I had recently this Kingdom, playing against Robz888. We both went for different Strategies and at the end I was surprised about the clearness of the outcome
Pearl Diver, Stonemason, Develop, Philosopher's Stone, Bishop, Talisman, Tournament, Junk Dealer, Rabble, Soothsayer
The only Kingdom Cards you really want here are Tournament, Junk Dealer, Soothsayer and Bishop. Robz was first Player and me second. We both opened Tournament/Silver. On Turn 3 I hit 6 $ and decided to go skip Soothsayer and Junk Dealer to get an early Gold. With 4 $ on turn 4 I get Bishop instead of a second Tournament. With 6 $ on Turn 5 and 6 i decided to skip Soothsayer totally for the game (dont want to give him 6th card here with Tournament) and to skip Junk Dealer again (bought it later on Turn 8 and 9). I bought Gold #2 and 3 to get an early Province on Turn 7. At that Time Robz had already a Junk Dealer, a Soothsayer and 3 Tournaments. He went heavily into Tournaments, while I ignored them and bought 2 other Bishops instead. It was no surprise that he won the first 4 Prizes. But i was able to manage to be ahead the whole game due to the Bishop VPs and won the game in the end by 16 points. I 3 piled the curses by buying them out in the last 3 rounds.
http://www.gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?/20140315/log.514cd37de4b0fe3236619906.1394944960000.txtTo be honest, I was a little bit surprised that it worked out so well by that huge margin. In particular I dont feel that Robz got above-average unlucky somehow. His Tournaments didnt got blocked so often and he managed quite good to line-up his Tourneys with the Provinces.
So, what do you think? Is Bishop/Gold really that strong here with Tournament, Soothsayer and Junk Dealer on Board?