Welcome to Roadrunner7671's Scout Archives!In case you can't tell by the title, this is a thread dedicated to all things Scout. Scout is a card from the set Dominion: Intrigue. Many players consider it to be a very weak card, but I know better. I have advocated for Scout a lot in the past, but this will be the largest thing I have ever done concerning Scout. Instead of making topic after topic about Scout, I can instead post it all here, in the constantly updated original post.
So, what will be in these archives?
Game Logs!This section of the archives will be dedicated to any game logs people would like to produce, along with a short summary of that game. Currently, we have one log.
https://dominion-game-logs.s3.amazonaws.com/game_logs/20160115/log.0.1452822816914.txtI played this game a while ago, so pardon me if I don't describe it as well as it should be described. But, I originally thought about Goons BM, but I decided against that. A weak sifting engine with Goons, Cartographer, Scout, Tribute and such was my final outcome. But it's how I got there that matters. I got an early lead with Goons, and piled seven Islands for VP chips. Sadly, under constant Goons assault, I didn't get to play many of my Islands. However, my opponent started buying Scouts. My eyes lit up. Scout could help me draw my Islands, provide more effective Cartographer plays and draw my Duchies later in the game. My opponent actually went harder for Scouts than I did, and I think he outplayed me. As he picked up Cutpurses and Noble Brigands, I went hard for Duchies. He did manage to get multiple Provinces, but I started to pile the Scouts. That's right. With only four Scouts in the supply, I ended the game on turn 43 by buying the final Scout for a good win.
Scout CombosThis section of the archives will be dedicated to the many cards Scout combos with. I will explain how and why Scout combos with that card (or event!) then I will give it a fair and just rating out of 10.
Mystic: 9/10 Mystic is a card from Dark Ages that functions best when you know what the top card of your deck is. Woah and behold, what does Scout do? It lets you decide the top card of your deck! Assuming you draw no Victory cards, you can draw with up to four Mystics with just a single Scout play! It's unlikely that you will have four Mystics and a Scout in your hand, so that's where the rearrangement part comes into play. Put the Mystics that you reveal so you can draw them with the Mystics in your hand. If you're already building a Mystic deck, adding a Scout is super helpful. And if both Scout and Mystic are on the board, this combo is something you'll seriously want to consider.
Inheritance: 10/10 Inheritance is one of the newer cards (seeing as it's an event from Adventures), but the community was quick to recognize its excellent combo with Scout. Inheritance turns your Estates into action cards costing up to $4. You can use Scout to draw those Estates, then play them as Action cards! I don't have too much to say on Scout's combo with Inheritance, except that you can turn your Estates into Scouts then draw those Scouts with your Scouts! This is considered a 'Golden Deck' by many, as you can do the same thing over and over without a chance to stall. With this Golden Deck, playing multiple Scouts is the thing you can every turn quite reliably, and you can pick up more Estates for points and potentially win on a three pile.
Scout CountersThe opposite of comboing with a card is countering it. So this section of the archives will be dedicated to all the attack cards that Scout can and does counter. There will be a rating out of 10 as to how well Scout counters this card, these ratings will be fair and just as well.
Bureaucrat: 10/10 Bureaucrat is an attack that makes you put a Victory card on top of your deck. It's not a very strong card, but it can stack, which can be painful. Scout is obviously a hard combo to this card. Scout draws Victory cards, and Bureaucrat makes you topdeck them. Not much to say here, but unless your opponent is getting lots of Bureaucrats, picking up a Scout for the sole purpose of combating the Bureaucrat is probably not a great idea.
Ghost Ship: 8.5/10 Ghost Ship is one of the most brutal attacks in the game. It forces you to either topdeck junk cards for next turn, or punt your good cards over and scrap your current turn. But never fear, because our hero can stop Ghost Ship! In his marvelous beige cloak, Scout lets you topdeck Victory Cards then non-terminally draw them back up! This provides a hard counter to Ghost Ship, especially in the late game. With alt-VP cards on the board with Scout/Ghost Ship, the Ghost Ship attack isn't even a nuisance. Just topdeck your Harems or Great Halls and draw them with Scout.
Rabble: 11/10 I've never thought of Scout countering Rabble before, but I just now realized it murders Rabble. As long as you have no Curses in your deck (most boards don't have Cursing attacks) Scout just decimates Rabble. When you're greening, the player with the Rabble engine wants to stack the top three cards of your deck with green cards. What does Scout do? Scout draws green cards! If you have a Scout in hand, use it to clear off the top three cards of your deck. This makes Scout +1 Action, +3 cards. Such a card is worth $6 or $7 for sure, maybe even a cost like $4P! With a board with Scout and Rabble you never have to play 'chicken' to see who will green first. Go for the green cards, and make your opponent regret that he ever made jokes about Scout.
Roadrunner's Response to CriticismAny good card can take criticism, just look at Goon Garden and his brush with King's Court, which is thought to be one of the best kingdom cards in Dominion. So, whenever I find criticism, I will requote it here and counter it with facts and logic.
"I think generally the criticism of Scout sums up in the words 'Opportunity cost.' It only hurts you because it is taking the place of something that would help you more." -Jamfamsam Thank you, Jamfamsam, for providing a common argument as to why Scout is bad. However, what is there that might help you more? Cards like Sea Hag, JOAT and Remake are generally better than Scout, I will not argue that they are better than Scout. But here's the thing that causes lots of people to disagree with me: I think Scout passes the Silver Test. I don't think Scout's opportunity cost is super high. So the 'Oppurtunity Cost' argument doesn't faze me because it doesn't make sense; Scout doesn't have high Opportunity Cost.
"I would like Roadrunner to first defend the position that Scout passes the Silver test." -JamfamsamThank you again, Jamfamsam, for offering difficult and exciting questions to help keep this thread updated. First, let's talk about how Scout costs $4 and Silver costs $3. If Silver was better than Scout either Scout would be better, Silver would be worse, Silver would cost more or Scout would cost less. There's also the fact that the 'Silver Test' is not only outdated but also made up, Scout and Silver are very different cards. You can't pit cards that do such different things again each other. If there was a Cartographer test, I doubt Scout would pass that. But a Silver test? Really? Silver is sometimes better than Scout, but Silver is also sometimes better than King's Court. If Gold is better than King's Court 90-93% of the time, and Silver is 2/3 as good as Gold, then Silver is better than King's Court 60-61% of the time. But in all seriousness Jamfamsam, I would encourage you to look at the Combos section or Counters section. These will show you cards that when you have a lot of them or when your opponent has a lot of them (for the sake of Counters), Scout will be better than Silver.
"All things considered, Copper is a significantly stronger card than Scout." -Eevee I suspect this is a troll, but I will address it anyway. Eevee, Scout is better than Silver most of the time. Silver is better than Copper most of the time. We know this because of my response right above this one about how Scout passes the Silver Test. So, if we read that, we can say that Scout is almost always better than Copper. But think about it this way: Silver is better than King's Court 60-61% of the time, and Copper is 1/2 as bad as Silver. So Copper is better than King's Court 30-30.5% of the time. This means Scout is better than King's Court
at least 30% of the time.
Scout Golden Decks!Believe it or not, there are several decks where you can reliably Province every turn, and these decks needs Scout to function. Let's take a look at them under this section of the archives, shall we?
Inherited Schemes I tip my hat to forum user 'Faust' for identifying this game breaking combo. The premises is this: your deck contains five Scouts, four Harems and five Estates. However, the Estates are actually Schemes, you used the event Inheritance to turn these Estates into Schemes. So, each turn you have five Scouts in hand. You play them all to draw your Estates, your Harems and the loads of Provinces you have acquired. After playing these Scouts, you play your five Estates. You then play your four Harems and buy a Province. Using Scheme's topdecking ability, you topdeck all five Scouts, to repeat this process every turn until the Provinces are all gone.
