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Dominion League / Season 31 - Signups
« on: October 18, 2018, 01:40:43 am »
Season 31 will run from Monday, December 10 until Sunday, January 20 and you can sign up until Wednesday, December 5 at 19:00 UTC. Signups are now closed. If you would like to sign up for next season, you can do so here.

If you are a returning player, please sign up before Sunday, December 2. Depending on space, you may be required to play a placement match or return at a lower level.

As of Season 31, we are requiring all new and returning players to join the Dominion Discord before signing up. If you aren’t familiar with it, Discord is a messaging app for gamers, ideal for real-time chatting with your opponents in the League. It is a lively community of players of all skill levels with regular discussion of Dominion strategy, fun tournaments, and playful banter. It also allows you to listen to live commentary of many matches. The League has been mostly conducted over Discord in recent seasons, so this change is just making it all officially required.

Staying in the league
If you are playing in Season 30, please don't post here, but fill out the Returning form that you should have been sent in a PM. It’s also pinned in your division-specific channel in Discord.

Returning to the league
If you last played in the Dominion League some time in the past year (Seasons 25 through 29), please post a message here stating your dominion.games username, your timezone*, your Discord username (formatted like @___#___), the last season you were in, the division you played and the place you finished. If you last played earlier than that, simply sign up as if you were a new member; see below.

New to the league
Welcome to the League! To join the League, you must first have accounts on both dominion.games and the Dominion Discord. Once you have both of those, please post a message in this thread with both usernames (Discord formatted like @___#___) and your timezone*.

Please make sure to state the exact spelling of your usernames (upper/lower case, special characters, and so on). You will be placed in an appropriate division according to your rating on dominion.games as seen in the client or here. We recommend playing at least 10 rated games before the League starts so that your rating can be appropriately calibrated.

Please check the welcome thread first and read the rules to make sure you're comfortable with the format and the time it takes to play a season. If you have any questions be sure to check out the FAQ. You can also ask questions about the League at the dominionleague channel on Discord.

You will also receive a personal message from one of the league moderators within a week to confirm your signup. You must reply to this PM within the specified time frame (2-7 days, depending on how close to the signup deadline it is) or your signup will be removed. In addition, we require all players to "check in" during the first week of the season or forfeit their place. This consists of filling out a very short form to confirm that you plan to play the season that will be sent at the start of the season. If you fail to check in promptly, you could be removed.

The Google Sheet in the following post will contain all signups as they are processed by the moderators and then confirmed. Please check back again in a few days to make sure your signup was entered correctly.

*When specifying a timezone, please use one of these common examples or use the same format and look yours up in the complete list.
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America/Chicago
America/Denver
America/Los_Angeles
America/New_York
Australia/Sydney
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Europe/London

2
Dominion League / Season 30 - Signups
« on: August 01, 2018, 03:43:20 pm »
Season 30 will run from Monday, October 15th until Sunday, November 25th and you can sign up until Wednesday, October 10th at 19:00 UTC.

Signups are now closed. If you would like to sign up late, you can do so here before Wednesday, October 17th at 19:00 UTC. If there is a space suitable for you, you will be added to fill all divisions up to 6 players each.

If you are a returning player, please sign up before Sunday, October 7th. Depending on space, you may be required to play a placement match or return at a lower level.

Staying in the league
Please don't post here, but fill out the Returning form that you should have been sent in a PM. It’s also pinned in your division-specific channel in Discord.

Returning to the league
If you last played in the Dominion League some time in the past year (Seasons 24 through 28), please post a message here stating your dominion.games username, your timezone*, your Discord username (if you have one, formatted like @___#___), the last season you were in, the division you played and the place you finished. If you last played earlier than that, simply sign up as if you were a new member; see below.

New to the league
Welcome to the League! Please post a message with your dominion.games username, timezone* and, if you have joined the Dominion Discord, your Discord username (formatted like @___#___). Please make sure to state the exact spelling of your username (upper/lower case, special characters, and so on). You will be placed in an appropriate division according to your rating on dominion.games as seen in the client or here. If you would like to be placed in a lower division or there is a reason to suspect your rating does not represent your skill, feel free to describe it in your signup message.

Please check the welcome thread first and read the rules to make sure you're comfortable with the format and the time it takes to play a season. If you have any questions be sure to check out the FAQ. You can also ask questions about the League at the dominionleague channel on the Dominion Discord. If you join, we highly recommend, but do not require, using Discord to communicate with your opponents.

You will also receive a personal message from one of the league moderators within a week to confirm your signup. You must reply to this PM within the specified time frame (2-7 days, depending on how close to the signup deadline it is) or your signup will be removed. In addition, we will require all players to "check in" during the first week of the season or forfeit their place. This will consist of filling out a very short form to confirm that you plan to play the season that will be sent at the start of the season. If you fail to check in promptly, you could be removed.

The Google Sheet in the following post will contain all signups as they are processed by the moderators and then confirmed. Please check back again in a few days to make sure your signup was entered correctly.

*When specifying a timezone, please use one of these common examples or use the same format and look yours up in the complete list.
Code: [Select]
America/Chicago
America/Denver
America/Los_Angeles
America/New_York
Australia/Sydney
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Europe/London

3
Dominion League / Season 29 - Late Signups
« on: July 25, 2018, 06:26:39 pm »
Season 29 will run from Monday, July 30th until Sunday, September 9th. Signups have officially closed, but if you are new to the league, you can still sign up late in this thread until Wednesday, August 1st at 19:00 UTC.


Late signups are now closed. Please go here if you would like to sign up for season 30.



To do so, please post a message with your dominion.games username, timezone* and, if you have joined the Dominion Discord, your Discord username (formatted like @___#___). Please make sure to state the exact spelling of your username (upper/lower case, special characters, and so on). You will be placed in an appropriate division according to your timezone and rating on dominion.games as seen in the client or here.

Please check the welcome thread first and read the rules to make sure you're comfortable with the format and the time it takes to play a season. If you have any questions be sure to check out the FAQ. You can also ask questions about the League at the dominionleague channel on the Dominion Discord. If you join, we highly recommend, but do not require, using Discord to communicate with your opponents.

If there is space for you this season, you will receive a personal message from a league moderator to confirm your signup. You must reply to this message within 24 hours or your signup will be removed.

If there is no space appropriate for you (given your level and timezone), we will instead invite you to sign up for next season! You should hear back either way by Sunday, August 5th.

*When specifying a timezone, please use one of these common examples or use the same format and look yours up in the complete list.
Code: [Select]
America/Chicago
America/Denver
America/Los_Angeles
America/New_York
Australia/Sydney
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Europe/London

4
Dominion League / Season 29 - Signups
« on: June 06, 2018, 03:25:43 pm »
Season 29 will run from Monday, July 30th until Sunday, September 9th and you can sign up until Wednesday, July 25th at 19:00 UTC.

If you are a returning player, please sign up before Sunday, July 22nd. Depending on space, you may be required to play a placement match or return at a lower level.

Staying in the league
Please don't post here, but fill out the Returning form that you should have been sent in a PM. It’s also pinned in your division-specific channel in Discord.

Returning to the league
If you last played in the Dominion League some time in the past year (Seasons 23 through 27), please post a message here stating your dominion.games username, your timezone*, your Discord username (if you have one, formatted like @___#___), the last season you were in, the division you played and the place you finished. If you last played earlier than that, simply sign up as if you were a new member; see below.

New to the league
Welcome to the League! Please post a message with your dominion.games username, timezone* and, if you have joined the Dominion Discord, your Discord username (formatted like @___#___). Please make sure to state the exact spelling of your username (upper/lower case, special characters, and so on). You will be placed in an appropriate division according to your rating on dominion.games as seen in the client or here. If you would like to be placed in a lower division or there is a reason to suspect your rating does not represent your skill, feel free to describe it in your signup message.

Please check the welcome thread first and read the rules to make sure you're comfortable with the format and the time it takes to play a season. If you have any questions be sure to check out the FAQ. You can also ask questions about the League at the dominionleague channel on the Dominion Discord. If you join, we highly recommend, but do not require, using Discord to communicate with your opponents.

You will also receive a personal message from one of the league moderators within a week to confirm your signup. You must reply to this PM within the specified time frame (2-7 days, depending on how close to the signup deadline it is) or your signup will be removed. In addition, starting this season, we will require all players to "check in" during the first week of the season or forfeit their place. This will consist of filling out a very short form to confirm that you plan to play the season that will be sent at the start of the season. If you fail to check in promptly, you could be removed.

The Google Sheet in the following post will contain all signups as they are processed by the moderators and then confirmed. Please check back again in a few days to make sure your signup was entered correctly.

*When specifying a timezone, please use one of these common examples or use the same format and look yours up in the complete list.
Code: [Select]
America/Chicago
America/Denver
America/Los_Angeles
America/New_York
Australia/Sydney
Europe/Berlin
Europe/London

5
The Best Potion Cost Cards

And now we get to see the ranking of Potion cards! For these cards you always have to factor how and when you will get the Potion that's necessary to buy them. This is a big factor that affects the strength of all cards with this cost


We had 39 votes for this list, though some cards received 38 and Possession 36.


#10 =0 Transmute (Alchemy) Weighted Average: 3.8%▲1.0pp / Unweighted Average: 4.5% / Median: 0% =0pp / Standard Deviation: 8.4%

Transmute is a clear last place, it had 26 last place votes and 11 votes for second to last. So why is Transmute so bad? Turning Estates into Gold should be great right? The problem is that it's just sooo slow... Going for it requires you buying a Potion, then buying a Transmute with that Potion and lastly lining up the Transmute with Estate. In the best case scenario, this will happen in the third shuffle, by then the odds that you actually manage to get a hand with both Transmute and Estate are no longer very good, and even if you do, is that Gold worth two dead (or almost dead) cards in your deck? But that's not all that Transmute does, right? It can do other stuff too, it can transform your treasures into Transmutes, which could be a decent option, if Transmutes were actually any good. But that's a big if, I'd rather have the Copper most of the time. The other option of transforming actions into Duchies could be a good late game option, if you didn't have to have a Transmute already in your deck by then. Now when is Transmute actually worth it? The main case, should be when you already wanted to get another Potion cost card and didn't manage to reach the price point, Transmute can sometimes be better than nothing, specially with Familiar, it's good to remember it can still trash Curses. I have also already seen Transmute being effectively used against Cultist, where trashing a Ruin for a Duchy can be a good way to earn points in a game that will probably three pile.  I'd say Transmute makes a good case for being the worst kingdom card in Dominion

#9 =0 Philosopher's Stone (Alchemy) Weighted Average: 9.6% ▼3.2pp / Unweighted Average: 9.6% / Median: 11.1% =0pp / Standard Deviation: 8.0%

As a clear second to last place, Philosopher's Stone received 10 votes for last place and 25 for second to last. Now, I just spoke wonders about Transmute, yet for ten voters this card actually manages to be even worse than it... How can that be? Well, while I agree with the general community consesus that this is the better card, I can't say I do not understand those voters. Philosopher's Stone simply cannot work in any kind of engine, if you draw your deck this ends up worthless, and it doesn't help that pretty much every other potion cost card is an engine card (except Familiar, Philosopher's Stone can actually work pretty well if you happen to reach 3P after the early game in a Familiar slog). Phil Stone will only work well in a thick deck that doesn't draw itself, which mainly means slogs, it would be a great card to have in those terrible junking slogs, except that even in those games it's very hard to justify buying a Potion, since the chance that you get 3P with a junked deck is somewhat low. The main cases for getting a Philosopher's Stone would be when you can artificially bloat your deck with somewhat decent cards, silver flooding comes to mind, and Phil Stone can work somewhat fine in a deck that goes heavy on Delve or Trader for example. Specially if Colonies are present, since it both makes use of spikier turns PS provides and extends game duration which make PS worth more. There are also somewhat decent decent combos (though far from great) with both Herbalist and Storeroom which should be mentioned.
#8 ▼2 Golem (Alchemy) Weighted Average: 28.9% ▼14.7pp / Unweighted Average: 36.9% / Median: 22.2% ▼22.2pp / Standard Deviation: 22.2%

Now with a big jump of almost 20pp we have Golem, even though it was a big loser this year dropping two positions and almost 15pp. It received two first place votes and none for last. Now even though Golem's position is low in this list, being above two of the weakest Dominion cards, I wouldn't call Golem a bad card, it's just that, as you will see, competition is quite tough. Golem's effect when played is really strong, it's comparable (and probably better) to Lost City, which even with a on buy drawback got to #19 in the $5 list. However there a two major problems with Golem, the first is that it's one of the few cards in Dominion where you play without knowing if it's a terminal or not, this can lead to a few awkward situations in decks that have a good number of terminals. The other, and biggest issue is it's cost. 4P is an incredibly awkward cost, specially for such a clear engine card. It's a cost where you can't really count on reaching unless you end up playing something moneyish or you already have a somewhat decent engine running. Now, in the first case Golem is simply not that great and in the second it might be hard justifying taking such a big detour to get Golem. That said, it's easy to see why one of the biggest friends of Golem is other Potion cards that you actually want (pretty much all the ones above). In other cases, if Golem is necessary to run an engine, you will still frequently go for it, and at least you get to buy something useful if you end up with 3P... (I'll get to talk more about that when we reach Familiar)
#7 ▼3 Apothecary (Alchemy) Weighted Average: 48.9% ▼13.1pp / Unweighted Average: 46.0% / Median: 44.4% ▼18.1pp / Standard Deviation: 19.9%

Another jump of 20pp and another big loser. Apothecary drops three positions and close to 13pp since last year. Even with this low placement I'd say Apothecary is a strong card, it's just that it's understandable that Potion cards have to be strong to justify investing in the Potion (when they aren't you end up with Phil Stone and Transmute). An early Apothecary is a great early game accelerator since it both draws a lot and helps reach higher price points and even if you end up trashing your Coppers afterwards Apothecary's ability to reorder the top of your deck while still being a cantrip should not be ignored. All in all a very solid card. A few things that might make me avoid Apothecary are strong thrashers that will get rid of copper too quick for Apothecary to be useful, and other strong competing lines of play which might get hurt by having to get a Potion on the opening.

#6 ▲1University (Alchemy) Weighted Average: 54.0% ▲11.8pp / Unweighted Average: 52.8% / Median: 55.6% ▲11.2pp / Standard Deviation: 18.6%

One of the winners of this year, University rises one position and almost 12pp. It's a village and it gains 5 cost actions, the most important price point in Dominion! What's there more to say?? This should be a great card! And it is, just not without some very noticeable drawbacks. Being a stop card means that there are only so many Universities you can get before they actively start to hurt your deck, this can be specially annoying if you are relying on them as your only source of +Actions. Also a big thing is how it's one of the only gainers that cannot (usually) gain Victory cards, so unlike other gainers, this cannot be used to catch up on points and it frequently makes it so that this becomes nothing more than an expensive Necropolis in the endgame. That said I would like to highlight that this is a really good card, being one of the best cards for building an engine in the game and that I feel like it's rise in the rankings is fully deserved.
#5 ▲3 Possession (Alchemy) Weighted Average: 59.7% ▲21.4pp / Unweighted Average: 58.0% / Median: 55.6% ▲22.3pp / Standard Deviation: 24.3%

This holds the dubious honor of being by far the most hated card in Dominion, yet this has nothing to do with this list (though one last place vote might disagree), and Possession finally gets some much deserved recognition for it's power by rising three positions and over 20pp (I'd add that I feel like this could rise even more in the future). Possession is kinda the ultimate engine payload. At the very high price of 6P it get's you another full turn, without having to have a smaller starting handsize or having restrictions in what you can buy, smaller starting hands and in how many extra turns you can get (I'm curious if the people over at the at the Puzzles Forum have already managed to find a way to play Possession an arbitrary amount of times). The only caveat is that you do it with your opponent's deck and not yours. This rise in the ranking, I fell that is very much influenced by how we saw a big rise in how strong engines are perceived over the last year (rise which was caused either by having more engine cards in recent expansions or by the community getting better at playing, although I'd say both factors are very present). Playing better engines leads to getting Possession earlier and playing it more frequently, making it a real powerhouse in many boards. This rise in Possession also ends up aggravating just how much people hate it, which is something completely understandable as it warps the game in a way where you often end up wanting to destroy your own deck. It can also lead to stalemates (with Donate reaching the stalemate is almost a given) and it works somewhat poorly with Ambassador, Masquerade and debt cards. A noteworthy fact is how it can warp trash for benefit cards, since your opponent can safely trash your expensive cards without worrying about any consequenses.

#4 ▲1 Alchemist (Alchemy) Weighted Average: 61.5% ▲3.2pp / Unweighted Average: 62.0% / Median: 66.7% ▲11.1pp / Standard Deviation: 18.1%

Also rising one rank and 3pp is Alchemist. This lab variant is really strong, being great draw and also providing amazing consistency for an engine, you should go for this much more often than not. This card poses an interesting conundrum, of whether you should risk opening Potion for this and not getting 3P on the second shuffle, or wait a bit to get the Potion after you can do that more reliably, I have seen success and failure with both approaches
#3 =0 Vineyard (Alchemy) Weighted Average: 62.9% ▼8.1pp / Unweighted Average: 62.2% / Median: 66.7% ▼11.1pp / Standard Deviation: 23.9%

Vineyard keeps it's rank, but loses over 8pp. it also has the second highest deviation on this list after Possession. Of all the alternative Victory cards (or pretty much all Victory cards, alternative or not) in Dominion, Vineyard is by far the one who is easiest to get crazy amount of points. all it needs is a decent source of plus buy and some cheap cards, or some decent gainer. But even in any common engine, Vineyards are a great way to green as long as there is some +buy, since it allows you to score points while still building continuously. When to get Potions and how many will you get, are some of the questions that will almost always arise when playing with this card.
#2 =0 Familiar (Alchemy) Weighted Average: 74.0% ▼0.6pp / Unweighted Average: 73.3% / Median: 77.8% =77.8pp / Standard Deviation: 21.5%

Familiar stays pretty much the same as last year. It's the only unconditional nonterminal junker in the game, and this is enough to make it one of the strongest cards in the game. Being a cantrip curser makes it so it's very easy to chain Familiars together to quickly bury your opponent in curses, with the drawback that it's Potion cost makes it so it's not as easy to quickly get a good number of Familiars in your deck. Familiar also ends up getting a lot of (deserved) hate due to it's cost. It's a card that really pushes for a Potion opening, and opening Potion/Silver you have a roughly 35% chance of missing 3P on turns 3/4, and when players end up on opposing sides of that odds, it frequently leads to very one sided games, as 2P hands often mean a dead turn and the cursing effect of Familiars makes it so it's even harder for the opponent to reach 3P in the future, which can lead to a very uneven Curses split. One extra positive point about Familiar, is that unlike most other cursers, it also rarely hurts your deck after the Curses are gone.
#1 =0 Scrying Pool (Alchemy) Weighted Average: 97.9% ▲4.3pp / Unweighted Average: 95.1% / Median: 88.9% =100pp / Standard Deviation: 9.9%

What's there to say about Scrying pool? It's a clear winner in this list again and it even manages to get over 4pp more getting to an overwhelming 97.9pp score, having been voted first 28 times, and all that with some pretty amazing competition. Scrying Pool is just bonkers. Possibly the best draw card in the game, and it's nonterminal! The only potential drawback this card has, it's that a bit slow to get going, but still, it's simply amazing and one of the very top Dominion cards. One common complain about Scrying Pool is how it frequently makes games take a very long time, it not only enables gigantic engines which naturally take long to play out, but it also is a card that involves a lot of decisions (though usually simple ones), one of the culprits of this, is the attack that this card possesses, that, while sometimes it can be somewhat useful, it's pretty much never a thing that influences your decision to go for Pools.




I'd like to end this, by thanking Qvist for all the work he has put throughout the years in making these very cool lists for the community!

6
The time you were all waiting for is finally here, you all don't need to wait anymore, the ranking everyone was waiting for is finally ready: Ruins!!

We had 27 votes for this list.


The Ruins

#5 =0 Ruined Village (Dark Ages) Weighted Average: 1.8% ▲1.0pp / Unweighted Average: 0.9% / Median: 0% =0pp / Standard Deviation: 4.7%

In almost unanimous agreement the community decides that this is the worst ruin. Only one person did not vote it last (it is noteworthy, though, that this one person managed to make the weighted score be double the amount of the unweighted score). Outside of some edge cases (Conspirator and Peddler being the main ones) this is simply a dead card in your deck, the action it gives is no more than the action you had just spent playing it. This is a pretty deserved position for this card.
#4 ▼1 Survivors (Dark Ages) Weighted Average: 37.4% ▼12.4pp / Unweighted Average: 38.0% / Median: 25% ▼25pp / Standard Deviation: 17.2%

The biggest loser of this year's ranking. Survivors drops one place and over 12 pp. At the cost of one action, Survivors provides a very marginal benefit, but also never hurts you when played. It can be good whenever you want topdeck inspection, but I feel like it's fall is deserved.

#3 ▲1 Ruined Library (Dark Ages) Weighted Average: 46.3% ▼1.2pp / Unweighted Average: 48.2% / Median: 50% =0pp / Standard Deviation: 20.3%

Ruined Library goes up a place since last year, but doesn't really improve it's overall score. It also gets the one last place vote that Ruined Village did not get. One might think that Ruined Library should be above Abandoned Mine, since +cards is generally more valuable than +coins, but +1 card in a terminal is just kinda very awkward to play. Unless you have extra actions there is a good chance that this simply ends up drawing dead an action you actually wanted to play, which is usually a really bad result.
#2 =0 Abandoned Mine (Dark Ages) Weighted Average: 67.9% ▲1.7pp / Unweighted Average: 67.6% / Median: 75% =0pp / Standard Deviation: 21.3%


Almost 30 pp below Ruined Market and more than 20pp above Ruined Library, Abandoned Mine is a pretty clear second place. It's weighted score remains pretty much the same as last year and it gets four first place votes. Abandoned Mine is the ruin where you most often is happy to play, if you have the extra action the coin it provides can be crucial for reaching an specific price point you need, I have already seen lots of games where an Abandoned Mine managed to transform an $7 hand in $8 for a crucial Province buy.

#1 =0 Ruined Market (Dark Ages) Weighted Average: 96.6% ▲10.7pp / Unweighted Average: 95.4% / Median: 100% =0 / Standard Deviation: 11.9%

To not much surprise at all Ruined Market gets the first place again and it even had a pretty nice boost of 10.7 pp in it's weighted average. It had a really high agreement between voters as only four voters did not put it in first, being three votes for second and one for third. The reason for this is quite simple, while in a majority of boards I would say that Abandoned Mine is the less bad ruin to have, all ruins except Ruined Market are really bad in 100% of boards. Ruined market is the only ruin where there are quite a few scenarios where it shines, making you actually want to buy it (there can even be a case for opening Ruined Market if it's possible), some games even have players trying to fish for it by digging through the ruins pile just to get to have a chance at buying Ruined Market (hopefully not having to actually buy those ruins). This shows just how powerful +buy can be. On clear engine boards where Ruined Market is the only +buy, a player who manages to snipe a Ruined Market might get a game winning advantage... Weren't ruins supposed to be bad?





Edit: I'll make a disclaimer here, which I think it's important, specially if some more inexperienced player ends up seeing this list. It's just that I tried to be a bit tongue in cheek, and I can see as how it might come off a bit as saying that Ruined Market is an actually good card. That's not true at all. There are situations where it shines and you even end up buying it, which is enough to easily make it the top ruin, but it's mostly an awful card in your deck that you should mostly try to thrash ASAP just like other ruins. In most games it works very much like the other Ruins, where it can give a very minor benefit that can occasionally matter, it's just that in heavy engine games, you should really watch out for Ruined Market, specially if it's the only source of +buy.

7
Goko Dominion Online / Log not Recorded
« on: December 15, 2016, 02:15:03 am »
I was looking through my logs on gokosalvager, and noticed that one of my games in my last league match against SearingSpear92 was apparently missing.

It was a particularly painful Scrying Pool/Menagerie/Artificer game where my turns took almost 10 minutes of continous clicking (don´t know if that might have anything to do with it, the log should have been pretty big), and it ended up particularly ingrained in my mind, so I´m pretty sure I´m not dreaming and we did not play only 5 games.

Has anyone else ever noticed this happening before?

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