Round 2: soulnet 4 vs witchdoctor83 0
We played identical starting hands, totally random Kingdom except no Tournament, Black Market or Possession and point counter enabled (although I think we just used it to see the score, at least I did).
witchdoctor83 had the first player advantage for the first game, so he started all four.
I enjoyed the games, although I did not like how I played them. I also think witchdoctor83 did not play optimally, with some important mistakes, but definitely better than what I would expect for a level 6 on Iso. I had to mantain focus to be able to win, would have lost a couple of games if I just played fast and pseudorandomly, even followign the right strategy. Many mirror games make me think we may not be as differently skilled as our levels in the picking a strategy part. Also, I liked his opennes to post-game analysis, and his insights when doing it.
Game 1:
soulnet 69 vs witchdoctor83 49 http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201212/10/game-20121210-151615-65afae98.htmlcards in supply: Adventurer, Colony, Contraband, Counting House, Hoard, Horn of Plenty, Inn, Loan, Market, Nobles, Platinum, and Smugglers
No really exciting action, especially nothing that would take us up to Colonies. Strange game for Colonies, probably because had almost every prosperity card from the weaker part. Of course this was going to be BM plus support, and I chose the better support. We both open Loan/Silver and are lucky trashing mostly copper in the first turns. We diverged in the first $5 buy, I go for Contraband and he goes for Market. I think Contraband is fine because I want both Hoard and Gold, and later, he would not know weither to ban Plat or Gold or Plat or Colony. And if I get Hoard in play, I want to buy Nobles and gain Gold, but he does not know if I have Hoard when banning. This clearly helps, and I am able to pick Hoards, Golds and the first Platinum a lot before him. He does have an advantage on Markets which are great for the endgame in case of ties, but since I'm getting a lot more Nobles, I think I would mantain the upper hand here. He Smuggles a couple of my Golds but I smuggled back the Markets. I wanted to pickup Nobles+Gold instead of just Gold with $6 because the +3 Cards would really help me get to Colonies if I manage to get a lot of Golds (which I did) and not necessarilly a lot of Plats. Also, the fatter deck I have when builiding up to Colonies level makes collision less likely, and since colliding Nobles is not bad, I can stock up on them much more than Smithies in BM+Smithy, which is known to be good. In the end this was absolutely correct, and I end up buying 5 Colonies and a Province with only 1 Plat (and 11 Golds). In this game the small buy important difference in strategy prevailed, as the Contraband > Market snowballed a lot, because of a longer game than just Provinces.
1 - 0
Game 2:
soulnet 18 vs witchdoctor83 4 http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201212/10/game-20121210-154157-2981c52d.htmlcards in supply: Fortune Teller, Merchant Ship, Minion, Native Village, Oasis, Rabble, Salvager, Spice Merchant, Steward, and Torturer
Of course Torturer chain.
What about Minions?
Are you crazy! Torturer chain! Note the Steward!
But Minions are really good in a trim deck...
But is horrible to discard Minions! Go Torturer!
After doing this in my head for a while, I go NV+Torturer, and my opponent does the same (maybe with less Minion thought, I don't know). I open Steward/Spice Merchant and he SM/Silver. I want to get the first play of torturer ASAP, and if I draw badly, I can just buy NV. This proves to be a little better, since I get a good chain going quickly, and even when he gets his/hers, I'm already drawing my deck confortably so I just trash every Curse I need to take (and I'm pretty confortably drawing my deck, so I discard a few times but just to keep the Curses alive, because I feel I have a better chain).
However, we both fail on building an economy and I quickly run out of money when having only a Silver and the Steward for cash. Probably really bad play on my part. He still has some Coppers, but is not quite drawing his deck, so I get a Silver and then Immediatly start going Gold. After a while, I go green and buy a Salvager to accelerated and get +Buy (NVs and Torturers are low and Curses are gone, and I'm drawing my deck no problem, so if I get some more Golds, I probably can go double province). I start salvaging Torturers and buying more money and provinces, while he is struggling a bit, not a bad deck, but not as powerful as mine, since he had to eat up and trash more Curses (he does trash every Curse eventually). Here comes the Tactical game, I have >12 point advantage, and he has only 3 buys tops, so I leave just 1 Torturer and 1 NV (Curses are already gone) and afterwards he fails to notice the 3-pile (he said on the chat afterwards), which I do to close the game. I think I would have won confortably just draining the provinces, maybe salvaging provinces to accelerate, buy WanderingWinder told me that I should win in the first opportunity I see to do it, and I believe him.
2 - 0
Game 3:
soulnet 39 vs witchdoctor83 23 http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201212/10/game-20121210-155655-27954bc9.htmlcards in supply: Bazaar, Bridge, Highway, Menagerie, Minion, Nomad Camp, Potion, Remake, University, Vineyard, and Watchtower
This has a lot of engine potential. A lot. But the only drawer is Watchtower. I think about going Remake for cleanup, then maybe University, Highway, Bridge, Watchtower, but I feel its slow and Remake+Minions can be fast. After that, we get 5/2 openings, and I do not want to open Remake/-, so I go Minion. He goes with a Highway, which I think is a mistake because any engine here wants University, and with universities you want Bridges. And also, a Highway at the beginning is nothing useful. After that, I play a simple Minions + Remake + some money, to keep it simple, and it works. I eventually add Menagerie after I start greening, which also works nicely because Minions disappear and we cosntantly have 4 cards hands. He tries to build an engine without any +Cards, and fails, ending up with something similar to my deck, but smaller with a couple of not so useful cards like Highway, Nomad Camp and Potion. He almost gets 5 VP Vineyards, but not commiting to it, getting just one Potion and contesting me for the Provinces (which brings the end closer), which makes him lose the game.
I still feel like University + Anything + Vineyards may get 6 or 7 VP Vineyards easily and maybe even get a couple of Provinces by the end, but I still went for a deck full of Silver and Minions, trashing with Remake.
If you have any comments especially on this game, I would appreciate it.
3 - 0
Game 4:
soulnet 33 vs witchdoctor83 32 http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201212/10/game-20121210-160923-ccab7b8f.htmlcards in supply: Apprentice, Bishop, Cache, Hoard, Mining Village, Minion, Potion, Spice Merchant, Transmute, Treasure Map, and Wharf
I feel we both played this one really bad. We open 5/2, he opens Minion (probably biased from last game) and I go Wharf, because one Minion is not taking me anywhere, and Wharf will get me Minions. In retrospect, I think this was correct, but Wharf+Minion does not strike me as anything impressive. We race for Minions and I buy a Hoard on a 6, hoping to go Duchies soon and then Apprentice, but the game is fast and we never get to it. I buy a Bishop to have some advantage in the endgame, which works, and buy the penultimate province while being 1 point ahead. He does have a Wharf, but we do not have decks good enough to make Province+Duchy likely (I was second, so Province+Estate also makes me win). In the first opportunity, he suicides by buying the last Province. He said he wanted to put himself out of his misery, although I think there was a low but reasonable enough chance for he winning by buying a Duchy (I actually had a very bad draw and had only $1 in hand, so I had to pass).
I think the board was nothing too special, but also not that bad, but our game was horrible. I suspect we both felt that with the match 3 - 0 everything was decided, so we did not try as hard.
4 - 0
Thanks for the games!