Here is a recap...on my match with Adam. See his Twitch for the recording.
Adam:
Game 1:
http://dominion-game-logs.s3.amazonaws.com/game_logs/20151106/log.0.1446775564402.txtBM game with Haggler, Mountebank, and Colonies. I'm deciding between Silver/Warehouse, Silver/Sea Hag, Silver/Watchtower, and maybe even Silver/Lookout as openings here. (Trashing gets better in Colony games.) When Adam buys nothing turn 1, I know he has 5/2 and is going to open Mountebank, so I decide I need to go for the Watchtower and hope I draw it at the right time. I do, and that's a huge help. I get some Warehouses, but 1 or 2 of them should be Lookout instead. Lookout cycles almost as much as Warehouse, but it combos a bit better with Watchtower. (Both decrease handsize by 1. If you see a terminal on top with Lookout, you can choose not to play Watchtower and use the topdeck ability. If you draw it with Warehouse, you have to discard Watchtower and can't topdeck.) I feel like Adam went a bit too Lookout happy here and that gave me the lead.
Game 2:
http://dominion-game-logs.s3.amazonaws.com/game_logs/20151106/log.0.1446777408236.txtA Lab + Madman thing with various other pieces as payload. Honestly, I think this was just shuffle luck. Both my buys hit the end of my shuffle, and then I didn't hit $5 until the turn I played a Madman. There were probably 1 or 2 things I could have done to make hitting $5 more likely though.
Game 3:
http://dominion-game-logs.s3.amazonaws.com/game_logs/20151106/log.0.1446778579529.txtSome Hag/Tournament/Butcher thing. I bought an Embargo and Butcher early, and it ended in the worst way - Embargo + Sea Hag + Butcher collision. I don't pick up enough Tournaments before Adam Embargoes them (prioritizing Butcher instead). Pivotal turn is turn 12-13. I have 6 cards left in my deck, and against all odds I know both my last Tournament and Province are in there...then Sea Hag discards Tournament and I don't get first prize. All pain after that.
Game 4:
http://dominion-game-logs.s3.amazonaws.com/game_logs/20151106/log.0.1446830947717.txtAdam gets dreadful Familiar luck and I crush the Curse split, then almost throw away the game through sloppy play. I try to transition to a Farming Village/Oracle/Conspirator deck, but there's no trashing besides Transmute, so there's no way it can be consistent enough. That gives Adam time to trash Curses to Transmute, then go for Transmute + Silk Road. I still win, but I really shouldn't have. After winning the split that badly I should have bought Silvers + Gold and moved to Oracle-BM, I think that wins way faster.
Game 5:
http://dominion-game-logs.s3.amazonaws.com/game_logs/20151106/log.0.1446831961319.txt5/2 opening, I go for Apprentice instead of Witch. I plan to get Witch on my next $5. This is super risky, a lot riskier than I thought it was at the time. I knew I wanted Witch + Apprentice, and decided I'd rather have the Estate trash, but it's a lot less likely I even hit $5 with an Apprentice open. I get it anyway and snowball a huge lead. If I played this again I'd go for Witch opening for sure. Anyways, pick up some Loans, get my deck super thin, play Witch almost every single turn...then realize I have no economy. I thought Poor House + Copper in hand = $5, not $4, so I flounder for a few turns while figuring out how to reboot after my crazy trashing, Once I get going, I manage to punch through Provinces. (I think trashing extra early to play Witch more often is right, but I overdid it.)
Game 6:
http://dominion-game-logs.s3.amazonaws.com/game_logs/20151106/log.0.1446832408363.txtCultist stomp, win Ruins split 7-3. Not much Adam can do here. Only thing I disagree with him on is that Monument/Silver is still an okay opening in Cultist games. Without Shelters, it's iffy and I can see Silver/Silver, but with Necropolis you can definitely support 1 Monument, and the VP is so good. In any case, I get some very nice shuffles, and don't draw Monument dead until pretty late in the game.
(I will try to get to the match with pubby soon.)
Edit: you know what, I don't feel like doing work today anyways, I'll do the pubby match now.
pubby:
Game 1:
http://dominion-game-logs.s3.amazonaws.com/game_logs/20151114/log.0.1447468991260.txtIdk what I was thinking of when I did Forager/Silver opening. Has to be Scavenger/Silver. I wanted Embassy, but thought 1st Mountebank was better, and 1st Hoard was better. By the time I had $5 again, I realized I had Forager + Scavenger + Mountebank in my deck. With how big my deck was at the time, I felt like Embassy was very likely to collide with Scavenger or Mountebank. I really wanted to play both every shuffle, and the 2nd Mountebank felt like it was similar enough power level to be okay.
I will say that I got some very nice luck in the middle. Scavenger topdecking Hoard, then next turn Scavenger, discard deck, topdeck Mountebank, buy Province, gain Gold. Completely insane turn that let me get away with no Embassy later down the line. (I don't have a good justification for topdecking Hoard instead of Mountebank there. My argument was that I wanted to gain a Gold ASAP, and expected to draw Mountebank before pubby shuffled again. This reasoning doesn't hold up very well, but it worked out fantastically.)
Game 2:
http://dominion-game-logs.s3.amazonaws.com/game_logs/20151114/log.0.1447469388445.txtActually, you won FG split 6-4. I opened Silver/Silver since hitting $5 didn't seem very likely with a FG/FG opening, and I really wanted Merchant Guild and/or Haggler. Now that I think about it, hitting $5 isn't that unlikely, and Silver/Silver is only better if you hit $5 twice next shuffle. Which I did. Didn't lose the split too badly, turned one into a Gold right away, then got very nice draws. Coin tokens from Merchant Guild smoothed out the turns where I didn't hit $8, which let me run away with the game. (With Merchant Guild in the mix, it might be better to not go crazy into FG, since Merchant Guild is better if you expect to get $5 to $8 every turn instead of $10 then $4, which is what buying FG leads to. On the other hand, if you draw Merchant Guild on your monster FG turn, you can catch up. Not too sure what's better here.)
There's one turn I bought Duchy + Estate, spending a coin token. I could have done Tunnel + Tunnel and saved a token, but at the time I thought 2 + 2 < 3 + 1. Oops.
Game 3:
http://dominion-game-logs.s3.amazonaws.com/game_logs/20151114/log.0.1447470334122.txtI did some weird stuff this game, definitely should not have picked up as many Vagrants as I did off of Hagglers. Played this super sloppy and pubby got the win he deserved.
Game 4:
http://dominion-game-logs.s3.amazonaws.com/game_logs/20151114/log.0.1447470691908.txtMy first Province may be too early. I was hoping to gain the treasures I needed from Haggler, which didn't work out very well.
Game 5:
http://dominion-game-logs.s3.amazonaws.com/game_logs/20151114/log.0.1447472296156.txtThis game was very tricky, enough so that I don't remember many details from it that well. It's some engine board with lots of potential and lots of choices, meaning lots of potential mistakes.
Game 6:
http://dominion-game-logs.s3.amazonaws.com/game_logs/20151114/log.0.1447472918097.txtLol, Apothecary/Fool's Gold. I mean, there's no way this should have worked. The only reason it did was because pubby's draws were god awful. Fool's Gold is this black hole where once any player buys one, you feel obligated to buy one every turn to prevent a FG snowball. I actually completely missed Bank this game. By the time I noticed it, I was always hitting $8 instead of $7, so...
Game 7:
http://dominion-game-logs.s3.amazonaws.com/game_logs/20151114/log.0.1447474285656.txtHermit + Highway + Scheme. 5/2 is bad for me. I'm going to defend my Cartographer open here, because I'm convinced it's by far the right open on 5/2. I knew I was going to be behind since I was getting Hermit 1 shuffle later. Although I want Highway, if I open Highway/- it's going to be at least 3 turns before I get to even play a Hermit. This is a unique board where it's okay to gain no economy in the opening. So, I open Cartographer only for the cycling - by discarding 3-4 cards whenever I play it, I trigger early shuffles around a turn earlier on average. That lets me catch up in the Madman race.
I feel I still played this badly. I just barely manage to get 5 Highways, and could have gotten a free Merchant's Guild the turn I did. However, I'm still proud of my play. I managed to keep paths to victory open long enough to get the win. I definitely could have made my chances higher, but there's very little margin of error to keep the possibility of a victory alive here.