Dominion Strategy Forum
Dominion => Game Reports => Topic started by: dedicateddan on February 26, 2017, 07:53:27 pm
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Monoset Tournament #2 Finals Tournament Report
I had a chance to play some really interesting games in the finals of the tournament, and didn't have a chance to record them, so I decided to write up a tournament report instead.
First, on the format. Each match is played best of 7 and there are a total of 9 sets that can be chosen from. Players take turns choosing sets, which the player who chose the set starting second. Since you get to play most of the sets anyways, it makes sense to choose the sets that you would like to play second on. Particularly early in the match, this encourages choosing sets that lead to longer games like Prosperity and Dark Ages. Empires is also an excellent choice if you can dodge Donate, a skill that I most certainly do not have.
Game 1 - Prosperity - Game #1537499
I choose to start with Prosperity, following the choice Markus had made in the last few rounds.
The board:
Loan, Monument, Quarry, City, Counting House, Mountebank, Vault, Expand, King's Court, Peddler, Colonies/Platinum
After a couple of Counting House jokes, the game gets underway. The board is a pretty typical Mountebank/King's Court board with only light trashing in Loan and Expand. The goal is to Mountebank more than you get Mountebanked and keep a high action-to treasure count to facilitate Loan and King's Court. Markus and I both open Loan/Quarry and then things quickly go south for me. I hit 7 and, with no targets to King's Court, pick up an Expand, which promptly collides with 2 Mountebanks. I do get off the first King's Court + Mountebank play, but Markus makes a smart early switch to Cities and I'm never really in it. He picks up a Colony and 4 Provinces to my Duchy before piling.
Markus leads 1-0
Game 2 - Adventures - Game #1537902
Markus chooses to start with Adventures for the second game, one of the higher power-level sets in the pool.
The board:
Ratcatcher, Guide, Miser, Giant, Haunted Woods, Lost City, Relic, Swamp Hag, Wine Merchant, Hireling, Events: Alms, Ferry
Playing Adventures boards like remind me of my roommate coming back from a summer spent playing Adventures-only dominion and crushing me over and over again on 4-event boards. Since they don't take up a slot in your deck, events are some of the most powerful effects in dominion, and Ferry, in particular, is one of the trickiest to play with, as it opens up a plethora of options for building.
Looking at the board, there are a bunch of attacks (Giant especially), that discourage taking on dead green too early. Other than that, Alms discourages playing with treasure, Lost City is the only Village, and Wine Merchant is the only gaining.
Miser plays really well with Alms. I end up opening Miser/Ratcatcher into a second Miser and ferry on Lost City. I get a little nervous when Markus opens Ferry on Hireling into 2 Hirelings and a Wine Merchant. My deck ends up coming together nicely as 4 Lost City, 2 Misers (7 coins),1 Ratcher and 3 Wine Merchants, and I end up hitting 26 a couple of turns in a row.
Series tied 1-1
Game 3 - Dark Ages - Game #1538456
I choose my favorite set for game 3, Dark Ages.
Storeroom, Urchin, Ironmonger, Procession, Scavenger, Band of Misfits, Cultist, Graverobber, Pillage, Rebuild
I start out trying to figure out if there's a good way to go infinite with Procession, Graverobber, Band of Misfits, and Cultist (hint: there's not!). What I do realize is that Graverobber is quite good for greening and gaining.
Markus gets off to a solid start by colliding his Urchins and quickly heading into three Cultists. I mess around with Procession tricks a bit, but I'm never really in it. I resign as Markus takes a 4-0 province lead.
Markus leads 2-1
Game 4 - Empires - Game #1538848
The board:
Engineer, Royal Blacksmith, Encampment, Settlers, Chariot Race, Enchantress, Castles, Archive, Forum, Legionary, Events: Annex, Conquest
There's no trashing, which encourages playing with an Archive stack. To that end, I open Silver/Enchantress, which promptly hits Markus's Engineer. I pick up an Engineer and an Archive, followed by a Gold and a rush on the Encampment pile. Around this time, I realize that the board is single buy, which leads to a lot of unplanned Forum + cheaper card buys to make use of coins.
We end up playing a long, mirror with turns consisting of playing a few Encampments, Enchantresses, Forums, Settlers, and Chariot Races before gaining a card with Engineer and buying an expensive card. Eventually, Markus broke parity by trashing his Engineer to gain Humble Caste and Crumbling Castle and buying Small Castle, which let him progress up the castle chain. Now with the Engineer advantage, I lowered the Enchantress pile to threaten a pileout and Markus responded by returning Encampments to supply. The extra Encampments added to the reliability of my deck and I eventually squeaked out a 1 point win by trashing Engineer.
Series tied 2-2
Game 5 - Seaside - Game #1540218
After a quick break, I choose Seaside for game 5, hoping for a technical Ambassador board. The randomizer delivered.
The board:
Embargo, Pearl Diver, Ambassador, Lookout, Cutpurse, Pirate Ship, Salvager, Sea Hag, Treasure Map, Wharf
The biggest constraint on this board is terminal space. You want Ambassador to trash early, Treasure Maps to connect for Money, and Wharf/Salvager later in the game for buying power. That's a decent number of terminals and there's not too much space for much else.
We both open Ambassador/Lookout, pick up a Silver, and smoothly trash down to smallish decks. We both connect maps at around the same time, and Markus picks up a couple of Wharves, while I play a thinner Pearl Diver/Salvager variant. The Province pile starts to run, and Markus takes the second-to-last Province for an 8 point lead.
I need exactly Salvager + 3 Gold + a non-green card in hand to win. Of course, sometimes you just run well.
Dan leads series 3-2.
Game 6 - Base - Game #1540671
Markus elected to play base set for the sixth game, a format I have a lot of experience with from my WeedGoku days.
The board:
Cellar, Moat, Merchant, Remodel, Smithy, Throne Room, Bandit, Council Room, Sentry, Witch
There's a complicated engine and Sentry, arguably the best early-game trasher in dominion. I get a lucky 5/2 and open Cellar/Sentry. Turns 3, 4, 5 and 6, I play Sentry and trash two of my starting Copper/Estates. I pick up a bunch of Throne Rooms and on turn 8, I get gaining online from Bandit. A few turns later, as I start remodeling Gold into Witches and other engine components, Markus resigns.
Result 4-2 Dan
I have to say, I'm quite excited to win the tournament. I made a number of mistakes in earlier rounds, but thought I played the finals fairly well. Big shout outs to the nice players and awesome community that made this tournament a lot of fun!