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Author Topic: McGarnacle's Kingdom of the Week #1 Cities and Knights  (Read 2766 times)

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McGarnacle

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McGarnacle's Kingdom of the Week #1 Cities and Knights
« on: June 27, 2016, 09:56:59 am »
+4

Hello everyone, this is the start of a weekly series were I will show kingdoms I have created and we can discuss them. (Plus hopefully some of you will enjoy playing them). One of my favorite parts of Dominion is creating kingdoms with multiple, sometimes subtle, strategies. So without further ado, here is the first kingdom.

Cities and Knights

Advisor
City
Cultist
Fairgrounds
Inn
Jester
Knights
Magpie
Menagerie
Stonemason

1. What do you think are the main strategies to win. Which is the best?
2. Any redundant cards, traps, or ways to make the kingdom better?

I have created this kingdom and played it IRL probably 20 times, but I'm sure you guys will be able to find something new which I didn't notice.
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Chris is me

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Re: McGarnacle's Kingdom of the Week #1 Cities and Knights
« Reply #1 on: June 27, 2016, 10:18:42 am »
+1

Knights are fairly weak due to the presence of Cultist junking and basically no trashing (Stonemason, I guess?). Magpie isn't great here except as a mechanism to empty a pile; you'll trip on Ruins more often than not and you don't have a way to upgrade them.

City is pretty important as the main Village and also a draw source after the Ruins run out. Menagerie is fantastic here as a form of cheap draw that will connect very often. But I guess other than Ruined Market or level 2 City, +Buy is a pipe dream, so how strong is the engine really?

Fairgrounds is almost definitely the main source of points here. Castles seem weaker than normal with all the junk getting in the way of the top cost cards and the game ending so quickly.

So buy a bunch of Cultists, then pivot to City and Menagerie if you have a little time before getting all the Fairgrounds you can. Hope your opponent doesn't get Dame Anna or its over.
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amoffett11

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Re: McGarnacle's Kingdom of the Week #1 Cities and Knights
« Reply #2 on: June 27, 2016, 10:22:45 am »
0

Apart from Dame Anna, there's really no trashing here (and I guess StoneMason, but that barely counts), so I think Cultist is the way to begin, you'll want to win the Ruins Split.  Then there's piles that like to empty (Ruins, Magpie will go quickly with Ruins in your deck) so Cities will be pretty powerful as the game goes on.  This game probably ends on piles.

There are some cool things you can do with StoneMason, although I don't think I would pick one up unless I hit 7 for two $5's, the $5's seem so important in this Kingdom that I can't imagine I'd use 6 on two $4's.  Once you're done with your Cultists though, you can trash them for draw and pick up two Advisors or Menagerie's or something or something. 

I guess Knights + Fairgrounds is a thing, but I can't see the player who goes for Knights and then starts buying Fairgrounds being able to match the player who swarms them with Ruins.  If a good knight ended up at the top of the pile (Anna, or maybe Molly with all these nice Terminals, or Sir Bailey, I love Sir Bailey), I might decide to go in that direction early. 

With 4/3 though I probably open Magpie Silver.  5/2 I grab the Cultist and nothing.  With the Magpies and Silver I can hit 5 a lot and start grabbing Cultists, and go from there. 

The only thing I think is missing from this Kingdom is an event (or two).  Mission would be interesting here, there's a lot of attacks to play, Magpies to gain.  You could introduce an event for trashing (Bonfire or Trade).  Borrow to make it easier to grab $5s.  The great thing about Events is that you can play the same Kingdom over and over, but you start adding different Events to it and it's like a new game every time. 


 
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theJester

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Re: McGarnacle's Kingdom of the Week #1 Cities and Knights
« Reply #3 on: June 27, 2016, 10:46:05 am »
+1

Cultist is awfully powerful here. Lack of good trashing make whoever gets Anna in a great position.

You can freely replace Advisor with another card - as it's nearly useless in this kingdom. With all of this junk in form of Ruins, Estates and Coppers floating around, playing Advisor will only make you miss your good cards.
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DG

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Re: McGarnacle's Kingdom of the Week #1 Cities and Knights
« Reply #4 on: June 27, 2016, 10:52:39 am »
+1

It's not so easy to plot this game because there are a variety of piles that might, or might not, empty quickly. My initial guess is that cultists are weaker than usual since menageries will be a great defense, fairgrounds will score high, and there are alternative attacks. Most players seem to go to cultists all the time though so we've already got to consider three different games here; cultists vs cultists, cultists vs other, other vs other, and they'll all take different paths.
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McGarnacle

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Re: McGarnacle's Kingdom of the Week #1 Cities and Knights
« Reply #5 on: June 27, 2016, 12:22:05 pm »
0

Thanks for the advice guys. Yeah, I might drop Advisor and maybe put in a mid-level trasher.
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Re: McGarnacle's Kingdom of the Week #1 Cities and Knights
« Reply #6 on: June 27, 2016, 03:46:41 pm »
+2

I would keep it as is. The lack of both a formal trasher and +Buy make this an intriguing kingdom.

The three pile is so hard to predict, time and orchestrate that this in my opinion makes for a good kingdom as is.
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Re: McGarnacle's Kingdom of the Week #1 Cities and Knights
« Reply #7 on: June 27, 2016, 10:32:19 pm »
+1

Cultist?

Go Cultist BM
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Re: McGarnacle's Kingdom of the Week #1 Cities and Knights
« Reply #8 on: June 28, 2016, 10:12:08 am »
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No trashing, so Cultist is the way to go here. After, you'll want Cities and piledrive the rest of the Cultists to nail a quicker pileout victory. The person who lost the Ruins split will want Fairgrounds more than the other player, but it should be pretty inconsequential with all the junk in his deck at that point.
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McGarnacle

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Re: McGarnacle's Kingdom of the Week #1 Cities and Knights
« Reply #9 on: June 28, 2016, 11:17:42 am »
0

The ruins pile out quickly, and often people forget they are a pile  :).
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Re: McGarnacle's Kingdom of the Week #1 Cities and Knights
« Reply #10 on: June 28, 2016, 12:42:33 pm »
+1

No trashing, so Cultist is the way to go here. After, you'll want Cities and piledrive the rest of the Cultists to nail a quicker pileout victory. The person who lost the Ruins split will want Fairgrounds more than the other player, but it should be pretty inconsequential with all the junk in his deck at that point.

That depends on how badly the split was lost and which particular Ruins went to which player.  Don't forget Menagerie as a soft defence.
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