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Dominion => Dominion General Discussion => Let's Discuss ... => Topic started by: Jack Rudd on April 29, 2016, 04:48:37 pm

Title: Let's discuss Alchemy cards: Transmute
Post by: Jack Rudd on April 29, 2016, 04:48:37 pm
(http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/images/thumb/2/22/Transmute.jpg/200px-Transmute.jpg)

Trash-for-detriment.

What sort of decks is this actually useful in?
Does it have any genuine combos?
Have you, like me, banned it from Black Market decks in your home games?
Title: Re: Let's discuss Alchemy cards: Transmute
Post by: werothegreat on April 29, 2016, 05:25:05 pm
Does it have any genuine combos?

Swindling Vineyards.
Title: Re: Let's discuss Alchemy cards: Transmute
Post by: Seprix on April 29, 2016, 06:29:50 pm
I think everyone's had that moment when they look at this card, and they think to themselves how great it would be to trash those starting Estates for Gold. And then they actually play... And get #rekt...

The only potential use I see this card being used in is when there's just no end in sight for a game (a slog) but you're very ahead and want to end the game on Transmute/Duchy/something piles...?

Arguably worse than Scout.
Title: Re: Let's discuss Alchemy cards: Transmute
Post by: Jack Rudd on April 29, 2016, 06:36:07 pm
It might be worth it in Scrying Pool games: you need the Potion anyway, and turning manky Coppers into manky Transmutes will at least make it harder for your Pools to choke. Still not great, though.
Title: Re: Let's discuss Alchemy cards: Transmute
Post by: Dingan on April 29, 2016, 07:18:16 pm
I think Transmute is the worst card.  Period.  I have bought Scout, Adventurer, Stash (granted, I don't own Stash), and the like probably somewhere between 5 and 20 times in my life.  But I know for a fact I have bought Transmute less than 5 times ever (not counting the games where I was still figuring out how bad it was).  It has just such niche uses.  The cases mentioned -- Swindling Vineyards and Scrying Pool support -- have their flaws.

In order to Swindle a Vineyard, you need to be able to topdeck their Vineyard.  Which means this is, at the very best, sort of a 3-card combo.  And you're opponent is already greening at that point.  And they need to have not Swindled your engine away into nothingness already.  It's something I've never even come close to lining up in my thousands of games of playing.

I guess there's something to be said about Transmute supporting Scrying Pool.  It'd be sort of like Rats but much, much worse.  Again, it's something I've never come close to doing in my Dominion career.

Maybe in a super slog it's actually usable.  Or as a Vineyards enabler once all the Vineyards are gone?  Idk.

I think it would be correctly priced and maybe somewhat average if it had +1 Action.
Title: Re: Let's discuss Alchemy cards: Transmute
Post by: Seprix on April 29, 2016, 07:20:47 pm
In order to Swindle a Vineyard, you need to be able to topdeck their Vineyard.  Which means this is, at the very best, sort of a 3-card combo.

All you need is Scrying Pool, Swindler, and possibly a Village variant. Just play Scrying Pool, fish for Vineyards, and then hit it with Swindler.
Title: Re: Let's discuss Alchemy cards: Transmute
Post by: Dingan on April 29, 2016, 07:23:09 pm
In order to Swindle a Vineyard, you need to be able to topdeck their Vineyard.  Which means this is, at the very best, sort of a 3-card combo.

All you need is Scrying Pool, Swindler, and possibly a Village variant. Just play Scrying Pool, fish for Vineyards, and then hit it with Swindler.

And Vineyards needs to be in the kingdom (that's why I said sort of a 3 card combo).
Title: Re: Let's discuss Alchemy cards: Transmute
Post by: Seprix on April 29, 2016, 07:24:16 pm
Alternatively, have Highways in play, and trade away any Potion cost card for a Transmute*. But really. I can think of more combos** with Scout than with Transmute.


*This is an edgecase, and not necessarily reflective of any typical randomized game of Dominion.

**short for combination, used in the sense of two or more Dominion cards used together that are better than the sum of their parts.


Just covering my bases.
Title: Re: Let's discuss Alchemy cards: Transmute
Post by: AJD on April 29, 2016, 08:41:08 pm
I think it would be correctly priced and maybe somewhat average if it had +1 Action.

Hmm. I feel like as things wore on Donald came to decide that allowing more Actions to be non-terminal wouldn't break the game, and so there are non-terminals in later expansions that are very similar to terminals in earlier expansions. Compare Candlestick Maker and Forager to Herbalist and Trade Route.
Title: Re: Let's discuss Alchemy cards: Transmute
Post by: schadd on April 29, 2016, 09:12:53 pm
it would be cool if you could do it twice and the gain-a-transmute could also be gain a card costing up to $4
Title: Re: Let's discuss Alchemy cards: Transmute
Post by: Triumph44 on April 29, 2016, 09:33:25 pm
It might be worth it in Scrying Pool games: you need the Potion anyway, and turning manky Coppers into manky Transmutes will at least make it harder for your Pools to choke. Still not great, though.

This is about the only time I've used Transmute.  I know I've tried it some other times but cannot remember any success against a human player.
Title: Re: Let's discuss Alchemy cards: Transmute
Post by: Marcory on April 29, 2016, 09:37:55 pm
If you have a +Buy, Transmute is sometimes tolerable (at best) with:
--Familiar, especially when it's the only trashing.
--Cultist/Marauder (turn those Ruins into Duchies)
--Apprentice (Transmute your Coppers into Transmute, then Apprentice them)
--Duke (Transmute coppers, then Transmute Transmutes)
--Great Hall (Transmute a Great Hall into a Duchy and a Gold)
--Vineyards
--other Potion cards, when there's +Buy and no other Trashing

Not I'm a fan of Transmute, but it, like Scout and Thief, can occasionally be helpful, especially if you can pick it up essentially for free.
Title: Re: Let's discuss Alchemy cards: Transmute
Post by: Accatitippi on April 30, 2016, 04:31:34 am
I love the effect, but I've never seen it work out well, except in rare slogs.

It's just too slow to be good tfb, and too terminal for the self-gaining part to be of much use.
We usually houserule that it gains to hand. It makes it one shuffle faster in the early game, and with village support it gave us one very fun game where a player transmuted all his money away in one turn for a three pile.
Title: Re: Let's discuss Alchemy cards: Transmute
Post by: ackmondual on April 30, 2016, 04:15:21 pm
I recall Donald did a "if I had a time machine" rebuff for Scout.  Was there ever such a case here?  If not, any user community buffs to make this... well, not such so much, and actually be worth buying more than 5% or so of the cases?
Title: Re: Let's discuss Alchemy cards: Transmute
Post by: Jack Rudd on April 30, 2016, 07:53:48 pm
Transmuted Transmute
Action - $4

Trash a card from your hand. If it is:
An Action, gain a Victory card costing up to $5
A Victory card, gain a Treasure costing up to $6
A Treasure, gain an Action costing up to $4.
Title: Re: Let's discuss Alchemy cards: Transmute
Post by: ConMan on May 01, 2016, 07:31:07 pm
There's also the barely passable interaction with Duchess - each time you Transmute a Duchess, you get a Duchy but you also get another Duchess to keep feeding the cycle, meaning you can empty two piles with some speed, so you're just stuck with finding a third pile to empty. Also, you have a deck full of junk.
Title: Re: Let's discuss Alchemy cards: Transmute
Post by: ipofanes on May 02, 2016, 05:21:21 am
finding a third pile to empty.

From the top of my head, Vagrant might be a target.
Title: Re: Let's discuss Alchemy cards: Transmute
Post by: werothegreat on January 08, 2017, 11:20:24 pm
I kind of want to challenge people to have to buy Transmute in a game, and see how well they do against a "normal" strategy.
Title: Re: Let's discuss Alchemy cards: Transmute
Post by: Doom_Shark on January 08, 2017, 11:36:09 pm
I kind of want to challenge people to design a board in which transmute is actually good. The one thing I can think of is that it might be decent with tomb, but then again, every trasher is (slightly) more appealing alongside tomb
Title: Re: Let's discuss Alchemy cards: Transmute
Post by: Dingan on January 09, 2017, 12:28:33 am
I kind of want to challenge people to design a board in which transmute is actually good. The one thing I can think of is that it might be decent with tomb, but then again, every trasher is (slightly) more appealing alongside tomb
I wonder if Transmute / Sacrifice could be a thing.
Title: Re: Let's discuss Alchemy cards: Transmute
Post by: traces Around on January 09, 2017, 01:34:24 am
Figure out a board where Transmute/Bonfire is the way to go and you are done - some sort of filtering card and a bunch of cards that don't draw much or attack like Transmute, Crossroads, Village, Walled Village, Farming Village, Border Village, Port, Shanty Town, Native Village, Mining Village, Bonfire should do it.

Open Potion/Bonfire. Get a Transmute the first time you hit less than 3 with the Potion in hand. Bonfire with 3 to get rid of all of the Copper and turn all of the Estates into Gold before trashing the Transmute to Bonfire. Once you have done so, buy Province, Duchy, or Crossroads until the game ends.
I don't know if you call Transmute good here but it is one of the key cards to the best strategy.

Here is 5 Provinces in 14 turns on a pretty normal run:
Code: [Select]
Turn 1 - tracer
t plays 3 Coppers
t buys a Bonfire
t trashes 2 Coppers
t draws 4 Coppers and an Estate

Turn 2 - tracer
t plays 4 Coppers
t buys and gains a Potion
t shuffles their deck.
t draws 3 Coppers and 2 Estates

Turn 3 - tracer
t plays 3 Coppers
t buys a Bonfire
t trashes 2 Coppers
t shuffles their deck.
t draws 2 Coppers, 2 Estates and a Potion

Turn 4 - tracer
t plays a Potion
t buys and gains a Transmute
t shuffles their deck.
t draws 3 Coppers and 2 Estates

Turn 5 - tracer
t plays 3 Coppers
t buys a Bonfire
t trashes 2 Coppers
t shuffles their deck.
t draws 3 Estates, a Potion and a Transmute

Turn 6 - tracer
t plays a Transmute
t trashes an Estate
t gains a Gold
t shuffles their deck.
t draws a Copper, a Gold, an Estate, a Potion and a Transmute

Turn 7 - tracer
t plays a Transmute
t trashes an Estate
t gains a Gold
t plays a Potion, a Copper and a Gold
t buys a Bonfire
t trashes a Copper and a Potion
t shuffles their deck.
t draws 2 Golds, an Estate and a Transmute

Turn 8 - tracer
t plays a Transmute
t trashes an Estate
t gains a Gold
t plays a Gold
t buys a Bonfire
t trashes a Transmute
t shuffles their deck.
t draws 3 Golds

Turn 9 - tracer
t plays 3 Golds
t buys and gains a Province
t shuffles their deck.
t draws 3 Golds and a Province

Turn 10 - tracer
t plays 3 Golds
t buys and gains a Province
t shuffles their deck.
t draws 3 Golds and 2 Provinces

Turn 11 - tracer
t plays 3 Golds
t buys and gains a Province
t shuffles their deck.
t draws 2 Golds and 3 Provinces

Turn 12 - tracer
t plays a Gold
t buys and gains a Crossroads
t shuffles their deck.
t draws 3 Golds and 2 Provinces

Turn 13 - tracer
t plays 3 Golds
t buys and gains a Province
t shuffles their deck.
t draws 2 Golds, 2 Provinces and a Crossroads

Turn 14 - tracer
t plays a Crossroads
t reveals 2 Golds and 2 Provinces
t draws a Gold and a Province
t plays 3 Golds
t buys and gains a Province
t shuffles their deck.
t draws 2 Golds, 2 Provinces and a Crossroads
Title: Re: Let's discuss Alchemy cards: Transmute
Post by: Titandrake on January 09, 2017, 03:17:57 am
Is spending the turn to trash Transmute to Bonfire on turn 8 worth it? I would have expected a deck of 4 Golds + Transmute to be better than a deck of 3 Golds going into turn 9.
Title: Re: Let's discuss Alchemy cards: Transmute
Post by: traces Around on January 09, 2017, 03:34:12 am
Is spending the turn to trash Transmute to Bonfire on turn 8 worth it? I would have expected a deck of 4 Golds + Transmute to be better than a deck of 3 Golds going into turn 9.

To be honest I have no idea...you can see I've thought about this combo a ton.

I guess there are theoretical arguments both ways (especially with Crossroads as the filter) and I haven't bothered trying any optimization over the first time I played something like it in which I trashed a card with the Transmute due to slightly different draws.
Title: Re: Let's discuss Alchemy cards: Transmute
Post by: pingpongsam on January 09, 2017, 02:50:36 pm
Transmute Rats seems doable in an end game situation or something but not really.
Title: Re: Let's discuss Alchemy cards: Transmute
Post by: McGarnacle on January 09, 2017, 04:45:09 pm
Poor Transmute.
Title: Re: Let's discuss Alchemy cards: Transmute
Post by: jomini on January 09, 2017, 08:37:37 pm
The problem with Transmute has been the opportunity cost of the potion. At best, you can start hitting the Estates on T5 in normal games and T4 in games with very particular setups. If you could buy it for $4, it would be pretty strong as you could open it and have even odds of hitting E-> G on T3/4, yeah you sacrifice some buying that turn ... but you do that with trashers that do not give you gold too (like Steward). As always this means that Transmute is not particularly bad if you are already getting the Pot for other reasons.

I play a lot of sequential games where we vote in/out cards, getting a Mute is definitely better than nothing off a busted $2P and in Familiar games. Kills your curses and lets you increase your buying power, not a bad thing exactly. Even on an Alchemist board it can be worth it to grab a $2P Mute to have the option to cannibalize a late game deck for extra duchies. The very high lag time and opportunity cost really seems to be the biggest issue with Mute.

One option I have wondered about would be Transmute/Donate; if I am right I think this could illustrate just how much of Mute's poor performance is the opportunity cost.

Open Pot/Silver
T3: buy Transmute
T4: Donate (pay say $4 of debt) - trash all but EEETmuteS
T5: Pay $2, E -> G
T6: TmuteEEGS; E -> G; pay $2, buy a $3 (e.g. S)
T7: E -> G; buy a province
T8-T11: buy 3 provinces, maybe a G

I know I am a bit optimistic here, but that seems to be in the ballpark of Tmap/Donate and a good bit faster than building up Silver to Donate. Certainly, a tiny bit of support would work well here (like say Save or Mission). I have not played enough Donate to have a good feel for just how fast I need to build up, but this seems at least plausibly decent.

In like manner, I have had a hilariously good show from using Forge to minimize opportunity cost:
T"1": Forge EE to Pot, draw Pot; buy Mute, Ghall
T"2":Mute (Ghall -> Duchy & Gold) -> draw DG -> Forge DPot to Plat; buy Ghall/Draw
T"3":Mute (Ghall -> Duchy & Gold) -> draw DG -> Forge DG to Colony; buy Ghall/Draw

Gaining a net of $8 value every turn for 2 actions and 5 draw is pretty decent. Forge also allowed a quick gain of Pot and a quick burn of Pot. This avoided carrying around a second dead card and the need to burn two turns on setting up the value gain. A lot more Pot games would have me taking Mute as the only possible way to score > 6VP a turn if it were not for the fact that on such boards it almost invariably (e.g. Mine or Tax collector) means burning two whole turns on the endeavor (i.e. high odds of a 12 VP swing that means I need to gain at least 4 duchies to break even).

The potion cost is just pretty terrible. We tend to think it is worth it for most of the other potion cards because they are so vastly more powerful that than the $2 higher price options (e.g. University vs most any $4 village, Familiar vs $5 cursers, Apothecary vs $4 draw). Mute does its real magic a whole shuffle later so yeah you burn 1 turn on buying the Pot, another buying the Mute, most likely a third trashing E-> G ... and that is just not that great. Things like Donate/Mute or Bonfire/Mute work much better because you simply do not have so many dead turns.
Title: Re: Let's discuss Alchemy cards: Transmute
Post by: ConMan on January 09, 2017, 11:43:13 pm
They can't all be the best $P ever.
Title: Re: Let's discuss Alchemy cards: Transmute
Post by: SirPeebles on January 10, 2017, 02:12:24 am
Transmuted Transmute
Action - $4

Trash a card from your hand. If it is:
An Action, gain a Victory card costing up to $5
A Victory card, gain a Treasure costing up to $6
A Treasure, gain an Action costing up to $4.

I don't like the last line since there might not even be any Action cards costing up to $4 in the kingdom. This is especially true if Alchemy is the only expansion you're using.
Title: Re: Let's discuss Alchemy cards: Transmute
Post by: Holger on January 10, 2017, 05:23:10 am
Transmuted Transmute
Action - $4

Trash a card from your hand. If it is:
An Action, gain a Victory card costing up to $5
A Victory card, gain a Treasure costing up to $6
A Treasure, gain an Action costing up to $4.

I don't like the last line since there might not even be any Action cards costing up to $4 in the kingdom. This is especially true if Alchemy is the only expansion you're using.

Read again:
Transmuted Transmute
Action - $4
:P
Title: Re: Let's discuss Alchemy cards: Transmute
Post by: Jack Rudd on April 28, 2017, 05:47:10 pm
Resurrecting this to point out game #3143840, in which Transmute was vital to my victory.

And the point made earlier was right: Transmute would be good if it had +1 Action.
Title: Re: Let's discuss Alchemy cards: Transmute
Post by: Holger on May 01, 2017, 12:15:39 pm
They can't all be the best $P ever.

Actually, transmute is the best $P Action ever. :P
Title: Re: Let's discuss Alchemy cards: Transmute
Post by: McGarnacle on May 02, 2017, 12:22:23 pm
They can't all be the best $P ever.

Actually, transmute is the best $P Action ever. :P

The potion cost is the biggest problem. If it cost $2, it wouldn't be as bad. Basically buy junk to turn junk into slightly better junk.
Title: Re: Let's discuss Alchemy cards: Transmute
Post by: Holger on May 03, 2017, 10:23:33 am
They can't all be the best $P ever.

Actually, transmute is the best $P Action ever. :P

The potion cost is the biggest problem. If it cost $2, it wouldn't be as bad. Basically buy junk to turn junk into slightly better junk.

Even at $4, it would probably be fine (or even strong?) as an opener; transmuting Estates is usually much better than remodeling them, and in the absence of good $2 cards, the same is true for transmuting Coppers.
Title: Re: Let's discuss Alchemy cards: Transmute
Post by: Omastar68 on June 07, 2017, 04:25:24 pm
I get the general dislike of Transmute, but I'm pretty sure I buy it at least half the times it appears, maybe to be contrary, partly cause I feel smarter winning with it.

I still don't think I'd call it good, exactly, but it has plenty of uses. Ruins are a big one, even early you'd rarely prefer a ruin to a Duchy. Ofc it's better to just trash them for nothing rather thb a dead card early, but you can still have some exceptions like Battlefield. Trashing for a Duchy is the main thing I get out of them, nice endgame sometimes. Naturally much weaker with Colonies, but if the game is a bit slow it can be a huge help. Also this'll combo somewhat w/ things like Silk Road and Duke. Potentially Duchess. Groundskeeper to some extent. Also, multi-type cards can help. For instance, Mill to a Gold and a Duchy, and that pair is also probably better than putting your Transmute or another non-junk card on an Island. This could further combo w/ cards that gain from the trash.

Buying Transmute just fer Curses is not worth it usually, since that Potion becomes a bit of a dead card too. But if it's the only trasher this might make sense, particularly if Market Square is on the board for instance.

Buying it early for Estates is bad, I don't think I've tried that, but I'm not inclined to. Quite slow to get 1 Gold, just buy a Silver over that Potion if nothing else. But trashing Victory cards can still be really good, for instance if you'll be getting Estates(Wild Hunt, Ambassador, Triumph, Followers, etc.) Also if you get hit by a Swindler for an early VP card.

The main time for it is w/ +buy and another potion card, I definitely get it more times there. Plus if the Curses run out Familiars become pretty useless, odds are you wouldn't want one then. I suppose on a similar note w/ +buy and stuff you could get a bunch of Transmutes(also by Transmuting treasure) since your opponent might not since it has a bad reputation. That could matter if it's the Obelisk, or possibly for Orchard or even Tower.

I can't think of anything too noteworthy I've done with Transmute, but I generally don't keep track. Might post a game where I use it and they don't for posterity sometime. Still I think it's undervalued.
Title: Re: Let's discuss Alchemy cards: Transmute
Post by: smuggler on December 16, 2017, 06:39:18 pm
I recall Donald did a "if I had a time machine" rebuff for Scout.  Was there ever such a case here?  If not, any user community buffs to make this... well, not such so much, and actually be worth buying more than 5% or so of the cases?

we are currently trying several versions of this card:

- one is: Transmute +1VP -> so its action victory card; transmuting copper into more transmutes which then get transmuted into gold and duchy
- other is, transmute as a can trip (so it doenst hurt getting more transmutes while trashing copper)
(combination of these two was way too cwazy)

- regarding opportunity cost we tried an on-buy +buy effect like forum has or $4 instead of P

but we are still evaluating if cost need to be adapted

(PS: i rather have a card which is slightly too powerful than one which doesn't get bought at all)
(PPS: sorry for necroing :-D )
Title: Re: Let's discuss Alchemy cards: Transmute
Post by: LastFootnote on December 20, 2017, 10:59:27 pm
The solution to Transmute is to have it gain e.g. Will-o’-Wisp when you trash a Treasure. That way you get something for trashing that Potion.
Title: Re: Let's discuss Alchemy cards: Transmute
Post by: Gazbag on December 23, 2017, 11:43:38 am
Dismantle is sort of like a fixed Transmute. Well it trashes Estates to gain a Gold at least (yes it gives you a Copper too), which is the main thing Transmute does. It can trash Gold to get Duchies later on too, which is sort of like Transmute as well. I suspect that a "fixed" transmute would end up looking a lot like Dismantle.
Title: Re: Let's discuss Alchemy cards: Transmute
Post by: popsofctown on December 25, 2017, 07:47:06 pm
Transmute gains gold, which you want in BM, but you don't even want Chapel in BMU so a trasher meant for BM is problematic.

A neat way to close the loop would be, "if it's an action, gain a Duchy, if it's a victory card, gain a Gold, if it's a treasure, gain an action card with equal or lesser cost in coins."
(Might still need more, but I like that style of change)
Title: Re: Let's discuss Alchemy cards: Transmute
Post by: Chris is me on December 25, 2017, 09:18:22 pm
Transmute gains gold, which you want in BM, but you don't even want Chapel in BMU so a trasher meant for BM is problematic.

I don’t agree with the unstated premise of this post - because Chapel is a poor trasher for BM, any trashing in BM is detrimental and problematic. This is a horrible premise that’s not at all true. Generally, if the trashing produces some other benefit (gaining you cards, a little extra coin, even cycling) light trashing can absolutely be beneficial in BM. Chapel’s problem is that it does not trash for benefit and always trashes at the expense of another gain that turn, which is fine for engines but bad for BM.

If it didn’t require the Potion, Transmute wouldn’t be the absolute worst BM card ever, just for that Estate-> Gold interaction. Thus Dismantle is a reasonable if not fantastic BM Card.
Title: Re: Let's discuss Alchemy cards: Transmute
Post by: markusin on December 25, 2017, 09:24:36 pm
Transmute gains gold, which you want in BM, but you don't even want Chapel in BMU so a trasher meant for BM is problematic.

I don’t agree with the unstated premise of this post - because Chapel is a poor trasher for BM, any trashing in BM is detrimental and problematic. This is a horrible premise that’s not at all true. Generally, if the trashing produces some other benefit (gaining you cards, a little extra coin, even cycling) light trashing can absolutely be beneficial in BM. Chapel’s problem is that it does not trash for benefit and always trashes at the expense of another gain that turn, which is fine for engines but bad for BM.

If it didn’t require the Potion, Transmute wouldn’t be the absolute worst BM card ever, just for that Estate-> Gold interaction. Thus Dismantle is a reasonable if not fantastic BM Card.

Strictly speaking, Big Money Ultimate cannot buy any actions.

Masquerade, Junk Dealer, and maybe Upgrade are all good Big Money trashers. Add some sort of way to gain Gold, and the BM with the trashers above become very formidable.
Title: Re: Let's discuss Alchemy cards: Transmute
Post by: Limetime on December 26, 2017, 01:09:21 am
Masquerade, Junk Dealer, and maybe Upgrade are all good Big Money trashers. Add some sort of way to gain Gold, and the BM with the trashers above become very formidable.
Actually Junk Dealer is fairly bad as far as big money goes. Amulet and Hermit are much better examples.
Title: Re: Let's discuss Alchemy cards: Transmute
Post by: popsofctown on December 26, 2017, 01:51:33 am
Transmute gains gold, which you want in BM, but you don't even want Chapel in BMU so a trasher meant for BM is problematic.

I don’t agree with the unstated premise of this post - because Chapel is a poor trasher for BM, any trashing in BM is detrimental and problematic. This is a horrible premise that’s not at all true. Generally, if the trashing produces some other benefit (gaining you cards, a little extra coin, even cycling) light trashing can absolutely be beneficial in BM. Chapel’s problem is that it does not trash for benefit and always trashes at the expense of another gain that turn, which is fine for engines but bad for BM.

If it didn’t require the Potion, Transmute wouldn’t be the absolute worst BM card ever, just for that Estate-> Gold interaction. Thus Dismantle is a reasonable if not fantastic BM Card.
I feel like you are overassuming this unstated premise because all you seem to be doing is agreeing with me.  I agree that if you have a big money deck, and you can choose between a powerful card that is most powerful due to its ability to trash many cards, or a powerful card that is powerful half due to its ability to trash cards, and half due to its ability to gain cards/ make coin / draw cards, you tend to like the second one.  I selected a card that does absolutely nothing but trash cards to emphasize that.

Or maybe you think that I think Moat is as good as Masquerade in BM because BM would prefer to keep its starting cards. Um, I assure you that's not the case, I definitely couldn't hold my current rating and that belief at the same time.  BM benefits from trashing, it just benefits less.

Does the optimized bot for the kingdom: Ratcatcher, skip a silver for a Ratcatcher?  I would expect it to.

Title: Re: Let's discuss Alchemy cards: Transmute
Post by: Accatitippi on December 26, 2017, 04:37:53 am
The solution to Transmute is to have it gain e.g. Will-o’-Wisp when you trash a Treasure. That way you get something for trashing that Potion.
This might be it.
I'm going to try this with a random Action pile chosen at setup.  :)
Title: Re: Let's discuss Alchemy cards: Transmute
Post by: Chris is me on December 26, 2017, 08:26:26 am
I was arguing the phrase “a trasher for BM is problematic” - there are plenty of good trashers for BM is all I’m saying. Obviously Masquerade, but Amulet, Jack, Salvager, etc. too.
Title: Re: Let's discuss Alchemy cards: Transmute
Post by: markusin on December 26, 2017, 09:56:50 am
Masquerade, Junk Dealer, and maybe Upgrade are all good Big Money trashers. Add some sort of way to gain Gold, and the BM with the trashers above become very formidable.
Actually Junk Dealer is fairly bad as far as big money goes. Amulet and Hermit are much better examples.

Odd, I would think a single Junk Dealer would be better than Silver on the first $5 for BM. In a real game, combining Junk Dealer with something like Hoard should be pretty fast compared to skipping Junk Dealer.
Title: Re: Let's discuss Alchemy cards: Transmute
Post by: Chris is me on December 26, 2017, 01:23:01 pm
JD isn’t too bad on the first $5 in BM; it’s just not the best BM trasher. It’s best when you have another terminal BM enabler That doesn’t draw. Amulet and Hermit take the place of terminal BM enablers at least temporarily - so comparing Amulet BM’s improvement over BMU to JDBM’s improvement over BMU is obviously gonna favor Amulet since JD’s cantripness isn’t helping at all.
Title: Re: Let's discuss Alchemy cards: Transmute
Post by: ehunt on February 06, 2018, 12:35:55 am
transmute is good* in vineyards slogs once the vineyards are gone

*not awful
Title: Re: Let's discuss Alchemy cards: Transmute
Post by: Seprix on February 13, 2018, 08:48:39 pm
You know Transmute is bad when the best thing it has going for it is that it happens to be an Action Card.
Title: Re: Let's discuss Alchemy cards: Transmute
Post by: grrgrrgrr on August 23, 2018, 04:38:42 pm
You know Transmute is bad when the best thing it has going for it is that it happens to be an Action Card.

This. Transmute synergies pretty well in a City Quarter game.
Title: Re: Let's discuss Alchemy cards: Transmute
Post by: ipofanes on August 24, 2018, 05:55:42 am
You know Transmute is bad when the best thing it has going for it is that it happens to be an Action Card.

I recently had a deck with Rats as the only trasher, thus no card in the kingdom that cared about the price of Rats. I went for them anyway, partly hoping that a favourable card from Black Market would make them worthwhile, but also because there was a card that cared about it being an Action card: City Quarter.

Later in the game somebody got a curser from Black Market, so the density of Rats increased despite me mostly staying away from Copper.

It worked out for me.
Title: Re: Let's discuss Alchemy cards: Transmute
Post by: Honkeyfresh on September 26, 2018, 02:25:55 am
dp we really need to discuss transmute to know it sucks and to never buy it?  Not if you can find this place...