Opponent should have gone Transmute regardless of whether he won or lost the Curse split; it removes bad cards from his deck (Curse, Copper) and may replace them with Actions that he can draw with SP, and later in the game he can Transmute extra Transmutes into Duchies for points. No need for Gold here if you can gain enough Treasuries/FVs with University, and Thieves can lock down a money deck. The only concern would be opponent Possessions. I might actually consider getting a Thief somewhat early in this game to try to keep the opponent from hitting $6P.
Your opponent probably executed something very poorly here because I cannot fathom Familiar into money being a winning strategy.
