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Messages - BadAssMutha

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1
Variants and Fan Cards / Re: DOMINION + Magic the Gathering - Idea
« on: March 11, 2016, 05:12:28 am »
So what's the point of attacking? Just another way to end the game? It would seem pretty much a waste of time to attack your opponent instead of just gaining VP. Or does a person who hits 0 life automatically lose? If so, it seems pretty swingy and also tough to balance. If I dealt 19 points of damage and bought no victory cards, I'd lose, but if I dealt that 20th point, I'd win no matter how many VP my opponent has. It seems like you should either pursue a Magic strategy and attack, or a Dominion strategy and get VP, but I don't see why you'd want to try to do both.

This might be balanced a little better by making each remaining life point worth 1VP at the end of the game. That way, attacking still does something even if you don't kill your opponent by getting him to 0 life.


2
Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Holy Order
« on: December 18, 2015, 03:22:53 am »
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Wedding is too strong. If you open with 4 Wedding is an auto-buy as you increase the coins for you second turn to 4 or 5.

Not true, with a CCCCE open and a Wedding buy, my next hand may well be SCCEE for $4, not $5.

Pardon seems way strong in any game that has +cards, especially when it's +3 or +4 cards.

Inquisition seems a bit expensive for a blockable curser that isn't even a cantrip.

3
Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Delorean
« on: October 23, 2015, 03:59:36 am »
Cute, but makes no sense.

4
Goko Dominion Online / Re: Upswing, downswing
« on: September 25, 2015, 07:26:46 am »
The simple fact is, every RNG causes streaks of good and bad "luck".

5
Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Leap Frog
« on: September 17, 2015, 05:47:18 am »
The card doesn't seem very powerful. Ignoring the second half, playing 3 of them is just like playing 3 cantrips - the first Leap Frog is +1 action, the second is +1 card +1 action, and the third is +2 cards +1 action. Looking at the second half, I actually have a good chance to help my opponent when playing this. Assuming my deck and my opponent's are of roughly equal consistency, it's not worth it for me to play an action that has us both get +1 card or discard 2. My opponent will come out ahead by buying something else and getting free cards from me. Note that cards that have an opponent draw (Council Room, Governor) give a significant card advantage to the person who actually plays it. Equal gains are just not worth pursuing.

The victory card discard seems pretty harsh, especially since it seems like you'll want to play multiple Leap Frogs per turn. The end game will get pretty painful. If a treasure is discarded, do you just discard the next card, or discard it and then do something based on what that next card is? If it's the latter, you'd wind up in an infinite loop in decks that only have treasure. If it's the former, the effect doesn't really seem all that impactful - slightly helpful for speeding up cycling, but it may not be worth the extra time to resolve.

Overall, it seems like it will help your opponent too much early, hurt them too much late, and also be a bit of a pain to resolve.

6
Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Victory cards as Silvers
« on: July 24, 2015, 04:45:48 am »
Interesting idea. It might be good in slogs or in the late game. I don't see it being all that useful in a typical Province game, since you won't have enough Victory cards to make it worthwhile. Unless you can line up this card with at least two Victory cards, you're probably just better off with a Gold. In games with no way to increase handsize, I suspect this would be very expensive and weak. Maybe making it +3 cards, losing the +buy, and adding Gain an Estate would make this more self-sustainable.

As for the name, I'll suggest "Strip Mine". Your lands get you lots of cash, but the land gets trashed. Once you run out of workable land, the mine shuts down.

7
At first impression, it seems like I would just about never want this card instead of curse. If I use its power, my opponent will discard their weakest action, which could be a Ruin, another Envy, or something else that's probably not worth stealing. Then, I get two curses on top of my deck, which hurts a LOT. Keep in mind that Sea Hag makes you discard the top card precisely to avoid stacking curses on top of the deck. Putting two junk cards on top also makes stealing drawing cards a lot worse - it basically makes Smithy draw just 1 useful card. Effectively, I've taken -3VP over the normal curse, AND mucked up my deck, just to steal an action that's probably weak to begin with, while hitting my opponent with a fairly weak attack.

Even if I do want to steal the action, I can realistically only use this card 5 times in 2-player until there aren't enough curses to activate the action. Furthermore, these are going out in games that already have cursers, so I'm probably getting less than 5 plays out of this unless everyone is taking Envies instead of curses all the time. I don't think you'd ever run out a pile of 10 Envies, since it's is very much worse than a curse (I won't say strictly for fear of trolls) if the ability can't be activated.

8
Game Reports / Re: It didn't seem like it at first...
« on: April 15, 2015, 03:47:48 am »
Ambassador and Marauder, with the threat of Saboteur (with Throne Room!) can slow things down quite a bit. Although, I don't understand your decision to get rid of all your copper when almost half your deck consists of Apothecaries... seems like you could have been making a lot more than $4 a turn.

9
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Quote from: ehunt on Today at 05:26:53 am
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It depends on the card, not on the cost. You probably don't want an herbalist at all. It's a terminal copper. I mean, it's got its places in the game, but it's a terminal copper, your default should be "don't buy this" when you see it on a board.

You want it when it's the only +buy on the board.

I guess that's true, but if it's a game where you really can't afford anything better than a $2, why would you need the extra buys? And if it's some leftover change after a Province or double Province, you probably don't want to go mucking up your deck with a terminal copper.

10
Puzzles and Challenges / Re: A simple question.
« on: March 05, 2015, 11:27:29 am »
The puzzle is to not be able to BUY a Grand Market before turn 5, isn't it? You need to ban a lot more cards to avoid being able to gain one, but the stipulation of having to buy it narrows the space a bit. So maybe we don't need to get rid of all the Remodel variants?

No clue what the answer is, but I'll say 23 for the heck of it.

11
Game Reports / Re: Swindler + Curser
« on: January 13, 2015, 10:34:46 am »
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Another interesting thought experiment: Imagine two cards, one of which is Swindler and the other is Mountebank. One costs $3 and can potentially turn $5 Actions into Duchies, the other one costs $5 and doesn't really do anything if the opponent has a Curse in their hand, and while they both are very powerful cards, the Mountebank one is still a lot more powerful relative to its price.

I think it's kind of interesting to note the effect of your opponent's deck composition for Swindler and Mountebank. Swindler arguably gets better as your opponent's deck gets better - like you said, you can turn awesome $5 actions into Duchies, or even critical $4's into less-useful ones, but you can only turn junky $0 cards into other junky $0 cards.

Mountebank, on the other hand, gets worse as your opponent's deck gets worse. If she's drawing a Curse in every hand, a single Mountebank is effectively not much more than just a +$2. It has a negative feedback effect, since the more you play it successfully (while Curses are still around, at least), the less likely it is you'll play it successfully again.

I guess the upshot is that Mountebank will help you to get ahead, but then slow down in its usefulness. Swindler starts out OK, but can really help you catch up from behind if you Swindle some key cards. As we all know, in Dominion it's better to get ahead and stay there, which is exactly why Mountebank is so good.

At any rate, this discussion has really made me evaluate the benefit of Swindling a Copper into a Curse, which I used to think was the cat's pajamas. It's certainly better than hitting Estate -> Estate, but unless you really need the Copper early on, or it's a game decided by only a couple of points, the effect seems fairly mild. The real payoff is in trashing costly actions (or in some cases, treasure).

12
Game Reports / Re: Swindler + Curser
« on: January 13, 2015, 05:54:40 am »
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3. Adding junk < Replacing with junk.
Leaving an opponent with 7 Copper and 5 Curses is not nearly as good as replacing those Copper and leaving him with 2 Copper and 5 Curses.

7 Copper and 5 Curses are 12 junk cards, 2 Copper and 5 Curses are 7 junk cards. I don't see how giving the opponent less junk would ever be good unless it's a Gardens game.

Hm, upon further consideration I mostly agree, but I think it depends on the board and where in the game we are. If it's near the start of the game and the opponent hasn't even hit $5 yet, taking away Copper and increasing the Curse density could be more important than just adding more junk. With 5 curses and 7 copper, my opponent could still get a lucky good hand, but it's going to be a lot tougher with 5 curses and 2 copper.

Interesting thought experiment: Imagine two hypothetical cards, one which says "Each other player gains a Curse" and one which says "Each other player trashes a Copper from their discard pile and gains a Curse". In most cases, you're probably right that the former is better - the latter doesn't even seem so bad (hey, free Copper trashing!). However, I'd argue that there are some cases (junky Duchy slogs with no trashing, or near the very beginning of the game) where the latter might be more useful. It'd have to be one of those painful games where Copper is worth buying, though.

13
Game Reports / Re: Swindler + Curser
« on: January 12, 2015, 07:13:40 am »
These points have pretty much been mentioned, but your logic is flawed in four ways:

1. Cursing now > cursing later.
The longer a curse is in your opponent's deck, the more it hurts.

2. That curse could become yours.
Especially if your opponent already has something that can give it to you.

3. Adding junk < Replacing with junk.
Leaving an opponent with 7 Copper and 5 Curses is not nearly as good as replacing those Copper and leaving him with 2 Copper and 5 Curses.
Edit: Only in some cases where Copper is actually better than Curse, or near the start of the game. If Copper and Curse are equivalently junky, the sheer quantity of junk is more important than Curse density.

4. Soothsayer benefits your opponent only when cursing.
Your opponent draws a card when you curse with Soothsayer. If you can hand out the curses other ways, you avoid helping your opponent when you play Soothsayer.

14
Rules Questions / Re: how to buy Fairgrounds???
« on: November 29, 2014, 08:25:23 am »
If you're going for Fairgrounds, you usually want to have a majority of the kingdom cards by the end of the game (10, 15, or more). I find it easiest to count the cards that I haven't bought yet. In your standard no-Colony game (by standard, I mean no Young Witch, Shelters, Prizes, Spoils, Knights, or so on), there are 17 unique cards. I usually figure out which 2 of them I'm not going to get, and go from there. Keeping track of what you have already does take a little getting used to, but usually there's a number of cards that you're actively using for much of the game that you probably have a few copies of, and then you just need to keep track of the ancillary cards that you're only picking up to boost the Fairgrounds.

Watch out for trashers (like Remake or Remodel), though. Several times I've been sure I bought/gained 15 unique cards, only to find that I had Remodeled my one Gold into a Province, or Remade all my Coppers.

15
Help! / Re: Pillage/Chapel/Tournament
« on: November 21, 2014, 05:15:09 am »
I agree with going Mystic here. If you want fast economy, Mystic gets you +$2, and will get you +$3 about half the time just by naming Copper near the start of the game. With Pillage, you won't see any benefit to your own deck until the Spoils comes around a whole shuffle later, and even then it doesn't help you unless you spend it. Spending a Spoils to get a Gold is usually a good move, you're just trading a one-shot $3 treasure for a permanent $3 treasure. By not spending the Spoils and buying a Silver instead, you may actually be decreasing your money density (by the end of the game, at least).

Scrying Pool is probably a little slow to win the Prize race, but the +Buy and added cycling from Storeroom make it a little more feasible. It's been a little while since I've played, but is Chapel a must-open on 4/3, or would Potion/Storeroom be OK, picking up the Chapel on T3/4?

16
Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Gaining with Options: Carnival
« on: July 29, 2014, 09:23:43 am »
Low powered on-gain options are a neat idea, but keep in mind that on-gain powers are a bit weaker to begin with, since you only get to use them once. $4 seems a bit expensive for the options you list, since the card doesn't really do anything otherwise. I suppose it has its place in a Conspirator or Scrying Pool deck, but (as has been pointed out) may not be worth enough to be really great with TfB.

Simple cantrips seem harmless, but they can actually decrease the quality of your deck because they A) can be drawn dead and B) decrease the amount of information in your hand (sometimes you'd rather just know what the next card is).

Right now it does seem like the trashing option is the best. I'd only want cantrip+Silver over just Silver in very specific types of decks that I mentioned, and 1VP just seems like too little. I think it'd have to be 2VP for it to be competitive on a lot of boards.

Maybe you could make it a $4 village (+1 card, +2 actions) with an on-gain bonus, that might make it priced more appropriately. Or, make it a $3. Another idea might be to add an on-gain self-Spy option (reveal and optionally discard the top card of your deck).

17
Dominion General Discussion / Re: Tunnel
« on: July 08, 2014, 01:55:37 pm »
I think Cartographer does work perfectly well with Tunnel, despite not discarding Tunnels from your hand. You have as good a chance of finding a Tunnel in the next 4 cards of your deck as you do of having another discarder (e.g., Oasis) with a Tunnel in the other 4 cards of your hand. Additionally, Cartographer can discard multiple Tunnels at once. The only downside is that it's a bit expensive at $5.

I also think that Tunnel is quite a good counter to the discard attacks, so much so that I might even pick one up in the absence of my own discarders. The Tunnel and discard attack are bound to line up at some point, and if my opponent instead declines to play the attack, he has paid the greater opportunity cost (we both have a dead card, but mine cost less and gives me VP). Has anyone looked at the viability of opening with Tunnel vs. Militia in the simulator? It's almost a 50% shot at T3/4 Gold, which would otherwise be especially difficult to pull off (due to Militia).

18
Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Dominion: Gunpowder
« on: July 03, 2014, 09:11:51 am »
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I also have to be honest in that I wonder if you guys play the game much, or play it online like I do, which is a very tough field to play in, as you seem to think trashing and preventing attacks is of little consequence when they actually effect gameplay greatly.

Most of the people here play the game very much, I assure you. Trashing is important, but only if you can do it fast enough, otherwise your engine won't kick in fast enough. Preventing attacks definitely takes a backseat to launching attacks. You'll notice there are 35 attack cards in Dominion, but only 10 reactions, only half of which can be said to mitigate attacks. Attacking is just so much better than blocking attacks. I agree with the other folks on here in that a lot of these cards seem very weak.

Bomb, as has been pointed out, is just... so... slow. I have to buy Gunpowder, shuffle it in, buy Bomb, shuffle it in, and finally get to trash... one card? I'd have to empty the Bomb pile to get rid of my starting cards, not to mention all the actions I'd use playing them or the other buys I'd be spending on Gunpowder. The one-at-a-time trashers in Dominion, you will notice, aren't really primarily about trashing, it just comes as a nice bonus. Hermit is about something else entirely, Altar is about gaining good $5's, Trade Route gets you some cash, Island nets you VP, Spice Merchant give you some flexibility, and so forth. Bomb needs to trash more than one card, and possibly have the self-trash be optional. You mention how you don't like having your Chapel hanging around once you've got a thin deck, but think about it - would you rather have a single dead Chapel for 10 turns in a thin deck, or have to draw and play 10 Bombs in a deck that's only slowly getting better?

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Indeed, the best comparison is Island, although Island sets cards aside and does not trash at all. They both cost the same conceptually, but Island is superior because it also adds 2 VP. I still think Bomb is equally useful, and only falls short of Island cuz of the VP thing.

So... why would I want a Bomb instead of an Island, again? It takes longer to get and doesn't give me a VP bonus. You yourself say Island is superior, and then say Bomb is equally useful.The cards definitely do not "conceptually cost the same", since the Gunpowder cost is severely going to limit when and how many Bombs you can get.

Garrison gives +2 actions or +1 card +1 action.The first is equivalent to Necropolis, a card that's usually a burden. The second is strictly worse than Scheme, which costs the same amount. I don't think the choice is worth the cost.

Sulfur Pit confuses me a little about how the Gunpowder Buy happens immediately. Can I play treasure after playing Sulfur Pit? If so, you're opening a Black Market Pandora's Box.

Soldier seems a bit weak, especially in the face of Musketeers and Grenadiers. The Urchin effect doesn't do a whole lot, and trashing itself to prevent an attack really hurts when it's a Gunpowder-cost card. It's pretty much a no-buy if Musketeer or Grenadiers are on the board.

Reserves might be OK, I can't really decide. The Spy and draw in one turn is nice, and Great Hall is another cantrip with only a weak bonus, so this might be OK at $3.

19
Dominion General Discussion / Re: Dominion oxymorons.
« on: June 26, 2014, 12:37:50 pm »
For those playing with Alchemy the first time - unfamiliar Familiar.

Reliable Mountebank

Oasis pile running dry

Trashed Bishop

10 Hermits in one place

20
Dominion General Discussion / Re: New Promo at Origins...
« on: June 24, 2014, 12:36:45 pm »
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You may set this aside. If you do, set aside an Action card from your hand costing up to ( 4 ). At the start of each of your turns, play that Action, setting it aside again when you discard it from play. (Stop playing it if you fail to set it aside on a turn you play it.)

Duration fails the bold.  You play Prince, setting aside a Duration.  At the start of your next turn, you play that Duration, setting it aside again when you discard it from play.  You do not discard it from play, so you do not set it aside again. 

Or maybe we're saying the same thing.  It fails to do what's in the bold, so the parenthetical applies to it.

Durations fail the bold only on the turn they're played, and not on the following turn. Without the parenthetical, I think Prince would play the duration every other turn, setting it aside again when it's discarded on the turn after it's played. But with the parenthesis, it's clear that the duration shouldn't be Princed again because it was not set aside.

21
Dominion Articles / Re: Counters to/with Possession
« on: June 21, 2014, 10:10:07 am »
Yeah, I'm not sure MG/Possession really deserves a page. Usually you plan your buys with MG to get the most tokens, perhaps getting a few cheap cards instead of one expensive one. The Possessor can pretty easily get around this by just buying one expensive card, only giving up a single coin token to the Possessed player. The fact that MG is very weak without the coin (just +$1, +1 buy) also mean the Possessor isn't missing out on much by just not playing it. Terminal silver (like Monument) can be a bit more necessary to play than just an extra copper. If it's a solid multi-MG engine, once more, the Possessed player probably already has a stockpile of coin tokens that they earned before getting Possessed, so the Possessor can have a decent turn without doing much. Seems like it'd be pretty late to start picking up Possession as a counter to that MG engine, too.

22
Game Reports / Re: My first Guilds game
« on: June 18, 2014, 02:19:05 pm »
Taxman is often pretty ignorable, especially when there's a direct path to Gold like with Soothsayer (which maybe should be your first $5). Journeyman isn't a terrible open, but again, the Soothsayer can get you the Gold you're looking for. Baker is a little better with Stonemason on the board, since you'll want to save up for $6 or $7 turns to get a nice Stonemason overpay.

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I think you should open Herald/Herald on 4/3 and Herald/Herald/Stonemason/Candlestick Maker on 5/2.

I dunno about that Herald engine either, it seems really tough in 3-player. You probably won't get more than 5 Heralds, which may not be enough to string together with only Stonemason for trashing, especially when two other players can give out curses (with a cursing opener, no less). Running out of piles is much more of an issue in 3p, especially with Stonemason on the board, so I'd be worried about getting down on curses and having the game end suddenly. I might give it a shot with 2 players, but I'd play it safe with 3 and go for Soothsayer.

23
Dominion General Discussion / Re: Cards that looked weak at first...
« on: June 17, 2014, 10:48:32 pm »
I seriously underestimated Jack of All Trades at first glace, and continued to for awhile even after getting trounced by it. I guess I didn't playing games with it until I was already pretty decent with the other sets, so it just seemed pretty meh if you take the bonuses one at a time. The Spy effect is rather weak, it has worse draw than Watchtower, one-at-a-time trashers are way slow, and you get more middling treasure - but all together, you have one heck of a card that's useful on a lot of boards.

24
Dominion Articles / Re: Squire
« on: June 16, 2014, 10:49:18 am »
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Squire, more than any single card, can empty piles really fast.

Stonemason, anyone? 4 buys of $4 empties the pile, and then some.

25
Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Crossroads/Poor House
« on: June 04, 2014, 02:47:52 pm »
Interesting idea, but it seems very strong in cases where you'd want it. Because Crossroads works on Victory cards, it has negative feedback in terms of drawing power - if your deck has a lot of VP, you can draw a lot, but most of what you're drawing is garbage. This card just keeps getting stronger, because once it can draw a lot, you're probably drawing a lot of good cards too.

That said, it's very weak in situations where you don't want it. It's sort of like an expensive Cellar for Victory cards or Curses or Ruins. If you have no village in the kingdom, there probably isn't much point in building a high action-density deck in order to trigger terminal draw.

Is the +Buy tacked on to help load up on cheap cantrips like Pearl Diver?

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