I'd still like to hear people's thoughts. Anyone have a favorite way of choosing kingdoms at home?
Added challenge: best way to do stratified random kingdoms when strata ARE mutually exclusive (so randomizer piles can be divided up at home)?
Suggestions?
I generally avoid nasty attack cards like Torturer, Sea Hag or Ambassador.
The reason for this is twofold:
...
In fact, I will go as far as claiming that I hate all cards that mess with an opponent's deck. This kind of "here's a Witch, in your face!" conflict feels just very ameri to me. I don't need it, I don't want it. Dropping 7 Curses into an opponent's deck because of a lucky Familiar split doesn't make me happy. Outsmarting him with a sophisticated engine does.
I like setups which have multiple roads to victory. Attack cards are often so dominant that both players will get them and they exaggerate the first player bias.
If Cursers and Looters wouldn't have been part of the Dominion culture, that wouldn't have made me sad. In fact, it would have made me very happy as this would leave room for other interesting cards.
The problem with this is that Attacks- including and especially nasty ones like Ambassador, Torturer, and even Saboteur, give you
more roads to victory and allow you to win with sophisticated engines. In addition to the good things they do for you (deck-thinning for Amb, +Cards for Torturer, etc.), by slowing your opponent down they provide that crucial element- time- to build your clever engine and catch up. Even Sab can be crucial here, by giving you a possible path to victory after your opponent has over half the Victory points.
Take these cards away, and you don't have a situation where you can "Outsmart [your opponent] with a sophisticated engine", you have an environment where the best plan all-too-often requires a maximum of BM+X and a minimum of creativity.
Okay, I guess you could take away Familiar, that one is just swingy without being particularly interesting. But I'd be sad to live in a world where PStone and Transmute were useful even less often than they already are.