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Dominion General Discussion / Re: Question- What is an Engine
« on: July 26, 2018, 12:58:16 pm »
There are two qualities I use to qualify whether a deck is an engine or not: control and growth rate. Decks with high control are able to play higher fractions of their useful cards each turn, with the archetype obviously being a deck that draws itself with perfect reliability. Decks with high growth rate are able to quickly obtain useful payload, and ideally use extra gains to grow non-linearly.
If a deck possesses both of these qualities, I consider it a strong engine. Some decks possess one but not the other; for example Hunting Party + X has control but not growth rate, and Bridge Troll + Village (or Ironworks + Gardens) has growth rate but not control. I call these decks weak engines.
Strong money decks can incorporate a limited amount of control (e.g. through Donate), growth (e.g. through Delve), or both (e.g. through Jack), but they can be differentiated from engines as the primary goal while building is to increase the coin value of the average card in the deck.
If a deck possesses both of these qualities, I consider it a strong engine. Some decks possess one but not the other; for example Hunting Party + X has control but not growth rate, and Bridge Troll + Village (or Ironworks + Gardens) has growth rate but not control. I call these decks weak engines.
Strong money decks can incorporate a limited amount of control (e.g. through Donate), growth (e.g. through Delve), or both (e.g. through Jack), but they can be differentiated from engines as the primary goal while building is to increase the coin value of the average card in the deck.
Canada xyrix - Jan 
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