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Author Topic: How do you deal with Possession?  (Read 13327 times)

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Warfreak2

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Re: How do you deal with Possession?
« Reply #25 on: December 15, 2013, 01:09:25 pm »
+2

Quote
The player possessing you will not be able to resist the temptation of playing your golem
Only if the opponent is Oscar Wilde.
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If the only engine on the board is Procession->Conspirator, I will play it.

rrwoods

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Re: How do you deal with Possession?
« Reply #26 on: December 15, 2013, 10:52:28 pm »
+9

I did once deal with possession in an engine game by drawing my deck, playing all my treasures, then buying Possession, Possession, and Mint.

...

I have *no clue* what I would have done if my opponent did the same.
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serakfalcon

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Re: How do you deal with Possession?
« Reply #27 on: December 16, 2013, 02:19:23 am »
0

I think the overall keys to possession is, you want your deck to be crappy, or unable to be used by your opponent, but still able to play possession often. You want your opponent's deck to be nicer than yours, and then use their deck more than they use yours (or even your own if you can manage it). Add to that the volume of different asymmetric interactions due to the special-ness of possession (for example, the possessed player gets the +VPs but the possessing player can use up their coin tokens) to make your deck less useful to your opponent.

Every other detail is some variation of this (for example your opponent can't really play +VP cards when posessing you, so if you have those they become one-way dead cards: useful for you, a dead card for your opponent, coin tokens are a liability since your opponent will spend them all if they get a chance, then there are a whole host of cards with asymmetric benefits when posessed: hoard is useful mostly for you, since if your opponent is smart they won't want to load up on golds in their deck, same idea with golem, for attack cards you can be more possession-immune if you have cards like ghost ship which slow sifting down, and/or junking cards can stop a possession strategy by increasing the time between possession plays (though in general you shouldn't go for both junking cards and possession since you will be the one suffering from the junk), it may be useful to get your opponent to possess yourself to get rid of a bad hand so you can get a shuffle faster etc, it's great to have a deck with nothing but sifters and possessions etc.)
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Polk5440

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Re: How do you deal with Possession?
« Reply #28 on: December 16, 2013, 10:26:16 am »
+1

2.)  Know when to green.  You can't "make your deck crap" as sudgy suggested because then your opponent just plays a normal game that happens to have a few Possessions in it.  The key here is try to get a few Provinces early before Possessions become a problem and then hit the Duchies hard.  And I mean hard.  You want to ensure that your opponent only can get Duchies and Estates.  By the point he is Possessing you, you already have a lead that he can't circumvent because you are both greening.

Here's a good example of this.

I decide at the beginning of the game to go a modified double Jack of All Trades strategy and ignore Possession. Double Jack is usually fast enough to be in the greening stage by the time the engine gets going to play Possession every turn. By playing a money-based strategy as opposed to an engine you limit the damage the Possessed player can do with your deck.

For my game, my opponent picks up Possession on turn 13. By this time my deck of 2 JoaT, 2 Plazas, a Haggler, a Festival, and a Mint is in the greening stage. I dump my coin token and buy green all the way out (remember, the first turn he Possesses you he will spend all your coin tokens). Turns 12-20 for me are Province, Province, Duchy, Province, Province, Duchy, Duchy, Province, Province, win.

 I could have probably played more safely without Mint, Festival, and Haggler (that would guarantee Possessed turns could only pick up one card + Silver, max), but I had an opportune time to trash Coppers early and I felt I could get out to a bigger lead. He hadn't bought a Potion yet. If he gets a couple good cards on a possessed turn late, it's not going to matter. I don't know, maybe going 2 JoaT, Plazas, and treasure would have been better as well as safer. Anyway, you get the idea.
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dondon151

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Re: How do you deal with Possession?
« Reply #29 on: December 16, 2013, 07:23:34 pm »
0

This is not useful advice. Usually if you avoid these cards, then you will lose.

Avoid cards (or get rid of them soon enough) that the other player can use against you (Masquerade, Ambassador, TfB)

Well, that's not exactly useful, either. If you're behind in the Possession race, you're going to lose if you get rid of those cards because you'll not only fall further behind, but your opponent can just give you Masq or Amb anyway. And how do you get rid of these cards without another copy of one of these cards? There are few trashers that give your opponent no benefit when played while possessed, and those trashers would also have to be on the board concurrently with Masq/Amb/TfB and Possession.
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Count Grishnakh

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Re: How do you deal with Possession?
« Reply #30 on: December 16, 2013, 07:53:58 pm »
0

Generally, strategy advice shouldn't be predicated on your opponent making bad choices like playing Golem while possessing you.

Well did you consider that if your deck is largely possession + golems that they can't do anything with your deck except get possessed or buy estates?

That's not the primary reason I do it the primary reason is two possessions/ turn even with a lot of green in your deck

It's a delicate balance but if you get just enough action cards to tempt them but not too many they will be tempted, and I've played plenty of games where they fall into this trap.. I suppose top players are more prudent

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flies

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Re: How do you deal with Possession?
« Reply #31 on: December 17, 2013, 12:45:47 am »
0

Yeah, I think you'd only want to play that golem if you were desperate.
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