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Author Topic: Official Dominion Tournament at U-Con, Nov. 12 2016, Ypsilanti, MI, 1pm - 11pm  (Read 6295 times)

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Elestan

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Register
It's that time again!  Join us for the largest in-person gathering of F.DS players in the world!  Compete against all the handles you've gotten to know here, using real cards!

This tournament is sanctioned by Rio Grande, and will be a qualifier for the World Masters, if there is one in 2017.  All players receive promotional cards!

The competition will feature custom-designed kingdoms drawn from all of the Dominion sets and expansions, and will emphasize strategy and high-level play. 

Tournament seating is limited, so pre-register for the event here; just click on the 'Add' button and proceed through the checkout process.  You'll need a tournament ticket ($10), and a convention badge ($20 for Saturday, or $25 for the whole convention).

If you can, I'd encourage everyone to pick out other games to play in and attend the whole convention, which runs from Nov 11-13, all day (and late into the night Friday and Saturday).  For out of town visitors, discounted hotel rooms are available for only $92/night.

  I hope to see you there!
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Roadrunner7671

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Yesssssss
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shark_bait

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Ahhh, the good yearly tradition comes with a story about last year.

Last year it conveniently worked out that my wife was gone for a conference in North Carolina the exact weekend of U-con.  That meant all day for Dominion without missing any time otherwise spent together.  :)

Well last year we had a weather anomaly with a massive snow storm in early November.  For me, this was no big deal as I've been a Michigander my whole life.  The thing is, the tournament went so late into the night leaving my cell phone more and more battery depleted.  My wife didn't know that.  She is trying to get up with me around midnight and I am not responding because 1.) I'm having a great time at the tournament (even though I didn't make the finals) and 2.) My phone is dead.

As a result, my wife thought that I might be in an overturned car on the highway between Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor.  :/

So this year I have one rule for attending U-con...... I'm bringing a phone charger.

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Kirian

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Go!  Fight!  Win!
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AHoppy

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I really want to go again, but committed to something else the same weekend :(

shark_bait

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Unfortunately I won't be able to make it any more.  I've got a concert that I'm going to that evening (Berlin Philharmonic) and a bachelor party for my cousin earlier in the day.  Best of luck to everyone.
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Hello.  Name's Bruce.  It's all right.  I understand.  Why trust a shark, right?

Is quite curious - Who is the mystical "Celestial Chameleon"?

Roadrunner7671

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It looks like I won't be able to make it either  :(
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Elestan

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Just a reminder that online registration for this closes within the next day!
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Roadrunner7671

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Just a reminder that online registration for this closes within the next day!
Didn't it already close?

In other news, I might actually be going. I guess it'll be a surprise.
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nana-king

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We will be there.  Perhaps I will finally place higher than Ben_King!
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Roadrunner7671

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I still don't know if I'm coming or not, but if I do, I'm bringing Scouts.
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ben_king

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This was a great tournament.  Elestan and AdamH had a great set of kingdoms and the whole tournament ran really smoothly.

This was the second year that my wife (nana-king) and I attended.  For whatever reason, it seems like this particular weekend just didn't really work for a lot of people.  So this year's tournament was quite a bit smaller than last year's.  As always Elestan had some very memorable kingdoms.

My quarterfinal game was





I really liked how well balanced this kingdom is.  I ended up just doing Beggar Gardens with some Talisman and Masterpiece support, since my opponents let me get 9 of the Gardens (I ended with 9-point gardens and a sizeable margin of victory).  But there are some really nice counters to this strategy.  If I played this again, I'd probably build an engine, but the what the endgame will look like isn't clear to me.

Because of the small size of the tournament, one quarterfinal game was enough to seed the semi-finals.  I had to expect that the Empires landmarks were going to feature prominently in these games, and Elestan did not disappoint:





The Black Market deck here consisted completely of villages, which of course will be singletons for Wolf Den when scoring.  I opened Remake/Black Market here, which ended up biting me  as they collided a few times.  I built a Patrol/Groundskeeper/whatever village I got out of the black market deck.  I was fortunate to get Worker's Village and Hamlet (which both give +buy) so that I didn't have to bother with Courtier; my third village was Fishing Village.  Because of piles, I only got 5 Groundskeepers before I had to start greening.  In retrospect, Tournament with Groundskeeper is just way too strong to skip here.  I was fortunate to edge out the Tournament player by a few points on my last turn.

Second semifinal game:





I really didn't like the way I played on this board.  I should have put my trashing token on Processions and gotten them much earlier than I did.  I opened Soothsayer/Lurker with the idea that Lurker can be a cantrip (with Rats) any time there's nothing good in the trash, and that if I give my opponents curses, there's not an easy way to thin the curse vs. turn it into something else (which is important for Wall).  Obviously the endgame here is all about Butchers/Expands.  Even though I ended up with -9 Wall points, I was able to get a big last Butcher/Procession turn to empty piles and grab a few Provinces for a 2-point win.

Third semifinal game:





This was probably my favorite kingdom of the day, though there's one card I can't remember [edit: it was Messenger -- thanks AdamH].  Lurker/Rats/Tomb becomes a cantrip VP chip gainer.  But of course the real thing is doing Donate shenanigans.  The first time I grabbed a Border Village, Council Room, and a few market squares to get golds when I donated (though Feodum may have been faster and easier).  Before I donated again, I used Masterpiece to empty the Silver pile and donate it, since the other players had been grabbing Feoda.  After that, I just grabbed a couple Provinces and emptied the remaining piles with the help of Border Village and Haggler.  I think I ended with 60+ Tomb points.  Such a fun board.

Following the semi-final round, I was in first and my wife, nana-king, was in second.  We both moved onto the finals along with another competitor, Suzette.





Peasant was the bane here and we used shelters.  This kingdom was all about the tokens, mainly moving the Ferry token around so that you can get cards for cheap, but still put Teacher tokens on them.  There's a lot of different ways to go here, but you still pretty much end up at the same place, trying to empty piles and grab a VP card.  The difference for me was having pair of Transmogrifies and a Disciple.  Transmogrify was nice here because you can turn your shelters into a 4-cost if you have the Ferry token on that.  I put +card on Advisor, +coin on Herald (now that I think about it, it might have been better to put the +buy token on Herald, since extra buys cost $2 each here). 

On my last turn, I was able to Transmogrify into Herald, gain a Herald with Disciple.  At that point, the Herald pile was empty, there was one Advisor and 6 Villas.  I was able to get 4 buys from Travelling Fair, buy the Advisor, move the Ferry token to Villa, empty the Villa pile and pick up an Estate for a 2 to 0 to -1 win. 

My wife finished in 2nd place.  She dominated the whole day and could definitely have ended it in the final game if I whiffed on my turn.  This was the highest either of us had ever finished in a tournament.  And we had a blast!
« Last Edit: November 15, 2016, 12:54:32 pm by ben_king »
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Elestan

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Congratulations and thanks to ben_king for winning the tournament and for posting that great writeup here.  It was a somewhat smaller field this year, with the absence of several great local players including shark_bait, Roadrunner7671, Liopoil, and EFHW.  You were all missed, and I hope that we'll be able to see you next year!  Special thanks also goes to AdamH, for his assistance in sanity-checking the kingdoms, and for helping with table setup and repack.

ben_king and his wonderful spouse nana_king indeed grabbed the top two spots, competing in the following kingdoms:

Preliminaries:

Set 2016-1: [Defiled Shrine, Ritual], Lighthouse, Settlers, Forum, Legionary, Mine, Treasury, Upgrade, Wine Merchant, Engineer, Royal Blacksmith

Set 2016-2: [Banquet, Bandit Fort], Poorhouse, Encampment/Plunder, Cutpurse, Magpie, Taxman, Mandarin, Mint, Storyteller, Grand Market, City Quarter

Set 2016-3: [Palace, Quest], Beggar, Coin of the Realm, Vagrant, Forager, Gardens, Masterpiece, Tunnel, Jack, Talisman, Torturer

Semifinals:

Set 2016-A: [Wall, Plan], Lurker, Chariot Race, Farmers' Market, Jack, Procession, Rats, Butcher, Soothsayer, Hireling, Expand

Set 2016-B: [Tomb, Donate], Lurker, Market Square, Masterpiece, Feodum, Gardens, Messenger, Rats, Council Room, Haggler, Border Village
 
Set 2016-C: [Wolf Den, Borrow], Black Market, Menagerie, Castles, Remake, Tournament, Courtier, Groundskeeper, Patrol, Replace, Farmland

Black Market Deck: Village, Mining Village, Shanty Town, Bazaar, Worker's Village, Farming Village, Hamlet, Festival, Fishing Village, Walled Village, City, Ironmonger
 
Finals:

Set 2016-F: [Shelters, Traveling Fair, Ferry], Peasant (Bane), Enchantress, Advisor, Bishop, Herald, Transmogrify, Villa, Young Witch, Band of Misfits, Graverobber, Prince

As always, I love to hear thoughts and analysis on the kingdoms, both from those who played them in the tourney, and those who play them (or plan to play them) IRL.
« Last Edit: November 15, 2016, 01:15:29 am by Elestan »
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shark_bait

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Looks like some fun Kingdoms!  I probably would have needed to polish off my rust.  I haven't played much with Empires and have done nothing with the 2nd edition cards.  As usual, Elastan puts the emphasis on the new material which I think is fantastic.

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Hello.  Name's Bruce.  It's all right.  I understand.  Why trust a shark, right?

Is quite curious - Who is the mystical "Celestial Chameleon"?

Roadrunner7671

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Man, if I would've gone I could've swept Ben King and won easily  ;)

Maybe next year...
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