Stef 3 - 0 Fabian
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201206/19/game-20120619-113312-fe827e7c.html
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201206/19/game-20120619-114456-18a959a9.html
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201206/19/game-20120619-115831-c3cecb39.html
Some of the worst playing ever witnessed by man. Well early/mid game 1 is fine and game 3 is kinda fine I guess. But just, ugh. Super tilt.
Round 2 I got paired with Fabian. I still remember Fabian as 'the guy to beat' from before I quit isotropic for a few months. In february I was around level 46 and most of the time second to this annoying guy 2 levels above me. Well, the guy was ok but the 'two levels above' did all the annoyance. So even though I'm now 7 levels ahead of him, I still expected a rather difficult matchup.
We started the match and before me was one of the most complex random kingdoms I've yet encountered. It was obviously engine walhalla, but with so many different combinations that it just hurts. Tournament with all the prizes, cities to power up by witch running out curses, caravan for draw and warehouse for cycling, goons for some megapoints and add grand market for extra fun. A bishop for some trashing and if you still can't find anything you like there's always the black market to try something sneaky.
There wasn't too much power in the black market, mainly because it was all on the board already. OK, I wanted to have the trashing-cards (masquerade, lookout), because bishop is just too much mutual-benefit in a game where these small amounts of points are not that relevant. Oh and lighthouse was in there, which would be dreamy-good on this board.
I decided I wanted a reliable deck at the start rather then a risky one, and opened tournament/warehouse. Fabian decided exactly the other way around with black market/tournament. I got lucky with 5 on turn 3 (playing both tournament and warehouse) where Fabian got quite the opposite (4 on both t3 and t4).
The next round of our decks we swapped luck rather dramaticly. I had to skip my warehouse to prevent all my cards from missing the shuffle, and he picked lighthouse right out of his first black market. It was his first turn >4, and he had to think a while before skipping witch for it. But despite of all my praying he got the lighthouse and a caravan.
From this point on things went downhill for me. I lost the curse split despite my early witch (grmbl lighthouse) and since I reached 8 way later then Fabian, he also got the first 3 prizes. He picked pricess first, which seemed like a good move to me. He also got the better half of the cities, which he then turned up to level 3.
I was losing this game slowly but steadily as Fabian got some of the trashers in his deck. Due to masquerade I no longer lost the curse split 6-4, it was now 7-3. The only surprising thing was that he waited a bit long before adding goons to his deck. And then he waited a bit longer. Not a real problem, because he was still quite seriously ahead on points (2 provs and those curses) but hey.
In the endgame, something must have just snapped on his side. I can't explain it any other way. On his turn 20, Fabian bought 4 estates out of the blue, but his lead was nowhere near big enough to justify that. On my turn 20 I said thank you and bought the other 4 (after playing 2 goons).
Game 2 contained Ill Gotten Gains, but it very clearly wasn't an IGG board (another strong curser, no +buy, good trashing). Fabian was still a bit dazzled by the previous endgame I think, and encouraged by his 5/2 opening went for it anyway. I just stayed away from IGG, duchy or any other remote possebility of 3-piling, and even before I bought my first province he resigned realizing his mistake.
Game 3 was a much more interesting game, involving fishing village, oracle, jester and perhaps tunnel. Menagerie could become powerfull later on, but with expand as only trashing that's not very easy. Haven and celler could support menagerie, which would make tunnel a lot better. I would definately have gone for the cheap cards if only there was a source of +buy, but alack, there was none.
I decided to try and get an expand in quickly, because I really like the potential of this set. So no early tunnels, no cellars, but fishing, oracle and jester asap. Fabian found himself back and seemed to come to the same conclusion, or at least he bought the same cards.
It was a fun game to play, and I think we both played it well. Except he made a small but important mistake on turn 5, where he let me keep 2 coppers. It probably was a lot more easy to see for me then it was for him, but that made me real happy and got me a second jester in stead of a reshuffle I didn't want.
After that I just held on to my small but increasing lead and steered to a clear 3-0. I know Fabian can do much better then this, so I guess I was a bit lucky to find him on such an off-day.
