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table: fool's gold, chariot race, farmers' market, fortress, horse traders, miser, noble brigand, spice merchant, counterfeit, market; advance
back in the day, "fool's gold is there and there are good trashing and good buys but no draw" meant hey! let's go fool's gold guys! but here i almost entirely skipped it (i got 1) and opponent got 9 and i got 8ish chariot races and a bunch of expensive cards, as well as a few farmer's markets, and ended the game with 28 vp tokens and 5 provinces (opponent took 2 duchies several times when there wer 2-4 provinces left because i got a VP advantage very quickly)
a lot of the "please try to get a bunch of these and then end the game" type cards like ill-gotten gains (sort of a while ago), fool's gold (perhaps more recently but it is more relevant in engines, with e.g. wharf) and even rebuild and terminal draw bm have been in decline, not only because engines but also because of the huge inflow of mediocre cards that fit nicely in goodstuff deck — this was a bit of a special case because chariot race sort of specifically counters fool's gold but at the same time the game sort of wasn't close, and i think even something with fortress/market/farmers' markets would have been competitive absent chariot races.
anyone else observe puddles of adventures/empires/even second edition cards beating more classic-y stuff in non-engine games? cantrips + swamp hag or haunted woods comes to mind as well