Thanks for playing this match lespeutere. It was a very evenly matched series that ended with a real nail-biter. "Better lucky then smart"
Also thanks for writing up the great report and making the videos. I had to leave immediately after the match so didn't have time for it yesterday, but here are my thoughts on our semifinal.
Apprentice, Caravan, Cellar, Colony, Feast, Forge, Great Hall, Monument, Pawn♦, Platinum, Swindler, Woodcutter, and Young Witchpregame: With Young Witch as an immediate thread, the first question was whether to invest heavily in the very reasonable bane card (Young Witch/Pawn) or try to build up first (Young Witch/Silver). Colonies implies the game goes long, so there will be time to get a big Forge turn no matter what. Even bad decks (with quite some curses) can get a big Forge turn due to Apprentice eating something big like Gold. Big forge turns means winning the curse split isn't all that relevant. This made it a very clear decision for me to open Silver. I really want that Apprentice and on this opening I actually have a very reasonable chance of hitting $5 (Young Witch/Pawn has a very lousy chance of doing that).
early game: He duplicates my Silver opening, but I immediately get a small edge because I draw my Young Witch a turn sooner. Having the curse in before he reshuffles is nice, although I think he overestimates the importance. On turn 4 we both get a $4 decision, and I go Caravan where he takes another Silver. I don't think it's even close here. At this point we already have the $5 card, and hitting $5 again or $6 isn't that important. I want to play both my Apprentice and my Young Witch more often, increase the chance of Apprentice-Estate collision, and a Caravan will also help with the upcoming Forge turn.
midgame: Then I get some nice draws and quickly build up a lead. Turn 9 I play Young Witch over a small Forge, which was a pretty close decision. The reshuffle for turn 9/10 was my first bad one, but I'm already so much ahead that on turn 10 I can decide to play it very safe. In stead of trying for a big Forge turn right away, I decide to shuffle both apprentices back in and rely on the next reshuffle for the Forge.
Black Market, Caravan, Counting House, Fishing Village, Horse Traders, Island, Mandarin, Scout, Talisman, and TraderMy initial plan was to just deny this game ever happened. But hey, he's got the logs and the video, so that's going to be hard. More then any other card, Black Market can lure me into engines I really shouldn't try. It's just too much fun to play
. But on this board it's hopeless. I also really underestimated Mandarin-Trader here. I think my theories around Black Market are pretty sound, I just don't know why I keep breaking my own rules. Just to make me feel a tiny little bit better about this game, here they are:
Building an engine requires four components: +actions, draw, trashing, payload (either huge buying, huge scoring, or nasty attacks). To build an engine around Black Market, the best case scenario is where the first three are in the regular kingdom and you use BM for the payload. If you have superior trashing in the kingdom, drawing from the BM is also an option. If you have superior draw in the kingdom, trashing from the BM is also an option. I often see people looking at what's in the Black Market to decide whether they want to play a deck around it. Sure you should have a peek, but what's in the regular kingdom is of much more importance. There's almost always 'a little bit of everything' in there.
Here we have bad draw, bad trashing and no payload in the kingdom. Why oh why do I even try?
Bridge, Great Hall, Highway, Hunting Party, Ironworks, Menagerie, Moneylender, Mountebank, Swindler, and Tournamentpregame: A lot of possibilities, most of them killed by Mountebank. In fact so complicated that I just gave up on a real analysis. I ended with "I really want to hit $5, so let's pick two cards that don't clash and both bring me $2" and "In a tournament game I always like trashing". Menagerie looked cute but probably wasn't going to work, and neither was Ironworks/Highway. Mountebank & lots of Hunting Parties was what I wanted.
Early game: oh no! how can I not hit $5 even once on a Silver/Moneylender opening. The $4 cards aren't bad or anything, but I felt really lost after missing the Mountebank.
Midgame: with some incredible luck I get two early $8's and then all of a sudden it's my game in stead of his. Whowa!
City, Conspirator, Fishing Village, Great Hall, Ironworks, Royal Seal, Steward, Venture, Wharf, and Workshoppregame: on a regular Wharf/Fishing Village game you don't need much more then those two. But here we have Iron Works for free Conspirators, enabled by Stewards trashing. That's easily strong enough to open Steward. I even thought about opening double Steward here for a while, but Steward with Wharf in play is just more powerful.
early game: I get a very good first reshuffle, immediately making up for my p2 disadvantage and more. He gets a second Steward which is not his dream scenario but I do agree with it.
midgame: I can trash more, gain more conspirators and manage to build a pretty sound lead.
late game: then I make a mistake I rarely ever do. In an already powerful deck, I keep investing in power in stead of reliability. I feel like not doing stuff like that is one of my strongest points in this game, but here I fail.
I don't have that many Fishing Villages (3) but trashed a lot so I feel good about it. The problem is that I split my villages 3/0 over the even/odd turns. On my turn 9 I have the opportunity to fix this to 3/1 by gaining a Fishing Village mid-turn but I neglect to do so. I get punished hard by not drawing any village in a 9-card hand.
He basically makes the same mistake by splitting his wharves 4/0, but he does get away with it. In his shoes I would have picked up a second Ironworks for free on turn 10 to get more end-game control, but that didn't prove necessary either.
Alchemist, Apothecary, Fool's Gold♦, Horn of Plenty, Potion, Royal Seal, Saboteur, Smithy, Thief, Tournament, Workshop, and Young Witchpregame: Apothecary & Tournament are really great friends, but Fool's Gold as a bane is impossible to ignore. This felt like a game that was largely going to be decided on luck.
early game: He skips Young Witch for another Fool's Gold. I didn't expect it but it feels like a pretty good move, especially after he manages to block all Young Witches.
midgame: Fortunately even when the cursing fails Young Witch still isn't a dead card. I manage to sneak in a Horn of Plenty, and buy slightly more real Golds then he does. He gets the first Province, but powered by sheer luck I get the prizes and the game.
Alchemist, Cartographer, Familiar, Farming Village, Fool's Gold, Goons, Harem, Ironworks, Nobles, Potion, and Torturerpregame: This one clearly was going to be about Familiars and not Torturers. Familiars aren't pretty for P2, but hey maybe he misses or gets them later on his shuffle or ... well at this point still a lot could happen.
early game: We mirror through the first 4 turns, but then I get some bad draws. Both my familiar and my potion miss this shuffle, and I make a somewhat desperate move for a Torturer. A Cartographer would have been a more sensible choice, unfortunately probably also losing.
midgame: I keep putting my familiar on the bottom, and lose the curse split 8-2 which is off course game decisive. My Torturers don't do anything but that was predictable.
Adventurer, Conspirator, Crossroads, Highway, Inn, Menagerie, Potion, Stash, Torturer, Treasury, and VineyardThis one we play almost an exact mirror. I can't see much else to do either. The only decision I had to think about for real here was my first menagerie - should it be a crossroads? I really don't know. I need to be able to play many Torturers, but a Menagerie is also very good when you get hit by some torturers yourself.
Miraculously this game isn't over after the curses are split, because we both get 5. Torturer games tend to split them 8-2 or 2-8 much more often. So we continue, and continue, and continue... until I get some better draws and manage to get a serious lead. Then it still takes like forever, but eventually I get to $8 again and get a ticket to the finals
Thanks again lespeutere, it was a fun series to play and I feel almost sorry that you played so well and lost. Almost