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Messages - teamrocketgrunt

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1
Tournaments and Events / Re: Seprix's Lame Tournament
« on: August 07, 2016, 09:46:24 am »
teamrocketgrunt and I will be playing early next week - he had computer problems last week and I do not have a high enough quality connection this week to play.

I am sorry, but I have to forfeit my match to tracer. I am really sorry about depriving you of a match before you advance, but my PC is in the repair shop and I don't think I'll have it back before two weeks from now. I've tried installing Dominion on my girlfriend's old laptop, but the client keeps freezing and it's not going to be fun playing like this. Really sorry, everybody!

2
Dominion General Discussion / Re: Dominion jokes/pick-up lines
« on: August 04, 2016, 06:45:32 am »
Scout, Pearl Diver, and Transmute are in a plane crash.  Who survives?

Is this going to be a Pearl Harbor joke?

EDIT: No, it wasn't. Not even close. Aaaaanyway..

It's a reference to the standard joke about politicians in a plane crash.  X, Y, Z are in a plane crash.  Who survives? (Country) W.

No, I got that. I was trying to joke that the association between Scout, Pearl Diver, Transmute and "plane crashes" was Pearl Harbor. So Pearl Diver would be the one to survive. Then, I read that you had already revealed what you thought and my already unfunny comment became even less funny.

3
Dominion General Discussion / Re: Dominion jokes/pick-up lines
« on: August 04, 2016, 03:13:23 am »
Scout, Pearl Diver, and Transmute are in a plane crash.  Who survives?

Is this going to be a Pearl Harbor joke?

EDIT: No, it wasn't. Not even close. Aaaaanyway..

4
2016 DominionStrategy Championships / Signouts
« on: August 03, 2016, 04:14:17 pm »
I'm in!

Actually, I think I have to /out again.

5
Tournaments and Events / Re: Seprix's Lame Tournament
« on: July 14, 2016, 07:53:19 am »
Ah heck, I'm in.

6
Dominion League / Re: Season 16 - Signups
« on: July 02, 2016, 06:43:37 am »
I would like to return.

My last season was 14.

7
Tournaments and Events / Re: Dominion Empires -- Europe?
« on: June 21, 2016, 06:24:20 am »
I think July 16th/17th (at least one of those days) could work for me as well!

8
Tournaments and Events / Re: Dominion Empires -- Europe?
« on: June 14, 2016, 07:49:43 am »
I hope to have it in Karlsruhe, (Southern) Germany, within a week. A coworker from Portland, OR, has promised to bring it with him, provided the FLGS still has a copy...

I live in Mannheim. I could come to such a meeting if it's open to all  :).. Depends on the day, though.

9
Oh, he will get Bishops. Schadd has mastered the art of subtle manipulation. He'd have you buy Scout and think it's a great idea, too.

On topic: Schadd should totally compile his Alt-VP games and write a guide on how and when to use fancy Alt-VP. I think that would be a nice reference. Title suggestions:

- Schadds Alt-V(I)P lounge
- lower case studies: the musings of schadd
- bonka bonko

I am serious about the compilation, though.

10
Dominion General Discussion / Re: List of card art avatars
« on: June 12, 2016, 09:00:08 am »
Someone needs to make a different thread just for Seprix. Man, I change my underwear less frequently. ;D

11
Disclaimer: See my previous post.

==========

Preface: If you are not familiar with the format of Dominion Survival, here it is: There are two Swiss rounds each with four matches (Round 1A/B/C/D and Round 2A/B/C/D). In round 1, each win gives you 2 points, a tie 1 point and a loss 0 points. In the second round, those scores are doubled. After the first round, the bottom 14 participants were eliminated. After the second round, only 8 of the original 34 participants will be left and they will play single elimination rounds.

Last time, I reported about my games in round 1C, so technically we're missing round 1D, but my opponent never showed up, so I didn't get to play. I advanced to round 2 (I did get the free win for round 1D), and hopefully I'll have the full four matches to report on.

Today, I get to talk about a match-up I have been hoping for immediately after seeing the list of participants. I was paired with gkrieg13 who is playing in Division A right now. What a treat! But enough bootlicking, let's dive in.

==========

Video/Commentary:

The game was streamed via Infthitbox's Twitch channel, because Infthitbox provided commentary for our match.

Thank you, gkrieg, for the match and thank you, Infthitbox, for your commentary!

==========

Round 2A (vs. gkrieg)

Highlight of the Match (Game 2): Log




(Provinces/Shelters)

We did not get to play it out, unfortunately, but this might be the most messed up crazy board I have ever seen. Upgrade-Fortress is pretty crazy already (I learned that the hard way when Dan Brooks beat me up in Limetime's little tournament a while ago), but - won't you know it - Outpost and Mission are thrown in the mix. And Highway. Feast your eyes and imagine all the beautiful things you can do with this board in like 10 turns. I had completely amazing draws and my opponent didn't, so he resigned on turn 7 and we never got to see how I screwed up the endgame.

I have like a ton of questions, though.

- I opened Moneylender/Raze. Yes or no?
- Do you get all the Upgrades you can before buying Outpost? How much junk can be left in your deck, before you take the Outpost?
- Given the fact that your payload does not come from any treasures and you can upgrade your Fortress or maybe your Moneylender (once it's useless) into Outpost, how do you use Mission? Would you try to keep enough $ around to buy Mission and play Outpost on your Mission turn? Is that even allowed?
- I ignored Marauder. I think that's sensible. Is it?

Game 1: Log




(Provinces/Estates)

Not super-spectacular, but a pretty neat board. We both build an engine, he goes heavy on the Foragers, I don't. My Remodel/Forager opening might be terrible, I don't know. He opens Forager/Watchtower and has pretty good draws in the beginning I guess. I fall behind and I am actually not sure how I came back. With the abundance of Villages on the board (well I say abundance, but really, there's just two), Remodel with Watchtower in hand enables me to simulate a "no-benefit-Forager" and allows me to draw with Watchtower afterwards. That's neat, but this will never win a game for you. One mistake my opponent might have made is ignoring Caravan and using Tactician for draw. Sure, there are payload Cantrips and a lot of different treasures ended up in the trash, but Double-Tactician doesn't like beeing "spoiled". If you know what I mean. He sticks with one Tactician and has a pretty scary turn 12. After that, he has to sacrifice one turn again to play his single Tactician and a definite mistake he makes is taking the Province pile down to three on turn 13. Maybe he forgot about my Remodel, maybe he had to hope for a dud. What I still wonder about is Double-Tac with Death Cart and Forager. Once you clear out all of your junk and have a Tac in play, you can pretty safely purchase Death Carts and use the ruins as Forager food. Maybe this would have been better.

Game 3: Log




(Provinces/Shelters)

Kinda weird game. Royal Carriage and COTR make it interesting. Thanks, Adventures! My opponent has a pretty miserable 5/2 (I think he had pretty bad luck overall, actually) and I collide my opening buys (Urchin/Seahag) on turn 3. After that, I definitely go too hard for those Coins of the Realm and he outplays me. Knowing that this will secure the match, my deck - coughing and wheezing - scrambles for the tie.

==========

Please let me know how you would have approached these Kingdoms as I am not sure at all.

Also, I am playing dmet (another great opponent from the Dominion League) on Monday, I think. So there's going to be more game reports next week!

12
Help! / Re: funkdoc's journey to 5k (& beyond)
« on: June 09, 2016, 06:20:04 am »
I strongly believe that the very top players can see much easier the possible game states after x shuffles of the game, whether they do it consciously or subconsciously and this is what differentiates them from the rest. Am I wrong to this? I believe it is important to also have this in mind along with the low level things, if you want to become a top player as funkdoc does.

You are not wrong at all. I would compare the learning process to exploring a giant forest. If you want to travel through, you need a goddamn map first. Otherwise, it gets frustrating. That's why heuristics are good and that's why strategy articles are good. They are the map that you use. However, after a while you realize that relying solely on your map becomes bad. It might be out of date and the forest can change. Plus, unless you're Chuck Norris, maps don't save you from bear attacks.

Which is why you have to venture off the beaten paths. In the end, nothing is as valuable as actually getting to know your environment and familiarizing with it. I agree with smcrtorchs that top level players can say "screw it, I'm doing XY here", because they have internalized what most other players feel the need to actively think about. Problem is, what they have internalized, is not a sum of three-hundred strategy articles and the principles incorporated, but the experience from continuously doing what looks good to them (I am not arguing that this knowledge is based on some founding principles, though) and processing the results. I always tried to dissect boards (thinners, gainers, villages, draw etc.), but recently I have been trying to do it less. It's been way more fun playing what jumps out at me and then sucking at it than playing something I thought I carefully discerned and than sucking at that anyway  ;D.

13
Game Reports / Re: Try out this kingdom, it's pretty neat
« on: June 09, 2016, 04:14:31 am »
This is confusing me. I want a lot of the cards that are on the board, but I can't get them quickly. What did you do here? With Fairgrounds and Islands, you can take your time to build a little I guess.

Step one: Trash pretty quickly with Remake/Amulet.

Step two: Use Amulet(s) to gain Silvers and try to Expand Silvers into stuff you actually want. Like Cartographers, some Lost Cities and eventually Fairgrounds.

Step three: Crash and burn.

So, hold on. On 4/3 open Remake/Expedition, on 3/4 Silver/Remake. Weep, if you open 5/2. Remake Estates into $3 cards, those cards into Remakes and if you have the time, put Lost Arts on Remake. Remake looks boss here. Until you have like five Remakes, buy Remake if ever you hit $4 or more. Right?

EDIT: You spoiler-posted stuff that you did here. So let's see..

FURTHER EDIT: "Crash and burn" means I would crash and burn trying this. How many Amulets did you get? How did you hit $7? Did you gain Silvers first after trashing to do this? I am sure I would do this all in the wrong order.

14
Dominion General Discussion / Re: Thematic Kingdom Design Contest
« on: June 07, 2016, 01:09:06 pm »
Hogwarts
Transmute
Herbalist (Bane)
Secret Chamber
Great Hall
Philosopher's Stone
Transmogrify
Young Witch
Apprentice
Haunted Woods
Library
Soothsayer

15
Disclaimer: For a while now, I have been wanting to regularly report on the scarce competitive games of Dominion I am playing. This was mostly inspired by the infrequent game reports of Singletee he wrote in Season 13 which I found a very cool, non-streaming way to let other people in on the league matches. I will quickly try to answer your most urgent questions.

"So are you just going to rip off Singletee's idea?" Yes. I would like to do something similar on a (kind of) regular basis. I would like to report on a complete set of games, highlighting the most interesting kingdom and going into a little less detail on the other games.

"Snappy title, Team Rocket geek, but why are you bothering me with this?" I would like to inspire some discussion and I hope to get some feedback. Often times after playing a board I am still not sure at all what the best way of approaching it was. And I am usually too lazy to play it over and over or try to find my way around a simulator. Discussion with others however is not just what I am left with, but also my favorite way to learn.

"TL;DR already. But are you sure this doesn't belong in another section"? Not at all. I took a break from the league this season to get comfortable with Adventures, but I couldn't completely stop playing competitive Dominion, so I am playing in Adam Horton's Survival Tournament, hosted on reddit. This first match report stems from that tournament, so I can't possibly post it in the "Season 15 Game Reports" thread. I plan to eventually play in the league again, but I would prefer these posts be standalone mostly due to their length. I am also actively seeking advice pretty much every time I post something, so the "Help" section might also be the best place for this. Please feel free to point me towards the right section if you think this does not belong here. I haven't been around long enough to be sure on my own.

==========

Dominion Survival Round 1C (vs. Saaket)

Highlight of the match (Game 1): Log




(Provinces/Estates)

Not the most spectacular board, but I think the most interesting game we played. It does look to me like Minion is supported by the flexibilty and the discard-for-benefit Hamlet offers. Artificer seems to be okay with Minions giving you a four-card-hand again after discarding. Then again, Artificer does not really like small hand size. I am not sure how that would have played out. Most other cards can be mixed in in moderation without killing your strategy. If both players go for the Minion engine with Cantrips such as Artificer and Treasury mixed in and use Hamlets for +buy, Swamp Hag seems like a pretty mean counter. Also, the Minion engine requires some trashing, so I figure I want two Swamp Hags, a Trading Post and as many of the Minions as I can grab. I am not fond of Lost City here. Farming Village and Hamlet can give you +actions to play a Smithy and your Swamp Hag and I think cycling through your deck with Minions, getting to Swamp Hag every time is more important, so you should pick up Minions first. Duplicate offers the chance to sidestep some Swamp Hag curses, but I would rather get it later and play it regularly then get it early and delay other stuff.

My opponent opens Duplicate/Silver. I am not fond of that (I think Duplicate is a possible consolation price on turn 3 or 4 if you miss $5), but I might be wrong. I do expect him to go for Swamp Hag as well, so I open Silver/Smithy to hit $5. Since I plan to buy a Trading Post I try to buy as little yellow cards as possible. One Silver might have been too much already, but I prefer it over Hamlet/Smithy.

Contrary to what I expected, my opponent does not go for a multibuy engine and sticks to buying Smithies for a while, using his Duplicate on Lost City and eventually Gold. At some point, he hops on the Swamp Hag train, but gets just one of them. I would qualify what he does as some sort of "engine-BM-hybrid" (saying those words should summon Awaclus). It does not fare that poorly, and if my opponent had not ignored Hamlet and stuck to one Province a turn, it might have been competitive. On turn 14, for instance, he spends $14 on a single Province.

I eventually win the game 34-24, but I know I played this badly. Minion and Trading Post without a crazy surplus of villages in my deck meant I had to repeatedly discard Trading Post or I had to make uncomfortable decisions when Trading Post showed up in a four-card-hand.

  • Should I have invested more in Villages/Smithies to draw more and trash more often?
  • Should I have delayed Swamp Hag?
  • What do you make of Artificer in this kingdom?

Game 2: Log




(Provinces/Estates)

Throughout the game, I get pretty awesome draws, but I lose nonetheless because of a bad screw-up. I decide to open Scavenger/Silver, get a Count immediately and use Alms on trashing-turns with Count to at least pick up a Silver. I do this on turn 5, on turn 7 my deck looks like this:

1   Count
1   Scavenger
5   Copper
3   Silver
2   Estate

I draw Count/Gold/Silver/Silver/Copper and can now put back a Gold and still have 8. I give in to the temptation thinking I am second player and a Province buy will put the pressure on my opponent. At the end of turn 11, we're down to two Provinces in the supply, but my opponent has three Golds to my lone one. On turn 14 I am two points down and can now either double-duchy with Count or buy a Province. I look through the log (I probably miss something) and I am pretty sure my opponent has played all his Golds this shuffle. Since my deck is worse than my opponent's, I decide to go for the throat and get the penultimate Province before the reshuffle rather than two Duchies. Unfortunately, I either miscounted or overlooked something and my opponent has $6 (including a Gold) in hand and his Oracle draws him the Silver he needs.

Saaket wins 36-32.

Game 3: Log




(Provinces/Estates)

This one I think we both played poorly. I decide I want just 1 Goons (a second early is probably better), lots of Storytellers to play Goons every turn and with Goons in play, buy out all the Mystics (I later put Pathfinding on them on a turn where I hit $8 without Goons in play). Since I open 5-2, I take a Wine Merchant to get Goons as soon as possible. This works out nicely, the Storyteller thing takes a long time to yield any results, though. What I can't figure out is why my opponent goes for the Masterpiece overpay at least twice. He plays Smithy-BM with Hoard against my "engine", but in that deck, you don't want the money density per se to go up, but rather the Gold density, if you are getting attacked by Goons each turn, right?

I win the game 47-36.

Game 4: Log




(Colonies/Estates)

This looks like a really good Minion engine. Bonfire and Remake both trash super-fast, after that, you grab as many Minions as you can (get a Quarry, if you have to) and if you're in the lead, start milling stuff with Expand. I feel like my opponent is a bit too impatient to grab the VP and lets me have 7 of the Minions. Once he had lost the Minion split, he grabbed Golds and Platina and soon his Minions were doing more damage than good, since he could never chain them, really. I also felt like he was getting bad draws.

I am not playing this very cleanly (I think I trash too litte), but I win 52-35.

==========

As I said, I am very keen on your opinions. These boards might not hold the coolest kingdoms ever, but there are so many little decisions all over the place that make even the blandest of boards interesting compared to a lot of other existing board games. So let's talk about Dominion!

Also, I embrace feedback concerning readability and formatting in general. Thanks!

16
Help! / Re: funkdoc's journey to 5k (& beyond)
« on: June 04, 2016, 06:11:35 pm »
I don't know your music taste, but try listening to something calming, something slower and/or laid-back while you are playing, should help you slow down just enough to think about what is going on.

I had trouble concentrating during (competitive) Dominion matches. Usually because I don't know what to do with the time between my own turns (which is probably why I like playing bots) and then I started listening to Trap Mixes on youtube. I was never a fan of Trap Music before, but damn, this stuff works. I mean, it's not the most calming of genres, but I think Infthitbox is onto something here. Listening to the right music can really help with your focus.

17
Dominion: Empires Previews / Re: Empires Previews #6 - Jack...
« on: May 20, 2016, 02:18:04 am »
I seriously had to check whether it was April 1 when I saw and read that card. But seriously though... this isn't a real card, is it? Surely this must be some sort of joke?

I assure you it is totally real. I happened to be at Sarcasticon 2016 when Donald X. personally unveiled this card to a select few playtesters.

18
Dominion League / Re: Season 14 - Results
« on: May 11, 2016, 04:47:40 pm »
B2: Geronimoo 3,5 - 2,5 teamrocketgrunt

19
Dominion League / Re: Season 15 - Signups Q&A
« on: May 04, 2016, 12:16:45 pm »
Hi everyone,

welcome (back) to the fourteenth season of the Dominion League, potentially the first season that includes Dominion: Adventures online! Since the cards have been released about year ago, the mods have decided to include the new cards on its release in the League play. That means standard random from all cards is still the default way to determine the Kingdoms for your matches, but as you know, you may deviate from this procedure if both players agree to a different kind of kingdom generation (i.e. without Adventures).

That is the official stance from the league mods I think. It was posted in the thread "Season 14 has started".

20
Here it is:



In all seriousness, though, here it really is.

http://gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?http://dominion-game-logs.s3.amazonaws.com/game_logs/20160504/log.0.1462337842322.txt

Best thing is, it's not even a link directing you to Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up", but really the link to the log.

"How on earth did he find the log?" you may wonder now. When I started searching for the log, hauled up in my smoke-filled office with a decaying "PI" sign on the door, I had fully expected a complex and arduous case, filled with cursing, bourbon, cigarettes dangling on lower lips, damsels in distress and mobsters. Turns out, if you know someone's username and he gives you three key cards of his game, you'll find the log in a matter of seconds. I know. I was disappointed, too.

21
Dominion League / Re: Season 14 - Game Reports & Discussion
« on: April 27, 2016, 10:30:12 am »
Match 1 vs. teamrocketgrunt:
List of lifelong dreams, you are now half as long  ;D!
What's the other one?

Stealing Ash Ketchum's Pikachu and using it for evil.

22
Dominion League / Re: Season 14 - Game Reports & Discussion
« on: April 27, 2016, 09:45:53 am »
Match 1 vs. teamrocketgrunt:

Ever since I started getting into Dominion Online (which hasn't been super long, but anyway), I watched a lot of Qvist's videos and before I joined this forum or the league I always thought to myself: "Wouldn't it be cool if I was in one of those videos one day?" And now I am.

List of lifelong dreams, you are now half as long  ;D!

Thanks to Qvist for recording this stuff, it's a great way for new players to get into the game!

23
Tournaments and Events / Re: Online tournament format ideas
« on: April 25, 2016, 06:13:07 am »
I'm interested, so please keep me posted (I do not have a reddit account) :)..

I'm usually pretty torn between wanting to play a lot of Dominion and not wanting to play Dominion at predetermined times, so I actually like that there are breaks between seasons. I would hence prefer a format that does not get squeezed into these breaks. Other than that, it seems you have some very decent ideas going on already!

24
Goko Dominion Online / Re: Waiting for Adventures On-line
« on: April 25, 2016, 05:49:12 am »
Does anyone watch the show "Community" and remember the episode about the Duncan principle in which a group of students, guided by their idiotic professor, repeatedly tell the test subjects it's just going to be five more minutes before the experiment starts until they break and that is the actual experiment?

I do. I remember it every day when I check the page of playdominion.com where it says: "We are currently in the final testing stages for the release of the Adventures expansion."

Congratulations, Making Fun. The Duncan principle works.


25
Dominion League / Re: Season 14 - Results
« on: April 21, 2016, 10:03:07 am »
B2: Qvist 2 - 4 teamrocketgrunt

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