Dominion Strategy Forum

Dominion => Game Reports => Topic started by: JW on March 20, 2017, 03:16:27 pm

Title: A thorny kingdom without +Actions or +Buy
Post by: JW on March 20, 2017, 03:16:27 pm
I played this game IRL recently:

Dungeon, Watchtower, Scavenger, Transmogrify, Archive, Artificer, Counting House, Relic, Soothsayer, Storyteller

2 players, Provinces/Estates.

We both opened 5-2, I got Artificer while my opponent got Soothsayer. I tried to build an engine with Archive for draw, Artificer for gains, and Transmogrify + Watchtower for some thinning.

My opponent picked up Transmogrify and Dungeon on their next shuffle, and then a Relic, more Dungeons by Transmogrifying Estates, and a second Transmogrify. After that, some more golds and then provinces. 

They got in a few curses before I was able to get Transmogrifies, Dungeons, and my two Watchtowers. Transmogrify with Watchtower in hand let me thin my deck, and both that and Artificer + Watchtower let me run out the curses (e.g., Transmogrify Curse/Copper into Curse, trash with Watchtower).  I tried to build up to large hand sizes with Archive to get extra gains with Artificer, playing Watchtower at the end of turns to refill my hand with treasure, which included a small number of Silvers and one Relic to attack my opponent (playing Watchtower after discarding most of my hand to Watchtower). However, in the early part of the game this draws cards dead with Watchtower a lot (later on, you're getting through the deck and so if you have the right number of Archives you can discard essentially all treasure cards to draw with Watchtower).

However, my opponent raced out to four Provinces and milled two more with Transmogrify, ending the game before my engine had spent many turns firing. I see a lot of different potential plans here. Can Dungeon and Artificer support Counting House? Can Golds from Soothsayer fuel Storyteller as draw? Thoughts appreciated.
Title: Re: A thorny kingdom without +Actions or +Buy
Post by: faust on March 20, 2017, 04:22:04 pm
I'm afraid the boring strategy will win here.

If an engine can work, then it would be a Storyteller/Artificer thing with Soothsayer & Relic. Fun side note: If you play Storyteller (Relic) - Soothsayer, you can prevent your opponent from drawing a sixth card. Play a second Relic afterwards and you're golden.
Title: Re: A thorny kingdom without +Actions or +Buy
Post by: dedicateddan on March 20, 2017, 09:14:11 pm
Pretty cool board.

Provinces are the main source of VP here, and with Transmogrify around to mill one or two of them, there really aren't that many points to go around.

My plan would be to rush up to 3 provinces, then stack 1-2 transmogrifies on the mat for pile control. There's a lot of sifting so the primary question is which terminal to play.

Scavenger is normally nice on moneyish boards, but clashes with dungeon here. There are a number of interesting lines with Watchtower, but they have trouble buying provinces early.

Soothsayer/Dungeon greens quickly while giving out curses. Dungeon/Counting House actually looks quite strong. A stack of Dungeons, a Counting House, and likely an Artificer and a Relic can province every turn.

Without playing the board, I'd open Soothsayer/X on 5/2 and Transmogrify/Dungeon on 4/3, looking to play Dungeon/Counting House.