I'm not sure the Remodeling Coppers really did that much for you. It got some Apprentice fuel and is probably better than nothing, but not a huge deal. You might have done just as well with a Baron to buy extra Apprentice fuel instead, though the Remodel helps with turning Explorer Gold into Provinces. The key to the strategy was Explorer in a simple big drawing deck. Regarding your fool opponent's strategy, I screwed up by getting way too many Stables and no Apprentice, so I ended up stuck with Stables I couldn't play.