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Messages - Screwyioux

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1
Dominion Articles / Re: Canal
« on: February 20, 2019, 09:59:36 pm »

All in all I think this is pretty solid. There are a couple of things I'd question though:


Edit: as crj points out, Canal actually makes remodel variants slightly better. The above should only be taken to apply to cards like Apprentice or Recruiter.



I don't understand how it makes Remodel variants better. The only time cost reduction and Remodel effects care about each other is at the $0 price point. Yes, you can turn coppers into other stuff, but that doesn't seem to come up very often, especially not with a restricted cost reducer like Canal. I recommend just cutting this.

Quote
Canal is also weak on boards with other cost reducers. The problem with Canal on such boards is that, because of the other cost-reducers, you can often buy several important components for the $7 you spend on Canal. For this reason, it is usually better to build a deck which can play more copies of the other cost reducer than to buy Canal. This isn't to say that Canal is unplayable on such boards: if you happen to end up with $7 and only 1 buy, you often will buy Canal. That said, cost reduction tends to both increase the opportunity cost of Canal and compete with Canal's niche.


This just hasn't been the case in my experience, and the reason is something you reference early in the article-- cost reduction effects love to stack so they can make expensive cards like province cheap or free. Don't get me wrong, the point you make about the opportunity cost is valid, but the effect of Canal is often good enough with the other cost reducers (especially because you don't have to draw it) that you take it anyway.

2
Dominion Articles / SaunaVanto --Draft--
« on: February 19, 2019, 03:11:32 pm »
Looking for feedback and also to make this shorter:

SaunaVanto

It’s uncommon to completely ignore the SaunaVanto pile, as it performs three deck control functions that you need most games (Thinning, Draw and Village). It’s reasonably likely to be the best or only source of one of these effects, but that doesn’t necessarily focus the board around it or make the split(s) important. SaunaVanto’s dirty little secret is that it’s actually pretty mediocre at each of its functions, and its main advantage is that it does them all. Often, when these effects are either optional or available somewhere else, it’s best to ignore the pile, going for those other sources of Draw, Thinning and Village or building a deck that doesn’t need them. Another consideration to that end is that an opponent going for Saunas sees the Avantos faster if you follow suit, likening contesting them to the classic “City Trap.”

That said, playing around the pile looks a little different depending on which effect you’re relying on. So when SaunaVanto is your:

Trashing: You normally grab an early Sauna along with a Silver or two. Optionally, you could take a single Silver and two Saunas, but these two options trash at a similar speed and the Silvers usually do more for you than the Saunas do (until the Avantos are revealed). Sauna’s trashing is slow and unreliable at first, but significantly faster once you’re drawing more cards, so the plan tends to be to make up for the slow initial Thinning with one or two big trashing turns later on.

Draw: This is what the pile is best at, but it takes a while to start doing it, (which is the main factor behind that “City Trap” comparison from earlier). When drawing cards is the main thing you need that pile for, the Saunas are not a priority and they’re often outright skippable. Instead, build a deck that hits $5 consistently and see what the opponent is doing. If they buy the Saunas, you’re probably positioned to get more Avantos than them. If they don’t, then you can either focus on some other source of draw, or commit harder to a moneyish strategy that doesn’t really need it.

Village: Understand that the pile is an unreliable and inefficient Village (you need to line up three cards from the pile in the right order to get plus one action). If the terminal payload is so strong that the Village is mandatory and SaunaVanto is your only option, then make sure you get one or two Saunas, but do consider if there’s some other strategy available that doesn’t need a Village. Leaving the pile uncontested for your opponent means they will have that Village effect if they pursue it, but it will be slow to set up, so perhaps you can take enough of a lead that it doesn’t matter by that point.

3
Variants and Fan Cards / Re: What are your most hated official cards?
« on: January 31, 2019, 10:08:31 am »
Not to mention how awkward Golem can be for a deck that draws itself.

4
Dominion General Discussion / Re: Mistakes We're still making in 2019
« on: January 30, 2019, 04:10:39 pm »
Is this supposed to be about rules mistakes, or strategy mistakes?

Strategy

5
Variants and Fan Cards / Re: What are your most hated official cards?
« on: January 30, 2019, 03:06:45 pm »
Golem and familiar is insane too get tons of extra action and deal out a few curses to other players all in the same turn, sure scrying pool could do that but golem would give you extra actions throw in another golem and throw in another attack like torturer. At least scrying pools attack isn’t as potent as other attacks. If you had no villages it would be pretty hard to play 2 torturers in a turn, but golem can help you play both in stride. Especially if you had more than one golem and more than one familiar. With that combo they would get 5 curses each in a turn, or 3 curses and one card left in their hand. Golem may be weaker on its own. But there have been times I’ve done more damage with golem than I ever did with scrying pool. Cause remember scrying pool doesn’t guarantee that you get Actions...

A few reasons Golem is usually weak:

1. Cost. Golem is a very expensive card and usually overpriced for what it does. Any potion-cost card requires you to buy an otherwise useless stop card for $4 then line it up with enough money to buy the damn thing, that's a big ask early on when you're getting control of your deck and usually want a card like Golem.

2. Reliability. You're at the whimsy of whatever actions the Golem happens to pick up. Sometimes there's a non-terminal in there and you keep your turn going, other times....rip. Not to mention Golem hitting your mandatory trasher and forcing you to trash a good card.

So what's the purpose of the Golem? It's to help you play your other actions more often and function as a village. But if there's any other way to do that (other villages, drawing more cards, just getting more copies of the attack you're trying to play in the first place), you'll usually find that they're cheaper, faster to build and more effective.

Now if you already have the potion in your deck for some other reason, the Golem is a bit better of a prospect, but still often skippable for other, more important deck priorities.


Also, the reason Scrying Pool is insanely powerful has very little to do with the attack.

6
Dominion General Discussion / Mistakes We're still making in 2019
« on: January 30, 2019, 09:56:30 am »
Hey guys,

I would appreciate it if anyone who has time would answer this survey on common Dominion mistakes people are still making.

I'd like to take the responses I get and do a writeup analyzing common skill plateaus and trends beyond the basic level:

https://goo.gl/forms/Sg40DzEnR12p9mGy1

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Variants and Fan Cards / Re: What are your most hated official cards?
« on: January 30, 2019, 09:54:00 am »
Well wouldn’t golem be your tenth? It’s basically as long as scrying pool, cause it makes you play all the Actions you get. I once had a turn play golem gained a golem and a alchemist had to play the alchemist, then had to play the golem again, got apothecary, and another golem, had to play apothecary then had to play another golem, then I got 2 minions, played the the first one for the treasure, then the other one for the attack and got a new hand of actions, played conspirator, Played shantytown which was my last action, or so I thought got another alchemist. This was online the guy resigned right after all that. Then finished with lord rattington, and the cpu had a similar turn except it went a whole lot faster. So are sure golem isn’t as long as scrying pool in the same sense?

Yeah the reason Golem doesn't get a spot is that it's pretty weak most of the time. Scrying Pool "solves" a lot of the puzzle by virtue of being very strong and good at what it does. Golem isn't burdened with such characteristics.

8
Variants and Fan Cards / Re: What are your most hated official cards?
« on: January 29, 2019, 10:18:05 am »
1. Minion (a deceptively luck-rewarding card in my experience)
2. Possession (it feels so invasive to have another player use your hand)
3. Tournament (edges out so many other strategies by heavily incentivizing early Provinces on top of being really swingy in the favor of who gets the best Prize for the board)
4. Peasant
5. Page  (both the travelers have the problem of mattering way too much where you find them in a shuffle, you can be several turns behind the opponent just because their terminal draw was non-terminal a turn before yours was)
6. Scrying Pool (makes games take too long and also "solves" the board to some degree, I don't really like super powerful deck control cards like this)
7. Donate (same as above)
8. Torturer (there's a reason Donald hasn't made too many other "stackable" attacks since Torturer, it just makes games feel oppressive and needs too little support to do it. Compare it to Knights, which require you to interact with the rest of the board, if you have a village, Torturers draw more Torturers for you)
9. Rebuild (this has been pretty well addressed by others, it's just a non-interactive card and games where it's good are boring)

I don't have a tenth. Dominion is a pretty solid game, all things considered.

9
Dominion General Discussion / Re: Dominion Coaching Series
« on: January 18, 2019, 02:06:00 pm »
Hey here's a game I lost a couple of months ago that I'd be happy to get some feedback on! Feel free to do a coaching vid on it!

I don't really make videos but I do enjoy watching them and here are some comments.

Turn 1&2: I like your opening buys more then his, by a lot.
Turn 3: I like your reasoning about the Defiled Shrine points by your opponent.
Turn 4: you claim your peasant is helped by his Enchantress, but it really isn't. Without the Enchantress you'd have the Soldier in your draw pile right away, and now you're wasting a turn. It's not something you can really fix though; not playing the magpie on turn 3 to prevent this feels bad and could also backfire horribly.
Turn 5: getting magpie over minion -> Minions is what its all about here. It's the only card that can really shine before the +actions of Disciple and/or Teacher start working. Also taking a magpie "because you want to win the split" is not a good reason.
Turn 6: You say you want a Develop because trashing estates and gaining $3 cards is good. True, but here these $3 cards are kind of bad, given the lack of +actions. It's relatively rare, but here I'd certainly take Trade Route over Develop. Given how important Minions are here Silver is a serious consideration too though. At this point your deck can't really sustain another terminal.
Turn 7: another terminal - not good. Either get Silver or nothing.
opponents turn 8 - you discard copper over estate. I wouldn't, but it's close - fine with me.
Turn 8: You buy yet another terminal. Starting to get really bad.
Turn 9: And another terminal, horrible.
Turn 10, start of turn: given that you have way too many terminals, you should certainly use the opponents Enchantress to play the terminal in your hand.
Turn 10, later that turn: Your last magpie play means you'll have to go through a shuffle without any of your disciples. That play sets you back ~1.5 turns.
Turn 10: I do like you're buying nothing
Turn 11: close call between double develop and double enchantress, both fine with me
opponents turn 12: you discard magpie over estate. It looks like a conscious decision but I don't get it.
opponent on turn 13: He should put +actions on minion, not +coins.

Your post game analysis: this wasn't so much about the attacks, as it was about the balance between +actions and terminals. You end with a relatively small deck with 1 card that can make +actions and 8 that need it. Getting so many terminals caused you to almost never hit the big coins needed for Minion / double Minion.

This is a really good analysis, thank you! I think over-terminaling is a pretty consistent flaw in my play. In general with Magpie, do you sometimes prioritize the split by buying a second one (I can't imagine buying a third) instead of another card you want, or do you just hope they multiply on their own and do your best with what you're given?

Obviously you do everything SOMETIMES, but what I mean is, how rare do you think it is to buy more than one Magpie (assuming there's another card you want and would gain instead)?

10
Dominion General Discussion / Re: Dominion Coaching Series
« on: January 16, 2019, 11:18:03 am »
Hey here's a game I lost a couple of months ago that I'd be happy to get some feedback on! Feel free to do a coaching vid on it!

I thought at the time that Minion luck decided it, but that's a scrub excuse and I damn well know it:


11
Dominion General Discussion / Re: Thunderdominion Card List Results
« on: January 16, 2019, 09:39:12 am »

The other thing is how deceptively trivial Rebuild is to play. Big money has never been the only way to win base, but there's a reason that people perceived it to be a broken strategy. The same goes for Rebuild. Unless you are a top player, you want to go for the best strategy you think you won't screw up. Play a stupid Rebuild strategy, and hope that your opponent does worse at his technically superior strategy.


Okay, this needs poked at. Everyone should always try to play like a top player every game, that's how you get better and become a top player. That means going for the strategy you think is best, regardless of the level of execution it asks of you. If that strategy looks simple to you, great go for it (you might find it's not as simple as you thought, as is often the case with Rebuild and moneyish decks). If you think something more elaborate can beat it, then pull up your big boy pants and play it out.

12
Dominion League / Re: Season 32 - Signups
« on: January 16, 2019, 09:21:57 am »
Returning to League:

Dominion Username: JakeTheZipper
Discord: @J a k e#2803
Timezone: US/Chicago
Previous Division:  D

13
Dominion General Discussion / Re: My new Dominion YouTubing Series
« on: January 08, 2019, 11:39:50 am »
You should do whichever is more sustainable and enjoyable for you. I assume you put the editing work into the videos because you enjoy it, so do you prefer to do more videos or do fewer of them the way you like?


14
Dominion General Discussion / Re: My new Dominion YouTubing Series
« on: December 20, 2018, 01:40:42 pm »
I suscribed
Thanks!


EDIT: I recently received a message from "Jake". He says he is a fellow dominion tuber and would like to skype/play me for one of my videos. However, I got it as a do not reply email. How would I go about responding?


Yo, sup. That's me. Weird about the do-not-reply thing, I might have checked a box or something.
Great! So do we PM to arrange a game or something? I don't really know the etiquette regarding youtubers communications. I would absolutely love to play you in a game. Multiple, if it can be arranged.

What a coincidence, neither do I. Why don't you shoot me an email: jakeschwartz38@gmail.com and we'll schedule something.

15
Dominion General Discussion / Re: My new Dominion YouTubing Series
« on: December 20, 2018, 08:47:56 am »


EDIT: I recently received a message from "Jake". He says he is a fellow dominion tuber and would like to skype/play me for one of my videos. However, I got it as a do not reply email. How would I go about responding?


Yo, sup. That's me. Weird about the do-not-reply thing, I might have checked a box or something.


16
Dominion General Discussion / Re: My new Dominion YouTubing Series
« on: December 17, 2018, 11:42:24 am »
There are arguments both ways. I imagine someone who's watching games of Dominion played out online (that aren't rules tutorials) will be familiar with the mechanics enough to follow the game without trouble and base-only games could just be re-treading old ground.

I would suggest to that end framing your videos more as en exploration than a tutorial either way, which makes me think there's more value in exploring the rest of the game than sticking to base-only.

Yeah I'll second that if you want an opponent for your vids myself and others here would be more than happy to help out!

17
Dominion General Discussion / Re: My new Dominion YouTubing Series
« on: December 17, 2018, 11:39:31 am »
There are arguments both ways. I imagine someone who's watching games of Dominion played out online (that aren't rules tutorials) will be familiar with the mechanics enough to follow the game without trouble and base-only games could just be re-treading old ground.

I would suggest to that end framing your videos more as en exploration than a tutorial either way, which makes me think there's more value in exploring the rest of the game than sticking to base-only.

18
Dominion General Discussion / Re: My new Dominion YouTubing Series
« on: December 17, 2018, 10:42:25 am »
I like the video and definitely hope you keep making them!

I don't agree with all of your analysis, but I do think you gave it pretty well and effectively communicated what you were doing and why. Whether or not you were "right" or it worked out doesn't matter so much as we can watch the game play out and evaluate your thought process for ourselves, and there's value in that.

I'd give two pieces of advice:

- Use the kingdom viewer in the upper right at the beginning. No need to read the whole kingdom, just bring that up for a few seconds, the viewer can pause to read the cards if they need to.

- No need to spend more time doing base-only games, in my opinion. At this point, the base set isn't really that representative of the rest of the game anyway and there are lots of videos that focus on it already.

Keep it up!

19
Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Cursed Bottle / Bottle Imp
« on: December 12, 2018, 02:11:00 pm »
Having read the story, I appreciate how faithful this is to it.

Balance-wise, it's super powerful the way it's worded now and you'll usually just want to pay $0 so you can keep the Imp forever.

Suggestions would be:

1. Just have the Imp gain Wishes instead of acting like a Princed Wish. It's weaker that way but still plenty powerful.
2. There needs to be SOME means of counterplay-- either that there's always a way to steal the Imp, or that the person with it has a harsher punishment for keeping it, one that will scale with whatever board the Imp might show up on.

20
We made a bunch of jokes about her not being a virgin sacrifice. Were they tasteful? Absolutely not. Were they funny? Not really.

21
Has anyone said Ritual/Peddler yet?

22
Dominion General Discussion / Re: Spices > Gold
« on: November 18, 2018, 11:41:13 am »
Hm, opening Spices. Sounds pretty spicy on boards with Inheritance, Forge, Hireling, Tournament. Anything that rewards you for early a spiking.

23
Dominion General Discussion / Re: Engine Building Help
« on: November 07, 2018, 12:57:17 pm »
What Polk said is good advice.

I think the question behind how to build your deck is how to read the kingdom and what your priorities are in order.

Usually, you first get control of your deck (trashing, draw, villages if necessary, etc).
Then you make your deck do good stuff (money and buys, attacking your opponent).
Then you win the game with your deck (scoring points and piling out).

When you're figuring out how to do that, first you should look at the attacks/defenses, then look for how much "control" you can get, then decide what your best turn looks like (buying one Province or doing more than that).

Adam Horton's tutorial series is another good place to start: 

24
Dominion General Discussion / Re: card ranking lists
« on: October 09, 2018, 09:57:41 am »
Embargo is better than Transmute. You heard it here.

Definitely; there's tons of times you want a one shot Silver, and don't care that it's terminal. The cursing thing I can take or leave - honestly I usually just Embargo Embargo (or Curse) so I don't have to think about it.

Transmute is a pretty special breed of awful. It's really contrived finding a situation where it is decent. It's really rarely okay with Bonfire and limited other trashing options available. And I guess in some games with other Potion cards it's a Duchy gainer late.

I've had some really sloggy games where it was fine, but mostly because you were picking up a potion anyway for Familiar or Vineyard and there was no better terminal.

25
Dominion General Discussion / Re: card ranking lists
« on: October 09, 2018, 08:50:45 am »
Embargo is better than Transmute. You heard it here.

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