Round 2: hakase 3.5-0.5 mith
Another year, another loss to a top 10 seed! At least I got a half point this year. I think I played pretty well in the first two games despite my long hiatus, but the lack of familiarity with Empires definitely doomed me in the last games.
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Raze, Hermit, Smugglers, Warehouse, Horse Traders, Mining Village, Golem, Vault, Venture, Peddler, Ritual, Wall
mith 45-45 (25-25) hakase
I opened Horse Traders/Warehouse vs. Horse Traders/Hermit, and won the Peddler split as a result. hakase used Raze and Hermit well to keep around 15 cards for Wall; meanwhile, I aimed to get a lead on Provinces and Ritual some Peddlers. I feel like I missed a good chance to win here, probably trashing Peddlers too early. We did some endgame dancing with Duchies and Ritual, and on my final turn I got stuck on $3, ahead 45-44 with 1 Curse left for a three-pile. I had a Curse in hand to trash with Ritual, but $1 short, so I passed and fortunately he was only able to tie.
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Coin of the Realm, Hamlet, Pawn, Doctor, Urchin, Bureaucrat, Island, Messenger, Distant Lands, Sentry, Seaway, Battlefield
hakase 65-64 mith
Another very tense endgame. I opened Urchin/Urchin going hard for Mercenary, while hakase got a 5/2 for Sentry/CotR. Eventually, our decks weren't too different. I won the Distant Lands split 5/3 for a small lead, but by the time I ran out of Mercenary fuel our decks were basically the same (four treasures) except I had the Mercenary to threaten something drastic and he had the Sentry (maybe 2?). He used Seaway on Urchin, I used it on Island (primarily to keep pace in gaining Islands), and then we danced on all the victory piles. Eventually the Islands were gone and we were down to 2 each of Province, Duchy, and Estate - with $5, I had to buy a Duchy and hope he only hit $5 (I had 2 Gold in hand if he missed), but his Sentries got him to $7 for the win.
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Engineer, Overlord, Masterpiece, Miser, Ghost Ship, Governor, Graverobber, Lost City, Mint, Relic, Training, Bandit Fort
mith 4-34 hakase
I lost this on the opening; I hovered over Overlord for a long time but finally opened Silver/Silver and picked it up next turn. He opened Silver/Overlord, and was able to immediately start hitting with Ghost Ship for an easy win of the Governor split and also fairly early buy of Mint.
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City Quarter, Page, Stonemason, Warehouse, Wishing Well, Plaza, Worker's Village, Distant Lands, Library, Altar, Basilica, Tomb
hakase 42-30 mith
After buying Overlord too late, I think I bought City Quarter a bit too early and was never able to trigger it... which discouraged me from buying more. He waited a little longer but then bought 3, and was able to draw his deck several times and eventually pile out with Stonemason gaining more Stonemason etc. This was pretty close otherwise - we hit each step of the Traveler line on the same turns - but hitting the City Quarters consistently meant this was never in doubt.