Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Davio]

cards in supply: Bureaucrat, City, Harem, Potion, Royal Seal, Scrying Pool, Secret Chamber, Treasury, Tribute, Upgrade, and Warehouse

So there are basically two options here: BMU+ and some action combo. I won't tell you guys what I did yet (just to let you know: I'm not biased either way), I want to find out which way you guys would go.

[Deadlock39]

I would really want to try using Upgrade and Warehouse to enable a Scrying Pool/Secret Chamber combo on this board, but sadly, the only +buy is fully activated Cities, so that would probably be a losing proposition. 

I would probably guess Bureaucrat + BM trying to effectively use Royal Seals and Harems if I was presented with this board, but I'm sure there is a better strategy.

[DStu]

I'll join the Bureaucrat + BM...

[Geronimoo]

You've got all the ingredients for a sick sick Scrying Pool/City-Secret Chamber deck that just draws itself than discards itself entirely several times in a turn. Upgrade will solve the lack of +buy and Cities will give all the +buy you need in the final mega-turn. The presence of Harems should give you enough time to set it up before half of the the VP's run out. Only problem is that it's going to be very hard to play correctly on the first try and Bureaucrat/BM might outrace you. Open Potion/Warehouse and Upgrade/- or do you need some economy first? Bureaucrat/Warehouse and Bureuacrat/-

[DStu]

You've got all the ingredients for a sick sick Scrying Pool/City-Secret Chamber deck that just draws itself than discards itself entirely several times in a turn. Upgrade will solve the lack of +buy and Cities will give all the +buy you need in the final mega-turn. The presence of Harems should give you enough time to set it up before half of the the VP's run out. Only problem is that it's going to be very hard to play correctly on the first try and Bureaucrat/BM might outrace you. Open Potion/Warehouse and Upgrade/- or do you need some economy first? Bureaucrat/Warehouse and Bureuacrat/-

And which piles do you like to finish? You can Upgrade 3 Estates into 3 say Warehouses, nevertheless thats 17 buys + Upgrade to finish 2 piles.  You could buy $4s and upgrade them into Cities, but I only see Bureaucrat there which does not really fit into this deck. And that's still say 8 Bureaucrats against Bureau-BM, 2 Cities, 1 Potion, Upgrades (do you really just want 1?) is 12 buys without Pools/SCs. And you haven't bought any money yet, and you need to colide the Upgrade with the Bureaucrat. So very lucky you have 15 turns until you can profit from +buy, to get the megaturn you need more than 1 SP/SC.

[WanderingWinder]

I expect Scrying Pool/Secret Chamber to be too slow, but it's the non-money option here.
I would B-Crat/BM, probably treasury on $5, probably prioritize harem>gold until I have a treasury in play, with the treasury flip (also depending on the reshuffle...). Gotta watch out for tribute too, though; if there are enough harems, it's really strong. Heck, it's pretty strong with BM anyway. More I think about it, I'd go for tribute over treasury IF my opponent was also going BM. If they were going the action route, I'd prioritize gold a bit more (to finish the game a little sooner), which also means sticking with the treasuries. I also want to make sure to not run any pile (basically harems) out too quickly if they are going for cities.

[jonts26]

If my opponent goes big money I'm definitely playing tribute here. And if he tries some complicated scrying pool deck I'll probably win.
EDIT: I'd not take the tribute if my opponent is going for scrying pools, probably B-Crat/Money. But yeah, scrying pool deck is simply too slow here without the extra buys.

[DG]

I shuffled up a go at the upgrade/scrying pool deck and it immediately drew badly and was a write off. I'm guessing that would happen more often than it would fly. The warehouse isn't an ideal 3 cost partner here since both the warehouse and upgrade eat cards. The bureaucrat is also a strange partner card since it doesn't help you get to a small deck, but you can gain extra cards for upgrade once you have the small deck.

I'd stick to bureaucrat + treasure + optional tribute.

[Geronimoo]

Here's a sample where I go off turn 16:
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201201/10/game-20120110-103533-203c818d.html

Isotropic made it a Colony game, but it still illustrates the combo (also, I'm playing this far from optimal). I think opening Bureaucrat/Warehouse is best, then get Upgrades when you can and go for the Scrying Pools a bit later. The Bureaucrats are actually crucial for Upgrade fuel: play City, then Bureaucrat, then Upgrade the new Silver to a new Bureaucrat , rince and repeat. In the meantime you might get Estates/Harems/Provinces out of your opponent's hands so you slow them down giving you more time to reach your mega turn.

I think it's viable and very interesting.

My opponent is a real player btw (just happens he goes basic money)

[Deadlock39]

I don't think I would have ever thought to use Bureaucrat Silvers with Upgrade as a psudo-+buy to gain engine components...  that is pretty awesome.   I automatically assume that gaining silvers would be bad news for Scrying.

[Davio]

Now that there are some comments, I'll tell you what I chose.

I'm a fan of Scrying Pool decks, but if they're not an option, I don't mind going BM. My opponent went Bureaucrat/BM at first, but felt he had to compete for Scyring Pools which was a big mistake in my opinion. I opened Potion/Warehouse with the intention of amassing a lot of Scrying Pools and cheap Warehouses and discarding what I didn't need with Secret Chamber. SC was also a nice counter vs. his Bureaucrat and few Scrying Pools.

The big problem you will surely have realized is that there is indeed no immediate +Buy. We would have to empty both the City stack and another to trigger it, but which?

I opted to grab some Treasuries instead of Cities (for necessary coins) and picked up some Upgrades instead. By the end of the game (turn 20), I had double Upgraded all of my Estates via Bureaucrat to Treasuries.

My deck turned out amazingly fast and I bought my 7th Province to end the game.
Somehow I got to draw my entire deck almost every turn, so I figured: I'll just grab the Provinces now instead of waiting for the megaturn. It worked out pretty nice.

I'm not saying I played this kingdom perfectly (I know I didn't, that's why I posted it), but I was curious to see what you guys would have done.

Game log: http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201201/10/game-20120110-065726-97525afa.html

Final game state:

Code: [Select]

#1 Davio: 42 points (7 Provinces); 20 turns
       opening: Potion / Warehouse
       [23 cards] 6 Treasuries, 5 Scrying Pools, 2 Upgrades, 2 Warehouses, 1 Secret Chamber, 7 Provinces

#2 gramblor: 21 points (6 Harems, a Province, and 3 Estates); 20 turns
          opening: Bureaucrat / Warehouse
          [35 cards] 6 Harems, 4 Scrying Pools, 3 Cities, 2 Warehouses, 1 Bureaucrat, 1 Tribute, 7 Coppers, 6 Silvers, 1 Potion, 3 Estates, 1 Province

----------------------

trash: 7 Coppers, a Potion, 4 Bureaucrats, 4 Warehouses, and 3 Estates