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[Kirian]

Please post your match results here for discussion of the games, strategies, etc.!

[SCSN]

6. Play a minimum of three games, and a maximum of six games, based on the next section.  If any game was a tie, the sixth game will be played.

How to Score Your Match

1. If a player has scored 3 match points within 4 games, that player wins the match.

I still don't understand this. If I win my first 2 games, tie the third and win the fourth, I have 3.5 match points and am thus guaranteed to win. Why, then, should we still play two more games?

[Kirian]

6. Play a minimum of three games, and a maximum of six games, based on the next section.  If any game was a tie, the sixth game will be played.

How to Score Your Match

1. If a player has scored 3 match points within 4 games, that player wins the match.

I still don't understand this. If I win my first 2 games, tie the third and win the fourth, I have 3.5 match points and am thus guaranteed to win. Why, then, should we still play two more games?

This, boys and girls, is why you proofread after copying and pasting!  Fixed now; that line didn't make sense even in context with the rest of what was posted there!

[SCSN]

There's also a glitch in the Tournament Spreadsheet, row 52.

[EgorK]

Anyone help noob with how to get game logs out of goko?

[Bekse]

Yeah, id like to know this too.

Just copy paste the Chrome plug in info after game?

[microman]

So Kirian, how do I go about saving and posting my logs of my games.  I don't use the forum a ton so I am a little rusty.

[Mic Qsenoch]

This will open a window with the game log. Paste the url of the log in your post to report your results.

[Simon (DK)]

The player with the most sets will host each game using random cards in Unrated mode.  That player should also take responsibility for saving game logs.

Shouldn't it be the player with the most cards? Or does a small set count as much as a big set? If that's the case, then what about promos?

[Kirian]

The player with the most sets will host each game using random cards in Unrated mode.  That player should also take responsibility for saving game logs.

Shouldn't it be the player with the most cards? Or does a small set count as much as a big set? If that's the case, then what about promos?

In general it shouldn't matter, as most of the field has all sets.  Because of the various annoyances needed to get promos, I'm ignoring them.

[Kirian]

There's also a glitch in the Tournament Spreadsheet, row 52.

That's totally intentional.  You just don't see Name and Current Opponent hanging out on the forums very often, they're shy.

/yeah, I'll fix it later when I'm not on mobile.

[Titandrake]

So it turns out my blood sacrifice to the RNG god did not go to waste. Good to know.

[Robz888]

tag

[mail-mi]

tag

[StrongRhino]

tag

What is this? I don't even...

[Kirian]

tag

What is this? I don't even...

He's posting in the thread so it shows up on his "New Replies" page and not just on the "Unread Posts" page.

[shraeye]

blejango!

[StrongRhino]

tag

What is this? I don't even...

He's posting in the thread so it shows up on his "New Replies" page and not just on the "Unread Posts" page.

Oh, ok that makes sense.

[michaeljb]

michaeljb 3.5 - 1.5 pst

Game 1
michaeljb 56 - 56 pst

Game 2
pst 47 - 34 michaeljb

Game 3
pst 0 - 1 michaeljb

Game 4
michaeljb 46 - 29 pst

Game 5
michaeljb 41 - 36 pst

In game 3, I was feeling pretty good about my deck, I was certain I was about to pull Goons from the BM deck and start actually scoring, then when I went to click the chat button, I hit Black Market in my hand instead, before I had played any of my Bazaars or anything (and I had another BM in my deck). Next turn, pst pulled out Goons and got a Gold, and suddenly was worried.

Fortunately, on my next turn, I was just able to run out the Caravans and buy a single Estate

[Psyduck]

Psyduck defeats kn1tt3r 3:1

Game 1 37:34 -> 1:0
kn1tt3r plays Councilroom-BM, I try to establish an engine based on Fortress and Councilroom, hoping to pull off some tricks with Farmland. While I farmland two Estates into Fortresses, kn1tt3r builds up some economy and has a lead. I feel that I get very lucky with my Smugglers and the Farmlands and can squeeze out a close win.

Game 2 13:12 -> 2:0
An interesting game around University, Ambassador, Highway, Count, Worker's Village and Black Market. kn1tt3r starts Count/-, while I buy Ambassador/Potion. We play some tennis, kn1tt3r has the leaner deck, I have more action cards. Luckily, I can buy Envoy and Catacombs from the Black Market, as there wasn't any other draw. When Highway and Worker's Village are empty, it all comes down to a sudden three-pille ending. So we start buying some green as protection, as in my last turn I gain the last 6(!) Counts and use another one to gain a Duchy for the win.

Game 3 25:33 -> 2:1
Wharf-BM. I feel happy as I can start Wharf/Embargo, while my opponent has to start Remake/Silver. I put a token on Grand Market and get my third Wharf in turn 5. However, kn1tt3r remakes his Estates into Silvers and has way more money and a much better deck, so he wins without any problems.


Game 4 15:3 -> 3:1
Here we have draw (Wharf, Ghost Ship, Fortune Teller), +action (Bandit Camp), +buy (Wharf, Nomad Camp), discard attacks (Ghost Ship, Militia) and a gainer (Haggler), so I try to build an engine and hope to get some trashing from the Black Market. Therefore I start Militia/Silver, while kn1tt3r goes for the same with Black Market/Silver. For some reasons I don't see yet (hints are appreciated) it comes together much better for me. My Spice Merchant from the BM as well as kn1tt3r's Forge don't play an important role anymore, as he resigns after my second Province.


kn1tt3r also recorded the match, he's going to post these tomorrow.
Thank you very much kn1tt3r for these interesting games, I wish you all the best for the next rounds.

[blueblimp]

blueblimp 3 - 3 WalrusMcFishSr (we rejoice in our shared victory)

Game 1
blueblimp 53 - 52 WalrusMcFishSr

Game 2
WalrusMcFishSr 43 - 30 blueblimp

Game 3
WalrusMcFishSr 3 - 9 blueblimp

Game 4
WalrusMcFishSr 3 - -5 blueblimp
(looks like I forgot to check who goes first in this game, oops)

Game 5
blueblimp 55 - 49 WalrusMcFishSr

Game 6
WalrusMcFishSr 29 - 27 blueblimp

Interesting kingdoms that I feel I misplayed quite a bit.

Game 1 -- Because Colonies are present, I play "city idiot" despite not a lot of support. The presence of Outpost and Horse Traders at least gives me +buy to worth with. Dunno what's the optimal path to making this work, but I certainly didn't take it, at one point spending $11 on a City (which is just silly). This one I steal in the endgame using p1 advantage.

Game 2 -- Key cards are Counterfeit, Venture, Baker, Baron, Stables. Chaining Bakers and chaining Ventures are both nice outcomes of Counterfeiting away the copper, and it was hard to pick which to commit to. I'm still not sure which would be better (I went mostly for Ventures). I overbuild and consequently lose.

Game 3 -- Key cards are Oracle, Bridge, Farming Village, Herald, Border Village. Obviously it's bridge madness, but there are lots of choices about how to set it up. I do better at the engine building and 3-pile to win.

Game 4 -- Key cards are Urchin, Watchtower, Ironworks, Mining Village, Ill-Gotten Gains, Merchant Guild, and to a lesser extent Wishing Well and Treasury. I'm so, so sure that a MG+Watchtower engine should beat IGG handily here, but I don't get trashing+watchtowers set up early enough (partly due to being p2 with a 5/2 start, and partly due to bad play) and get snowed under by curses and 3-piled partly by the Mining Villages, which are badly needed in an engine as the only village, since MG, WT, Mercenary are all terminal.

Game 5 -- Start with Sea Hag, pick up Upgrade to trash, then choose between a Highway/Woodcutter follow-up or Vault (possibly with Tunnel support). I went for the former route but Vault is probably better, given the lack of engine possibilities. Manage to squeak it out somehow after a long endgame slog.

Game 6 -- Hermit, Shanty Town, Fortress, Torturer, and to a lesser extent Vagrant and Caravan, make this look really good for Torturer. Except for: Rebuild and lack of +buy. I try the Torturer route anyway but narrowly lose to Rebuild.

[Polk5440]

Polk5440 defeats Grujah 3 - 0.

I am glad we were able to quickly find a time to play, since Grujah is vacationing starting tomorrow. Have fun on vacation! And thanks for the games!

Game 1:
http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130810/log.50ba29b8e4b015dcbac5f45a.1376169005136.txt
Grujah 22 - Polk 24

Young Witch into Rebuild for me. He tries Bishop into Rebuild. The only thing of note here is that I miscounted at the end by two points -- had I not hit a Duchy, I would have lost.

Game 2:
http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130810/log.50ba29b8e4b015dcbac5f45a.1376169526360.txt
Polk 30 - Grujah 22

Rebuild again? Sigh. Cutpurse (x2), Silver, and Rebuild. He opts for a Hoard on his first $6 over Rebuild. I play the Rebuild strategy better this game than the last one, and come out with a convincing win. 

Unfortunately, Grujah mentioned he isn't comfortable with Rebuild yet, so these first two kingdoms were not good draws for him.

Game 3:
http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130810/log.50ba29b8e4b015dcbac5f45a.1376170192816.txt
Polk 23 - Grujah -3 (resigned)

Engine. I am up two games, so I play pretty conservatively, not doing anything fancy. I open Silver-Chapel; he gets 5-2 and starts Mountebank-Chapel. My goal is a very simple draw-your-deck engine: Border Village-Smithy at the core. I supplemented with an Outpost, Mountebank, Herbalist, and a couple Crossroads.

Thanks to a couple good Outpost turns, I get out to a 4 Province lead and he resigns, opting to simply revel in the fact that he is going on vacation this week, and I am not.

[nopawnsintended]

tag

What is this? I don't even...

you're it.

[kn1tt3r]

Psyduck defeats kn1tt3r 3:1

Game 1 37:34 -> 1:0
kn1tt3r plays Councilroom-BM, I try to establish an engine based on Fortress and Councilroom, hoping to pull off some tricks with Farmland. While I farmland two Estates into Fortresses, kn1tt3r builds up some economy and has a lead. I feel that I get very lucky with my Smugglers and the Farmlands and can squeeze out a close win.

Since Council Room games tend to be very fast, I didn't expect an engine to be any good. So well, in the end I probably made some endgame mistakes, but overall this goes down to 1st player advantage I guess?
Video:

Game 2 13:12 -> 2:0
An interesting game around University, Ambassador, Highway, Count, Worker's Village and Black Market. kn1tt3r starts Count/-, while I buy Ambassador/Potion. We play some tennis, kn1tt3r has the leaner deck, I have more action cards. Luckily, I can buy Envoy and Catacombs from the Black Market, as there wasn't any other draw. When Highway and Worker's Village are empty, it all comes down to a sudden three-pille ending. So we start buying some green as protection, as in my last turn I gain the last 6(!) Counts and use another one to gain a Duchy for the win.

Oh my. I whine a bit about my 5/2 opening and finally go for Count as my primary trasher, not realizing however that we both have a Coin token due to Baker in the Black Market. So that's my first big mistake, even though the Count opening is not that bad. The other (and way bigger) mistake is ignoring Black Market, which provided Psyduck with the extremely helpful draw on this board. So overall very badly played by me and a deserved win for Psyduck.
Video:

Game 3 25:33 -> 2:1
Wharf-BM. I feel happy as I can start Wharf/Embargo, while my opponent has to start Remake/Silver. I put a token on Grand Market and get my third Wharf in turn 5. However, kn1tt3r remakes his Estates into Silvers and has way more money and a much better deck, so he wins without any problems.

Originally I go for Remake/Silver over Silver/Silver because I wanted to target Grand Markets, which gets screwed somewhat by his Embargo though. Now even though my Remake misses the Reshuffle, I get quite decent luck with it and am able to build quite a decent Wharf-Money deck. I don't know whether Remake is good with Wharf-BM in general (I guess not), but here it worked out for me.
Video:

Game 4 15:3 -> 3:1
Here we have draw (Wharf, Ghost Ship, Fortune Teller), +action (Bandit Camp), +buy (Wharf, Nomad Camp), discard attacks (Ghost Ship, Militia) and a gainer (Haggler), so I try to build an engine and hope to get some trashing from the Black Market. Therefore I start Militia/Silver, while kn1tt3r goes for the same with Black Market/Silver. For some reasons I don't see yet (hints are appreciated) it comes together much better for me. My Spice Merchant from the BM as well as kn1tt3r's Forge don't play an important role anymore, as he resigns after my second Province.

Hm. I probably screwed up the start here by not opening Milita, which I regared as obsolete due to eventual Ghost Ships (which I never got). Instead I opened Black Market here in order to possibly get something useful out of it. Well, that was probably not worth it in general, and certainly not for me as the game turned out. I mean, I got something out of it, but especially my Native Village buy should have been a Bandit Camp for sure - so ultimately Black Market not only did not a lot for me, it even distracted me from the really important cards. Moreover I lose focus during midgame due to some private text messages I got, but it didn't matter at that point anymore anyway. 
So much for bad play. Apart from that I also had some bad luck, like not hitting the crucial $5 very often, but this didn't lose me the game. It just 'helped'...
Video:


Anyway, thanks and congratulations to Psyduck for some nice games. Good luck for the coming rounds.

Videos of the games are uploading. I'm going to edit this post once the upload is finished uploaded.

[Polk5440]

Psyduck defeats kn1tt3r 3:1

Game 1 37:34 -> 1:0
kn1tt3r plays Councilroom-BM, I try to establish an engine based on Fortress and Councilroom, hoping to pull off some tricks with Farmland. While I farmland two Estates into Fortresses, kn1tt3r builds up some economy and has a lead. I feel that I get very lucky with my Smugglers and the Farmlands and can squeeze out a close win.

Since Council Room games tend to be very fast, I didn't expect an engine to be any good. So well, in the end I probably made some endgame mistakes, but overall this goes down to 1st player advantage I guess?
Video:

I just really feel like Smugglers is key here. As second player I definitely would have picked one up. Especially if the other player goes Council Room, too -- then you can play Smugglers and still have a 5 card hand quite often without returning the externality.

Nice games!

[kn1tt3r]

Psyduck defeats kn1tt3r 3:1

Game 1 37:34 -> 1:0
kn1tt3r plays Councilroom-BM, I try to establish an engine based on Fortress and Councilroom, hoping to pull off some tricks with Farmland. While I farmland two Estates into Fortresses, kn1tt3r builds up some economy and has a lead. I feel that I get very lucky with my Smugglers and the Farmlands and can squeeze out a close win.

Since Council Room games tend to be very fast, I didn't expect an engine to be any good. So well, in the end I probably made some endgame mistakes, but overall this goes down to 1st player advantage I guess?
Video:

I just really feel like Smugglers is key here. As second player I definitely would have picked one up. Especially if the other player goes Council Room, too -- then you can play Smugglers and still have a 5 card hand quite often without returning the externality.

Nice games!

Hm. Maybe. I don't know... the thing is, with a BM strategy you can play Smugglers only once in a while, so you have to get lucky regarding your opponents' buys. In an engine it's way better (and it was great for him) because you can play it frequently and possibly gain treasures while spending your own buys and gains on engine components.

[Kirian]

REMINDER

If you do not have all the cards, and haven't already posted it, let me know ASAP, preferably by PM.

I have a first-round match where someone didn't report they had no cards, and that match gets to be all-base, which shouldn't have happened.

[yed]

I have a first-round match where someone didn't report they had no cards, and that match gets to be all-base, which shouldn't have happened.

Isn't it possible to switch opponents? Most matches are not played yet. For example me and shark_bait both have all cards and our match is scheduled to Tuesday.

[Polk5440]

Hm. Maybe. I don't know... the thing is, with a BM strategy you can play Smugglers only once in a while, so you have to get lucky regarding your opponents' buys. In an engine it's way better (and it was great for him) because you can play it frequently and possibly gain treasures while spending your own buys and gains on engine components.

Yes. I wasn't trying to suggest that it would have been obviously better to simply add a Smugglers to your Council Room-Big Money deck -- even though I would actually consider it. I was just suggesting that when formulating a strategy, I would definitely want to be building a deck with Smugglers in it -- which would push me to lean more toward the engine, like you suggest.

In fact, I think I probably would have played this game like psyduck -- CR, Fortress, Smugglers, timely Farmlands, and I do think it wins over CR-big money; say 70-30? I was going to try to simulate it really quick, but Geronimoo's simulator is crashing on me for some reason. 

[AHoppy]

I have a first-round match where someone didn't report they had no cards, and that match gets to be all-base, which shouldn't have happened.

Isn't it possible to switch opponents? Most matches are not played yet. For example me and shark_bait both have all cards and our match is scheduled to Tuesday.

Too late, we already played.

AHoppy defeats Shiroiken 3-0

Game 1:  Shiroiken: 34 - AHoppy: 50
http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130811/log.512add69e4b0c02658feaef2.1376265748809.txt

Game 2: AHoppy: 50 - Shiroiken: 40
http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130811/log.512add69e4b0c02658feaef2.1376266354619.txt

Game 3: AHoppy: 40 - Shiroiken: 31
http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130811/log.512add69e4b0c02658feaef2.1376267016297.txt

I do have the bonus cards that come from that little card in Dark Ages/Guilds/Base cards.  And nobles showed up in 2 games and hoard in the third.  They did make them slightly more interesting... The last game is the most interesting if you're interested in reading them.  What I learned from these games: If you're going BM smithy > nobles and library > nobles.  I know, I opened festival in the second game, which was pretty bad, but I wanted to wait and see if he opened militia, because library would counter it.  Now, rethinking I see that was dumb but it still worked out.  Anyways, good games Shiroiken, and good luck in the rest of the tournament!

[sudgy]

You know, saying "Round 1 Results *ONLY*" makes people want to post in it without results...

[Bekse]

Loppo 3-1 Bekse

Game 1 Loppo 0-1 Bekse
Game 2 Loppo 1-1 Bekse
Game 3 Loppo 2-1 Bekse
Game 4 Loppo 3-1 Bekse

Bekse is a new dutch player. He is most familar with base+Intrihue, so we played half the games this way, and the other half full. sets random. So if you spot him give him a helping hand. Another Dutch champion on his way up.

Thanks for the kind words, although they are a bit exaggerated ;-). Deserved win, you're much better than I am.

[HiveMindEmulator]

GwinnR 4-2 HME

http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130812/log.5135b68ce4b07f4f52107e0e.1376327682881.txt
http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130812/log.5135b68ce4b07f4f52107e0e.1376328359640.txt
http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130812/log.5135b68ce4b07f4f52107e0e.1376328923183.txt
http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130812/log.5135b68ce4b07f4f52107e0e.1376329548879.txt
http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130812/log.5135b68ce4b07f4f52107e0e.1376330008872.txt
http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130812/log.5135b68ce4b07f4f52107e0e.1376331249623.txt

Game 1 we both employed similar strategies, with a Ghost Ship and Plaza+Journeyman. It mostly came down to lining up Plazas with Journeymen. The tokens made for some interesting decisions for what to do with early money, but in the end GwinnR was able to get in a Market which gave him an edge, and I couldn't get lucky enough draws to make it out.
40-29 GwinnR

Game 2 was Mountebanks and Salvager. He opted for Highways, and I got a Catacombs which turned out to be mostly useless. Nothing really interesting here.
38-22 GwinnR

Game 3 we both opened Ambassador/Jack and went into Council Room + money. There was a bit of interesting Duchy dancing at the end, but I just got better draws and won.
44-33 HME

Game 4 we went for Council Room + Masterpiece, but I started greening much earlier for the Silk Roads. He built up a lot more but couldn't overcome the Silk Roads.
69-57 HME

Game 5 was just Jack, Candlestick Maker, Royal Seal, and money. Not much to see here, though I made a big error topdecking a Gold instead of buying a Duchy on turn 12, which put me in bad shape for the endgame.
33-24 GwinnR

Game 6 was an interesting one with Silk Road, Trade Route, Crossroads, Armory, and Golem. He started with more Armories, while I got a Library and a Junk Dealer (huge mistake). This, along with first turn, allowed him to win the Silk Road split 6-2. It remained kind of close, since I had the ability to buy Provinces, but with $4 Trade Routes and piles pretty low, I would have needed quite a bit more luck to actually overtake him.
44-40 GwinnR

Overall, GwinnR played a much more solid series than me and got a 4-2 win to show for it.

[mail-mi]

Watno 3 - 0 mail-mi
http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130812/log.50e20cf4e4b0a47150882831.1376323455518.txt
http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130812/log.50e20cf4e4b0a47150882831.1376324104942.txt
http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130812/log.50e20cf4e4b0a47150882831.1376325053033.txt

On mobile, I will talk more later.

[gman314]

Joseph2302 2-4 gman314

Game 1: http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130812/log.5062f3dc51c3843e7939eb9f.1376333297553.txt
Game 2: http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130812/log.5062f3dc51c3843e7939eb9f.1376333979722.txt
Game 3: Forgot to Get Log, but gman314 won
Game 4: http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130812/log.5062f3dc51c3843e7939eb9f.1376335112544.txt
Game 5: http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130812/log.5062f3dc51c3843e7939eb9f.1376335750535.txt
Game 6: http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130812/log.5062f3dc51c3843e7939eb9f.1376336340009.txt

Game 1: We both go for a Bishop-BM type of strategy, he gets the Bishop as an opener, but I get one later. We each also pick up a Scavenger (me as an opener). He focuses more on Bishop, while I go for more BM, and he edges me out by 3 points for the win.

Game 2: This board has Torturer and some good Villages (WM and WV), but with Witch, Torturer seems like a no-buy. Or does it? After picking up a Witch, I start getting some Torturers for the bigger draw, and to force him to discard during the build-up phase. He goes for more Witches, which he later Salvages for big turns. I also trash my Witches, and end up with the win.

Game 3: I won. I forget what happened though.
Edit: Now I remember! This game had Steward, Young Witch, Haven, Wharf and Workshop as the bane (which neither of us bought). We engaged in a YW war, while I trash down with Steward and he with Lookout. He goes for more Wharves than I do, since my deck has an extra terminal and is slightly thinner, and I think he's got it when, on a Wharf turn, I'm able to take the last Province and win.

Game 4: We both go for a sort of Butcher-BM approach here, but I open with a Hermit, which I don't think helped. Also, I made some other mistakes, and he played well, tying up the series 2 - 2.

Game 5: This was a really fun one! He opens Remake/Silver, but with Poor House on the board, Remake's not so hot. I open Butcher/Poorhouse and move into an Alchemist-based deck with some Mining Villages that plays a Storeroom to discard the Coppers and then plays several $3 - $4 (dependinf on if I have my Potion) Poorhouses, and gets big turns with 2 Buys and some Butchers. I fall behind, but on the last 2 turns am able to get 5 Provinces for the win.

Game 6: I need a tie or better in this one to win the series, and I'm confident going in, but towards the end of this one, I really thought I had messed it up. The board had Familiar, Soothsayer and Marauder, and I rationalize that I can Maraud my way to a Soothsayer, and build a treasure-based deck (with lots of Fool's Golds) that can outlast Familiars (Especially with Steward's trashing). With Curses and Ruins flying, Cities become powerful, and when he wins the curse split 8 - 2, I'm pretty sure I'm hooped. I really should have got a second Steward earlier, maybe it would have helped me actually trash a curse! But with all my Fool's Golds and a few real Gold my deck is able to outlast and then when my Cities clump on a turn I'm able to get a Province and take the last FG, finishing off the 3-pile that he had set up for the win.

Good series Joseph and good playing! Hope to see you around Goko from time to time and good luck in the rest of the tournament!

[gman314]

My overall takeaways from my match with Joseph: Butcher is awesome! Steward is really good! Cursing is powerful. Do it unless you have a good reason not to. Remake isn't great on a Poor House board.

[Joseph2302]

Remake isn't great on a Poor House board.

Game 1: Definitely got lucky drawing at the end, and won on turns, but was an interesting game.
Game 2: Was massively surprised that torturers worked so well, maybe should have taken a curse or 2 rather than discarding, but hey hindsight is a wonderful thing and good strategising.
Game 3: Probably should have gone for steward not lookout, it was the main difference in our strategies, and I lost.
Game 4: Having not played butcher much, it was interesting to see it work, and was a fun card to use.
Game 5: Definitely wouldn't have gone remake if I'd seen poor house on the board, a massive error on my part.
Game 6: Another fun game, and it appears that planning Marauder/Soothsayer worked well here. A close game, but running down the FG to 1 was definitely regrettable when he took the lead.

Thanks for the games and your patience when I was late, when we had to restart games to get turn order correct many times, and when Goko gave us exactly the same board twice (this was very strange!!). Good luck for the rest of the tournament.

[gman314]

On game 5, there is a very good chance that had I not had a 5/2, I would have also gone for Remake. That's one of the weirder differences between 5/2 and 4/3 splits.

[MarkowKette]

My games against Young Nick:

As we both didn't own any Expansions our match was just unbelievably boring in most games.

Game 1:
Draw-Engine Board
I went for the Councilroom-Village-Militia Engine while he went for a Lab Based Engine with only a single Councilroom and Militia
I think he had better draws on turn 3-7 which made the difference and he won.

Game 2 and 3:
Basic BM-X
where X was Smithy the first 2nd Game and Militia the 3rd.
Coinpflip Games without any mistakes. We both won one of those.

Game 4:
Chapel-Smithy-BM against Basic Smithy-BM i think here its not clear what is better but my chapelled deck won mainly, i think because he over-terminaled with 2 Smithies and a Mine.

Game 5:
Clear Gardens-Rush Board with Workshop
I really had enough of more mirror Matches and tried to fight it with a kind-of-weak Lab-Engine.
With a bit of luck i managed to get enough Provinces to win by a small amount, even though he ended the game.

Game 6:
Board featuring Chapel Gardens and Witch
This game i really misplayed but i wasn't really concentrated either.
I just saw Witch Gardens and some Gardens-Support in Market and Woodcutter
and went for a horrible mix of Rush and Slog. I lost by a high amount even though i brought my Gardens to 5VP (59Cards)
But i was really amazed by his nice Cellar-draws. He always hit exactly $8 seven times and never hit $7


But i really think this 3-3 Result in the End was the only fair outcome i could have imagined, as all decent players are able to figure out the best( big money) strategie on most of the Base-Set boards, and we both only misplayed one game each.

[Kirian]

Beyond Awesome defeats Kirian 3-1:

http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130812/log.50612f220cf2d91d287a93b8.1376357038883.txt
http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130812/log.50635cc651c3843e7939ece8.1376357869706.txt
http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130812/log.50635cc651c3843e7939ece8.1376358705225.txt
http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130812/log.50635cc651c3843e7939ece8.1376359922996.txt

Game 1:  Knights, as it turns out, don't work so well when Fool's Gold can buy you Platinum.  Taking the first Knight and letting your opponent grab Dame Anna to trash with in a FG match... was a bad move.

Game 2:  Marauder just doesn't do much against Menagerie.  While I do think BA got lucky a few times with Menagerie, on average his deck was just built really well for it.  I seriously considered going Mint-Embargo as an opening here, I wonder how it would have gone.

Game 3:  FG again.  An early Counterfeit was key, but this game is a reminder that Laboratory isn't fancy, but really only needs some +Buy to make a good engine.

Game 4:  As I said to BA after the game:  Somehow, despite the fact that they're in the same set, and the fact that the set has been out for years, I failed to notice the synergy between Apothecary and Scrying Pool.  The killer here, though, was when he was able to gain and then draw two Golds on the same turn using Graverobber-Market Square-Vagrant craziness.

Well played, BA!

[Beyond Awesome]

Beyond Awesome defeats Kirian 3-1:

http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130812/log.50612f220cf2d91d287a93b8.1376357038883.txt
http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130812/log.50635cc651c3843e7939ece8.1376357869706.txt
http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130812/log.50635cc651c3843e7939ece8.1376358705225.txt
http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130812/log.50635cc651c3843e7939ece8.1376359922996.txt

Game 1:  Knights, as it turns out, don't work so well when Fool's Gold can buy you Platinum.  Taking the first Knight and letting your opponent grab Dame Anna to trash with in a FG match... was a bad move.

Game 2:  Marauder just doesn't do much against Menagerie.  While I do think BA got lucky a few times with Menagerie, on average his deck was just built really well for it.  I seriously considered going Mint-Embargo as an opening here, I wonder how it would have gone.

Game 3:  FG again.  An early Counterfeit was key, but this game is a reminder that Laboratory isn't fancy, but really only needs some +Buy to make a good engine.

Game 4:  As I said to BA after the game:  Somehow, despite the fact that they're in the same set, and the fact that the set has been out for years, I failed to notice the synergy between Apothecary and Scrying Pool.  The killer here, though, was when he was able to gain and then draw two Golds on the same turn using Graverobber-Market Square-Vagrant craziness.

Well played, BA!

Thanks for posting this up Kirian!

Game 1: I got really lucky. My opponent went for a Knight on a FG board with Colonies. While normally, you could probably make a comeback, Dame Anna was the revealed card and the trashing from it was just too good. I was able to pretty much trash away all my junk and had a much thinner deck and was able to get Platinums and Colonies much more easily.

Game 2: My opponent opens Marauder. From the get go, I see Menagerie and think it is a good counter against it. So, I plan my strategy accordingly. I might have got some lucky draws, but I was actually wanting to gain the Ruins. Also, Oasis helped discard duplicate cards. I'm not sure I played this my best, but Marauder doesn't seem to work well against Menagerie. I do think against Cultist though that Cultist is just too fast for Menagerie.

Game 3: I messed up. There were FGs and also the option of Vineyards with Squires and lots and lots of $2's. I should have just loaded up on Squire from the beginning and gone for a Vineyard strategy as I imagine that Vineyards would have been worth a lot on this board. Sadly, I got distracted by the shininess of FG.

Game 4: I did gain two golds off a Graverobber play. I do think going for two Apothecaries before SP was a smart move on my part and cost my opponent the game since he went for SP first. But, looking back, I see I could have played this better because Vault was on this board. I didn't even see it, but I could have built a SP Vault deck and played my Necropolis and then discarded lots of actions with Vault to draw them back. I have no idea why that didn't occur to me in the game.

[GwinnR]

GwinnR 4-2 HME

http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130812/log.5135b68ce4b07f4f52107e0e.1376327682881.txt
http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130812/log.5135b68ce4b07f4f52107e0e.1376328359640.txt
http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130812/log.5135b68ce4b07f4f52107e0e.1376328923183.txt
http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130812/log.5135b68ce4b07f4f52107e0e.1376329548879.txt
http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130812/log.5135b68ce4b07f4f52107e0e.1376330008872.txt
http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130812/log.5135b68ce4b07f4f52107e0e.1376331249623.txt

Game 1 we both employed similar strategies, with a Ghost Ship and Plaza+Journeyman. It mostly came down to lining up Plazas with Journeymen. The tokens made for some interesting decisions for what to do with early money, but in the end GwinnR was able to get in a Market which gave him an edge, and I couldn't get lucky enough draws to make it out.
40-29 GwinnR

Game 2 was Mountebanks and Salvager. He opted for Highways, and I got a Catacombs which turned out to be mostly useless. Nothing really interesting here.
38-22 GwinnR

Game 3 we both opened Ambassador/Jack and went into Council Room + money. There was a bit of interesting Duchy dancing at the end, but I just got better draws and won.
44-33 HME

Game 4 we went for Council Room + Masterpiece, but I started greening much earlier for the Silk Roads. He built up a lot more but couldn't overcome the Silk Roads.
69-57 HME

Game 5 was just Jack, Candlestick Maker, Royal Seal, and money. Not much to see here, though I made a big error topdecking a Gold instead of buying a Duchy on turn 12, which put me in bad shape for the endgame.
33-24 GwinnR

Game 6 was an interesting one with Silk Road, Trade Route, Crossroads, Armory, and Golem. He started with more Armories, while I got a Library and a Junk Dealer (huge mistake). This, along with first turn, allowed him to win the Silk Road split 6-2. It remained kind of close, since I had the ability to buy Provinces, but with $4 Trade Routes and piles pretty low, I would have needed quite a bit more luck to actually overtake him.
44-40 GwinnR

Overall, GwinnR played a much more solid series than me and got a 4-2 win to show for it.

I totally agree.

I recorded the games for Youtube, for those who speak german:
1:
2:
3:
4:
5:
6:

[Geronimoo]

Geronimoo and StrongRhino tied the match. First game I go for Mountebank and Familiar while my opponent skips the Familiar and goes for Mountebank and Urchin (into Mercenary). I obviously win the Curse war and my opponent overloads on Mercenaries to clean his deck. This means there are almost 2 empty piles (Urchin and Curse) so I decide to go for a fast three pile ending with Duchies. It works out.

Game two is a Lighthouse/Minion mirror match where I get very lucky winning the Minions split 7-3. This is pretty much game over and I coast to victory.

Game three features my favorite combo of Herbalist/Phil Stone. I get a Mountebank turn 3, but maybe that should have been a Herbalist. Anyway I win the Herbalist split, but my opponent gets 5 Phil Stones. I'm always in the lead VP-wise, but then I get a dead turn while my opponent gets a double Duchy and Province turn and he eaks out the win.

Game four we have a Rebuild mirror match (with Shelters). My opponent however opens Rebuild/Estate while I have to settle for double Silver. He gets pretty much perfect draws gaining two more Rebuilds in the early game and I'm dead.

Game five is another boring grind of Embassy BM mirror. I open Silver/Silver which should be slightly better than my opponent's Feast/Silver, but he has more luck and wins the game.

Game six I open Remake/Embargo to my opponent's Potion/Silver clearly indicating he wants Familiar. He gets to it before I can Embargo them. I transition into a sort of Ghost Ship Big Money deck with Ironmongers and Strongrhino overloads on Ghost Ships early game. My Ironmonger sort of counters his Ghost Ships (Harem second card on top which triggers the Ironmonger). In the end game I threaten a three pile ending with a small lead and my opponent can't catch up anymore so ends the game with the loss.

[shark_bait]

sharkbait (3) over yed (0)

Game 1
Game 2
Game 3

Game 1: 

Key Cards - Militia, Journeyman

Just a BM style game.  All in all, a close game that came down to the last Province, could have went either way in the end.

Game 2

Key Cards - Monument, Masquerade, Villages

This one is really a Monument-BM game with Masquerade for light trashing and support in the form of Bandit Camp, Worker's Village and Shanty Town for the village.  No crazy engine here.

Game 3 -

Key Cards - Jack of All Trades, Farmland

This was mostly a Jack-BM game.  My 4/3 was pitted against a 5/2 with Mountebank.  I don't like the Secret Chamber pick up on $2, there are no villages and there are other actions I'd rather play.  It's a close game that goes back and forth with tons of VP gaining happening due to Farmland in play.  If yed had gotten Province/Farmland on his last turn he could have prevented my 1-point victory the next turn.

I'd describe these sets as being like Bach's Goldberg Variations.  The Aria is BM and the variations are the different ways to play BM.  To the non-music enthusiast or non-Dominion enthusiast, it might not seem to exciting, but when you really delve into them, you can see those minute differences that make each unique and interesting in its own way.

[Kirian]

Remember everyone, if you feel like you're having a losing streak, it happens to everyone:

A Drowned Kernel defeats Rabid 3-0

Game One
Game Two
Game Three

O.o

[ragingduckd]

AI (ragingduckd) and ednever tie 3-3

Game 1 (AI)
Game 2 (ednever)
Game 3 (AI)
Game 4 (AI)
Game 5 (ednever)
Game 6 (ednever)

Games 1, 2, and 5 were runaways, where early decisions and early draws decided the game rather quickly, though we both hung on for quite a while when we were losing. Games 3, 4, and 6 were hard-fought battles that came down to the last turn and just a few VP.

Game 1 was a very Apothecary-friendly board, with Cellar, Herbalist, Stonemason, Upgrade, and Nobles. The first few turns were a dead mirror, and I'm embarrassed to admit that I completely forgot that $4+P could buy two Apothecaries via Stonemason. Luckily, my first-player-advantage ended up winning me the Apothecary split anyway, after which I don't think there was much ednever could have done to recover. He mentioned in chat that he had made some early mistakes that probably cost him the game, but I don't actually know what they were.

Game 2 was another engine board, a Colony game with Hamlet, Warehouse, Jack, Golem, Cartographer, and Festival. I bought a questionable second Jack and ednever had a big lead by T8 with an Altar and a Golem against my pile of Hamlets. I panicked and bought a Bank on T11 to pick up a couple of Colonies, fearing that he'd 3-pile me otherwise, but ednever calmly and correctly continued building up his engine and he ended up winning huge.

Game 3 featured Rebuild, Crossroads, Warehouse, Peddler, and six other cards that could be pretty safely ignored. Lots of shuffle luck here, and I ended up with a VP lead and three Rebuilds to ednever's one. In the end, ednever was far enough behind that needed to actually buy the last Province for the win, but we had accidentally played without the VP counter and I think he miscounted the score. He ended up rebuilding into the last Province and falling 1 VP short.

Game 4 was all about Governor, Hermit, and Horse Traders, at least the way we played it. Although the board also had Swindler, Monument, and Jester, the 12-turn game just wasn't long enough for any of them to pay off, in spite of the presence of Fairgrounds. I won the Governor split 6-4 and ednever responded by rushing Provinces, picking up five of them before my mega-turn was ready. Double-Madman and Fairgrounds saved me and I just managed to eke out a 2 VP win.

Game 5 was painful. We both picked up 5/2 on a board with King's Court, Cultist, Scheme, Fool's Gold, and several strong engine support cards. The board clearly called for Cultist into KC engine, but I opened up Cultist/FS while ednever opened Cultist/-. Shuffle luck resulted in my winning the Ruins split 4-6, but Scheme made that pretty irrelevant after I didn't connect my two FG's and ednever picked up a T6 King's Court. From there on it was a pretty much a slaughter.  I can't really complain, as I certainly deserved to be punished for playing a schizophrenic and high-variance FG-into-KC-engine strategy as the first player.

Game 6 was clearly a BM-something setup, but with Fortune Teller, Caravan, Jack, and Count, it wasn't immediately clear what the "something" was. My 5/2 split made my decision for me and I opened Count/- while ednever opened Caravan/Fortune Teller and picked up a Count on the second shuffle. Neither of us bothered with Jack. I took an early lead on Provinces but I never got around to buying Caravans, and ednever closed the VP gap. We both picked up a bunch of Duchies with Count and soon it was a matter of VP math. On T14, I took two Duchies instead of a Province to force ednever to pick up 2 of the 3 remaining Provinces. After he bought one of them I faced a similar decision and I bought an Estate to force him to get both of the 2 remaining Provinces to win. Tragically, he did so, while my pile of green kept me from getting to $8 again until T21, when I drew a beautiful $5 + Count lead only to watch ednever play exactly $8 for the last Province and an 11 VP win.

I missed GokoDom I, so this was my first-ever tournament matchup. It was a very good and enjoyable series, with ednever performing far above his supposed Level 40 Isotropish/6000 Goko rating. I'm glad I didn't have to play a Game 7!

[ednever]

Really fun series.

My comments interspaced below.

AI (ragingduckd) and ednever tie 3-3

Game 1 (AI)
Game 2 (ednever)
Game 3 (AI)
Game 4 (AI)
Game 5 (ednever)
Game 6 (ednever)

Games 1, 2, and 5 were runaways, where early decisions and early draws decided the game rather quickly, though we both hung on for quite a while when we were losing. Games 3, 4, and 6 were hard-fought battles that came down to the last turn and just a few VP.

Game 1 was a very Apothecary-friendly board, with Cellar, Herbalist, Stonemason, Upgrade, and Nobles. The first few turns were a dead mirror, and I'm embarrassed to admit that I completely forgot that $4+P could buy two Apothecaries via Stonemason. Luckily, my first-player-advantage ended up winning me the Apothecary split anyway, after which I don't think there was much ednever could have done to recover. He mentioned in chat that he had made some early mistakes that probably cost him the game, but I don't actually know what they were.

Mirrors. Decided by first player advantage. If I had been first player I may have lost anyway though. I picked up an Upgrade at one point that should have been 2 Cellars and a Stonemason. And I had some bad draws on top of that. Seriously thought about resigning just so I didn't go on tilt.

Game 2 was another engine board, a Colony game with Hamlet, Warehouse, Jack, Golem, Cartographer, and Festival. I bought a questionable second Jack and ednever had a big lead by T8 with an Altar and a Golem against my pile of Hamlets. I panicked and bought a Bank on T11 to pick up a couple of Colonies, fearing that he'd 3-pile me otherwise, but ednever calmly and correctly continued building up his engine and he ended up winning huge.

Felt great on this one as soon as Andrew picked up the second Jack. First Jack is great to convert Estates into Silvers, and give you some draw (nice with Warehouse and Hamlet and Festival), but you don't want that many Silvers here that it's worth getting two. Bank is questionable as well as you don't have the draw to get many silvers out. In fact Andrew played two banks as his only two treasures one turn. Ouch.

Game 3 featured Rebuild, Crossroads, Warehouse, Peddler, and six other cards that could be pretty safely ignored. Lots of shuffle luck here, and I ended up with a VP lead and three Rebuilds to ednever's one. In the end, ednever was far enough behind that needed to actually buy the last Province for the win, but we had accidentally played without the VP counter and I think he miscounted the score. He ended up rebuilding into the last Province and falling 1 VP short.

Wow. I messed this one up bad. I had first player advantage, but Andrew started 5/2. That's usually enough on a Rebuild board without a lot of other options. I was still holding it together when I messed up and named Estate instead of Province at one point. I trashed a Province for a Province and the game was Andrew's. I ended the game just to end it. There were 2 Estates and a Province left and I was down by 8 with 1st Player position. Nothing I could do.

Game 4 was all about Governor, Hermit, and Horse Traders, at least the way we played it. Although the board also had Swindler, Monument, and Jester, the 12-turn game just wasn't long enough for any of them to pay off, in spite of the presence of Fairgrounds. I won the Governor split 6-4 and ednever responded by rushing Provinces, picking up five of them before my mega-turn was ready. Double-Madman and Fairgrounds saved me and I just managed to eke out a 2 VP win.

Thought I had this one. I lost the Governor split, but had the right draws. I mega-turned for 3 Provinces. Then he go nothing. Then I pulled off another 2 Provinces. I figured I had it.
Even when Andrew was playing his last turn I thought the game was mine. He upgraded for 2 Provinces - on the second I took a Fairgrounds with my Governor. But he managed to Remodel enough stuff and play 2 Horsetraders that he came out just ahead. I was very impressed. Well played.

Game 5 was painful. We both picked up 5/2 on a board with King's Court, Cultist, Scheme, Fool's Gold, and several strong engine support cards. The board clearly called for Cultist into KC engine, but I opened up Cultist/FS while ednever opened Cultist/-. Shuffle luck resulted in my winning the Ruins split 4-6, but Scheme made that pretty irrelevant after I didn't connect my two FG's and ednever picked up a T6 King's Court. From there on it was a pretty much a slaughter.  I can't really complain, as I certainly deserved to be punished for playing a schizophrenic and high-variance FG-into-KC-engine strategy as the first player.

I think FG's was a mistake here. FG is only good if you get a bunch of them and play money (with draw and +buy). Here you need to (1) Hurt the other guy with Cultists, (2) Get an early KC, (3) Get a Scheme (4) Connect the Scheme with the KC, (5) Get more KG and Schemes and build an unstoppable engine; Catacombs was also great here for the draw to get your entire deck in hand every turn. The only wild card here was Possession. You could build a serious Possession engine that could play the card many times per turn (two possessions and some KC give you 6 plays of the other guy's deck). It also messes with the other guy's KC-Scheme machine. The issue is that by the time you set up an engine that can do that, you can drive 2 or more provinces a turn. It was my back-up against a Big-Money style play where I was too far behind when I got everything set up. Andrew went for the Potion which worried me, but I was able to end it before he could even buy his first possession.

Game 6 was clearly a BM-something setup, but with Fortune Teller, Caravan, Jack, and Count, it wasn't immediately clear what the "something" was. My 5/2 split made my decision for me and I opened Count/- while ednever opened Caravan/Fortune Teller and picked up a Count on the second shuffle. Neither of us bothered with Jack. I took an early lead on Provinces but I never got around to buying Caravans, and ednever closed the VP gap. We both picked up a bunch of Duchies with Count and soon it was a matter of VP math. On T14, I took two Duchies instead of a Province to force ednever to pick up 2 of the 3 remaining Provinces. After he bought one of them I faced a similar decision on T20, and I bought an Estate to force him to get both of the 2 remaining Provinces to win. Tragically, he did so, while my pile of green kept me from getting to $8 again until T21, when I drew a beautiful $5 + Count with an 8-VP lead only to watch ednever play exactly $8 for the last Province and an 11 VP win.

Best game of the bunch. Very close. I made another mistake on this one misclicking with the Count (Have I mentioned how much I dislike the unforgiving Goko Interface!?!? I didn't even mention the Cartographer I trashed with my Jack in game 2!) and picking up an Estate instead of +$3. That turn I had to settle on two Duchies instead of a Province. I was kicking myself for it the entire game. Thankfully it came together in the end. Just in time.

I missed GokoDom I, so this was my first-ever tournament matchup. It was a very good and enjoyable series, with ednever performing far above his supposed Level 40 Isotropish/6000 Goko rating. I'm glad I didn't have to play a Game 7!

[/quote]
Thanks. I enjoyed playing you a lot. I end up playing a ton of level 4000 people or so on Goko and it doesn't take many losses to stop you from getting to the high ranks. Another flaw of this website... I still play too sloppy when I play this game (hence the 3/6 games with serious mis-clicks in a tournament setting!), but I've done alright when I applied myself, getting to the Top 10 on both iso and goko for at least a little while. Glad I was able to challenge you here!

On a related note: Were the match-up's seeded? A ~6000 vs a ~6800 on the first game of the series was not what I was expecting!

Ed

[EgorK]

Jaybeez - EgorK 3:1
EgorK - Jaybeez 44:67 (http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130814/log.505d7a160cf2ef979299a48e.1376493472629.txt)
Jaybeez - EgorK 19:30 (http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130814/log.505d7a160cf2ef979299a48e.1376493918032.txt)
Jaybeez - EgorK 39:9, resigned (http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130814/log.505d7a160cf2ef979299a48e.1376494431373.txt)
EgorK - Jeybeez 36:38 (http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130814/log.505d7a160cf2ef979299a48e.1376495051421.txt)

First game I though the card was Ironworks and not Armory, hence my play
I also completely blundered third game

[jsh357]

Games against Obi Wan Bonogi
Game 1
0-1
Vineyard game.  I had hoped to run Bishop against it while contesting Vines, but the drawback is that I had to trash Actions to do this, which pretty much failed against his more direct strategy.  Chancellor was pretty important for cycling here.  I should have gone for more Minions and went for Provinces, I think.  Either way I basically got outplayed on this board.  OWB's deck was much more fluid and prepared to run Vines.

Game 2
1-1

This game got interrupted by a browser crash, but I did pretty much have it.  Of course, with KC HP Monument, anything was possible I suppose.  Once our decks got past the Sea Hag phase, it was a clash of HP stacks with chips flying everywhere.  I went for Monument before Hag, thinking HP could help me get going a little faster and KCs were important.  I still think I was right, but we all know Sea Hag is just a Monument that doesn't give money or points and instead curses the opponent.

Game 3
2-1

I'm becoming more and more convinced Butcher is one of the best cards in the game.  Here I went for Butchering Peddlers and was able to get a sizable point lead without too much issue.  My opening was perhaps not ideal; Silver/Jack has its advantages over CY/Jack for sure.  Once again, Chancellor helped me out a little.  That was a theme in this set of games.

Game 4
2-2

Here I opened 5/2, saw Chancellor/Stash and thought it would be resilient against Soothsayer and good enough to outpace Wharves.  Guess how that turned out. 

Game 5
2-3

I was pretty mad when I lost this one, not gonna lie, but OWB played it well and it was close.  Interesting Duchy/Duke game where I ran 2 Expands with a few HPs hoping to win the Duke split better than I did.  Ok, so that wasn't my initial plan.  I was going to run HP Conspirator and Embargo Dukes or something, but when I noticed OWB had 4 HPs and I hadn't managed to get one, I figured I had better go Dukes since he'd have good Province buying power and I wouldn't.  It got pretty close, but I left a 2 Great Hall stack open for OWB to pile out and that was it for me.  His early Crossroads was huge, giving him a draw advantage I couldn't compete with too well.  He also Embargoed Crossroads, making it risky for me to do the same.  Probably the most challenging and interesting game of the set.

Game 6
3-3

CM/University/Watchtower just had to be good on this board.  I aimed to pile out in a hurry, spending spare Buys with WT to trash Curses and accelerate the game.  OWB caught up pretty well on points, but his Jester hit one of my VPs late in the game, forcing the Curse pile down to where I could safely end the game.  I'm not sure about Jester on this board in general.  You want it for sure, but not forever.  OWB went for Council Room Draw where, which seems ill-advised in retrospect.  University is the only Village, and without WT topdecking you can't guarantee them in the same hand (which is iffy in the first place).  Well, anyway.  Fun game.

Overall, I was very surprised to tie with one of the best Dominion players.  He was a good sport through my inability to read rules.

[dudeabides]

Dudeabides v. Shraeye

Game 1      Dudeabides 21   Shraeye 16
Kingdom: Pawn, Swindler, Cutpurse, Walled Village, Haggler, Harvest, Torturer, Treasury, Witch, Harem

With my 5/2 to his 3/4 opening, I felt pretty good about this one.  Shraeye opens Swindler/Silver.  Would a double Swindler opening have been better?  I debate whether Witch or Torturer is the better open, let Haggler tempt me a bit, and opt for Witch in the end, which I think was the right choice. I buy a Pawn with my $2, as I think it helps Witch catch the reshuffle if I draw the Witch on Turn 4.  In hindsight, this is wrong because of Swindler, and consequently, I think the Pawn is a mistake. Then, when his first Swindler hits an Estate, I feel really good about this game.  I win the Curse split 6/4, we both buy Harems with 6, Treasuries with 5, and Walled Villages with 4, until we start hitting 8, but I'm able to use Haggler to help me end it on piles: Harems, Walled Villages, and Curses.

Game 2      Dudeabides 79   Shraeye 51

Kingdom: Pearl Diver, University, Oasis, Taxman, Butcher, Cartographer, Count, Duke, Junk Dealer, Wharf

This is an interesting game with 2 very different strategies, both of which showcase 2 cards from Guilds: Butcher and Taxman.  Prior to the game, Shraeye mentioned that this was his first game with Taxman.  I hadn't had much experience with it.  I open Oasis/Potion, thinking that there are enough $5 cards to make it worthwhile to go University, and then I can later Butcher the $5 cards.  Shraeye opens Taxman/Silver.  His T4 Taxman prevents me from hitting $5 on my T5.  My T6 draw gives me a Uni for my first Wharf and a $1/P for nothing.  He also picks up a Wharf on T6.  I pick up some Junk Dealers to do some trashing.  To cut to the chase, he has 3 Provinces by the end of T11, 6 by T14, while I get my first Duchy in turn 15.  I transition into Counts for Duchies and Butchers to chop my Wharves/Junk Dealers/Counts/Cartographers into Dukes, and manage to pull ahead in the endgame.  Shraeye was so far ahead early that I feel there must have been something he could do to end the game sooner, before I was really able to get my deck ready for greening.  Maybe a Butcher to trash Provinces for Provinces?  Anyways, I think his initial strategy might have been better than mine.

Game 3      Dudeabides 46   Shraeye 19
Kingdom: University, Warehouse, Gardens, Herald, Mining Village, Monument, Taxman, Jester, Minion, Witch

Not a whole lot to say about this one.  Another Uni board with Witch (again), Minion, and Jester.  We both open Warehouse/Potion.  My first two Uni gains are both Witches, while he opts for Witch and then Jester.  I think this is the big difference in the game.  Then, I get 4 quick Minions so that I can cycle through my deck and quickly dish out curses.  I win the Curse split 7/3, while we split Minions 5/5.  The game ends on piles: Gardens, Curses, and Minions.  Both of us have over 50 cards in our decks after 23 turns on a board without +Buys.

All-in-all this was a fun match against Shraeye.  Thanks to him for the games.  After the last game, he mentioned that he wanted some input from the experts, so please critique our strategies.

[dudeabides]

I'm becoming more and more convinced Butcher is one of the best cards in the game. 

I absolutely agree.  I think much of its strength lies in its incredible versatility.  At worst, it's a silver that requires an action to play it.  At best, it can turn a Curse into a Colony.

[Mic Qsenoch]

Mic Qsenoch beats AdamH 3-0

More stuff to come later

1. http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130814/log.5085f5130cf270038ff92212.1376521188700.txt

2. http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130814/log.5085f5130cf270038ff92212.1376521802828.txt

3. http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130814/log.5085f5130cf270038ff92212.1376522530361.txt

Game 1: Cellar, Courtyard, Native Village, Market Square, Steward, Watchtower, Familiar, Bureaucrat, Rebuild, Trading Post and Colony

We both have 5/2. He opens Rebuild/Native Village and I open Trading Post/Courtyard. Because of the Colonies and the trashing on the board I am thinking of ignoring Rebuild here (at least at the start of the game). I get Familiars, while he just looks for defense from Watchtower. I am able to sneak in quite a few curses throughout the game which helps me a lot. He does get a few Golds from Market Square, but the Curses plus all the estates he buys makes his deck too economically weak to compete for Colonies effectively. I definitely think his Estate buys were a mistake. Too many steps up to Colony. I am not that impressed with my deck though. It's possible a Steward opening over Trading Post would have let me build an actual Watchtower engine instead of the more money focused deck I ended up with. Not at all sure how fast that deck would be.

Game 2: Herbalist, Vagrant, Chancellor, Masquerade, Smugglers, Talisman, Duke, Haggler, Rebuild, Adventurer

Haggler is fantastic Duke support, but Masquerade into Haggler can provide longevity for a Province buying deck as well. My opponent opens Talisman/Masquerade which signals Duke pretty strongly, I just take Masq/Silver. My idea here is to contest Duchies as much as possible, and buy some Dukes but not use Duke for scoring, instead use Rebuild to convert everything to Provinces. We split the Duchies 3/5 in his favor. I go to work on Provinces while he buys Dukes. There might be a turn where I should take another Duke instead of Gold or something. His potential for scoring peaks at the end, there is nothing to 3-pile, he would need a lucky Province hand to win. I pile-drive the Provinces to take a narrow victory.

Game 3: Fortune Teller, Oasis, Bridge, Marauder, Counting House, Graverobber, Stables, Wharf, Bank, Expand

My opponent pursues Wharf-BM with a Silver/Silver opening, I open Marauder/Silver and start acquiring Stables. I'm not actually sure about Marauder here, I only play it 3 times because I've soon moved on to Expanding instead, but it seems strange to ignore it completely. My opponent has a horrific triple terminal collision early in the game which wrecks his momentum, although I think in this case he should have played a Wharf and not Expand. I am drawing my deck pretty quickly and I sprinkle in a couple Wharves and a Bank right before I hit the green hard. My first Province comes a bit early, but I actually didn't even think of adding Wharf/Bank for big spending until a turn later. I like my strategy better here, but he did have some bad draws and mine were pretty good (especially the turn 6 Expand).

Thanks for the match AdamH!

[PitrPicko]

AI (ragingduckd) and ednever tie 3-3

(...)
Game 5 (ednever)

I think FG's was a mistake here. FG is only good if you get a bunch of them and play money (with draw and +buy).
(...)

I'm not really sure if FG is a mistake. Let's take a look on it like this. (1) It's a better copper. (2) If bought as opener w/ cultist (5/2) (or other power 2-card drawer) it decreases chance that cultist will miss a shuffle. But with Cultist/- you have chance to play cultist faster.
With Cultist/FG you have 5/6 chance to not miss a shuffle.
With Cultist/- you have only 5/11 for not missing shuffle. But in that 5/11 you will shuffle T4 already w/ cultist possibly 2.
What do you think is better? Cultist/FG IMHO lowers variance and also highers EV, but I'm not really sure.
(3) It increses $/card density for few first turns (4) It can be turned into gold later.
On the other hand it makes some crazy engine harder to set up.
Still it may be ok to buy it just for (2) even w/o other FGs in deck. What you think? Maybe without such a strong engine (KC/Scheme/Draw). I really don't know, I'm seeking opinions
It can be general discusion about Cultist/- vs Cultist/Copper or Witch/- vs Witch/Copper. FG is just a better copper

[AdamH]

Mic Qsenoch 3  AdamH 0

I went into this series just hoping to win one game, my biggest disappointment is that I couldn't do that, but I suppose I deserve it because I wasn't playing well enough to beat someone like MQ.

Video Playlist:

GAME 1:  MQ - 64, AH - 39

Game log: http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130814/log.5085f5130cf270038ff92212.1376521188700.txt
Video link:
Kingdom: Cellar, Courtyard, Native Village, Market Square, Steward, Watchtower, Familiar, Bureaucrat, Rebuild, Trading Post with Colony/Platinum

There's an engine here with some weak draw possibilities, and there's also Rebuild. Familiar should probably be incorporated into either of those strategies. I can't decide which to go for, so I end up half-heartedly going for Rebuild, but I never bother to get a Familiar (what is WRONG with me?!) MQ Plays the engine, gives me 9/10 curses, and wins convincingly. I deserved to get destroyed this game.


GAME 2: AH - 46, MQ - 49

Game log: http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130814/log.5085f5130cf270038ff92212.1376521802828.txt
Video link:
Kingdom: Herbalist, Vagrant, Chancellor, Masquerade, Smugglers, Talisman, Duke, Haggler, Rebuild, Adventurer with Shelters

Province or Duchy/Duke? And then do you incorporate Rebuild? Well the answer is yes for Provinces and no for Duchy/Duke. He opens Masq/Silver and I open Talisman/Masquerade. We both pick up a Haggler and I get a Smugglers. He gets the first Province, but I was convinced that Duchy/Duke would be better from the start. I get the first Duchy and we race from there, but my deck is built for Duchy racing better and I win the split 5-3. He gets some Rebuilds and denies some Dukes to me. I think both of us had good shuffle luck this game, but he plays a water-tight game and ends up ahead of me by 3 points. I am happy with the way I played this game, and if we played this game 10 times with the same strategies, I think I would actually win a few of them.


GAME 3: AH - 14, MQ - 39

Game log: http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130814/log.5085f5130cf270038ff92212.1376522530361.txt
Video link:
Kingdom: Fortune Teller, Oasis, Bridge, Marauder, Counting House, Graverobber, Stables, Wharf, Bank, Expand

So how do you want to enable Bank? Stables or Wharf? Apparently Stables. He goes Stables, I pick up a couple of Wharves. Both of us get an Expand to supplement. His deck comes together really nicely after he adds a couple of Wharves for the +Buy, but I don't understand why he was able to do it so quickly after opening Marauder. I also don't understand why my deck just didn't do anything. Maybe his strategy was better, but after playing this game I would have said I'd win 0 out of the 10 hypothetical games we played, but I feel like this strategy should be able to win 2 or 3 of them. What happened here?!

[jaybeez]

Jaybeez - EgorK 3:1
EgorK - Jaybeez 44:67 (http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130814/log.505d7a160cf2ef979299a48e.1376493472629.txt)
Jaybeez - EgorK 19:30 (http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130814/log.505d7a160cf2ef979299a48e.1376493918032.txt)
Jaybeez - EgorK 39:9, resigned (http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130814/log.505d7a160cf2ef979299a48e.1376494431373.txt)
EgorK - Jeybeez 36:38 (http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130814/log.505d7a160cf2ef979299a48e.1376495051421.txt)

Thought I'd add a few comments.

First comment: thanks to EgorK for the match!

Game 1.
When my opponent opened Armory/Vagrant, I thought I had a good chance of winning already (turned out he confused Armory with Ironworks, and Ironworks-Gardens would have been good here I think.  Oh well).  Meanwhile I open Black Market/Silver, and I go on to have some of the best Black Market luck of my life; from the BM deck I get Witch on T4, Mountebank on T6, and Marauder on T9.  I roll to victory with a money/Duke thing, pounding away with my Attacks.  My Haggler helps a bit but it's inconsequential really.  I even finish the game with 2 Spoils still in my deck.

Game 2.
Rebuild.  I get a 5/2 (Rebuild/Embargo), and my opponent gets 4/3 (Steward/Silver), and I feel that the Dominion gods have smiled upon me again.  But I have some atrocious shuffle luck, play somewhat badly, and make a terrible misclick on T11 (I meant to name Province on my second Rebuild play, I click Duchy by accident and of course hit my one Province).  My opponent cruises to a comfortably Rebuilt victory.  Would it have been better for me to open Rebuild/Estate to trash my Hovel?  I don't know.

Game 3.
There's Horn of Plenty, there's a village, there's terminal and non-terminal draw, there's sifting.  Yup, I smell HoP megaturn.  My opponent goes for a funky Warehouse/Library thing with Wandering Minstrels and Merchant Guilds.  It works better than I expect it to, but is way slower than my HoP engine powered by Stables, WM, Oracle, and Warehouse.  I get a chance to go off on T11 with only 6 Horns and decide to go for it, and also stupidly buy a Stables which probably should have just been a Duchy.  It doesn't matter though, my opponent resigns, as without alt-VP he would have needed the last two Provinces and all eight Duchies just to match the points from my 6 Provinces.

Game 4.
Without real draw this just seemed like a money game.  I wanted to open double-Swindler but got 5/2 and then had $5 on T3 so I went for Merchant Ships, planning to transition into two Swindlers with some Border Villages thrown in.  My opponent bought a few Death Carts (including opening with one) which I think was a pretty big mistake.  I don't think I played particularly well, I made a few mistakes myself, but I squeaked out a win anyway, partly due to better Swindler luck (I think).

[ragingduckd]

AI (ragingduckd) and ednever tie 3-3

(...)
Game 5 (ednever)

I think FG's was a mistake here. FG is only good if you get a bunch of them and play money (with draw and +buy).
(...)

I'm not really sure if FG is a mistake. Let's take a look on it like this. (1) It's a better copper. (2) If bought as opener w/ cultist (5/2) (or other power 2-card drawer) it decreases chance that cultist will miss a shuffle. But with Cultist/- you have chance to play cultist faster.
With Cultist/FG you have 5/6 chance to not miss a shuffle.
With Cultist/- you have only 5/11 for not missing shuffle. But in that 5/11 you will shuffle T4 already w/ cultist possibly 2.
What do you think is better? Cultist/FG IMHO lowers variance and also highers EV, but I'm not really sure.
(3) It increses $/card density for few first turns (4) It can be turned into gold later.
On the other hand it makes some crazy engine harder to set up.
Still it may be ok to buy it just for (2) even w/o other FGs in deck. What you think? Maybe without such a strong engine (KC/Scheme/Draw). I really don't know, I'm seeking opinions
It can be general discusion about Cultist/- vs Cultist/Copper or Witch/- vs Witch/Copper. FG is just a better copper

Good points. I believe you're referring to this discussion?

The extra Copper/FG seems more appealing with Cultist than with Witch. Cultist chaining makes it particularly bad to separate a Cultist you play on T4 from one you buy on T4. Cultist is also the faster junker, so a small boost to money density will matter for longer.

I wish I could claim my in-game analysis was this careful. I was mostly just thinking how nice it would be to connect 2 FG and buy an early KC.

[zporiri]

3 zporiri - rtt 0

Game 1
http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130815/log.5070529651c34c5abec034ad.1376593385449.txt
Poor House, Moat, Great Hall, Masterpiece, Scheme, Taxman, Bandit Camp, Jester, Royal Seal, Saboteur

Relatively boring mirror. We both open taxman/silver and play a BM+Masterpiece game. He breaks PPR and I win on the following turn.

Game 2
http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130815/log.5070529651c34c5abec034ad.1376593846625.txt
Courtyard, Develop, Loan, Workshop, Noble Brigand, Quarry, Scout, Smithy, Horn of Plenty, Mountebank

I open loan/smithy, and hope to play mountebank often with a smaller deck and quick shuffles, at the risk of passing mountebank with my loan and picking it up with the smithy. some collisions, but i managed to avoid it for the most part, got early golds on and rode on to victory. he picked up a second mountebank and i ended up losing the curse split, but my quick start was enough.

Game 3
http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130815/log.5070529651c34c5abec034ad.1376594612751.txt
Apothecary, Oracle, Smugglers, Conspirator, Silk Road, Golem, Cache, Catacombs, Rogue, Harem

We both open silver/oracle. He was able to get his golem before me, so i took a silk road in case i needed to go down that road (silk road+harem) if i feel behind too quickly. i was only able to get one golem (had to go for province quickly), but i was lucky enough to get it pretty quickly after each shuffle. he broke ppr, and i won on the next turn. i got really lucky in this game.

[Stealth Tomato]

Moving my commentary to the correct place.


DRAW: Stealth Tomato 3 - 3 jog

For all the tournaments where I've seen really terrible boards, this match was wonderful. I think I use the term "goofy" about nine times in the following writeup, and the boards fit the description perfectly. They're difficult, nuanced, and sometimes a bit crazy. Some lead to a handful of decisions in the midgame that can dramatically affect the outcome. A couple had a heavy luck element, but there were plenty of opportunities to improve or hurt your odds of victory in nearly every one. I was thrilled to draw a high-level opponent and the result was nothing short of magical.

Game 1: Stealth Tomato 51 - 0 jog
I didn't outplay him here, although I disagree with the Steward/Steward opening on a Cultist board (where it's more important to add trash to your opponent than to remove it from yourself. I got the Cultists going earlier and that's really all there is to it. He certainly didn't deserve to lose by 51.

Game 2: jog 18 - 6 Stealth Tomato
Really, really goofy board. Jog gets going very slightly faster. I transition into a longer-game strategy hoping to have a chance, but he 3-piles before I can really get it going.

Game 3: Stealth Tomato 47 - 35 jog
I play what amounts to double-Taxman BM, he tries some goofy stuff with Remodel. My deck ends up substantially stronger; he transitions neatly into Feodum but it's not enough to overcome the Province split.

Game 4: jog 6 - 0 Stealth Tomato
This board was goofy. Really goofy. I blunder in taking my first KC instead of the last Fortress and a Watchtower, but overall I'm not disappointed in my play. Jog probably played slightly better, but I can't be sure with the amount of swinginess in the board here.

Game 5: Stealth Tomato 23 - 0 jog
I'm really proud of this one, although I probably could have lost it had one or two things gone differently. Tactician loop with Storeroom, Candlestick Maker, Knights, and Count. I open Silver/Storeroom in a play for quick Tacticians, he opens with CM/Ironworks. I get set up a bit faster, trash massively with Count, and it's just lead management from there on out. We split the CMs, I trash one of his Tacticians, and I make sure I have enough insurance to prevent his Knights killing all my plans.

Game 6: jog 42 - 5 Stealth Tomato
I probably could have done something about this, but I don't know what. It's a bit frustrating to lose and not know what you did wrong--should I have gone Familiar? Would BoM have helped? Or was I doomed by the time Familiar became a thing (I was clearly already behind)? Either way, I think this neatly bookends with the first game--Player 2 makes some minor mistakes, but luck is the big difference and the score ends up wildly lopsided.

[Fabian]

Fabian 3 - 3 DG

Game 1: Fabian 4 - 9 DG
A Village/Torturer/etc game in which I go first. Feels like one of those games I would probably win if I was better at this game, maybe. I try to go for a bigger Torturer/etc chain than DG, and by the time my deck comes together, piles have run out and I'm behind. Probably pretty awfully played by me.

Game 2: Fabian x - 3 DG
Ambassador mirror. Probably the least interesting game, as Ambassador mirrors often turn out. First advantage is good, etc.

Game 3: Fabian 32 - 30 DG
A Swindler/etc game in which I go a little harder on the Knights pile, and those Knights do some very good work (trashing multiple Golds, among other things).

Game 4: Fabian 56 - 46 DG
A Feodum game with Trading Post, Steward and Ironworks as support. After we have 4 Feodum each, I get lucky with a Trading Post/Feodum/Feodum/x/x hand, and my superior economy allows me to buy a comfortable amount of Provinces.

Game 5: Fabian 45 - 24 DG
I open Trader/Silver with the idea of going mostly BM and denying DG some Caravans, which I consider the only good target for his Universities. I miss some Death Cart considerations, allowing him to regain some economy fairly quickly, but the game doesn't feel that close.

Game 6: Fabian 29 - 38 DG
Weird board where I play pretty bad. I had some hope of getting to Provinces after the Duchy/Duke fight was over, but as DG said after the game, "it rarely turns out that way". I made a few pretty bad decisions in the late game, but would have lost anyway at that point.

Overall, I think 3-3 feels like a pretty fair result, and it was a lot of fun playing DG, who is one of the people whose game I respect the most on this forum (Stef, Obi Wan, jonts, etc). I was also pretty happy turning 0-2 into 3-2, almost making a crazy comeback against of the greats. Also also, I was kinda drunk celebrating Sweden's only gold in the Athletics World Championships, so I guess that's all the more reason to be happy with a draw heh. Thanks for the games, and good luck in the next rounds!

[PitrPicko]

AI (ragingduckd) and ednever tie 3-3

(...)
Game 5 (ednever)

I think FG's was a mistake here. FG is only good if you get a bunch of them and play money (with draw and +buy).
(...)

I'm not really sure if FG is a mistake. Let's take a look on it like this. (1) It's a better copper. (2) If bought as opener w/ cultist (5/2) (or other power 2-card drawer) it decreases chance that cultist will miss a shuffle. But with Cultist/- you have chance to play cultist faster.
With Cultist/FG you have 5/6 chance to not miss a shuffle.
With Cultist/- you have only 5/11 for not missing shuffle. But in that 5/11 you will shuffle T4 already w/ cultist possibly 2.
What do you think is better? Cultist/FG IMHO lowers variance and also highers EV, but I'm not really sure.
(3) It increses $/card density for few first turns (4) It can be turned into gold later.
On the other hand it makes some crazy engine harder to set up.
Still it may be ok to buy it just for (2) even w/o other FGs in deck. What you think? Maybe without such a strong engine (KC/Scheme/Draw). I really don't know, I'm seeking opinions
It can be general discusion about Cultist/- vs Cultist/Copper or Witch/- vs Witch/Copper. FG is just a better copper

Good points. I believe you're referring to this discussion?

The extra Copper/FG seems more appealing with Cultist than with Witch. Cultist chaining makes it particularly bad to separate a Cultist you play on T4 from one you buy on T4. Cultist is also the faster junker, so a small boost to money density will matter for longer.

I wish I could claim my in-game analysis was this careful. I was mostly just thinking how nice it would be to connect 2 FG and buy an early KC.

I didn't know about that discussion oops. Still it didn't come to any particular result. I'll post something there, but it would be lovely if some pro players from this tournament would join and discuss it. It really bothers me

[zporiri]

AI (ragingduckd) and ednever tie 3-3

Game 1 (AI)
Game 2 (ednever)
Game 3 (AI)
Game 4 (AI)
Game 5 (ednever)
Game 6 (ednever)

I thought if someone won the first 3 out of 4 games, they won the match, no?

[Kirian]

AI (ragingduckd) and ednever tie 3-3

Game 1 (AI)
Game 2 (ednever)
Game 3 (AI)
Game 4 (AI)
Game 5 (ednever)
Game 6 (ednever)

I thought if someone won the first 3 out of 4 games, they won the match, no?

This was actually taken care of in the results thread, yes.

[WanderingWinder]

WanderingWinder 3 - 1 17and3buys

Game 1: 17and3buys 62 - 53 WW
http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130816/log.514b5511e4b0b79c883b5e3b.1376688608146.txt

A Big Money-ish Colony game. He goes vault, which I was a bit unsure about for colonies, but it worked pretty well (and I got very little off of the drawback, perhaps I should have been more aggressive). Pretty close throughout.

Game 2: WW 41 - 25 17and3buys
http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130816/log.514b5511e4b0b79c883b5e3b.1376689042759.txt

The game I feel I most outplayed him, though hey, I got lucky too with many of my Noble Brigands. I feel that you really need to do go duchy/duke here, and you are so treasure-based that NB should be very good. I even had some chances at provinces due to this, but just plowed for the $5 victory cards and then the end of the game.

Game 3: WW 59 - 11 17and3buys
http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130816/log.514b5511e4b0b79c883b5e3b.1376689695093.txt

It really wasn't this close, and there were several points I could have really jacked up the score, but there wasn't any reason/need to. On the other hand, while I think I played fairly well, I couldn't really point out places where I think he played poorly, so I think this may be down largely to some luck at key points and then snowballing.

Game 4: 17and3buys 61 - 66 WW
http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130816/log.514b5511e4b0b79c883b5e3b.1376690281155.txt

So, I just head for 8 point fairgrounds. I get worried at some point, as there are only a few provinces left, he has gone for them and has a pretty big lead, and he has apprentice to potentially go for it. But he slows down for some duchies and such at this point, and I think this was a key point of error for him - I feel like he had reasonably good chances if he just went for running the provinces out. This really isn't the best board for the whole 8 pt fairground plan, as there's not a lot to chain (lacks villages) and you get terminal heavy. It isn't the worst, either, as there's not *great* cards for plowing through all the provinces, but well, there was apprentice at least.

Videos should be up shortly.

[nopawnsintended]

florrat - nopawnsintended: 3 - 1

http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130816/log.510876c7e4b0ac7a7a0bb212.1376698429353.txt (florrat wins)

Masterpiece is key in this one.  Florrat hits 7 a couple of times, floods with Silver.  I have no idea what I was thinking with Native Village - Develop.  The Witches were nice, but that wasn't the diff in our strategy.

http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130816/log.510876c7e4b0ac7a7a0bb212.1376699165861.txt (florrat wins)

I hate Minion games because I always try to avoid Minion.  I try some Horse Tradersy thing where I'm hoping to get labbed every turn, and get some Heralds, and Cities, and Margraves to dig out.  Oh, that's a little complicated.  I suppose that's why I lost.  This one wasn't really close.

http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130816/log.51265786e4b0920d7cbf7d58.1376699789892.txt (nopawnsintended wins)

I went simple here with Militia into Hoard into Provinces in a Colony game.  Salvager to speed it up.  I win smoothly.  My only well-conceived strategy, but I suppose you could chalk it up to shuffle luck and my hitting hoard early.

http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130816/log.510876c7e4b0ac7a7a0bb212.1376700802634.txt (florrat wins)

For some reason, I think I can build my economy by (a) ignoring Masq on the first reshuffle, (b) getting only one Masq, (c) gaining Stables with Universities.  That's not a good idea, especially when you *know* that Goons is going to be key.  This was a case of priorities out of whack.  I was thinking that I could get the Goons later after I had a staple of Stables, but that was ill conceived because my opponent started Goonsing, and there was no getting Goons with the deck I had built after he started hitting me every turn with it.

Kudos to florrat who played much better than me. 

[florrat]

Ninja'd by nopawnsintended, but I'll post my analysis anyway.

florrat - nopawnsintended: 3 - 1

florrat wins 43 - 30, Transmute, Native Village, Pearl Diver, Develop, Market Square, Masterpiece, Scheme, Ironworks, Mandarin, Witch
We both went Witch with Scheme support. Other than that I played BM with Masterpiece support, while nopawnsintended tried to recover a bit from the curses with Develop, and also bought some Native Villages along the way. This hurt his economy pretty bad, and I think it was better to just go BM. Maybe opening Witch / nothing would even be better for him than Witch / Native village.

florrat wins 39 - 25, Forager, Workshop, Feast, Herald, Horse Traders, Quarry, Spice Merchant, City, Margrave, Minion
I went Forager / Minion, while nopawnsintended tried to go more engine by buying some Margraves and Cities early. It took too long for the Cities to grow, and I was already 3 provinces ahead when the first pile was empty. Horse Traders was a nice card here, because we both played a lot of attacks.

nopawnsintended wins 50 - 38, Steward, Advisor, Militia, Salvager, Graverobber, Journeyman, Minion, Mystic, Venture, Hoard
nopawnsintended opened Militia / Silver going into Salvager / Hoard, I opened Militia / Steward but didn't have any good strategy after that. I think I made mistakes in the opening by discarding good cards to his Militia so that I could trash 2 cards with Steward. I was also a little unlucky that my Steward and Militia collided the first three times.
I think we both greened way too early with Hoard, because we almost never reached 11 for Colony.


florrat wins 47 - 0, University, Fortune Teller, Masquerade, Watchtower, Familiar, Advisor, Cutpurse, Stables, Goons, Peddler
I went University / Goons with nonterminal draw from Stables and Advisor (which was really nice here), although I got my Potion a little late. I think nopawnsintended tried the same, but he neglected his economy in the beginning, and he never reached $6.

Thanks for the games nopawnsintended, I especially liked the fact that no game was a mirror match which came down to shuffle luck!

[Eevee]

Eevee 3.5 - Archetype 1.5

http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130817/log.5158def5e4b0ee7f08a599e4.1376757257165.txt
Archetype opens 5-2 on a rebuild board and goes on to destroy me.

http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130817/log.5158def5e4b0ee7f08a599e4.1376757862585.txt
Soothsayer is the key card here. I play more of a money based strategy, and win pretty comfortably. I think Archetype's mistake was buying a soothsayer too late.

http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130817/log.5158def5e4b0ee7f08a599e4.1376758564549.txt
An interesting one with young witch, menagerie as a bane and fool's gold. I fall badly behind but my engine kicks in in time and I'm able to steal a draw.

http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130817/log.5158def5e4b0ee7f08a599e4.1376759431995.txt
A board made for a horn of plenty megaturn. Archetype goes for HP+steward, I clear the provinces on turn 12.

http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130817/log.5158def5e4b0ee7f08a599e4.1376760606752.txt
I buy knights whenever I can, get really lucky and snowball. This must have been pretty frustrating for Archetype.

Good games, it was definitely fun to play "competitive" dominion again.

Posting this here as well, I guess.

[Archetype]

Eevee 3.5 - Archetype 1.5

http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130817/log.5158def5e4b0ee7f08a599e4.1376757257165.txt
Archetype opens 5-2 on a rebuild board and goes on to destroy me.

Not much to say here. Just bought Rebuilds, a Witch, and went on to win. That Rebuild/Estate start was a big boost.

http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130817/log.5158def5e4b0ee7f08a599e4.1376757862585.txt
Soothsayer is the key card here. I play more of a money based strategy, and win pretty comfortably. I think Archetype's mistake was buying a soothsayer too late.

I was aiming for a stange Bandit Camp/Mandarin/Watchtower deck, but I really underestimated Soothsayer's power and I failed hardcore. What I really needed was some trashing, which wasn't there.

http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130817/log.5158def5e4b0ee7f08a599e4.1376758564549.txt
An interesting one with young witch, menagerie as a bane and fool's gold. I fall badly behind but my engine kicks in in time and I'm able to steal a draw.

This was my favorite game out of the lot. I go Fools Gold early and he goes YW early. We then buy into each others strategies and end in a draw. I probably should've bought 1 less Menagerie, but oh well.

http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130817/log.5158def5e4b0ee7f08a599e4.1376759431995.txt
A board made for a horn of plenty megaturn. Archetype goes for HP+steward, I clear the provinces on turn 12.

I didn't want to get too crazy after the BC/Watchtower/Mandarin failure, so I went for a basic HP stack with Steward. But man, HoP is so good here. Well played Eevee!

http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130817/log.5158def5e4b0ee7f08a599e4.1376760606752.txt
I buy knights whenever I can, get really lucky and snowball. This must have been pretty frustrating for Archetype.

Yeah I was trying for Rabble BM with Trader to help keep away the Knights with Silvers. But I totally forgot about Shelters which made the Trader really weak. But like Eevee said,  the Knights got out of hand really quickly and I had to devolve into a basic Horse Traders BM, if you could even call it that. Frustrating game, but my fault for not picking up a few more Knights.

Fun stuff overall. Eevee is a good player and I hope he does well in the rest of the tournament!

[awildnoobappeared]

awildnoobappeared d. Robz888 3-1

This could easily have been 3-1 Robz's way but for some bad luck on his part. Obviously I'm happy to win against a highly-ranked player, but I have to admit a lot of things went my way.

http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130817/log.514cd37de4b0fe3236619906.1376777332162.txt
Candlestick Maker, Embargo, Pearl Diver, Squire, Great Hall, Loan, Woodcutter, Feast, Venture, Harem
Probably the crappiest board I've ever seen! We both go for Ventures but Robz buys a Loan first up while I don't bother. Looking back I think buying a Loan was a better idea than not (to clear out Coppers for Venture) but my luck holds out and I squeak a 1-point victory.

http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130817/log.514cd37de4b0fe3236619906.1376777906525.txt
Secret Chamber, Market Square, Steward, Urchin, Coppersmith, Rats, Treasure Map, Counting House, Merchant Guild, Outpost (colony game)
Again there's not much on offer. Counting House/Market Square is the only thing either of us see. To be honest I thought I had this on turn 9 when I drained the Market Squares but I make a major mistake on turn 12 where I play too many MS's and cause a reshuffle with a CH in hand. From there Robz is able to attack the Colony pile effectively enough to win.

http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130817/log.514cd37de4b0fe3236619906.1376778763575.txt
Scrying Pool, Oracle, Village, Philosopher's Stone, Horse Traders, Mining Village, Contraband, Highway, Torturer, Harem
Robz goes for Scrying Pools, while I ignore them and focus on building a Torturer chain. I don't think SP is good here as there's no trashing on offer, and there's Torturer handing out curses.
My plan comes off and Robz loses the curse split 8-2, there's not much coming back from that.

http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130817/log.514cd37de4b0fe3236619906.1376779521939.txt
Secret Chamber, Hermit, Masquerade, Feast, Ironmonger, Island, Monument, Apprentice, Haggler, Hunting Grounds
Another fairly unexciting board, we both open Ironmonger/Masquerade picking up a Haggler at first opportunity. Robz picks up Apprentices and I follow along.
His Feast to gain a Duchy would have won him the game on turn 13 if he had revealed a Copper with Ironmonger. (I bought a Hunting Grounds for the same reason, hoping to tie-break by trashing it into a Duchy)

[Robz888]

I keep up my famously bad showings in Tournaments with a huge loss here. It was... demoralizing.

awildnoobappeared d. Robz888 3-1

This could easily have been 3-1 Robz's way but for some bad luck on his part. Obviously I'm happy to win against a highly-ranked player, but I have to admit a lot of things went my way.

http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130817/log.514cd37de4b0fe3236619906.1376777332162.txt
Candlestick Maker, Embargo, Pearl Diver, Squire, Great Hall, Loan, Woodcutter, Feast, Venture, Harem
Probably the crappiest board I've ever seen! We both go for Ventures but Robz buys a Loan first up while I don't bother. Looking back I think buying a Loan was a better idea than not (to clear out Coppers for Venture) but my luck holds out and I squeak a 1-point victory.

I was shocked to lose this. Truly shocked. Loan has to be the right call, right? It doesn't hurt my early economy, I get to $5 for Venture no problem. I mean, I know what went wrong--I play a Venture that triggers a nasty reshuffle, and he goes like Province-Province-Province or something while I flounder. Still. I was shocked.

http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130817/log.514cd37de4b0fe3236619906.1376777906525.txt
Secret Chamber, Market Square, Steward, Urchin, Coppersmith, Rats, Treasure Map, Counting House, Merchant Guild, Outpost (colony game)
Again there's not much on offer. Counting House/Market Square is the only thing either of us see. To be honest I thought I had this on turn 9 when I drained the Market Squares but I make a major mistake on turn 12 where I play too many MS's and cause a reshuffle with a CH in hand. From there Robz is able to attack the Colony pile effectively enough to win.

Another stupid little board. Weak Colonies lead to Counting House strategy. I think the only difference here is he went for gobs of Market Squares for Copper gaining, and I picked up a Merchant Guild before heading for Counting House. This game could have gone either way--I got reasonable Counting House luck.

http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130817/log.514cd37de4b0fe3236619906.1376778763575.txt
Scrying Pool, Oracle, Village, Philosopher's Stone, Horse Traders, Mining Village, Contraband, Highway, Torturer, Harem
Robz goes for Scrying Pools, while I ignore them and focus on building a Torturer chain. I don't think SP is good here as there's no trashing on offer, and there's Torturer handing out curses.
My plan comes off and Robz loses the curse split 8-2, there's not much coming back from that.

Yeah, I was just outplayed here. I have an ohshiny problem with Scrying Pool. I was hoping he would be a little slower setting up the Torturer chain, but he wasn't. Horse Traders was working annoyingly well for him. He ALWAYS had it in hand, and my Pools were activating it like crazy. I actually think he misplayed it and left the door open by getting too much Treasure and even a Province. But I picked the wrong approach from the start.

http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130817/log.514cd37de4b0fe3236619906.1376779521939.txt
Secret Chamber, Hermit, Masquerade, Feast, Ironmonger, Island, Monument, Apprentice, Haggler, Hunting Grounds
Another fairly unexciting board, we both open Ironmonger/Masquerade picking up a Haggler at first opportunity. Robz picks up Apprentices and I follow along.
His Feast to gain a Duchy would have won him the game on turn 13 if he had revealed a Copper with Ironmonger. (I bought a Hunting Grounds for the same reason, hoping to tie-break by trashing it into a Duchy)

We did similar things, he broke PPR, and I should have been able to snag that last Province easily. I maddeningly couldn't, and then couldn't again. Possibly I Apprenticed the wrong thing on my last turn? I Apprenticed Masq and drew like all Duchies. Maybe shoulda been Gold, but I didn't have SO much money in my deck. I guess should have been Gold. I was like shaking by that point, knowing my fate rested on sealing this game. So I guess I did screw up. I don't know.

[Polk5440]

http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130817/log.514cd37de4b0fe3236619906.1376777906525.txt
Secret Chamber, Market Square, Steward, Urchin, Coppersmith, Rats, Treasure Map, Counting House, Merchant Guild, Outpost (colony game)
Again there's not much on offer. Counting House/Market Square is the only thing either of us see. To be honest I thought I had this on turn 9 when I drained the Market Squares but I make a major mistake on turn 12 where I play too many MS's and cause a reshuffle with a CH in hand. From there Robz is able to attack the Colony pile effectively enough to win.

Another stupid little board. Weak Colonies lead to Counting House strategy. I think the only difference here is he went for gobs of Market Squares for Copper gaining, and I picked up a Merchant Guild before heading for Counting House. This game could have gone either way--I got reasonable Counting House luck.

This was kind of interesting. I am surprised neither of you tried Steward. I think I would have tried Steward-Market Square to open and hope for some Gold early. I wouldn't have even thought to try a deck of market square-counting house alone, but it worked out for you.

[WanderingWinder]

I keep up my famously bad showings in Tournaments with a huge loss here. It was... demoralizing.

awildnoobappeared d. Robz888 3-1

This could easily have been 3-1 Robz's way but for some bad luck on his part. Obviously I'm happy to win against a highly-ranked player, but I have to admit a lot of things went my way.

http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130817/log.514cd37de4b0fe3236619906.1376777332162.txt
Candlestick Maker, Embargo, Pearl Diver, Squire, Great Hall, Loan, Woodcutter, Feast, Venture, Harem
Probably the crappiest board I've ever seen! We both go for Ventures but Robz buys a Loan first up while I don't bother. Looking back I think buying a Loan was a better idea than not (to clear out Coppers for Venture) but my luck holds out and I squeak a 1-point victory.

I was shocked to lose this. Truly shocked. Loan has to be the right call, right? It doesn't hurt my early economy, I get to $5 for Venture no problem. I mean, I know what went wrong--I play a Venture that triggers a nasty reshuffle, and he goes like Province-Province-Province or something while I flounder. Still. I was shocked.

I am shocked that you are shocked. Why are you shocked? Loan has to be the wrong call here, doesn't it? You are aiming for a treasure-based deck, and loan is generally bad there. I mean, I know you are thinking that you're going for ventures, fewer coppers will be good. Yeah, but... you are having one fewer silver, one more copper-equivalent, and it does indeed hurt your early economy a little bit. And going mass venture with money just isn't that great anyway (indeed, it helps the venture, but you're still not all that likely to get to the point where venture>gold). And of course, you will end up hitting non-coppers a reasonably high percentage of the time with loan, as coppers get to be a lower and lower portion of your treasures. So I don't think it's worth it. Of course, if you draw well (hit coppers your first 5 plays or something), it will look good. And if you draw badly (you draw a bit worse than average here), it will look bad.
Also, why didn't anybody go squire as silver-flooder here? And I think CSM - just one, maybe two, maybe off opportunistic buys if you're going woodcutter - helps BM a little more than a silver at some point, because that smoothing is nice. Hard to time right, though.

http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130817/log.514cd37de4b0fe3236619906.1376777906525.txt
Secret Chamber, Market Square, Steward, Urchin, Coppersmith, Rats, Treasure Map, Counting House, Merchant Guild, Outpost (colony game)
Again there's not much on offer. Counting House/Market Square is the only thing either of us see. To be honest I thought I had this on turn 9 when I drained the Market Squares but I make a major mistake on turn 12 where I play too many MS's and cause a reshuffle with a CH in hand. From there Robz is able to attack the Colony pile effectively enough to win.

Another stupid little board. Weak Colonies lead to Counting House strategy. I think the only difference here is he went for gobs of Market Squares for Copper gaining, and I picked up a Merchant Guild before heading for Counting House. This game could have gone either way--I got reasonable Counting House luck.

There really isn't much here, and CH is plausible, though I think I would have gone Steward, maybe with MS at the right moment. That might be worse, I really don't know - anything is a little awkward.

http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130817/log.514cd37de4b0fe3236619906.1376778763575.txt
Scrying Pool, Oracle, Village, Philosopher's Stone, Horse Traders, Mining Village, Contraband, Highway, Torturer, Harem
Robz goes for Scrying Pools, while I ignore them and focus on building a Torturer chain. I don't think SP is good here as there's no trashing on offer, and there's Torturer handing out curses.
My plan comes off and Robz loses the curse split 8-2, there's not much coming back from that.

Yeah, I was just outplayed here. I have an ohshiny problem with Scrying Pool. I was hoping he would be a little slower setting up the Torturer chain, but he wasn't. Horse Traders was working annoyingly well for him. He ALWAYS had it in hand, and my Pools were activating it like crazy. I actually think he misplayed it and left the door open by getting too much Treasure and even a Province. But I picked the wrong approach from the start.

HT is not really good against torturer, is really good against SP. But the bigger point is, and you know this by now, SP doesn't seem that good here - no trashing, no great cantrips, and there's a good draw engine without the SP - generally these are going to be faster (note I said generally - of course there are edge cases...)

http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130817/log.514cd37de4b0fe3236619906.1376779521939.txt
Secret Chamber, Hermit, Masquerade, Feast, Ironmonger, Island, Monument, Apprentice, Haggler, Hunting Grounds
Another fairly unexciting board, we both open Ironmonger/Masquerade picking up a Haggler at first opportunity. Robz picks up Apprentices and I follow along.
His Feast to gain a Duchy would have won him the game on turn 13 if he had revealed a Copper with Ironmonger. (I bought a Hunting Grounds for the same reason, hoping to tie-break by trashing it into a Duchy)

We did similar things, he broke PPR, and I should have been able to snag that last Province easily. I maddeningly couldn't, and then couldn't again. Possibly I Apprenticed the wrong thing on my last turn? I Apprenticed Masq and drew like all Duchies. Maybe shoulda been Gold, but I didn't have SO much money in my deck. I guess should have been Gold. I was like shaking by that point, knowing my fate rested on sealing this game. So I guess I did screw up. I don't know.

I don't think you were wrong to trash masq over gold there - your deck has 2 gold, 5 copper, and a haggler there. So you would have needed to get to gold, haggler, and 3+ coppers if you trash the gold, or get quite good results off of ironmonger and have gold and lots of copper, or every single treasure in your deck - basically these are pretty unlikely, and playing the masquerade probably isn't going to be an option which is going to really help you there. I think you get too many feasts at some point, but in my final analysis, I think this was mostly pretty even play-wise, and goes largely to shuffle luck.

[SCSN]

Double-Steward into Market Square is pretty damn strong. Before long you've a deck of only Stewards, Market Squares, Golds and Platina.

[Destierro]

Destierro 3 Craisins 0

Game 1: 39-30 Destierro
http://dominionlogs.goko.com//20130818/log.50a06f0fe4b0638b8d8e5da1.1376853957102.txt

Chapel, Pearl Diver, Forager, Scheme, Alchemist, Trader, Embassy, Festival, Mountebank, Hunting Grounds

I thought I was a goner when he opened 5/2 on a board with mountebank and chapel. I grabbed trader/ chapel, hoping to get some good trader luck, and that is exactly what happened. Even though he blocked my mountebank twice in the first three plays, he failed to pick up any money besides gold, and stalled hard in the greening phase. My 8 silvers helped tremendously, allowing my to get the last two requisite provinces to secure a win.

Game 2: 28-9 Destierro
http://dominionlogs.goko.com//20130818/log.50a06f0fe4b0638b8d8e5da1.1376854953023.txt

Develop, Quarry, Bandit Camp, Butcher, City, Counterfeit, Margrave, Merchant Ship, Mint, Farmland

Wow, this board was crazy. I opened 5/2 and could not resist the blinding power of Counterfeit. It was amazing here, being able to turn spoils into mountains of cash after trashing every last copper. Quarry was also very important, allowing my to pick up 5 cost engine pieces for 1 each, and counterfeit and margrave supplied and enormous amount of +buy. Ignoring counterfeit on this board is suicide.

Game 3: 36-15 Destierro
http://dominionlogs.goko.com//20130818/log.50a06f0fe4b0638b8d8e5da1.1376855792181.txt

Poor House, Haven, Scrying Pool, Thief, Baker, Duke, Inn, Pillage, Trading Post, Treasury

A baker board, which I am unaccustomed to. Also, there's duke, but I see little support for it. I open silver/trading post, pick up  2 bakers to smooth my money, and some golds. I green fairly quickly, but after I have two provinces, his deck looks less than threatening, and I pick up gold on 6 instead of using my baker tokens. After the shuffle, I cruise through the provinces, picking up 6 by turn 16 with 5 baker tokens to spare.

An interesting set of games, thanks for playing Craisins!

[Robz888]

I keep up my famously bad showings in Tournaments with a huge loss here. It was... demoralizing.

awildnoobappeared d. Robz888 3-1

This could easily have been 3-1 Robz's way but for some bad luck on his part. Obviously I'm happy to win against a highly-ranked player, but I have to admit a lot of things went my way.

http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130817/log.514cd37de4b0fe3236619906.1376777332162.txt
Candlestick Maker, Embargo, Pearl Diver, Squire, Great Hall, Loan, Woodcutter, Feast, Venture, Harem
Probably the crappiest board I've ever seen! We both go for Ventures but Robz buys a Loan first up while I don't bother. Looking back I think buying a Loan was a better idea than not (to clear out Coppers for Venture) but my luck holds out and I squeak a 1-point victory.

I was shocked to lose this. Truly shocked. Loan has to be the right call, right? It doesn't hurt my early economy, I get to $5 for Venture no problem. I mean, I know what went wrong--I play a Venture that triggers a nasty reshuffle, and he goes like Province-Province-Province or something while I flounder. Still. I was shocked.

I am shocked that you are shocked. Why are you shocked? Loan has to be the wrong call here, doesn't it? You are aiming for a treasure-based deck, and loan is generally bad there. I mean, I know you are thinking that you're going for ventures, fewer coppers will be good. Yeah, but... you are having one fewer silver, one more copper-equivalent, and it does indeed hurt your early economy a little bit. And going mass venture with money just isn't that great anyway (indeed, it helps the venture, but you're still not all that likely to get to the point where venture>gold). And of course, you will end up hitting non-coppers a reasonably high percentage of the time with loan, as coppers get to be a lower and lower portion of your treasures. So I don't think it's worth it. Of course, if you draw well (hit coppers your first 5 plays or something), it will look good. And if you draw badly (you draw a bit worse than average here), it will look bad.
Also, why didn't anybody go squire as silver-flooder here? And I think CSM - just one, maybe two, maybe off opportunistic buys if you're going woodcutter - helps BM a little more than a silver at some point, because that smoothing is nice. Hard to time right, though.

I'm open to that argument, since I did indeed lose... but I'm not aiming for a Treasure-based deck, just a Venture based deck. I want Venture to find Venture to find Venture, etc. Coppers get in the way of that. So does Silver, actually, which is why I don't want Squire. I open Woodcutter over Silver to negate the "Loan finds Silver on Turn 1 or 2" problem that you sometimes get with Loan. I know this approach is super, super weak, by the way... but this is just such a weak board that it seemed best.

You are saying, Silver flood it, Venture, and money? That might be better--I would believe you that that was better. That's not what my opponent did though, and I am surprised--even though you say I shouldn't be!--that No Loan into Venture beats Loan into Venture.

Okay, I went to look at the log to prove my point... and I'm wrong. I only trashed 3 Coppers with Loan, but I have Loan, so I really only trash at net 2 Coppers. He has an extra Gold and Silver instead, and the same number of Ventures. That has to be better. Sigh.

[Robz888]

http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130817/log.514cd37de4b0fe3236619906.1376779521939.txt
Secret Chamber, Hermit, Masquerade, Feast, Ironmonger, Island, Monument, Apprentice, Haggler, Hunting Grounds
Another fairly unexciting board, we both open Ironmonger/Masquerade picking up a Haggler at first opportunity. Robz picks up Apprentices and I follow along.
His Feast to gain a Duchy would have won him the game on turn 13 if he had revealed a Copper with Ironmonger. (I bought a Hunting Grounds for the same reason, hoping to tie-break by trashing it into a Duchy)

We did similar things, he broke PPR, and I should have been able to snag that last Province easily. I maddeningly couldn't, and then couldn't again. Possibly I Apprenticed the wrong thing on my last turn? I Apprenticed Masq and drew like all Duchies. Maybe shoulda been Gold, but I didn't have SO much money in my deck. I guess should have been Gold. I was like shaking by that point, knowing my fate rested on sealing this game. So I guess I did screw up. I don't know.

I don't think you were wrong to trash masq over gold there - your deck has 2 gold, 5 copper, and a haggler there. So you would have needed to get to gold, haggler, and 3+ coppers if you trash the gold, or get quite good results off of ironmonger and have gold and lots of copper, or every single treasure in your deck - basically these are pretty unlikely, and playing the masquerade probably isn't going to be an option which is going to really help you there. I think you get too many feasts at some point, but in my final analysis, I think this was mostly pretty even play-wise, and goes largely to shuffle luck.
[/quote]

Turn 12 was just so, so bruising. I had Haggler + $5 in hand, and Ironmonger. I just needed Ironmonger to either: Draw a Treasure, find a Treasure, or find a Victory Card and then draw a Treasure. It drew a Victory card and found an Action. The Feast/Duchy play at that point was pure rage panic.

[Qvist]

I'm so sad that I missed GDII. I will watch all videos of the tournament as soon I have time, but I won't be able to read through all the game commentaries. So if any particular game is interesting to take a closer look, give me a heads up. I hope that I can take part at GDIII. Thanks Kirian for organizing.