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Author Topic: The Best Dominion Cards List 2012 Ed.1: $5 cards  (Read 130232 times)

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jotheonah

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Re: THE Dominion Card List(s): $5 cards Part 2/4 posted
« Reply #100 on: January 26, 2012, 03:50:09 pm »
+1

I find treasuries are also pretty solid in a certain kind of Grand Market race.  They're slower to get your first GM then pure money, but make up for it by the fact that when they're working you can catch up by getting one every turn until they're out.  And you don't actually need as many because the Treasuries support them. Also, Treasury+Conspirator.
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Re: THE Dominion Card List(s): $5 cards Part 2/4 posted
« Reply #101 on: January 26, 2012, 03:51:56 pm »
+2

I want to say that Duke plays very, very differently than a gardens rush. Silk Road is in between.
Generally, if you try to grab duchies (for duke) very early, you're going to get steam-rolled. You need a long time to set up your duchy/duke pyramid, because you need a LOT of them to be worth it, and it's very very hard to get a quick 3 pile ending when 2 of those piles cost $5.

JerryMama

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Re: THE Dominion Card List(s): $5 cards Part 2/4 posted
« Reply #102 on: January 26, 2012, 03:52:51 pm »
0

My initial thought is that Duke is a fair amount too low.  In my mind, the last expansion made it a lot more viable as a strategy, with so many more ways to gain multiple cards a turn and three-pile a lot faster than before.

Also, it gains points for me for adding a good deal of variety to the game, a lot of these screwy Highway/Bridge/Ironworks/Workshop/Haggler shenanigans take a lot longer to get going for provinces than duchies/dukes.

*Edit - I also find that it adds a fun psychological aspect to the mix, where your opponent going provinces has to think a little bit more about what you're doing, whether to try to block you or not. I feel like I've won at least a few games with a worse strategy b/c my opponent gummed himself unnecessarily trying to block my duchies.

« Last Edit: January 26, 2012, 03:57:35 pm by JerryMama »
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jonts26

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Re: THE Dominion Card List(s): $5 cards Part 1/3 posted
« Reply #103 on: January 26, 2012, 03:56:49 pm »
+1

- When I open 4/3, I (almost) never but trading post. Is this a mistake ?

Almost never might be a bit too strong. I'll take a turn 3/4 Trading Post if the game is going to be a bit slower than average, and there aren't any power $5's. Once in a scheme/familiar game I got one on turn 8 or 9 and it payed off quite well. In general though, you should at least consider it after the opening, though it's quite often passable.
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JerryMama

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Re: THE Dominion Card List(s): $5 cards Part 2/4 posted
« Reply #104 on: January 26, 2012, 03:59:48 pm »
+1

Maybe obvious, but a trash for benefit card out there makes a turn 3/4 trading post a more attractive pick.
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The Adventurer

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Re: THE Dominion Card List(s): $5 cards Part 2/4 posted
« Reply #105 on: January 26, 2012, 05:56:30 pm »
0

Wow! For the first time (and not the last, I am expecting), I find my vote to be the extreme worse or best of certain cards. Like Treasury, I'm that guy who ranked it at 47. I just didn't see the use of it at all. Here's my view on it and correct me if I'm wrong, I just have to maybe learn from this and see it in a new light... :

You buy a treasury. Most of the time, you buy it in turns 3-4. You reshuffle and get to your treasury eventually, in one reshuffle or two (turns 5-6). You top deck the said treasury once... twice... And then often you hit your first province on turn 8-9 like you normally would. What happens then is simple ; you either run late on provinces because of that 1$ you don't want to discard, or you buy a province and there... 3 turns with 1$ more and the effect is worn out. I get that you can King's court it just like any other form of action-money, but to me it's as stupid as a "walled market" less the all important buy.

Maybe some of you will argue that it wouldn't deserve second to last since it doesn't hurt your deck, but I would argue that it certainly does since you're paying for a cantrip copper that lasts 3 turns on average with 5$. There is that exception where you have decks you do not green ever, but mosts boards don't have such a setting.

Can anyone re-explain the card in some other way to make it seem a little better? Thanks :)
« Last Edit: January 26, 2012, 05:58:35 pm by The Adventurer »
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jonts26

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Re: THE Dominion Card List(s): $5 cards Part 2/4 posted
« Reply #106 on: January 26, 2012, 06:19:54 pm »
0

1. Don't undervalue the importance of early game deck ramp up. If it helps you get an extra gold or two, you're less susceptible to late game stall.
2. Without the top-decking it's still a $5 peddler. Kind of meh, but it's decent enough in a big money game.
3. It's much more useful with engines where you put off going green a few more turns to get some extra "free" money. Also it's really nice in Ambassador games.

EDIT: This isn't to say it's a fantastic card. It's probably fairly well placed. It's often skippable as there are usually more important cards to get and it tends to only give moderate benefit when useful.
« Last Edit: January 26, 2012, 06:22:59 pm by jonts26 »
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olneyce

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Re: THE Dominion Card List(s): $5 cards Part 2/4 posted
« Reply #107 on: January 26, 2012, 06:23:28 pm »
0

You buy a treasury. Most of the time, you buy it in turns 3-4. You reshuffle and get to your treasury eventually, in one reshuffle or two (turns 5-6). You top deck the said treasury once... twice... And then often you hit your first province on turn 8-9 like you normally would. What happens then is simple ; you either run late on provinces because of that 1$ you don't want to discard, or you buy a province and there... 3 turns with 1$ more and the effect is worn out. I get that you can King's court it just like any other form of action-money, but to me it's as stupid as a "walled market" less the all important buy.
If that's how you're using Treasury then yeah, it's not a very good card.  Treasury is best in engine-decks where the goal is to construct mega-turns.  It is particularly useful to spam valuable $6 cards like Goons or (especially) Grand Market.  It's also a great enabler for cards that depend on actions (like Conspirator).

It's not a world-beater or anything (I had it ranked at 32), but it's a perfectly cromulent card.

The one that confuses me is Bazaar apparently being significantly ahead of Market.  Is +action really that much better than +buy?  Same goes for Highway.  In many circumstances I'd rather have a real Market than a fake one.

Edit: jonts and I have the same brain today apparently.
« Last Edit: January 26, 2012, 06:26:16 pm by olneyce »
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chwhite

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Re: THE Dominion Card List(s): $5 cards Part 2/4 posted
« Reply #108 on: January 26, 2012, 07:18:19 pm »
0

Okay, there's more to disagree on here.

My largest discrepancy on this list is for Inn, which I ranked much higher than average- #24 I think?  How Inn managed to be ranked lower than Duke simply boggles my mind.  The play effect of Inn (basically Village Warehouse) isn't worth a $5 card, no, but it would be a decent $4: somewhat situational, but has a lot of powerful combos (Library, Watchtower, Menagerie, Tunnel just for starters).  And the on-gain effect can be quite powerful when used right.  For awhile, Inn had my best "Effect With" until more people figured out how to use it.  Not saying Inn is a power $5, but it is useful often enough, and powerful enough when used, that it deserves far better than #33.

See, the difference is that I don't think that Inn is particularly helpful in pulling off incredible things.  At its best, it's a somewhat weak cycler/action concentrater.  Decent and helpful in lubricating and action heavy deck without trashing?  Sure.  However, that fact that it's best case kind of deck, engine decks that aren't thin, isn't one of the stronger broad strategies weakens my assessment of the card as a whole.

Inn is useful in a much wider variety of situations than you imagine- basically any deck that can find a use for Village OR Warehouse is a plausible candidate to be helped by Inn, and it is in fact able to do "amazing things".  Check out Turns 17 and 20 here: http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20111227-234108-ab14a34b.html

...

Treasury is also heavily underrated here; I had it just above Inn.  Not great in games where you need to green ASAP, but there are few better ways to build cantrip engines, or effectively build your Ambassador deck after the estate tennis is done, and even in money-heavy games a couple extra Golds will often pay dividends down the line.  Library is another one I had several slots higher: it's probably the most situational of all Smithies, but its combo potential (and defense against hand-reduction) makes it so useful when bought.

Duke is the only card here I thought was particularly overrated by the crowd. It's probably the card I have the single worst grasp of in all of Dominion, but even if I were to double the efficacy of my Duke play I'd still be confident it's a marginal strategy most of the time, easy to block and hard to execute.  You just need *so much* green, and not particularly cheap green either, unlike Gardens/Silk Road.

The one that confuses me is Bazaar apparently being significantly ahead of Market.  Is +action really that much better than +buy?  Same goes for Highway.  In many circumstances I'd rather have a real Market than a fake one.

Yes, the +Action is far better than the +Buy: Bazaar is for my money the best $5 Village in fact, not an elite $5 but definitely top-half worthy; getting cash with your Village effect is really strong, strong enough for me to go engine on boards where I'd ignore plain Village, and Bazaar's the only one that does it without Festival and FV's card disadvantage.

I agree on Highway, though: that card is sure to be the most overrated one on this entire list.  It really is just an expensive Peddler a large portion of the time- it's about on par with Horn of Plenty as a card that can sometimes give you great combos, but is a trap far too often.
« Last Edit: January 26, 2012, 07:24:43 pm by chwhite »
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dondon151

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Re: THE Dominion Card List(s): $5 cards Part 2/4 posted
« Reply #109 on: January 26, 2012, 08:51:12 pm »
0

The primary problem that I have with using Bazaar is that it's hard to get when you're building an engine. Assume that there's a strong $5 cost drawing card in the kingdom. If you draw $9 with 2 buys, then you can't get $5 card + a village if the only village is Bazaar. And it seems to me, at least, that early in the engine building stage, it's really difficult to get to $10 and above because your deck just doesn't quite have that power yet.
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WanderingWinder

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Re: THE Dominion Card List(s): $5 cards Part 2/4 posted
« Reply #110 on: January 26, 2012, 09:41:29 pm »
0

The primary problem that I have with using Bazaar is that it's hard to get when you're building an engine. Assume that there's a strong $5 cost drawing card in the kingdom. If you draw $9 with 2 buys, then you can't get $5 card + a village if the only village is Bazaar. And it seems to me, at least, that early in the engine building stage, it's really difficult to get to $10 and above because your deck just doesn't quite have that power yet.
If all your draw cards AND all your villages are at $5, and there's not some really good trashing, you probably shouldn't be building that engine.
Yes, the +Action seems significantly better than the +buy to me.
I actually think that Duke is underrated slightly here.
Treasury is by far best for engine building, especially when you can wield multiple buys in your building phase, but not a very good card overall. Still, it's at least peddler, so hey, that's something. Probably I'd have market as better though.
Highway is getting massively overrated here. You can do sick things with it, but not that often. Probably on the same general level as market and treasury.
I think merchant ship is about ten slots too low. It's really really good for non-engines, and passable (though not at all great) in engines.
Library is about right. It can do nasty things with fishing villages, but other than that... well, it's decent $5 card draw, a good defense to handsize-reduction attacks, and sorta meh overall, especially considering it's a $5.

And well, I still think outpost is too high.
As well, I've really come around on contraband recently, and I think it's pretty well underrated at this point.

toaster

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Re: THE Dominion Card List(s): $5 cards Part 2/4 posted
« Reply #111 on: January 26, 2012, 10:28:20 pm »
0


Inn is useful in a much wider variety of situations than you imagine- basically any deck that can find a use for Village OR Warehouse is a plausible candidate to be helped by Inn, and it is in fact able to do "amazing things".  Check out Turns 17 and 20 here: http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20111227-234108-ab14a34b.html

I'm quite familiar with the uses of Inn, including the specific game you're citing, which you've mentioned elsewhere.  I maintain that decks which are ready to take advantage of Inn are decks that will also be doing great without Inn...as with most cards, there are a couple of combos that are especially powerful, but on the whole I feel that it's seldom a game-changer, and quite frequently it's a trap and a wasted buy.  None of the $5 are never useful, but Inn is situational enough to end up in the lower third of my rankings, and I'll happily stand by that statement.

Of course, we all have different strengths.  My win rate with Duke is just as high as yours with Inn.
« Last Edit: January 26, 2012, 10:35:10 pm by toaster »
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HiveMindEmulator

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Re: THE Dominion Card List(s): $5 cards Part 2/4 posted
« Reply #112 on: January 27, 2012, 02:14:38 am »
+1

Maybe some of you will argue that [Treasury] wouldn't deserve second to last since it doesn't hurt your deck, but I would argue that it certainly does since you're paying for a cantrip copper that lasts 3 turns on average with 5$. There is that exception where you have decks you do not green ever, but mosts boards don't have such a setting.
"cantrip copper" is a really bad way to put it. The thing that makes copper bad is not that it produces $1, it's that it wastes space in your hand. Cards with +$ +Action +Card or "peddler-types" are way better than copper because they provide an invisible coin that doesn't waste space. I think all the peddler-types (market, highway, treasury, bazaar) all belong around the same neighborhood in the high 20s to low 30s.

Other things:
I have Duke much higher than this. It may not be the best strategy every time, or even often, but it's something you can't ignore. Even if you don't buy Dukes, it changes the game, because it forces you to play a Duke-safe strategy (something that won't choke on victory cards if your opponent forces the issue on Duchies).

I'm also surprised Cartographer hasn't shown up yet. I'm not saying it's bad. I just haven't really used it too much yet as it didn't jump out to me as super powerful, and I haven't really seen it used in any spectacular fashion, so I figured it would land around this part of the rankings (the lower half of the middle).
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DG

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Re: THE Dominion Card List(s): $5 cards Part 2/4 posted
« Reply #113 on: January 27, 2012, 09:08:41 am »
0

I think the inn shares many of the same problems as the mint. It's only as good as the cards it works with. You've got to prepare your deck for the mint/inn and then have a suitable draw to get one at the right time. If the draw doesn't come or you have the wrong cards in hand you have to skip it altogether. There's only a limited window of time to buy one since you need a prepared deck but can't wait until you're buying green cards (duchies). Even when it is useful in your deck it's eating up space in hand and needs other cards to get your vp. It's still a good card but it is problematic.
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Tables

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Re: THE Dominion Card List(s): $5 cards Part 2/4 posted
« Reply #114 on: January 27, 2012, 09:23:47 am »
0

Minor correction: You mention Inn's on-buy effect - that should be on gain.

Once again, I'm surprised how close to the consensus this list is to mine, and yet there are a few things that I notice. Merchant Ship seems really low. It's a pretty dull card, but it's effect is very nice - +$2 the next turn is huge, and generally will get you to the power $5-7 cards, or later on to the victory cards. It suffers every duration's downside, but I don't think that's enough to drop it as far as it is.

Highway's lack of presence so far is also a bit weird. I had it only two places above Market (with Treasury in between, in fact), and honestly, I think they're pretty much the same level of power - Market has that consistently nice +1 Buy which helps a bit, but often, while Highway cards with extra buys for it to be really useful. Most of the time, Highway is just a worse Market, and it only just gets ahead because it can make some megaturns occasionally.
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Re: THE Dominion Card List(s): $5 cards Part 2/4 posted
« Reply #115 on: January 27, 2012, 10:23:24 am »
0

I'm also surprised Cartographer hasn't shown up yet. I'm not saying it's bad. I just haven't really used it too much yet as it didn't jump out to me as super powerful, and I haven't really seen it used in any spectacular fashion, so I figured it would land around this part of the rankings (the lower half of the middle).

I rated it very high myself. A cantrip that can skip over five crappy cards is an invaluable addition to any engine deck. It helps you sift through coppers and estates in the early game, mitigates the effects of greening in the late game, and mitigates the effects of cursers in games with no trashing.
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Re: THE Dominion Card List(s): $5 cards Part 2/4 posted
« Reply #116 on: January 27, 2012, 10:33:14 am »
0

I'm also surprised Cartographer hasn't shown up yet. I'm not saying it's bad. I just haven't really used it too much yet as it didn't jump out to me as super powerful, and I haven't really seen it used in any spectacular fashion, so I figured it would land around this part of the rankings (the lower half of the middle).

I rated it very high myself. A cantrip that can skip over five crappy cards is an invaluable addition to any engine deck. It helps you sift through coppers and estates in the early game, mitigates the effects of greening in the late game, and mitigates the effects of cursers in games with no trashing.
And does actually nothing for you but sift. Pretty darn weak in BM decks (like warehouse-ish type power, I think), decent in engines, but usually you've got something better to do on $5 in engines. Overall I'm pretty meh.

brokoli

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Re: THE Dominion Card List(s): $5 cards Part 2/4 posted
« Reply #117 on: January 27, 2012, 02:32:47 pm »
0

Quote from: chwhite
Duke is the only card here I thought was particularly overrated by the crowd. It's probably the card I have the single worst grasp of in all of Dominion, but even if I were to double the efficacy of my Duke play I'd still be confident it's a marginal strategy most of the time, easy to block and hard to execute.  You just need *so much* green, and not particularly cheap green either, unlike Gardens/Silk Road.

I still think you are all wrong. I always thought the opposite about this card : easy to execute, hard to block.
You need 6 duchies and 5 dukes so that they are worth as much as eight provinces. Not much, it's only three dead cards more, for the total cost of 55$ (64$ for provinces).
And man, it's so easy to get 5$ each turns ! a simple silver helps a lot. Obviously, a card like Horse traders or feast is also good… but even without…
And, if the province player can grab some duchies/dukes, the duke player also, can easily take one or two provinces. But actually, the duchy or duke doesn't really help the province player.

Also, the duke does not need 3-pile ending, unlike gardens or silk road. Because, as I said, it's easy to get more than 48 point : the maximum for provinces.

You tend to compare the Duke to gardens. it has nothing to do.
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jotheonah

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Re: THE Dominion Card List(s): $5 cards Part 2/4 posted
« Reply #118 on: January 27, 2012, 03:36:24 pm »
0

If you could set up KC-KC-Feast-Feast-Feast in Duke-Duchy without your opponent realizing what you're up to, I imagine that would be pretty satisfying. I did something similar in a Gardens game once.
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GendoIkari

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Re: THE Dominion Card List(s): $5 cards Part 2/4 posted
« Reply #119 on: January 27, 2012, 03:52:00 pm »
0


I still think you are all wrong. I always thought the opposite about this card : easy to execute, hard to block.
You need 6 duchies and 5 dukes so that they are worth as much as eight provinces. Not much, it's only three dead cards more, for the total cost of 55$ (64$ for provinces).
And man, it's so easy to get 5$ each turns ! a simple silver helps a lot. Obviously, a card like Horse traders or feast is also good… but even without…
And, if the province player can grab some duchies/dukes, the duke player also, can easily take one or two provinces. But actually, the duchy or duke doesn't really help the province player.

Also, the duke does not need 3-pile ending, unlike gardens or silk road. Because, as I said, it's easy to get more than 48 point : the maximum for provinces.

You tend to compare the Duke to gardens. it has nothing to do.

I completely agree! Last month ehunt gave me some great advice on learning how to beat a Duchies strategy... he said to try Duchies myself, and learn from the times that my opponents beat me. Well, I started doing that... and it didn't quite work as planned, because I found myself winning basically every time I went Duke/Duchy!
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GendoIkari

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Re: THE Dominion Card List(s): $5 cards Part 2/4 posted
« Reply #120 on: January 27, 2012, 03:52:58 pm »
0

If you could set up KC-KC-Feast-Feast-Feast in Duke-Duchy without your opponent realizing what you're up to, I imagine that would be pretty satisfying. I did something similar in a Gardens game once.

I managed to KC a Feast for 3 Duchies the other day. Not a Duke game, though.
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dondon151

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Re: THE Dominion Card List(s): $5 cards Part 2/4 posted
« Reply #121 on: January 27, 2012, 04:01:15 pm »
0

Sort of beside the point, but I've observed that going for Duke is very much a losing strategy in 3-player games.
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Re: THE Dominion Card List(s): $5 cards Part 2/4 posted
« Reply #122 on: January 27, 2012, 05:18:04 pm »
0

Sort of beside the point, but I've observed that going for Duke is very much a losing strategy in 3-player games.
Really? I imagine you just need to adjust how you're playing it...

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Re: THE Dominion Card List(s): $5 cards Part 2/4 posted
« Reply #123 on: January 27, 2012, 06:09:19 pm »
0

Sort of beside the point, but I've observed that going for Duke is very much a losing strategy in 3-player games.
All alternative VP strategies have a tendency to be stronger in 2-player since if you ignore provinces, your opponent has to get 8 of them to end the game rather than 2-3 opponents having to split 12.
But I think it's still possible to go Duke sometimes in 3-player. You can't force it as much, since you have less control over game pace than in 2-player, but there is the advantage that there are more Duchies in the supply, which allows you to hit higher VP values on your Dukes.
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Re: THE Dominion Card List(s): $5 cards Part 2/4 posted
« Reply #124 on: January 30, 2012, 11:38:11 am »
0

The Best $5 Cards - Part 3/4

#26 City (Prosperity) Weighted Average: 24.57 / Median: 23 / Mode: 22 / Standard Deviation: 9.2
Highest Rank(s): #2 (1x), #9 (1x), #12 (1x) / Lowest Rank(s): #36 (2x), #41 (1x), #42 (1x)

After a 1.4 gap the next card in this list is City. It has some really high rankings with one second place and also two times below #40. So it has the second highest deviation in this list so far and is #7 in the deviation ranking of this list.

City is highly dependant from the board. That may explain the high deviation. On many boards you just spend $5 for a mediocre $3 Village. But with Cursers where the Curses are likely going out, this can be very strong. When activated, a Level 2 City is already a combined Laboratory and Village, so basically a ~$6 card. A Level 3 City is a combined Laboratory, Market and Village and would normally cost ~9$. In non-cursing games this is often a trap card. If one player goes for Cities to run this pile out, he's just buying Villages and doesn't build up his economy. Then you do much better not buying any City and try to end the game as fast as you can. In longer lasting games (especially Colony games) Cities are much stronger, but you really have to consider, if you really want so many Villages. In 3+ player games any pile can deplete faster and Cities are therefore much stronger. And if you have won the City Split and have Level 3 Cities, you have to just be sure that you don't lose on a 3-pile ending.
#25 Highway (Hinterlands) Weighted Average: 24.34 / Median: 23 / Mode: 28 / Standard Deviation: 8.4
Highest Rank(s): #4 (1x), #6 (1x), #10 (1x) / Lowest Rank(s): #33 (2x), #34 (2x)

Highway has two outliers in the upper regions, but none in the lower regions, making it the card with the "best worst rank" so far. The unweighted average has it on #22, new players seem to overrate it.

Highway is highly dependant for supporter cards to make it useful. One vanilla Highway is really bad and even worse than Market or Treasury, it's just a Peddler, so basically only worth $4. It seems similar to Bridge, but in fact it isn't. You can use it as a cantrip Bridge, but most of the times this isn't worth it, because you need +Buy and either need a small deck to play multiples or big drawing power what also means you need villages. So that is really slow. The only real combo is Highway/Market in a small deck. But you can do things with Highway what would be very difficult with Bridge. It combos nice with Remodel/Farmland/Expand, so you can replace Coppers with Provinces. It can combo also with other trash-for-benefit cards, but most of the times they "anti-synergize". Its best use may to use it with cards with fixed cost in the card text like Saboteur, Smugglers, Feast, Ironworks, Horn of Plenty, etc to gain (or trash) Provinces with these cards. As Highway is good in small decks, Highway/Chapel is a #56 opening.
#24 Cartographer (Hinterlands) Weighted Average: 23.73 / Median: 23 / Mode: 21 / Standard Deviation: 9.3
Highest Rank(s): #7 (1x), #10 (1x), #12 (2x) / Lowest Rank(s): #35 (3x), #40 (1x), #44 (1x)

Cartographer is the next Hinterlands card with the second highest deviation so far and #5 overall. It has two pretty low outliers.

Cartographer is useful in all decks (maybe except Big Money decks). It reminds of Navigator, but hasn't the problems of being terminal and you can choose for each card separately to discard or to put back. It also draws a card, although you often wish to top-deck first and draw afterwards. Basically it is a 4 times more powerful Spy (except the attack). You can also compare it to Warehouse. While Warehouse only makes this turn better, you can use Cartographer to either prepare your next turn (mitigating draw luck) or to prepare the cards you want to draw with either a second Cartographer or any other card that draws cards. So it combos very nice with many cards, especially cards that draw and are non-terminal, like Wishing Well and most importantly Scrying Pool and is also not bad against strong top-decking attacks like Ghost Ship or Rabble (although you draw one card first). With all the good points, Cartographer is still no good card for itself, it's just an addition to your deck and makes your engine stronger and more stable and is nearly never a dominating card on the board.
#23 Haggler (Hinterlands) Weighted Average: 22.77 / Median: 22 / Mode: 28 / Standard Deviation: 7.0
Highest Rank(s): #8 (1x), #13 (1x), #14 (2x) / Lowest Rank(s): #33 (2x), #37 (1x)

Haggler is the third Hinterlands card in a row and has a very low deviation for a card ranked here, it has only 4 ranks below #30. Taking the unweighted average into account, it would rank on #21.

Haggler is very good for building up engines with multiple components. It adds the Border Village effect to any card you wish and also gives $2, so you can be pretty sure to get two good cards if you play Haggler. And in the middle to end game you can use it as a pseudo Hoard to get a Gold for a Province or even a Platinum on Colony boards. With Haggler you don't necessarily need +Buys early, you even have to beware that you don't use your additional buy for a low-cost card, so you have to get an additional Copper. It is a good starter for any good engine, for example Hunting Party, so you can get one more Hunting Party for every bought Province.
#22 Rabble (Prosperity) Weighted Average: 22.50 / Median: 22.5 / Mode: 19 / Standard Deviation: 8.8
Highest Rank(s): #9 (2x), #13 (1x) / Lowest Rank(s): #39 (1x), #40 (1x), #43 (1x)

Rabble is the second worst $5 attack. It was below #40 once and below #30 8 times. Newer players seem not to appreciate it: It would rank on #25 taking the unweighted average into account.

One Rabble may even worse than a Fortune Teller, as it can't guarantee to hit. It's not a very good opener, especially with good trashers, but gets stronger and stronger in the late game. Rabble is stronger the more you play in one turn. If you build up a (Village-Smithy-like) engine and need good drawing power, Rabble is the way to go, because if your opponent goes green too early, he gets bad hands pretty soon and you may crush him. Your Rabbles can hit him even stronger than any other discarding attack, because he has at best only 2 good cards in hand. But beware of Farming Village, which is a very effective counter. And if you don't need the drawing power, you can skip over Rabble, because one Rabble isn't that strong per se.
#21 Festival (Base) Weighted Average: 21.98 / Median: 20 / Mode: 30 / Standard Deviation: 7.7
Highest Rank(s): #6 (1x), #7 (1x), #11 (3x) / Lowest Rank(s): #30 (4x), #41 (1x)

Festival has a big outlier in the lower ranks, being the only rank below #30. #30 itself was voted 4 times, the most voted rank. Newer players overrate it, the unweighted average has it listed at #18.

Festival is a simple card and is like a combined Village and (Grand) Market without the draw. The lack of draw is really the only downside of this card. Still it is good in any engine, giving the money and actions you need and if you have "draw up to ..." cards like Watchtower or Library, it's really great. In any Non-Big-Money game Festival is strictly superior to Silver.
#20 Bazaar (Seaside) Weighted Average: 21.84 / Median: 21.5 / Mode: 19 / Standard Deviation: 7.7
Highest Rank(s): #5 (1x), #10 (1x), #13 (1x) / Lowest Rank(s): #36 (1x), #38 (2x)

Bazaar was voted 3 times below #30, but still has the same deviation as Festival. It also has a very high rank with being #5 once.

Bazaar is similar to Festival's use. You buy it if you are building an engine, because you need additional money and +2 Actions. But you get +1 card instead of +1$ and +1 Buy. It really depends on your engine which of those two is better. Not much more to say for me here, as it is a fearly simple card. Uncommon for a Village, Bazaar has a very high opening with Bazaar/Chapel on #25.
#19 Jester (Cornucopia) Weighted Average: 21.60 / Median: 22.5 / Mode: 26 / Standard Deviation: 8.3
Highest Rank(s): #6 (1x), #9 (1x), #12 (1x) / Lowest Rank(s): #35 (1x), #37 (1x), #42 (1x)

Jester is the third worst attack of all $5 cards. It was voted 5 times below #30, but has also 2 ranks above #10. Newer players heavily seem to underrate it. The unweighted ranking has it at #23.

Jester is a very swingy attack. You can deal out Curses, you can spam Coppers. If your opponent and you are going for the same strategy, you can get very good cards from your Jester. If not, you have a really hard decision if you want that action card in your deck or give your opponent another free card. If you have a good running engine with any spying attack (like Scrying Pool), Jester is very good. In 3+ player games Jester is even stronger, because you can gain multiple good cards per turn. In all other cases you have to rely on your luck to hit the right cards.
#18 Upgrade (Intrigue) Weighted Average: 20.51 / Median: 21 / Mode: 28 / Standard Deviation: 8.5
Highest Rank(s): #6 (1x), #9 (1x), #10 (1x) / Lowest Rank(s): #32 (1x), #37 (1x), #46 (1x)

Upgrade has a really big outlier on the third last position. It was 3 times below #30 and twice above #10.

Non-terminal trashers or trash-for-benefit-cards are really strong. No surprise that Upgrade costs $5 so you can't open with it most of the times. With Upgrade you can trash your Coppers and Curses or turning your Estates into Silver without spending an action and keep playing all your other valuable action cards. This may also its best use. Spamming Upgrades and upgrading all other cards slowly to better cards seems nice, but is very slow. But Upgrading an Upgrade into an early Grand Market can be very strong. I like to add, that Upgrade is indeed a cantrip, that doesn't hurt your deck early on. But like Lookout, if you have a deck with a high quality density later on, this may be a dead card in your hand, when you don't want to trash a card from your hand. It's still no surprise Upgrade has some very high ranked openings, the best being Upgrade/Chapel on #18.
#17 Venture (Prosperity) Weighted Average: 20.08 / Median: 18.5 / Mode: 18 / Standard Deviation: 9.5
Highest Rank(s): #2 (1x), #5 (1x), #10 (1x) / Lowest Rank(s): #32 (1x), #41 (1x), #42 (1x)

Venture has the third highest deviation of the $5 cards, having two big outliers on each side. It is the best middle-ranked card before the next gap to the good $5 cards.

Venture is very similar to the "+1 Card, +1 Action, +$1, +Bonus" cards like Market, Treasury or Highway. It draws a card, gives $1 and doesn't cost an action. What is the +Bonus of Venture? Being a Treasure Card, it can't be drawn dead. And it has a Filter effect finding another Treasure Card. So you're guaranteed $2 when playing a Venture, making it another "Strictly Superior to Silver $5 Treasure Card". The filter effect allows you to go green earlier, because you can discard the green cards with Ventures. This effect reminds of Adventurer (and the name of course). While an Adventurer in a Copper-free deck gets you to at least $4 and Venture only to $3, Venture is still superior, because it's $1 cheaper and doesn't cost an action and is therefore chainable. Ventures are great if you have multiples and as few other Treasure Cards as possible. If you manage that, they are even superior to Gold. I like to add, that the multiple Ventures stacking effect is no additional bonus, just the result of the two above mentioned bonuses (Multiple Markets in a thin deck would have the same effect).

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« Last Edit: July 03, 2012, 08:21:48 am by Qvist »
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