I anyone is interested I worked it from left to right one at a tme, it now works:
Then /^I should see my dashboard(?: with?(?: "([^"]*)" works,?)?(?: "([^"]*)" open submissions,?)?(?: "([^"]*)" total submissions,?)?(?: "([^"]*)" favorite publishers,?))?$/ do |works,open_subs,total_subs,fav_pubs|
Then %{I should see "Favorite Publishers #{fav_pubs}"}
Then %{I should see "Open Submissions #{open_subs}"}
Then %{I should see "Total Submissions #{total_subs}"}