Dominion Strategy Forum

Dominion => Dominion General Discussion => Topic started by: xyz123 on September 10, 2016, 07:50:29 am

Title: Mint/Page Opening
Post by: xyz123 on September 10, 2016, 07:50:29 am
I was wondering what peoples thoughts are on a Mint/Page opening. I hadn't thought about it until I saw it come up on a board I had a 5/2 start on recently.

Mint's on gain clause was the only trashing. That was my main reason for going for it. It would allow me to get through the Traveller line very quickly. In this respect it worked, I played Page on turn 3, Treasure Hunter on 4 and Warrior on 5. This opening does destroy your early economy, but I don't think this is likely to be a real problem as Treasure Hunter kick starts it and if you need a further boost you could potentially Mint the Silver that Treasure Hunter gave you.

There are two possible counter arguments that I could see.
1) If there are other strong trashers available are they better that Mint at accelerating your way through the Traveller line?
2) If you have bad shuffle luck and playing Treasure Hunter is delayed by a couple of turns, will the damage done to your early economy potentially leave you too far behind?
Title: Re: Mint/Page Opening
Post by: tailred on September 10, 2016, 08:30:12 am
Early economy isn't worth much. As long as you have a way to bring yourself back up, which the page line definitely is, trashing harder, faster is almost always the right decision. After all, you're missing at most a couple $3 or $4 buys, which is easily compensated by hitting hero/champion that much earlier.
Other trashers can't match the speed of a mint opening simply because it trashes 5 cards before the first shuffle. Even chapel needs a shuffle more to kill at least a card less. This definitely doesn't put you behind.
Title: Re: Mint/Page Opening
Post by: J Reggie on September 10, 2016, 08:59:37 am
Yep, Mint/Page is amazing. Just make sure it's not actually Mine instead.
Title: Re: Mint/Page Opening
Post by: Chris is me on September 10, 2016, 09:14:43 am
Great opening, with how quickly you gain a Silver with Treasure Hunter. The danger is if your opponent mirrors, and doesn't gain anything the turn before you play Treasure Hunter, then you have to wait 2 more turns to buy anything. But this is still probably the right move.

No matter what, even in Champion BM, you have a way to build up after doing this, because you can mint Golds.
Title: Re: Mint/Page Opening
Post by: aku_chi on September 10, 2016, 12:13:00 pm
Mint as an opening is usually a mistake.  The exception is when there is a $2 card you don't mind buying multiple copies of that can provide economy.  Page is such a card.  It doesn't provide economy immediately, but you can usually buy another Page on turn 3 (67%).  There is a 71% chance of playing a Page on turn 3.  Then, Treasure Hunter provides a coin and (usually) at least one Silver.  From there, you're in a decent position.  Mint can eventually duplicate the treasure you get from Hero, so there's even more synergy.  Mint and Peasant work decently, too.  With Peasant, you have an even higher chance of being able to buy another Peasant on turn 3, and Soldier almost guarantees that you can afford a Silver to recover your economy.  I'll add it to my article on Best Traveller Accelerators (http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=14688.0).
Title: Re: Mint/Page Opening
Post by: Awaclus on September 10, 2016, 01:23:47 pm
Early economy isn't worth much. As long as you have a way to bring yourself back up, which the page line definitely is, trashing harder, faster is almost always the right decision. After all, you're missing at most a couple $3 or $4 buys, which is easily compensated by hitting hero/champion that much earlier.
Other trashers can't match the speed of a mint opening simply because it trashes 5 cards before the first shuffle. Even chapel needs a shuffle more to kill at least a card less. This definitely doesn't put you behind.

Well, Mint trashes 5 cards, but it also adds 1 junk card to your deck.
Title: Re: Mint/Page Opening
Post by: J Reggie on September 10, 2016, 04:18:17 pm
Early economy isn't worth much. As long as you have a way to bring yourself back up, which the page line definitely is, trashing harder, faster is almost always the right decision. After all, you're missing at most a couple $3 or $4 buys, which is easily compensated by hitting hero/champion that much earlier.
Other trashers can't match the speed of a mint opening simply because it trashes 5 cards before the first shuffle. Even chapel needs a shuffle more to kill at least a card less. This definitely doesn't put you behind.

Well, Mint trashes 5 cards, but it also adds 1 junk card to your deck.

Chapel also adds a junk card to your deck once you're done trashing.
Title: Re: Mint/Page Opening
Post by: Awaclus on September 10, 2016, 05:39:12 pm
Early economy isn't worth much. As long as you have a way to bring yourself back up, which the page line definitely is, trashing harder, faster is almost always the right decision. After all, you're missing at most a couple $3 or $4 buys, which is easily compensated by hitting hero/champion that much earlier.
Other trashers can't match the speed of a mint opening simply because it trashes 5 cards before the first shuffle. Even chapel needs a shuffle more to kill at least a card less. This definitely doesn't put you behind.

Well, Mint trashes 5 cards, but it also adds 1 junk card to your deck.

Chapel also adds a junk card to your deck once you're done trashing.

Chapel is a stop card that hurts your economy even while you're still using it for the trashing, so effectively it adds the junk card to your deck the moment you buy it, and thusly the statement that Chapel removes one less junk card from your deck in one more shuffle than Mint is still true. But Bonfire on a 4/3 opening, for instance, can trash just as fast as Mint does.