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[Thisisnotasmile]

It's the beginning of her turn. She drew cards thanks to her opponent's Council Rooms.

[Deadlock39]

I kept thinking that and almost posted it Jorbles, but you (and I) misread the post.  It indicates this is the very start of her turn, so she has not played any actions.  The Council Rooms were played by her opponent and are the explanation for why she has more than 5 cards in hand at the start of her turn.

The real mind bender here is how the heck she ended up with an entire deck consisting of 6 Platinum, 1 King's Court, 1 Golem, and 2 Transmutes. 

Edit: missed the page change, and TINAS already pointed this out.

[Jorbles]

Ohhh that wasn't clear to me when I read it, but I guess that given that Davio's solution also works.

[ehunt]

The real mind bender here is how the heck she ended up with an entire deck consisting of 6 Platinum, 1 King's Court, 1 Golem, and 2 Transmutes. 

She rage-bought a transmute when she couldn't afford her golem the first time her potion came through and transmuted the potion later. She trashed all her coppers and estates to her opponent's bishop, and then... yeah OK, Sarah's not so good at Dominion.

[Lhurgoyf]

If she had any +buys with the Platinums (unlike the OP said), the solution with embargo tokens and 1 Swindler ending the game might not work, because she can buy 2 Provinces, gaining only 10 Curses, but 12 VP.

But since the Councilrooms were just played by the opponent for the bigger hand, no +buy is involved in this riddle.

[Ferrouswheel]

I kept thinking that and almost posted it Jorbles, but you (and I) misread the post.  It indicates this is the very start of her turn, so she has not played any actions.  The Council Rooms were played by her opponent and are the explanation for why she has more than 5 cards in hand at the start of her turn.

The real mind bender here is how the heck she ended up with an entire deck consisting of 6 Platinum, 1 King's Court, 1 Golem, and 2 Transmutes. 

Edit: missed the page change, and TINAS already pointed this out.

Don't forget and is only 1 point behind.

[Deadlock39]

Only one point behind with 7 Duchies purchased.  The only reasonable choice is that she was Bishoping most of her deck away, and then realized she only had good cards left, and set it aside with an Island.  Then again, the game state is already beyond reasonable (it's a puzzle why would it be) so I'll go with all the Duchies having been Chapeled away, and her opponent having a single Estate.

[jomini]

Alternative original solution:

Sarah's deck consists of two mountebanks. Her opponent receives 2 coppers and the last curse. Unfortunately for Sarah, her opponent has 8 gardens and 8 fairgrounds with 37 cards in deck and no coppers or curses. More unfortunely, her opponent has 13 unique cards. This results in a +23 swing for her opponent. Even after buying a colony, Sarah loses by 14 points.

Alternative qualified solution (has to win better with just golem play, not KC/golem).


requires Sarah choose the order of which card to play (either order is fine):
Sarah's deck consists of remake and mountebank. Sarah pitches two plats. Unfortunately, this leaves her with 38 total cards. Each of the 8 gardens on her native village mat is now worth one less. Sarah gives her opponent the last curse and a copper, but unfortunately for her this makes each of her opponent's 2 fairgrounds worth 2 additional VP.

If Sarah buys a colony her net gain is -8 from gardens (she has 39 cards), +10 from colony, +1 from curse, -1 from starting VP, and -4 from fairgrounds. Net, Sarah loses by 2.

Had Sarah played just the golem, she could have remade her KC into a province and bought a colony. This latter course would have resulted in +0 from gardens (she has 40 cards), +6 from province, +10 from colony, +1 curse, -1 from starting VP and -4 from fairgrounds. Net, Sarah wins by 12.


requires nothing (just VERY contrived):

Sarah's deck consists of two upgrades. Sarah trashes two plats leaving her with 28 cards which unfortunately lowers the value of each of her 8 gardens (safely hidden in NV mat - the NV was islanded away) by 1 point. This leaves Sarah down by 9. She cannot overcome this with a colony as the colonies has been embargoed 10 times. Most unfortunately for Sarah all the other piles in the game (including treasure & victory cards) have only 1 card left in them.

If Sarah buys the last  Colony she ends the game with 39 cards. From the start of her turn she has had no net change in her garden value, but has had +10 from the colony and -10 from the curses. This leaves Sarah 1 point short.

If Sarah buys the last province she ends the game with 29 cards. From the start of her turn she lost 8 points in garden value and gained 6 points from the province. Sarah loses by 3.

Had Sarah played just the golem, she could have upgraded her KC into a province, trashed a plat & bought a duchy. This leaves her with 30 cards & no change in garden points while gaining 6 from the province and 3 from the duchy. Sarah wins by 8.

[jomini]

Alternative qualified solution (less contrived):

Sarah's remaining two cards are ambassadors. Sarah reveals plats both times (she has no effective choice) and gives her opponent the last two plats. Unfortunately for Sarah this raises the value of each of her opponent's fairgrounds by 2. This means that Sarah is now down by 17 which even a colony cannot overcome.

If Sarah had not played KC/golem, should could have revealed a KC which would not have impacted her opponent's fairgrounds. It would have instead given the final two KC's to her opponent and allowed her to buy a colony instead of a duchy.

In general, Sarah can:
give her opponent cards and hence points via attacks & fairgrounds or gardens
trash one or more plats & decrease her own score via gardens on a native mat
end the game by turning a plat into another card (ending on piles)
swindle her opponent for points (choice constrained)
be unable to make up points by buying a colony/province due to embargos - (with KC there is potential to lock out all the VP aside from duchies)

In order to win better by just playing golem, Sarah can:
develop a KC instead of plat - this can be huge if she say develops the KC into a province/Border village/garden
use an action on the KC instead of plat that keeps her card count the same

[ehunt]

simply outstanding

[popsofctown]

love jomini's solutions

[glasser]

jomini's solutions are awesome, though I will point out that for the Ambassador one, she does get to choose how many Platinums to return each time.