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26

Game Reports / Scrying Pool vs. Minion.... huh?

« on: April 14, 2015, 09:19:23 am »

Code: [Select]

Scrying Pool, Forager, Fortune Teller, Monument, Scout, Throne Room, Walled Village, Minion, Trading Post, Altar
Log

My opponent and I each went for different draw and different trashing. I did Scrying Pools and Forager, they did Minions and Trading Post. I thought I had the better deck, but I lost........ the frick?

Since I was going for Pools, I couldn't use Trading Post as my trashing because Silver would be an extra non-action card I'd have to get through. So I got payload from the various $2-giving actions on the board. My opponent, meanwhile, opened Monument, got terminal trashing, didn't get a single village or +Buy, and pulled off a Minion deck that beat my Pool engine.

I can only see one mistake that I made, which was to not get a second Forager. But would it have made that much difference? Did I green too late? I find it hard to believe that Minion is actually better than Pool on that board.

27

Game Reports / Nice deck ya got there...

« on: April 02, 2015, 12:56:54 am »

...be a shame if something were to happen to it.

Code: [Select]

Chapel, Bishop, Scavenger, City, Embassy, Ill-Gotten Gains, Merchant Guild, Saboteur, Harem, Possession
My thought process:
1. Ooh, Chapel and City and Merchant Guild with a 5/2 split. I know what I'm doing here.
2. Why are you getting a poti... oh shoot, Possession is on the board.
3. Must... destroy... Possession... with... Saboteur...
4. You wanna play dirty? Okay, I'm getting Possession too!
5. You can't double Province with my deck but I CAN DO IT WITH YOURS!

Yeah, this person was a guest, but they were undefeated in their session so I didn't want to underestimate them. My obvious mistake was not seeing Possession right away. But the bad quality of my deck turned out to be a plus when I eventually got to use their deck more than my own. Possession is weird.

28

General Discussion / Eurovision Song Contest

« on: March 19, 2015, 08:13:03 pm »

Since there are so many Europeans here, and it happens to be Eurovision season, I thought we could use an ESC thread.

For those of you who don't know, the Eurovision Song Contest is a super televised music event in which a bunch of countries in the European Broadcasting Union (plus guest star Australia this year) choose a singer/band and an original song to compete battle-of-the-bands-style for international fame.

Resources:
Official website
Full song list
"Eurovision 101" playlist by me

Discuss: Opinions on this year's contest? Favorite songs? Least favorites? Predictions? Etc.

I'm really excited that there are no obvious joke entries this year, although there's a bit of silliness and a bit of low quality. This means that there will finally be more people approaching the contest with dignity.

29

Variants and Fan Cards / Fortressinator

« on: March 12, 2015, 04:19:24 pm »

I think there should be a card that can save cards from being trashed, granting any card a one-time Fortress effect.

It's a reaction card that, when one of your cards is trashed, gains it right back in some way. It can provide direct defense against trashing attacks such as Swindler, Knights, or Saboteur. It can power up trash-for-benefit cards and prevent losing valuable cards to high-power trashers like Death Cart and Forager. With the right balance, it can make some very interesting games.

Here are all the specifics that need working out:

Activation: Simply revealing the card and keeping it in your hand would probably make it way too strong for any cost, although Watchtower has the reverse of this effect and it stays in hand. Discarding it seems the most likely  possibility, since that's how Market Square and Beggar are activated and they're pretty good cards. The other option is trashing it, which can balance out a really strong reaction or non-reaction but also turns it into a one-shot, generally frowned upon in Dominion-land.

Reaction: There are so many things that could happen to the trashed card. It could be a direct reference to Fortress, getting put into your hand, but that might make the reaction to trashing attacks overpowered. It could get discarded, which prevents playing it until next shuffle, although overdrawing in really thin decks makes that a non-issue. It could get topdecked, kind of a compromise between discarding and putting it in hand. Then there's the Possession trashing effect, where it could get set aside completely unplayable until cleanup phase.

Non-reaction: Because it can't just be a reaction. Should it be terminal or non-terminal? Stop card, cantrip, or draw? +Buy? +Coin? Trashing? Discarding? Should it be a victory card instead? A treasure card? I have a feeling that the stronger the reaction is, the weaker the non-reaction should be.

And finally, cost: The most expensive reaction cards are $4, so I'd want to keep this new card to a $5 maximum.

Oh and there's its name, but that's a different discussion.

So yeah, what would be the best way to make this idea work? What cool, risky, or overpowered combos can you find with all the different possible versions?

(This idea has probably been posed before, but I'm a lazybum and don't want to go through all the trouble of looking through threads until I find it.)

30

Game Reports / Three games for the price of one!

« on: March 10, 2015, 08:25:08 pm »

Code: [Select]

Forager, Wandering Minstrel, Worker's Village, Baker, Cache, Junk Dealer, Knights, Merchant Ship, Soothsayer, Tactician
Log.

This game seemed to come in 3 stages:
1. Turns 1-10: Thinning and buying race - Baker-heavy (me) vs. Forager-and-Merchant-Ship-heavy (opponent).
2. Turns 11-15: Knight duel to the death. The entire Knights pile gets bought and trashed.
3. Turns 16-17: Soothsayer Curse tennis. Each Curse gets trashed the turn after it's gained and three-piling is imminent.

This might be the most interesting game of Dominion I've ever played and certainly the first where my opponent and I have made such drastic strategy changes mid-game. At the same time I was attempting to double-Tactician with my Baker deck but I soon realized that a. my Bakers were getting Knight-trashed and b. double-Tac is not exactly functional when you're playing every single card in your hand, so that went away quickly. I'm pretty sure my opponent knew what they were doing but they made a critical error turn 17 when they got the Workers' Villages down to an easily buyable stack. I think I could have bought all four of the remaining ones had they not depleted the pile to two, but I couldn't have ended on a win if they had bought, say, a Province that turn, so there's that.

Are multi-stage games like this common among high-level players?

31

Game Reports / *lets out a heavy sigh of relief*

« on: March 10, 2015, 01:12:41 am »

Code: [Select]

Cellar, Squire, Swindler, Advisor, Armory, Death Cart, Mining Village, Moneylender, Bandit Camp, Goons
I couldn't believe it. And I don't think my opponent could either.

You can't help but think you're screwed when your opponent has amazing Swindler luck. He (pretty sure it's a he) managed to mega-junk me up with Swindler since Death Cart was on the board, and also trashed several of my cards before I even got to play them, while the most I could do was give him a couple curses. The game went downhill from there as he was able to get profit out of his Goons and Spoils and things while I was sitting on a hefty pile of ruins and derp cards. But then late in the game I managed to spike a Province - thanks Death Cart - and in the middle of a dilemma chose the right cards to pile out (since I didn't notice that the ruins had emptied out) and ended the game on a win.

My opponent definitely had a few pitfalls - He loaded up on coppers with every Goons turn just for the extra VPs and there was that one turn when he accidentally bought a curse. I know I could have played better somehow but I think I did pretty well under the circumstances even if I didn't win. As always, looking for analysis.

32

Dominion General Discussion / The "Dominion Middle Finger"

« on: March 09, 2015, 09:50:32 pm »

Today I took a lead and I started Forging Colonies into Colonies in a deck perfectly capable of buying more Colonies just because my opponent wasn't even close. It felt a lot like trolling and I kinda felt bad but... ya know?

So yeah, doing stuff that makes you go down in points or something just because you can. What are your favorite ways to give the middle finger Dominion-style?

33

Puzzles and Challenges / Turn 3 Provinces? (open-ended)

« on: March 08, 2015, 10:28:49 am »

I've started wondering how many ways you can buy/gain a Province on turn 3...

There are quite a few solutions to this and I've come up with several myself. I want to know what other people have found.

Also we can up the ante to "Can you get more than one Province turn 3" and "Can you get a Colony turn 3".

34

General Discussion / Qui Domi, a darkly whimsical RPG - demo out now!

« on: February 28, 2015, 07:36:52 pm »

My friend Koi is creating a computer game and she's hired me to do a lot of the music for it. I'm pleased to announce that the demo for the game has been released and is available for free download!

Go here to download the demo

Here's the official blog for the game, including backstory, fan stuff, and instructions for playing the game on a mac.

If you're not a computer game person but you know someone who is, please pass this on. Koi and I would especially like it if we could see people streaming or doing let's plays of the game, so if you plan to do that, please let me know!

Hope you enjoy!

Note: I didn't put this in the advertising forum because I'm not making a profit off people's downloads. If I was wrong to do that, feel free to move the thread.

35

Game Reports / How to come from behind at the last possible second

« on: February 26, 2015, 04:49:18 pm »

Code: [Select]

Candlestick Maker, Hamlet, Oracle, Gardens, Talisman, City, Count, Cultist, Upgrade, Prince
Log

Remembering my previous game with Adam, I thought this was going to be a straight dive for the Cultists to junk my opponent to breaking point - the trashing on this board was expensive and either unreliable (Count) or slow (Upgrade). I don't even know what my opponent was going for with the Oracle/Talisman opening but they got an early lead on points and handled the ruins remarkably well both with well-timed Upgrades and as benefits for Gardens. I definitely know what made me win in the end - they didn't pay attention to piles, and as a result they missed getting a lot of level three Cities and several forced wins. Seriously, the game could have ended turn 22 if they had just bought out the Candlestick Makers with Talisman.

But what did I do wrong? I was convinced I was going to lose for a long time, even when I started narrowing the point gap. I got Cultists early. I won the Ruins split 7-3. I got a ton of Cities. I watched the piles like a hawk. The only things I can think of that might have been weak are not buying anything during some of my $4 turns and not getting Upgrade earlier. What advantage did my opponent have that I didn't?

36

Game Reports / Back with a vengeance!

« on: February 08, 2015, 08:52:14 pm »

Code: [Select]

Moat, Vagrant, Masterpiece, Urchin, Familiar, Coppersmith, Band of Misfits, Laboratory, Margrave, Rabble
And this is why you don't underestimate cycling, kids.

I opened double Urchin with Familiar on the board, so yeah. Then I got the golden sombrero (which wasn't THAT bad considering) but then my Mercenaries never seemed to collide with my curses and I ended up having 7 at one point, while my opponent got the first two Provinces.

But then...

My opponent decided to wait until a bit too late to trash their Estates, while I loaded up on some Vagrants and Labs. I think that's what saved me. The extra draw made me able to get every single curse out of my deck and a PPR-passup let me grab the win.

I guess Yreally doMYOSL sometimes.

I'm still haunted by that opening though. Would you guys have gone double Urchin like me or Urchin/Potion like my opponent? I think the double Urchin was a dumb idea and I only won because of strategic roadblock on my opponent's side, but I could be wrong.

37

Game Reports / 10-point Fairgrounds!!!!

« on: January 23, 2015, 08:24:01 pm »

Yep.

This was on my SO MANY theme board (one that tries to get the maximum number of unique cards as possible). I got off to a great start with an Alchemist strategy - thanks Stef - and got some valuable cards from the Black Market. It occurred to me after the game was over that instead of buying a Province, which I already had, I could have bought a couple more uniques instead, but I was too awed by my success to notice.

The kingdom:

Code: [Select]

Black Market, Hermit, Urchin, Alchemist, Tournament, Young Witch, Bandit Camp, Cultist, Knights, Fairgrounds, Grand Market
I know that overpowering Fairgrounds was the whole idea of this kingdom, but has anyone else ever gotten an awesome Fairgrounds boost like this?

38

Goko Dominion Online / Unfair!!!

« on: January 22, 2015, 12:04:14 pm »

Today I was playing pro games to maintain my rating/level. Well, I failed in that, but something far worse happened. After three games of total "how the eff did I lose"ery, I finally won one. My opponent decided to disconnect in the middle of my winning turn, completely freezing my window. The game didn't register on Goko Salvager and I have a feeling it never will. I was forced to refresh the page, causing Goko to tell me my rating had gone DOWN, despite the fact that my opponent disconnected before I did AND I would have won as soon as my turn was over.

As soon as I get back to level 18, I'm only playing unrated for a long time.

39

Game Reports / And THAT's how you Black Market........right?

« on: January 13, 2015, 03:05:21 pm »

Code: [Select]

Scrying Pool, Black Market, Warehouse, Herald, Procession, Bandit Camp, Contraband, Mine, Pillage, Harem
And log.

I have this labeled as my biggest success ever with Black Market. I was able to reliably overdraw on every turn by the end. My hands got so big and diverse that there was literally a second page to them. I double-Provinced twice for the win without any difficulty.

And I still feel like I won by a fluke. After all, I panicked a little when my opponent got the closest thing to a no-strings-attached trasher in the whole BM deck. And they seemed to have a clear idea of what they were doing while my only coherent thought was "buy as many action cards as possible". Really, what I'm asking is, what made me win?

40

Game Reports / Well...uh...dang.

« on: January 05, 2015, 12:24:59 pm »

Code: [Select]

Chapel, Moneylender, Pirate Ship, Smithy, Throne Room, Worker's Village, Band of Misfits, Hunting Party, Hunting Grounds, King's Court
The board that gives Pirate Ship snarkers a solid middle finger.

This one was invented by Leck, who has an outrageously high casual rating... which is probably caused by screwing over countless players with this board. Basically, if your opponent doesn't go for a mirror, you can sabotage their entire economy with a quasi-golden deck and then rack up umptijillion coins to buy out everything. And I fell for it HARD. I was a bit disappointed in myself but mostly I was too impressed to feel anything else.

I'd love to see two high-level forum members take this board on. Maybe as a league final?...

Here's the log if you want to see it (although you can probably guess what happens). Was there any way at all to pull it back?

41

Dominion League / This is me getting out.

« on: January 04, 2015, 09:40:42 am »

I'm withdrawing from the league.

I was hesitant to join in the first place. The fact that some games would actually matter made me nervous. What if I had fantastic luck for most of the day and just happened to strike out when I'm playing for the league? But there was enough pressure that I went ahead and joined anyway. I now realize that that was a mistake.

I'm a sore loser. I don't like to see myself at the bottom of anything. So when I played my first two matches, being top ranked in my division was the only thing that kept me in. Then last night's match happened. I lost 4/2. And I literally couldn't pinpoint what made me lose. What's worse, no one in my twitch chat would tell me. They let me go on screaming and crying, begging for advice, without giving me any actual help. I don't want that to ever happen again. You can say "it's just a game" until your voice gives out, but it won't do anything. As long as some games actually "count" for something, that will never be true. Plus, the backlash and blackmail that could come from that video being shared is too terrifying to think about.

So my best chance is to get out. To the people who already played me - sorry for wasting your time. To the people who haven't played me yet - one thing off your list. It's better if from now on I stick to games where I know I, and everyone watching me, can just have fun.

42

Goko Dominion Online / Will it ever be enough?...

« on: January 02, 2015, 12:20:38 am »

I've started adventure grinding in order to get the last 3 promo cards. The problem is, I've finished the first two stages of Base and I only have 24 boss tokens. To get all the promos I would need 300, and if the tokens are distributed evenly then I won't be able to get enough by finishing all the adventures. Is there something else I need to do? Is there a requirement to get 3 stars in each stage or something? Because I'm not sure I can do that.

43

Dominion General Discussion / Themed "challenge" boards

« on: December 15, 2014, 05:16:22 am »

I've had this idea for a while and I've been doing it with the base set but I'm getting the ultra pack (fiiiiiiinally) in a couple weeks and I want more ideas so here we go.

I want to make some kingdoms with different...themes, shall we say, and create unrated tables on Goko with them as a sort of fun alternative to everything else. There could be a board of all attacks, a board of all durations, a board of the most expensive cards, a board of the cheapest cards, a pin race board, an "overpowered" board, etc.

What kind of themed boards can you come up with, what cards would you pick for those (or the ones I listed), and how would you play them?

Example (from when I asked for an "expensive cards" board):

These are all the cards that (arguably) cost more than $6: Peddler, KC, Forge, Bank, Expand, Possession, Golem, Prince.
GM is arguably the most expensive $6-cost, so lets add it. Let me then add Goons to counter Possession. And of course, Platinum and Colony.

I guess you want to ignore Bank and Expand, and you want to build to megaturn Goons. Since there is no good draw other than KC-Peddler, you probably want Golem and as many Peddlers/GMs as you can get, which should make the engine tricky. Golem and Goons discourage Possession enough. I guess you want as many Golems as you can get, some KCs and some Goons, plus a Forge to trash the garbage. Probably a tactical game.

44

Dominion General Discussion / Whoops, I just dropped a Dominionism.

« on: December 09, 2014, 11:46:07 pm »

Do you ever find yourself accidentally using Dominion/f.ds terms or phrases in random situations?

Like today in class when we were passing around purple sheets of paper and I called out "Did everyone get a purple?"

45

Variants and Fan Cards / Sopiominion?...

« on: December 05, 2014, 08:45:47 pm »

I'm sure you guys have seen/heard me ramble about Sopio, my other favorite card game. Some of you have probably also seen that post in the really bad card ideas thread where I muse about how some Sopio principles would be awful as Dominion cards. But I keep wondering - what Sopio cards could be transferred over to Dominion? There are already a few equivalents: Mirror Mode is exactly the same as Throne Room and Henchman is really similar to Possession.

So these are some Sopio cards - reworded for clarity/playability - that might have potential as Dominion cards.

Since I'm not a Dominion guru or anything I'm not totally familiar with all the cards so I can't apply the "rules" of new card ideas to what I post here. I'm also completely ignorant on what cards should cost. What I'd love to see in responses is what you think of each card, how you could see it being played (if it's good), and how much it would probably cost. Oh, and most of these are going to be terminal, because Sopio is draw 1 play 1, so tell me if you think any of the effects would be balanced out if there were +actions involved.

Blindfolded - Action
Shuffle your hand into your deck.
+5 cards
(I don't know of any existing card that does this.)

Crystal Bowling Ball - Action
Reveal the top 2 cards of your deck. Add one to your hand and discard the other.
(Would definitely need +actions attached - maybe 2? That would make it a slightly better Village.)

Hippy Toilet - Action
Add one card from your discard pile to your hand.
(Again, probably needs +actions.)

Inconspicuous Time Machine - Action/Reaction
(don't know what the included action would be)
--
When you discard a card, you may discard this from your hand. If you do, add the card you would have discarded to your hand.
(Kind of a Scheme variant in reaction form.)

Major Sacrifice - Victory/Reaction
Worth 2VP (maybe?)
--
When this card is trashed, +1 action at the start of your next turn.
(Would 2VP be good? It would have to balance the points vs. the on-trash Village effect.)

Worshipped by Small People - Action/Attack
Name a card. If any opponent has that card in hand, he/she must discard it.
Alternatively: Name a card. If the player to your left has that card in hand, he/she must discard it.
(This would have to be expensive. Overpowered?)

Gingerdead Man - Action
+2 cards
You may discard up to 2 action cards from your hand.
(I could see this comboing well with Shanty Town but I don't know what else. It might need +actions.)

Taste No Evil - Action/Duration
Reveal the top 2 cards of your deck. If you reveal an action card, play it. If you reveal 2 action cards, play one this turn and set the other aside. Play it at the start of your next turn. Discard the other card(s).
Alternatively: Reveal cards from your deck until you reveal 2 action cards. Play one of them. Set aside the other and play it at the start of your next turn. Discard the other cards.
(A Herald/Golem variant.)

Unicorn Graveyard - Action
Discard all victory cards from your hand.
(The reverse of Scout? It would combo well with handsize increasers. Probably needs +actions.)

Element: Stone - Action
Discard a card from your hand.
+3 cards
(Cheap Smithy variant if terminal or pretty nice Lab variant if non-terminal.)

That's all the ones I could think of while browsing Sopiopedia. Thoughts?

46

Dominion General Discussion / Tortoise vs. Hare (low/high risk play)

« on: December 04, 2014, 01:58:42 pm »

Hey guys. Ela here with some more faux-interviews.

There are risks involved in every Dominion play. But how much risk should a player take? On the one hand, you want to ensure that you don't crash and burn, but on the other hand, high risk can lead to high reward. If you can go for a strategy that is guaranteed to give you a small reward every time, do you ignore it and try one that can make you win much faster but is more likely to fail?

Simplified example scenarios with Tortoise (low risk player) and Hare (high risk player)

Game 1 - opening turns:
Tortoise opens by buying two low-powered cards that can work with almost any combination of Coppers and Estates, to be prepared for most orders in the second shuffle.
Hare opens by buying two cards with the intent of them being drawn together on the second shuffle, to kick start a high-powered strategy.

Game 2 - Vill/Smith mirror:
Tortoise prioritizes buying Villages to ensure always having actions available for terminals, even though it gets through the deck slower.
Hare prioritizes buying Smithies to get more draw and cycle faster, even though the cards might be drawn dead.

Obvi, there are tons more situations than these and they get much more complicated. But which player would you side with? Are you usually a low or high risk player? What factors influence how much risk you take? Discuss.

47

Goko Dominion Online / Does Goko enjoy watching me suffer?

« on: November 30, 2014, 02:00:23 pm »

I'm starting to believe this site has a really twisted sense of humor.

Look, I'm not an expert

Elanchana Destler   draws Moneylender, Copper, Estate, Chapel, Copper

but I'm pretty sure

Elanchana Destler   draws Copper, Estate, Moneylender, Estate, Chapel

that the probability is close to zero

Elanchana Destler   draws Copper, Copper, Chapel, Moneylender, Copper

that these two opening cards can collide

Elanchana Destler   draws Estate, Copper, Copper, Moneylender, Chapel

every

Elanchana Destler   draws Chapel, Copper, Moneylender, Estate, Copper

single

Elanchana Destler   draws Copper, Copper, Moneylender, Chapel, Copper

time

Elanchana Destler   draws Moneylender, Copper, Estate, Copper, Chapel

they are on the board.

Elanchana Destler   draws Chapel, Estate, Copper, Moneylender, Copper

Is this a bug? Is it bad luck? Is it Goko's way of telling me to get all the sets?

48

Other Games / Streaming non-Dominion games

« on: November 28, 2014, 06:32:10 pm »

I don't know if there's a thread for this yet but I'm making one.

I'm streaming a Sopio game right now, come watch!!

49

Goko Dominion Online / Really, Goko? In the middle of a game?

« on: November 26, 2014, 01:56:19 pm »

I'm sure plenty of people have the problem of every so often Goko logging you out when you open the page and you have to log back in. But at least it doesn't happen when you're playing, right? Wrong.

Today I was in the middle of a game and I was getting lag so I decided to switch to another window for a few seconds to do something while waiting for it to load. When I switched back to my Dominion window, I was at the login screen!!! Why?!!?

If that counts as a quit on my record and I lose points I don't know what to do. That was definitely not my fault.

Has this happened to anyone else?

50

General Discussion / If I livestream another game...

« on: November 24, 2014, 05:58:19 pm »

Where should I post about it? The only people who watch me are f.ds members so I want to let the forum know (I think they'll like the game), but the livestream thread is just for Dominion.