Instructional Game #6: Empty the Treasure Maps

Game Log

...with Shelters.

My opponent opens Minstrel/Silver, gets a pair of Maps on turns 3 and 4, and collides them pretty quickly. I go for Silver/Silver into a Count and start trashing down. After turn 9, our decks look as follows:

The battle lines are drawn: he's attempting to use his quick map activations to power through Provinces and lock the game up. I'm trying to build more of an engine and... wait and see what to do. I have some options: just get some treasures and be able to single Province more consistently; use Stonemason to grab tons of components, probably to Graverob lots of things over a couple turns; use Bishop to score tons of points. I feel that probably any of these would actually work, but as the game state progressed in this particular game, I like the options progressively more as you got through that list. The reason for this is that the later ones give me increasingly more time before the game ends, and extra time should help me with my superior deck, as what I really need is to survive long enough for that quality to shine through. The key point here is that I expect my opponent's deck to break down if I give it long enough to do so.

At the time of the game, though, I was a bit wishy-washy, and my natural instincts of taking the points lead when it seems to be enough caught on for a moment, leading to my buying a Province on turn 14. This is a pretty bad play, as it just speeds up his win condition (empty the Provinces), while not really advancing my own thing at all. Soon after this, I strike on the optimal plan: Bishop golds for points, Stonemason overpay for more components, Stonemason Golds/Catacombs for components as well, loading up on more Maps to refuel. And it works like a thing of beauty. The other nice thing about this deck (besides being a strong, resilient way to gain a zillion points) is that it gives me a lot of control over when the game ends. I can always buy another Province to lock the game out, or I can also smash lots of things and make a pile ending happen, but either way, it will be on my terms.


As we finally round the bend on turn 18, I see an opening, using the on-trash ability of Catacombs, and pile out on Stonemason, Wandering Minstrel, and... Treasure Map!

Instructional Game #5: Maximizing Draws

Game Log

So there's a lot of Trash-for-benefit to note here, between Stonemason, Salvager, and Forge, with both Border Village and Cultist to enable that. The Tactician + Forge combo means that you should be able to clean your deck up - and this is important. You still need to go for Cultist here, for two reasons: First, getting too far behind in the Ruins split is going to be problematic, as though you can eventually clean up, it's going to take a lot more time. Second, the deck does need draw, and Cultist is by far the most efficient way to get it here (well, one could argue Tactician, but that's not repeatable).

With that layout, we enter the game. I open Salvager/Silver. You might be tempted by Spice Merchant here, but I want more money early, to get my Cultist, have a chance at double Cultist by spiking 7, and have decent chances at hitting 6 for Border Village into Cultist. Further, the Copper trashing may be less important here than normal, given that Forge will hopefully clean that up anyway.

I want to loop back to Border Village here for a second. Normally, the card is something you actually wouldn't want in your Cultist decks, as it can be drawn dead, you aren't very likely to draw them in the right order, and especially important for cultist, it hurts the chaining aspect. Here, though, I am planning on cleaning up, and especially, there's lots of Trash for Benefit.


The game progresses smoothly - my opponent is clearly on the same basic plan as me. I don't get to my Cultists at very nice points in the shuffle, and it might be easy to think I am falling behind for that reason. But on the other hand, I am hitting my money slots pretty well, gaining better cards. This is easy to underestimate, particularly by feel in-game, but in reality, my draws are really just exceptional. After my opponent's seventh turn, our decks look as follows:

We can see that I've just been drawing better than my opponent here. It's somewhat slow for me to get my Cultists online, but he's hardly been better, and to compensate, I have trashed an extra Estate, and more importantly, I have the next turn. With that turn, I get three Cultists fired off, making $7. I am significantly ahead, but it's really important to play precisely in these cases, to maximize your chances, as the luck can turn at any point. And there are lots of options. The main ones here are Forge, Border Village + 5-cost, or Stonemason into two 5-costs. I go for Stonemason-Cultist-Tactician. There are 6 ruins left at this point, so I don't want to abandon that split and pressure entirely. I also don't want to go double Cultist though, because 6 Ruins isn't so many, and I want to start setting up for clearing out. Finally, extra Border Village just doesn't do enough for me here.

The Ruins split ends up at 5-5, and my draws are good for the next couple turns. More importantly, my opponent, who is still playing quite well, misses his Forge on his Tactician turn. Thus, I have used my superior draws to set myself up that, even when I whiff on turns 13 and 14, by my next Tactician turn, on 15, I still have an advantage. And given my thin deck, and all the trash-for-benefit, I am on the prowl, and find the winning cascade of gains that Stonemason so often engenders. This is one last point of precision - just gaining some points would probably put me in very good position, but given the explosiveness of the board, there is some chance that my opponent could make some play making mid-turn gains and pull out some incredible comeback. Slamming the door when possible is something you always need to be on the lookout for, and take when you can get.

Quick Game #1: Turn 8 Estate

Game Log

Setup:

Not much to comment on in the general case here. Apothecary engines are the obvious best thing, with Stonemason, Warehouse, and Mystic all as quite good support. We mirror, with me going second.

I want to join the game after the Apothecaries ran out, which happened on my opponents seventh(!) turn:

As we can see, I have a fairly small-looking, but quite significant advantage, based mostly on my two extra Apothecaries. This was more or less down to pure dumb luck in getting very nice connections of 4p to Stonemason into double Apothecary. It's also worth noting that I've Stonemasoned a Stonemason into a pair of Coppers. Copper is easier to draw in my deck of 6 Apothecaries, though of course this is going to be offset by having a higher number of non-drawing cards. So if we take the overall draw-ability as about a wash, the big advantage here is that I have just a little more money - and enough to buy a Province.

But at this point, I am already in Endgame mode. Apothecaries are an empty pile. Four Warehouses are gone, and Stonemasons are both lowered and very easy to run. The game can't end right away, but jockeying for position is something you already need to think about. On my next turn, I draw my deck (sans one estate). I turn my potion into a pair of Warehouses, for improved reliability (and the key thing here is to discard Coppers - later Apothecaries become AMAZING). And then I have 9 - I could buy a Province, and that's probably ok, but I feel like it doesn't position me well for a long game. And while I am already considering how piling out can happen here, it isn't going to happen just yet, so I do need to be prepared for a longer game. For this reason, I take Stonemason for a Festival and a Mystic. The Mystic is a significantly better card for the deck, as it's going to hit a huge percentage of the time, but the Festival gives me access to an extra buy, an extra Stonemason play, and TONS more pile control. It isn't terribly common that two different cards off a Stonemason overpay is the correct way to go, but I think it's definitely the right call here, as the festival is really needed right away, and the Mystic is a clear step better after that.

My opponent counters with an identical turn.

And then I have a complete dud, producing only $3. I buy an Estate. This is actually absolutely critical. The game can already end at any time. Overpaying for Stonemason to get Warehouses (only 2 left) and then again for Stonemasons themselves (4 left right now, down to 3 after the Warehouse overpay) will end the game. So the point is actually pretty important to hold off pressure from my opponent doing this (he could potentially still win this turn, but it would require a near-perfect draw to empty AND score 2+ points), as well as to be able to more easily threaten this myself. On turn 9, my opponent builds more, getting another Mystic and a Cellar. It's possible he should try to score some points, in order to block me, especially considering that my previous-turn dud means I'm pretty likely to go off this turn. He's in a very tough spot, though, because scoring points is going to continue to hurt his long-game chances.

In any case, I do have the monster hand I need, and finish it out.