 | #32 ▼2 Warehouse (Seaside) Weighted Average: 48.44% / Unweighted Average: 48.11% (32) / Median:52.38% / Standard Deviation: 19.53%
The most famous cycler besides maybe Cellar, Warehouse is a decent utility card that helps a deck find cards. Warehouse is somewhat similar to Oasis in that it’s a fine opener but usually it’s not a good idea to have tons of them in a deck. |
 | #31 Cargo Ship (Renaissance) Weighted Average: 53.7% / Unweighted Average: 54.25% (30) / Median:47.92% / Standard Deviation: 20.13%
One of the new cards, Cargo Ship is a fantastic card that should be opened often. If Cargo Ship is drawn on Turn 3 and $5 is hit, the opponent is straight up already in a massive hole. In a lot of ways Cargo Ship is like Gear in that it rewards deck tracking. Need a village next turn? Cargo Ship has you covered. Need to hit Inheritance? No problem. Cargo Ship is a versatile card that will have utility in most decks, especially at the start. |
 | #30 ▲2 Market Square (Dark Ages) Weighted Average: 53.99% / Unweighted Average: 55.43% (29) / Median:58.73% / Standard Deviation: 20.32%
A good source of cheap buy, Market Square lends itself well to pile control. In addition, the Gold reaction is a versatile ability, working well with the bountiful amounts of buy. Sometimes it’s so convenient to get Golds that it’s easy to forget that it might be too soon for the deck. While it looks like Market Square rose a bit, it has to be remembered that a bunch of new cards were introduced below. |
 | #29 ▼1 Watchtower (Prosperity) Weighted Average: 54.57% / Unweighted Average: 55.88% (27) / Median:50.79% / Standard Deviation: 20.9%
Another solid utility card, Watchtower does a lot of things well enough, from being temporary draw, to topdecking cards, to junk protection. It plays well with a lot of cards (most notably Villa) and it’s almost never bad to add to a deck. It is the versatility of Watchtower which makes it such a solid option. |
 | #28 ▲3 Doctor (Guilds) Weighted Average: 55.7% / Unweighted Average: 50.11% (31) / Median:53.97% / Standard Deviation: 19.86%
An effective but swingy trasher with a reputation of being annoying to line up, Doctor is oddly enough one of my favorite cards, and I couldn’t really explain why. It rose a bit too, which is nice to see. The overpay is really cool, and sometimes the thing to do is overpay by a billion midgame to kill everything in sight. The cool thing about Doctor is that it starts out quite good and fast, but it quickly gets bogged down the later the game progresses. This forces players to play smart and deck track what is on top. The best advice probably would be to start out with Doctor, and if possible pivot to a better trasher to clean up later on, if needed. Doctor can also perform some mediocre deck inspection, which has saved more than one of my turns before. |
 | #27 ▼4 Enchantress (Empires) Weighted Average: 57.75% / Unweighted Average: 55.73% (28) / Median:57.14% / Standard Deviation: 20.71%
Enchantress saw a bit of a drop this year, which is probably disappointing. Quite often it’s a good opener just for the odds of messing up the opponent’s opening buys as well as the duration cycling. Enchantress also ends up being a nice counter to Enchantress’s attack, so often an odd number of them are picked up. Another counter to Enchantress are cards that do passive effects, such as Highway or Haggler. The duration draw is also quite nice and helps make turns more consistent. |
 | #26 =0 Chariot Race (Empires) Weighted Average: 57.82% / Unweighted Average: 56.79% (25) / Median:58.73% / Standard Deviation: 15.25%
Jsh’s favorite card, Chariot Race is a swingy card that becomes crucial in maybe about half of the Kingdoms its in, and merely solid to mediocre in the rest. The danger lies is buying too many Races too often, because Races won’t do much against well-developed or trashed decks. In fact, one of the best counters to a pure Race deck is buying lots of Golds and Provinces as price counters, hilariously bringing Dominion all the way back to its roots. That being said, often enough a game will be significantly harder to win because someone topdecks a Copper at the wrong time. Nothing to be done but cry and move on. |
 | #25 ▼1 Ghost Town (Nocturne) Weighted Average: 58.22% / Unweighted Average: 56.22% (26) / Median:57.14% / Standard Deviation: 17.21%
Ghost Town is a good Village variant that has a number of tactical uses. Firstly, it can be timed to help spike price points with the extra draw, and is quite good to set up turns where it is known draw is coming up. Of course, this means Ghost Town rewards good deck tracking, instantly making it a higher skill card. Secondly, it is non-terminal, meaning Ghost Town is flexible. A less cool thing about Ghost Town is that it takes up space before it is played. The downsides to this are overplayed, but it is still real enough. |
 | #24 Experiment (Renaissance) Weighted Average: 58.76% / Unweighted Average: 59.36% (23) / Median:53.97% / Standard Deviation: 17.49%
In a lot of ways, Experiment can be thought of as an Expedition variant. In fact, it is much better than Expedition. The flexibility that Experiment provides means that a player can choose not to burn one, saving it for another turn. This requires the player knowing exactly what she wants to purchase or do each turn. The constant threat of instantly piling Experiment is also something to always keep an eye on. With so many good things to say, the real danger of Experiment is relying on them too much to draw. There are a couple of notable exceptions such as Ironworks, but generally Experiment should be thought of as supplemental draw. Oh, did I mention how good it is as an opener? Another tip: It’s okay to remodel Experiments into stuff. Turn the temporary card into something permanent. |
 | #23 ▲3 Scheme (Hinterlands) Weighted Average: 60.58% / Unweighted Average: 62.46% (21) / Median:60.32% / Standard Deviation: 17.59%
Scheme is a consistency machine. Topdecking villages and draw is of course a solid and effective option, but there are always other tactical plays to be made. Annoying Sea Hag or Young Witch game? Pair them with Scheme and the player gets more plays without buying a second one. Need protection? Topdeck a Reaction. Want to trash more? You know what to do. By the way, did you know that if you buy nothing and topdeck the Hermit, you get a Madman and also get to keep the Hermit. Weird, huh? |
 | #22 ▼2 Lookout (Seaside) Weighted Average: 62.06% / Unweighted Average: 57.5% (24) / Median:61.9% / Standard Deviation: 19.96%
It’s almost become a showoff game in the community as to who figured out Lookout was good the soonest. It was generally considered to be an annoying and mediocre card at the start because of the worst case scenarios, but it had a renaissance (heh) in the last couple of years, and now it has fallen a bit again. Lookout cycles, it trashes and it scouts. The scary stuff about Lookout can be mitigated with a bit of deck tracking, but sometimes, bad things happen to good people. It’s in the name, sometimes you just have to look out. |
 | #21 =0 Catapult (Empires) Weighted Average: 64.11% / Unweighted Average: 62.56% (20) / Median:65.08% / Standard Deviation: 18.92%
It’s Militia, but better. Catapult makes games degenerate quickly and often. However, it isn’t as simple as killing Copper every time. Sometimes Estates have to die. Sometimes the play is to go for the Silver (or Rocks) cursing, delay it a bit and get to the finish line of deck consistency, and kick the opponent while he’s still on the ground, over and over. Sometimes cursing is more trouble than it is worth and Catapult is just discarding, except for that time when the player wants a points lead at the end so blows up a Silver to make it harder to lose. Catapult always makes a player think, from tactical plays to discard choices. |
 | #20 ▲4 Plan (Adventures) Weighted Average: 64.43% / Unweighted Average: 61.77% (22) / Median:65.08% / Standard Deviation: 18.77%
Plan is a tricky Event, and depending on who is asked, it’s Great or Not-So-Great. It looks like the Greats are winning this year, as Plan jumped up a couple of spots. It cannot be denied that thinning a card and adding an Action card all at once is a good play, but the tricky bit is placing Plan on the right card. Too expensive, and there’s never anything to trash. If the card sucks, the double whammy punch becomes more of a single whammy slap. Nonetheless, Plan does in fact make players plan. Just don’t get caught with the sad 4/3 opening when it counts. |
 | #19 ▼1 Village (Base) Weighted Average: 65.74% / Unweighted Average: 63.86% (19) / Median:68.25% / Standard Deviation: 20.82%
Perhaps the most important and influential card in all of Dominion, Village is the concept card that makes the game as satisfying as it is. Without a card like Village, building fun decks becomes significantly harder. There’s really not much else to say. It’s cheap. It’s a Village. You’ll get Village. |
 | #18 ▼1 Dungeon (Adventures) Weighted Average: 69.17% / Unweighted Average: 64.6% (18) / Median:68.25% / Standard Deviation: 20.89%
A great opener, Dungeon is straight up a better version of Warehouse. The first turn cycles a bit less, but the second turn is a wonderful game of “choose your starting hand.” More choices are always good. Dungeon is a consistency machine as well, saving turns for players worldwide. The best thing to do with a pair of Dungeons is try to space them, playing one a turn. Sometimes this can’t be done, so don’t hold too hard to that rule. |
 | #17 Sewers (Renaissance) Weighted Average: 70.89% / Unweighted Average: 70.72% (15) / Median:73.02% / Standard Deviation: 20.57%
Sewers is a wonky but efficient trasher, doubling the effectiveness of anything that trashes. Pair it with a Steward, and the deck never has to worry about Steward collision. In addition, Sewers works wonders with unconventional cards like Pixie, which blow up to trigger the effect. |
 | #16 ▲2 Hermit (Dark Ages) Weighted Average: 74.02% / Unweighted Average: 69.56% (17) / Median:75.81% / Standard Deviation: 23.16%
It just so happens that I am writing a Hermit article now, how about that. Hermit is a really nifty card that trashes, gains and accelerates. In fact, easily the strongest thing about Hermit is the ability to gain Madmen and if it did nothing else, it would still be quite fantastic. It’s fine to sacrifice one mediocre turn for a super turn, as Tactician taught long ago. Hermit also provides gain and play options with the Madman plays if deck is drawn, how neat is that. If there’s anything to take away though, it’s that Hermit should be thought of primarily as a deck accelerator, and not a gainer/trasher. |
 | #15 ▼5 Gear (Adventures) Weighted Average: 75.4% / Unweighted Average: 71.19% (14) / Median:76.19% / Standard Deviation: 19.98%
One of the greatest draw cards in Dominion, Gear provides immense flexibility and consistency like few cards do. Gear may set aside to spike a price point, to smooth economy, or even to reduce the shuffle size. It has long been a theme that Gear is good in Money decks. It is also the case that Gear shines even harder in engines. So it’s weird that Gear dropped a bunch this year, like really weird. |
 | #14 ▼1 Forager (Dark Ages) Weighted Average: 75.49% / Unweighted Average: 74.84% (12) / Median:76.19% / Standard Deviation: 18.06%
A fine trasher and a fine source of buy, Forager is a solid nonterminal option to thin decks with. The strength of Forager comes in that it becomes stronger the more types of treasures are trashed. Ignore Forager, and the opponent gets all the goodies with trashing. Can’t have that, so everybody has to get Forager. The single most annoying thing about Forager which makes it a high skill card is that if there are no gains on the board, it almost becomes a “fake buy”. To gain an extra card, a card has to die. At the start this is easy, but at the end it gets really tricky. Knowing when to kill cards in these sorts of situations will make all of the difference in winning or losing. |
 | #13 ▼1 Bonfire (Adventures) Weighted Average: 76.77% / Unweighted Average: 74.47% (13) / Median:77.78% / Standard Deviation: 14.74%
The greatest strength of Bonfire is in the opening, where the deck gets to thin Coppers (and in rare cases Necropolis) before even shuffling. Bonfire is a very fast trasher because of this, especially when paired with trashers that can kill Estates. There are also great combos like with Jack of All Trades, which both supplies Silvers and kills Estates. |
 | #12 ▲3 Menagerie (Cornucopia) Weighted Average: 76.93% / Unweighted Average: 76.21% (11) / Median:77.78% / Standard Deviation: 15.7%
Menagerie has a bit of a exponential effect, in that the first couple don’t do much. However, as more Menageries are added, they start drawing consistently and often. Menagerie also loves deck diversity, something crucial to modern Engine building. Menagerie also loves thinning, something crucial to modern Engine building. I don’t know that it’s this high on the list, but many times players get burned for not pursuing Menagerie hard enough. I’ve seen top players do it recently, man. It always feels bad at the start, but pays off in the end. |
 | #11 Star Chart (Renaissance) Weighted Average: 78.14% / Unweighted Average: 69.74% (16) / Median:80.95% / Standard Deviation: 28.7%
Criminally underrated in the first outing, Star Chart is clearly in the contending for the best $3 cost card, and one of the very best cards in Dominion hands down. Being able to control deck shuffle contents in any capacity is a very strong power, and the only thing that will straight up beat Star Chart is literal perfect shuffle luck paired with trashers like Chapel or Donate. |
 | #10 ▼3 Swindler (Intrigue) Weighted Average: 78.89% / Unweighted Average: 76.95% (10) / Median:80.95% / Standard Deviation: 16.85%
The most unanimously enjoyed card, Swindler always creates fun and enjoyable gameplay, while still being incredibly skill-based. No other card creates nearly as many decision points as something like Swindling your opponent’s Laboratory. Do you give them a Duchy? Do you say ‘Oof, sorry’ and then give them a Duchy? Or do you just resign and blacklist your opponent as soon as they buy one? (written by GreyEK) |
 | #9 ▼3 Fishing Village (Seaside) Weighted Average: 79.06% / Unweighted Average: 77.71% ( / Median:82.54% / Standard Deviation: 18.63%
Having the rare distinction of being an openable Village, Fishing Village brings a whole host of strengths to a deck. It is a legitimate contender to Silver, and it provides Actions over the course of two turns. Getting an Action at the start of a turn is stronger than simply being forced to play a village midturn, due to the randomness of the average starting hand. Instead of relying on finding a village and a draw card, now the deck only needs to find a draw card. |
 | #8 ▲5 Black Market (Promo) Weighted Average: 80.16% / Unweighted Average: 78.02% (7) / Median:82.54% / Standard Deviation: 15.7%
Black Market has changed throughout the years, due to reasons outside of the metagame involving client decisions as to what it does. As such, it’s harder to measure what the community thought of Black Market throughout the years. If Stef decided tomorrow that Black Market would only have 20 cards, Black Market drops very hard. As it stands, Black Market has 60 cards, has the most useless cards removed from the deck, and as such Black Market nearly dominates every game it is in. Even on boards with no villages and no hope for building an engine, somehow Black Market can pull out an undeserved win out of thin air. And don’t even get me started on Fairgrounds and Museum, or the combos with Draw-to-X, Tactician, Quarry, and other stuff. Black Market is perhaps the most versatile card in Dominion. |
 | #7 ▲1 Amulet (Adventures) Weighted Average: 80.87% / Unweighted Average: 78.75% (6) / Median:85.48% / Standard Deviation: 17.62%
Amulet is never really bad for a deck. The variety of choices (silver gain, trash, coin) let it become flexible in a similar manner to Steward. Also like Steward, the simplicity of Amulet can be deceptive in evaluating its power level. I think it’s a bit overranked here, but it is hard to deny just how useful Amulet is in nearly every deck. |
 | #6 ▲4 Ferry (Adventures) Weighted Average: 83.41% / Unweighted Average: 82.16% (5) / Median:87.5% / Standard Deviation: 15.61%
Ferry saw a sharp rise this year. It’s nearly unskippable and the effect is powerful. The tricky stuff comes into play with questions of efficiency. Move around the Ferry token too much, and buys are being wasted. Buy too few cards with Ferry on the card, and Ferry wasn’t very efficient. As with most of the top cards, the complexity of decision making with Ferry is what makes good players so much better with it. |
 | #5 =0 Urchin (Dark Ages) Weighted Average: 85% / Unweighted Average: 82.49% (4) / Median:90.48% / Standard Deviation: 21.64%
The dreaded double Urchin open commands respect and is often correct. Connect both Urchins before the second shuffle, and the deck position is looking good. Fail to connect, and already the deck is working from behind. Of course, connecting Urchins is how to get Mercenary, a powerfully efficient card that trashes, generates economy, draws cards, and attacks the opponent all at once. With such centralizing power in Mercenary, it’s no surprise that Urchin is so high on the list. |
 | #4 Cathedral (Renaissance) Weighted Average: 85.94% / Unweighted Average: 77.39% (9) / Median:95.24% / Standard Deviation: 29.67%
Now we are onto the top four. Cathedral went from “scary to buy” to “literally Donate” in the span of couple of months. Right now the community is finetuning when to not get Cathedral. Some great reasons include discard attacks, Donate, and a money board. As such, Cathedral isn’t as automatic as Donate is. Knowing the rare cases of Cathedral skipping will win many a game. |
 | #3 =0 Steward (Intrigue) Weighted Average: 90.01% / Unweighted Average: 84.89% (3) / Median:92.06% / Standard Deviation: 19%
Steward is an incredibly versatile card that continues to shine despite each expansion growing progressively stronger in power level. It is a workhorse that is simple but effective: thin cards, draw cards, or generate economy. This flexibility lends Steward to be highly efficient in almost any type of deck. It might be a tiny bit high for my tastes here, but it’s really not by much. A lot of these top cards are similar in power level. |
 | #2 =0 Masquerade (Intrigue) Weighted Average: 94.95% / Unweighted Average: 92.65% (1) / Median:98.41% / Standard Deviation: 17.04%
The card I would pick for top $3, Masquerade has lived in the shadow of Ambassador for years and years. The cataclysmic nature of losing an Ambassador war is forever burned into any Dominion veteran’s mind, and will perhaps forever paint the narrative. Masquerade draws, thins cards, and puts pressure on the opponent all at once. Let me tell you a story. There was a contest last year between a person who bought Masquerade and ignored Donate, and someone else who bought only Donate and ignored Masquerade, just for fun. Obviously Donate won, but Masquerade at times demanded precise play from the Donate player and sometimes made the game scarily close. Masquerade is that good. |
 | #1 =0 Ambassador (Seaside) Weighted Average: 95.65% / Unweighted Average: 90.91% (2) / Median:98.41% / Standard Deviation: 20.4%
Rated the top card for the $3 costs for the umpteenth time, Ambassador is a safe pick, albeit this time it is not so clear whether it should actually be the best with Cathedral, Star Chart and Masquerade as primary contenders. Nevertheless, Ambassador is an incredibly strong card and if it is not first, it is certainly within the top four. |
Cards: Part 2
