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[AdamH]

This has come up in a number of my games recently and it took me a few tries to get it right, but I think I finally have this figured out.

So Contraband gives you extra economy and a buy for less than the price of Gold at a cost: basically you can't buy any good cards. And Advisor/Envoy are usually really powerful draw cards for their price, except that you usually can't draw any good cards. Well it turns out that this results in a really interesting synergy!

What better way to flood your deck with bad cards than to get lots of Contrabands, and if you reveal three bad cards with Advisor, your opponent is forced to make you discard a bad card! This turns Advisor into a powerhouse! The funny thing is that your opponents will usually not even catch on to what your doing and continue to ban good cards to your Contrabands, then when they've lost to you they don't even get why. They probably haven't heard about this combo, so they don't realize the immense value you're getting out of your Advisors.

The same thing works with Envoys, though it's a little harder to pull off because you typically want to have Villages in your deck to pull it off, and as we all know, Village is the strongest card in Dominion, so it's easy for them to ban it. Even the least competent opponents know that.

[SirPeebles]

This should be featured on the wiki!  And here I was going to replace the featured March Counterfeit article with some April Fool's Gold article.

[RTT]

great combo! lets play some games with contraband + advisor in your stream today?

[AdamH]

great combo! lets play some games with contraband + advisor in your stream today?

Yeah, mirrors are usually very interesting because then both players start denying bad cards with Contraband and good cards with Advisor

[Qvist]

#1 ▲56 Scout (Intrigue) Weighted Average: 97.5% ▲92.7pp / Unweighted Average: 98.4% / Median: 100% ▲100pp / Standard Deviation: 7.7% After we have discovered the real power of Scout, it was clear this would happen: the biggest change in the history of the Dominion cards lists. Over 70% voted it on #1 and it has only one vote below average. Scout has so many uses. It isn't a cantrip, but you don't need to spend an action, so it rarely ever hurts your deck. Even if you can't find any victory cards, you may put the cards back in any order, that's huge! It comboes therefore well with Mystic, Wishing Well, Herald and basically most of the kingdom cards. But even if that was not enough, Scout is a powerhouse with dual-type victory cards like Great Hall, Nobles or Harem, and not to forget it comboes perfectly with Crossroads because Scout draws you all the victory cards you need in this turn so that your Crossroads next turn doesn't collide with those. Just amazing! No doubt Councilroom had listed Scout/Ambassador and Scout/Masquerade as the two most powerful openings overall.

[SirPeebles]

The card was originally named Mint, but there was a uh typo when Jay sent it off to the artists.  The artwork that came back was of a mine.  The original theme was parts of a castle, and it doesn't make sense to have a mine in a castle.  But we didn't have time to get new artwork, so we renamed it Mine.  That's why the theme is no longer rooms in a castle.

[RTT]

http://www.gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?/20140401/log.50bfbb9ae4b0a380e35fa23b.1396356015251.txt

i just played a game with this combo with lord bottington. The strategy was so dominant that he mirrored it. I got 3 Provinces and 3 Fairgrounds by turn 15!!! not sure if the masquerade i bought was such a huge deal there ? It diverged a little from the actual stategy and may even hindered me.

[yed]

http://www.gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?/20140401/log.50bfbb9ae4b0a380e35fa23b.1396356015251.txt

i just played a game with this combo with lord bottington. The strategy was so dominant that he mirrored it. I got 3 Provinces and 3 Fairgrounds by turn 15!!! not sure if the masquerade i bought was such a huge deal there ? It diverged a little from the actual stategy and may even hindered me.

RTT   plays 6 Copper
RTT   buys Contraband
RTT   gains Contraband
RTT   draws Hovel, Copper

[shark_bait]

http://www.gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?/20140401/log.50bfbb9ae4b0a380e35fa23b.1396356015251.txt

i just played a game with this combo with lord bottington. The strategy was so dominant that he mirrored it. I got 3 Provinces and 3 Fairgrounds by turn 15!!! not sure if the masquerade i bought was such a huge deal there ? It diverged a little from the actual stategy and may even hindered me.

You made a mistake.  You played a Silver and 2 Copper on Turn 5 and bought a Silver.  That clearly should have been an Advisor.  You don't want to pass up on obtaining as many as possible so that your opponent can discard all of your good cards.  Again on T6 and T7 you have opportunities for double Advisor.  Is there any reason you didn't take them?  I'd be interested in knowing your strategic insights for ignoring such a powerful move.

[RTT]

The strategy seems to really work well. Also it really seems to confuse the opponent... look what Lord B forbids me to buy in turn 6

http://www.gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?/20140401/log.50bfbb9ae4b0a380e35fa23b.1396361101366.txt

[MarkowKette]

#2 ▲48 Spy (Base) Weighted Average: 97.5% ▲80pp / Unweighted Average: 95.1% / Median: 96.3% ▲78.2pp / Standard Deviation: 14.7% Unsurprisingly the new #2 on this list is Spy. The main reason for this is: Spy can discart opponents scouts. The other reason for it being so great is it's a cantrip so you can actually draw a Scout with it AND play it. And even if you didn't hit your opponents Scout with the attack you can probably discart a green card that he will draw next turn hoping to hit a Scout with one of your other Spys. After the Dominion Community discovered the real power of Scout, a major change happened to how other cards are now looked at. The main question you have to ask your self nowadays is: How can you beat a strong Scout deck? Other formerly overrated attacks like Rabble or Ghost Ship do now find their correct place on the very bottom of the $5 Card List as they actually help the Scout deck or don't hurt it at all. The other big winners in this list are the strongest Scout syngeries, like Harem, Nobles,Great Hall, and of course the card type "Scout gainers" like Ironworks, Workshop, Armory which became very important after Scout became the #1 named card with Contraband.

[HiveMindEmulator]

I have some in-depth comments/questions about this strategy:

1. Say you have 3 Contrabands in play, and you opponent has blocked Pearl Diver, Duchess, and Herbalist, leaving no other $2 actions to buy. How do you use all 4 of your buys? Should you just buy Gold and risk it being discarded, or should you stick to Copper and waste the money provided by Contraband?

2. Maybe you should talk about handling shuffles. If your opponent forces you to discard an Advisor and then a bunch of good cards and then you trigger a reshuffle, you will have a deck full of Advisors and good cards, which means your opponent will get to discard your good cards again! This seems like a major problem.

3. How does this compete with the Scout/Spy combo? Maybe you should do some simulations for this.

[AdamH]

I have some in-depth comments/questions about this strategy:

1. Say you have 3 Contrabands in play, and you opponent has blocked Pearl Diver, Duchess, and Herbalist, leaving no other $2 actions to buy. How do you use all 4 of your buys? Should you just buy Gold and risk it being discarded, or should you stick to Copper and waste the money provided by Contraband?

2. Maybe you should talk about handling shuffles. If your opponent forces you to discard an Advisor and then a bunch of good cards and then you trigger a reshuffle, you will have a deck full of Advisors and good cards, which means your opponent will get to discard your good cards again! This seems like a major problem.

1. If you already have three Contrabands in play, chances are your deck is already functioning pretty well and it's time to move into the endgame. Estates are definitely the way to go, and the only reason your opponent hasn't denied them is probably because of the mindgames you've played on them by using this strategy.

Whatever you do, though, don't get Coppers. Everybody knows Copper is a good card, so you're just asking to have it discarded. One more Contraband and you better believe your opponent is going to ban it, but those other three choices are clearly higher priorities, since action cards are generally better than Treasure cards.

If you have any more money, consider getting Silver. Silver isn't very good.

2. If you have any good cards in your deck at all, you've clearly done something wrong to get where you're at; I can't help you in this situation.

[ChocophileBenj]

The "hidden message" in the original post is itself hidden... there are some italic letters and I noticed it only tonight.

[eHalcyon]

But how does it combo with Scout?

OK, yes, Contraband + Advisor/Envoy + Scout is a 3 card combo, but I believe it is strong enough that we need to always keep in mind.

First, the very presence of Scout on the board can make Contraband more powerful.  It will draw bans from the opponent, freeing you up to purchase any card you want.  An opponent who knows of the 2 card combo will not be able to ban the bad cards against you because they have to ban Scout, which means you are free to load up on those bad cards that you can then draw with Advisor.

But what if the opponent is foolish enough to let you pick up a Scout?  EVEN BETTER!  Now you can play Scout to draw all your VP cards before playing Advisor, preventing them from discarding those precious points of yours.

[SirPeebles]

hahaha, you definitely got me until I saw the posts count.

[eHalcyon]

hahaha, you definitely got me until I saw the posts count.

I keep fooling myself for a few seconds every time I see a post I made.  "Wait, didn't I write that.  Oh, yes I did."

[Marcory]

I have some in-depth comments/questions about this strategy:

1. Say you have 3 Contrabands in play, and you opponent has blocked Pearl Diver, Duchess, and Herbalist, leaving no other $2 actions to buy. How do you use all 4 of your buys? Should you just buy Gold and risk it being discarded, or should you stick to Copper and waste the money provided by Contraband?

2. Maybe you should talk about handling shuffles. If your opponent forces you to discard an Advisor and then a bunch of good cards and then you trigger a reshuffle, you will have a deck full of Advisors and good cards, which means your opponent will get to discard your good cards again! This seems like a major problem.

3. How does this compete with the Scout/Spy combo? Maybe you should do some simulations for this.

Stick to Copper? Why, when there's all those yummy Curses out there? After all, if you buy the Curses, then your opponents' Witches become basically useless. Also, that's one less pile you have to deplete for the awesome 3-piling ability of this Combo (especially with Scout on board).

[HiveMindEmulator]

^Naturally I was assuming you already had all the Curses, or it wouldn't even be a question.

[mail-mi]

Code: [Select]

Menagerie, Advisor, Procession, Scout, Contraband, Embassy, Explorer, Mandarin, Stables, Altar
http://www.gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?/20140401/log.50e20cf4e4b0a47150882831.1396409729016.txt

Adding an Altar to the mix can really help the combo. Now, don't get me wrong, coppers are great, but imagine the power if you could turn every one of your starting cards into a Contraband or an Advisor!

[dominator 123]

I got suspicious of the italics in the words and later realised it was intentional. It spells:
happy april fools day