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Messages - Zaphod

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51
Dominion General Discussion / Re: You may...
« on: August 05, 2011, 12:09:23 pm »
(5) Discard a Curse to circumvent a Mountebank attack?  (I guess there's one reason not to do this:  you're ahead, and taking one more Curse or Copper will end the game.  Any other reason not to do this?)

Besides the already mentioned:
- you want the coppers for counting house
- you want cards for gardens/phil stone

curses are probably - but not necessarily - already depleted at these points.

That's what I was going to say.  Beaten to the punch again!

Also, one might choose not to discard a Curse if he is holding a Watchtower and wants to trash the Curse and Copper, rather than leave them in the supply.

52
Dominion Isotropic / Re: Decline of civility on isotropic?
« on: July 26, 2011, 06:26:39 pm »
Someone today informed me that they "normally win" and that I'm a "lucky boy."

I've met him as well. Professor x?

I got this from someone today..."very lucky boy, normally I win...enjoy this moment".  I looked him up, and he's 8-16.  It wasn't the handle you mentioned, but all his games have been played in the last 10 days, so it's possible that guy created a new account.

53
Dominion Articles / Re: Request : Island
« on: July 24, 2011, 05:37:30 pm »
It's a good card to grab with Ironworks/University/Workshop late in the game, as you can at least get a couple VPs.  Scout makes it a bit better, as you're more likely to put it together with a Victory card.  When you're getting Saboteured really heavily, it's sometimes useful as a means of keeping Provinces safe.  I might grab one or two early, if there's no trashing and I don't care for the other $3-4 cards.  I'm not sure it's ever essential.

54
Game Reports / Re: A horrible reshuffle...
« on: July 22, 2011, 01:34:20 pm »
My first thought was along the lines of what Superdad said.  Didn't the reshuffle help you, rather than hurt you?

Without playing the Cellar, you would have had only one Copper that turn, and after the turn you would have discarded and then shuffled.  The three Estates and one Copper would have gone into your draw pile, or into your next hand.

After you played the Cellar, you had two Coppers, and after the turn, two Estates, two Coppers and a Cellar went into your discard pile while the rest of your cards went to your hand or your draw pile.  By turn 11, most of your cards should have been better than two Estates, two Coppers and a Cellar, so you improved your next turn (at least), while (very slightly) improving your current turn.

That's how I'm reading it, but I'm probably just missing something.  Feel free to point out the flaw in my logic.

55
Game Reports / Re: In which I forget about a shattering combo...
« on: July 22, 2011, 12:59:24 pm »
I played a game recently where I bought a Masquerade, then later my opponent gained a Possession through the Black Market.  While possessing me, he made me give him a Province with my Masquerade.  I lost by ten points, so that turn was basically a game-changer.  It's a painful way to lose a game.

56
Puzzles and Challenges / Re: Places with Dominion card names
« on: July 22, 2011, 12:45:14 pm »
Sorry, I walked away for awhile before posting and didn't check for new messages.  Deleted.

57
Dominion General Discussion / Re: I have a problem
« on: July 16, 2011, 02:10:10 pm »
HockeyHippo, I often have the opposite problem.  I see the pretty green cards and I grab them too quickly.  Then my opponent pulls off a turn that uses 25 actions, buys out the rest of the Province stack and takes about fifteen minutes of my life that I'll never get back.  It's rather disheartening, but it has forced me to look for the big turn myself, because I don't enjoy getting crushed.  I guess my message to you is to look at it as an opportunity to improve your game.  There are games where you should look for a big turn, and games where it's better to just grind it out.  The trick, I guess, is to know which strategy to use.

58
Rules Questions / Re: Throne room/king's court
« on: July 14, 2011, 04:41:35 pm »
As I believe Donald has suggested, one thing that helps with this IRL is keeping everything in trees when you're playing multiple Action duplicators.  Let's say you Throne Room a Throne Room, and play a duplicator after that...
               
                 Peddler
               /
            TR
           /    \
TR - TR        Pawn
          \
            Smithy
             

So, to add to the confusion, if you King's Court a King's Court and then play a King's Court as one of the three actions, you'd get five actions to play three times, correct?  Something like

                  Peddler
                /
             KC --Laboratory
             /  \
           /      Minion   
KC - KC   --  Pawn
          \
            Smithy
   

59
Rules Questions / Re: Potion costs
« on: July 14, 2011, 04:13:34 pm »
Huh.  I never noticed that before.  Whattaya know.  I guess I should review the rulebooks every now and then.  Here's what the Prosperity rulebook says about the issue:

Potion symbols (on cards from Dominion: Alchemy) are not added, and the card you gain cannot have a Potion symbol in its cost.

I suppose the latter rule is there to prevent you from Forging two Silvers into a Possession, since it specifically says "cost in coins".  So, even if you Forge a card with Potion in its cost, you cannot gain a card with Potion in its cost.  I didn't realize that.

60
Rules Questions / Re: Masquerade and Watchtower
« on: July 14, 2011, 03:41:32 pm »
Ambassador, Swindler, and several other cards use the term "gain".  Black Market uses the term "buy", and as others have mentioned, after you buy a card, you gain it.  Watchtower can therefore be applied to a card given by any of these.  Masquerade's description simply says the card is passed; there's no reference to it being "gained".  It may seem arbitrary, but there is a logic behind it.

One obvious difference between Masquerade and the other cards is that you don't take a card from any stack with Masquerade, it comes from another player's hand.  Contrast this with Ambassador, where the card is returned from the player's hand to the supply, and other players then gain the card from the supply. 

61
Game Reports / Re: Playing Ghost Ship on 15/20 turns after opening
« on: July 13, 2011, 01:33:02 pm »
Hindsight suggests that BEEEER should have put his Philosopher's Stones back on top of the deck until he could draw them together for one good buy.  The Ghost Ship attack would have made them more powerful.  It wouldn't have saved him, but it might have made the game a little closer.

62
Game Reports / Re: 74 cards in the trash deck
« on: July 13, 2011, 12:16:14 pm »
Wow, that does not look like a fun game.  At least, not for your opponent.

I think rankin could have won in turn 33 if he'd bought the last Mining Village instead of a Duchy.  Estates and Islands were already out, correct?  He probably could have ended it sooner, in fact.  Still, it would be hard to keep track of the point total, with so many green cards in the trash.  >:(  Heck, I'd have done it just to end the game.

In another thread, some pleasant fellow called me an idiot for suggesting that the Saboteur is ever useful in any situation.  This illustrates a situation where it can be a powerful card; you had two strong deck thinners in the game, in Chapel and Forge.  The Sabs were more likely to hit something important.  On the other hand, this also illustrates the Sab's major weakness - it has no benefit, only an attack.  As of turn 30, you had no VPs at all.  You were lucky your opponent didn't close it out sooner.

64
Dominion General Discussion / Re: Game logs behind Isotropic
« on: July 12, 2011, 02:20:57 pm »
Reyk, I think you communicated what you wanted to say very well, and I'm glad you brought up this issue.

65
Game Reports / Re: Tournament/Chapel - buy the second tournament?
« on: July 11, 2011, 06:59:32 pm »
In support of a second Tournament, I offer this from a game I played yesterday...

   Zaphod plays a Tournament.
   ... getting +1 action.
   ... Zaphod reveals a Province.
   ... Zaphod discards a Province and gains a Followers on the deck.
   ... drawing 1 card and getting +$1.
   Zaphod plays a Throne Room.
   ... and plays a Laboratory.
   ... ... drawing 2 cards and getting +1 action.
   ... and plays the Laboratory again.
   ... ... (Zaphod reshuffles.)
   ... ... drawing 2 cards and getting +1 action.
   Zaphod plays a Tournament.
   ... getting +1 action.
   ... Zaphod reveals a Province.
   ... Zaphod discards a Province and gains a Trusty Steed on the deck.
   ... drawing 1 card and getting +$1.

I only had one Province, but the Chapel had thinned my hand to the point where I was able to discard it for a Prize, draw it again, and discard it for a second Prize.  I couldn't have done it if I didn't have two Tournaments at the time.

The key to winning with Tournament is to get Provinces ASAP, and then get lucky enough to draw them with Tournaments.  Early Provinces are more important than early Tournaments, because a Province in your hand can stop your opponent's Tournament dead in its tracks.  That said, Chapel improves your odds of drawing Tournament with Province, so it's probably a bit more important to load up on Tournaments in this scenario.

66
Game Reports / Re: Another interesting combo
« on: July 11, 2011, 03:33:31 pm »
Nice combo.  Stash isn't very interesting by itself, but it combines well with several cards.  My favorite is the Chancellor.  A Chancellor/Stash engine is fairly hard to beat, and is about the only situation where I'd ever buy more than one Chancellor.

67
Game Reports / Re: Don't Fear the Pirate Ship
« on: July 11, 2011, 02:24:39 pm »
A quick glance at councilroom.com shows that the Pirate Ship is tied for the seventh-worst win rate with, and it has the highest win rate without of any card.  Why would it scare anyone?

The problem with Pirate Ship is the frequency with which it doesn't reveal a Treasure card, or only reveals Copper.  In these situations, you're usually doing your opponent a favor.  Also, it's a bit slow in building up the coin count unless you buy multiple Pirate Ships, or you Throne Room/King's Court it.  The lack of additional actions or buys hurts the card as well.  It's a little better when you play with 3 or 4 players, but generally speaking, it's like the Thief and the Saboteur - the best defense is not to get any.

68
It's sort of good news, bad news, since the arrival of this app means Isotropic will be going bye bye.  I can't complain, since Isotropic is free, but I'll miss it.

69
Dominion General Discussion / Re: Transmute
« on: July 08, 2011, 07:19:06 pm »
I was going to create a thread about Transmute until I saw this.  It's a tricky card, at least.

I think it would be more useful combined with a major draw engine, or with some means of producing extra cards (+ buy cards, or something in the Ironworks family).  But I've never been able to get it to work, so my opinion doesn't mean much.

70
Dominion General Discussion / Re: Pearl Diver
« on: July 08, 2011, 06:04:33 pm »
Pearl diver does actually combo with lookout and farming village. For lookout, if you've got lookout and  pearl diver in hand, you can play your lookout if the bottom card sucks (after bring it to the top), and not play the lookout otherwise - this way, you don't play lookout every time you have it, but you won't trash good cards. For farming village, you can bring curses/victory cards to the top of your deck in order to discard them.

Also Scrying Pool, Native Village, Scout. Masquerade, Upgrade, etc.  It can be good for getting past, or trashing, cards that you would hate to see in your hand during a different turn.

Buying Pearl Diver every game it's available would be a mistake, but it does have some value in the right situation.

71
Dominion General Discussion / Re: 5/2 split and mint..
« on: July 08, 2011, 05:17:56 pm »
I opened Mint / Secret Chamber once.  The Venture was available.  Turn 3, I used Secret Chamber to get a Silver, and got a Venture as soon as possible, then started Minting it every chance I got.  My opponent was understandably unhappy that I drew a 5-2 split.

72
I have a rule now for Isotropic; when I lose, I exit and don't allow myself to play again for 15 minutes or so.  Otherwise, I'm more likely to lose again, and before I know it I've strung together several losses and dropped a level.

73
Dominion Isotropic / Re: Isotropic Facts & Quirks
« on: July 06, 2011, 03:10:30 pm »
Okay, fine, I concede that point.  But I'd still appreciate a "Play Coppers" button.

74
Dominion Isotropic / Re: Isotropic Facts & Quirks
« on: July 06, 2011, 02:02:21 pm »
I think it's great that Isotropic doesn't automatically play the Coppers if you have a chance to get Grand Markets; as others have said, this has saved me once or twice.  However, I wish there was a way to play all the Coppers if you so choose, without having to click each individual Copper.  That can be a little annoying if you have four or five Coppers in your hand.  As far as I'm concerned, if you just click the first Copper (or Silver, or Gold, for that matter), it should just put all of them into play.  I can't think of a situation where playing only one would be beneficial, since you're in the buy stage at that point and you can't play any further actions.

75
Dominion General Discussion / Re: Opening of the Day #2
« on: July 01, 2011, 01:52:59 pm »
Looking at this set...wow, Ambassador, Swindler and two Curse-dealing cards?  That's a lot of different ways to clutter up your opponent's deck.  You can Chapel or Ambassador away all the crap you're about to get, or you can stock up on Farming Villages and  Philosopher's Stones.  A  Philosopher's Stone could be worth major coin in that set, and Farming Villages would bypass some of the garbage in your deck to draw them.

There should be an eleventh card, but you only list ten.  With Young Witch in there, you need a bane card.

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