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[Polk5440]

This was a hard kingdom for me to digest:

Fool's Gold, Secret Chamber, Vagrant, Scrying Pool, Steward, Urchin, Tournament, Margrave, Fairgrounds, Nobles

Here's the log. (Couldn't get Kingdom Visualizer to work -- sorry!)

I had 5-2 and opened Potion-Vagrant. (I strongly considered Margrave-Fool's Gold, too.) My opponent went Tournament-Steward. He went heavy Tournaments, and I was going all in on Scrying Pool. I picked up one Tournament and a Gold for money. I staged a massive comeback with 6 point Fairgrounds at the end, but I feel like he should have had won this one.

How would you go about beating Scrying Pool here? Should I have gone Margrave-Fool's Gold to beat Tournament? Or is Scrying the optimal strategy if you played it better than I did?

[eHalcyon]

I would have totally gone Margrave-FG.  That should probably be able to pick up a Province or two pretty quick, which would be nice for either activating your own Tournaments or blocking your opponents.  I imagine it would be fast enough to make it difficult for the SP player, though I admit I have trouble evaluating when SP is good.  Fairgrounds and Nobles do help the engine.  Still, I think Margrave-FG (especially if FG is uncontested) should be pretty fast and resilient.

I find it interesting that you ended up with 5 Gold in your SP deck and didn't pick up a SC.

[Polk5440]

I would have totally gone Margrave-FG.  That should probably be able to pick up a Province or two pretty quick, which would be nice for either activating your own Tournaments or blocking your opponents.  I imagine it would be fast enough to make it difficult for the SP player, though I admit I have trouble evaluating when SP is good.  Fairgrounds and Nobles do help the engine.  Still, I think Margrave-FG (especially if FG is uncontested) should be pretty fast and resilient.

I find it interesting that you ended up with 5 Gold in your SP deck and didn't pick up a SC.

Yeah, that was pretty weird. I was planning on picking up a SC, then I forgot about it after I got Bag of Gold. SC definitely helps out SP, though.

Sort of related:
I don't really have a good feel for the speed of money strategies. Is there a thread with ranking the big money + x options, or speed of Fool's Gold + draw to 4 Provinces or something? I feel like there is, but I have forgotten where it's at....

[Powerman]

Scrying Pool is dominant here.  More so off of 4/3 (Potion/Steward), but even off of 5/2.  You REALLY need to pick up a Margrave sooner, as that will really hurt your opponent.  Also, if you get the option, Trusty Stead is a VERY good prize for the engine, as it is the best village (sorry Nobles).  Plus if you have Margrave, the +Buy of Princess is less important.

Margrave - FG is def. the second best strategy here.  A basic tournament deck is not good for this board though.

[Polk5440]

You REALLY need to pick up a Margrave sooner, as that will really hurt your opponent.

I was leery about this because the extra card from Margrave helps him line up Province/Tournament. But I think you are right that I needed one earlier.

[Powerman]

You REALLY need to pick up a Margrave sooner, as that will really hurt your opponent.

I was leery about this because the extra card from Margrave helps him line up Province/Tournament. But I think you are right that I needed one earlier.

Not much, since you can use SP's spying effect to put a copper on top for him to draw.

[blueblimp]

Also, if you get the option, Trusty Stead is a VERY good prize for the engine, as it is the best village (sorry Nobles). Plus if you have Margrave, the +Buy of Princess is less important.

Nah, Princess is easily the best prize if you're doing SP. With the strong trashing available (Steward, and Mercenary's not a bad choice either), the draw of SP makes the +2 cards from Steed mostly irrelevant. Meanwhile the $2 cost reduction on Princess makes Vagrants free (which is great because you want as many as you can get) and is made stronger by Margrave having +buys (not weaker!) because you get to apply the cost reduction more often.

I agree that SP is dominant, given the other engine-favouring factors (Nobles, attacks, Tournament, Fairgrounds) and massable actions (Vagrant, Tournament, Nobles). But playing it is tricky... apart from SP, Nobles is the key pile, but there's not that much virtual money to work with (unless you get enough SP and Nobles to do a SC/SP combo), so affording them is hard. That's another reason that Princess is important. But buying an early Province conflicts with picking up SPs.