertZuiop starts, QwertZuiop wins

The key cards on this board are probably Young Witch and Grand Market. The question is how to get there and what to do with them. He decides to prioritize GM ignoring YW and opens Silver/Moneylender while I open Silver/Young Witch as I expect Develop not to be the best Bane ever and its trashing as quite slow. He picks up an early Develop and an early Gold. I decide to add a Moneylender and a bunch of Royal Seals (probably too many). I can get the first Grand Market but his Develops and Moneylender did a very good job for a trimmed deck and he can manage to win the GM split 7-3 and get a 4-2 Province lead. I think I'm lost in the long run and decide to go for the PP, he just buys the last one on his turn.

1-2


Game 4

Code: [Select]

Pearl Diver, Masquerade, Tunnel, Woodcutter, Feodum, JackOfAllTrades, Spice Merchant, Throne Room, Haggler, FairgroundsProvinces, Shelters

http://www.gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?20140530/log.505f03ecfca2893af1cba622.1401455198117.txt

QwertZuiop starts, assemble_me wins

This is a very interesting board. You could build an engine here (if your name is Adam ) with Jack and his best engine friend Spice Merchant, but I'm not sure if it's THAT hot with Masquerade as only draw for bigger hands and Throne Room as the only Village. But there's also +Buy with Woodcutter and extra gains from Haggler and of course Fairgrounds favors the engine builder. But then, there's also Feodum. Gaining Silvers with Jack, gaining lots of Feoda blasting a few at an opportune moment seems really good. I like Feodum and want to go for it. However, I think I can't ignore Masquerade, so I open Masquerade/Jack which may be a bit aggressive, but I think I like it on a Shelters board. He opens Masq/Spice Merchant which signals he is going for the engine. I think that I shouldn't go for the Feoda directly and build up a bit. I'm getting a second Jack and two Golds. After buying my first Province I'm getting my first Feodum for 6$. He has already picked up a bunch of engine components and his Spice Merchants has thinned all his coppers.
He follows me on Provinces, after my 3rd he goes for Fairgrounds and after my 4th I'm going for Feoda. I'm having a 8 point lead with six provinces gone but I'm a bit concerned if he could be able to double Province. It's a tight run for the points. He denies one of the Feoda for his Fairgrounds variety. When he has taken a one point lead, I'm getting 8$ and my Jack-gained Silver pumps up my Feodum points so I buy the province and have a 11 points lead at once. He's getting closer again but I can get the last province (and by the way Jack pushes the Feodum level again).

2-2


Game 5

Code: [Select]

Hermit, Herald, Apprentice, Counterfeit, Duke, Explorer, Rabble, Venture, Farmland, Hunting GroundsProvinces, Estates

http://www.gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?20140530/log.50e7525ee4b0b5b74140a6c0.1401455893658.txt

assemble_me starts, assemble_me wins

I'm having 5/2 on this board and open Counterfeit/- (I like Counterfeit) while he opens Hermit/Hermit. I'm getting Rabble, Apprentice and Golds; he's gaining lots of Silver and and a Counterfeit. He starts going for the Duchies but I can answer with 10+ and two Buys for double Duchy. He gets a second Duchy but I can just double Duchy again. After his third, I only have 4$ in my hand so I decide to trash one Duchy finding Gold, Counterfeit and Rabble which help me to Duchy + Duke winning the Duchy split 4-3, then we split the Dukes 4-4. During our last turns I probably got quite lucky. With all that green I could find a bunch of good cards, buy a province for a nice lead, then do nothing for two turns and after the reshuffle I could buy the last province.

3-2


Game 6

Code: [Select]

Vineyard, Haven, Native Village, Stonemason, Fortune Teller, Familiar, Remake, Contraband, Venture, ForgeColonies, Estates

http://www.gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?20140530/log.505f03ecfca2893af1cba622.1401456711469.txt

assemble_me starts, QwertZuiop wins

So here it is again, Game 6 and a Colony board where Venture can shine. I'm making a big mistake and miss the Remake, so I open Fortune Teller/Silver to his Remake/Silver. He also picks up a stonemason and gets to Platinum faster. We both get a buch of Ventures. It seems I'm out of luck and I've got no real chance to make up for his early Platina.

3-3


Again? Really? Yeah, but like in my first match I really feel like a winner here. My last question is: How many 3-3 in a row do you have to play for the combo bonus ?
Good luck to QwertZuiop, I'm excited to see how the race for division C is going on in our group.

[TheMirrorMan]

D8, QwertZuiop vs. assemble_me, the "German duel"

Game 6

Code: [Select]

Vineyard, Haven, Native Village, Stonemason, Fortune Teller, Familiar, Remake, Contraband, Venture, ForgeColonies, Estates

assemble_me starts, QwertZuiop wins

So here it is again, Game 6 and a Colony board where Venture can shine. I'm making a big mistake and miss the Remake, so I open Fortune Teller/Silver to his Remake/Silver. He also picks up a stonemason and gets to Platinum faster. We both get a buch of Ventures. It seems I'm out of luck and I've got no real chance to make up for his early Platina.

I'm just wondering why no one went Potion/Fortuneteller ? Okay, I can understand with the ventures, but you can pick some up yourself if necessary.

[assemble_me]

Code: [Select]

Vineyard, Haven, Native Village, Stonemason, Fortune Teller, Familiar, Remake, Contraband, Venture, ForgeColonies, Estates

I'm just wondering why no one went Potion/Fortuneteller ? Okay, I can understand with the ventures, but you can pick some up yourself if necessary.

I think, this is a board where Familiar isn't that hot. Of course, dealing curses to your opponent is strong, but with strong trashing like Remake I think you may ignore it. The potion will slow down your own build up and your opponent may outrace you, and it's even worse if you loose the gamble for 3P on the first reshuffle. And yea, the potion also interferes with the Ventures... Funny how I didn't want Familiar because of Remake but didn't open Remake :/

[SCSN]

There isn't just Familiar, there's also Vineyard together with Stonemason (its single best enabler) and two(!) other spammable 2-costs. Ignoring Potion will both slow you down a lot by having to trash 10 Curses, and forces you to get all 8 Colonies yourself, and by the time you'd get them your opponent's Vineyards might well be worth more than 11 points, not to mention that he'd likely have had some opportunities to end it on a 3-pile long before you got enough green cards to even be competitive.

[amalloy]

There isn't just Familiar, there's also Vineyard together with Stonemason (its single best enabler) and two(!) other spammable 2-costs. Ignoring Potion will both slow you down a lot by having to trash 10 Curses, and forces you to get all 8 Colonies yourself, and by the time you'd get them your opponent's Vineyards might well be worth more than 11 points, not to mention that he'd likely have had some opportunities to end it on a 3-pile long before you got enough green cards to even be competitive.

Don't forget you can use Stonemason to get Familiar and Vineyard very fast: buy a Stonemason for 5p, gain two Familiars. Stonemason each of those into two Vineyards, and you already have half the Vineyards with just one use of your Potion. The Stonemason lets you build quite quickly by nabbing a bunch of actions, and then enables you to pivot dramatically into greening. I think Colonies can't possibly compete with Stonemason/Vineyards/Familiar.

[assemble_me]

There isn't just Familiar, there's also Vineyard together with Stonemason (its single best enabler) and two(!) other spammable 2-costs. Ignoring Potion will both slow you down a lot by having to trash 10 Curses, and forces you to get all 8 Colonies yourself, and by the time you'd get them your opponent's Vineyards might well be worth more than 11 points, not to mention that he'd likely have had some opportunities to end it on a 3-pile long before you got enough green cards to even be competitive.

Don't forget you can use Stonemason to get Familiar and Vineyard very fast: buy a Stonemason for 5p, gain two Familiars. Stonemason each of those into two Vineyards, and you already have half the Vineyards with just one use of your Potion. The Stonemason lets you build quite quickly by nabbing a bunch of actions, and then enables you to pivot dramatically into greening. I think Colonies can't possibly compete with Stonemason/Vineyards/Familiar.

Wow. OK. I totally haven't seen a way to enable Vineyards on this board. Maybe he didn't either or just didn't expect it to be good enough. I think I've never played Vineyards without +Buy and with Stonemason instead, but It looks really good: Each time you buy a Stonemason your Vineyards are pushed to the next level. I will try this a few times against bots today, I think.

/E: I think I'm not good with Vineyards. My game against maos shows the same. I've already commited myself to go for it more often because I've underrated it before. Now I'm getting punished when playing it but here I haven't seen it at all. Maybe I need some Dominion lessons, too

[amalloy]

Division D-2: amalloy 3-3 MtMagus

You can watch the full match on Twitch, or watch each game individually using the links included with each game in this writeup.

Game 1 Log Video

Code: [Select]

Herbalist, Lookout, Workshop, Marauder, Salvager, Apprentice, Council Room, Counterfeit, Haggler, Hunting Party
I like to play Apprentice/Haggler, even if (as here) it's not super amazing. The trashing is mediocre, so Marauder should be good, and with ruins and shelters, Hunting Party should be astonishingly bad. But Counterfeit is a great synergy with Marauder: once you're done thinning you can double up the Spoils, and use your multiple buys to haggle Apprentice fuel. My opponent gets 5/2: the Counterfeit makes me jealous, but the Herbalist seems like a clear error. Overall 4/3 is probably better than 5/2 even if you skip the Herbalist.

In the end he confuses me some more by never buying Marauder, and going heavily after Hunting Party in a deck full of differently-named junk. I easily romp to victory.

amalloy 1-0 MtMagus

Game 2 Log Video

Code: [Select]

Haven, Lighthouse, Moat, Loan, Watchtower, Bureaucrat, Militia, Tournament, City, Fairgrounds
I don't know the right way to play this one, but it seems like Tournament is the focus. My opponent takes Followers as his first Prize, which I think is really bad with Watchtower, Moat, and Lighthouse around; Princess must be much better. However, he can buy about a million more Provinces than me, and it doesn't really matter. I don't know what I did wrong: too many Watchtowers? I wouldn't expect it to matter that much, and they seemed to help most of the time. Maybe it was the Loan he got: I thought the rush for Provinces would mean trashing is less important, but it seems to have worked out for him.

amalloy 1-1 MtMagus

Game 3 Log Video

Code: [Select]

Secret Chamber, Fortune Teller, Tunnel, Workshop, Bandit Camp, Cache, Council Room, Market, Soothsayer, Witch
With no trashing, and the only village at $5 competing with the important cursers, the outline of this game is: give out curses, then play big money. My opponent goes for Soothsayers over Witch, which I don't like at all: the drastically improved cycling I get, from my Witches and his Soothsayers, means I win the Curse split 8-2. After that, there's plenty of time to get Golds and Provinces as his deck is a soggy mess and mine mostly has cards I like.

amalloy 2-1 MtMagus

Game 4 Log Video

Code: [Select]

Courtyard, Shanty Town, Armory, Baron, Gardens, Horse Traders, Salvager, Scavenger, Worker's Village, Witch
I think you can build kind of an engine here, with Witch and Courtyard both mediocre draw, and Armory gaining you lots of villages. But my opponent gets 5-2, and can give out the Curses really fast. Then, when I finally hit 5 myself, I get distracted and buy a village instead. I think I was probably already lost at that point, either because my plan is no good or because his 5-2 opening lets him do it better; but declining to buy the Witch hurts a lot, and sends me into a bit of a funk. I play the rest of the game with no real goal in mind, and get clobbered.

amalloy 2-2 MtMagus

Game 5 Log Video

Code: [Select]

Village, Gardens, Marauder, Procession, Quarry, Spice Merchant, Count, Festival, Venture, Border Village
I decide to go for basically Count+Venture, with the idea that Venture won't mind greening, and I can fairly often gain Duchy with Count, then Venture into a Province. My opponent thins a lot more, and plays Marauder against me a lot. My deck is not thin, and I can't really deal with the ruins very well, plus my Venture plan doesn't really work after the minimal trashing I actually did. Eventually, though, I can just barely pull through, as my Ventures go searching for each other through the disgusting mess that is the rest of my deck and I buy the last Province.

amalloy 3-2 MtMagus

Game 6 Log Video

Code: [Select]

Armory, Remake, Scout, Council Room, Haggler, Library, Mountebank, Soothsayer, Bank, Forge
Again my opponent goes for Soothsayer when a much stronger curser is available: I think Mountebank should crush Soothsayer most of the time here. But when my Remake misses the shuffle and then collides with my Mountebank, I think he's caught up to me. In fact, I only end up being able to play my Remake twice, on turns 9 and 19.

Then I hit $8, $8, $8 over and over on a Colony board: I have to buy five Golds before I get to my first Platinum, by which time he already has four Platinums. I made some questionable end-game plays, but I had already lost the game a long time ago, and he just piles out Colonies with his Platinum-filled deck.

Final score: amalloy 3-3 MtMagus

All in all a disappointing showing from me. I expected to do better in this match, but I can only blame luck for the last game. In two games I played better than he did, and won easily; the other games my play was pretty mediocre, and he deserved the wins he got (as well as perhaps deserving to beat me in the weirdo Count/Venture game).

[mtmagus]

Hey Alan.  Nice commentary.

Game 1 I don't know what I was thinking.  Buying the Hunting Partys and not buying a Marauder was my major mistake and all the ruins slowed me down to the point where I couldn't get any money.

Game 2 I think came down to the fact that you had 4 first turn and didn't buy a Militia.  So I gleefully went Militia - Silver.  In fact I don't think you bought a Militia until close to mid-end game which meant I could ignore Watchtower entirely for more Silver's and Tournaments.  In fact that game you lost probably cause you went too defensive.  You bought too many Watchtowers and Lighthouses to defend against my one Militia.

Game 3...  Man.  I'm going to admit there I screwed up.  The first time I got 5 I thought I already had a curser so I bought Bandit Camp.  Turns out I didn't.  By the time I bought one it was too late.

Game 4 I probably won because I started 5 -2.  Witch/Courtyard is a very powerful starting hand.

Game 5 was really close.  I think if I had paid down and bought a few Ventures when I had 6 or 7 I might have won.  Really too close to call.

The very last game.  In general Montebank is better than Soothsayer.  However if you look at the supporting cards you see that there is pretty good trashing (remake and forge), plus no engine, plus the addition of Colonies/Platinums means the game is going to last longer.  Plus Montebank gives you an out (discard a curse which I think I did 2 or 3 times) while Soothsayer doesn't.  So basically the Soothsayer vs Montebank argument is what is the card going to behave like when the curses run out.  In that case I'd much rather have a card that gives me a gold vs a card that gives me two coins and gives my opponent a copper.

[amalloy]

Hey Alan.  Nice commentary.

Game 2 I think came down to the fact that you had 4 first turn and didn't buy a Militia.  So I gleefully went Militia - Silver.  In fact I don't think you bought a Militia until close to mid-end game which meant I could ignore Watchtower entirely for more Silver's and Tournaments.  In fact that game you lost probably cause you went too defensive.  You bought too many Watchtowers and Lighthouses to defend against my one Militia.

...

The very last game.  In general Montebank is better than Soothsayer.  However if you look at the supporting cards you see that there is pretty good trashing (remake and forge), plus no engine, plus the addition of Colonies/Platinums means the game is going to last longer.  Plus Montebank gives you an out (discard a curse which I think I did 2 or 3 times) while Soothsayer doesn't.  So basically the Soothsayer vs Montebank argument is what is the card going to behave like when the curses run out.  In that case I'd much rather have a card that gives me a gold vs a card that gives me two coins and gives my opponent a copper.

I think you're right about game 2. Skipping the Militia was terrible, and I overcompensated with defense.

Game 6, though, I heartily disagree: I would happily play you again on this same board, Remake/Mountebank vs Remake/Soothsayer. Mountebank adds two junk cards to your deck and gives me money now; Soothsayer gives you money a whole shuffle later, adds less junk to my deck, and improves my current turn. Having one Remake in deck doesn't come close to equalizing that difference. As for dodging curses with the discard, I gave you 7 and you gave me 3. You were probably right to buy the Forge, but I'm far from convinced that Soothsayer is the better opening. I think the Hagglers were a nice addition, but that was just sealing an already-won game: you could afford to spend time buying Hagglers to cushion the greening, because I was still struggling to buy my first Platinum and you already had three.

In fact, I actually went to the trouble of implementing Soothsayer for Dominiate and trying out Remake/Soothsayer vs Remake/Mountebank. Obviously it's not perfect: since I don't think the bot is very good at playing Forge, I just didn't tell it to buy one. Maybe that makes all the difference, but with just those two cards, Mountebank wins over 70% of the time across thousands of games. My change isn't accepted yet, but you can play around with strategies at http://amalloy.github.com/dominiate/play if you think I've mischaracterized your plan. Here are the strategies I tested against each other:

Code: [Select]

{
  name: 'RemakeMountebank'
  requires: ['Remake', 'Mountebank']
  gainPriority: (state, my) -> [
    "Colony" if my.countInDeck("Platinum") > 1
    "Province" if state.countInSupply("Colony") <= 6 and my.countInDeck("Gold") > 0
    "Mountebank" if my.countInDeck("Mountebank") < 2
    "Remake" if my.countInDeck("Remake") < 1
    "Duchy" if 0 < state.gainsToEndGame() <= 5
    "Estate" if 0 < state.gainsToEndGame() <= 2
    "Platinum"
    "Gold"
    "Silver"
  ]
 
  trashPriority: (state, my) -> [
    "Curse"
    "Estate"
    "Copper"
  ]
}


Code: [Select]

{
  name: 'RemakeSoothsayer'
  requires: ['Remake', 'Soothsayer']
  gainPriority: (state, my) -> [
    "Colony" if my.countInDeck("Platinum") > 1
    "Province" if state.countInSupply("Colony") <= 6 and my.countInDeck("Gold") > 0
    "Soothsayer" if my.countInDeck("Soothsayer") < 2
    "Remake" if my.countInDeck("Remake") < 1
    "Duchy" if 0 < state.gainsToEndGame() <= 5
    "Estate" if 0 < state.gainsToEndGame() <= 2
    "Platinum"
    "Gold"
    "Silver"
  ]
 
  trashPriority: (state, my) -> [
    "Curse"
    "Estate"
    "Copper"
  ]
}


[mtmagus]

I haven't looked at dominate much.  I ran some sims and you may be right about the strategy being less than effective.

Only thing I think is missing from those graphs is variance/confidence intervals.  I have a feeling that I tend to run high-variance strategy's (for instance one's involving Bank) quite a lot.

[amalloy]

Division D-2: amalloy 2-4 Kylar

You can watch the full match on Twitch, or watch each game individually using the links included with each game in this writeup.

Game 1 Log Video

Code: [Select]

Embargo, Stonemason, Apothecary, Fortune Teller, Masquerade, Steward, Armory, Wandering Minstrel, Inn, Outpost
We both try to get a lot of Apothecaries and Minstrels, but neither of us seems to have a clear endgame plan. He goes for piles first, hoping to end it on his Outpost turn, but bricks out. On my last turn, I have a forced win, by Stonemasoning Armory, Outpost, and Apothecary into six Estates, then overpaying for Stonemason to pile out; but I miss it, and Kylar can end it on a tie.

amalloy 0.5-0.5 Kylar

Game 2 Log Video

Code: [Select]

Haven, Masterpiece, Urchin, Warehouse, Caravan, Ironmonger, Bazaar, Merchant Ship, Rabble, Farmland
My 4-3 is a lot better than Kylar's 5-2, on a clear Urchin board. There's no +buy so the engine doesn't have a huge payoff, but you can strangle your opponent pretty well and build to one reliable Province per turn. He doesn't manage to gain a Mercenary until turn 10, so I should have this in the bag. But, by that time I'm out of things to trash, so he can Mercenary freely and I can't attack him easily; and with no buy there's no easy way to gain junk cards...or is there? I pick up a $7 Masterpiece, and earn a place in SCSN's heart by referring to it as "gaining five junk cards". Unfortunately, this play was a bit dangerous: I'm not yet reliably drawing everything, and all these stop cards are a real problem. But, on my "dead" turns I can still usually buy Province, and my opponent has little economy, so I am never really in danger, and eventually limp to the finish line.

amalloy 1.5-0.5 Kylar

Game 3 Log Video

Code: [Select]

Courtyard, Duchess, Shanty Town, Gardens, Scavenger, Bandit Camp, Hunting Party, Merchant Ship, Trading Post, Farmland
This board is a clear Hunting Party + Scavenger + money kingdom, and the Hunting Party split is an uneventful 5-5. My main advantage is that I can get two Golds before he gets even one; and with Farmlands as the only gainer, that can be a big tactical advantage. We grab the first six Provinces in no time, but when I Farmland my Gold into the sixth Province, all sorts of tactical options appear for both of us, and the game turns into a huge slog while we dance around with Duchy and Farmland, and our decks become awful. Eventually I get two awful turns in a row, buying Estate/nothing, and that leaves enough room for Kylar to tie it up.

amalloy 2-1 Kylar

Game 4 Log Video

Code: [Select]

Squire, Great Hall, Masquerade, Feast, Explorer, Festival, Mystic, Rebuild, Trading Post, Grand Market
The thin Grand Market deck looks plausible, even with no draw, but is it fast enough to outpace Rebuild? I decide it is, and try to build it. I actually pass Kylar an Estate with Masquerade, and then on that turn he buys his first Rebuild. I wonder, should I have passed Copper instead, just in case he's going Rebuild? I think the extra Estate helps him a lot in that case.

I actually almost get things going in time: when there are three Provinces left, if I can buy them all I'll win. But I only make it up to $21, and that's the end for me.

amalloy 2-2 Kylar

Game 5 Log Video

Code: [Select]

Lighthouse, Herald, Mining Village, Hunting Party, Pillage, Rabble, Rebuild, Royal Seal, Goons, Expand
This looks like a clear Goons engine, with Rabble to draw, Herald/MV for village, and probably Expand for some light trashing. I do basically nothing right in the execution, though: I open Lighthouse/MV instead of Silver/NV, which is substantially worse for hitting an early 5. And indeed it takes me forever to get to $5, while Kylar is loading up on all these juicy terminals. I try to compensate by piling out the Mining Villages to deny them to him, but Herald is good enough. With such weak trashing I thought Herald would be mediocre, but it turned out to be fine for him; and my rush for MV leaves me with nothing useful in my whole deck. I end up resigning without ever buying Goons.

amalloy 2-3 Kylar

Game 6 Log Video

Code: [Select]

Haven, Lighthouse, Loan, Alchemist, Caravan, Farming Village, Herald, Scout, Catacombs, Jester
With only Loan for trashing, and only Jester for attack/gain, I decide to just play Catacombs/money. Jester shouldn't hurt a BM player very much, right? If it hits a green card he curses me, but otherwise it doesn't matter very much: I don't super-mind Coppers, and he doesn't really want Silver or Gold from me, and that's most of my deck. But his Loan trashes pretty well, and his Jester ends up loading me up with Curses, and gaining two Catacombs for him. I get an opportunity to split Provinces 4-4, but my four Curses spell curtains. I desperately buy some Duchies, but there was never really any hope.

Final score: amalloy 2-4 Kylar

I think I'm out of contention for the season now, but I'll still be playing to win in my last match. I'll announce it on the forums once it's scheduled, and I hope you'll join me to watch it!

[assemble_me]

D8, hugovj vs. assemble_me: "c-c-c-combo breaker"

My fifth game already. It's against Hugovj today, who had not reached that great results before so I'm feeling like the favorite, but so far opponent's strength didn't matter in my games . So I thought a win might be possible today but I could count on playing draw at least, couldn't I?
As always, I'd be happy to read about your thoghts on these games, thanks a lot.


Game 1

http://www.gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?20140608/log.50e7525ee4b0b5b74140a6c0.1402251851690.txt

Code: [Select]

Duchess, Pawn, Loan, Advisor, Bureaucrat, Ironworks, Noble Brigand, Highway, Stash, AdventurerColonies, Estates

Hugovj starts, Hugovj wins

There's nothing really big going on here. We both tried to go Highway with Ironworks and Loan for trashing and some Pawns for +Buy. But once Highways are out, what to you want to do? Highways probably don't get you to the points on their own here. We both had no great answer and went for treasures, I also picked up some Advisors. Although I won the Highway split, Hugovj picked up a Platinum earlier than I did, probably his extra treasures helped more here, then he got an early points lead. I've been thinking about getting Adventurer, but just kept buying points because he seemed to be so far away already. I had a big turn for Colony+Province which helped me to almost catch up. I ignored the PCR feeling I might be in better shape, but he could get the last Colony for the win.

0-1


Game 2

http://dominionlogs.goko.com/20140608/log.50e7525ee4b0b5b74140a6c0.1402253621882.txt

Code: [Select]

Native Village, Black Market, Great Hall, Swindler, Tunnel, JackOfAllTrades, Cache, Graverobber, Mine, Grand MarketColonies, Shelters

Code: [Select]

Black market deck cards: Forager, Urchin, Embassy, Explorer, Lighthouse, Loan, City, Philosopher's Stone, Band of Misfits,
Cellar, Expand, Horn of Plenty, Spy, Oracle, Bank, Rogue, Candlestick Maker, Vineyard, Tribute, Trade Route, Apprentice, Scavenger,
Talisman, Menagerie, Fortress
Assemble Meme starts, Assemble Meme wins

Here, we have the second Colony game already. We both went for Black Market as you probably want to get some draw and money trashing out of it, which is missing on the board. He opened Jack/Native Village on 5/2 while I went for Swindler/Black Market on 4/3. I think I would have gotten Mine here on a 5/2, as it's able to shine in Colony Games. Not sure, if that's right, though. He was able to get the first two Grand Markets, but my earlyish Graverobber helped me to catch up for an even split. I noticed a bit later that it's also very very nice to re-gain what your or your opponent's Swindler trashed.
Still, the most important questions here were probably what your Swindlers would hit and what you could buy out of the BM. So, I was able to get Trade Route (which got trashed very soon), Forager, Oracle and City (with two Piles low already), while he got Embassy and Apprenice. So, his better draw worried me a bit, but swindling his 5$ into Caches twice for extra junk was probably very nice. I managed to get a 16 points lead so I attacked the Swindler pile, but he could just come back with a Colony+Province+Duchy turn. So now I had to be worried that he could pile out for the win. Finally he could only buy a Tunnel and I had enough for a Province and the last two Swindlers.

1-1


Game 3

http://www.gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?20140608/log.50e7525ee4b0b5b74140a6c0.1402254570740.txt

Code: [Select]

Vineyard, Farming Village, Fortress, Nomad Camp, Spy, Taxman, Duke, Graverobber, Junk Dealer, TorturerProvinces, Estates

Assemble Meme starts, Assemble Meme wins

Oh this board, we had Torturer and Villages which probably tells you to go for a Torturer chain? There's also Junk Dealer, and putting Curses into your hand is actually much less painful if you also have a Junk Dealer in hand. I'm opening 5/2 for Torturer/- and feel that's quite good but he can just buy his Torturer on his second turn, as he opened 2/5, and then his first shuffle looked better than mine as he could get a Junk Dealer and a Silver where I could get Fortress and Silver. He was also the first one to chain his Torturers later but with his money, he just went for the Province. I decided to build a bit longer, get another Torturer and another Junkdealer, which was probably the key here. After that, I've been able to consistently chain my Torturers while the Curses he gave me didn't have a good time to stay in my deck. I've been getting a really big lead and he couldn't get the curses out of his deck. After four Provinces my deck stalled a bit so I picked up two Graverobbers to trash 5$ actions into the last Provinces.

2-1


Game 4

http://www.gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?20140608/log.50e7525ee4b0b5b74140a6c0.1402255174042.txt

Code: [Select]

Chapel, Moat, Doctor, Warehouse, Pirate Ship, Throne Room, Trader, City, Library, TreasuryProvinces, Estates

Assemble Meme starts, Hugovj wins

We both saw no point in building an actual engine here and went for money based strategies. I just wanted to go straight Library Big Money and thought Warehouse should be really good with it so I opened Warehouse/Silver while he went for Chapel/Silver. I've picked up Money and Libraries, he went for Money as well and one Library, one Treasury and one Warehouse.
I was able to buy the first Province but he could really pound the Province pile and on turn 13 he already had 5 Provinces where I had only 2 Provinces and 2 Duchies (and my starting Estates). After that, my deck hits 8 a lot but the last Province wouldn't help so we had to split Duchies first. I felt I still got reasonable chances to win but then his Warehouse drew perfectly and he could buy the last Province.
I really don't know how to evaluate this game. I've once learned that if your plan is not to go for an engine and it's a big moneyish game, you don't want Chapel. So, was the Chapel good here for some reasons (maybe the Warehouse?) or did I become unlucky? I think he shouldn't have been able to get 5 Provinces that quickly here...

2-2


Game 5

http://www.gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?20140608/log.50e7525ee4b0b5b74140a6c0.1402255895536.txt

Code: [Select]

Develop, Shanty Town, Village, Watchtower, Workshop, Philosopher's Stone, Duke, Harvest, Merchant Ship, PeddlerColonies, Estates

Hugovj starts, Hugovj wins

So it was 2-2 after four games but he was going first for the last two games. I really didn't like my match position here and felt I would need some more luck than in those first four games.
On this board, it's just Money and Colononies again and we both decided to go this way. Duke is here, but I didn't saw strong support and in a Colony game...? Probably not.
I decided to open Shanty Town/Silver while he went for Develop/Silver and to get his Shanty Town on turn 3 where I picked up a Develop turn 3. We both added a bunch of Merchant Ships. He has been able to get his first Platinum much faster than I did (turn 8 vs turn 11, when he had already bought his first Colony). So again, he had the lead and I had to try to keep up and hope for some dud hands on his side but it didn't happen.

2-3


Game 6

http://www.gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?20140608/log.50e7525ee4b0b5b74140a6c0.1402256636633.txt

Code: [Select]

Beggar, Great Hall, Scheme, Familiar, Island, Talisman, Embassy, Hunting Party, Stables, Trading PostProvinces, Estates

Hugovj starts, Hugovj wins

So, it's a classic Familiar Game... isn't it? Well, again I decided to not pick up the Potion, my plan was to get an early Trading Post and some Schemes to play it more often and then some draw. So I opened Silver/Silver and he went Potion/Silver. I got 4$/4$ after the first shuffle which is totally NOT what I wanted to see and so I couldn't pick up my Trading Post, while he got 3P for a Familiar. We both went for Stables, which turned out to be even better for him as he could play some big multi cursing turns.
Not going for Familiar here was probably a bad idea, I didn't get my deck fully curse clean and he got a convenient win.

2-4

Well... not the combo breaker I had wished for. I just hope for an appropriate finish on my last game.

[TheMirrorMan]

We both saw no point in building an actual engine here and went for money based strategies. I just wanted to go straight Library Big Money and thought Warehouse should be really good with it so I opened Warehouse/Silver while he went for Chapel/Silver.

I really don't know how to evaluate this game. I've once learned that if your plan is not to go for an engine and it's a big moneyish game, you don't want Chapel. So, was the Chapel good here for some reasons (maybe the Warehouse?) or did I become unlucky?

Nothing is set in stone.
Your only real draw option is Library. So what does Library draw ... Non-action cards. Including the greens ... So in this case, chapel is just necessary.
If you were to have Embassy is on the board, then I would reconsider because of the discard. But even then I think I would grab a chapel to begin with.

I actually believe that a BM game benefits from Chapel! You're so quick in getting your money over and over again because your deck is so thin - In the end, you don't even need draw anymore.

[kylar]

Code: [Select]

Embargo, Stonemason, Apothecary, Fortune Teller, Masquerade, Steward, Armory, Wandering Minstrel, Inn, Outpost
We both try to get a lot of Apothecaries and Minstrels, but neither of us seems to have a clear endgame plan. He goes for piles first, hoping to end it on his Outpost turn, but bricks out. On my last turn, I have a forced win, by Stonemasoning Armory, Outpost, and Apothecary into six Estates, then overpaying for Stonemason to pile out; but I miss it, and Kylar can end it on a tie.

Code: [Select]

Haven, Masterpiece, Urchin, Warehouse, Caravan, Ironmonger, Bazaar, Merchant Ship, Rabble, Farmland
My 4-3 is a lot better than Kylar's 5-2, on a clear Urchin board. There's no +buy so the engine doesn't have a huge payoff, but you can strangle your opponent pretty well and build to one reliable Province per turn. He doesn't manage to gain a Mercenary until turn 10, so I should have this in the bag. But, by that time I'm out of things to trash, so he can Mercenary freely and I can't attack him easily; and with no buy there's no easy way to gain junk cards...or is there? I pick up a $7 Masterpiece, and earn a place in SCSN's heart by referring to it as "gaining five junk cards". Unfortunately, this play was a bit dangerous: I'm not yet reliably drawing everything, and all these stop cards are a real problem. But, on my "dead" turns I can still usually buy Province, and my opponent has little economy, so I am never really in danger, and eventually limp to the finish line.

Code: [Select]

Courtyard, Duchess, Shanty Town, Gardens, Scavenger, Bandit Camp, Hunting Party, Merchant Ship, Trading Post, Farmland
This board is a clear Hunting Party + Scavenger + money kingdom, and the Hunting Party split is an uneventful 5-5. My main advantage is that I can get two Golds before he gets even one; and with Farmlands as the only gainer, that can be a big tactical advantage. We grab the first six Provinces in no time, but when I Farmland my Gold into the sixth Province, all sorts of tactical options appear for both of us, and the game turns into a huge slog while we dance around with Duchy and Farmland, and our decks become awful. Eventually I get two awful turns in a row, buying Estate/nothing, and that leaves enough room for Kylar to tie it up.

Code: [Select]

Squire, Great Hall, Masquerade, Feast, Explorer, Festival, Mystic, Rebuild, Trading Post, Grand Market
The thin Grand Market deck looks plausible, even with no draw, but is it fast enough to outpace Rebuild? I decide it is, and try to build it. I actually pass Kylar an Estate with Masquerade, and then on that turn he buys his first Rebuild. I wonder, should I have passed Copper instead, just in case he's going Rebuild? I think the extra Estate helps him a lot in that case.

I actually almost get things going in time: when there are three Provinces left, if I can buy them all I'll win. But I only make it up to $21, and that's the end for me.

Code: [Select]

Lighthouse, Herald, Mining Village, Hunting Party, Pillage, Rabble, Rebuild, Royal Seal, Goons, Expand
This looks like a clear Goons engine, with Rabble to draw, Herald/MV for village, and probably Expand for some light trashing. I do basically nothing right in the execution, though: I open Lighthouse/MV instead of Silver/NV, which is substantially worse for hitting an early 5. And indeed it takes me forever to get to $5, while Kylar is loading up on all these juicy terminals. I try to compensate by piling out the Mining Villages to deny them to him, but Herald is good enough. With such weak trashing I thought Herald would be mediocre, but it turned out to be fine for him; and my rush for MV leaves me with nothing useful in my whole deck. I end up resigning without ever buying Goons.

Code: [Select]

Haven, Lighthouse, Loan, Alchemist, Caravan, Farming Village, Herald, Scout, Catacombs, Jester
With only Loan for trashing, and only Jester for attack/gain, I decide to just play Catacombs/money. Jester shouldn't hurt a BM player very much, right? If it hits a green card he curses me, but otherwise it doesn't matter very much: I don't super-mind Coppers, and he doesn't really want Silver or Gold from me, and that's most of my deck. But his Loan trashes pretty well, and his Jester ends up loading me up with Curses, and gaining two Catacombs for him. I get an opportunity to split Provinces 4-4, but my four Curses spell curtains. I desperately buy some Duchies, but there was never really any hope.



I think I'm out of contention for the season now, but I'll still be playing to win in my last match. I'll announce it on the forums once it's scheduled, and I hope you'll join me to watch it!

  Thank you for doing this writeup and posting the video's of the games. Its always interesting to see things from your opponents side. I sat down and watched the full match after playing and it helped highlight some of my errors.

  You did a thorough synopsis of the strategies and outcomes so I'll just fill in a few thoughts here and there from my perspective.

Game 1:
       
    You are right, I did not have an endgame plan and was floundering because of it. Looking at the board now things are a lot clearer. Just stonemason for apothecaries (completely forgot about that till you did it) and wandering minstrels till you can draw everything, get a little green and try for a three pile with the stonemasons. I always undervalue stonemason and my armory buy early was a mistake, if there was a need for it, it was much later. I also never should have given up my potion to your masquerade, I had a really good hand but that pass should have been the armory. I was ecstatic to get the tie there but I am sorry you missed the win, I always prefer to get points on skill rather than a mistake.

Game 2:

    What can I say, you killed me. I was cursing your Urchin collision turn three till I saw that I created it for you. I think I might have had a small chance to come back here but I overtrashed after getting my mercenaries so late and that was that. For me, a gold would have been a lot better than the Merchant Ship.

Game 3:

     I think that golds instead of farmlands till late here would have been a good call but I got caught up in greening. Again, I was pretty happy to get a tie.

Game 4:

     I really didn't think that you would be fast enough to beat Rebuild without draw or a curser. I was wrong, that was a toss up. I did notice that late in the game when the duchies ran out you should have been passing me Estates with your Masquerades. The points didn't matter so much and all you needed to do was stop one rebuild to win the game. I could not protect both Great Hall and Estate. Also, with that first Masquerade, I passed you an estate when you passed me one so it was a wash.

Game 5:

    Silver was probably better but I think you got a bit unlucky. I was not so concerned about the village split. My deck was 3/4 actions, Herald works fine.

Game 6:

    My plan was never to go full engine. I just wanted to have some cycling and to trash coppers with the loan before going money. I think I got optimal draws early, both with the loan and to get my jesters so fast. I think if we played that board again it would not necessarily go the way it did. I just always try to get around BM+.

  All in all it was a pretty interesting series of boards. I would really like to have another go at some of them, so many small decisions for optimal play.

  Thank you again Alan Malloy. We have a very competitive division, I will probably see you again next season.

[Mic Qsenoch]

assemble_me vs Hugovj

Game 1:

You have this game in the bag and then throw it away starting on turn 10. Second Loan at that point is terrible. Especially considering that you start adding Golds immediately after. Advisor is great for your deck (lot's of cantrips, eventually fewer treasures). Turn 10 buy should be Advisor. Turn 11 you should gain Advisor with Ironworks. The only treasure you should get is Platinum, Gold is awful for you, just buy Advisors on Turns 12-14 (turn 13 could have been double Advisor). Your Highway advantage gives you the power to double or triple Colony (or several Provinces). But you have to be patient and get your deck under control first.

Game 3: Junk Dealer looks better than Torturer as an opening.

Game 4: I don't like the Chapel for money either. I think your opponent had some luck, it was a close game, so his strategy wasn't obviously better. I think I prefer Gold over your second Library, but it's close. I can actually see Pirate Ship being quite nasty here, could really destroy the Chapeled money deck.

Game 5: Turn 10 should probably be a Village, not Silver. Turn 16 you should play Shanty, Develop the Peddler for a Plat, play Merchant Ship. Too soon for a Province I think. It is definitely a rough time when your opponent gets to Plat a lot sooner though.

Game 6: I like skipping Familiar here. But 4/4 on the reshuffle hurts a lot. I think it's worth considering an Island for one of those 4s. By turn 6 I think you've got enough Silver and should just take another Scheme. I really don't like Stables over Hunting Party. HP looks better for getting to your Trading Post each turn. On Turn 9 you buy a Scheme with $5, this is very bad and should be Hunting Party or Stables. The Embassy buys are not good, again these should be HP/Stables.

[assemble_me]

First of all: Thanks a lot for your input.

assemble_me vs Hugovj

Game 1:

You have this game in the bag and then throw it away starting on turn 10. Second Loan at that point is terrible. Especially considering that you start adding Golds immediately after. Advisor is great for your deck (lot's of cantrips, eventually fewer treasures). Turn 10 buy should be Advisor. Turn 11 you should gain Advisor with Ironworks. The only treasure you should get is Platinum, Gold is awful for you, just buy Advisors on Turns 12-14 (turn 13 could have been double Advisor). Your Highway advantage gives you the power to double or triple Colony (or several Provinces). But you have to be patient and get your deck under control first.

Game 3: Junk Dealer looks better than Torturer as an opening.

Game 4: I don't like the Chapel for money either. I think your opponent had some luck, it was a close game, so his strategy wasn't obviously better. I think I prefer Gold over your second Library, but it's close. I can actually see Pirate Ship being quite nasty here, could really destroy the Chapeled money deck.

Game 5: Turn 10 should probably be a Village, not Silver. Turn 16 you should play Shanty, Develop the Peddler for a Plat, play Merchant Ship. Too soon for a Province I think. It is definitely a rough time when your opponent gets to Plat a lot sooner though.

Game 6: I like skipping Familiar here. But 4/4 on the reshuffle hurts a lot. I think it's worth considering an Island for one of those 4s. By turn 6 I think you've got enough Silver and should just take another Scheme. I really don't like Stables over Hunting Party. HP looks better for getting to your Trading Post each turn. On Turn 9 you buy a Scheme with $5, this is very bad and should be Hunting Party or Stables. The Embassy buys are not good, again these should be HP/Stables.

Game 1: Maybe I misplayed this a lot. I never got a good feeling for this deck (actually, that was a big issue this whole evening). I went for the second loan because I felt I wasn't thin enough already. The Advisors turned out to be working well when I got them, but I always find it hard to figure out when you want to start going for them. Again, for a long time I thought my deck wasn't thin enough for them to be worthwile. I think I might have played this engine better in a Province game.

Game 3: Isn't it at least a close call? I like the chance of hitting his early 5$ hands with my Torturer here. In some way, I took it for the extra economy I'd get because of the draw. Now, of course it's a big benefit of Junk Dealer to thin and have some economy, too.

Game 4: Yeah, I saw the Pirate Ship in the beginning and thought it might hurt a money driven deck, but never really considered it during the game, because if your opponent does not thin you don't want it. Overall, I expected pure Library-BM to just dominate here, so I didn't went for the Ships.

Game 5: Develop Peddler for Platinum... Woah, I can't believe I missed that here, I haven't seen this opportunity at all on this board.
I have to say if I played bad here midgame it was probably because I was really worried that I had fallen behind again in such a BM game...

Game 6: I think I had written a sentence about my uncertainty regarding Stables vs. Hunting Party which I edited out of my report sometime. I really wasn't sure which of both I wanted and now that I read it, I probably made the wrong decision.
I think, when I got for the Embassy I felt I'd been already that far behind, it was somehow just giving up my initial plan. The point of my Schemes was to play the Trading Post more often, which is something the Hunting Parties would have supported as well. With HPs I probably would have picked up less Schemes anyways.
Well, then maybe my strategy wasn't all that bad, but it was bad shuffle luck meeting bad execution.

We both saw no point in building an actual engine here and went for money based strategies. I just wanted to go straight Library Big Money and thought Warehouse should be really good with it so I opened Warehouse/Silver while he went for Chapel/Silver.

I really don't know how to evaluate this game. I've once learned that if your plan is not to go for an engine and it's a big moneyish game, you don't want Chapel. So, was the Chapel good here for some reasons (maybe the Warehouse?) or did I become unlucky?

Nothing is set in stone.
Your only real draw option is Library. So what does Library draw ... Non-action cards. Including the greens ... So in this case, chapel is just necessary.
If you were to have Embassy is on the board, then I would reconsider because of the discard. But even then I think I would grab a chapel to begin with.

I actually believe that a BM game benefits from Chapel! You're so quick in getting your money over and over again because your deck is so thin - In the end, you don't even need draw anymore.

Maybe I'm wrong, after this game: I don't know. I actually can't recall exactly where I picked that up. I think I'll replay this a few times against bots.

[Hugovj]

So yeah, here's my view of things. Before this match, I hoped I could maybe take a draw, but the win is just amazing

Game 1
There's nothing really big going on here. We both tried to go Highway with Ironworks and Loan for trashing and some Pawns for +Buy. But once Highways are out, what to you want to do? Highways probably don't get you to the points on their own here. We both had no great answer and went for treasures, I also picked up some Advisors. Although I won the Highway split, Hugovj picked up a Platinum earlier than I did, probably his extra treasures helped more here, then he got an early points lead. I've been thinking about getting Adventurer, but just kept buying points because he seemed to be so far away already. I had a big turn for Colony+Province which helped me to almost catch up. I ignored the PCR feeling I might be in better shape, but he could get the last Colony for the win.

0-1

Yeah, I experienced the same 'what now?'-feeling after the Highways run out. I thought I lost the split and therefore the game, but apparently not. I don't exactly remember whether I bought a second Loan.. I did consider it anyway. I had the uncomfortable feeling of badly misplaying this board. No idea what I should have changed, because I did lose the split, so a straight Highway-deck was harder for me to create.

Game 2
Here, we have the second Colony game already. We both went for Black Market as you probably want to get some draw and money trashing out of it, which is missing on the board. He opened Jack/Native Village on 5/2 while I went for Swindler/Black Market on 4/3. I think I would have gotten Mine here on a 5/2, as it's able to shine in Colony Games. Not sure, if that's right, though. He was able to get the first two Grand Markets, but my earlyish Graverobber helped me to catch up for an even split. I noticed a bit later that it's also very very nice to re-gain what your or your opponent's Swindler trashed.
Still, the most important questions here were probably what your Swindlers would hit and what you could buy out of the BM. So, I was able to get Trade Route (which got trashed very soon), Forager, Oracle and City (with two Piles low already), while he got Embassy and Apprenice. So, his better draw worried me a bit, but swindling his 5$ into Caches twice for extra junk was probably very nice. I managed to get a 16 points lead so I attacked the Swindler pile, but he could just come back with a Colony+Province+Duchy turn. So now I had to be worried that he could pile out for the win. Finally he could only buy a Tunnel and I had enough for a Province and the last two Swindlers.

1-1

I think I got a little unlucky with the Black Market (I don't like that card..), not getting any trashing. The Caches killed me in the end though. Too much junk in my deck, every shuffle I had at least one really bad turn. Don't know where the improvements lie..

Game 3
Oh this board, we had Torturer and Villages which probably tells you to go for a Torturer chain? There's also Junk Dealer, and putting Curses into your hand is actually much less painful if you also have a Junk Dealer in hand. I'm opening 5/2 for Torturer/- and feel that's quite good but he can just buy his Torturer on his second turn, as he opened 2/5, and then his first shuffle looked better than mine as he could get a Junk Dealer and a Silver where I could get Fortress and Silver. He was also the first one to chain his Torturers later but with his money, he just went for the Province. I decided to build a bit longer, get another Torturer and another Junkdealer, which was probably the key here. After that, I've been able to consistently chain my Torturers while the Curses he gave me didn't have a good time to stay in my deck. I've been getting a really big lead and he couldn't get the curses out of his deck. After four Provinces my deck stalled a bit so I picked up two Graverobbers to trash 5$ actions into the last Provinces.

2-1

I know, should have waited with the Province and just bought a Torturer.. Not happy with the way I played here. Junk Dealer as a opener is probably better too. Bad game from my side.

Game 4
We both saw no point in building an actual engine here and went for money based strategies. I just wanted to go straight Library Big Money and thought Warehouse should be really good with it so I opened Warehouse/Silver while he went for Chapel/Silver. I've picked up Money and Libraries, he went for Money as well and one Library, one Treasury and one Warehouse.
I was able to buy the first Province but he could really pound the Province pile and on turn 13 he already had 5 Provinces where I had only 2 Provinces and 2 Duchies (and my starting Estates). After that, my deck hits 8 a lot but the last Province wouldn't help so we had to split Duchies first. I felt I still got reasonable chances to win but then his Warehouse drew perfectly and he could buy the last Province.
I really don't know how to evaluate this game. I've once learned that if your plan is not to go for an engine and it's a big moneyish game, you don't want Chapel. So, was the Chapel good here for some reasons (maybe the Warehouse?) or did I become unlucky? I think he shouldn't have been able to get 5 Provinces that quickly here...

2-2

Yeah, BM game for sure. I still stand behind my Chapel though. Greening doesn't hurt that badly, and it really sped my game up. Warehouse was a great card here in my deck. The sifting was very important because I choked really hard. I didn't consider Pirate Ship as a good counter, but on second thought it would have been pretty nasty. Some luck also played an important role here. Didn't mind it though

Game 5
So it was 2-2 after four games but he was going first for the last two games. I really didn't like my match position here and felt I would need some more luck than in those first four games.
On this board, it's just Money and Colononies again and we both decided to go this way. Duke is here, but I didn't saw strong support and in a Colony game...? Probably not.
I decided to open Shanty Town/Silver while he went for Develop/Silver and to get his Shanty Town on turn 3 where I picked up a Develop turn 3. We both added a bunch of Merchant Ships. He has been able to get his first Platinum much faster than I did (turn 8 vs turn 11, when he had already bought his first Colony). So again, he had the lead and I had to try to keep up and hope for some dud hands on his side but it didn't happen.

2-3

I didn't see anything here. I did think of Duke, but yeah, Colonies. So I looked for some BM support, and found Merchant Ship. It worked out pretty nice here though. Peddler+Develop, didn't see that, but it's pretty obvious now.. I think I should have bought a Village somewhere, but yeah, overall a pretty boring BM game, and again a pretty lucky victory.

Game 6
So, it's a classic Familiar Game... isn't it? Well, again I decided to not pick up the Potion, my plan was to get an early Trading Post and some Schemes to play it more often and then some draw. So I opened Silver/Silver and he went Potion/Silver. I got 4$/4$ after the first shuffle which is totally NOT what I wanted to see and so I couldn't pick up my Trading Post, while he got 3P for a Familiar. We both went for Stables, which turned out to be even better for him as he could play some big multi cursing turns.
Not going for Familiar here was probably a bad idea, I didn't get my deck fully curse clean and he got a convenient win.

2-4

I still think Familiar just beats Stables. Hunting Party, I don't know. Trashing is pretty slow here, certainly compared to the tempo of cursing. 4/4 was very unlucky for you, but I do think Familiar should win regardless. Not taking an Island surprised me, especially when I got my familiar.. I didn't like the Embassies, because the draw was good enough without it. I don't now whether HP or Stables would be better for my deck, but I figured I didn't have that many uniques to make HP worth it (also, I had no curses to skip)

My first win in the league I really enjoyed the games, although I was a bit lucky. Anyway, good luck in the last game of the season!

And I will continue my battle for 6th place Or maybe 5th, you never know what will happen 

[AHoppy]

AHoppy loses to Liopoil, 5-1

The log prettifier stopped working for our last 4 games, so I only have logs for the first 2.  Neither of us had all the cards, so we ended up playing (mostly) base set.  I have the 3 cards you get from owning the physical game (nobles, haven, hoard) so it was more exciting than straight base.

http://www.gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?/20140603/log.512add69e4b0c02658feaef2.1401839089905.txt - AHoppy wins, AHoppy starts
http://www.gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?/20140603/log.512add69e4b0c02658feaef2.1401840538192.txt - Liopoil wins, AHoppy starts
Ahoppy goes first, Lio wins 47-34
Lio first, lio wins 41-29
Lio first, lio wins 42-37
Lio first, lio wins 24-6

[amalloy]

Division D-2: amalloy 6-0 kipkoan

You can watch the full match on Twitch, or watch each game individually using the links included with each game in this writeup. And since Goko only saved log files for two of our six games, you'll have to watch the videos if you want to see what really happened. For the games with no log, I'll include my analysis and the video link as usual, but no kingdom or log link.

Game 1 Log Video

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Chapel, Lighthouse, Apothecary, Scrying Pool, Market Square, Shanty Town, Ironmonger, Remodel, Vault, Adventurer
We both aim for Scrying Pool + Vault, with Market Square for buys. But the early draws cause our decks to diverge: after trashing two Coppers with Chapel, I draw all five of my remaining Coppers together, Vaulting me into the mid-game with a huge lead: I no longer have to gain Golds by revealing Market Square just to get me up to Vault. Instead, I can just build a pure action deck. I don't build it perfectly, focusing too much on coins and not enough on buys; but my opponent's deck was struggling quite a bit and he resigns.

amalloy 1-0 kipkoan

Game 2 Log Video

I play Soothsayer BM here - all the components for an engine exist, but they're all very fiddly and I don't think it can get going very quickly at all. I in fact play Soothsayer BM quite badly, opening with a useless Develop and then getting too many Soothsayers. But, kipkoan goes for the engine, and he's doomed no matter how well I play it. My draws were pretty good in the mid-game: I must have hit exactly 8 3 or 4 turns in a row at some point. His were quite good as well, getting his Golem thing going much faster than I expected, but it was not enough.

amalloy 2-0 kipkoan

Game 3 Log Video

Apprentice + Market Square is so good! kipkoan gets a 5-2, which I think is quite unfortunate here. He opens Apprentice/-, of course, but my 4-3 leaves me with a more interesting choice. I decide to open double Lookout, getting really thin to ensure I can collide my Market Squares with trashers as soon as possible. Maybe that's wrong, and I want MS/Lookout instead? I'm not sure. I certainly felt under a lot of pressure with my complete lack of economy, but it kicked off in time and ran really smooth once it was going, so it seems okay.

I built a bit longer than my opponent here, which left me in the uncomfortable position of being down three Provinces to zero against an opponent who can easily double Province; but having a million Apprentices and five buys was good enough: I had to get two Provinces and three Duchies, and zoomed past him on my last turn.

amalloy 3-0 kipkoan

Game 4 Log Video

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Vineyard, Great Hall, Farming Village, Marauder, Procession, Spice Merchant, Worker's Village, Golem, Mandarin, Altar
Vineyard obviously looks tempting here, but with very little virtual coin and the only gainers requiring you to trash something, it's going to be a little hard to stuff your deck with actions quickly; meanwhile, Colonies make Vineyard a little less appealing. But it's a pretty weak board for Colonies too: by the time you can drain them all, your opponent's Vineyards will be worth an awful lot. So we both go for Vineyards. My early $5 meant I could use Mandarin to guarantee myself an Altar, which looks like a really nice card here; I later picked up another one. kipkoan got two Spice Merchants instead, which I don't really like, but with only $4 instead of $5 he couldn't do the same thing I did, so...who knows, maybe it's right.

He gets his Potion on turn 5, which seems a little early to me. But then he doesn't use it to buy anything the first time he draws it? I don't really understand that: maybe he was hoping for Golem, but if you don't get that you definitely want Vineyard: that split is key. We end up splitting the Vineyards 4-4: he only has one Potion to my two, but he uses it well, buying Mandarin+Vineyard to re-top it: a neat trick. In the imminent three-pile, my Altars mean I have slightly more actions than he does: the extra 4 Vineyard points just make up for the 3 Estates I trashed, and I win by a point.

amalloy 4-0 kipkoan

Game 5 Log Video

I don't know quite the right way to build this Possession engine, but that's got to be the theme. We spend the first few turns racing down the Fishing Villages, which makes me feel quite silly: they can't be that important, can they? But nothing else really appeals to me at that price point, so racing it is. I get a couple Watchtowers at an opportune time, and the extra cycling+draw those provide catapult me up to Possession pretty quickly. I end up with four Possessions to his one, and most turns I manage to play at least one Possession. Mic Qsenoch points out in the chat that I could have incorporated Grand Markets, since I wasn't being possessed very much: maybe so, but I was more focused on possessing him as much as possible, and buying green to catch up with his earlier greening. Eventually, I'm taking so many more turns than he is that I have all the endgame control, and can eventually buy the last Province.

amalloy 5-0 kipkoan

Game 6 Log Video

A pretty cool engine here, after the Ambassador wars wind down. It's hard with only Jack+Upgrade for gaining, but you can still gain some pretty good cards that way. I get off to a great start, thinning a lot faster than my opponent can, and I'm in a comfortable lead. However, I really bungle it next, by throwing away my Ambassadors: it's true I don't need them to trash anymore, but I do need them to make sure my opponent can't dig his way out of the sea of Coppers I've left him in. I start greening, and have a big lead, but he gets his deck humming along pretty well and giving me two Curses a turn, at a point where I can no longer deal with them at all. I manage to grab the last Province, and the score has me winning by a lot, but I think it was a lot closer than that: I was teetering on the brink of disaster if the game had gone much longer.

Final score: amalloy 6-0 kipkoan

This is actually only my second win of the season: I beat GeoLib handily, but then lost to michaeljb, tied MtMagus, and lost to Kylar. I'm glad it was a big win to tie the season together. I think the highlight of the match, for me, is that I started every game by reminding the audience that I'm mathematically eliminated, and Mic Qsenoch ended every game by trying to tell me in the chat that I'm not actually. I didn't actually get the message until the match was over, which I think is fine with me: I played pretty well anyway, and maybe I would have gotten nervous if I'd known I still have a chance. I just need michaeljb and kylar to have a close match: if michaeljb wins 2-3 games and kylar wins 3-4, then I'll be in first place.

Whatever happens, it's been a great first season, guys. What a strong division-D group this was! Thanks for all the games, and thanks again to Stef for organizing all this. The superhuman speed with which he updates the standings page is unbelievable, if nothing else.

[Joseph2302]

Joseph23024-2DG

Missing some logs, but all games available at http://www.twitch.tv/joseph2302/b/538841477.

Game 1: (http://www.gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?20140615/log.5062f3dc51c3843e7939eb9f.1402865096794.txt)
Money game, both use Stewards, Library and Upgrade. I'm not entirely clear on the best way forward, and basically copy DG. I get behind, and then stupidly apply PPR badly to lose (apparently there was a win there for me).
Joseph23020-1DG

Game 2: (http://www.gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?20140615/log.5062f3dc51c3843e7939eb9f.1402865714441.txt)
I go for money + Mountebank + Swindler, DG goes Gardens, with Thief as only extra gainer (other than being attacked with Mountebank). DG gets ahead with Gardens, but I overtake and 3-pile.
Joseph23021-1DG

Game 3:
I take a random combination of a couple of rats, butcher, king's court and money.
DG has 5/2, and uses trading post, before going fully rats, with lots of expanding, and an option to KC-Sab my deck to nothing. I resign after DG gets 6 province turn (great turn, would recommend looking at it)
Joseph23021-2DG

Game 4:
Scrying Pool decks, I go more for Fortresses/Expands, gaining a couple of mystics, whilst DG favours some money in deck. With many gains, buys, Expands, Fortresses & Market Squares, I manage to end the game for a narrow win, a good end I think.
Joseph23022-2DG

Game 5:
I had 3/4 opening for double urchin, DG gets 2/5, which is worse, and he goes Saboteur, which misses first reshuffle. I get lucky, constantly discarding tunnels from his urchins, and the initial bad luck for DG helps me get ahead and just stay there.
Joseph23023-2DG

Game 6:
Both go for haggler/hoard/harem, I also get mint to trash 3 coppers, which doesn't help much. I'm behind, but DG's deck fails on 2 consecutive turns and I steal an unlikely win by getting last 2 provinces.
Joseph23024-2DG

Thanks for the games, think my luck was better than average. Think games 3&4 were the best.
Notable mention to Goko for giving us 3 first players each (with no restarts)

[shraeye]

Division D-5: shraeye 4-2 rspeer

Check the links for Twitch-videos of each game.  Video-sync was off in the first 3 games, but that's fixed in games 4-6.  Also, terrible issues with background sounds made me have to cut the 3rd video short.  I'm having issues finding the logs, but I'll add them if I've found them.

Game 1 Low-quality Video

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Native Village, Apothecary, Warehouse, Baron, Feodum, Sea Hag, Counterfeit, Duke, Saboteur, Grand Market
Sea Hags and for some reason we all buy Native Villages.

shraeye 1-0 rspeer

Game 2 Log and a Low-quality Video

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Fool's Gold, Secret Chamber, Oasis, Storeroom, Feodum, Herald, Remake, Treasure Map, Library, Mine
Fool's Gold rush...support from Storeroom; I transition to Big Money with Library once I lose the Fool's Gold split 4-6

shraeye 2-0 rspeer

Game 3 Log and a Low-quality Video

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Scrying Pool, Watchtower, Familiar, Horse Traders, JackOfAllTrades, Sea Hag, Butcher, Rebuild, Wharf, Bank
We open with Familiar, which then transitions to Butcher+Bank+Scrying Pool in a Colonies game. Rebuild also features. Spoiler alert, I lose...but I'm cutting this highlight short because background sound was unbearable.  I don't value Wharves highly enough, and don't get them quickly enough.  Also Watchtower is a card that I find playing correctly takes more skill than I have right now.

shraeye 2-1 rspeer

Game 4 Video (sound got quiet, but it's a better quality video than previous ones)

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Masquerade, Storeroom, Noble Brigand, Throne Room, Young Witch, Council Room, Duke, Horn of Plenty, Margrave, Market, Pillage
I try an engine fueled by Throne Room/Market and Horn of Plenty...not quite as efficient as I had hoped.

shraeye 2-2 rspeer

Game 5 Video

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Shanty Town, Urchin, Island, Mining Village, Plaza, Smithy, Butcher, Outpost, Torturer, Trading Post
Torturer based engine, Butcher features.  However, on second thought I'm not sure Torturer engine is really the best way to go.  There's enough trashing that Smithy might have been a better alternative.

shraeye 3-2 rspeer

Game 6  Video

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Shanty Town, Urchin, Island, Mining Village, Plaza, Smithy, Butcher, Outpost, Torturer, Trading Post
We both avoid Young Witch and play a BM game with Embassy.

shraeye 4-2 rspeer

[DG]

DG vs Loes U

Game #1 - http://www.gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?/20140616/log.5083d05fa2e6ac658be2b342.1402942706366.txt
I just play ironmongers as a defense to oracle and it seems to work. The engine is almost there but uncertain.
Game #2 - http://www.gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?/20140616/log.5083d05fa2e6ac658be2b342.1402943606648.txt
Again I play this as a treasure based deck. I'm not sure this needs a big engine, just something to put together with inns.
Game #3 - http://www.gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?/20140616/log.5083d05fa2e6ac658be2b342.1402944453276.txt
Loes U builds his deck and survives my igg rush and badly conceived bishop.
Game #4 - http://www.gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?/20140616/log.5083d05fa2e6ac658be2b342.1402945423021.txt
Black market dominated game where my combined goodies (lookout, junk dealer, tournament) essentially beat his mountebank.
Game #5 - http://www.gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?/20140616/log.5083d05fa2e6ac658be2b342.1402947018511.txt
More interesting game with a horn of plenty engine after a sea hag start. I steal it on a 3 pile ending after almost resigning.
Game #6 - http://www.gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?/20140616/log.5083d05fa2e6ac658be2b342.1402947952732.txt
Loes U can't get an early 5 coin hand so is left behind by ghost ships and soothsayers.

[shraeye]

Division D-5: shraeye 2-4 liopoil

Check the links for Twitch-videos of each game.  Logs were unavailable because Goko is weird.  Sorry about the music that I tried to play in game 1, it didn't work out well.

Game 1 Video (super sloggy; 40 minute game )

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Haven, Ambassador, Forager, Wandering Minstrel, Baker, Cultist, Mandarin, Venture, Wharf, Border Village
A complicated and interesting engine board, with an early rush to get cultists and slow the other person down with Ambassador as well.  Border Village + Wharf provides the base of the engine, and Baker+Forager both help with economy.  Lio does well, and I do other stuff.  As he builds towards double-province range, I realize that I'm trailing him in the engine building and try to quickly stuff myself full of enough points to win regardless.  It doesn't work.

shraeye 0-1 liopoil
Game 2 Video

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Loan, Wishing Well, Talisman, Band of Misfits, Cache, Cartographer, Mountebank, Pillage, Stables, Adventurer
Super dull Mountebank board.

shraeye 0-2 liopoil
Game 3 Video

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Fishing Village, Hermit, Trade Route, Armory, Bridge, Counterfeit, Laboratory, Outpost, Witch, Goons
The most interesting board of the match. Fishing Village with witch/hermit/lab for engine and goons for payoff?  Also bridge, just to make things more complicated.  The game ends in a quick 3-pile (Hermit, FV, Bridge) that I didn't see coming until it was too late.  Chat from Twitch is below:

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Wow, what a board.
Adamhorton: If you're wondering how a split went, you can just start at the top of your shuffle and count what you see as you draw them. It can be more useful/accurate in a lot of cases (and it's technically legal no matter who you ask)
Soulnetgoko: he seems not to be recgnizing the game is almost over
Adamhorton: You talk about buying extra Coppers a lot. I really don't think it will ever be correct to do so on a board like this -- Curses and Fishing Villages will be gone before you can even blink, you know?
Soulnetgoko: this is likely a Witch into Goons slog from the start
Soulnetgoko: no good draw and Counterfeit is too bad at trashing without draw
Soulnetgoko: goons+copper
Soulnetgoko: goons is +2vp next turn
Soulnetgoko: *next shuffle
Soulnetgoko: ok, it did not matter anyway
Adamhorton: I dunno, Hermit should be good for trashing Curses. I'd probably open either double Hermit or Hermit/Fishing Village, get a Counterfeit or a Witch on my first $5 (depending on how many Hermits my opponent has) and skip Bridge. Go for Goons and draw
Soulnetgoko: yes, bridge is definitely a mistake
Soulnetgoko: but two hermits I don't like
Soulnetgoko: too many FVs are no good either
Soulnetgoko: you want to keep playing Goons
Soulnetgoko: hermit delay you getting Witches and Goons
Hvboedefeld: wow, liopoil has an avarage of 5,2 after 4 matches played
Soulnetgoko: (I did not see the beginning of the match)
Adamhorton: I think there's never a place for Bridge on this board. But I do like having lots of Hermits
Soulnetgoko: the thing is
Soulnetgoko: you want to play Witch and Goons
Soulnetgoko: bridge is good if you are buying lots of cards
Soulnetgoko: since you cannot play lots of bridges or money
Soulnetgoko: the only way to buy lots of cards is to buy cheap cards
Adamhorton: I think if you get lots of Fishing Villages, you should spike one or two early $5s to get a Counterfeit and/or a Witch
Soulnetgoko: and cheap cards are not that good
Soulnetgoko: right, but opening Hermit/Hermit gives you two dead (in current turn) cards
Soulnetgoko: even if you add 4 FVs
Soulnetgoko: is not that easy to spike even a single $5
Adamhorton: I'm not saying it's good for hitting $5 right away, but give it two shuffles and you will. You'll also stay on top of Curses and win the FV split
Hvboedefeld: bridge fishing village witch goons and bridge is nice here, but you need madmen here for double goons or province turns
Adamhorton: I didn't see the beginning of the game. "Where you go next" is a tactical decision for sure
Soulnetgoko: ok, madman/goons I like
Hvboedefeld: no bad strategy at all but balance it more a bit
Soulnetgoko: but madman against a goons slog is sooo bad
 Shraeye: yeah, lio is saying curses were no trouble for him
Hvboedefeld: less fv more bridges
 Shraeye: with all the hermits he had
Liopoil: I guess you probably don't need too many FVs.
Soulnetgoko: I would like to skip bridge
Hvboedefeld: liopoil had just 1 goons, so no threat
Liopoil: at least 3 or so
Adamhorton: I think you want Lab for draw. Madman only to get rid of your Hermits when you're done with them.
 Shraeye: yeah, i thinki was building for too long
Soulnetgoko: well, just one goons has to be a mistake
 Shraeye: like soulent noticed, i wasn't going for the points
Adamhorton: Well you want lots of FVs if your opponent decides to race them, again it's a tactical choice
 Shraeye: what's the balance between 1 or 2 goons, and still keeping an eye on points and piles?
Liopoil: yeah, goons is probably worse than bridge for what I was doing
Adamhorton: BTW, Shraeye, stream quality is much better
Liopoil: For what shraeye is doing, he wants lots of goons, no bridges
 Shraeye: i lowered that "bit rate"
 Shraeye: whatever it is, it was the problem
Soulnetgoko: yes, the streaming is great
Hvboedefeld: gree adam ou want early madmen and bridges to go into lab
Soulnetgoko: btw, I would like to try this kingdom
Hvboedefeld: agree
Liopoil: I'd like to play this kingdom again later
 Shraeye: i'd play this again
 Shraeye: it's super interesting

shraeye 0-3 liopoil
Game 4 Video

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Vineyard, Secret Chamber, Stonemason, Scrying Pool, Village, Workshop, Salvager, Apprentice, Trading Post, Upgrade
Vineyards and Stonemason, with extra support from Scrying Pool and Workshop.  Possibly neither of us commit to Vineyards as hard as we should, as we both open Potion/Silver instead of Workshop/Potion, which might have been better.

shraeye 0-4 liopoil
Game 5 Video

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Scrying Pool, Familiar, Advisor, Bridge, Cartographer, Counting House, Mandarin, Mystic, Pillage, Torturer
A fairly basic Familiar game.  Mystic/Cartographer are nice picks later on.  Lots of Pillages get bought.

shraeye 1-4 liopoil
Game 6  Video

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Woodcutter, Cutpurse, Jack of all Trades, Noble Brigand, Scout, Butcher, Duke, Horn of Plenty, Soothsayer, Bank
Jack supports Duke/Duchy strategy.  Soothsayer can be used to build economy along the way, and Butcher to help finish strong.

shraeye 2-4 liopoil

[DG]

DG vs Luulin : Goko wasn't giving many logs tonight, but maybe it's best as there wasn't much luck for Luulin who was playing at a bad time. I caught this game where I opened with potion for a golem http://www.gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?/20140619/log.507df00551c30da02a09d459.1403213254000.txt and this close tournament game http://www.gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?/20140619/log.507df00551c30da02a09d459.1403215197381.txt.