So, Chancellor is supposed to be the worst $3 card, according to the rankings here. And Talisman is supposedly the fourth-worst $4 card, with precious few defenders.
Together they make a nifty Level Negative 1 Opening. Who in their right mind would ever do such an obviously horrible thing, opening two obviously horrible cards?
I would!
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201207/17/game-20120717-203017-2d375a1a.htmlWith no $5s better than Cartographer, no other strong terminals (no, Possession and Noble Brigand do not count), and a supremely important spammable $4- Tournament- it was the right move. The Talisman lets me double up on Tournaments three times, and does it better than Ironworks, check out Turn 3 for proof why. (With not much card draw, and Conspirators waiting to be activated, spamming Tournaments is in fact the right move here). The Chancellor does its cycling thing, probably a little better than average but not exceedingly so. (Getting it on Turn 4 wasn't great, but Turn 5 was.) By Turn 11, I have both power Prizes and three Provinces. And that's as second player.
I think this game is a pretty good example of how to use both Chancellor and Talisman well, as well as a demonstration of how to win Tournaments without just auto-pilot opening them and relying on luck. One of my favorite games in awhile.