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[Eras]

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Haven, Fortune Teller, Masterpiece, Village, Bishop, Trader, Band of Misfits, Cache, Inn, Mountebank


Hey guys,

(This is my first post !)
I played this game with a friend and I've been thinking about this board ever since. I don't really see an engine here ( no draw, no buy ). I chose to go the masterpiece/BM route, and since I was planning on getting a lot of cards therefore I assumed I could ignore mountebank (EDIT: The idea was that mountebank wouldn't really harm me ).
That's exactly what I did and lost haha.
I would love to get some feedback/advice to improve my play :-)

Here's the log

[liopoil]

My advice: get mountebank.

[Eras]

In the end I had 60+ cards and 4 curses do you really think mountebank would be harmful here ?

EDIT: Or maybe I could have used it to slow my opponent down ?

[liopoil]

In the end I had 60+ cards and 4 curses do you really think mountebank would be harmful here ?

EDIT: Or maybe I could have used it to slow my opponent down ?

Mountebank doesn't protect you against mountebank except that it lowers the curse pile. It does hurt your opponent a lot, which is a big deal.

[Eras]

In the end I had 60+ cards and 4 curses do you really think mountebank would be harmful here ?

EDIT: Or maybe I could have used it to slow my opponent down ?

Mountebank doesn't protect you against mountebank except that it lowers the curse pile. It does hurt your opponent a lot, which is a big deal.

Makes sense :-)
So you'd say BM/masterpiece/mountebank was the best strategy here ?

[jsh357]

I don't care for masterpiece here.  I'd get Mountebank as soon as possible, and 1-2 Traders.  Buying Cache with Trader in hand should be far better than getting Masterpiece here, and Trader helps you a lot against Mountebank.  Given the opportunity early on, you should trash Copper/Estate instead of Curses so that you can block Mountebank more.

Bishop likely helps your opponent more than it helps you, but if the game runs long enough the extra points could pay off. 

When the curses get low, consider getting a Fortune Teller on a $3/4 hand.  It's practically guaranteed to topdeck a bad card, and outside Haven (dubious at best) there's no way to get big hands here so having 1 bad one guaranteed is significant. 

I wouldn't buy Village, but Inn is a reasonable purchase to get a Mountebank in to your upcoming hand before a reshuffle.

[Eras]

I don't care for masterpiece here.  I'd get Mountebank as soon as possible, and 1-2 Traders.  Buying Cache with Trader in hand should be far better than getting Masterpiece here, and Trader helps you a lot against Mountebank.  Given the opportunity early on, you should trash Copper/Estate instead of Curses so that you can block Mountebank more.

Bishop likely helps your opponent more than it helps you, but if the game runs long enough the extra points could pay off. 

When the curses get low, consider getting a Fortune Teller on a $3/4 hand.  It's practically guaranteed to topdeck a bad card, and outside Haven (dubious at best) there's no way to get big hands here so having 1 bad one guaranteed is significant. 

I wouldn't buy Village, but Inn is a reasonable purchase to get a Mountebank in to your upcoming hand before a reshuffle.

Interesting, looks like I've completely misplayed the kingdom :-p

[jsh357]

Well, it's hard to say.  I and anyone else can theorize all we want, but you have to do what the shuffles allow sometimes.  The most complex part of this particular game, in my opinion, is timing when to buy Victory cards.  You will in all likelihood need Duchies, but there are other good $5 options so you have to make good judgments about when to go for those.  In fact, in some respects your handling of this problem could decide the game more than any initial strategy.

[Eras]

Well, it's hard to say.  I and anyone else can theorize all we want, but you have to do what the shuffles allow sometimes.  The most complex part of this particular game, in my opinion, is timing when to buy Victory cards.  You will in all likelihood need Duchies, but there are other good $5 options so you have to make good judgments about when to go for those.  In fact, in some respects your handling of this problem could decide the game more than any initial strategy.

I understand, in any case I think trader/cache ( which I didn't see at all ) is a great idea.
Thanks for the reply, I still have a lot to learn!

[liopoil]

jsh: Good call on the trader. However, I'm not sure how often you will be hitting $5 with trader in hand. I think you will still end up getting a couple masterpiece buys.

[Jorbles]

This is a great board for Trader, other people have talked about it a lot already though. (I agree with them). I just wanted to add here, that a well-timed Inn can work wonders here after you get at least 1 Mountebank. This game is going to be a slog and you'll have lots of Silvers, Coppers and Curses. A little bit of filtering can be really helpful in this game. When would I look to buy an Inn? When I had a deck that was just starting to get a bit bulky, and had already played my Mountebank. Get an extra Mountebank play on your opponent (the earlier in the game it is, the more important it is) and a little bit of filtering for the mid-to-late game. This opportunity at $5 after you have a Mountebank played might never happen until it's too late in the game to matter, but if it does, it's worth tracking your deck and watching for the opportunity.

[Amac]

Trader is at least deent here, although I don't know if it's really unskippable.

[silverspawn]

Trader is at least deent here, although I don't know if it's really unskippable.

it's unskippable.

[Amac]

Trader is at least deent here, although I don't know if it's really unskippable.

it's unskippable.

It's at least very powerful against Mountebank in a Prov game, especially when you're not looking for an engine. The Cache explanation looks less interesting though, But I would still do it for the Mountebank defense and Estate-for-two-silver I guess. It's definitely pretty strong.