Candlestick Maker, Pawn, Lookout, Village, Wishing Well, Alchemist, Bureaucrat, Plaza, Rats, GoonsViewer:
http://gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?20150208/log.506872f90cf2795d403d3f0a.1423394598583.txtReplay:
http://goko-replay.herokuapp.com/replay/?log_url=http%3A%2F%2Fdominionlogs.goko.com%2F20150208%2Flog.506872f90cf2795d403d3f0a.1423394598583.txtI don't think there are many big picture lessons to get here. Goons is clearly very good, and with Alchemist as the only way to increase hand size, Alchemist-Goons is the only viable option. This also means CM isn't worth picking up here. Although accumulating coin tokens is promising, you want your only hand size decreaser to be Goons. There's an argument that you could go for Rats, but I don't think it's worth the detour with Lookout on the board.
qmech played pretty much how I would have played it, so why am I posting this? Well, it's to show how important the small choices can be.
- On my turn 6, after playing Alchemist, I decide to play my Lookout. I haven't played it yet this game, and I want to make sure I can trash. However, I think it's the wrong decision. Playing Lookout guarantees my Alchemist and Potion miss the reshuffle. I have 8 cards total in my draw + discard: 1 WW, 1 Pawn, 3 Estates, 3 Coppers. The only way I can draw my Potion next turn is if I get very lucky on a WW or Pawn play. Yes, not trashing a card hurts, but I really don't want Potion to miss the reshuffle. Especially because I can topdeck the Alchemist this turn, so I get more chances to redraw that Potion.
- On turn 8, I buy a Silver. I know I'm behind on Alchemists and think that getting the early first Goons will let me catch up. As it turns out, I could have gotten $6 without the Silver, and buying Goons over Alchemist on turn 9 is the wrong call. Without the +Cards to support it, the attack doesn't hurt enough, and I get slowed down by having another stop card.
- By turn 14, the game is basically over, since I've lost the Alchemist split 4-6, and the better cycling has let qmech trash more starting cards with Lookout. However, there's still one more lesson to get here. I topdeck 4 Alchemists instead of 3 at the end of this turn. I should be only topdecking 3, since I expect to get Goonsed every turn. By topdecking 4, I leave 1 more card in my drawpile than I should. This is a minor difference, but it actually matters. On my turn 15 I miss the Potion by exactly one card, and topdecking only 3 would have let me keep my Alchemist stack.
The lesson here? The little things in Dominion matter, and most big picture issues come from those little things.
