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Dominion Articles / Cathedral
« on: November 11, 2018, 11:34:58 am »
I've been playing around with a simple Cathedral strategy, that I think on most kingdoms will win a good chunk of the time. The great thing about this strategy is that if you buy one card per turn, you always have 10 cards, making shuffle-counting and analysis pretty easy.
Turn 1 (on 3/4 or 4/3): Buy cathedral
Turns 2-4: Buy silver (or silver+), trash estate (may be forced to trash a copper)
Turns 5-6: Buy one silver, one gold, trash copper (or estate if left over from turn 3/4)
Turns 7-8: Buy gold, trash copper
Turns 9+: Buy province if you can, gold if you can't. Trash copper, province, silver in that order of priority.
If opponent doesn't buy a province, game is over around by turn 18. You will have between 18-30 points. If opponent buys a province or two, game will end earlier.
It's basically a BM strategy, and like BM, that works pretty well, but works even better if you add a terminal draw: Add the biggest terminal draw in 3-5 cost, replacing a silver, and you can probably skip buying a gold or two, shifting everything one or two turns earlier. Library is amazing here: It's basically a +4 cards, you're guaranteed a shuffle, and there's only one card left in your deck. After playing a Library, chances that the Library lands in your hand next turn is 44%, meaning you'll be playing with a Library 2/3 of the time.
Silver+ would be things like Venture, Spices, Idol, Crown, Royal Seal. If you don't buy terminal draw, Baker may qualify here as well: The normal strategy wastes a lot of coin, and coffers can help smooth it out.
As for attacks, Hand-size attacks pretty much kill it (unless there's Library/Watch-Tower/Scholar around), trashing attacks do as well. I would be especially worried about 3-4 cost ones: Militia, Pirate Ship, Urchin, Brigand, Catapult, maybe Cutpurse, maybe Peasant/Soldier, maybe Warrior. A hand-size attacks reduces your playable hand to either 2 or 3 cards: The best you can hope to do is buy back whatever you have to trash. If opposing player can play the attack with any deal of regularity, you're pretty dead. A trashing attack permanently reduces your deck size by 1, meaning that you have less room for provinces + money.
The 5-6 cost attacks are just slower to get going, but once opponent gets them playing regularly, you may be in trouble: Knights, Bandit, Minion, Ghost Ship, Margrave, Goons, maybe Rogue.
Cursing/looting attacks have a small impact: They slow you down slightly. Instead of trashing copper, you have to trash the junk they give you. But they don't hurt you much, because you can trash faster than they can junk.
Other things that help: Star Chart can ensure your terminal draw shows up on shuffle. If your draw is +3 or +4, you can guarantee that you're playing the terminal draw every time. Buying it delays Cathedral by one card (or if you choose, reduces deck size to 9), but totally worth it. Salt The Earth can help you trash a province at the end when money gets a bit scarcer.
A note on the impact of +buy cards, gainers, or other perceived helpers to compensate for the forced trashing: The goal with Cathedral is to empty provinces as quickly as possible. Buying extra copper/silver doesn't help you do that. Building an engine is not the goal: Engines take longer to build than Province emptying, and you're going to lose in the long run playing 4-handed vs a 5-handed opponent.
Turn 1 (on 3/4 or 4/3): Buy cathedral
Turns 2-4: Buy silver (or silver+), trash estate (may be forced to trash a copper)
Turns 5-6: Buy one silver, one gold, trash copper (or estate if left over from turn 3/4)
Turns 7-8: Buy gold, trash copper
Turns 9+: Buy province if you can, gold if you can't. Trash copper, province, silver in that order of priority.
If opponent doesn't buy a province, game is over around by turn 18. You will have between 18-30 points. If opponent buys a province or two, game will end earlier.
It's basically a BM strategy, and like BM, that works pretty well, but works even better if you add a terminal draw: Add the biggest terminal draw in 3-5 cost, replacing a silver, and you can probably skip buying a gold or two, shifting everything one or two turns earlier. Library is amazing here: It's basically a +4 cards, you're guaranteed a shuffle, and there's only one card left in your deck. After playing a Library, chances that the Library lands in your hand next turn is 44%, meaning you'll be playing with a Library 2/3 of the time.
Silver+ would be things like Venture, Spices, Idol, Crown, Royal Seal. If you don't buy terminal draw, Baker may qualify here as well: The normal strategy wastes a lot of coin, and coffers can help smooth it out.
As for attacks, Hand-size attacks pretty much kill it (unless there's Library/Watch-Tower/Scholar around), trashing attacks do as well. I would be especially worried about 3-4 cost ones: Militia, Pirate Ship, Urchin, Brigand, Catapult, maybe Cutpurse, maybe Peasant/Soldier, maybe Warrior. A hand-size attacks reduces your playable hand to either 2 or 3 cards: The best you can hope to do is buy back whatever you have to trash. If opposing player can play the attack with any deal of regularity, you're pretty dead. A trashing attack permanently reduces your deck size by 1, meaning that you have less room for provinces + money.
The 5-6 cost attacks are just slower to get going, but once opponent gets them playing regularly, you may be in trouble: Knights, Bandit, Minion, Ghost Ship, Margrave, Goons, maybe Rogue.
Cursing/looting attacks have a small impact: They slow you down slightly. Instead of trashing copper, you have to trash the junk they give you. But they don't hurt you much, because you can trash faster than they can junk.
Other things that help: Star Chart can ensure your terminal draw shows up on shuffle. If your draw is +3 or +4, you can guarantee that you're playing the terminal draw every time. Buying it delays Cathedral by one card (or if you choose, reduces deck size to 9), but totally worth it. Salt The Earth can help you trash a province at the end when money gets a bit scarcer.
A note on the impact of +buy cards, gainers, or other perceived helpers to compensate for the forced trashing: The goal with Cathedral is to empty provinces as quickly as possible. Buying extra copper/silver doesn't help you do that. Building an engine is not the goal: Engines take longer to build than Province emptying, and you're going to lose in the long run playing 4-handed vs a 5-handed opponent.