I think this is the kind of thing that separates -Stef- from me. I probably would have tried to build a similar engine and realized I would want a +buy in there eventually and bought the herbalist turn 3. But the extra unique terminal in the deck would have slowed down the HP stack and cursing and the +buy wasn't really needed until mid game. So the lost turn could very well be worth the faster ramp up. Maybe it doesn't make a huge difference in win percentage, but to get to the top, you need to find an extra few percentage points everywhere you can.
So you think not buying the herbalist on turn 3 was not a mistake? Interesting!
Buying the herbalist turn 3 would have been a serious mistake.
1) In a hunting party deck I want to minimize the number of different cards.
2) I want to play witch and get to $5, so I don't want to take village over silver too many times.
3) I don't get to $8 (hunting party-village or hunting party-silver) for a while anyway
4) Herbalist is a pretty lousy card if I can't use the buy. Worse then a copper.
All of these arguments are already mentioned by jonts26, but if you still doubt about the turn 3 herbalist I guess you underestimate the importance of mainly #1.
But I guess you need a Village.
Otherwise you have to play the Witch last and this will make you draw your discarded cards and cause all of your HPs to miss the reshuffle. It doesn't matter when you have 2 cards left, but still something to watch out for. HP + Drawer can be kinda awkward.
Good point, and quite important in HP games. This, and because I wanted to take conspirator over silver were the main reasons for the village.
It allows me to end the turn with a hunting party-reshuffle on turns 14, 16 & 17.
He may have been better off getting the herbalist on something like turn 10 instead of the conspirator. By that point, he has a decent chance of still drawing his main cards so it's less of a liability. But he only had 1 witch instead of 2 and still won the curse split. I don't think he would have done that if he bought the turn 3 herbalist.
I think buying it turn 10 is still too early. Curses aren't split yet and really all I want is curse some more and go to yet another party.
Not buying the herbalist at all probably would have worked as well here, but hey, how many chances do you get at a herbalist for $11.