Yesterday, I played
this game against Crablar. My main idea was to Forge basically everything, reveal Market Squares while I was at it, and then transition into stuff with Tournament. Meanwhile, Crablar opens Treasure Map/Market Square with the idea of activating Market Squares off of TM matches. I win 31-20 and he comments that his strategy was probably a bad idea, and asks for a rematch. He has a pro rating of about 5300, so I accept.
This leads to
this gem. I open with Sea Hag which he ignores all game and when I'm up 40-7 he resigns and asks to make it a best of 5 series. I have the time, so I accept.
Game 3 is an engine based on Border Village, Hunting Grounds, Bridge, and Golem with Treasury and Baker for support. We both go for it and despite his Potion opening, he causes a three-pile ending to win.
Finally, we play
this game which again features Sea Hag. He ignores it, and opens Potion, getting 2 Transmutes but never a Possession while I keep giving him Curses. Thanks to trashing, he's able to end with only 2, but my Courtyard-BM approach with a Sea Hag and Lookout beats his interesting engine/Rebuild mix.
Now, where am I going with this? Well, two places. First, this is evidence to me that Goko's rating system sucks. I can't believe that a player can pass 5000 and still ignore Sea Hag, go for Treasure Map/Market Square, and open Potion on a Golem board, or a Transmute/Possession board. And this is not the first time I've seen this kind of play at what I thought was a high level. I won't say that I played any of those games perfectly; I accidentally trashed too much on a Forge play in the first one, and missed some opportunities for Border Village/other stuff in the third. (And those are just the mistakes I noticed). That being said, you'd think that by the time you get to 5000 you at least have basic opening strategy down.
Secondly, some strategy advice. I would have thought that it would be advice for beginners, but it turns out that it's advice for players with ratings up to about 5000. So, three things come to mind from this game which may be useful to players of all skill levels. One: Don't base Market Square on a one-time trash. It's just not a good idea. Two: $3P is a value which you miss about 30% of the time (IIRC) on a Potion/Silver opening. Trying to get $4P on turn 3/4 is even harder and $6P is almost impossible. If the goal of your potion is to get a Golem or Possession, don't open with it. Three: Cursing is good. Really good. Even with trashing in the game, if you're trashing curses you aren't trashing your starting cards. You want to open with Cursing if you can and get it ASAP if you can't.
There, that's a bunch of ranting and rage which I needed to share, but which may or may not be of any interest to anyone.