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Dominion General Discussion / Re: Neat and potentially useful card interactions
« on: July 16, 2021, 11:52:44 pm »Livery + Academy + multiple buysAs previously noted, villagers come fast and furious in most Horse games. Sleigh and Cavalry become Labs with some Patron-like flexibility. Livery goes cantrip with one >$4 gain and reaches Champion level with additional gains. Even Groom and Hostelry can generate a few Acting troupes over the course of the game. Even Scrap can generate a lot of villagers to significantly impact the game (e.g. trashing a silver at the end of each turn can give you a villager and a horse to increase odds of successful draw the next turn). Event the events are mostly strong. Ride converts buy and coins to actions and draw which is usually a winning trade. Stampede is basically like playing two Acting troupes while demand can turn $4 cantrips into a cantrip + most of an Acting Troupe.
I had an irl game recently where this combo came up. I was the only one who noticed the Livery + Academy combo, and I was producing Villagers so fast, I only had one Village in my entire deck, and the rest of my Action cards were terminal, AND I was drawing my deck every turn, and I was STILL getting Villagers faster than I was spending them.
End of the day, Horse is a cantrip that is cheap to acquire. Academy makes cheap cantrips really powerful. Whether it is gaining Pixies/Wisps, Horses, or maxing out Stonemason/Butterfly Way. Heck I have even bought 4 Ruins to trash out with Chapel just to enable a megaturn.
Academy is one of those things that combos with most anything so it combos with nothing. Oddly enough, plentiful village gains and other cheap +action (e.g. Kc, Champion) are one of the few compelling reasons to skip Academy. Otherwise, Academy seems to make just about all other action cards to undergo a fairly dramatic power boost.