What RR needs to done - as I am sure he knows - is to prove that there are more situations than others (including me) generally think where it's worth buying scout. He needs to prove that our estimate of the opportunity cost of buying scout is lower than we think it is.
The problem is, many of you are biased against Scout. You automatically assume it's bad and you are willing to ignore evidence just to prevent your world from falling apart.
I am fairly new to this. I just 'discovered' this scout-meme thing a few days ago. But I could be persuaded: can you give a theoretical description of when/how you'd use scout?
Scout is a card with two prime purposes: it puts victory cards into your hand, and it reorders the top cards of your deck. It also has the added plus of being non-terminal.
So let's focus on the fact that it puts victory cards into your hand. This is obviously good in the end game where you don't want your next turn polluted by Duchies and Provinces, so you can draw 2-4 Victory cards and make it more likely that you can buy that last Province next turn. However, Scout can also combo with a deck full of alt-VP. Is Nobles the only draw for your engine? Put them in hand with Scout! Island is the only trashing? Speed up that process with Scout! Buying a lot of Duchies to help your Dukes? Maybe you can hit $5 next turn if you play Scout and draw three Duchies. Have Great Halls because they are better than nothing on the board that you're playing? Draw them with Scout! Harems? Scout has a solution for that. In a rush strategy, Scout usually isn't that good as it takes a valuable turn to pick one up. However, in a Gardens/Silk Road/Feodum slog, Scout can draw you a lot of cards and make your next turn that much better. Now, with all these victory cards in your hand, what can you do? If they are an Action-Victory hybrid, you can obviously play them. But what if they are a Silk Road or a Garden? You can play discard for benefit cards (Warehouse, Cellar, Inn, Horse Traders, Embassy, etc.) as there are tons of those. You can also use cards that like having victory cards in your hand, such as Madman, Crossroads, Baron, Tournament or Explorer. And Apothecary is often considered to be Scout's best combo, as Apothecary chokes on the green cards that Scout can pick up easily. Finally, Inheritance, an event, combos with Scout for obvious reasons.
Now let's focus on our second point: Scout reorders the top cards of your deck (assuming that you don't draw four Victory cards). When can reordering the top cards be a good idea? When you have a cantrip in your hand (anything that gives +1 card and +1 action) you can decide what card you want to draw. Already have $7? Put a Copper on top of your deck and save that Gold that you were going to draw with your Walled Village. With non-terminal weak draw, like Ruined Library, Moat, Mercanary and other cards that only give +1 card or +2 cards, you can put your treasure cards on top and save your action cards for next turn. Scout also helps cards that care about the top card of your deck, such as Mystic and Wishing Well. Scout can also combo with Spy particularly better than other cantrips, as you put the card that you want to draw with Spy on top of your deck, then you put a Curse/Copper/Ruin right under that card so that you can discard it with Spy. Doctor and Scout can be a combo, but not if you're hoping to trash Estates with Doctor! You can guarantee that Doctor will hit a few of your coppers, though. I will admit that the reordering part of Scout is not the strongest aspect of the card, but it is still something to look for.
Finally, Scout is non-terminal. What does this mean? This means the addition of Scout to your deck is less likely to hurt than a terminal card that is considered 'weak.' It also means that in a pinch, you can Prince Scout if you are desperate for a village. You can also find it with Golem for a village (if you find another non terminal, which could be another Scout!). Scout can also lower the price of Peddler and activate Conspirator, but it's unlikely that you should buy Scout just for that purpose.
*Drops mic*
