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[LibraryAdventurer]

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Pawn, Ambassador, Menagerie, Wishing Well, Baron, Conspirator, Militia, Mining Village, Jester, Vaulthttp://www.gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?20150620/log.516dc40ce4b082c74d7c8baa.1434858965467.txt
Here's another game where it seemed like we were doing the same thing (except that I got a baron and he didn't) in the early/mid game, but then he was hitting 9 and 11 easily and I couldn't get to 9.
Was using baron my mistake?
(If you look at the log, try to ignore my last couple turns. I had stopped trying because I was about three colonies behind and I should've just resigned earlier.)

[scott_pilgrim]

I think this is the sort of board where whoever loses the Ambassador war will feel like they lost by a lot more than they actually did (that is, it's a high positive feedback board).  That can happen as a result of bad shuffle luck, but it also means that how you play at the beginning will have a big impact on the outcome.

I don't like your Baron opening.  You want to be getting rid of Estates (and Coppers) at the beginning.  Not only is Baron not doing that (and potentially colliding with Ambassador), but it only does anything if you discard Estates, which you hopefully won't have for very long.  I don't like his Mining Village opening either, but at least it's non-terminal and it's something you'll be wanting later, so maybe it's not too bad.  I think you want to open double Ambassador though, because this is a big engine board that really wants a thin deck (no big draw, and both Conspirator and Menagerie really prefer to not have Coppers/Estates in the way).

Whoever thins down faster should have a huge advantage.  After that you can buy a few Mining Villages and lots of Menageries and Conspirators (and a few Pawns for +buy), and probably one Militia.  You might add Vaults if you're having trouble drawing everything.  Jester is probably good too if you have room for more terminals.  Really there's nothing on this board that wouldn't fit into the deck, except Baron.

[nate_w]

I think the big thing was he got slightly luckier than you, but I think neither of you played it particularly well. I think MV/ambassador is a fine opening but needs to be followed up with a second ambassador. This should be a pretty sick engine with menag for draw conspirators for cash and pawn for buy. Vault when you start greening.

Baron is probably not the best choice here because you have pawns for buy which you can almost certainly pick up on one of the turns where you returned some junk and have two coppers in hand.

[ehunt]

Ambassador/4-cost-village
is in general a good open in a situation where no cheaper village is available. (You pick up a second ambassador on the next shuffle.) The point is that an amb/amb opening locks you out of getting a village for too long on such a board. This is maybe the most important exception to "don't open village."

[belugawhale]

In this kingdom, it seems like there is a rock-paper-scissors relationship. Ambassador is countered by Vault, which is countered by Militia, which is countered by Menagerie, which is countered by Ambassador.

[eHalcyon]

In this kingdom, it seems like there is a rock-paper-scissors relationship. Ambassador is countered by Vault, which is countered by Militia, which is countered by Menagerie, which is countered by Ambassador.

I don't think Ambassador is countered by Vault.  Vault is hurt less by Ambassador than (for example) Menagerie, but it still doesn't love it.  And while the Vault player chugs through their deck full of Copper and Estates, the Ambassador player will put up a sweet engine and win.

[belugawhale]

I read this article, and Vault does counter Ambassador, but Ambassador+Village+Militia will do better. Here is the wiki article I used: http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/index.php/Counter:_Vault_vs_Ambassador

[Seprix]

You need to open double Ambassador. There's no trashing, and if you lose the war, you're f***ed with no prospects of coming back. If you win the war you can get Militia, and slow your opponent from Ambassadoring back into the game. I think in the end, you'll want to go for a Conspirator/Pawn engine with Menageries and Mining Villages for later payload.

[ehunt]

I read this article, and Vault does counter Ambassador, but Ambassador+Village+Militia will do better. Here is the wiki article I used: http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/index.php/Counter:_Vault_vs_Ambassador

In this Kingdom, with Colony and nice engine cards, Vault is not an adequate counter to Ambassador. The article you cite was written just after Prosperity came out, and maybe assumes big money is viable more often than is currently true. EDIT: my history of the article is wrong, but I maintain my point.

[ehunt]

You need to open double Ambassador. There's no trashing, and if you lose the war, you're f***ed with no prospects of coming back. If you win the war you can get Militia, and slow your opponent from Ambassadoring back into the game. I think in the end, you'll want to go for a Conspirator/Pawn engine with Menageries and Mining Villages for later payload.

Amb/mv/amb is more likely to win the war than amb/amb but otherwise I agree completely.

[eHalcyon]

I read this article, and Vault does counter Ambassador, but Ambassador+Village+Militia will do better. Here is the wiki article I used: http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/index.php/Counter:_Vault_vs_Ambassador

"Vault counters Ambassador" is too broad a generalization.  Maybe Vault beats Ambassador one-on-one, but that's never a good way to examine strategies in a given kingdom.  You have to consider the rest of the board as well.  Yeah if you go on to play Big Money or something, Ambassador isn't very effective at all, but this kingdom features some very good engine components including a discard attack.  Rock-Paper-Scissors can certainly happen, but I don't think that's what's happening in this kingdom at all.

[luser]

While opening amb/mv/amb looks correct militia is a mistake. This is engine mirror and with menagerie opponent benefits from discarding. It looks that this will end on pawn/conspirator/menagerie piles so plan ahead.