Dominion Strategy Forum
Dominion => Dominion General Discussion => Let's Discuss ... => Topic started by: Jack Rudd on June 13, 2016, 11:46:55 am
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(http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/images/thumb/5/58/Contraband.jpg/375px-Contraband.jpg)
For when you want to make Dominion a guessing game.
How often do you buy this card?
What proportion of the time is naming "Colony" or "Province" the best response?
Does it have any particular combos?
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Contraband is a very weak card. The weakest alt-Treasure card imo (yes, weaker than Stash). The very rare cases I buy it are:
- There are multiple expensive cards that I want (say, GM and Platinum), and my opponent will only deny me 1 of them, so I can still get the other
- I can trash-for-benefit it later, after I get 1 or 2 of said expensive card
- Your opponent doesn't know how it works or what they should deny you
People have mentioned it can be nice in an engine where it's your only +buy and there are many cheap things you want. I get this in theory, but I can't say I've ever actually done that.
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If it helps me pick up multiple cards needed and I have a way to remove it later, I would definitely get one. I don't think it's worth getting multiples in most cases.
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It's a lot stronger now with Adventures and Empires, thanks to Events and debt.
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very exciting with get-stuff events (ball!) and also the other ones (expedition! it's like a lab next turn!)
it's mad cool when it's the only buy in a kingdom that desperately needs buys, such as this one between horist and me
http://www.gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?http://dominion-game-logs.s3.amazonaws.com/game_logs/20160609/log.0.1465445744409.txt
highway, fairgrounds, and a lot of low end cards and you want to get all of them but then you can't because your opponent is thinking forever after you played your contraband
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It's a fine card, not a strong five, but I would take one :
- When it's the only +buy - very (very) often
- In good kingdoms where all or almost all cards are useful
- When the time to green is rather flexible
- With multiple villages or draw, that works similarly
- When there are good <$5 cards
- Fairgrounds
I actually think it's more useful than royal seal in many cases (no way it could be worse than stash)
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If your opponent has no idea what to deny you, Contraband is fine. However, Contraband just becomes a waste of a slot when you want to Green. Either way, Contraband is hot garbage.
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If your opponent has no idea what to deny you, Contraband is fine. However, Contraband just becomes a waste of a slot when you want to Green. Either way, Contraband is hot garbage.
Contraband is not a very good card, but "becomes a waste of a slopt when you want to green" also applies to Chapel and therefore isn't the best indicator of how good a card is.
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It's a lot stronger now with Adventures and Empires, thanks to Events and debt.
I don't think this has been expressed enough, yet. I haven't actually played a game with Contraband and Events or debt but now, since you mentioned it, I'm looking forward to it. I dare say Contraband might even ascend several ranks in the next Qvist ranking, depending on whether you consider a metagame where there's at least one Event or Landmark in each match, which would often make Contraband significantly better than usual.
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Contraband in a kingdom full of cards you want is great. And with adventurers, the amount of cards you want went up. And, even more so, events and landmarks aren't cards.
So yes, Contraband definitely got a relative buff with those two expansions.
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Contraband in a kingdom full of cards you want is great. And with adventurers, the amount of cards you want went up. And, even more so, events and landmarks aren't cards.
So yes, Contraband definitely got a relative buff with those two expansions.
You don't buy Landmarks so they don't help with Contraband.
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Contraband, when your second best option is almost as good as your best option.
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If your opponent has no idea what to deny you, Contraband is fine. However, Contraband just becomes a waste of a slot when you want to Green. Either way, Contraband is hot garbage.
Contraband is not a very good card, but "becomes a waste of a slopt when you want to green" also applies to Chapel and therefore isn't the best indicator of how good a card is.
But with Chapel, it thins you down, so there's a payoff. The whole point of Contraband is that it's supposed to give you money and buys.
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But with Chapel, it thins you down, so there's a payoff. The whole point of Contraband is that it's supposed to give you money and buys.
And it does.
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But with Chapel, it thins you down, so there's a payoff. The whole point of Contraband is that it's supposed to give you money and buys.
And it does.
Everyone knows Contraband sucks, I don't know why people are arguing with me about this.
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But with Chapel, it thins you down, so there's a payoff. The whole point of Contraband is that it's supposed to give you money and buys.
And it does.
Everyone knows Contraband sucks, I don't know why people are arguing with me about this.
They're arguing about your reasoning, not your conclusion.
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But with Chapel, it thins you down, so there's a payoff. The whole point of Contraband is that it's supposed to give you money and buys.
And it does.
Everyone knows Contraband sucks, I don't know why people are arguing with me about this.
Because it's bad, but it doesn't suck. Transmute sucks. Coppersmith sucks. Contraband is bad, but it doesn't suck. It has its uses for sure.
I have to reassess whether I believe this or if I'm just being disagreeable. Maybe a bit of both.
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No, I believe Contraband doesn't suck. There's definitely a time to buy it.
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No, I believe Contraband doesn't suck. There's definitely a time to buy it.
There's a time to buy Scout. I don't know if there's ever a time to buy Transmute though.
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I'm wondering what the scale for rating cards is? Clearly sucks is worse than bad.
I was in Mexico on a cruise and went to fill out the evaluation form a the end of a shore excursion. These were the categories: Good, pretty good, above average, evil.
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Here is my ratings list for everything:
1. It sucks
2. I hate it
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Contraband in a kingdom full of cards you want is great. And with adventurers, the amount of cards you want went up. And, even more so, events and landmarks aren't cards.
So yes, Contraband definitely got a relative buff with those two expansions.
You don't buy Landmarks so they don't help with Contraband.
Some Landmarks give out points for gaining specific cards. So on boards with such Landmarks you more options what to buy which makes Contraband better.
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Here is my ratings list for everything:
1. It sucks
2. I hate it
Even Raid?
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Contraband in a kingdom full of cards you want is great. And with adventurers, the amount of cards you want went up. And, even more so, events and landmarks aren't cards.
So yes, Contraband definitely got a relative buff with those two expansions.
You don't buy Landmarks so they don't help with Contraband.
Some Landmarks give out points for gaining specific cards. So on boards with such Landmarks you more options what to buy which makes Contraband better.
Sure, but the fact that "Landmarks aren't cards" isn't relevant for that.
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It's a lot stronger now with Adventures and Empires, thanks to Events and debt.
Such a good point about Events...but..how does Debt help it?
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I quite like contraband; I always try to incorporate it.
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It's a lot stronger now with Adventures and Empires, thanks to Events and debt.
Such a good point about Events...but..how does Debt help it?
One way is that if you're in debt and spend all your coins for the turn paying off debt, Contraband has no drawback (though the +1 Buy does not help you either). Another way is that there are three strong (http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/images/thumb/d/d4/Debt8.png/18px-Debt8.png) cards that you can pick up with Contraband's extra buy after buying other card(s) for the turn if the opponent does not prohibit them.
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It's a lot stronger now with Adventures and Empires, thanks to Events and debt.
Such a good point about Events...but..how does Debt help it?
You can use Contraband to pay off debt, so that's one more thing that Contraband can "buy" that can't be banned.
(Edit: didn't notice the next page.)