Dominion Strategy Forum

Dominion => Dominion General Discussion => Topic started by: hhelibebcnofnena on May 07, 2019, 05:08:35 pm

Title: Black Market Deck Setup Idea
Post by: hhelibebcnofnena on May 07, 2019, 05:08:35 pm
I recently bought all of the promo cards, and it occurred to me that I didn't really want to play with Black Market because of all the setup that it would take. I came up with a solution, though. I could put a list of all the cards I wanted in my BM deck into a spreadsheet (for now it has all the cards in it, sorted by expansion) with corresponding numbers, which I could then print out and put with my two Dominion boxes (I have efficient foam-core card storage). I can then randomize via dice (1D4*100 + 1D10*10 + 1D10 or something) which three cards are revealed, rerolling if necessary, and then if I choose to buy one, I can take it straight out of the box. Very little setup required, except once to create the spreadsheet. Overall it will save time, though.

Edit: using a computer program/phone app also works (and is probably better), but the general idea of leaving the cards in the box until you need them is mainly the point of this.

I thought I would share this idea so that other people can use it if they are similarly reluctant to play with Black Market because of the setup. Playing with this is slightly different than with an actual BM deck, because you can run into the same card twice before going through every other card, however it isn't that different. And if you want, you can have some way to mark which cards have been revealed and reroll the dice if you find them again.
Title: Re: Black Market Deck Setup Idea
Post by: Donald X. on May 08, 2019, 04:27:57 pm
The way I have always done it: instead of a different-backed randomizer deck, I use one card from each pile as the randomizer (this was to avoid needing to print an 11th copy of everything). You deal the randomizers out onto the table and then add the other 9 from the box; at the end of the game you return one copy to the randomizer deck. So anyway. Then for Black Market, you can just use the randomizer deck; no setup at all.
Title: Re: Black Market Deck Setup Idea
Post by: hhelibebcnofnena on May 08, 2019, 05:27:42 pm
The way I have always done it: instead of a different-backed randomizer deck, I use one card from each pile as the randomizer (this was to avoid needing to print an 11th copy of everything). You deal the randomizers out onto the table and then add the other 9 from the box; at the end of the game you return one copy to the randomizer deck. So anyway. Then for Black Market, you can just use the randomizer deck; no setup at all.

I think I've seen that before somewhere, probably the secret history. Anyway, I would probably use that method, but at this point there are way too many kingdom cards for shuffling any physical randomizer, and I kind of like mixing sets, so I use an online one. I also prefer the online one because there are options to customize it, such as specifying a range of how many Attack cards you want, or requesting at least one village and at least one trasher. Or that if you have any Alchemy cards, there need to be at least 3.
Title: Re: Black Market Deck Setup Idea
Post by: ObtusePunubiris on May 15, 2019, 10:54:49 am
I recently bought all of the promo cards, and it occurred to me that I didn't really want to play with Black Market because of all the setup that it would take. I came up with a solution, though. I could put a list of all the cards I wanted in my BM deck into a spreadsheet (for now it has all the cards in it, sorted by expansion) with corresponding numbers, which I could then print out and put with my two Dominion boxes (I have efficient foam-core card storage). I can then randomize via dice (1D4*100 + 1D10*10 + 1D10 or something) which three cards are revealed, rerolling if necessary, and then if I choose to buy one, I can take it straight out of the box. Very little setup required, except once to create the spreadsheet. Overall it will save time, though.

I thought I would share this idea so that other people can use it if they are similarly reluctant to play with Black Market because of the setup. Playing with this is slightly different than with an actual BM deck, because you can run into the same card twice before going through every other card, however it isn't that different. And if you want, you can have some way to mark which cards have been revealed and reroll the dice if you find them again.

Not having to get anything extra out until a purchase happens is certainly the way to go.  For a long while now, I've accomplished that with the Kingdom Shuffler (Android only) app.  When BM is in the kingdom, it will automatically create a BM deck of whatever size you have configured and also handle the in-game drawing and buying (or not) from the deck.  I know it has some configurations that govern the contents of the BM deck, but I've never played around with them to know if they're as flexible as what you're using.  Whatever the case, this feature, for all that it doesn't get used that often, is why I chose this app over Jack of all Dominion for my shuffler app.
Title: Re: Black Market Deck Setup Idea
Post by: hhelibebcnofnena on May 15, 2019, 02:40:36 pm
I recently bought all of the promo cards, and it occurred to me that I didn't really want to play with Black Market because of all the setup that it would take. I came up with a solution, though. I could put a list of all the cards I wanted in my BM deck into a spreadsheet (for now it has all the cards in it, sorted by expansion) with corresponding numbers, which I could then print out and put with my two Dominion boxes (I have efficient foam-core card storage). I can then randomize via dice (1D4*100 + 1D10*10 + 1D10 or something) which three cards are revealed, rerolling if necessary, and then if I choose to buy one, I can take it straight out of the box. Very little setup required, except once to create the spreadsheet. Overall it will save time, though.

I thought I would share this idea so that other people can use it if they are similarly reluctant to play with Black Market because of the setup. Playing with this is slightly different than with an actual BM deck, because you can run into the same card twice before going through every other card, however it isn't that different. And if you want, you can have some way to mark which cards have been revealed and reroll the dice if you find them again.

Not having to get anything extra out until a purchase happens is certainly the way to go.  For a long while now, I've accomplished that with the Kingdom Shuffler (Android only) app.  When BM is in the kingdom, it will automatically create a BM deck of whatever size you have configured and also handle the in-game drawing and buying (or not) from the deck.  I know it has some configurations that govern the contents of the BM deck, but I've never played around with them to know if they're as flexible as what you're using.  Whatever the case, this feature, for all that it doesn't get used that often, is why I chose this app over Jack of all Dominion for my shuffler app.

The program I have just randomizes the kingdom. I guess using a program for BM deck would be a better way, but I like to spend one day a week away from computer/phone, and that's when I have the most Dominion time, so I can't do that. I usually pre-randomize a few kingdoms and write them down beforehand, which I couldn't really do with BM deck because then I know exactly what's coming when before I reveal it. This was my best workaround.
Title: Re: Black Market Deck Setup Idea
Post by: buckets on May 22, 2019, 09:20:27 am
I just numbered all of my blank cards with different colored markers.

Red 1-10, Blue 1-10, Black 1-10 etc.

We use randomizer cards for the BM stack, then put the chosen cards aside and take blanks for our actual decks.