Dominion Strategy Forum

Dominion => Dominion Articles => Topic started by: JW on March 29, 2018, 02:42:19 pm

Title: Chapel article on main blog (and comments)
Post by: JW on March 29, 2018, 02:42:19 pm
Here is the Chapel article on the main Dominion Strategy blog (https://dominionstrategy.com/2018/03/01/chapel/).

Quote
Chapel is the second-fastest way in Dominion to purge your bad cards (only surpassed by Donate), and with a cost of $2, can be bought in the opening along with another fairly good card. Trashing cards in Dominion is really, really good; you almost always want to trash your ten starting cards and any junk your opponent gives you in order to play your best cards more frequently and make your deck more consistent. Even in the face of the most powerful junking attacks in the game, you shouldn’t have a problem staying on top of your deck with Chapel on your side.

If you want a Chapel, you want to open with it and hopefully see it on turn 3 or 4; in almost every case, you’ll want to play the Chapel and trash your entire hand. Even if you’re just trashing Coppers and no Estates, this is almost always the best play because with these four cards out of the way, you’ll be able to line up your Chapel with the rest of your starting cards more quickly. The main exception to this is if you drew the other card you opened with — though this problem can be sidestepped by opening with a strong cantrip, which also reduces the odds of not seeing your Chapel before turn 5. The brief tempo loss you take from sacrificing a whole turn just to trash four cards will quickly become worth it when you’re playing lots of good cards each turn because you don’t have bad cards to get in the way.

After playing your Chapel for the first time, you may want to be a bit more judicious about keeping a Copper or two around — make sure you think about having enough money in your deck to buy what you want each turn, as long as drawing your last one or two Coppers isn’t a huge pain — you may even find yourself planning one or two turns ahead, which is a luxury you’ll get much sooner with the trim deck Chapel gives you.

Some comments on this article:
The first paragraph should link to the article “Why Trashing is Good” (https://dominionstrategy.com/2017/10/09/dominion-101-why-trashing-is-good/) (also on the same blog) for readers who want a longer discussion of this topic. The phrase “you shouldn’t have a problem staying on top of your deck” should say something more explicit like “keeping your deck clear of bad cards.”
 
Stating that it is “almost always the best play” to trash all four cards with Chapel when you draw it on turn 3 or 4 is immediately contradicted by stating that you shouldn’t do that if you have the other card you opened with in hand. A better way to state this is that when you draw Chapel on turn 3 or 4 you almost always want to use it to trash all of the Coppers and Estates that you can.

This article refers to a “cantrip” - but that’s a term that most readers won’t know. “Card that gives +1 Card and at least +1 Action (such as Market)” would be a better way to put this. 

The article discusses how you may want to keep “a Copper or two” around. The key number of Coppers to avoid going below is typically 3, if you haven’t yet bought a Silver or other gainer, or 1 (if you've already bought a Silver).
Title: Re: Chapel article on main blog (and comments)
Post by: Awaclus on March 30, 2018, 02:49:11 am
The key number of Coppers is more than enough to buy a Silver. You're wasting a ton of time if you trash down to a deck that doesn't do anything better than buys a Silver.