Dominion Strategy Forum

Archive => Archive => Dominion: Guilds Previews => Topic started by: Tables on September 06, 2013, 01:11:05 pm

Title: A few other interactions I've spotted
Post by: Tables on September 06, 2013, 01:11:05 pm
Just played a few games of Dominion (something I hadn't done for a while, actually) and realised, Guilds adds lots of subtle counters and combos that I'd have never thought of before. I'm making this thread here because I suspect most have already been mentioned, but ah well.

1) Herald vs. Ghost Ship

This one isn't just a flat 'you go Ghost Ship, I counter with Herald' strategy, but it makes building an action based deck in the face of Ghost Ship more consistent. The basic idea is that if you have Herald + another action in hand when an opponent plays Ghost Ship, you can just put that second action back as the second card from top, and something else on top. Herald will draw the first card, and play the second, seriously reducing the damage Ghost Ship deals (it kind of makes your turn act as though you started with 4 cards and 2 actions). Like I said - not a hard counter. But if an engine looks viable outside of Ghost Ship, Herald makes it likely still viable.

2) Coin tokens and Contraband

Contraband is typically only a nice engine card when there's good stuff at multiple high price points - e.g. other desirable $6 cards, perhaps $7 cards and the like. That way if you play a Contraband and Gold gets blocked, you can still buy e.g. a Hunting Party. Or if Wharf is blocked, you can still grab a Margrave. Coin tokens have a similar effect, but spanning price points. got 3 coin tokens and played a Contraband? Your opponent can block Province, which you could have probably afforded, but instead you get to still save your Coin tokens as you grab a Gold/Duchy/other. Opponent blocked that key $5 when you had only two coppers in hand? Pop a coin token, get a Gold instead. The key thing is that 'money smoothing' effect still plays into Contraband, but in a very different way. Typically if your opponent blocks a key card, you just lose out as a result - buy a $5 instead of the desired Gold, or get a Gold with your $8 when you wanted a Province. With coin tokens, the same thing happens - but you keep (some of) the extra money for later, seriously reducing the loss.
As with the above, I don't think this is a 'Contraband is a power $5 in games with coin tokens' type interaction, but rather, when coin tokens are available, Contraband is a little more worth considering than without them.
Title: Re: A few other interactions I've spotted
Post by: eHalcyon on September 06, 2013, 02:40:37 pm
I think I posted about #2 before, within a larger thread (probably when coin tokens were first revealed).  I don't think I've seen #1 mentioned before though -- nice one!
Title: Re: A few other interactions I've spotted
Post by: flies on September 16, 2013, 02:11:10 pm
ironmonger also works against ghost ship, as demonstrated by my opponent, Golrin, here: http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130915/log.5075b25251c30da02a09b898.1379287357506.txt