Alright... lets presume that you draw $5 on your first hand and Mandarin is on the board, plus whatever kingdom cards you want.
One option you now have is to buy a Mandarin, then to buy abother $5 card.
Which card is going to give the best outcome here, and on what sort of board?
Personally, I'm thinking that if the optimal lucky situation is with Hunting Parties on a board that has no extra buys and no curses. Reason being is that odds are you'll be able to skip silver, go straight to gold, then just buy:
$6 for first time: 1 gold.
$5+ otherwise: Hunting Party
$8: Province
Any other situation: Don't buy.
The idea is that once you draw Mandarin and it'll take you to $8, you then play it to put a spare hunting party back on the deck, or even a spare copper.
What do you think?
More generally, on a $5/$5 Mandarin opening, what combos would YOU think would work?
((Edit: After suggesting the above combo have tried it out a few times, and I can't seem to get it to work... Maybe a second gold is needed? Or a silver? Or maybe just some trashing...)