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[jonts26]

Another note on Ghost Ship. There is the chance of it helping your opponent rather than hurting him, especially early with potion cost cards. I'm sure someone has done the math, but there is a not terrible chance of drawing $2+P on turn 3 or 4. If this happens, your opponent can just top deck copper/potion and greatly increase the chance of getting the alchemist next turn. For this reason, I would be tempted to open merchant ship/nothing and then switch over to ghost ship for subsequent 5's.

Also, I can't find the log, but I once played a tournament game with ghost ship. In the mid game, ever time I played a ghost ship, my opponent was able to top either a tourney or province if he didn't draw them together. It didn't end well for me.

[WanderingWinder]

A good point, though it's also worth noting that the GS attack is generally (not in those situations, obviously) THE strongest non-cursing attack in the game.

[jonts26]

Oh I agree that Ghost Ship is a fantastic attack. I don't think there's anything more annoying than playing against a good engine that plays GS on almost every turn.

There are also other reasons Merchant Ship/nothing might be a better opening that Ghost Ship/nothing. Merchant's benefit to your own deck is vastly superior than Ghost Ship's. Your average card value is less than $1 during the first reshuffle so the +2 cards from GS is less beneficial than +$2 from MS, even if you don't consider the duration effect.

Additionally, the GS has a 6/11 chance of missing a reshuffle, since on turn 4 you only have 1 card in draw pile. And if you draw MS on turn 3, you will get benefits from it on turns 3,4 and still have a chance to draw it on turns 5 or 6.

[Razzishi]

Other notes on Ghost Ship: Menagerie effectively nullifies the attack unless you were going to draw 3 off Menagerie from your initial 5 hand.  I've also found that I've not cared all that much about the attack in recent times, although it might just be a sort of resignation to the fact that it will mess with my turns; I use the fact that I get to choose two of the cards I draw next turn to as much advantage as I can.  Maybe I really really want a source of +buy but all that's available is Hamlet and now I'm able to save good treasures for next turn and buy the cheap card I need but can't justify severely overbuying.