Game logApothecary, Loan, Conspirator, Pirate Ship, Plaza, Baker, Junk Dealer, Margrave, Saboteur, Treasury
So people are always saying that Saboteur isn't that great of a card, and for the most part, you can ignore it, even if the other player decides to try to hit you with it. Well in this game, my opponent gets a Saboteur really early (turn 5). At first I thought it was a little odd, since there are better 5s here and the only other one he had picked up was a Junk Dealer (Baker opening). I ignored the presence of his Saboteur most of the game, and by turn 12 or 13, my engine was really starting to kick in, but then his Saboteurs really started to kill my important pieces.
Turn 14 I buy two Saboteurs because my engine can handle them at this point. I have actions left over and am overdrawing my deck (even capable of playing plazas to discard treasures and redraw them). I start to hit back, and then both of our decks just plummet. I feel like I barely squeak out the win here, knowing on the last turn that he only has one buy, there are 2 estates left, we are tied, and he went first. So in taking the Estate, I ensure that he loses if he ends the game by buying the last Estate, or that if he buys a Duchy then we will Duchy dance until one of our decks is able to overcome the other first.
I was not comfortable with how this turned out, and I feel like it was entirely the Saboteurs that changed the landscape. Without their presence, my deck would have stomped my opponents'. What could I have done better here? What did I do right?