Since my Marauder article got up on the Dominion blog by Theory, I thought I would write another one. I put more time into this one, but Pillage is harder to write an article about. I'm sure there is lots that can be added, so make suggestions and I'll add if needed.
When I first got Dark Ages and was looking through the cards, I saw Pillage and thought “This is the epitome of one-shot cards.” Everything about Pillage is temporary. It self-trashes when you play it, Spoils can only be used once and its attack hurts one hand. I had no doubt choosing what to discard was powerful, but is it powerful enough to spend $5 on to do it once? I can safely say that yes, it really is worth it. It’s not Witch, but not every $5 card can be the best.
One Use: The first thing that apparently makes Pillage weak is its one time use. Usually an attack card is good because it can be played over and over again. The one shot nature of the card means you have to take a different approach to it. The attack isn’t for a lasting effect, at least not directly. The goal of Pillage is to deny the use of key cards in your opponent’s deck. This could be important attack cards or money later in the game, or trashers early in the game. The Spoils allow you to pick up cards on your next shuffle that you missed when you bought Pillage. If you don’t deny important cards with Pillage, you’re more often than not simply slowing down your own deck improvement unless you can turn the Spoils into something permanent.
If your opponent has a very thin deck, denying him one card may not make a huge difference if he’ll just pick it up next turn again. It may also hurt him a lot if you deny the trasher before the thin deck stage is reached, like denying the first play of Chapel can really slow down your opponent. For the most part though it won’t hurt thin decks that much.
It also isn’t great against large decks. It requires a lot of luck to Pillage a hand with the Philosopher Stone in it. Pillage is probably best against mid-size decks that are building up an engine. Every card is important during the first few turns. Stopping your opponent’s big draw turn is really powerful, especially when he lined up the +Actions and +Cards for the first time. This means buying Pillage as your first $5 card is probably a very good move on a lot of boards, but buying it later isn’t.
$5 gainers are also a great for Pillage. University is both +actions and gains you Pillage. Altar turns junk into Pillage. Graverobber and Rogue also gain used Pillages. Graverobber is better, as it topdecks the Pillage, but Rogue can be good too if there are not Pillages in the trash yet as it attacks, possibly hurting your opponent before you even start Pillaging.
Also, if you’re aiming to hit attack cards in your opponent’s hand, you have to consider simply buying that card yourself. Don’t pass on Witch simply for a chance to discard the other player’s Witch. With good trashing though, you may consider otherwise, simply trashing the incoming curses, and use Pillage to slow down the barrage of Curses.
Spoils: This should probably be mentioned in an article on Spoils in general, but I’ll say a few things quickly. These Spoils are not renewable. Bandit Camp is non-terminal and Marauder can be opened with. Pillage needs to turn the Spoils into something useful much more than the other Spoils gainers do. If you get unlucky and draw Spoils with only a copper and nothing else, then you’re either mostly wasting the Spoils if you use them, or not buying anything. Also it should be said that the usual Counterfeit+Spoils combo is not great since the Spoils are not going to be consistently coming into your deck.
That being said, the one shot spoils are great to buy real Golds, and the attack part should slow down your opponent enough that you can catch up on the time you spent buying and playing Pillage.
When not to go for Pillage: There are two things that hurt Pillage bad.
- Hitting a hand that is already bad
- Hitting hands where 1 card doesn’t matter
The first problem is mostly luck based, but can also happen in alt-VP games. Hitting the turn where your opponent has 4VP cards and one Copper sucks so much, because you know his next turn is the one with all the good cards. The luck needed in a successful Pillage can make this card swingy enough to skip in many cases.
The second reason is more common. Many setups have strong engines. A hand of 2 Villages, 2 Council Rooms probably isn’t hurt much by losing one of those cards. Strong engines are pretty resilient to Pillage, unless hit while they are being built. Also Duration cards should be mentioned, in particular Wharf, Tactician and Caravan. Pillage is strong because you can guarantee a bad hand. With Duration cards you have no idea what he’ll be picking up, so the damage is often of unknown strength, if not minimal.
Pillage also does not work well with other discard attacks since it can only hit hands with 5 cards or more in them. Playing Pillage first solves the issue slightly, but still weakens the other discarding attack. Cutpurse and Torturer however, if played after Pillage, will still have their full potential because they are non-conditional.
Good with:- $5 gainers (University, Altar)
- Throne Room, King’s Court (Gets more Spoils)
- Cards that can use the self-trash ability (Market Square, Procession)
- Watchtower (Getting into play faster, and the spoils faster)
Does not work with:- Engines that are faster to set up than Pillage.
- Slogs or rushes
- Ultra-thin decks or decks that aren’t hurt much by losing 1 card
- Duration cards, specifically those that give +cards
