601
2011 / Re: Schedule and Results: 2011 DominionStrategy.com Championships
« on: December 13, 2011, 05:16:33 pm »
My boy Stefan continues to crush, woo!
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602
Dominion General Discussion / Re: Greatest Isotropic Moments of 2011
« on: December 13, 2011, 03:04:19 pm »
Haven't looked super closely at all these, but Robz's seems like the coolest to me, definitely.
603
Dominion General Discussion / Re: is consulting a simulator cheating?
« on: December 13, 2011, 02:54:19 pm »
"People who don't want to play against me anymore because of this feels like Phil Ivey not wanting to play against Daniel Negreanu if he brings along a pocket computer to calculate the odds. That's just silly. "
This is just silly.
This is just silly.
604
Dominion General Discussion / Re: is consulting a simulator cheating?
« on: December 13, 2011, 12:49:02 pm »
To me, this is computer aided playing, which is not cool (unless properly announced etc, like Donald mentions) in pretty much any sport/game where computer can do things humans can't. I'd be reasonably disappointed to hear something like that was used against me, and in a tournament setting, it's imo outright cheating.
605
2011 / Re: Schedule and Results: 2011 DominionStrategy.com Championships
« on: December 13, 2011, 09:20:01 am »
<3 simulators.
606
Dominion Isotropic / Re: What do you think of Isotropic's leaderboard change?
« on: December 13, 2011, 09:08:10 am »
Yeah I noticed this morning I just dropped a level from not a playing any games in the last few days, which was a bit disheartening 
607
2011 / Re: Schedule and Results: 2011 DominionStrategy.com Championships
« on: December 13, 2011, 09:00:40 am »
Fabian (2) beats Mean Mr Mustard (15) 4-0-1 in the Thief Division.
Fabian 40 - Mean Mr Mustard 34
On the first decision of the match, we choose differently. I go Laboratory with the idea of picking up a Horse Traders, and money, and more Laboratories. Mustard goes with Cache with the idea of picking up an Envoy (two actually), and money. Which idea is better, I can't say (I'm sure Geronimoo will tell us momentarily though ), but I liked my chances, especially with the extra buy. Mustard gets a Duchy with 5 Provinces left (me leading 2-1), which I think his deck is not as well equipped to handle as mine, and the extra green cards probably slowed him down a bit too much. He needs both the last Provinces, and after buying the penultimate, there are a few turns when either of us can buy the last one for the win, but my deck delivers first.
Fabian 40 - 27 Mean Mr Mustard
Mustard opens Moneylender/Chapel, going for some assorted good stuff (one Royal Seal, one Library, one Adventurer, two Hoard) while I go Silver/Chapel, hoping to get into Goons eventually. As it turns out, the extra VP chips and the attack from Goons is too much, 5 Provinces and 9 VP chips in 16 turns is kinda tough.
Fabian 33 - 30 Mean Mr Mustard
Boring Mountebank/nothing opening where our decks turn into crap pretty quickly, and Apprentice tries to recover for us. A pretty interesting situation came up in the last few turns, where I buy the last Duchy with $9 instead of the penultimate Province, because Mustard can get the win if he buys Duchy+Province, which seems a lot easier than buying Province+Province. It's a bit risky, as if he can buy the penultimate Province, I can't end the game on piles (Duchy and Curse piles are empty, one Apprentice left) because he takes the lead, but at least then I'm still left with a better deck and one Province to go, and he basically needed to hit that penultimate Province immediately as I was probably winning soon, buying that Apprentice. I think I'm happy with my decision overall.
Fabian 33 - 33 Mean Mr Mustard
Mustard tries for an elaborate Remodel/Wishing Well/Highway/Pearl Diver type engine, with a few Peddler and other stuff thrown in. I don't see the potential in an engine, since there's no +buy to be seen anywhere (Remodel is, of course, kinda +buy), and instead go Silver/Shanty Town with the idea of just buying treasures and possibly a Bazaar or two (which is why I choose Shanty Town over Moat). I get a pretty big lead early on while his engine is getting into gear, and feel almost certain he won't be able to catch up. I underestimate his deck though, and possibly misplay on turn 13 when buying a Gold for $6 instead of a Duchy, thinking my lead is big enough that I just need to hit another Province to essentially lock the game up. My Duchy Duchy Province turns on 14, 15, 16 is enough to tie at 33-33 after he goes Province+Duchy, Province+Duchy, Province+Duchy for those three turns.
Fabian 31 - 19 Mean Mr Mustard
A kinda weird/tough board, where I intend to go Alchemists and buy zero of those. I like my Swindler/Potion opening here, and I also get lucky to buy an early Possession, which I use to buy myself another Possession on Mustard's turn. He resigned in a bad, but imo definitely not hopeless, position with 2 Province remaining and down 12 points
Overall I think the games were very good, and I'm pretty pleased with how I played overall. Thanks for the match Mustard, see you around and gl in the future!
Fabian 40 - Mean Mr Mustard 34
On the first decision of the match, we choose differently. I go Laboratory with the idea of picking up a Horse Traders, and money, and more Laboratories. Mustard goes with Cache with the idea of picking up an Envoy (two actually), and money. Which idea is better, I can't say (I'm sure Geronimoo will tell us momentarily though
), but I liked my chances, especially with the extra buy. Mustard gets a Duchy with 5 Provinces left (me leading 2-1), which I think his deck is not as well equipped to handle as mine, and the extra green cards probably slowed him down a bit too much. He needs both the last Provinces, and after buying the penultimate, there are a few turns when either of us can buy the last one for the win, but my deck delivers first.Fabian 40 - 27 Mean Mr Mustard
Mustard opens Moneylender/Chapel, going for some assorted good stuff (one Royal Seal, one Library, one Adventurer, two Hoard) while I go Silver/Chapel, hoping to get into Goons eventually. As it turns out, the extra VP chips and the attack from Goons is too much, 5 Provinces and 9 VP chips in 16 turns is kinda tough.
Fabian 33 - 30 Mean Mr Mustard
Boring Mountebank/nothing opening where our decks turn into crap pretty quickly, and Apprentice tries to recover for us. A pretty interesting situation came up in the last few turns, where I buy the last Duchy with $9 instead of the penultimate Province, because Mustard can get the win if he buys Duchy+Province, which seems a lot easier than buying Province+Province. It's a bit risky, as if he can buy the penultimate Province, I can't end the game on piles (Duchy and Curse piles are empty, one Apprentice left) because he takes the lead, but at least then I'm still left with a better deck and one Province to go, and he basically needed to hit that penultimate Province immediately as I was probably winning soon, buying that Apprentice. I think I'm happy with my decision overall.
Fabian 33 - 33 Mean Mr Mustard
Mustard tries for an elaborate Remodel/Wishing Well/Highway/Pearl Diver type engine, with a few Peddler and other stuff thrown in. I don't see the potential in an engine, since there's no +buy to be seen anywhere (Remodel is, of course, kinda +buy), and instead go Silver/Shanty Town with the idea of just buying treasures and possibly a Bazaar or two (which is why I choose Shanty Town over Moat). I get a pretty big lead early on while his engine is getting into gear, and feel almost certain he won't be able to catch up. I underestimate his deck though, and possibly misplay on turn 13 when buying a Gold for $6 instead of a Duchy, thinking my lead is big enough that I just need to hit another Province to essentially lock the game up. My Duchy Duchy Province turns on 14, 15, 16 is enough to tie at 33-33 after he goes Province+Duchy, Province+Duchy, Province+Duchy for those three turns.
Fabian 31 - 19 Mean Mr Mustard
A kinda weird/tough board, where I intend to go Alchemists and buy zero of those. I like my Swindler/Potion opening here, and I also get lucky to buy an early Possession, which I use to buy myself another Possession on Mustard's turn. He resigned in a bad, but imo definitely not hopeless, position with 2 Province remaining and down 12 points
Overall I think the games were very good, and I'm pretty pleased with how I played overall. Thanks for the match Mustard, see you around and gl in the future!
608
Dominion General Discussion / Re: What makes a level 45 player stronger than a level 40 player?
« on: December 10, 2011, 07:34:58 am »
I won Swedish nationals a few years ago, and have played two PTs (Worlds in Memphis and Amsterdam last year). I agree that playing against the very best magic players is the same kind of feeling as playing the very best dominion players; obviously I can win, but I feel outplayed for sure.
609
Dominion Articles / Re: Updating the Top 5 lists
« on: December 09, 2011, 04:16:52 pm »
"I'll open $5/Pearl Diver over $5/nothing the vast majority of the time; PD is really only harmful if you're planning on making terminal draw any sort of component of your deck,"
I'll agree this far and I'd probably open the same given that there wasn't any terminal drawers, and there weren't any better $2's.
I'll agree this far
and I'd probably open the same given that there wasn't any terminal drawers, and there weren't any better $2's.
610
Dominion General Discussion / Re: What makes a level 45 player stronger than a level 40 player?
« on: December 09, 2011, 03:48:42 pm »
painted_cow, actually I had had a very nice period and had reached level 44 (with 43 being my peak before that), and expecting to reach 45 the next day, when the "30 days" leaderboard was put into effect. During the 30 days leaderboard, I kept doing very very well, and felt like I might have been even higher than the level ~46.95 I ended up at when the "real" leaderboard was put into effect again. Of course, it doesn't matter much, since day-to-day swings are pretty severe. Your opinion is interesting to me though, as the far-and-away highest rated player on isotropic. Why do you think that is, compared to other players? Also, why do you think your margin of error is so comparatively high (just for my own curiosity)?
Wharf, I agree with you about the engine builder thing. I feel severely outclassed by Obi Wan on "engine boards", whereas on non-engine boards, I feel like I can take anyone in the world at even odds. This may or may not be true, but it's how it is. That's also why those engine builders impress me so, since I feel like they have a skillset I don't.
Wharf, I agree with you about the engine builder thing. I feel severely outclassed by Obi Wan on "engine boards", whereas on non-engine boards, I feel like I can take anyone in the world at even odds. This may or may not be true, but it's how it is. That's also why those engine builders impress me so, since I feel like they have a skillset I don't.
611
Dominion General Discussion / Re: What makes a level 45 player stronger than a level 40 player?
« on: December 09, 2011, 03:32:29 pm »
I wish :p I'm almost certain I'm a lot worse than jonts and Obi Wan, and probably a few more. Obviously this pisses me off, and obviously I want to change that
Also, your reply surprises me. My understanding is that only very rarely do rock/paper/scissors type scenarios come up in Dominion. What I mean is, usually if you identify the (truly) strongest strategy, that's going to be the strongest strategy no matter what sub-optimal strategy your opponent conjures up.
I guess Pirate Ship and Embargo is the type of card that might force you to strongly reevaluate your strategy, but I was under the impression that if you can identify a dominating strategy on a board, it's dominating "no matter what", most of the time. No?
Also, your reply surprises me. My understanding is that only very rarely do rock/paper/scissors type scenarios come up in Dominion. What I mean is, usually if you identify the (truly) strongest strategy, that's going to be the strongest strategy no matter what sub-optimal strategy your opponent conjures up.
I guess Pirate Ship and Embargo is the type of card that might force you to strongly reevaluate your strategy, but I was under the impression that if you can identify a dominating strategy on a board, it's dominating "no matter what", most of the time. No?
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Dominion General Discussion / What makes a level 45 player stronger than a level 40 player?
« on: December 09, 2011, 03:13:19 pm »
I've been thinking about what it is, specifically, that gives a level ~45 player an edge over a level ~40 player. Clearly a player at a skill level around level 40 is extremely strong, almost definitely among the 100-150 best players in the world, yet as far as I can tell, the difference in skill between a level 40 and a level 45 player is statistically quite significant.
You can of course extend this question to level 40 vs 35 or 35 vs 30 or whatever, but the reason I'm most interested in the very upper tiers of players is, that if you're a consistent level 40 player, I feel like you probably know almost everything that's "common knowledge" in Dominion. Yet, clearly there's the jonts26 and Obi Wan's, and there's the still extremely strong, but supposedly still somewhat weaker, tier of players. What is it that makes jonts and chwhite so particularly high rated, you think?
At its very core, I think Dominion only tests two skillsets; to identify the strongest strategy, and to execute that strategy optimally. Is there a difference between very strong players and exceptionally strong players in these areas, you think?
You can of course extend this question to level 40 vs 35 or 35 vs 30 or whatever, but the reason I'm most interested in the very upper tiers of players is, that if you're a consistent level 40 player, I feel like you probably know almost everything that's "common knowledge" in Dominion. Yet, clearly there's the jonts26 and Obi Wan's, and there's the still extremely strong, but supposedly still somewhat weaker, tier of players. What is it that makes jonts and chwhite so particularly high rated, you think?
At its very core, I think Dominion only tests two skillsets; to identify the strongest strategy, and to execute that strategy optimally. Is there a difference between very strong players and exceptionally strong players in these areas, you think?
613
Dominion Articles / Re: Updating the Top 5 lists
« on: December 09, 2011, 03:02:21 pm »
The thing is it's close to pointless talking about what an effect "is worth", other than for fun. A terminal +$3 is probably worth 5.5 (and would be horrible at that price of course) or something (surely Mandarin isn't a fair representation as it comes with one small and one big to huge drawback to it), and yet Duchess is terrible at a terminal +$2 despite "only" costing $2. Obviously this doesn't make much sense when comparing to Gold vs Silver for instance, but it's just not an interesting comparison without context. With context added, Duchess is a card you almost never want in your deck, because you can always do better, either by getting Silver or by getting nothing or by getting something that's actually good (perhaps Herbalist on a rare'ish occasion!)
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Dominion Articles / Re: Updating the Top 5 lists
« on: December 09, 2011, 02:39:12 pm »
And because of how those cards are designed to "even it out", one is among the strongest $5 cards and one is among the weakest. This has (close to) nothing to do with the card vs coin effect, and (almost) everything to do with the rest of the card. If you hypothetically redesigned Torturer and Mandarin to be of an even power level, clearly the secondary effects of them would be very different indeed, and how that would look exactly is anyone's guess.
As for the rest of your post, I agree it's fine that we agree to disagree that a terminal Silver is a terrible terrible card. Just like with your last post, I disagree with close to everything in your second paragraph, but it doesn't matter. I will admit it's at least feasible that you'd open Duchess as your one terminal action on a 5/2 board where your "preferred" terminal is a 3/4 card, but the opportunity cost of picking it up later for the cost of a Silver/Caravan/whatever is too great (in theory), but I would guess that probably happens once every 5000 games.
As for the rest of your post, I agree it's fine that we agree to disagree that a terminal Silver is a terrible terrible card. Just like with your last post, I disagree with close to everything in your second paragraph, but it doesn't matter. I will admit it's at least feasible that you'd open Duchess as your one terminal action on a 5/2 board where your "preferred" terminal is a 3/4 card, but the opportunity cost of picking it up later for the cost of a Silver/Caravan/whatever is too great (in theory), but I would guess that probably happens once every 5000 games.
615
Dominion Articles / Re: Updating the Top 5 lists
« on: December 09, 2011, 01:32:08 pm »
Don't know what you mean by the Torturer vs Mandarin example, I don't get what comparing one of the worst $5 cards with one of the best $5 cards (and obviously this has little to do with the cards vs coin, but the secondary effects) is supposed to be saying.
I don't mean to sound harsh, but most of the arguments you bring up are either statements that mean nothing by themselves ($2 may or may not be the strongest combination of "2 vanilla bonuses", but then again there's a reason no other cards in the game are just "2 vanilla bonuses") or just misinformed. Saying "Herbalist is much worse except for the two good things about it" and "Moat is much worse except for the primary effect of it" is just pointless. Yes, remove +buy and the ability to reuse Gold/Platinum/Hoard/whatever and Herbalist is obviously a lot worse than Duchess, but what does that even mean? Yes, Moat is often (maybe even "almost always") a mistake in 2p games even with attacks, but Duchess is probably a bigger mistake, more often. Again, pointing out that Moat (one of the weaker cards in the game) is horrible doesn't make Duchess less horrible. What makes Duchess worse than other bad $2 cards is that there are (very very close to) no situations where you want it (talking primarily about the early/mid game, see above post for comment on endgames). Moat and Herbalist, you rarely want, but when you do, they actually provide something of value.
Pearl Diver is sort of a pet hate card of mine, so we're kinda in agreement I guess. That said, a card that (given it's in your deck already) 2% of the time is helpful, 5-20% of the time is harmful, and 78-93% of the time is pointless, is much much better than a card which is harmful 20-50% (edit: this is kind of a stupid way of evaluating things I'll admit, since cards don't magically pop into a deck without consideration, so don't be too hard on me for using those numbers) of the time (given it's in your deck).
On the vast majority of boards, you prefer opening $5 card/nothing with a 5/2 split rather than $5 card/Duchess. The same is true with Moat, Pearl Diver, Herbalist, and more cards, but it's true less often of those cards, and those cards are much less bad (or "better" sometimes, even), than Duchess (basically) ever is.
I don't mean to sound harsh, but most of the arguments you bring up are either statements that mean nothing by themselves ($2 may or may not be the strongest combination of "2 vanilla bonuses", but then again there's a reason no other cards in the game are just "2 vanilla bonuses") or just misinformed. Saying "Herbalist is much worse except for the two good things about it" and "Moat is much worse except for the primary effect of it" is just pointless. Yes, remove +buy and the ability to reuse Gold/Platinum/Hoard/whatever and Herbalist is obviously a lot worse than Duchess, but what does that even mean? Yes, Moat is often (maybe even "almost always") a mistake in 2p games even with attacks, but Duchess is probably a bigger mistake, more often. Again, pointing out that Moat (one of the weaker cards in the game) is horrible doesn't make Duchess less horrible. What makes Duchess worse than other bad $2 cards is that there are (very very close to) no situations where you want it (talking primarily about the early/mid game, see above post for comment on endgames). Moat and Herbalist, you rarely want, but when you do, they actually provide something of value.
Pearl Diver is sort of a pet hate card of mine, so we're kinda in agreement I guess. That said, a card that (given it's in your deck already) 2% of the time is helpful, 5-20% of the time is harmful, and 78-93% of the time is pointless, is much much better than a card which is harmful 20-50% (edit: this is kind of a stupid way of evaluating things I'll admit, since cards don't magically pop into a deck without consideration, so don't be too hard on me for using those numbers) of the time (given it's in your deck).
On the vast majority of boards, you prefer opening $5 card/nothing with a 5/2 split rather than $5 card/Duchess. The same is true with Moat, Pearl Diver, Herbalist, and more cards, but it's true less often of those cards, and those cards are much less bad (or "better" sometimes, even), than Duchess (basically) ever is.
616
Dominion Articles / Re: Updating the Top 5 lists
« on: December 09, 2011, 11:27:35 am »
A terminal Silver is a horrible horrible card. You sometimes want it (for free, mind you) in the late game with bad decks just because you're desperate, but in the early and midgame, it's extremely rare that you want this in your deck imo. I think it's far and away the worst $2 card by basically any metric.
That said, I did buy it for (close to) the first time the other day, on a 5/2 opening with no terminal actions I was planning on buying that game (might have been Lab/Duchess or something). So I guess there's a time for everything.
That said, I did buy it for (close to) the first time the other day, on a 5/2 opening with no terminal actions I was planning on buying that game (might have been Lab/Duchess or something). So I guess there's a time for everything.
617
2011 / Re: Schedule and Results: 2011 DominionStrategy.com Championships
« on: December 08, 2011, 07:34:48 pm »I'm up 3-1 for now against Young Nick in the Thief division. Here are the game logs so far, with no commentary because the games are so awkward and.. suboptimally played by both of us
Fabian 29 - 41 Young Nick
Fabian 53 - 52 Young Nick
Fabian 38 - 16 Young Nick
Fabian 47 - 40 Young Nick
In the end, Fabian beats Young Nick 4-2 in the Thief division, here are the two remaining game logs:
Fabian 49 - 50 Young Nick
Fabian 41 - 36 Young Nick
Game #5 was a kinda cool game which I was sure I was winning, but I made lots of bad decisions in the midturns, and Young Nick nicely put together a 15 card Fairgrounds (which I should have done to begin with, instead of keeping as a backup plan, horrible play) deck. When he finally used his one Minion to discard, meaning my Scheme topdecked Tactician was discarded, I was pretty much out of gas and lost a few turns later. Overall a cool game where lots of interesting things happened, even though I'm not so happy with how I played it.
Game #6 was a fairly standard (and thus, boring) Masquerade game, where we both ignored Ambassador (don't know if this is wise or not, but I was quite happy to play a Masq mirror going first without too many complications). There were a few interesting spots here, such as whether or not to play a Masquerade when YN has a Curse in his deck, meaning I won't be able to buy the penultimate Province with a 7 point lead. In the end I do it, because it makes it much less likely HIS next turn will be "Masquerade, pass Curse, buy Province, win by 1 point", which is really the only disaster outcome. If, in theory, his hand would have been Masq, Curse, Copper, Gold, Gold and he didn't pass the Curse to trick me into buying the Province so he could win next turn, he'd have been a special kind of genius I guess
In the end, he had no Curse and it didn't matter very much.Overall, the quality of play was kinda mediocre at times in this match (YN made a pretty awkward choice passing a Duke to me in game 2, giving me a win I absolutely wasn't getting otherwise, and I played at least 3 of the games pretty badly I thought), but it was a fun and tense set of games, and I hope to play you more in the future Young Nick!
I'm definitely hoping to step my game up for future rounds, just like my next-round opponent noted a few posts ago
618
2011 / Re: Schedule and Results: 2011 DominionStrategy.com Championships
« on: December 06, 2011, 08:05:30 pm »
I'm up 3-1 for now against Young Nick in the Thief division. Here are the game logs so far, with no commentary because the games are so awkward and.. suboptimally played by both of us
Fabian 29 - 41 Young Nick
Fabian 53 - 52 Young Nick
Fabian 38 - 16 Young Nick
Fabian 47 - 40 Young Nick
Fabian 29 - 41 Young Nick
Fabian 53 - 52 Young Nick
Fabian 38 - 16 Young Nick
Fabian 47 - 40 Young Nick
619
Game Reports / Re: Dear My Opponent: I am Sorry
« on: December 06, 2011, 03:41:36 pm »
Dear NinjaBus, I'm sorry about how ridiculously well I drew this game. The first couple turns are basically perfect given my buys I think: http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201112/06/game-20111206-124003-bbb4d701.html
6 Province (and a bonus estate) in 13 turns, despite "slowing down" (I use that turn loosely) in the midgame.
6 Province (and a bonus estate) in 13 turns, despite "slowing down" (I use that turn loosely) in the midgame.
620
Game Reports / Re: Bishop + Ill-Gotten Gains
« on: December 05, 2011, 06:31:24 am »
It seems to me that just buying Gardens is a decent counter to an IGG rush. What's the IGG player going to do, finish emptying the IGG/Curse piles and lose instantly? It seems reasonably likely to me that what would happen is the IGG player would stop the "rush" and start competing for the Gardens, and when that pile is bought out, competition for the IGG pile would continue, and whoever won the Gardens war probably has a pretty big edge. I dunno if this seems reasonable, probably need to think about it some more.
621
Dominion Isotropic / Re: What do you think of Isotropic's leaderboard change?
« on: December 05, 2011, 01:17:19 am »
Sweeeet!
Particularly sweet as I'm in first place heh. #brag
Particularly sweet as I'm in first place heh. #brag
622
2011 / Re: Schedule and Results: 2011 DominionStrategy.com Championships
« on: December 01, 2011, 03:29:37 pm »
Definitely Buggz's game imo, and I don't see how you could rule otherwise tbh. Of course, I'm not a judge
623
Game Reports / Re: Stables vs. Alchemist vs. Scrying Pool
« on: December 01, 2011, 02:50:36 pm »
Re: Pawn vs no-Pawn. I think the difference is small, but the potential upside of Pawn seems smaller to me than the potential downside of Pawn (see above). It's very possibly I'm dead wrong here.
Re: Alchemist vs Scrying Pool vs Hybrid. It seems to me that any hybrid would be slower/worse than the alternative to draw the entire deck. Again, I might very possibly be dead wrong.
Re: Alchemist vs Scrying Pool vs Hybrid. It seems to me that any hybrid would be slower/worse than the alternative to draw the entire deck. Again, I might very possibly be dead wrong.
624
Game Reports / Re: Stables vs. Alchemist vs. Scrying Pool
« on: December 01, 2011, 12:56:42 pm »
I think mnavratil pretty much has it right. Alchemists don't seem to add much to a possible Scrying Pool engine on this board, as far as I can tell. With a 5/2 opening, I'd be looking at a Stables/nothing opening, because I hate those "95% of the time they're cantrips with no downside or upside, and 2% of the time the extra buy is useful, but 3% of the time you need to draw 2 with Steward and you draw Pawn instead of Gold to get that last Province" type cards, like I feel a Pawn might/would be here. My gut just tells me that Pawn doesn't add anything to your deck here; with 4, you'd prefer (at least) Silver to Pawn+Pawn anyway, with 5 you'd prefer Stables or Duchy to Pawn+Silver, with 6 you'd prefer Gold, with 7 you'd prefer Gold or Duchy, with 8+ obviously Province. Then that one time you have Gold+Steward+Copper+Copper+Estate with one Province remaining and your 3 card deck consists of Gold+Pawn+Estate instead of Gold+Estate, you'll be kicking yourself pretty hard.
625
Game Reports / Re: What happens when the dreaded amb/amb opening is mirrored with saboteur
« on: December 01, 2011, 12:34:36 pm »
Some thoughts just from quickly browsing the game log:
I'd skip the Embargo on turn 3. Your deck is 10 cards, 2 of which are terminal actions. At this point, any terminal action is significantly weaking your deck imo. 2/10 is quite a lot better than 3/11, as far as terminal actions go, even if one of them is a one-time deal, imo.
Turn 5, return one Copper, buy Silver (instead of return 0, buy Walled Village), imo. I think at this point your goal is to build some semblance of an economy, while keeping your deck size as small as possible. In the double Ambassador mirror opening, if you can get to a Gold semi-early while not being "behind" in deck size, you're an enormous favorite to win. The way you're going in this game so far, with the Embargo buy and the Walled Village over returning more weak Copper, you're settling in for a slower game, which I think is not what you ideally want to do. Silver is a pretty powerful card in terms of creating buying power; an extra Copper and Walled Village are not. Luckily (imo), he makes the same choice on his turn 5, instead of returning an extra copper and buying Silver over Walled Village.
Turn 6, Silver is still stronger than Walled Village imo, see above.
At this point, it might not make sense to point out differing opinions, as our overall strategies are so differing. The early turns are the most important turns of the game, and I think with very strong draws you got (non-colliding Ambassadors while still being able to buy "strong" cards, etc), you could have put yourself in a very commanding position where your deck has buying power and your opponent's doesn't, while still matching him in the Ambassador race. What happens later on is, imo, less interesting, as it concerns less than optimal strategies.
I hope you don't take offense at my comments; obviously they're strictly well-meant.
I'd skip the Embargo on turn 3. Your deck is 10 cards, 2 of which are terminal actions. At this point, any terminal action is significantly weaking your deck imo. 2/10 is quite a lot better than 3/11, as far as terminal actions go, even if one of them is a one-time deal, imo.
Turn 5, return one Copper, buy Silver (instead of return 0, buy Walled Village), imo. I think at this point your goal is to build some semblance of an economy, while keeping your deck size as small as possible. In the double Ambassador mirror opening, if you can get to a Gold semi-early while not being "behind" in deck size, you're an enormous favorite to win. The way you're going in this game so far, with the Embargo buy and the Walled Village over returning more weak Copper, you're settling in for a slower game, which I think is not what you ideally want to do. Silver is a pretty powerful card in terms of creating buying power; an extra Copper and Walled Village are not. Luckily (imo), he makes the same choice on his turn 5, instead of returning an extra copper and buying Silver over Walled Village.
Turn 6, Silver is still stronger than Walled Village imo, see above.
At this point, it might not make sense to point out differing opinions, as our overall strategies are so differing. The early turns are the most important turns of the game, and I think with very strong draws you got (non-colliding Ambassadors while still being able to buy "strong" cards, etc), you could have put yourself in a very commanding position where your deck has buying power and your opponent's doesn't, while still matching him in the Ambassador race. What happens later on is, imo, less interesting, as it concerns less than optimal strategies.
I hope you don't take offense at my comments; obviously they're strictly well-meant.