Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[-Stef-]

He recorded the match so you can also watch it first / hear his thoughts: Part 1 & Part 2

Game 1: Provinces / Shelters - Baker, Band of Misfits, Bank, Butcher, Copper, Curse, Duchy, Estate, Gold, Junk Dealer, Mandarin, Merchant Guild, Potion, Province, Ruins, Scavenger, Silver, Worker's Village, Black Market
Seriously lacking draw, this engine will never really go off. Nothing in the kingdom and only 1 laboratory, a caravan and a haven in the BM. We both want double Junk Dealer, but I prefer a Jester to the second one when I get the chance. That worked out nicely because it gets me the 2nd Junk Dealer for free. I also take Altar which I regret: it's just not that great with the small hands.

He greens a bit sooner then me, which is the correct move I think and should earn him the game. He gets Provinces while I'm forced into Duchies. Fortunately he doesn't settle for the small risk in just continuing provinces (there was a theoretical chance that breaking PPPR would make me win but highly unlikely). After that he never gets an opportune moment to take another province because my stack of coin tokens always threatens buying the last two. Strangely enough in this super strong set at the end the estates are really important and I get to take the game.

Game 2: Provinces / Estates - Bank, Black Market, Cache, Copper, Courtyard, Curse, Death Cart, Duchy, Estate, Gold, Great Hall, Market Square, Mine, Plaza, Province, Ruins, Silver, Candlestick Maker
In a very weak kingdom with a village, the black market itself is more important. I really want to get the Masquerade, which looks even more important then Goons. I decide to open double Black Market for it, and get a Mint on turn 3 trashing 4 coppers. It was a bit of a risky operation. Really hard to tell if it was good, it feels odds-on, but doesn't work out at all. He gets the majority of the villages and when he adds Masquerade I know I'm lost. I've been playing with low buying power for quite a while and pay the price.

Game 3: Provinces / Shelters - Black Market, Copper, Counterfeit, Crossroads, Curse, Duchy, Estate, Gold, Menagerie, Peddler, Potion, Province, Ruins, Silver, Stables, Tactician, Throne Room, Wandering Minstrel, Vineyard
Super strong engine with everything you could want in the kingdom and even more in the BM. I get the chance to buy an early chapel which actually isn't an easy choice at all. Double Tactician with black market, shelters and Menagerie doesn't really require that much trashing (a single counterfeit is probably enough). However, it makes him panic somewhat and he switches to Potions for Vineyards way too soon. I build more and more and at some point it's cleat that it's over.

Game 4: Provinces / Estates - Black Market, Copper, Council Room, Cultist, Curse, Duchy, Estate, Farming Village, Gold, Loan, Potion, Province, Rats, Ruins, Silver, Soothsayer, Stonemason, Trading Post, Vineyard
Again vineyards, and this time we swap strategies: he builds more while I go straight for rats on t2 and potion on t3. With Rats, Stonemason and Ruins on the board, that turns out to just be the better strategy because I can grab the majority of the Vineyards and continue hitting piles after that.

Game 5: Provinces / Estates - Black Market, Copper, Cultist, Curse, Duchy, Estate, Gold, Herald, Militia, Mystic, Procession, Province, Rogue, Ruins, Shanty Town, Silver, Vault, Hamlet
One of the more interesting ones (well all games with Black Market are interesting). With his 5/2 opening he had a serious option of ignoring it all and going Cultist BM. I honestly don't know how that would have ended.
Now we both build an engine, but he has the junking and I have the trashing. I have some tricky decisions to make mostly on black market buys. I take lookout over bishop because I really don't want to give him free trashing (he has lots of heralds and I have alternative trashing in mercenary anyway). It takes a while but after the ruins run out trashing wins the long game.

Game 6: Provinces / Estates - Ambassador, Black Market, Copper, Curse, Duchy, Estate, Farmland, Gold, Hoard, Knights, Potion, Province, Rabble, Ruins, Scout, Silver, Storeroom, Worker's Village, Courtyard
Black Market is cute but Ambassador just takes precedence. We mirror strategies and draws, which imply that I lose pretty badly as P2.
I now think I misplayed it: as P1 opening Ambassador/Worker's Village is probably right, because you get the chance to play ambassador before your opponent reshuffles anyway. As P2 (as was proven in this game) you may very well play your Ambassador after P1's shuffle, and thus opening double amb is better (?). Need to think on this a bit more but it could very well be true.

All in all it was a really nice format (6x black market). Much more interesting games then on average and we both got to play with our favorite card six times. I know LastFootnote promised the new promo will be even better, but for now I find that hard to imagine. Not that I would mind.

[-Stef-]

I just played my match against HvBoedefeld, and it went much better then expected. (5-1)
Some luck involved as always, but also some really good games.

Game 1: Provinces / Estates - Copper, Curse, Duchy, Duke, Estate, Fishing Village, Gold, Great Hall, JackOfAllTrades, Laboratory, Mandarin, Oasis, Potion, Procession, Province, Silver, Upgrade, Scrying Pool
Immediately a very interesting one. Without +buy scrying pool looks unplayable, especially because you face Jack-Duke supported by fishing village. So it's going to be some kind of Jack-FV strategy, but what exactly? He goes for the simple version with 2 Jacks, some villages and some oasis to dive into Duchies quickly. I decide to take the more engine-y approach with 3 Upgrades. At the crucial moment my Jack is on the bottom of the shuffle though, and I can't upgrade it for a Duchy. He wins the split 5-3 and things look grim.
I play for the long game now ($7? buy oasis!) and with some nice Free Silver->Jack->Duke upgrade trains I manage to end up with more points then he has.

Game 2: Provinces / Estates - Altar, Baron, Copper, Courtyard, Curse, Duchy, Estate, Fortune Teller, Gold, Market, Oracle, Possession, Potion, Province, Secret Chamber, Silk Road, Silver, Cellar
I really don't know how to play games like these. Maybe I did ok, maybe I was lucky. I do think he got way too many markets as they're quite bad in the decks we build. I probably should have taken zero of them as well.

Game 3: Provinces / Estates - Copper, Curse, Duchy, Estate, Gold, Golem, Goons, Harvest, Plaza, Potion, Province, Remodel, Sea Hag, Silver, Spy, Swindler, University, Pearl Diver
I like this kind of set (except for swindler). You have to build the engine, because if you don't you'll just lose to some multiple-goons turn supported by Golems. But if both players go for the same pieces, at some point the 3-pile is so close you just have to start grabbing points before it's over. He goes for green too late, although maybe he has no choice but to gamble. Even though the engine never really got going on either side, still a fascinating set.

Game 4: Provinces / Estates - Copper, Curse, Duchy, Estate, Fairgrounds, Familiar, Fishing Village, Gold, Loan, Market Square, Masquerade, Monument, Possession, Potion, Province, Silver, Steward, Pearl Diver
Ugh, Masquerade-Possession with plenty of support for it. He opens Potion-Masquerade but I go double Masq. I really like that opening here, because the next 3 things I want to buy cost only $3 anyway (FV, FV, market Square). I collide my masquerades on turn 5 and get to possession before him anyway (!), that should say enough about the opening strength. At that point it looks like I'm losing horribly though, because with draws this bad I can't keep up with his familiars. Then he proves to have gotten quite frustrated by the games so far, because now he makes a series of huge mistakes he normally never makes. (not getting steward to trash his own masqs, cleaning up too much so he has to pass me cards, greening too late, helping me 3-pile even though I'm greening). And all of a sudden three piles are empty while I'm ahead.

Game 5: Provinces / Shelters - City, Conspirator, Copper, Counterfeit, Curse, Duchy, Estate, Expand, Feast, Gold, Great Hall, Province, Silver, Soothsayer, Witch, Woodcutter, Squire
Bwleugh, this could have been interesting but got ruined by the draws. I start 5/2 - super lucky - but after that my draws are terrible. He also starts 5/2 and after that he has all the luck in the world. Oh well, sometimes they happen, and with 4 curses and 2 coppers more against his 3 additional cities and an expand, I just resign.

Game 6: Provinces / Estates - Bazaar, Bishop, Cache, Chancellor, Copper, Curse, Duchy, Estate, Fool's Gold, Gold, Margrave, Nomad Camp, Province, Silver, Stables, Taxman, Crossroads
This may have been the most interesting one of them all. Strong engine with bishop, but Fool's gold is usually quite fast and improves significantly if you add free trashing.
Not that great after you get hit by a Margrave, but then again Margraves aren't that bad because they help you line up your fool's golds. I don't think you can go engine here without buying any fool's golds, also because all the pieces you want cost $5 and that's quite expensive.

So I open Fool's gold/Margrave and he answers with Nomad Camp/Margrave. For $4 with 2 buys I take another 2 Fool's golds, but then I decide I really don't want to win this split. I take a crossroads instead, although I'm not sure at all on that decision. He starts taking provinces and builds up a huge and very scary lead, but then I can start chopping 3 golds a turn for 12 free points each time. With 6 provinces in his deck he finally chokes and that's that.

Thanks for the series HVB, sorry you were unlucky in some of the games and some really nice ones too...

[Mic Qsenoch]

In case anyone is interested, here are the links to the recordings of all my League matches this season on twitch:

AI - Parts One Two Three   (connection dropped twice, which cut the stream into three parts)
SCSN
Stef
hvb
Perry Green

The video descriptions (except vs AI) have timestamps of when each game starts if you only want to watch one or two games at a time. This is my lazy man's substitute for actually highlighting individual games. I may at some point cut out the individual games and put them on Youtube or something.

A big thanks to Stef for organizing! And I look forward to the next season, where it looks like I'll be the lone American staving off complete European dominance of Division A.

[Mic Qsenoch]

And I look forward to the next season, where it looks like I'll be the lone American staving off complete European dominance of Division A.

In other words: help me Obi Wan Bonogi, you're my only hope.