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Messages - Zaphod

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26
Dominion General Discussion / Re: Mandarin
« on: October 29, 2011, 09:31:45 pm »
I was beaten yesterday by the dreaded Mandarin/Mandarin/Mandarin/Apprentice opening.  It was actually quite strong.

Cool!  Let me throw out another one, then...

Turn 1: 5 Copper, buy a Mandarin, put 5 Copper back on top of your draw pile
Turn 2: Buy an Inn, put the Inn and the Mandarin back in your draw pile and shuffle it
Turn 3: Play Inn, draw 2 cards, discard 2 Estates, play Mandarin, put the other Estate on your draw pile, play two Coppers, buy a Torturer

That gives you three cost-5 cards before your first shuffle.  Inn would combo well with Torturer because it draws two cards, making it more likely you'll pick up a Torturer.  Mandarin is useful in that set because if you draw it with a Torturer but not an Inn, you can put the Torturer on top of your deck, so it's easier to get a chain going.  If you played a Torturer chain but didn't reshuffle, it's a good time to buy an Inn.

I think we're going to find many ideas like this with the Hinterlands cards.  The "when you gain" dynamic is very interesting.

27
Dominion Isotropic / Re: Fan Cards on Isotropic?
« on: October 28, 2011, 09:42:37 pm »
I just came over here to see if there was a thread about Archivist.  It's a really fun card, especially when you get more than one in your hand at the same time.  It forces you to think a little, to decide which cards to discard.  Nicely done, rinkworks.

28
Dominion General Discussion / Re: Mandarin
« on: October 27, 2011, 06:47:53 pm »
I'm not sure if this would be a good idea or not, but I'm tempted to try it some day...

Turn 1: Buy Mandarin
Turn 2: Buy Mandarin
Turn 3: Buy Mandarin
Turn 4: Buy Apprentice

The idea would be to use Apprentice to trash the Mandarins to draw five cards.  As I said, I haven't tried it yet and I'm not sure how well it would work.

29
Dominion General Discussion / Re: New Promo Governor
« on: October 25, 2011, 04:58:18 pm »
2. Possession boards. I think this is self explanatory. Using governor to draw a huge hand for yourself and your opponent is just amazing synergy. You are more likely to hit your possessions and then reap the benefits of their deck.

And then you can use their Governors (if they have them) to give yourself another amazing turn (assuming they don't steal it).

Alternatively (if they are likely to Possess you right back), you can use their turns for +Gold +Silver rather than cards.

Or you can remake all the cards in your hand and Possess yourself.

Ooh, that's evil, I like it.  Of course, this is the sort of card one shouldn't buy if Possession is on the board.

My first thought on this card echoed what Mean Mr Mustard said, somewhat.  It went something like this: "Hmm, when you play this card, you help everyone, but not as much as you help yourself.  How appropriate that it's named for a politician."

30
Dominion General Discussion / Re: How do You Play Golem?
« on: October 24, 2011, 01:16:36 am »
I think the best time to buy Golems is when you were going to get a Potion anyhow, or when it's likely to be a longer game.  Any strategy based on Golem takes awhile to set up, since you need four coin and a potion just to buy one.  But let's say Familiars are in play and most of the Curses haven't been dealt, or Scrying Pool is in play along with some good chaining cards; if you have the chance to get Golems then, by all means, go for it.

31
Dominion General Discussion / Re: Interesting Minion game
« on: October 23, 2011, 10:38:08 pm »
On the other hand, a couple Cartographers would probably be great in a Minion deck.  I don't know, I haven't had the chance to try it yet.

32
Ill-Gotten Gains seems like a steep price to pay just to give a Curse, unless there's a trash-for-benefit card available, but I haven't played with it yet so I can't be sure.  Gardeners are licking their chops hoping to see this card and Gardens in the same set.  Actually, Gardens would combo with many of the Hinterlands cards we've seen so far.

Develop seems like a weak opener, but it might be a good finisher.  Trashing a Bank to gain a Province and a Harem near the end of a game wouldn't suck.

Hmm, just throwing this out there...you Develop your IGG, gaining a Traders and a Border Village, putting them both on top of your deck...when you gain Border Village, you also gain another IGG, giving your opponent another Curse...next turn you can use Traders to trash Border Village for six Silvers, to keep the Curses from taking over your deck.  I imagine strategies like that will come out of the woodwork as we play with these cards.  Should be fun.

33
So, if a player buys a Mandarin and a Mint in the same turn, does he choose whether his treasure cards are trashed or placed atop the draw pile?  I assume it's all or nothing...he couldn't choose to trash his Coppers and put his Gold on the draw pile.  Perhaps it's a matter of which card he buys first?

34
Mandarin could make for a wicked opener, if another good 5-coin card like Laboratory is in the set.  Like Courtyard, it would be useful in some sets where you really want two cards to show up in the same hand, as you can push one card from this hand to the next.  I can see situations where you might buy it just to use the acquisition power, perhaps to carry that Platinum over to the next hand, or to make those Coppers miss the next shuffle.

Crossroads looks like a card that works with a deck bloated with Victory cards, or with Victory cards in the kingdom (especially Nobles).  You may want to go for Duchies earlier than usual if you have a few of these.  Gardens and Dukes would no longer get in your way.  Playing multiple Crossroads in the same turn, using the same Victory cards to draw more cards, is intriguing.  No doubt the card's rules for + actions is there in part to keep you from buying out the stack and drawing your entire hand every turn.

Both of these probably have to be played a few times before we can understand their true power.  It's remarkable that, after so many expansions, Dominion can continue to redefine how we look at the game.  I guess that's why it's so much fun.

35
In <a href="http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201110/14/game-20111014-113509-325ebe5e.html">this game</a> I found Fool's Gold makes a very good Remodel target for Copper.

Remodel/Fool's Gold has some potential as a combo...Remodel Coppers into Fool's Gold, convert them to Gold when your opponent buys a Province, Remodel the Gold into a Province.

36
I typically go through a quick mental checklist, roughly in this order of importance:
  • Any important attacks?
  • Any cards that give +2 Actions?
  • Any +Buys?
  • Any trashing options?
  • Any easy ways to draw cards?
The more of these that are answered "yes", the sillier my deck becomes.

I do something similar.  I also check for

  • good combos
  • worthwhile cards that cost a potion
  • reaction cards, if a good attack is on the board

37
Dominion General Discussion / Re: Interesting board - what would you do?
« on: October 13, 2011, 10:00:17 pm »
In my experience, it's a bad idea to buy a Bishop when Curses are being dealt.  If I trash a Curse and allow you to trash a Curse, the one VP coin I gain is less significant than the fact that I used an action to do this, and you didn't.  I only like Bishop when I'm  trashing more valuable cards and gaining major coin.

I'd go Potion/Silver here, then get a Remake at my next opportunity.  Remake would not only dump my Curses, it would let me draw my Familiars more frequently.

38
I played a game with Envoy and Trader this morning.  Normally I'm not a big fan of Envoy, but with Traders stuffing my hand with Silvers, my hand was very uniform.  I can vouch that this combo works very well.  It helps to have something in the Village family available so you can play them both in the same turn.

39
Dominion General Discussion / Re: veto strategy
« on: October 06, 2011, 09:28:39 pm »
When I veto a card, it's usually because I don't think the card is much fun to play.  I win above the average rate with Ambassador and Torturer, but I don't really enjoy those games, so I often will veto them.  Possession is another one, although if my opponent has the first turn, he's probably going to veto that before I can do it.  I've found that very few people enjoy playing with that card in the mix.  I don't avoid cards based on whether I lose with them; I'd rather learn from my mistakes and get better at playing those cards.  I don't really aspire to be at the top of the leader board anyhow.

It is kinda fun to veto a random card, but then I get annoyed if I veto one of my favorites.  If I don't mind any of the cards in the mix, I'll just veto a card that I don't care about one way or the other.

40
Dominion General Discussion / Re: Why's it called a cantrip?
« on: October 06, 2011, 07:19:54 pm »
Spammable doesn't have an intrinsic meaning anyway. What property does a message have that means it can or can't be sent unsolicited across the internet?

I think it goes something like this.

We refer to cards as "spammable" because you can play several of them in one turn.  The term is derived from internet spam, which is sent in bulk.  Several sources (including the Internet Society) credit the internet term's etymology to the classic Monty Python routine about a restaurant where everything on the menu includes Spam; the word "Spam" is sung repeatedly in the background.  The sketch came about in part because Spam was ubiquitous in the UK, because of American presence there during WW II combined with the fact that Spam was among the few meats not rationed during that period.  As a result, Brits are quite tired of the stuff.

So, what do the lunch meat, the sketch, the internet term and the gaming term have in common?  They all refer to something that is done, or available, in bulk.

41
Dominion General Discussion / Re: University
« on: September 28, 2011, 09:41:38 pm »
Epoch is correct.  You may gain an Action card costing up to $5.

University is better in games that take longer to finish (Colony games, for example) and useless in quickie games.  The basic problem with University is that you have to shuffle at least three times before you can use any cards you gain from it.  Some games are pretty much decided by then.  Also, it only gains action cards, and in some sets you may not want that many action cards.  Sometimes University is very powerful, but it's a bad card to buy just because it's there.

42
Other Games / Re: Donald X.'s new game Nefarious
« on: September 24, 2011, 12:12:28 am »
Donald is a busy guy, apparently.  Does this come out before Kingdom Builder (http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/107529/kingdom-builder) or after?

43
Dominion General Discussion / Re: The Most/Least Fun Dominion Cards
« on: September 21, 2011, 02:54:56 pm »
Possession would be at the top of my least fun list.  I've yet to play a game in veto mode where it made the cut.  Its mere presence in the game often forces players to make their hands less interesting, for fear of being possessed.  The difficulty of drawing 6 coin with a potion makes it more likely that only one person plays it, so some Possession games are about as much fun as dental surgery.

Hunting Party and Tactician are both a lot of fun, I think.  HP is a great way to find that one card you really want to play.  Tactician makes it easier to draw two cards together, making it nice for King's Court decks.  Strong deck trashing cards, especially Forge, become much more powerful with Tactician.

I absolutely agree that Saboteur is not a fun card.  It's incredibly annoying getting Saboteured repeatedly, and sometimes it can disrupt your entire game plan, but in most sets, your opponent buying Saboteur means you will win the game.  So, it would make my least fun list, but not at #1.

Tournament and Black Market could make both lists for me, for the same reason: one person gains a powerful card that the other person has no chance to get.  More than once, I've gained a Followers and my opponent has immediately resigned.

I think Remake is fun, because it dumps the trash from your hand, then it can be used to improve your good cards into great cards.  Sometimes I'll get two of them.

Wharf would make my top 10 to be sure.  Obviously, it's better with Villages, and it King's Courts very well, but it's a powerful card in almost any set.

44
Dominion General Discussion / Re: Card types
« on: September 16, 2011, 02:53:01 pm »
Based on this, perhaps an expansion is in our future centered around really nasty attack cards?

45
Dominion General Discussion / Re: How do I play King's Court?
« on: September 10, 2011, 04:43:00 pm »
The key to King's Court is to get it into your hand with other actions that you would want to play three times.   Actions like Laboratory help with this, as do Duration cards that add to your next hand like Caravan and Wharf.  Deck thinning cards help with this too, although some of them don't King's Court very well.

King's Court/Possession is downright mean.  There's a good chance your opponent will quit if he sees you play it.

Actions that allow choices like Pawn, Steward, Nobles and Minion are nice when King's Courted if played correctly.

KC/Golem is fun.  It guarantees a big turn, assuming you chose enough actions, and the right actions.

Some actions that aren't very exciting become powerful in conjunction with KC.  Monument is a good card to play three times, as is Mine.  On the other hand, King's Courting actions like Counting House and Tactician is the same as playing the action once.  With the right actions and enough King's Courts, you have a good shot at winning, and even if you lose, you'll probably have a good time doing it.

46
Dominion General Discussion / Re: What's your dominion pet peeve?
« on: September 10, 2011, 02:23:22 pm »
...which brings me to my pet peeve...games where the opponent is only happy if he takes several minutes every turn, but gets upset if it takes me more than five seconds to respond to something.  It's possible to play ten actions in a minute if you have a decent connection and half a brain; you don't need to study every possible move for twenty seconds before playing, and it really doesn't take me twenty seconds to contemplate the action..."ooh, he played a Coppersmith, let me meditate on this."  If you wait a long time before playing each action, you should accept the fact that this isn't fun for the other player and he's probably going to get something from the fridge or go to the bathroom once in awhile, so he may not be sitting in rapt attention at your brilliance.  If you insist on taking "very long turns indeed" but get pissy if you don't get very fast responses, you're a hypocrite.

47
Dominion General Discussion / Re: What's your dominion pet peeve?
« on: September 09, 2011, 06:42:32 pm »
I just got totally irritated by a player who stopped acting for a long while because he didn't like the turn of events. I had very long turns indeed (scrying pool possession), so I'd understand if someone resigned. But to not be responsive on purpose when asked to discard, wait for me to click "Make xyz resign", to then disappear immediately in the lobby... Wasn't unintentional let me tell you this!

If you had "very long turns indeed", why would you expect your opponent to wait patiently in case they need to respond to your attacks?  If you are taking a long time every turn, the person is unlikely to sit there studying your every move.  Most likely he was away from his computer, doing something else.  Long turns are part of the game, but playing against someone who's taking very long turns every turn is boring as hell.  And if you're making the other player wait every turn, you should show a little more patience yourself.

48
Dominion General Discussion / Re: Which card takes the longest to play?
« on: August 14, 2011, 11:52:52 am »
In my experience, the action that takes longest to play is Black Market.  Let's see, how much treasure do I have?  Okay, let's look at the cards...which one do I want...oh, wait, maybe I should put them all back and take to two coins...what to do, what to do...

49
Game Reports / Re: One epic turn
« on: August 09, 2011, 05:16:57 pm »
I thought this was pretty evil:  force my opponent to draw 15 cards and then possess him six times.

This one really belongs in the "Dear My Opponent: I am Sorry" thread.  Your opponent may have required therapy after that.

50
Dominion General Discussion / Re: Your Blind Spot
« on: August 05, 2011, 01:32:46 pm »
Talisman is also good in conjunction with Bridge or Quarry, where you can buy multiple copies of more expensive cards.  You need a good trasher or a draw engine to ensure they will be played together.

In one game I used Talisman to buy several Worker's Villages and a couple Bishops, thinned my deck out with Bishops so the Worker's Villages were drawn together, used the Talisman to get all the Peddlers in a couple turns, then gradually played the Bishops to trash the Peddlers for five coin apiece.  That was fun.

These are special situations, of course.  In many games, there's nothing costing $4 or less that you would want in abundance, and Talisman is only useful if you use its ability several times.  Furthermore, it usually becomes a fairly worthless card at some point in the game.  I don't buy it often, but can sometimes be valuable.

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