Set 1: This looks like an apothecary/wishing well engine to me. You can also make engines out of FV with menagerie or envoy, but you're going to run into terminal problems with envoy, and with either of those two, young witch will curse you. I think I would want a young witch, as it's really nice to get some curses out, and I would expect you could get between one and two down, on average. But maybe you delay and only get one if they don't also go wishing well? In that case, you definitely want one. Young witch's non-cursing stufff is notn negligible here, though. Goons should be the focus on 6+, as you'd eventually like to do big multi-goons business, though that is actually not terribly likely to happen. After one goons, more work should be put into building the engine, though, probably, but you do have to watch for three pile endings, and that is where vineyards can come in. Anyhow, this is okay (given the context, okay is actually really good) , but definitely not my favorite.
Set 2: Yeah, you can maaaybe ignore sea hag here, though probably you want one before boosting into your engine. Lookouts will be nice trashing against the hag, though, and eventually you want ot get T4B up, particularly apprentice, with hoard, to run things out. Again, not my favorite - the engine is too clear here, for my tastes.
Set 3: Ah, now this IS one of my favorites. There's tunnel, and that looks really clear that it has to be good. And hamlet goes really nicely with it and with menagerie and/or watchtower, and you know monument is decent in this play, and inn can play a pretty decent role. But what puts this over the top is the remake (which you know you want early) and its late action off of banks! Remaking up to province seems to actually be really strong here, and then it becomes a question of how to get there fast enough, and if and how to blend this with the more traditional buying your way there.
Set 4: My set. Sadly, I wouldn't count this as one of the better of my submissions, but oh well. Probably, in hindsight, it would be better if the Rabble where something else - smithy maybe, I would have done Catacombs if DA were available, venture seems good to me now, as this would make big money a more intriguing possibility. I do really like the potential for 8 point fairgrounds here, and for as much as Mic Q complained about the set being a 'I won followers quick, it was game over, boring', I think that's a real mis-analysis. I mean, okay, he got a luck bomb, but well, for one thing I don't think the game was actually even over then. Bu more important, if you don't get such a clear luck bomb, I'm fairly sure you want to build the engine up a good bit before you actually go for greening, though when to do that is the big question. And I think followers is really only the third best prize here, largely because with the big engine, it's not SUCH a big deal, and princess and Trusty Steed (in that order) both help you build up so much more.
Set 5: I played a game with very close to this exact set in the tournament. I am fairly sure herbalist/pstone was best there, though the slight changes make it more of a question here. It's possible to go HoP for a bit of a mega here, but it's very very hard, because draw-to-x is not great for that purpose. Vineyards gives the engine a very good chance, as that's going to be a LOT of points. How to build it is a touch unclear though, and needs a very sure hand. I'm also not sure if it can beat a well-played herbalist p-stone anyway, though surely based on luck, either are going to win SOME of the games, at least. And there's a mandarin/HoP golden deck here, but I figure it has to be WAY too slow unless you get pretty lucky.
Set 6: I would like this set so much better if it didn't have colonies! As is, seems to be that you just have to ambassador down, get wishing wells and lots of peddlers, expand them and win, hoping you get there early enough. Without colonies, it's much richer, as monument, bishop, and most importantly trader have big things to say. Though even here, there's a little bit of question about how to get there - I don't think I like ironworks here, but of course I'm not 100% sure.
Set 7: This one is a real winner as well. Workshop is actually not all that hot for rushes, and the engine off of warehouse, crossroads, a tunnel or two, and apprentice, is very strong, potentially very fast. It has to deal wth embargo much more though. I have a feeling that going just more VP rush than the other guy is going to win, unless you cross over the line just too much, and then snapping back way far to the mega-enginey play will win the day. Embargo is a real monkey wrench - and I would really like to test this one, particularly against jonts, who says the engine is definitely best.
Set 8: Another one that screams engine to me, and can I say that I am a good bit surprised that stef went vault and money here. Without smithy, I think it would be a lot more interesting, as really the engine will still be strong, but it's a bit hard to draw things. Those fairgrounds are going to be new provinces though, and with throne room to pound stuff out for you, not to mention a very good use of vault's penalty, I have to think engine is good here.
Set 9: Yeah, this is another of my faves, and one where money is probably closest to best out of everything. Still, I figure building an engine with chapel, a workshop, villages, eventually throne rooms, lots of wharves, and one margrave should be good, and the key factor is thief if you need it, which I absolutely love, and which can be very crippling.
Set 10: Well, this is pretty good, but it's also a decently obvious engine to my eyes. Mountebank is maybe skippable here, I think even probably so. You want library for the draw, FV and festival for actions, Goons for points, Steward for trashing. Horse traders, normally good with library and against goons, is, I think, a trap here, though it has decently nice synergy with scheme sometimes. but you want your actions for other things, and you aren't going to have enough cards to village, village, HT, then library all that consistently. Anyway, two to three schemes would be really nice, but I think you need to cut and get one, because other stuff is too vital. You really need to replace your library though. And then havens supplement seeding your next hand. The ending - and when and how far to lunge for points - is probably most often most interesting here, if it gets that far without early shuffle luck deciding. And what to open - I like Steward/Steward, but Scheme/Steward or maaaaybe fishing village/steward are certainly possible as well.
Set 11: I am not totally sure here, but I think you want to go after oodles of peddlers, then use cities for draw. GMs if you can pull them but it's not a huge deal. Expands, yes, and a bigger deal. Native village not a huge deal, treasure map and venture quite irrelevant. Talisman is a maybe, but I think not. And vault is nice for GMs, but unless you open with one, or maybe get one very very early, I don't think it will be worth it. Maybe even open Worker's Village/Native village on 4/3?
But a silver with WV is certainly possible as well. There's no draw except the cities and vaults, which is weak, and a touch of a bummer, but well, you go for the cities very early and oh well.