Tournament is a powerful early game card, acting like a peddler for $4, but quickly drops in value when your opponent has provinces, especially if you don't have provinces of your own.
http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20120705-194356-71edac7b.htmlCards in supply: Bank, Embassy, Herbalist, Masquerade, Minion, Saboteur, Talisman, Torturer, Tournament, and Venture
My plan on this board is to open Masquerade/Tournament, and transition to a Minion engine. Tournament provides some interesting options to enhance my deck once I pick up a few provinces, but most of the prizes aren't that interesting. Terminal draw is not interesting with a Minion strategy without villages, and the only +actions is from Trusty Steed. Going Embassy/BM is an interesting alternative, but neither of us tried it. My opponent goes Masq/Talisman, planning to load up on Tournaments. He eventually picks up some Minions as well.
Here is the deck composition as of Turn 7:
sjelkjd: 7 points : 1 Province, 4 Minion, 1 Tournament, 1 Masquerade, 1 Estate, 7 Copper
sm: 2 points : 1 Minion, 1 Talisman, 5 Tournament, 1 Masquerade, 1 Silver, 2 Estate, 6 Copper
Now it goes quickly downhill for our tournament player. I am able to buy provinces on turn 8 and 9, pretty much shutting down the tournaments:
--- sm's turn 9 ---
sm plays a Tournament.
... getting +1 action.
... sjelkjd reveals a Province.
sm plays a Minion.
... getting +1 action.
... discarding the hand.
... drawing 4 cards.
... sjelkjd discards the hand.
... sjelkjd draws 4 cards.
sm plays a Tournament.
... getting +1 action.
... sjelkjd reveals a Province.
sm plays a Minion.
... getting +1 action.
... discarding the hand.
... drawing 4 cards.
... sjelkjd has 4 cards in hand.
sm plays a Tournament.
... getting +1 action.
... sjelkjd reveals a Province.
(sm reshuffles.)
I go on to block 15/20 of his tournament plays starting from turn 9, including some turns where I have a province before and after his minion. His tournaments are basically curses at this point.
What could my opponent have done better? If you're going tournament, you need to buy provinces. On turn 8, he trashes a copper from Masq and buys a Minion, which could have been a province with no trashing. After that he is pretty hosed, since his deck is relying on tournaments, and they mostly fizzle. He doesn't have any money, and all those extra cards clog up the few minions that he does have. Minion also allows me to cycle faster, so I have trashed more aggressively with Masquerade, which makes my Minions and tournaments even more effective.
