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Author Topic: Best Traveller Accelerators  (Read 3650 times)

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aku_chi

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Best Traveller Accelerators
« on: February 02, 2016, 12:04:38 am »
+19



Page and Peasant: the Travellers.  These unique $2 cards get exchanged up to four times - upgrading themselves each step of the way.  The last steps in the chain, Champion and Teacher, are game-changing cards that you usually want as soon as possible.  It's worth considering, then, what other kingdom cards and events help accelerate your Traveller exchange.

In what follows, I reflect on the best Traveller accelerators.  The baseline card-to-beat is Ironmonger.  Ironmonger lets you look at two additional cards (rarely three) and play one (rarely two).  This is pretty good, but all of the following can be more powerful Traveller accelerators.  Sometimes, these cards are more limited than Ironmonger, or are otherwise inferior at helping your economy.  Often, I will speak of turns 3 and 4 - assuming you purchase a Traveller and accelerator on turns 1 and 2.  Know that the logic for turns 3 and 4 is also likely to apply to future turns, but in a less controlled way.


Play Traveller on Turn 2
Playing a Traveller on turn 3 or 4 is the norm, but it is actually possible to play a Traveller on turn 2 with these two events.  Great start!

Travelling Fair
If you open with $4+, you can purchase Travelling Fair + Traveller and top-deck the Traveller.  Then, you will have a Treasure Hunter or Soldier in your first reshuffle.  Great deal!  Subsequently, you can use Travelling Fair to top-deck additional Travellers.  Consider top-decking a couple Pages before you play your Warrior.

Summon
If you open with $5+, you can purchase Summon and gain a Traveller.  It will be played on turn 2.  This is especially useful with Peasant, because Soldier will make it into your first reshuffle.  Summon is less good with Page.


Find Traveller in Deck
Once you have a Traveller, the best thing to do is find it in your deck (or discard pile) - wherever it is!  There are a couple of cards that can do just that.

Sage
Sage can't help you find your $2 Traveller, but it will help you reliably find your $3+ Travellers - as long as you have no other non-Sage cards that cost $3+.  So, this is a very powerful, but very restrictive accelerator.  It works well when there are other good $2- cards in the kingdom.  Sage works especially well with Peasant.  A deckful of Sages looks a lot less bad when they have a +1 card token from Teacher!  Opening with Sage is a little risky.  It's fantastic if you draw your Traveller on turn 3 and your Sage on turn 4, it's good if you draw both on turn 3 (playing Sage will discard your entire deck), but terrible if you draw Sage on turn 3 and your Traveller on turn 4.

Hunting Party
Hunting Party can reliably find your Travellers - if you have a small amount of diversity in your deck.  Opening Traveller + Hunting Party is fantastic.  Otherwise, focusing on either buying just Silver or a single spammable $4- card might be ideal.  Hunting Party is better with Peasant for a few reasons: (a) Peasant and Soldier are a little better at helping you reach $5, (b) Treasure Hunter and Hero will add other cards to your deck, (c) Disciple can gain more Hunting Parties, and (d) Teacher super-powers a Hunting Party stack with +card or +coin.


Draw More Cards
Sometimes you need to find your Traveller the traditional way: drawing more cards (which you may or may not keep).

Warehouse
Warehouse is cheap and lets you draw 3 additional cards per play.  It's a great Traveller accelerator.

Dungeon
Like most situations, Dungeon is comparable to Warehouse, but probably a little worse on net.

Cellar
As a Traveller accelerator, Cellar is better than Warehouse!  You can draw four cards with Cellar.  You can also choose to draw fewer cards to avoid triggering undesirable shuffles.

Storyteller
Even with just Copper, Storyteller can draw four new cards.  With Silver or Gold (conveniently provided by Treasure Hunter and Hero), Storyteller can draw even more cards.  Storyteller is a top-notch Traveller accelerator.

Minion
Like Cellar, Minion can also draw four more cards.  It stacks better and provides better economy, but it's more difficult to acquire.  Slightly better with Peasant.

Stables
Stables draws three cards, so it's comparable to Warehouse as a Traveller accelerator.  It is more costly, but it provides more economy.


Take More Turns
Taking additional turns is similar to drawing more cards, but better; you might get to exchange the same Traveller twice!

Mission
With Mission, you can exchange your Travellers twice as fast as usual.  And... possibly do nothing else.  So, it's tricky to decide how often to use Mission when Traveller is on the board.  Mission is better when there are ways to gain cards other than buying them.  It's better with the Page line, because Treasure Hunter and Hero will gain cards themselves.  Disciple also gains a card, but only if you can pair it with an action - a challenge if you use Mission frequently.

Outpost
Outpost will also provide another turn, but with only three cards.  So, it's generally a little better than Warehouse and Stables as it concerns Traveller acceleration (but it isn't stackable and misses more shuffles).  Outpost works better with the non-terminal Travellers, of course, but it's not obvious which line that favors.


Skip Past Non-Traveller Cards
These cards aren't much help getting a Traveller into your hand when you play them, but they let you see your Travellers more often by sifting through non-Traveller cards.

Scouting Party
For just $2 (no additional buy needed), you can discard three non-Traveller cards.  You should buy Scouting Party often when you're trying to upgrade a Traveller.

Navigator
Each play, Navigator can discard five non-Traveller cards!  But, if the next five cards contains a Traveller, you don't get much benefit.  Navigator is better with Page, because it and Treasure Hunter are non-terminal.

Messenger/Chancellor
If, when you play Messenger/Chancellor, your deck doesn't contain a Traveller, you can discard all of those cards.  Great!  Better with Page, because it and Treasure Hunter are non-terminal.  Consider opening Page + Messenger/Chancellor.  If you get them both on turn 3, it's fantastic.  In any other case, Messenger/Chancellor is, at best, only slightly more useful than a terminal Silver.  Messenger has additional synergy by making it easy to acquire additional Travellers - either with its on-buy ability or +buy on play.  Scavenger can be used like Messenger/Chancellor, but it has additional utility, and so is mentioned in a separate entry later.

Tactician
At its best, Tactician is discarding non-Traveller cards and drawing five additional cards for the next turn.  If your Traveller is non-terminal, you aren't even concered about collisions.

Guide
When Guide is on your tavern mat, you can skip the next five-card hand that doesn't include a Traveller.  Huge acceleration!  Guide is non-terminal, so it never gets in the way of playing your Travellers.

Wandering Minstrel
What do all of the Travellers have in common?  They are all action cards.  So, Wandering Minstrel will never discard them.  Instead it discards ~2 other cards you don't care about.  It's non-terminal and easily chainable.  Better with Peasant, because Champion has no need for villages.

Cartographer
The most flexible sifter.  It replaces itself and can discard up to four non-Travellers.  It never conflicts with Travellers.

Apothecary
Unlike the other cards in this category, Apothecary skips past non-Traveller cards by drawing them to hand.  Without trashing, Apothecary is likely to draw approximately three additional cards.  Apothecary is difficult to acquire, but boosts one's economy.  Slightly better with Peasant.


Bring a Traveller from Discard to Deck
These cards don't help much when your Traveller is in your deck, but it can place a recently exchanged Traveller on or in your deck, to let it be exchanged again.

Scavenger
Almost strictly more useful than Messenger/Chancellor.  It's great if you draw both Traveller + Scavenger on turn 3, but it's also great if you draw Traveller on turn 3 and Scavenger on turn 4; you can ensure another exchange on turn 5.  Works better with Page, because it and Treasure Hunter are non-terminal.

Herald
The overbuy effect is the real attraction.  If your have a Traveller in the discard pile and $5+ coins, you can exchange it again next turn.  Otherwise, Herald synergizes better with the Peasant line.

Inn
The on-gain effect is very helpful, but the on-play effect is also helpful to dig for your Travellers.  Shuffling Inn and Traveller into a deck of fewer than ten cards provides pretty good odds of playing the Traveller next turn.  Inn synergizes better with the Peasant line; Champion has no need for villages.


Trash Non-Traveller Cards
Last, but not least, we can exchange Travellers faster by thinning our deck of non-Traveller cards.  Some of these cards share qualities with the other categories of Traveller enablers, but also thin one's deck.

Raze
Raze will remove an Estate (or itself) and let you look at two additional cards.  If one of them is your Traveller, you can play it that turn.  Fantastic.

Spice Merchant
Trash a Copper and draw two cards.  If one of them is your Traveller, you can play it that turn.  Also fantastic.

Lookout
Look at three additional cards.  Trash one and discard another.  Definitely helps you get to your Travellers faster.  It's non-terminal, so it doesn't conflict with terminal Travellers in hand.

Apprentice
Apprentice can trash Estates and draws two cards non-terminally.  However, if you don't collide with an Estate you'll need to find something else to trash.  Apprentice works well with the Page line, because Treasure Hunter and Hero provide good fuel for Apprentice.

Doctor
If you open with a Doctor overbuy on turn 2, you can guarantee that your Traveller is drawn on your third turn.  The on-play effect is also useful.  You're likely to be able to trash two cards from your deck, and if a Traveller is revealed, it will be placed safely back on top of your deck.  Because Doctor is terminal, it conflicts with Peasant and Soldier, but Peasant works slightly better with a Doctor overbuy on turn 2 (trash exactly one card and you can immediately shuffle the Soldier in after turn 3).

Steward
Steward trashes two cards from hand.  It works a lot better with Page for a few reasons: (a) Page and Treasure Hunter are non-terminal, (b) gaining extra Pages after a Steward trash is helpful, (c) Treasure Hunter and Hero gain treasures to replace lost Copper, and (d) post-Champion, Steward becomes a Laboratory.

Chapel
Nothing fancy.  Just trash four cards from hand.  Needless to say, this speeds up your Traveller exchange.  Chapel is significantly better with Page for most of the same reasons as Steward.

Mint
Buying Mint lets you trash five Coppers.  If you open with Mint + Traveller, you have 71.4% chance of seeing your Traveller on turn 3.  Even with a $3/$4 opening, it might be valuable to buy Mint on turn 3/4 if you can trash 4-5 Coppers.  Missing 5 Coppers from the get-go definitely hurts one's economy, but thankfully Treasure Hunter and Soldier provide economy that can get you out of the 2 Copper hole of an early Mint.  Before you play Treasure Hunter and Soldier, you will likely have turns when you can buy additional Peasants or Pages.  The Page-line has additional synergy with Mint, because Mint can duplicate the treasure gained with Hero.

There you have it: 32 cards and events that are, at least situationally, very good Traveller accelerators.  If any of these kingdom cards are present in conjunction with a Traveller, you should strongly consider purchasing them.  If a Traveller is in the kingdom, the conditional probability that one of these accelerators is also in the kingdom is ~67%.

Edit 1: Added Storyteller and Apprentice.  How could I forget!?
Edit 2: Added Mint.  Seems strong enough.  I'm on the fence about Bonfire; the trashing is valuable, but the opportunity cost is multiple additional Travellers (at the very least).
« Last Edit: September 10, 2016, 12:27:48 pm by aku_chi »
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Limetime

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Re: Best Traveller Accelerators
« Reply #1 on: February 02, 2016, 10:17:12 am »
+1

Watchtower can trash those yellow cards that you get from the page line.
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Mic Qsenoch

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Re: Best Traveller Accelerators
« Reply #2 on: February 02, 2016, 10:28:21 am »
+1

Storyteller also cycles ok for the Travellers.
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shark_bait

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Re: Best Traveller Accelerators
« Reply #3 on: February 02, 2016, 11:43:27 am »
+4

I would suggest organizing this a bit differently.  Rather than have 6ish categories of cards I'd rank them in tiers of which do the best job in getting you to Champion/Teacher fastest. 

Good article topic though.  Travelers are fantastic cards.
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aku_chi

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Re: Best Traveller Accelerators
« Reply #4 on: February 02, 2016, 10:37:28 pm »
+2

I would suggest organizing this a bit differently.  Rather than have 6ish categories of cards I'd rank them in tiers of which do the best job in getting you to Champion/Teacher fastest. 

Unfortunately, I believe myself to be unqualified to do this.  I've played with, at most, half of these cards (with Travellers).  Despite playing with Adventures weekly for eight months, I simply haven't played enough.  As AdamH might say, this is a Level 1 article.  Turning it into a Level 2 article is not possible with my experience.  I fear that simulation data won't be very helpful in shedding light on the relative merits of these Traveller accelerators; there is an unconventional goal and non-trivial play decisions.  I could make some educated guesses with the data and experience I do have, but I would rather not misrepresent my confidence level.

I hope this article isn't useless though.  I know that I learned some things in the process of thinking about this topic (like the effect of a turn 2 Doctor overbuy).  It certainly takes less time to read this article than it took to write it, so I figure I can spread some of the low-hanging fruit from the tree of knowledge.  And I hope that this triggers some more non-trivial thoughts from other denizens of DominionStrategy.  Are there any great Traveller accelerators that I missed?  Do you disagree with any of my thoughts on the featured Traveller accelerators?  Do you have some data points that highlight how good a particular accelerator is?  Or how important or unimportant acceleration is for the Travellers?

Answering my own third question, I recently played two 3-player games with Page.

The first game featured Scavenger, Cartographer, and Raze as accelerators!  Smithy was in the kingdom, and villages were not, so Champion was very valuable.  There was no +buy, alternate gaining, or attacks (except Warrior), so the engine payload was weak.  We all opened with Scavenger and Page.  From there, I ended up gaining a Raze, two Cartographers, a Throne Room, and four Smithies.  I started on Provinces on turn 10, the same turn I played my Champion (top-decked with Scavenger the previous turn).  My chief rival (going second after me) gained a second Scavenger, a Raze, three Cartographers, and two Smithies.  He managed to play his Champion on turn 9, but wasn't able to buy a Province that turn (he picked up his second Smithy).  My deck missed on turn 12.  My opponent's missed on turn 14.  I grabbed my fifth (and the last) Province on turn 15 to win the game.  Courtyard and Treasure Trove were on the board, and I now regret that I didn't attempt a money strategy with those two cards.  I think it stood a chance to beat the Champion engine on that board.

The second game featured Storyteller as the only significant Traveller accelerator.  One of my opponents (going first) opened with Plan (on Stonemason) and Stonemason (overbuying by $2 to gain two Pages).  I decided not to pursue Page and opened with Salvager and Silver.  My second opponent opened with Page and Salvager.  My opponents mostly got Storytellers when they could (Caravan or Page when they couldn't), occasionally getting Stonemason + $5 overbuy for Storyteller x2 or Storyteller + Festival, or Storyteller + Butcher.  I got myself an even mix of Governors and Storytellers (sometimes with Stonemason overbuys), and Caravans when I missed $5.  I always used Governors for the Gold gaining, which slowed my opponents down a little (not a lot, because of their Storytellers).  In the end, Stonemason and Governor won it for me, I ended the game on three piles (Storytellers, Stonemasons, and Governors) on turn 11 before either opponent had played their Champions (they both had them in their decks at this point).  The most amusing moment of the game occurred on turn 10 when the opponent to my left gained 10 Silvers from his Treasure Hunter.  If the opponent to my right also had a Treasure Hunter to play, the Silver pile would have emptied.
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Limetime

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Re: Best Traveller Accelerators
« Reply #5 on: February 02, 2016, 11:17:39 pm »
0

From the description of the first game you should have gotten a courtyard to topdeck a unwanted Smithy to almost garentee kicking off.

Was there any significant terminals in the second game?
If not I doubt you need page.
Hmmmm... You really want to gain golds with governor and play them with storyteller for draw.
« Last Edit: February 07, 2016, 08:02:59 am by Limetime »
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aku_chi

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Re: Best Traveller Accelerators
« Reply #6 on: February 02, 2016, 11:50:24 pm »
0

From the description of the first game you should have gotten a courtyard to topdeck a unwanted Smithy to almost greater kicking off.
That would have been useful.  Cartographer and Scavenger were also useful for setting up the next turn post-Champion.

Was there any significant terminals in the second game?
If not I doubt you need page.
Just Stonemason and Butcher, I think.  All of the draw was non-terminal.  I certainly don't regret skipping Page.  There was a great, fast engine without Champion.

Hmmmm... You really want to gain golds with governor and play them with storyteller for draw.
Yup.  And then trash the Golds for more components/Duchies with Stonemason.  On the last turn, you can use Governor for draw to save your Golds for Stonemason and Governor remodel.  'twas a fun game.
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jomini

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Re: Best Traveller Accelerators
« Reply #7 on: February 03, 2016, 10:49:26 pm »
+2

A surprisingly strong accelerator is Hermit. You can trash out estates, functionally decreasing your shuffles by half a hand while let you more easily afford other accelarants on the >= $5 rack. More importantly you can play Hermit to trash whatever, gain a new Hermit and gain a new Madman. Next shuffle you can draw 4 extra live (net of 3 more relative to buying nothing over the Hermit) cards and buy something off the >=$5 rack (e.g. Hparty, Lab, Stables, Kc, Forge) and it gives you the +action to play two terminals (e.g. Peasant and Hermit). As a final enabling trick, you can selectively use Hermit to gain additional Pages or Peasants or <= $3 cards that suddenly become $5 or higher (e.g. Teacher turns Great Hall into Labs or Champion can turn Moats into Labs).

The Peasant line plays really well here - Fugitive's sifting is more powerful when you have more cards in hand, Disciple allows you to gain 3 cards & a Madman so you can much more easily launch the Teacher megaturn, and all manner of $2/3 cards get a very powerful jump in value.

The Page line has all those treasures ... but you can set up some nasty turns with Madman + Warrior + Mass Pages that just destroy the other guy's deck
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