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[yuma]

Here is a game report where I felt like I started with the better strategy

http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201112/28/game-20111228-063623-d26b1db8.html

but despite using my Loan 8 times I only drew up a copper once meaning the other 7 times I had to discard a silver or gold. Because at the start I imagined my treasure quality being high and my quantity being low I bought Labs instead of Stables--my opponent also bought Labs for some reason. I eventually bought a Steward as a desperation move but ended up never used it for trashing.

Was I wrong to buy Loan over Steward?

[DStu]

I actually like Steward a lot more than Loan. Steward is a real good trasher trashing two card in one turn. That is enough to really clean your deck, and afterwards it's good for 2 cards or coins. Loan only trashes Coppers, if you are not unlucky and hit your Silver, the Estates stay in the deck. In the beginning Copper is not a bad card compared to Estates, and if they stay in the deck while the Copper goes away you really have to work to get good hands.

[theory]

When you have no other terminal action, then Steward is not bad.  Loan is most helpful when you can't spare an Action to trash (e.g., opening Swindler/Loan).

Loan also gets weaker when you buy lots of treasures.  In this game, which seems to run on Labs but depend on Treasure for money, I'd probably have gone with the Steward.

[Geronimoo]

As theory said, this game is mostly about Laboratories drawing Golds. Loan is really bad when you're relying on money to buy Provinces. Steward was definitely the right call here.

And if you're inexperienced I'd go for Council Room Big Money over Steward + Lab because you'll need to play the Steward flawless to match the Council Room's raw power.

[DG]

That kingdom actually offers a variety of potential ways of handling copper

(1) trash with loan
(2) trash with steward
(3) use labs/cellar to draw a big hand of copper and trash with a mint, restocking quickly with minted gold
(4) use stables to draw big hands by discarding copper then use a cellar to discard the accumulated victory cards for extra draws
(5) use stables to draw through the deck, use a cellar to discard the copper, then take it all back with a counting house

You could also be clever and play a few of those options together or wait and see which way your draws push your deck. Out of all those options though the loan seems the weakest as you'll eventually be depending upon treasure to buy your cards. Put festivals, say, into the kingdom and you can use the festivals to buy your cards and the loan to trash safely.

[yuma]

Thanks for the insight.