singletee 4-3 mith
First player advantage ;) But seriously, those were some wild games. Well played by singletee, and good luck the rest of the way!
18939723 - singletee 7-(-2) mith
Torturer/Villa/Squire; I got a 5/2, but had trouble stringing anything together. I'm sure I made some dumb mistakes here (I know once I discarded when I should have taken a Curse). Our decks were very similar at the end, except for a Province (and a Conquest buy for the remaining points).
18939990 - mith 38-30 singletee
Magpie/Magpie/Necromancer vs. Magpie/Trader/Magpie for the first three turns (with Alms). As singletee put it, my Zombie Mason did some work. Magpies were gone quickly, and they left Estates on top for the Mason. I bought Soothsayer (despite the Trader), and singletee did get a Silver out of it once, but otherwise it worked out nicely. I had a small lead throughout, and singletee took the penultimate Province gambling that I wouldn't hit $8. I hit $7. But! his Guardian blocked my Minion play with a dud hand, and my Soothsayer got Zombie Apprenticed to get me over the top.
18940313 - singletee 43-31 mith
Pretty sure this was my first game with Cursed Gold - I've messed around with it doing puzzles of course, but no idea how to play the opening with it. I opted for -/Witch against singletee's Witch/Silver (though singletee had to play Cursed Gold to get to $5). I was debating Potion (to go for Golem immediately), and with Vineyard on the board I probably should have. Just felt like a good way to get too many Curses early and never hit $4P even. singletee got a turn 5 Inheritance (Caravan Guard), and I didn't hit $7 (even with Cursed Gold) until late, and that was the obvious difference; I did split the Curses 7-3 in my favor, but the mass of Estate-Caravan Guards was too good for hitting $8. I did get a couple Lurkers going to get Golems, Potion/Witch is looking better and better as I think about it. I dunno, it could have gone terribly.
18940627 - mith 9-7 singletee
Another favorable split for me - 5/2 for Count/Lurker, against Catapult/Silver. I made some dumb mistakes here (Travelling Fair meant after I trashed with Lurker, singletee was able to put a Lurker on deck and snipe it). But I did convert the early trashing advantage into a decent Library/Farming Village thing, with lots of vanishing actions. I hit $16 on turn 15, and rather than double Province I went for Fairgrounds + 2 topdeck Farming Villages, figuring I had a more consistent deck and way more pile control with Lurker. I still had an Estate, plus singletee had to buy Duchy instead of Fairgrounds on turn 15, and that was the difference in scores; my last turn I was able to trash the final Market and Farming Village and buy the last four Lurkers.
18941166 - singletee 73-40 mith
I was totally lost on this one. Platinum/Colony... Vault/Tunnel was there, but that felt too slow with Colony. Otherwise, it was get to Platinum and play Rangers for big turns. I bought Taxman to try getting to Platinum faster and slowing singletee down, but just going Ranger was better, apparently. I also went for Junk Dealer for trashing, and just ended up drawing a bunch of dead actions with my Rangers, whereas singletee got an early Vampire and used Bat to trash. I also completely overlooked Changeling, and singletee hit an amazing turn with three Changelings turning into Platina.
18941541 - mith 55-49 singletee
Identical starts for this one; Potion/Silver followed by Jack/Alchemist. My Jack was luckier, and then we diverged around turn 7/8, with singletee taking a Ghost Ship and me taking a Miser. I figured Ghost Ship would be too slow once the Alchemists were rolling, and I was right; however, the presence of Orchard gave singletee a point advantage buying three Bazaars and Ghost Ships while I ran through the City stack with no +Buy. Turn 16 I finished off the Alchemists (7-3), and then bought a Province next turn without thinking things through. The problem was that while my deck was more consistent, singletee's was consistent enough to almost certainly hit $8 every turn, and that 4 point cushion would be the difference. So after a long think, I decided to go for the last four Cities, while singletee built up a big lead. I had just enough time, picking up some Workshops (extra gains for Orchard) and Misers (which were now +$7) on the penultimate turn and then a big last turn with 3 Noble Brigands, 6 Duchies, an Estate, and the last Province.
(Reading the chat on this after the fact was fun... :))
18941920 - singletee 55-48 mith
I was sure I had this won. And that's probably why I lost, ultimately. I can't load the game right now to dig into the details, but:
I think we hit Province on back-to-back turns, after a Bard/Silver opening for singletee (with Tournament after) and Tournament/Silver for me. Mine paired first, and I got the Followers. Yay. Meanwhile, we also bought City Quarters and Encampments. singletee took Trusty Steed over Princess (I guess draw helps the City Quarters, especially since I had most of the Encampments by now).
Then my City Quarters connected, and I was able to grab Princess with my whole deck in hand. And at this point, I think I just didn't consider how I could possibly not win, and made several bad decisions. Diadem was a lot of coin for this particular turn (8 spare actions), but with only 3 buys I wasn't ever going to take full advantage of it, and it wasn't an action. Bag of Gold was an action, and did help at one point to keep an Encampment, but was otherwise terrible. Mostly, though, I didn't keep building. I grabbed a couple Colonies, and a Plunder or Bank? Figuring next time I had a big turn, I'd be able to afford three more Colonies and put it out of reach.
And that turn never came. singletee did have a City Quarter advantage (but I think I could have taken at least one more at some point, and didn't), but just buying more actions before greening or three-piling should have been sufficient. It was a slow, painful way to lose. Especially at the end, with both of us failing to connect and leaving me with just a little bit of hope. :)
Oh well. My wife will be happy!
