AdamH 3 games, theblankman 3 gamesGoing into this match, theblankman and I are the bottom two people in our division, so we're both looking for a big win here to get us out of demotion territory. Neither of us really found what we were looking for with a tie.
Entire stream on Twitch YouTube video playlistGame 1: theblankman 36, AdamH 24
Game log Twitch highlight YouTube videoKingdom Cards: Herbalist, Apothecary, Watchtower, Militia, Pirate Ship, Plaza, Contraband, Counting House, Inn, Saboteur
So this one is mostly a mirror, as we both go for Plaza/Watchtower with Herbalist. He opens with a Militia and I go more directly for Plazas. After winning the Plaza split 6/4 I decide to build more and he goes for green (imagine that, Adam building more). I thought Counting House could provide a nice kick for this engine but that never really worked out, so I couldn't make the comeback I needed.
The driver behind my decision to build more was mostly my overestimation of Plaza/Watchtower. After this game I really don't think it's all that good. Like at all. With no trashing I feel like it's worse than Big Money, and with trashing it desperately needs some fantastic support to really be viable, given that engines based on draw-to-X tend to stall badly. I overestimated the sifting abilities of Plaza and Inn here for supporting this (though in a thin deck maybe Inn is enough?)
The chat was talking about using Saboteur as payload (instead of Counting House) which seems interesting -- I'd be much more tempted to do that if there was some thinning around so you could more reliably play more Saboteurs. I wonder if that's fast enough here...
Game 2: theblankman 33, AdamH 18
Game log Twitch highlight YouTube videoKingdom Cards: Poor House, Urchin, Workshop, Envoy, Fortress, Taxman, Journeyman, Minion, Saboteur, Grand Market
Well this game comes down to who can collide their Urchins first. Fortunately we both miss on the first shuffle so at that point the playing field is relatively even. Unfortunately I buy Silvers and a Taxman and a Workshop while he picks up fortresses and Minions, and without surprise, his deck comes together more quickly.
Now there was a tiny bit of luck involved, since he didn't seem to hit $3, but I lost focus here...
<stef_42> bye all... and good luck to adam and hope he plays better.... at least I've seen him play much better then this in the past
I'm certainly capable of making better decisions than I made in this game, that's for sure. I got a couple of unfortunate draws (we both did) and I failed to adapt to the situation and ended up just making it worse. He stayed focused on getting where he needed to go as quickly as possible and won because of it.
There's some disagreement over what exactly was bad in the chat. Some people like the Workshop, some people like the Taxman. Nobody particularly likes the Silvers. I think Fortresses and nothing else would probably have been best in general but I certainly did something far from that so I deserved to lose this game.
Game 3: theblankman 3, AdamH -3
Game log Twitch highlight YouTube videoKingdom Cards: Menagerie, Warehouse, Philosopher's Stone, Bridge, Coppersmith, Death Cart, Mining Village, Apprentice, Ill-Gotten Gains, Witch
Menagerie/Warehouse (fanfic anyone?) with a Village/Bridge payload is the name of the game here. But you have Witch/IGG to deal with and Apprentice as the only trashing. He opens Silver/Silver and I open Warehouse/Bridge (close call between Bridge and Silver for me, but I don't think it ends up mattering all that much). He hits $5 on both T3 and T4 and I hit $5 on T4 after shuffling, so this is a huge setback.
Does that make my opening wrong? Well the chat is divided between Silver/Warehouse and Mining Village/Warehouse for what they think is best. In any case, this is a bad draw.
I get behind on the Curse split badly and the game is pretty much over from there -- but given my bad draw I think I could have reacted better. I think hedging between trashing and attacking certainly wasn't going to win me the game, I should have gone for all-out attack or all-out thinning to give myself a chance to get back in it and I did neither of those things. Meanwhile theblankman is taking his lead and keeping his foot all the way down on the gas to minimize my chance of catching up, so well played by him.
AAAAAANNNNDDD once again Twitch has lost the rest of the stream. What's going on here? This is a serious issue, jeez.
Game 4: AdamH 42, theblankman 24
Game logKingdom Cards: Apothecary, Oasis, Swindler, Bishop, Bureaucrat, Butcher, Market, Soothsayer, Trading Post, Altar
No village and no real draw (other than Apothecary) mean that an engine isn't really viable here, plus there's Swindler vs. Soothsayer and a couple of decent trashing options. How do you play this? Probably tactically.
He opens 5/2 and gets a Soothsayer, which I don't really like -- I couldn't have gotten away from the allure of a T1 Trading Post. I open double Swindler in response. He plays his Soothsayer once before the Swindlers find it and I pick up an early Trading Post. From this point he's behind and I ride that lead to the end, with my terminals nicely showing up in different hands for the most part.
The chat points out a couple of tactical mistakes I made and discusses the possibility of building an Apothecary deck.
Game 5: AdamH 45, theblankman 38
Game logKingdom Cards: Stonemason, Advisor, Conspirator, Feast, Cache, Laboratory, Rogue, Royal Seal, Harem, Hoard
Harem/Hoard and not much else going on other than Stonemason and Labs. I hit $7 on T3 for a nice SM/double Lab and have an edge the whole game. Nothing else really to write about here, except that at one point I say Royal Seal is terrible, not taking into account the synergy DG found...
<dg_twitch> royal seal good with hoards and harems
Game 6: AdamH 45, theblankman 23
Game logKingdom Cards: Poor House, Black Market, Bridge, Caravan, Marauder, Talisman, Baker, Cache, Tribute, Hunting Grounds
Black Market Deck: Junk Dealer, Tunnel, Embassy, Stonemason, Armory, Herald, Venture, Beggar, Highway, Minion, Royal Seal, Hamlet, Journeyman, Walled Village, Margrave, Festival, Mandarin, Throne Room, Candlestick Maker, Contraband, Count, Lookout, Market Square, City, Treasure Map
To BM or not to BM? That is the question. After a couple of minutes of irrational rage that Black Market exists, I decide that since there's a junking attack outside of the BM deck, and since trashing and Villages have to come from the Black Market (BM) deck, that I'm not going to go for it and instead play Big Money (BM) with the good enablers on the board. He goes for Black Market so it's BM vs. BM.
He gets a 5 Count out of the BM deck, which is just about the best he could have hoped for, but it never really comes together for him and I get many many Provinces. The chat (and theblankman and I after the game) debate whether or not Black Market is worth it here; the jury is out but I feel really good about the strategy I played and how I played it.
After the match, theblankman, the chat and I have a nice long convo about General Dominion philosophy which I do my best to capture on the stream, so you can watch that there and/or read the chat (though I'm speaking my parts of the argument so maybe reading the chat isn't super-effective). Or at least that's what I would have said except Twitch seems to be losing the last half of all of my streams recently, wth? Thanks to everyone involved in that discussion, and thanks to theblankman for the match. Maybe we'll meet next season in Division D