I played a game on iso a while back that used Embargo on VP piles while behind in a very critical way. If councilroom were up I could easily find it because I remember the opponent (a friend of mine) but without CR I have no idea how I would find it. Is this possible without basically re-implementing CR?
Anyways, I'll try to describe it. My opponent went with a BM strategy and I went for a HoP megaturn. I embargoed provinces twice by the time he got 4 of them, and there were no alt VP available. This gave me the time to put together my HoP megaturn, and when that time came, I was able to trash 4 HoPs for Provinces (without gaining curses!) and grab some Duchies as well to edge him out for the win.
Granted, my opponent made a couple of tactical mistakes: Mountebank was in the kingdom -- I was 1P and I opened Embargo/Silver, he opened Silver/Silver (I think) and on my turn 3 I drew the embargo along with $2. I felt my only choice was to embargo Mountebank, so I did. My opponent hit $5 on his T3, thought for a minute, and bought a Lab. I bought a Mountebank and took the curse on T4. This is what made me think that a HoP deck was even viable, so I decided to go for it.
Another smaller thing was that my opponent hit a late-game lucky $8 with 4 double-embargoed Provinces left and decided to buy a Duchy over a Province. If he had taken a province instead I didn't think I could have caught up.
...still, I don't think this means that Embargoing provinces didn't play a significant role here, and I think the concept is good.
