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!