I wanted to hear some opinions on an unusual play I made the other day involving Embargo.
http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20111118-145823-229fcfd7.htmlThe set, in categorized terms, was:
Trashers: Spice Merchant
Cursers: Ill-gotten Gains, Embargo
Terminal actions: Cutpurse, period
Cantrips: Alchemist, Lab, Pawn, Cartographer, Spice Merchant, Mining Village.
So we have trashable treasure and untrashable curses, making curses a big deal and IGG a strong buy. Overall this is a weak board and though Alchemist is one of my worst cards, I think both of us wished we could open with a potion, but felt threatened by the Embargo.
My opponent opened Cutpurse/Silver. I rather questionably purchased a Spice Merchant instead, since I disliked an untrashable cutpurse and wasn't thaat worried about the IGG race.
The second round, he plays a couple of weak buys. I played first. I come to my purchase right before my second reshuffle and draw 4$. I realize - hey, my opponent hasn't played his cutpurse yet. Meaning it's probably in his hand right now. And since his other buys weren't all that impressive I bet he's about to hit five. I reasoned, he gets one buy before the reshuffle, and it's probably 5 or 6$. That's too much to pay for an Embargo. I can trash potion if I need to.. I bought a Potion.
He pondered his buy and felt obligated to buy a 5$ card. He went on to lose the game, but I didn't feel like I learned much about my gambit because it seemed like his total ignorance of the IGG stack lost him the game, not the two alchemists I sneaked in nor the 4$ he spent on an Embargo instead of a silver variant he could keep.
What do you guys think about buying Potion against Embargo? It seems like it's a good idea in situations like this. Maybe more often than that, and I'm just not paying attention. Or maybe my move was foolish and he didn't exploit it right or I got lucky. What think??
