Sorry for a slight thread necro, but on the topic of best/worst openings and Ambassador.. I was curious as to why Ambassador / Ambassador ranks in soooo high? The best/worst opening data has essentially always suggested that anytime Ambassador is present, regardless of what you might pair it with you're better off going Ambassador / Ambassador (the only exceptions being Tournament and Caravan). This does not seem intuitive to me, what with the extra early chance of terminal collisions. Further, going over to the win rate by card accumulation, while a 1 Ambassador lead produces a significant increase in win chances, a 2 Ambassador lead produces a significant decrease in win chances. Taken together, this data doesn't really add up.. am I just missing something, or is Ambassador / Ambassador somehow overrated as an opening?
A few notes about how these numbers work out:
1. Just because one opening is higher than another doesn't mean you should always choose it. The best/worst openings are conditioned on one player actually using that opening. So just because ambassador/ambassador is so high doesn't mean you should always get it.
2. The win rate by difference in number is about the *difference* in number, not the total number. Going ambassador/ambassador doesn't mean you have a 2 ambassador lead. If your opponent gets 1 ambassador, it's a 1 ambassador lead. And if they don't get ambassador as an opening, but get 1 later, it's still a difference of 1. That data is hard to use for thinking about openings.
Regarding amb/amb vs amb/silver, I agree with DG that it depends on what's on the board. For me, there has to be a reason to buy the silver. In a vacuum, if there were no other cards in the kingdom, I'd prefer double ambassador, because you want 2 eventually and the silver doesn't do a whole lot the first time through the deck anyway. As fangz said, drawing silver with ambassador is just as bad as drawing ambassador with ambassador a lot of the time anyway. The real difference occurs when you draw them apart. A second ambassador gives more deck size advantage, while silver can let you get to $5. If there is a $5 worth shooting for early that can help during the ambassador phase of the game, like a lab or treasury or upgrade, I'll go for the amb/silver opening. Otherwise I prefer to stay on top of the ambassadors and just buy the silver on turn 3 or 4.