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« on: April 06, 2016, 08:08:54 am »
In the base set, with few cards that provide +1 Buy, this is a good card. Early game it builds your engine, late game it allows you to check out.
The real questions for a base set C.R. are:
1. Is the chapel out?
2. Is throne room out?
3. Are the buys necessary?
The easiest question in the base set for C.R. is "is the chapel out?", if the answer is yes, then the main detriment to the C.R. is gone, because that extra card for them will only be kickstarting an engine if they've over greened, but you should be in a better position than that. If they've over greened before you've tried to check-out I'm confused. If the answer is no, you really need to have an idea about how stable their engine is. If it'll fire every turn, the C.R. is good. If it requires a set of collisions... If the chapel isn't out, then you don't want to use this as a draw-your-deck.
The second question, is important solely because it's the only card you can truly "make good" (mine and moneylender are truly edge cases). You have to evaluate the throne room threat. This ties in to the stability of their engine, but it makes a difference if you're on the edge of greening and already have enough for your last engine parts you don't play a C.R. to try for a province too.
The third is the question is absolutely vital. It's usually the main question between this and another terminal draw, the buys can make a big difference. I lost the province split 5/3 with a C.R. engine (I started greening a little too late, when you're buying 3 provinces a turn that's an awful error), but could pump my deck to size 30 with the coppers and a tonne of gardens.
I think these questions remain pretty stable with the addition of intrigue and seaside (the ones I own physically). All you need to know is "how much value is the card I'm giving them" and that's mainly effected by effective trashing and the stability of an engine, later expansions send more buys floating around, so that becomes way less important.
If both hunting grounds and council room are available. Hunting grounds is far more viable to draw your deck, but you will still want a council room for the buy. (Terminal drawing with +1 Buy is not to be sniffed at)
