The apothecary pseudo-golden deck is a combo which I always love to play. It's (from my experience) a highly variant deck that's the the second strongest province-based golden deck to play, behind ones set up by Chapel/Bishop. I find it a bit stronger than some of the better BM options (close to doublejack I think, though it would probably lose to doublejack due to jacks draw-to-x nature.
The main idea: have a deck consisting of 4-6 apothecaries, one province, one bishop, 7 coppers and a potion. Draw 7 coppers, bishop province using apothecaries, leaving 1-2 apothecaries on the bottom usually (apothecaries deck-reordering is crucial to this combo), for a result much like the golden deck. it has around, I don't know, an 85% rate of not failing in it's golden deck aspect for an entire game once it's set up with 5 apothecaries. For parity reasons/last turn bonus, you trash the potion and end with 2 provinces in deck.
I haven't really much ability to optimize this through solo play (as it involves bishop), so any help from people who know their way around simulators would be much appreciated?
1) Do you open Potion/-, Potion/Copper, Potion/Silver, or Bishop/Silver? (My guess: Potion/Silver)
2) You will often be stuck with dead turns early on. Do you buy a second potion ever? Is it worth bishopping a copper and buying it back for the 1VP (at the detriment of giving your opponent free trashing)?
3) How do you adapt this strategy based on whether or not your opponent has also bought a bishop?
4) Does *anything* other than a possible second potion help this strategy? (my guess: no)