I don't think a 4p Dominion tournament is a very good idea. I'm sure it was a lot of fun, but there is much more RNG in 4p that it would take way too many games to determine who the real best 4p Dominion player truly was.
I've played 250+ 2p Dominion games on Iso with about a 60% winning percentage and I play two 4p Dominion games every weekday(lunch break with coworkers). I'd estimate I've played about 120 4p Dominion games. So I'm at least a reasonably knowledgeable hybrid.
After playing online so much I thought I would destroy my opponents because of my experience. And much like you theory, I would cringe as I lost to players who only use Chapel for Estates. I noticed a few major differences between 4p and 2p.
Firstly, you can't take it seriously. It's a lot of fun, but you only win 25% of the time and there is way too much RNG. We play everyday and keep a leader board of the wins per month but it's casual and more fun that way.
Secondly,(I think this is known) attacks are way more effective in 4p. Bureaucrat can actually really hurt a Chapel strategy as you can go consecutive turns having your estates take away from your Chapel. Thief and Chapel is a very fun an interesting set up. It creates an interesting paradigm. Basically everyone is forced to open with Chapel because if you don't you'll be pretty far behind. But Thief then becomes an amazing card where you can actually receive 3 golds with one Thief. I once created a brilliant(self proclaimed
) deck where I could draw my deck, play Thief a couple of times(taking some Golds) and then use a couple of drawers to pick them up immediately.
As a result of this, Reaction cards, especially against Curse givers, are far more viable since the Curse pile will still be decreasing even if you play your Reaction card.
Third, engines don't work nearly as well. Creating an engine is hindered more by Attack cards and there are less cards per player. The number of action cards does not increase in a 4p games compared to a 2p game so trying to build epic engines usually does not end very well.
Also, this kind of ties in with the last point. Many know this but the average VP card per player is less than it is in 2p. 8 Provinces/Colonys in 2p = 4 per person while in a 4 player game there are 12 Colonies resulting in 3 Colonies per player. This means you have less time to build your engine and less time to use it. I guess this is a compensation for the increased number of Attacks played.
This is not to say strategies don't work. I played a Bishop/Minion game the other day which was only further accelerated by opponents Bishops and I won by a long shot. However I have played games where I've received 6 Coppers and 6 Curses in one round(double KC Montebank).
Also something to note, playing a lot of 4 player games and 2 player games,
does make you a better 3p player
. One of our players has been away on vacation and I'm 6-2 in those 8 3p games.
Anyways, I think tournaments are very interesting and I'd love to compete in one. Even an online one!