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[Blaeu]

Donald X. once stated, "In general, if a card can be cheaper, I make it cheaper. I want the cards as cheap as possible without breaking the game, rather than as expensive as possible without going unplayed."  This was in context of making Throne Room cost $4 rather than $3 because, "I thought, hmm, maybe this could stand being 4 after all. It makes it just a bit harder to get a million of them; you don't go, "Market, buy two Throne Rooms" nearly as often."

I started with that because his mindset was partly to balance your open so you cannot obtain two"$4" cards, and partly to help balance the cards later in the game.  Now, to my question.

When you open with a 4/3 split, it is very common to purchase a silver with your three, and an action with your four.  In this context, something costing three is no different than something costing four since you only have one action purchase.  Regardless of cost, you buy the best action you can that costs up to four.

So, when is it better to buy an action with your four, and then buy another (or same) action with your three?  When do you opt to forgo buying a silver to add another action to your deck?  Specifically, what action is better than a silver assuming you will buy an action with your four?

[theory]

Putting aside the obvious (Ambassador and Chapel), I tend to dislike opening with two terminals because of the 30% chance of collision.  And most of the non-terminals kinda suck, except Wishing Well (sometimes) and Lookout (also sometimes).  You might want to get a Lighthouse for defense.

Of the Villages, I think Fishing Village is basically the only one to get, since it runs out quickly.  And Loan is often a popular choice.

I think those are my usual exceptions to opening Silver/___.  Note that the action isn't always going to be a $4; Silver/Masquerade, Silver/Shanty Town, Silver/Ambassador can be pretty solid choices.

[Kirian]

If you plan to buy a terminal 4, I dare say FV is better than Silver about 90% of the time.

If you're buying a solid non-terminal 4, like Caravan or Tournament, a terminal trasher like Steward or Masquerade may be slightly better than Silver.

[rogerclee]

Assuming your $4 is a terminal:

$2 I commonly use an opening buy on with $3:

Chapel (duh)
Pawn (if going for heavy trashing/actions deck, choosing +1 card/+$1 gives reasonable buying power in the beginning, and in the end you dont get slowed down by silvers)
Embargo (when opponent opens potion)
Lighthouse (vs heavy attacks)
Hamlet (peddler rush)

Best $3 openers:
Masquerade (Masquerade does not play well with terminals, beware of opening terminal/Masquerade, it is probably way worse than Masq/Silver)
Ambassador (duh)
Steward (duh)
Swindler (this card is situational, if you think your opponent is going to spam good $5 cards, turning them into Duchys is very powerful, this card is also really good if there is a bad $4/$3 on the board, sometimes I open 2x Swindler on boards where it's great)
Fishing Village (duh, FV is an action/draw deck's wet dream)
Lookout (if there is no other way to trash or if i trashing is a big priority)
Loan (but only if trashing to build an action-chaining deck is a priority, the -$1 buying power is big)
Warehouse (anytime your goal is to play a cursing attack over and over again, warehouse will help you draw it more frequently, also ridiculously good on boards without trashing)

[DG]

When do you opt to forgo buying a silver to add another action to your deck?  Specifically, what action is better than a silver assuming you will buy an action with your four

It all depends doesn't it. There can be any number of spurious reasons to get two terminal actions that might clash. Perhaps you want an embargo to immediately negate an opponent's potion. Perhaps you've got a horse traders or young witch that can discard a clashing card. Perhaps you've got a feast or island that will hopefully be trashed soon. Perhaps you've got a remake that will work on your other action if they clash. Perhaps the opponent has a militia so some of the risk of cards clashing has gone. A watchtower or secret chamber can still add value even if it isn't played as an action. Perhaps taking two attack cards is worth the risk of them clashing. Perhaps you're going to buy native villages in later turns so taking two terminals at the start isn't a long term risk. Anything is possible.

[drg]

A lot depends on what is available - when your $4 will be a non-terminal action or a potion, there's a lot more reason to go after a terminal with the 3, as long as there's a reason to have it and it won't clog you later because there are no +2 action cards and better terminal 5's.  Also when you're about to do a gardens rush you may want that workshop.  Warehouse can definitely go in too, especially when racing for familiars.