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1

Dominion League / Season 35 - End of Season Deadlines

« on: August 19, 2019, 05:10:32 pm »

Season 35 officially ends on Sunday, September 1. To account for the westernmost timezones, the deadline for reporting matches is Monday, September 2, at 15:00 UTC.

If you need extra time to finish, you must contact your group moderator to request an extension of up to one week. All late finish matches must be reported by Monday, September 9, at 15:00 UTC.

If you fail to request an extension or complete the match by the late deadline, the responsible player(s) will be considered to have dropped mid-season. This means that they are banned for the next two seasons, and automatically demoted when they return. If they played at least 18 games (three matches), those are kept for the other players' standings and their remaining matches are "simulated" (see the full rules for how), but if they did not complete that many, their results are removed.

In addition to finishing your matches, all players must fill out the returning form to tell us whether they will be back for next season. This form was sent to you in a private message; you can also find it in the pinned post in your Discord division channel. The deadline for filling out the returning form is Monday, October 7, at 15:00 UTC (the Season 36 signup deadline). Any players who have not told us whether they will be back by then will be assumed to be not returning.

2

Dominion General Discussion / The Dominion Cards Lists 2018 Edition: Projects

« on: February 25, 2019, 07:20:30 pm »

How exciting, I get to introduce a new list! These are the Projects. They are shiny and new, and everyone usually always buys whichever ones are on the table, or uh the screen. Turns out that’s not a bad move; over half the Projects received a vote for first, so they're all pretty good. This speaks to the balance of Renaissance, and also to the strength of Projects. There's no previous year's ranking to compare this to, but I'll still say some things from up on this here soapbox (no puns this time, I promise).

	#20 Road Network   Weighted Average: 12.58% / Unweighted Average: 16.67% / Median: 5.26% / Standard Deviation: 23.19% Many don’t see the value of Road Network. To them I say, play some 4-player games. Something has to be last, though.
	#19 Exploration   Weighted Average: 16.43% / Unweighted Average: 18.00% / Median: 10.53% / Standard Deviation: 22.91% We're comparing different costs here, so one of the main things to note is, can I open this? And with Exploration you can, but that won't usually be great. Hermit and Mission do a lot to make not buying cards worth your while; Exploration is currently regarded as Bathsy. It needs combos to truly shine, which makes it a bit narrow, and narrow things don't rank highly here. I do believe Exploration to be high-skill, and expect it to move up the ranks with time.
	#18 City Gate   Weighted Average: 29.39% / Unweighted Average: 33.89% / Median: 26.32% / Standard Deviation: 26.32% Another Project you can open, but probably shouldn't. Sometimes City Gate is key to kicking off your turn, but often your engine is already working anyway. And if you don't have an engine, would a Silver have been more useful? Once you've bought City Gate, it can be hard to say whether your game would have played more or less the same without it.
	#17 Crop Rotation   Weighted Average: 32.37% / Unweighted Average: 38.75% / Median: 31.58% / Standard Deviation: 24.55% These next two Projects help you plow through your starting cards. I think that's a large part of why they're ranked low: ideally you're trashing those starting cards. Projects are a steal because you pay once and get the benefit every turn, instead of cards you only use once per shuffle (not now, Scheme). The problem here is that $6 isn't really a steal.
	#16 Silos   Weighted Average: 34.73% / Unweighted Average: 33.69% / Median: 26.32% / Standard Deviation: 25.55% I reason that this ranks higher than Crop Rotation becaue it's cheaper, and because you can Cellar any number of Coppers (as opposed to Shepherding only one Victory card). You're ideally trashing your Coppers, so Silos is maybe a bit narrow? It's not like Silos is bad, but something has to be 16th.
	#15 Barracks   Weighted Average: 37.30% / Unweighted Average: 42.54% / Median: 47.37% / Standard Deviation: 23.19% That lonely man is ruing his lot in life: I should have stayed in school, those guys at the Academy know way more about Actions than me. It's a village that starts working soon as you buy it, that can be nice. But by the time you get to buying Barracks, you likely already have villages. Plus some turns you didn't need the extra Action, some turns you needed 2 extra Actions, and well have I mentioned Academy yet?
	#14 Fair   Weighted Average: 40.09% / Unweighted Average: 41.39% / Median: 36.84% / Standard Deviation: 20.73% Sometimes you just really need an extra Buy. Fair's got you covered.
	#13 Guildhall   Weighted Average: 42.51% / Unweighted Average: 41.58% / Median: 36.84% / Standard Deviation: 27.63% How often do you want a deck of Treasures? *Puts out Guildhall.* How about now? It paints a silver lining around opponents' Mountebanks, and gives a buff to Treasure-gaineres. But usually you have to already want those cards, you're not building a Bureaucrat deck just because Guildhall is around.
	#12 Pageant   Weighted Average: 44.32% / Unweighted Average: 44.30% / Median: 42.11% / Standard Deviation: 24.62% The dream of having an overpay-for-Coffers card lives through in this. Opening Pageant sounds promising, but apparently the gameplay stats are showing it is largely a trap. It's also not every day you see Ryan Laukat commissioned for something that's not a Treasure. There are a lot of days, you see.
	#11 Piazza   Weighted Average: 44.39% / Unweighted Average: 42.28% / Median: 36.84% / Standard Deviation: 25.08% You buy Herald plenty, and Piazza wants to get in on the fun. You can debate in the comments how justified the comparison is. We want there to be discussion on these forums, and I'm here for you. Guildhall was above Piazza in the List of Best $5 Cards.
	#10 Canal   Weighted Average: 45.73% / Unweighted Average: 49.24% / Median: 47.37% / Standard Deviation: 26.65% Kicking off the top 10 is Canal. You can make whatever comparisons to Highway or the Key. But you can't really go wrong with Canal, except maybe trash for benefit.
	#9 Innovation   Weighted Average: 56.98% / Unweighted Average: 57.78% / Median: 63.16% / Standard Deviation: 24.30% The weighted average for Innovation is a jump up from Canal, so we're in a new tier here. A Projects ranking by the Discord community had Innovation 4 places higher, the biggest difference between that list and this one. I dunno, seemed worth noting. The $6 cost means you can't just pick it up willy nilly, and recognizing when it's good is what separates the wheat from the chaff.
	#8 Fleet   Weighted Average: 58.73% / Unweighted Average: 55.26% / Median: 57.89% / Standard Deviation: 26.76% The artwork is very ominous. At worst, Fleet is a delayed Duchy (a pretty high floor). At best, it defends against 3-piling. And maybe some other things, I personally still get psyched out by Fleet games, but I think you usually always buy it?
	#7 Capitalism   Weighted Average: 59.04% / Unweighted Average: 60.18% / Median: 57.89% / Standard Deviation: 17.65% Capitalism is by far the most exotic Project. Some boards it might do absolutely nothing; it doesn’t have a setup clause to ensure Actions with +$ amounts are around. But when it’s good, it’s good. Really good. Still, I suspect this one to fall a rank or two as the hype wears off, and its niche-ness settles in. Fleet and Capitalism were swapped in the List of Best $5 Cards, so are essentially neck and neck.
	#6 Citadel   Weighted Average: 59.50% / Unweighted Average: 63.52% / Median: 63.16% / Standard Deviation: 23.54% For those keeping count, the top 5 Projects after this are all ones that you could open. One might infer from that that the best Projects are ones you get the most turns with. But that’s not for me to say. Anyway, before those we have Citadel. You can’t (usually) open it. Despite that, it’s #6, which means its effect is pretty sweet. Spiking is important here, like with Inheritance. It’s not a Princed Throne Room; make sure the first Action you play each turn gives +1 Action.
	#5 Sewers   Weighted Average: 71.39% / Unweighted Average: 69.96% / Median: 78.95% / Standard Deviation: 24.59% Without another trasher around, Sewers does nothing. Fortunately Renaissance comes with plenty of trashing. So, when there is trashing around, Sewers doubles it. It pairs nicely with trashers that are restricted to what they can trash or where they can trash from.
	#4 Academy   Weighted Average: 72.00% / Unweighted Average: 68.77% / Median: 78.95% / Standard Deviation: 24.38% It looks so innocent, but man. Academy can be bonkers, almost letting you entirely skip other villages (I said almost, OK). Probably don't open it on $5/$2, but don't wait too long. It also makes you think twice about Maraudering or Cultisting.
	#3 Sinister Plot   Weighted Average: 75.74% / Unweighted Average: 70.58% / Median: 78.95% / Standard Deviation: 24.07% What is so sinister about this plot? It seems very above board to me. Even if you're using it as an every-other-turn-Flag, that's not bad for $4. The time-value-of-Projects principle very much applies here: the sooner you buy it, the more time you have to benefit from it. The top 3 Projects together received 75% of the first place votes.
	#2 Star Chart   Weighted Average: 80.97% / Unweighted Average: 73.24% / Median: 89.47% / Standard Deviation: 28.35% If you don't yet think this deserves do be this high, just try buying it. And don't forget IRL to topdeck something.
	#1 Cathedral   Weighted Average: 85.73% / Unweighted Average: 77.90% / Median: 94.74% / Standard Deviation: 32.27% Unsurprisingly, Cathedral sits on top (bottom?) of these rankings. It received by far the most votes for first, 15 of them (there were 31 voters). It's basically the Donate Project; what else is there to say that we don’t already know? Trashing is great, and a one-time investment in this gets you trashing every turn for the rest of the game, buyer beware. It has its pitfalls of course; we've all been burned by Cathedral. Watch out for their Militias and your Alchemists.

That's all for the Projects, check back tomorrow for the grand finale: Boons and Hexes.

3

Dominion General Discussion / The Dominion Cards Lists 2018 Edition: Events

« on: February 25, 2019, 12:46:32 pm »

These lists are usually hotly contested, and I don't expect this to be an exception. After all, debate over the futile art of ranking is why we're all here. I will say some things, and you will let me know where I went wrong. That's the fun to be had.

The Events have been scattered throughout the other 2018 lists, and are discussed there by better players than me, go see for yourself. I included the stats on this list, for the first time since 2015 I'll have you know, but interpretting those will largely be an exercise for the reader. Instead I'll keep it brief, and hopefully entertaining, while trying to not rehash things already said in the other lists, and event-ually make puns (sorry, non-native English speakers).

	#34 =0 Annex (Empires) Weighted Average: 6.18% ▲2.02pp / Unweighted Average: 7.43% / Median: 3.03% ▲3.03pp / Standard Deviation: 16.36% 8 of the bottom 10 Events are from Empires, yikes. Although this one is not being annexed to the top of the list, less than half the voters this year placed it in last place, and its weighted average increased 50%! Annex has to celebrate these little victories in life because it's so decidedly last place.
	#33 =0 Raid (Adventures) Weighted Average: 11.61% ▼0.30pp / Unweighted Average: 15.67% / Median: 9.09% =0pp / Standard Deviation: 19.59% Here's one of those 2 lowly-ranked Adventures Events. Attack Events could have been explored more, why does no one else like Attacks? Anyway, pairing the attack with Silver gaining wasn't doing it any favors. It got one vote for 1st, but I don't think that was serious.
	#32 ▼1 Ritual (Empires) Weighted Average: 13.60% ▼2.58pp / Unweighted Average: 17.03% / Median: 12.12% ▼3.03pp / Standard Deviation: 16.86% This transforms one of your cards into a Curse, in exchange for some VP. You have to trash a good card for it to be worth it, but then you wonder, why am I paying my hard-played money to turn one of my good cards into a Curse? Most people's wealth of points comes from VP cards, and if you thinking buying this will make you ritual be sorely mistaken.
	#31 ▼1 Tax (Empires) Weighted Average: 14.12% ▼2.11pp / Unweighted Average: 16.51% / Median: 11.54% ▲2.45pp / Standard Deviation: 19.92% Shoot, I need to file my taxes. Anyway, this Event is fine, the setup makes games spicy but people complain too much about how taxing it is.
	#30 ▲2 Banquet (Empires) Weighted Average: 14.83% ▼2.14pp / Unweighted Average: 17.89% / Median: 12.12% =0pp / Standard Deviation: 19.94% This serves up the same experience as Cache, because the penalty there was so beloved. Put them together with Tower, though, and watch out. Is the theme of this that you munch on Copper?
	#29 =0 Quest (Adventures) Weighted Average: 16.38% ▼2.56pp / Unweighted Average: 17.62% / Median: 12.12% ▼3.03pp / Standard Deviation: 16.37% The other bottom 10 Adventures Event is Quest. It gives you alternate ways to pay for a Gold, but they're often harder than just rustling up $6. And isn't buying Treasures passé anyway?
	#28 ▼1 Conquest (Empires) Weighted Average: 24.66% ▼4.04pp / Unweighted Average: 26.56% / Median: 21.21% ▼3.03pp / Standard Deviation: 21.06% Speaking of buying Treasures being passé, here's Conquest. 2 Silvers for $6, you tell me how much of a bargain that is. It comes with free VP though, and that is cute when it stacks. Without combos, you're just hoping the 2VP makes a difference. This is the first Event on this list to not receive a vote for last place.
	#27 ▲1 Wedding (Empires) Weighted Average: 24.84% ▼1.66pp / Unweighted Average: 30.63% / Median: 21.21% ▼3.03pp / Standard Deviation: 20.58% Speaking of speaking of buying Treasures… These Events are all down here for a reason, folks. For Wedding, the VP isn't free or stackable. The marriage of coin and debt costs is the gimmick here, so when you need to open Gold, I propose buying Wedding.
	#26 ▼2 Salt the Earth (Empires) Weighted Average: 34.18% ▼0.01pp / Unweighted Average: 33.61% / Median: 27.27% ▼3.03pp / Standard Deviation: 19.82% There is a big jump in weighted average, signaling that we are now in a new tier of Events. Salt the Earth's standard deviation shrank, and weighted average is essentially unchanged. So there's a strong consensus around this one, and that consensus is that Salt the Earth is the 26th best Event in Dominion.
	#25 ▲1 Windfall (Empires) Weighted Average: 37.01% ▲4.11pp / Unweighted Average: 36.27% / Median: 33.33% ▲6.06pp / Standard Deviation: 19.05% How is it that Windfall and Swashbuckler both feel so difficult to pull off?? I think I have a Schrödinger discard pile that is always both empty and full.
	#24 ▲1 Pilgrimage (Adventures) Weighted Average: 37.65% ▲4.64pp / Unweighted Average: 38.27% / Median: 33.33% =0pp / Standard Deviation: 19.74% This went up one rank because someone realized they could set up their Giant with it. Jokes aside, gaining 3 pricey cards can sometimes be worth the journey there and back. Does anyone else think Pilgrimage should be spelled with 2 Ms?
	#23 ▼1 Scouting Party (Adventures) Weighted Average: 38.42% ▼5.36pp / Unweighted Average: 40.31% / Median: 39.39% ▲3.03pp / Standard Deviation: 16.91% I thought parties were supposed to be fun, but the forced discarding here really kills the mood. Cheap Events with +Buy should in theory be easy to pick up, but you will think twice about this one. Combos with Scout: draw all the Victory cards, so that your Scouting Party looks at 5 good cards that it can't keep all of.
	#22 ▼2 Advance (Empires) Weighted Average: 38.99% ▼8.77pp / Unweighted Average: 40.37% / Median: 39.39% ▼6.06pp / Standard Deviation: 16.15% Hey, some games you start with a Necropolis, and that's pretty cool. But this Event doesn't advance in rank this year. In the $0–$2 Cards List, Scouting Party was rated higher than Advance, fun fact.
	#21 ▼2 Trade (Adventures) Weighted Average: 42.26% ▼6.77pp / Unweighted Average: 42.83% / Median: 39.39% ▼12.13pp / Standard Deviation: 17.65% The trade-off here for trashing is that you're not thining, and the junk gets replaced by other stop cards. Not loading up on Silver is one of the tricks of the trade here. But it's not a trick this Trade knows.
	#20 ▼2 Delve (Empires) Weighted Average: 42.75% ▼6.67pp / Unweighted Average: 46.38% / Median: 39.39% ▼9.09pp / Standard Deviation: 23.28% I heard you like Silver, so now it costs $1 and 1 Buy less! Wait you don't like Silver? Don't underestimate Delve with Tower, though.
	#19 ▼4 Expedition (Adventures) Weighted Average: 46.44% ▼7.76pp / Unweighted Average: 48.50% / Median: 48.48% ▼3.04pp / Standard Deviation: 16.17% Expedition is one of the biggest losers. Which would be good if it were on NBC. Instead it's here, and it's expeditiously making room above for some heretofore underappreciated Events.
	#18 ▲3 Seaway (Adventures) Weighted Average: 47.10% ▲2.81pp / Unweighted Average: 48.10% / Median: 48.48% ▲6.06pp / Standard Deviation: 17.67% This Event is finally starting to see way more appreciation. People don't like spending $5 on a $4, but +Buy is good (and too often undervalued). When you need Buys like water, Seaway is there for you. Thinking Seaway should be top 10 like the other vanilla bonus token Events doesn't hold water, but it's good to see it float up a few ranks.
	#17 ▲6 Ball (Adventures) Weighted Average: 47.77% ▲6.71pp / Unweighted Average: 44.60% / Median: 45.45% ▲9.09pp / Standard Deviation: 16.78% Ball is the big winner among the Events this year, up 6 places. I think people again bawled about "wasting" a $5 on some $4s, but they're staying on the ball with $4s being good.
	#16 =0 Training (Adventures) Weighted Average: 53.54% ▲2.22pp / Unweighted Average: 56.18% / Median: 57.58% ▲2.02pp / Standard Deviation: 16.52% Hey, way to go us, we were right on the money with this ranking last year.
	#15 ▼1 Travelling Fair (Adventures) Weighted Average: 61.49% ▲4.14pp / Unweighted Average: 58.64% / Median: 60.61% ▲4.09pp / Standard Deviation: 16.84% Travelling Fair seems to be the culprit of many degenerate combos, most recently with Priest. Despite this, it traveled down one spot this year and that seems fair.
	#14 ▲3 Mission (Adventures) Weighted Average: 63.78% ▲12.45pp / Unweighted Average: 58.59% / Median: 57.58% ▲15.16pp / Standard Deviation: 21.23% Sometimes you hit $8 on a Mission turn, and you're sad. Sometimes you're Attacking your opponent twice as often. Make it your mission to get the most out of your extra turns.
	#13 ▼1 Borrow (Adventures) Weighted Average: 64.41% ▲4.28pp / Unweighted Average: 62.44% / Median: 68.18% ▲13.63pp / Standard Deviation: 21.96% Horrible art, good Event. Very cleverly designed. It is the first Event on this list to get a vote for 1st (besides that one for Raid).
	#12 ▲1 Triump (Empires) Weighted Average: 66.59% ▲7.60pp / Unweighted Average: 61.41% / Median: 62.50% ▼4.17pp / Standard Deviation: 24.55% Extra gains put the tri-oomph in this Event. The combos are not uncommon, and when they're present, yee haw.
	#11 ▼1 Summon (Promo) Weighted Average: 68.52% ▲4.06pp / Unweighted Average: 62.69% / Median: 63.64% ▼3.03pp / Standard Deviation: 21.15% Anytime is a good time for butterflies. This is another $5-for-a-$4 Event, but it is a powerhouse. It summons up much of the experience of Prince, minus all of the drawbacks.
	#10 ▲1 Plan (Adventures) Weighted Average: 69.12% ▲7.04pp / Unweighted Average: 67.15% / Median: 69.70% ▲12.12pp / Standard Deviation: 12.88% Plan has done nothing but climb the ranks of this list over the years, and enters the top 10 for the first time. 8 of the top 10 Events are from Adventures, the mirror image of the bottom 10. Donald X. used the best ideas for Adventures, he didn't plan on needing more.
	#9 ▼2 Alms (Adventures) Weighted Average: 71.25% ▼3.25pp / Unweighted Average: 68.46% / Median: 72.73% ▼4.19pp / Standard Deviation: 23.00% This almsmost could have fallen out of the top 10, but it begged for the chance to stay.
	#8 ▲1 Dominate (Empires) Weighted Average: 72.81% ▼0.19pp / Unweighted Average: 74.12% / Median: 78.79% ▼6.06pp / Standard Deviation: 18.19% Dominate moves up a rank while all its stats got worse, math is weird. 15VP is good, I hear VP is how you win. It's fun to see the unconditional instruction "gain a Province".
	#7 ▼3 Lost Arts (Adventures) Weighted Average: 75.27% ▼6.14pp / Unweighted Average: 76.71% / Median: 84.85% =0pp / Standard Deviation: 23.07% Lost Arts lost 3 places this year. Playing only one Action per turn is one of Dominion's biggest restrictions, and this does good work to get around that. There's not much of an art to choosing the pile; pick the one you want to spam a lot of. It got one vote for last, which is interesting as it's probably not the confused voter/troll (I assume they were the last place vote for Donate).
	#6 ▲2 Save (Adventures) Weighted Average: 76.42% ▲2.78pp / Unweighted Average: 71.79% / Median: 75.76% =0pp / Standard Deviation: 25.16% All the other Events that give +1 Buy landed outside the top 10, save this one. It's often hard to see how much Save is helping you, so it's good to see it get some recognition. Keeping a Victory card out of your deck can really save your shuffle.
	#5 ▲1 Inheritance (Adventures) Weighted Average: 77.33% ▼2.50pp / Unweighted Average: 74.43% / Median: 80.77% ▼7.11pp / Standard Deviation: 21.39% The top 5 Events are either pretty cheap, or very expensive. There is value in cheap things you can buy early and get more use out of, but also in expensive things that do something crazy powerful. You're rarely opening Inheritance, but it's so exotic and inherently strong that you are usually working extra hard to spike $7.
	#4 ▼2 Pathfinding (Adventures) Weighted Average: 77.75% ▼6.59pp / Unweighted Average: 79.29% / Median: 81.82% =0pp / Standard Deviation: 16.88% Pathfinding's path found its way out of 2nd place, and not just into 3rd, but into 4th. Less than 2.5pp separates this from 7th, it's a close race.
	#3 ▲2 Bonfire (Adventures) Weighted Average: 79.15% ▲0.98pp / Unweighted Average: 78.06% / Median: 78.79% =0pp / Standard Deviation: 13.43% Trashing is good, who knew? Clearly we didn't last year, what ever were we thinking having Bonfire at #5. Once I Bonfired my Champion because of Wolf Den, that was cute. But usually you're just burning currency; it's a fire festival.
	#2 ▲1 Ferry (Adventures) Weighted Average: 85.95% ▲4.24pp / Unweighted Average: 83.72% / Median: 87.88% ▲6.06pp / Standard Deviation: 15.32% Ferry's rise on the Best $3 Cards List was matched here, as it sailed into 2nd place. And with a fairly sizeable lead over Bonfire.
	#1 =0 Donate (Empires) Weighted Average: 94.56% ▼2.07pp / Unweighted Average: 93.47% / Median: 100% =0pp / Standard Deviation: 19.93% Much like last place, first place is far away from the pack. 26 out of 32 people voted Donate first. It's as close as you come to a must-buy card; you donate want to skip it.

I Project that the next list will be posted several hours from now, but in the meantime you can discuss these Events.

4

Rules Questions / Exploration + Villa

« on: November 06, 2018, 04:47:32 am »

Is this statement accurate about the interaction between Exploration and Villa?

Exploration checks at the end of each Buy phase whether you bought cards in that Buy phase; if your turn has multiple Buy phases due to Villa, only the last one will end, and so the last Buy phase is the only one in which you need to not buy cards to get the +1 Coffers and +1 Villagers.

It's based on a ruling by Stef on Discord, so it'd be nice to get official confirmation, and have something cite-able for the wiki.

5

Rules Questions / Warrior + Tunnel

« on: May 12, 2015, 05:38:17 pm »

If someone plays Warrior and I discard Tunnel, then I can reveal Tunnel, gain a Gold, cover up Tunnel, cause Warrior loses track of Tunnel, and make Warrior will fail to trash Tunnel -- right?