I have to say I'm proud of myself for this one. Probably my most complicated comeback ever:
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201301/23/game-20130123-144812-1147487b.htmlcards in supply: Cartographer, Duchess, Duke, Hamlet, Harem, Potion, Salvager, Scrying Pool, Stables, Warehouse, and Wishing Well
My opponent opens 5/2, goes Stables/Hamlet, and opts for a Duke strategy. I can't blame him. There isn't
great support for it, but there isn't really much dominating here besides, and Stables with some Copper buys off Hamlet can probably get the job done.
I open 4/3. Can you do anything with Scrying Pool here? There isn't really much virtual coin (I think at first glance), but lots of cantrips and Hamlet support, so I figure, we'll see.
I'm getting a nice deck going, but he already has 2 Duchies, and what am I going to do? A Pool deck will not hold together for Duchies and Dukes, and I'm behind anyway. But I have Salvager, so I opt to take 3 Duchies just to deny them to him and crunch them up later. And then a friendly message appears.
"Would you like to gain a Duchess?"
Oh yes. Yes I would.
Duchess is of course good for his strategy too, but with enough Hamlets... and eventually, I have enough... they're free Silvers for me.
More than free silvers. Check out this cool trick I do: I draw my whole deck, with plenty of Scrying Pools to spare. Then I play all my Hamlets, and discard all the Duchess for actions and buys. Then I draw them all with a Scrying Pool.
Then I play Warehouse, drawing nothing, and discarding my extra Pools. Then, I play Duchess, recycyling a deck of 3 Scyring Pools, and leave those on top for next time.
Then I play 5 more Duchesses for the coin.
At that point I can easily catch back up on Provinces, with no fear of my deck stalling.
Thanks to SadPanda for waiting through my ridiculously long turns.