This game illustrates 2 things:
A. Facing a margrave/crossroads opening is a tremendous beating. I wasn't able to get to 5 until turn 8, all while making a concerted effort to do so.
B. You must attack your opponent every way possible.
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201301/08/game-20130108-120545-9acbe329.htmlThe important cards were margrave, crossroads, masq and spice merchant.
I was mostly proud of myself for not giving up while taking a beating. I kept buying silver, and trashing things with masq and spice merchant. I was able to win because my opponent did not realize how strong margrave+masq is, as it effectively brings you down to only 2 useful cards in hand. As soon as I bought a margrave, I was doing this every turn. Had he bought a masq when he bought a spice merchant, there is probably no way I could have won.
I think perhaps he thought there was no way I could come back, and so started buying provinces early.
Maybe nothing so surprising to this game, but it felt good to fight it out.