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[zahlman]

http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201212/11/game-20121211-092347-4ff341c9.html

The guy fails to be aggressive with Ambassador early, doesn't care about Possession on board, doesn't care about like a million other things, massively over-builds (I mean what is he going to do with GM anyway) and stomps me anyway by basically just taking PStones.

Meanwhile, I trim my deck down, take Silvers, have everything under control, start building an Alch stack, and yet somehow I can't ever afford GM or Possession. How does that happen? I was supposed to be able to build a stack that could reliably draw deck and Possess him, and then gradually relieve him of everything nice via the Ambassadors...

[DWetzel]

I see what you were trying to do, but maybe get a Potion sooner, try to get a couple Alchemists going, and then worry about Ambassadoring stuff back?  I'm not sure anything much works with a 5/2 on that board, but that might be a better try. 

At least you have University to grab right away as a fallback to start grabbing Warehouses and Ambassadors and Inns to really strongly thin your deck out a bit later.  That might be even better than grabbing an Alchemist first, actually.  Use the University to make up the tempo you lost by opening 5/2.

[dondon151]

I'm not sure how University really even helps you here. The only card that nets positive draw is Alchemist. Most cards that you can gain via University are harmful at getting to GMs (or even to Alchemists). For example, the Sea Hag that you gained was unnecessary because say that you wanted to curse your opponent: why not get a Worker's Village instead and buy a Curse later on? Or get a Sea Hag after your deck gets rolling? Or just wait until he gets around to playing his Sea Hag and you can give him the 9 remaining Curses. You certainly don't want 4 Universities, and I'm not even sure you'd want 1.

On turn 11 you pretty much know that you have the Amb war won. So return an Amb with your other Amb and that's one less card in your deck that doesn't generate money.

[KingsSkort]

If your goal is to possess your opponent a lot, I don't think you went about it very well. Specifically, University contributes absolutely nothing to gaining possession. It's a handsize reducer that gives you useless +actions and let's you gain actions that don't help you. You gained a billion worker's villagers that were useless. You ambassadored away all your money (feeding his PStones). You didn't curse your opponent until T15.

For playing a possession strat, 5/2 is a terrible opening here. I have no idea if this is right or not, but I would think about opening potion or even silver instead of ambassador, which is both dangerous and not helpful to your plan. Until I can buy possession, my only goals are alchemists, money, and warehouses as needed depending on how much junk he throws at me. Probably add 1 amb in there eventually if it looks safe (or lots of ambs to give to your opponent). Once you get a couple possessions, load up on potions, warehouses, and villages to play more possessions.

[DG]

Your opponent put together a strategy with philosopher's stones, letting the deck expand so that the stones can buy grand markets and provinces. Warehouses sift through the big deck to find the stones. It's a strategy but rather dangerous in a kingdom with grand markets, possession, etc. As soon as you see philosopher's stones you can tell that gifting coppers to your opponent with an ambassador isn't a great attack. You immediately need to refocus on developing your own deck and look upon the ambassador as a inefficient way of clearing that deck. With hindsight, taking a warehouse instead of a second ambassador gives you more options.

You absolutely do need the sea hag, university, or curse here. You can't punish your opponent with deck expansion and these cards all set your deck development backwards. You need to stick to plan A so buy alchemists, grand markets, and perhaps possession.

Edit - of course - do not need those cards

[DWetzel]

I'm not sure how University really even helps you here. The only card that nets positive draw is Alchemist.

Well yes, there's that.

Still, this is going to be an Ambassador slog one way or the other -- I'd rather get one or two Universities (then maybe we can even pick up a P-stone at some point midgame, it'll be nice later), a couple Warehouses, and then hit back with multiple Ambassadors (we can plan and execute this because, well, University).  Then once our deck is thin enough focus on getting a bit of coin and getting to Grand Markets.

[dondon151]

I was about to disagree vehemently with DG but then I realized that this

You absolutely do need the sea hag, university, or curse here. You can't punish your opponent with deck expansion and these cards all set your deck development backwards. You need to stick to plan A so buy alchemists, grand markets, and perhaps possession.

was probably a typo and that he meant to say that you don't need the former cards.

Regardless, I don't think that expanding your opponent's deck is something that should be avoided even with the presence of PStones. For one, they are less likely to bunch together with a bloated deck because there is absolutely zero other support for them. Keep in mind that this is a Colony board and it would take a stroke of luck to hit $11 in a massively bloated deck (especially if a bunch of that bloat is in the form of Curses). Certainly zahlman should avoid using Ambassador on Copper when he isn't planning on returning anything.

Once you've grabbed Possession, the opponent's deck bloat helps you equally (on average). Unfortunately I don't think that Possession is very good here after you've destroyed your opponent's deck, but if you possess one of his PStone hands, that might swing a Colony or Province over in your favor.

Disagree with KingsSkort on not opening Amb. Opponent opened Amb and zahlman would fall behind. Missing $3P on the reshuffle is particularly fatal because you don't even get an Alch, but even if you do get an Alch, it's like opening with a delayed Lab on an Amb board, because you're hoping for a crapshoot to collide Alch and Potion early on.

[DWetzel]

I think (nay, know) that opening Potion is with the intent of grabbing a University, not an Alchemist.  Then you pick up a couple Warehouses and Ambassadors and fire back twice as hard.