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[Jedit]

So, I've been dabbling a little on Isotropic (without logging in), and I just won a rather handy victory against a rank 19.  Before I start thinking I can play this game, would experienced heads mind dissecting my performance and telling me how they would have played it better?  I know I made some mistakes - for a start, playing the second Pearl Diver on the last turn when I'd drawn my whole deck cost me an additional VP for being unable to buy a second Estate.  These things are small, but earlier I lost a game against a high-20s player by a single point so I know the margins are small.

The log is here: http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201207/10/game-20120710-160741-f610286b.html

[eHalcyon]

I think I'm pretty terrible with Goons.  But I would say, open Steward instead of Island and try to trash all the starting cards asap, planning for a bigger Goons turn.  I think your opponent got off to a bad start bad start with 5/2, which is not so good on this board.

[ftl]

I'm not sold on using Island as your early-game trasher instead of Steward. Steward trashes faster and has more benefit afterwards, I would have gone for Steward instead of island.

And possibly not even use it to trash that often, because if using the +coins gets me to 5 for city or 6 for goons that's probably more worthwhile... But Steward gives you the choice of trashing if you draw it with two estates, or picking up an early goons or extra city if the draws come out right.

I'd aim for a 3-goons turn instead of a 2-goons turn. Those rack up points. And, of course, play careful with piles and stuff. 

[hobo386]

I'd say overall you played the game pretty well.  I'm going to echo the others and say that a steward/silver opening would probably be stronger, and that a 5/2 opening wasn't optimal for your opponent.

I can't really comment on how well you did with watching for reshuffles and pearl diver plays, as that's hard enough for me in game, let alone looking at it from an outsider perspective.

But I'm gonna disagree with ftl on the 3 goons thing (I may be wrong here, but that's my gut reaction from looking at the aftermath).  In most cases, getting a third goons is better, but you already had the lead, and in that case you usually just want to end the game whenever you can.  And you did that.  And it worked.

I don't know about the rest of your games, but this one at least makes you look like you play in the 15-25 range.  You knew your strategy and played it properly, but you just haven't seen quite enough games to know to do stuff like go for the steward.

[Jedit]

I'd say overall you played the game pretty well.  I'm going to echo the others and say that a steward/silver opening would probably be stronger, and that a 5/2 opening wasn't optimal for your opponent.

I can't really comment on how well you did with watching for reshuffles and pearl diver plays, as that's hard enough for me in game, let alone looking at it from an outsider perspective.

It was more the last turn, where I played a second Pearl Diver even though the first had told me my deck was empty then needlessly Islanded a Copper when I knew I was about to three-pile the game.

Looking at it I'm inclined to agree about the Steward.  I was looking at it from the perspective of the City race; the Islands were a pile that was guaranteed to empty and I couldn't guarantee coming out ahead on Cities.  With Goons on the table as well I wanted to have a small VP edge so I could piledrive Pearl Divers to quickly end the game before being Gooned out of it.  Also, if I could put my opponent in a position where he would voluntarily empty the second pile that would give me the first shot at a full-strength City turn.  That could make the difference if the split was 5-5 or 6-4 against me.

[pingpongsam]

I consider myself a mediocre to near-bad player and I'm ranked 19 and have even seen 21.

My opinion is I can't even call myself good until I hit 30 and over 40 is what I might call excellent.

Maybe that burst your bubble?

[hobo386]

I consider myself a mediocre to near-bad player and I'm ranked 19 and have even seen 21.

My opinion is I can't even call myself good until I hit 30 and over 40 is what I might call excellent.

Maybe that burst your bubble?

Now if you want to feel good about yourself...
Isotropic has a total of 8055 players.
Only 5337 of them are level 1 or above (and most of these 0s have dozens of games).  That means a level 1 is better than 33% of players.
4034 are level 6 or above.  That means if you are level 6, you are technically average.
2024 are level 15 or above. That means they are in the top 25% of dominion players.
1232 are at 20 or above. That's the top 15% or so.
682 at 25 or above. They're in the top 10%
331 at 30. That's the top 5%
155 at 35. That's the top 2%
44 at 40. That's the top 0.5%

Now there's no reason to quit improving, but I wouldn't consider 20 to be bad by any means.

[pingpongsam]

All I can say to that is I routinely discover that my strategy is fatally flawed quarter way through the game. I often make the same stupid mistake again and again. Frequently I get beat badly and don't fully understand how the other guy's method worked. I can get beat by a level 1 player with no real excuse for a bad starting shuffle and I can beat a level 40+ player in the same scenario.

Currently, I'm trying to get a better grasp on card combinations that I  can pull off but not exceptionally well such as double tactician or highway/remake. I just now got my head around the low diversity hunting party stack.

Dozens of games is, in my opinion a joke. I have thousands of games and I feel that at this point I've probably found somewhere around 85-90% of my fullest potential. I could be dead wrong but I don't think 3,000 games later I'm going to find myself at level 40 but hope to be in the high 20's and dream of low 30's.

That said, every game is a learning opportunity,whether I win or lose but mostly when I lose.

[Cuzz]

Now if you want to feel good about yourself...
Isotropic has a total of 8055 players.
Only 5337 of them are level 1 or above (and most of these 0s have dozens of games).  That means a level 1 is better than 33% of players.
4034 are level 6 or above.  That means if you are level 6, you are technically average.
2024 are level 15 or above. That means they are in the top 25% of dominion players.
1232 are at 20 or above. That's the top 15% or so.
682 at 25 or above. They're in the top 10%
331 at 30. That's the top 5%
155 at 35. That's the top 2%
44 at 40. That's the top 0.5%

Now there's no reason to quit improving, but I wouldn't consider 20 to be bad by any means.

Thanks for breaking that down. This is the kind of thing I want to say when I see posts about a bot or an account playing nothing but big money - X being able to reach level 20. (Not to be overly defensive about my new career-high level 24)

[DG]

The key card here is goons. The goons will help win the city race but the cities won't help win a goons race. The way to get to goons is probably with a steward. The steward can trash early, give 2$ to buy the first goons, and then be used for 2 cards once you have the cities. The shanty town, island, salvager, or remodel could do a job for you but the steward looks better. Pearl divers seem mediocre here since they give you bad decisions when keeping cards after an opponent plays a goons, so only take them for vp chips.

[ehunt]

When I see Goons, I think, "is this a light goons game or a heavy goons game?" What makes the difference? Two easy questions: are there extra actions, and is there trashing/draw? If the answer to both is yes, it's a heavy game.

In a light goons game, I want to play goons as often as possible, so I probably buy 2 or 3 depending on the other cards in the game, but I don't expect ever to play two per turn unless I get lucky, and I expect the game to end on provinces/colonies, not on piles. I am happy to buy copper earlier (about when I'd start buying duchy, or maybe a little after).

In a heavy goons game, I want to play goons as often as possible, and I essentially never (not till there's only a couple turns left) want to dilute my engine with green or copper. I expect to goons every turn and be goonsed every turn, and I build my deck accordingly. I build an engine deck, i.e. I trash aggressively as soon as possible.

On this board, there's stewards, which is mediocre draw and decent trashing, and there's city, which will become good draw (the pearl diver pile will clearly empty), and is extra action, and there's shanty town, a mediocre village which is better if I'm expecting to get goonsed every turn. So I immediately classify it as a heavy goons game. I would open steward/steward or steward/shanty town; both are a little risky in the case of collision. I can't fault a steward/silver opening, it's just not my favorite, especially in 2nd seat. With 5/2 I'd be annoyed and I'd open steward/pearl diver. Trash aggressively and never buy gold or green; just be a robot with goons at >= 6, city at 5, steward/shanty town as needed at 3 or 4, pearl diver at less. Probably a silver at some point.