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[timchen]

In this game, with Haggler, Highway, familiar, scrying pool, adventurer, peddler, Vineyard, Colony and no trashing, I suffered from early inability to buy the familiar. (2+P twice then P discarded by opponent's scrying pool.) This results in a lopsided 9-1 curse split.

Somehow, in the end I won. I don't understand why. He seems rather slow to the Colony, but still, did he has some astronomical bad luck/decision to overcome the curse split? I just don't see it...

[DG]

On some early turns you got your haggler into play in higher spending hands than your opponent, who also had hands like 5+potion for a familiar. This gave you some extra acceleration and the curses arrived late enough to be absorbed in the sheer size of your deck. By the end you had 9 curses lost in a 60 card deck.

[ftl]

There were useful cards to buy with 2p. Usually,2p is gg not just because you miss the familiar, but also because you get nothing at all. Here, the pools were a pretty good consolation prize.

[Wingnut]

Interesting point about the 2P getting Scrying Pool as a decent consolation. I wonder if it would be the same with Apothecary?

[philosophyguy]

My guess would be that Apothecary would not work as well, for a couple of reasons. First, Scrying Pool's spy ability is useful in filtering junk from the deck. Second, SP can draw multiple cantrips at once, which makes it (potentially much) better than a Lab. Lab gives +2 cards; SP gives +N cantrips, plus another N cards from playing the cantrips.

[DStu]

My guess would be that Apothecary would not work as well, for a couple of reasons. First, Scrying Pool's spy ability is useful in filtering junk from the deck. Second, SP can draw multiple cantrips at once, which makes it (potentially much) better than a Lab. Lab gives +2 cards; SP gives +N cantrips, plus another N cards from playing the cantrips.

I think it would. Different, but it would.

First, Scyring Pool has the potential to draw much, but it just doesn't in this kind of decks. If I didn't overlook something, from 17 plays you have 1x4cards and 2x3 cards, for an average of 1,7cards drawn.
Apothecary on the other hand will excelarate your deck, especially in the beginning, and increase the chance that you can afford the Familiar. So probably with Apothecary the split would not have been 9-1...

[ackack]

I've actually wondered if in Apothecary/Familiar games you aren't better off getting the Apothecary before the Familiar. I stumbled upon this once in a 2+P situation and ended up with a basically even curse split with my opponent who got a turn 3 Familiar. My economy was substantially better from the early Apothecary, though, and so I won. I think Apothecary is way preferable to Pool here early, although after I have 1 or maybe 2 Apothecaries I do switch to Pools.

Can't find the game at the moment, but if I do manage to I'll post it.

[Geronimoo]

Not getting a Familiar as soon as possible is suicide (which is why the $2P is so deadly)

[ackack]

Not getting a Familiar as soon as possible is suicide (which is why the $2P is so deadly)

I mean, that's obvious in games where there's no good buy at $2P. In the specific case of Apothecary, I think it's less obvious. I wouldn't be surprised at all if that were still true, but Apothecary in particular is such a fantastic early card. Early on it offers huge draw and cycling, meaning that you can get your Potion back in hand and a Familiar running relatively quickly. It also offers pretty early shots at $6 that are very unusual in Familiar games.

added: In the meantime, I found the game I was thinking of. It was actually from the tournament:

http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20111129-182040-12d0faf4.html

[Geronimoo]

The simulator hates getting Apothecary before Familiar (losing 3 out of 4 games against the bot buying Familiar first).