I think Miser is only clearly good in a game with no draw, no trashing, and no attacks. And well, that's pretty boring.
I don't have much to say about this card, except that I can compare it to Pirate Ship. It's clearly better than Pirate Ship, but still. I played a game recently where I played against Pirate Ship BM.
http://www.gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?20150613/log.54109627e4b0750ebc1f6911.1434254697974.txtI'm not going to lie, I played pretty badly, and I still beat this guy. I mean, don't get me wrong, it was close, and he made far more mistakes than I did, besides buying Pirate Ships. I don't know, I feel Pirate Ship is only good when there's just nothing on the board, and it's going to take a long time for the payoff to even be useful. And well, Miser might be more useful in some more scenarios, but I feel like it's going to be more or less the same thing.
If my opponent didn't play Pirate Ship but Miser here instead, would he win? Well, he trashed a lot of my copper for me with Pirate Ship, and he hit some of my higher money, but as the game went on, he kept playing Pirate Ship to attack when he should have just gained, as he ended up not hitting my money, due to a plethora of Green and Action cards. I believe the key to using Pirate Ship effectively is getting it up to about $4 or $5, and then just cashing it in every time. And that's easier for Miser, because YOU'RE getting thin doing it, not your opponent. So do I think Miser is better? Oh yeah, loads better. But again, does Miser win here against what I did? I don't really think so, but it could be possible. These questions must be examined.