Man, I know right. I need some other big upsets so I don't feel too bad over here. And I guess I have to pull for lolrob, who had a good series. I guess I'll give a bit of commentary since I wont get the chance again.
Overall I think lolrob had a bit more luck on his side. That said, I would say he outplayed me as I made quite a few misplays.
Game 1: I'm not sure when mandarin is ever a good opening, but it sure wasn't here. Merchant Ship/BM. Not much else to say.
Game 2: I think mine was the much better plan, but lolrob executed better than I did. Conspirator is one of my favorite cards and I love building engines around it. The game plan was conspirator engine with highway/cellar support and remake to thin the deck. Building these types of engines can be kind of like walking a tightrope. It can be extremely fast if done right, but it also stalls. Hard. It was clear about 3/4 though that I started greening probably 2 turns too early. I should have picked up another conspirator and a horse trader before dipping into the provinces, even with my draw of $8. His deck, while slower, was more resilient to greening and he takes it.
Game 3: I kind of like this board. Witch vs IGG, Jack vs Witch, Jack vs Ambassador. Lots going on. I stand by my decision to open Jack/silver over lolrob's Jack/Amb. However, my big mistake was taking witch over jack and then getting another jack. Too many terminals causing collisions really slowed me down. I'd have been better off doing double jack/IGG into provinces. In this case, probably use the IGG's gain a copper option more sparingly. I also feel this is the game where I had rotten luck. Final deck composition, I had 4 golds and 10 silvers and fewer coppers to his 1 gold and 12 silvers. I did buy the penultimate province, but only because I needed both to win.
Game 4: Tunnel is so often a trap card. Lolrob opened with the intent of discarding tunnels to cellar and oasis. Both cards that fair very poorly with hand reduction attacks. So with his deck full of those and tunnels, I didn't mind so much giving him free gold to my Goons. Even with his 16 gold, he had a hard time lining them up with all that junk.
Game 5: Yeah, expanding the peddlers to colonies was the right move on this board. That haggler though. Man. That killed me. Buying a colony to gain platinum is killer and I think he did it twice. Plus he found himself on the better end of the peddler split. Probably due to first turn advantage. He didn't notice the expand peddler to colony option until after I did it. Then he bought an expand and got it to work with his better peddler density.
Game 6: Yeah this game was most likely decided in the first 4 turns. I fell behind quite quickly, and while I made a valiant effort to catch up, it was to no avail. His Militia/Steward to my militia/silver was probably the deciding factor. It was worth the risk of collision. The steward gave some early trashing but more imporantly, some card draw with the cartographers to line up $8 hands. But he gets a turn 3 Gold and I get militia'ed and stuck with a milita/silver turn 3/4. That really hurt. There was one point towards the end I could have one with a good draw, but alas, the fates would not excuse my sloppy play.
EDIT: lolrob, did you .... did you upvote theory's comment? MOCK INDIGNATION