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[Jack Rudd]

Want to have a cup of tea while your opponent plays his turn? This is the card for you.

Is it worth getting without a trasher?
How good is it as a counter to Looting attacks?
Is trashing a Squire to get it a thing?

[jsh357]

Should be considered among Rebuild, Ambassador, and Cultist as one of the most powerful, centralizing cards without question. When it's around, the question I generally have is "is there a reason not to go for Scrying Pool?" not "Should I go for Scrying Pool?" Scrying Pool creates engines where there was otherwise no chance. It can potentially skip key cards on your opponent for the entire length of the game, too. I will sometimes take it on 5P early on in lieu of a power 5.

As to the OP question, yes, trashing Squire for one is a pretty good tactic. You tend to want to get Pools quickly, and if you can get them with something else in a single turn, you are in a fantastic position. Procession shines here if you can make that work. For instance, Proc Squire -> Village. Any Remodeler is nice, though.

One thing I still don't have a great handle on is 'when should I stop buying Pools.' Sometimes I overdo it and get so many that I know I'm passing up on better purchases. I think it depends primarily on if your opponent is going for them: if they are contesting Pool, often you should just get them, as denying Pools is practically an attack in itself. Other than that, I believe you want enough that your starting hand ideally has at least two Pools OR cantrips/nonterminal draw that could buy you Pools most of the time, I think, and then you can stop, so there's some mathematical basis to go off there.

[AdrianHealey]

Horrible card. One of those cards that make me resign a kingdom immediately.

[Davio]

I once thought Scrying Pool was weak in not-so-enginey games.

You had to grab a Potion and surely it would only draw Coppers and Estates.
Soon I learned it's also good in not-so-enginey games.

The thing about not-so-enginey games is that they tend to be slow and slow is also good to build up your SP drawing power while your opponent isn't exactly rushing ahead.

The opponent-spy-effect is just icing on the cake, it would already be pretty strong without it.

[Max]

This is one of the single most un-fun Dominion cards for me.

My criticisms are:
 - it's way too cheap (2P is about 4.5, is this card really worse than a 5? Is it really worse than familiar?);
 - it's slow;
 - it dominates games;
 - the attack.

The slowness is the worst. The domination of games is really bad, but maybe it only feels so bad because of the slowness, as that's my main criticism of Goons - it turns games into a boring slog. Even so, this card has more nuance than goons. It encourages people to buy cards like spy and pearl diver than never see much use. Downside: these cards are often the slow ones.

It's the only card that I have removed from my randomiser pile.

[Awaclus]

- it's way too cheap (2P is about 4.5, is this card really worse than a 5? Is it really worse than familiar?);

2P is way more than 5.

Goons - it turns games into a boring slog.

Goons and Scrying Pool turn games into engines, not slogs. Duke is what's usually responsible for turning games into slogs.

[Davio]

- it's way too cheap (2P is about 4.5, is this card really worse than a 5? Is it really worse than familiar?);

2P is way more than 5.

Goons - it turns games into a boring slog.

Goons and Scrying Pool turn games into engines, not slogs. Duke is what's usually responsible for turning games into slogs.

You can't translate Potion to be worth about $1.5 just because it costs $4 (between Silver and Gold).

3 Coppers yield the same $ as Gold.
No amount of Coppers can make a Potion, so you might as well value it at infinity.

I think it would be reasonable to cost this at $3P.

[SirSlugma]

SP is bae <3

Creating engines with SP is fun end easy, and I love it.  It also enables fun overdraw things (like with Secret Chamber or Artificer) that are rarely viable elsewhere.  Always pleased to see it in a kingdom.

[amoffett11]

Scrying Pool is one of those cards that while I'm playing it, I'm very aware that "man, my opponent must hate me right now".  Sometimes you're just waiting for the resignation.  Then you get those hands where you've already drawn your deck, but you have to play that last pool or two until you've stuck your opponent with a bad card on top.  It's right up there with Possession or Torturer in cards where you just feel like saying "it's not personal, it's just Dominion".  Scrying Pool is not a card I'd play in a just for fun game. 

All that being said, I love Scrying Pool.  Some of my favourite games will have both Scrying Pool and University, and you're going for a win where on your last turn you gobble up a bunch of action cards, buy and estate, and win by a point.  I once played a game with Scrying Pool, University, Highway and Border Village.  That was a fun game. 

[Awaclus]

- it's way too cheap (2P is about 4.5, is this card really worse than a 5? Is it really worse than familiar?);

2P is way more than 5.

Goons - it turns games into a boring slog.

Goons and Scrying Pool turn games into engines, not slogs. Duke is what's usually responsible for turning games into slogs.

You can't translate Potion to be worth about $1.5 just because it costs $4 (between Silver and Gold).

3 Coppers yield the same $ as Gold.
No amount of Coppers can make a Potion, so you might as well value it at infinity.

Why are you quoting my post? I didn't suggest that Potion should be worth about $1.5.

[Davio]

I just picked the last one that had the original quote.

Potion-cards in general are just really hard to compare to regular cards because of the Potion.
If you have only one Potion, you can only ever buy one Potion-costing card per turn, no matter how many regular $ or cost reduction you have.

[Seprix]

One of my favorite Dominion cards of all time.

Is it worth getting without a trasher? YES.
How good is it as a counter to Looting attacks? Great!
Is trashing a Squire to get it a thing? YES.

There are some games where there's no +buy or payload of any kind, where you would want to stop buying Pools at some point, but those boards are rare. I played a game like this once, where both Scrying Pool and Alchemist was on the board. I went hard for Pools, my opponent went hard for Alchemists. I got crushed. I should have gotten Pools as I did, but I got too many and ignored Alchemist. That is a thing sometimes. So just be careful.

I don't understand why people hate this card, besides having the longer turns. And even then, not liking Scrying Pool because it is slow is like hating The Empire Strikes Back for being the most boring Episode, with the least battles. It's just such a great card to play with.

Scrying Pool is one of those cards that while I'm playing it, I'm very aware that "man, my opponent must hate me right now".  Sometimes you're just waiting for the resignation.  Then you get those hands where you've already drawn your deck, but you have to play that last pool or two until you've stuck your opponent with a bad card on top.  It's right up there with Possession or Torturer in cards where you just feel like saying "it's not personal, it's just Dominion".  Scrying Pool is not a card I'd play in a just for fun game. 

It's not THAT bad, come on.

This is one of the single most un-fun Dominion cards for me.

My criticisms are:
 - it's way too cheap (2P is about 4.5, is this card really worse than a 5? Is it really worse than familiar?);
 - it's slow;
 - it dominates games;
 - the attack.

I don't think it's bad. Think of it this way: If the card cost $3P, it would be just as powerful, and if you missed $3P and your opponent got it, you're screwed. $2P is a perfectly fine cost. Yes, it dominates games. So what? You pick the best strategy, you try and win. It's not boring at all to play a Scrying Pool game. Scrying Pool is not a monolithic strategy by any means. It's just a way to accelerate engines by a huge amount. It's much more boring to play Rebuild because it's monolthic.

Scrying Pool is insanely strong, but it won't win games on its own. It still needs a payload. It just makes Action cards stronger by its presence.

[Accatitippi]

I love SP, but I think it would be a better card without the attack part, frankly. Even without the self-inspection thing.
The same goes for Goons, in a way.

I used to ignore SP if I weren't making an extremely action-dense deck. You only need to lose so many games before reconsidering.

[schadd]

before we acquired alchemy scrying pool and university were super exciting. scrying pool seemed like one of the ones that needs a few specific conditions but is then super good; i thought that the goal was to get a deck fulla festivals and then draw all of them, or something like that. remember how the wiki tells you to get a bunch of $2 actions or something so that it draws more? heh.


i suppose i made these assumptions forgetting that there are more than one scrying pool, and after you get a couple scrying pools the option doesn't stop just being there. whereas the focus of scrying pool games seemed to be on the other stuff that scrying pool draws, there have been too many scrying pool games where you both get 5 of them and then, i dunno, get witch or something? golds then? those games are just made of sadness.


university is still fun though. we haven't gotten to that one yet.

[Seprix]

those games are just made of sadness.

I think those games are actually made of schaddness.

[AJD]

"Scrying Pool" is a spoonerism of "spying cruel". Coincidence??!!

[Limetime]

Sucks in 4p dominion. But then again what doesn't sucks in 4p dominion

[markusin]

Sucks in 4p dominion. But then again what doesn't sucks in 4p dominion

Moat.

Oh wait, sorry...

Is it Moat?

[ConMan]

"Scrying Pool" is a spoonerism of "spying cruel". Coincidence??!!

It's also an anagram of "No pricy logs". Of course!