38
« on: August 17, 2012, 02:49:09 am »
Some of my thoughts:
Rats - Not intuitive, but there's definitely got to be some crazy strategies here. On the board, but never purchased.
Knights - Looked neat, but again didn't purchase them - other cards seemed too fast.
Vagrant - Never found a use for this card either - other cards had so much drawing power.
Scavenger - Exactly what it looks like, a decently better Chancellor. Would be more interesting if it were a cantrip.
Storeroom - Seemed like it would be a decent opener, but now I'm not so sure.
Rebuild - Cannot understand this for the life of me.
Sage - Never found a strong use, perhaps there is one, but in my games the opportunity cost was too high.
Pillage - Powerhouse, especially if comboed with Graverobber/Rogue and a village. Very surprised.
Poor House - I'm sure this is board dependant.
Procession - With lots of Dark Ages card, Procession ROCKS ... a lot more than you'd expect. Procession/Fortress/Band of Misfits (now dubbed BOM) was a very strong mid-game combo especially when combined with card draw and buys.
Junk Dealer - the use of this card only becomes apparent after playing a few Dark Ages games. Slow trashing isn't too dangerous, especially with Overgrown Estate, Hovel, Fortress, etc.
Marauder - Didn't get to use this one, but judging by the effects of other cards, this looks comparable to Sea Hag.
Market Square - interesting card - very good in an engine when you can use it multiple times (by discarding then fully redrawing again) and then use the buy at the end. Even one reaction use to gain a gold, then using the buy is powerful. Trashing cards (again, especially Fortress or a Fortress/BOM/Hunting Grounds combo)
Mystic - Didn't understand this until late in the games. Could be very uesful with Graverobber or Rogue.
Graverobber - Very interesting with Pillage. Other powerful uses TBD - perhaps combos like Village/Graverobber/Pillage/Village or Mystic, Village/Graverobber/BOM/Village or Mystic/continue combo, etc.
Hunting Grounds - Boy oh boy is +4 cards strong. Also a very convenient pricepoint to be trashed into via Procession.
Ironmonger - Jury is out, but doesn't feel strong.
Cultist - pretty awesome if you know when to time the purchases and how many to get, depending on your and your opponent's deck composition. Much better if you can upgrade these somehow (Upgrade, Procession, maybe even Salvager) - a TFB with the trash benefit is better than it looks.
Forager - Pretty strong in the mid/late game, especially when you need +buys. Basically an alternate trade route.
Fortress - such a neat village. The untrashability can make trashing it very desirable (again, procession, etc)
Catacombs - Looks interesting, but there wasn't time to purchase it in the games we played. Also seems like it would combo well with Procession (with a cost 4 and 6 cost action on the table, like Fortress and Hunting Grounds)
Armory - Probably situational. Seems decent, especially if you can play it a few times relatively early on decent actions, then upgrade out of it (again, Procession).
Band of Misfits (BOM) - The $5 pricepoint is perfect - you end up upgrading from $4's into BOM's that have the same effect with no penalty (again, Procession), and then perhaps even upgrading to a power 6. Procession/Fortress/BOM/Hunting Grounds was very strong.
Bandit Camp - Hard to figure out when to buy this.
Feodum - Didn't play with it yet and our games were not silver centric.
Urchin - Didn't play with it yet, but I have a feeling that Mercenary is relatively strong for some reason.
Wandering Minstrel - Didn't play with it yet, jury is out.
Squire - Didn't play with it yet, jury is out. Probably very board dependent.
Hermit - Didn't play with it yet, but looks very interesting. Grabbing a Madman or multiple Madmans/Madmen? could probably lead up to a nice mega-turn if done correctly.
Death Card - Didn't play with it yet, probably very strong with a drawing engine (you can trash the Ruins you gain with it).
Beggar - Didn't play with it yet, but doesn't look particularly strong. Maybe good defense in alt-VP games with attacks.
Count - Didn't play with it yet, but looks pretty good if there's +actions on the board.
Counterfeit - Didn't play with it yet, jury is out.
Altar - Didn't play with it yet, jury is out.
Necropolis - Does help engine play, a nice addition to your starting deck.
Overgrown Estate - a small bonus for a card that's likely to be trashed anyway.
Hovel - situational. Unsure yet how Great Hall, Tunnel, etc will affect this.
Takeaways:
- Shelters are probably more fun to play with except when you get different splits on a YW/Tunnel game.
- Combos are very prevalent (and very, very fun).
- Keeping track of actions, coins, etc is very, very difficult and may require pen & paper for those without excellent memories.
- Procession in conjunction with other Dark Ages cards may just have the highest combo potential. Perhaps I didn't play enough games.
- BOM, Pillage, Necropolis, Procession, Junk Dealer, Graverobber, and Fortress seem better than expected.
- Storeroom and Sage feel worse than expected, and I didn't like Sage to begin with - perhaps I'm missing something.
All in all, this set is full of excitement, combos, and great new cards. I eagerly await the Dark Ages cards to be added to the Dominion Shuffle android app.
Edit: and for some reason, the box image seems slightly off-center to the left. Anyone else notice that?
