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[-Stef-]

If you want to write about a game you or someone else played during the league, or post links to video coverage, please do so in this thread.

If you've lost a game and want to ask for advice, please post it here.
All your questions will be answered.

[2.71828.....]

Division A: SheCantSayNo vs 2.71828.....

e twitch video. (low quality video, sorry.  I will up the video quality next match)
SCSN's stream

Code: [Select]

Moat, Stonemason, Black Market, Fortune Teller, Advisor, Trader, Walled Village, Cultist, Embassy, Rabble
log

I debated buying Black Market at all here.  With Cultist and stonemason, it was going to be a fast game.  I looked in the BM deck though, saw Junk Dealer, Upgrade, goons, land decided to go for it.  Looking back, I don't think I should have.  Sure, I picked up upgrade on T3.  But I don't think it played too much of a difference.  The biggest thing here was the lack of economy, and I think an extra silver over black market could have been better.  As it turns out, the difference in the game was that I spiked 8 (thank you abandoned mine) to get a province on T12.  From there I was freed up to concentrate on piles to end the game.

Code: [Select]

Shanty Town, Swindler, Nomad Camp, Salvager, Silk Road, Band of Misfits, Butcher, Explorer, Mine, Fairgrounds
log

Classic swindler/silver opening here.  My plan is to get butchers.  Butcher things.  Profit.  I didn't care too much about swindler because Butcher doesn't care about what card you butcher, just its money value.  Anyway, I got slightly better shuffle luck and was able to pull out the win.  One thing that I would note is my T15.  3 provinces remaining, I have 7 coin with 5 coin tokens to spend.  We are tied at this point.  I don't get the province.  Because butcher.  All it takes is butcher province->province, buy province + anything and win the game.  So I get a fairgrounds, SCSN buys the province, and then I have a butcher in hand, go province->province, 7 coin tokens for the last province and the win.

Code: [Select]

Courtyard, Herbalist, Lighthouse, Secret Chamber, Gardens, Quarry, Silk Road, Trader, Treasure Map, Young Witch, Mine
log

Power board.  Not.  I have a 5/2 here.  Nothing special about it.  I decide to go for a big money/gardens/silk road strategy.  Open trader/courtyard.  My plan is to get about 10 silvers in my deck then start greening.  Works like a charm.  Get some decent shuffles, get some provinces, and just start buying gardens, silk roads, and estates to win the game.  My biggest question was why SCSN bought treasure maps.  I feel like that was a real mistake.  The payoff (while nice) is not going to happen in the bloated deck that was going to happen.  I mean, you can get lucky, but I wouldn't count on that. 

Code: [Select]

Stonemason, Shanty Town, Steward, Storeroom, Procession, Bandit Camp, Cartographer, Hunting Party, Mandarin, Mint
log

SCSN opens steward/steward.  I go steward/silver.  The key to this game, however, was not that decision, but the decision we both faced (T2 for me, T4 for him).  The decision to buy mint.  I turned it down, he accepted it.  I had some good trashing and bought some silvers and was able to get rolling faster.  But he had mint.  Which meant that he could mint a gold, stonemason a gold, and profit.  Basically, I bought the first province, but then was just overpowered from there.

Code: [Select]

Scrying Pool, Steward, Armory, Feodum, Golem, Highway, Stables, Farmland, Bank, Expand
log

This was a really interesting game.  Highway/armory means that you can gain provinces, which was what we both did as a primary strategy.  The biggest thing to note about this game was the use of golem.  It was an important card because it was really your best source of +actions.  Thankfully, we had necropolis, but besides that we are stuck using golem as a village.  How do you set this up on a deck with scrying pool where you draw all your actions though?  We dont have a card like warehouse to force-discard 3 cards then allow you to play golem to draw and use them as actions.  However, do we really need all the actions?  I think you really just need to two actions provided by necropolis.  2 gains and a buy, 3 provinces.  So buying extra golems is unnecessary, and I feel as though that is what SCSN did.  I think first player advantage played into the final result a good bit, as the game ended going 3 provinces/3 provinces/2 provinces, but I think SCSN would have had a better shot at winning by replacing at least one of his 3 golems with a scrying pool.

Code: [Select]

Pearl Diver, Secret Chamber, Ambassador, Black Market, Warehouse, Wishing Well, Philosopher's Stone, Tournament, Tactician, Farmland, Nobles
log

Ambassador.  I love ambassador games.  They force so many great decisions.  When do I stop attacking and start improving my deck?  Here, we have ambassador/tournament.  We both open ambassador/tournament, but SCSN opts to get a second ambassador early, while I decide to build economy early.  Compare our decks after T10.   (I just played tactician on T9)

SCSN 2   Ambassador 1   Pearl Diver 1   Tactician 2   Tournament 1   Wishing Well 2   Copper 1   Silver 10   cards in deck

2.71828..... 1   Ambassador 1   Black Market 2   Pearl Diver 2   Tactician 2   Tournament 8   Copper 1   Gold 3   Estate 20   cards in deck

My thought process was to get the tactician/black market combo moving as fast as possible, and once you draw lots of cards you can ambassador them away.  Plus, prizes.  Prizes, prizes prizes.  It works.  T11 I buy play Black market, lay money on the table, play tactician.  T12 I get trusty steed.  I then go ahead and pick up ambassador #2, because I need to thin.  Then what happens?  The curse of self-junking  (i.e. getting followers).  With tacticians in play, the discard attack hurts, but not as much.  I think that princess is a much better purchase.  SCSN picks up followers, and I end up with princess.  My deck gradually gets better and better, while his gets worse.  His wishing wells (so good early) are now virtually worthless.  My warehouses help consistency in a bloated deck.  And at the end of T20, I finally have a thinner deck.  And a much better one.

SheCantSayNo 2   Ambassador 1   Black Market 1   Followers 2   Pearl Diver 1   Secret Chamber 2   Tactician 2   Tournament 2   Wishing Well 3   Copper 1   Gold 1   Diadem 3   Estate 1   Province 3   Nobles 1   Curse 26   cards in deck

2.71828..... 2   Ambassador 1   Black Market 1   Fishing Village 1   Mint 2   Pearl Diver 1   Princess 1   Secret Chamber 2   Tactician 2   Tournament 1   Trusty Steed 3   Warehouse 1   Silver 1   Gold 1   Estate 3   Province 1   Curse 24   cards in deck

With a combo like tactician/black market (especially with support cards like warehouse and important things like prizes), I think that my route of getting the combo in play then worry about thinning is the way to go.  At least, that is the way it turned out here.

[AdamH]

AdamH vs. Jaybeez

Link to entire stream on Twitch
Link to YouTube video playlist

Game 1: Game Log     Twitch Highlight     YouTube Video
Kingdom: Beggar, Oasis, Storeroom, Farming Village, Horse Traders, Militia, Noble Brigand, Duke, Ill-Gotten Gains, Harem

Game 2: Game Log     Twitch Highlight     YouTube Video
Kingdom: Poor House, Haven, Masterpiece, Rats, Silk Road, Hunting Party, Knights, Market, Adventurer, Grand Market, with Shelters

Game 3: Game Log     Twitch Highlight     YouTube Video
Kingdom: Vagrant, Trade Route, Wishing Well, Farming Village, Plaza, Worker's Village, Council Room, Pillage, Trading Post, Treasury, with Shelters

Game 4: Game Log     Twitch Highlight     YouTube Video
Kingdom: Herbalist, Squire, Fishing Village, Oasis, Village, City, Rabble, Wharf, Goons, Expand

Game 5: Game Log     Twitch Highlight     YouTube Video
Kingdom: Transmute, Moat (bane), Pawn, Workshop, Death Cart, Sea Hag, Young Witch, Tactician, Treasury, Venture, Possession

Game 6: Game Log     Twitch Highlight     YouTube Video
Kingdom: Squire, Sage, Scheme, Feast, Ironworks, Island, Plaza, Remodel, Spice Merchant, Wandering Minstrel, with Shelters

---------------------------

A few games worth talking about here:

Game 2: I lost this game, even though my strategy might have been better, and I think Stef said it best:

he is still looking for a deck that he draws every turn, but should be happy to just have one that's a bit more reliably then his opponents

Game 6: I lost this game because I missed a play that would have nearly guaranteed me a win (or at least a tie). Embarassing.

Game 3: So this is where I disagree with the chat and I sort of want to talk about it. My opponent gets a 5/2, opens Trading Post and is ahead. He gets Pillages and I don't, and I think that's probably the main difference in our strategies. Perhaps there are some bad draws on his end that I wasn't aware of, but in the end I had a better deck (one that could double Province) while he couldn't (without Spoils once they ran out for him). I feel like Pillage was the main thing we did differently.

The chat is constantly saying I should get Pillage (it's really effective on the video, now that you can see the chat in real-time, I really like that widget BTW) and I get Gold instead. I've looked over this game more closely and I still feel like Pillage is bad and Gold is better -- am I missing something here?

[Burning Skull]

My match against Eevee (still processing):

[Qvist]

My match vs. Joseph2302:

[Burning Skull]

My match against Heisenberg:

[Qvist]

My match vs. werothegreat

[mpsprs]

My match vs. nate_w (with write-ups, since I suspect I won't get any feedback from just posting the video).

But here's the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLX0rOUk60o

Game 1: http://www.gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?20150408/log.5101a312e4b0a35e483e0772.1428538725554.txt

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Moat, Scheme, Swindler, Warehouse, Workshop, Familiar, Philosopher's Stone, Mining Village, Band of Misfits, Hunting Grounds
I started 5/2 and I wasn't sure what to do.  Do I go potion/moat and contest familiars?  Do I go BoM/Moat, and ignore familiar (hoping to swindle enough coppers to curse to avoid being swamped).  I chose what is probably the worst.  BoM/Moat into a late potion.  That did not work.  My swindler hit copper early, and I lost the curse split 7-3.  Solid victory for nate_w.  In hindsight, I think I should have just gone swindler/BoM as much as possible.  Get money later.  On 4/3 I'd have definitely gone potion/swindler.

Game 2:  http://www.gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?20150408/log.5101a312e4b0a35e483e0772.1428539226352.txt

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Haven, Scrying Pool, Island, Smithy, Bazaar, Catacombs, Mint, Mountebank, Soothsayer, Goons
Again I start 5/2.  I'm happier about it here.  I open Mountebank.  I win the curse split 7-3.  I make some small misplays (I'd have been in trouble in the end if nate_w had spiked a colony), but mostly I was never in real trouble after the big lead I had in the opening.  Solid win for me.

Game 3:  http://www.gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?20150408/log.5101a312e4b0a35e483e0772.1428539633100.txt

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Cellar, Vagrant, University, Armory, Caravan, Scavenger, Golem, Duke, Haggler, Goons
I opened potion/silver with the intent of playing an engine here.  I spiked an early 6, and got goons-I think maybe that should have been caravan.  But things are coming together nicely for me against nate's caravan plus a few terminals deck.  Nate sees the writing on the wall and resigns early.  This one was definitely a strategy win for me, as I was far ahead even with some not great potion luck (1P even once).  Tactically, it was more "eh" for me.  That Goons buy is iffy, and I hesitated getting a haggler (even with plenty of 2 cost cards to grab).

Game 4:  http://www.gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?20150408/log.5101a312e4b0a35e483e0772.1428540416839.txt

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Fool's Gold, Vagrant, Trade Route, Wishing Well, Marauder, Bandit Camp, Junk Dealer, Mystic, Rebuild, Border Village
We both played rebuild.  I hit 2 more than I would have liked, but the biggest thing here is nate accidentally "rebuilding" an estate to an estate, which let me split duchies 4-4.  Finally in the end game we had just one province left, each with a duchy, no estates left, and I had a 2 point lead.  So it was simply a question of could nate get lucky and rebuild duchy->province (avoiding province->province or estate->nothing, whichever is possible given what he names), or would I be able to burn that province (naming estate to go province->province).  After a few rebuildless turns from us both, he drew his duchy with a rebuild.  No good.  I drew nothing again.  He drew rebuild, but with the duchy already past, he was lost (and I had a rebuild finally).  This game probably should have been nate's, but I snuck out the win (so 3-1 for me, if you are counting).

Game 5:  http://www.gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?20150408/log.5101a312e4b0a35e483e0772.1428541663102.txt

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Courtyard, Embargo, Coppersmith, Cutpurse, Ironmonger, Island, Nomad Camp, Wandering Minstrel, Catacombs, City
Well.  I didn't play this one too well.  We both went for engine.  That's good.  I got ironmongers.  I'd have rather had wandering minstrels.  We both got cities (and left the pile at 2).  Wandering Minstrels are simply better.  Unfortunately, I only figured all this out mid-game.  Nate seemed to figure that out ahead of me (but again, mid-game).  I had more nomad camps, and got a coppersmith sooner.  I had more catacombs, he had more courtyards.  Overall pretty close.  We danced around for a bit with two provinces left, both with the theoretical capability of double provincing, but I hit it first, so I won.  Lots of mistakes for both of us here I think, could have gone either way, but another mpsprs victory.

Game 6:  http://www.gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?20150408/log.5101a312e4b0a35e483e0772.1428542469553.txt

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Transmute, Secret Chamber, Hermit, Bishop, Monument, Salvager, Worker's Village, Cartographer, Market, Harem
I completely missed that colonies were part of this game, so I was baffled by nate running through hermits->madmen so fast.  I thought there was nothing useful to do with big hands before getting buy, until he bought platinum.  Oops.  Never the less, I had more components-more gold, not too far behind on platina, a few cartographers to grease the wheels, and a couple monuments.  Ended up winning by 7 with 9 points in monument chips. 

Overall, I felt I played sort of "meh".  A lot of things that I realized afterwards were clear tactical misplays, but the results went my way.  Thanks to liopoil and stef for the advice in the twitch chat they left me to read after the games.  I really appreciate it.  Good luck to nate_w with the rest of your matches (and welcome to the league as well!).

Cheers

[AdamH]

My match with Wandering Winder

Link to entire stream on Twitch
Link to YouTube video playlist

Game 1: Game Log     Twitch Highlight     YouTube Video
Kingdom Cards: Beggar, Fool's Gold, Squire, Sage, Treasure Map, Pillage, Rogue, Farmland, Goons, Nobles

Game 2: Game Log     Twitch Highlight     YouTube Video
Kingdom Cards: Chancellor, Market Square, Masterpiece, Sage, Island, Apprentice, Ghost Ship, Margrave, Minion, Vault

Game 3: Game Log     Twitch Highlight     YouTube Video
Kingdom Cards: Pawn, Tunnel, Village, Farming Village, Apprentice, Cartographer, Council Room, Counting House, Embassy, Torturer

Game 4: Game Log     Twitch Highlight     YouTube Video
Kingdom Cards: Lookout, Sage, Swindler, Warehouse, Farming Village, Feast, Walled Village, Bazaar, Counting House, Harvest

Game 5: Game Log     Twitch Highlight     YouTube Video
Kingdom Cards: Candlestick Maker, Ambassador, Chancellor, Steward, Watchtower, Wandering Minstrel, Apprentice, Rogue, Saboteur, Goons

Game 6: Game Log     Twitch Highlight     YouTube Video
Kingdom Cards: Vagrant, Doctor, Sage, Advisor, Farming Village, Spice Merchant, Treasure Map, Council Room, Merchant Ship, Tactician, with Shelters

[AdamH]

My match with Andwilk

Link to entire stream on Twitch
Link to YouTube video playlist

Game 1: Game Log     Twitch Highlight     YouTube Video
Kingdom Cards: Crossroads, Squire, Great Hall, Advisor, Armory, Remake, Stash, Wharf, Hunting Grounds, Peddler

Game 2: Game Log     Twitch Highlight     YouTube Video
Kingdom Cards: Cellar, Stonemason, Vagrant, Shanty Town, Watchtower, Cutpurse, Fortress, Mining Village, Haggler, Minion

Game 3: Game Log     Twitch Highlight     YouTube Video
Kingdom Cards: Hamlet, Native Village, Apothecary, Sage, Moneylender, Smithy, Journeyman, Fairgrounds, Grand Market, Harem

Game 4: Game Log     Twitch Highlight     YouTube Video
Kingdom Cards: Secret Chamber, Ambassador, Village, Feast, Herald, Monument, Rats, Remake, Contraband, Border Village

Game 5: Game Log     Twitch Highlight     YouTube Video
Kingdom Cards: Crossroads, Secret Chamber, Sage, Woodcutter, Noble Brigand, Quarry, Rats, Silk Road, Explorer, Peddler

Game 6: Game Log     Twitch Highlight     YouTube Video
Kingdom Cards: Transmute, Fishing Village, Trade Route, Warehouse, Bishop, Monument, Navigator, Governor, Journeyman, Torturer

[pubby]

I don't think many people would watch a full hour of me playing, so here's a full league match condensed to 7 minutes:



I didn't talk much about all the mistakes I made, so if you have advice you can post a comment on the youtube page.

[AdamH]

I don't think many people would watch a full hour of me playing, so here's a full league match condensed to 7 minutes:

Wow, what an interesting idea. I wonder if there's lots of demand for stuff like this... I suppose we can let the +1s speak for themselves?

[jsh357]

I don't think many people would watch a full hour of me playing, so here's a full league match condensed to 7 minutes:

Wow, what an interesting idea. I wonder if there's lots of demand for stuff like this... I suppose we can let the +1s speak for themselves?

It's a good idea, but a little too fast, not quite enough insight I think.  Maybe 12-15 minutes would be a little more interesting. 

[liopoil]

This would be more work to do, but what if you (or anyone) cut it down by skipping large parts of the game that were less interesting, or sped them way way up. Then the critical parts could be played at normal speeds.

[Deadlock39]

I think the plain fast forward works okay.  I like the idea of taking the write ups many players do, and recording them over the game.  (basically just what pubby did, but scripted to make it a bit more clean.  For some reason, I am too lazy to read a write up most of the time, but having it in video form made me take the time to check it out.

[assemble_me]

Agreed with JSH and liopoil. The speed seems a little bit too fast overall, so maybe you should slow down a bit in general or slow down the turns where critical stuff happens, almost like in the highlights of sports matches on TV (not sure if normal speed is needed when you're trying to figure out how to play the cards in your hand in perfect order and that takes several mins, you know...).

But, in general, I like the idea!

[Awaclus]

Before I abandoned the project of cutting the last GokoDom finals to reasonable lengths, I was able to get them down to a couple of minutes per game just by cutting out parts where nothing (except thinking) was going on, without speeding up or anything. It takes some extra work, but surprisingly little actually, and I think it's a lot more comfortable to watch than a game that has been sped up.

[Qvist]

My match vs. Iguana Iguana:

[pubby]

Wow, what an interesting idea. I wonder if there's lots of demand for stuff like this...

I hope others will experiment and have fun with the format.

Here is one more video from me. It is running twice as slow as the previous video, as jsh suggestion. The original footage was fairly short and so the final result is still only 7 minutes long. I didn't write a script but I did do two takes and spliced them together.

[AdamH]

Will edit this post

1. K first, K wins
http://www.gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?/20150419/log.5085f5130cf270038ff92212.1429482609106.txt

2. K first, K wins
http://www.gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?/20150419/log.5085f5130cf270038ff92212.1429483376394.txt

3. K first, A wins
http://www.gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?/20150419/log.5085f5130cf270038ff92212.1429484086688.txt

4. A first, K wins
http://www.gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?/20150419/log.5085f5130cf270038ff92212.1429485008912.txt

5. A first, A wins
http://www.gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?/20150419/log.5085f5130cf270038ff92212.1429486337945.txt

6. A first, A wins
http://www.gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?/20150419/log.5085f5130cf270038ff92212.1429487728716.txt

[SirD]

Man, the match of Stefs against e was amazing. Especially that last game at 1:36. Unbelievable. Thank you so much for streaming, Stef.

http://www.twitch.tv/stef_42/b/653740278

[Burning Skull]

My match against Dunduks (still processing):

[-Stef-]

Man, the match of Stefs against e was amazing. Especially that last game at 1:36. Unbelievable. Thank you so much for streaming, Stef.

http://www.twitch.tv/stef_42/b/653740278

Thanks! It was a very sweet game indeed. Such bad draws at the start, feeling really hopeless, and then the comeback based on a combo I now assume I've overlooked a number of times in the past. Won't happen again

this is just that game:
http://www.twitch.tv/stef_42/c/6604408

[Awaclus]

Man, the match of Stefs against e was amazing. Especially that last game at 1:36. Unbelievable. Thank you so much for streaming, Stef.

http://www.twitch.tv/stef_42/b/653740278

Thanks! It was a very sweet game indeed. Such bad draws at the start, feeling really hopeless, and then the comeback based on a combo I now assume I've overlooked a number of times in the past. Won't happen again

this is just that game:
http://www.twitch.tv/stef_42/c/6604408

This is why Bureaucrat is the most powerful card in Dominion!

[Burning Skull]

Match against Awaclus:

[Burning Skull]

My match against Jean-Michel:



Involves me snuffling heavily in the microphone while resolving KC Hermit megaturn in the last game.

[Qvist]

I totally forgot to upload my last match against Jeb. Better late than never:

[Qvist]

Last league match against Rubby:

[assemble_me]

Last league match against Rubby:

Comment on game 3 (that Forager/Ironmonger/Wharf/GM game):
I would have opened Forager/Ironmonger as well because the Ironmonger can help you to hit an early Wharf and serves as village later, but it might be close.
He was lucky to get the Wharf with his Ironmonger right after the shuffle. I also think you maybe should have gotten a first Wharf over your first Grand Market. But I think you were just behind at that point due to his early Wharf. Maybe you could have considered an Ironmonger over the last two Fool's Golds, as you said yourself: You don't really need to win that split - but you did.

[Qvist]

Last league match against Rubby:

Comment on game 3 (that Forager/Ironmonger/Wharf/GM game):
I would have opened Forager/Ironmonger as well because the Ironmonger can help you to hit an early Wharf and serves as village later, but it might be close.
He was lucky to get the Wharf with his Ironmonger right after the shuffle. I also think you maybe should have gotten a first Wharf over your first Grand Market. But I think you were just behind at that point due to his early Wharf. Maybe you could have considered an Ironmonger over the last two Fool's Golds, as you said yourself: You don't really need to win that split - but you did.

I agree that I should have bought a Wharf over Grand Market, but I thought I can get Wharf more easily later while Grand Market is more hard to get.

[drsteelhammer]

Another question qvist: Why did you trash your second mercenary over potion in game 5? You didnt need the potion anymore and the mercenary would have been very beneficial later on in my opinion.

edit: turn 12

[-Stef-]

Last league match against Rubby:

Comment on game 3 (that Forager/Ironmonger/Wharf/GM game):
I would have opened Forager/Ironmonger as well because the Ironmonger can help you to hit an early Wharf and serves as village later, but it might be close.
He was lucky to get the Wharf with his Ironmonger right after the shuffle. I also think you maybe should have gotten a first Wharf over your first Grand Market. But I think you were just behind at that point due to his early Wharf. Maybe you could have considered an Ironmonger over the last two Fool's Golds, as you said yourself: You don't really need to win that split - but you did.

I would go one step further and say you really don't want to win that FG spilt. Winning it hurts you - a lot. I don't even want to have 4 FG, 3 is plenty. Maybe another one very late if my opponent doesn't like them either.

I don't like a forager/forager opening, and in fact prefer Ironmonger/Forager. Not because I want to hit $5 - Ironmonger/Forager is pretty bad at hitting $5 and your opponent certainly got lucky here. The reason I don't like a forager/forager opening is because I want to prioritize trashing (!). I am hoping on turn 3/4 to trash one card and add another forager and another ironmonger. Only after that I start adding fool's golds - no more than 3.

When opening Forager/Forager I can't realistically expect to add double ironmonger on turns 3/4. A 3rd forager is also clumsy, so a far more reasonable scenario (and what actually happened) is buying 3 fool's golds. But at this point my deck is really hurting. I just significantly lowered the frequency of my foragers, and I'm not hitting big hands yet. So you're kind of forced into adding even more fool's golds and then thinning gets delayed way too much.

There are a lot of turns where you got fool's gold and I would have taken ironmonger.
Turn 5 qvist: ironmonger over double FG.
Turn 6 qvist: ironmonger over double FG
Turn 6 rubby: ironmonger + FG over double FG.
(log)

What you are doing here - opening double forager into lots of fool's golds, that can work on slightly different kingdoms but not this one. If you take that route you should add a couple of wharves and go straight for provinces. More like fool's gold BM with some trashing. Here you will get outraced by the ironmonger/wharf/grand market deck, so I think you're right in not going for that. But what you do now is like building an engine, except you add the payload first and build the engine later.

[Qvist]

Another question qvist: Why did you trash your second mercenary over potion in game 5? You didnt need the potion anymore and the mercenary would have been very beneficial later on in my opinion.

edit: turn 12

I honestly don't know. Good point.

Last league match against Rubby:

Comment on game 3 (that Forager/Ironmonger/Wharf/GM game):
I would have opened Forager/Ironmonger as well because the Ironmonger can help you to hit an early Wharf and serves as village later, but it might be close.
He was lucky to get the Wharf with his Ironmonger right after the shuffle. I also think you maybe should have gotten a first Wharf over your first Grand Market. But I think you were just behind at that point due to his early Wharf. Maybe you could have considered an Ironmonger over the last two Fool's Golds, as you said yourself: You don't really need to win that split - but you did.

I would go one step further and say you really don't want to win that FG spilt. Winning it hurts you - a lot. I don't even want to have 4 FG, 3 is plenty. Maybe another one very late if my opponent doesn't like them either.

I don't like a forager/forager opening, and in fact prefer Ironmonger/Forager. Not because I want to hit $5 - Ironmonger/Forager is pretty bad at hitting $5 and your opponent certainly got lucky here. The reason I don't like a forager/forager opening is because I want to prioritize trashing (!). I am hoping on turn 3/4 to trash one card and add another forager and another ironmonger. Only after that I start adding fool's golds - no more than 3.

When opening Forager/Forager I can't realistically expect to add double ironmonger on turns 3/4. A 3rd forager is also clumsy, so a far more reasonable scenario (and what actually happened) is buying 3 fool's golds. But at this point my deck is really hurting. I just significantly lowered the frequency of my foragers, and I'm not hitting big hands yet. So you're kind of forced into adding even more fool's golds and then thinning gets delayed way too much.

There are a lot of turns where you got fool's gold and I would have taken ironmonger.
Turn 5 qvist: ironmonger over double FG.
Turn 6 qvist: ironmonger over double FG
Turn 6 rubby: ironmonger + FG over double FG.
(log)

What you are doing here - opening double forager into lots of fool's golds, that can work on slightly different kingdoms but not this one. If you take that route you should add a couple of wharves and go straight for provinces. More like fool's gold BM with some trashing. Here you will get outraced by the ironmonger/wharf/grand market deck, so I think you're right in not going for that. But what you do now is like building an engine, except you add the payload first and build the engine later.

That all makes perfectly sense.

[Rubby]

Pleased to see Stef's analysis (mostly) validate my strategy in that game. I figured getting Ironmongers, and hopefully an early Wharf, was more important than racing Fool's Golds. Being able to play multiple Wharfs later was critical. There was some luck involved, but my strategy made me much less likely to have a sad turn like Qvist's turn 12.

Game 6: Yeah, my Explorer opening was silly.

BTW I was both amused and bewildered by TheHornetSquad's (Seprix') comment on the YouTube video. Where did that come from?