Having lost the first round to a skilled but less highly ranked opponent, I found myself really craving the win here (I do so, so poorly in tournaments).
http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130819/log.5085f5130cf270038ff92212.1376961194057.txtA clear Big Money board, but which terminals to get? I use my Baker token on a Haggler/Hermit opening. The Hermit doesn't feel so important to me, but I know I can crunch up those Shelters and Silver gaining will be nice. The Haggler I do believe is the clear choice at $5, but my opponent prefers to pair his Hermit with Merchant Ship. I just don't have much love for Merchant Ship, personally. In any event, Haggler serves me extremely well here; I can gain Bakers off Golds, Golds off Provinces, and take a late-game Apprentice gain to really close things out, but I don't need it. An easy win.
http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130819/log.5085f5130cf270038ff92212.1376962440020.txtSmithy, Ironmonger, Village, Pawn and Stonemason lend themselves strongly to engine building here. However, SM is the only trashing, and worse, there's just nothing for the engine to
do here, other than draw your whole deck. It's like a just Base engine, if you know what I mean. Anyway, we both make liberal use of SM's overpay aspect, which is really nice here, and SM is actually nice for Copper trashing (well, it's not ideal, but it's better than nothing). Light Copper trashing really helps the Ironmongers here. Anyway, my opponent simply gets too fancy. He's definitely still in the game, although he SMs a Smithy into 2 Villages, and then does this again--a questionable move, I think, given that villages are more plentiful than draw here. But then he loads up on Treasure Maps??? Later he tells me he wanted to SM lots of Golds into Duchy/Duke. It's a neat idea, and I commend him for it, but he was probably going to have three pile problems at that point, even if he could pull it off. As it is, he just draws horribly, and can't line things up. Safely ahead, I can win off SM trashing and overpay gains. That really is a neat card for closing out games, by the way.
http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130819/log.5085f5130cf270038ff92212.1376963917665.txtMy opponent opens 5/2 with Cultist. That's never something I want to see! I'm Silver/Silver all day here--just need the Cultists. I actually buy a Throne Room off my $4 hand right before the second reshuffle. I only have the one Cultist, so I know this is a *bad* purchase, but I figure if I get lucky and collide them, it will negate his advantage, and if I don't oh well, just would have been a Silver. So I like that call, even though they didn't collide. Still, some fortunate Cultist chaining means we split the Ruins. What goes wrong for him after that? He just never hits $5 for some reason, and I hit it over and over again, loading up on Level 2 Cities. He seems more committed to trashing than I am (even though we have an equal number of Trade Routes, he seems to get to them faster with more Wishing Wells and Thrones). But... Cities, man. He has no third pile, and I have a Province anyway, so I can safely buy them out, and then his trashing advantage is actually a hindrance, because we're both drawing our whole decks, but mine has money in it and his doesn't.
Thanks for the games! My opponent must have been frustrated with his shuffle luck in Games 2 and 3. It was brutal.