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drsteelhammer

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Interviews
« on: November 11, 2016, 07:25:45 am »
+14

ceviri (tailred) and michaeljb are playing their match tonight at 0.30UTC, which is in about 12 hours from this post. The game will most likely be streamed, it's not quite determined where but it will be posted. For our exciting pre-game coverage, we interviewed our semifinalists, as it is tradition. We thank our participants for their time and great insights.

Interview with ceviri:

How old are you, where are you from, what do you do for a living?
I'm 19, from Singapore. I'll be entering university in a little more than a year, but I have to serve 2 years in the military first.

How did you get introduced to Dominion? What kept you playing Dominion?
My first game was IRL, when my math teacher brought it to a class party in late 2014 or so. As a math geek something about the gameplay really grabbed my interest, and after just 3-4 games I was really hooked. I spent the next few months reading up on it sporadically since I didn't have access to the game, which exposed me to the immense depth of strategy that belied the game, which left me even more desperate to play again. I got together with some of my friends and we played some games with a ghetto self-created set out of slips of paper until we found Goko.

How much do you play Dominion IRL?
Not much any more, with my one friend who plays anywhere near as much as me we usually do it online, although I do own all the sets. Once in a while when we meet up I do bring it out, though. I also do play IRL when introducing newer people to the game, and it almost always gets a really good reception (especially among my fellow math nerds)

Have you played with Empires yet? How do you think it will change the game?
I've played a couple 3-4 player games IRL, and a few on the 2017 beta. It definitely adds a ton more tactical (through things like gathering, split piles) and strategic (landmarks being the obvious thing) decisions, though from what I've noticed from my IRL games, the complexity of some mechanics can be overwhelming for very new players. For experienced players, though, it definitely shakes things up in an exciting way. I had a really fun board involving Tax with drsteelhammer very recently, that sticks in my mind.

How did you find F.DS? What kept you coming back?
For one it's by far the best place for dominion discussion - it was quite apparent that places like reddit and bgg couldn't compete in quality and quantity. I think I found it via one of theory's old articles. I just lurk, posting once in a while to share game reports or join discussions. The discord channel satisfies my idle talk needs.

What was the most memorable Dominion match you’ve ever played?
I usually have a poor memory for stuff like this, so usually I lean towards more recent things. Off the top of my head I can think of a couple, the first game I discovered RC/masq I was pretty proud of myself. There was another game where I went champion/crossroads/harem.. and some other stuff, I know there was buy but no other village or draw, and my opponent decided to go some BM. He got some ridiculously huge lead by the time I kicked off, so the BM was probably something strong, but I came back by the slimmest of margins. Final score was like 52-50, he had 7 provinces with me buying only the last one.

In fact this tournament has been pretty memorable, my first match lasted about 10 hours over two days of games, and each of them were engine boards, including what I think were 2 instances of Pawn/Peasant each? That was pretty epic. I also had a ridiculous game against Robz in the Game Reports section, which included me at one point having 3 possessions and losing 2 to Ambassador.

What are your favorite and least-favorite Dominion cards, and why? What about favourite strategies?
I really like masq, not just for the pin that I mentioned earlier (RIP) but moreso just for the building, trashing, and cycling early. Pretty much anything that accelerates the opener I like, but masq disproportionately so. Like I open masq/masq way more than I should, and I play masq BM way more than I should. Honorable mention to Dungeon, really love the acceleration it gives.

Least favorite, Governor? Not that I think it's monolithic or boring, but rather I'm garbage at playing with it and every time I think I finally got a handle on how to play it I get hit with another loss which makes me think that I'm lost again. I dislike how it makes endgames kinda a crapshoot with how many provinces to leave, especially at the 3-4 mark depending on support of course. Honorable mention: Chapel. Somehow mine always misses the shuffle, and even when it doesn't the game feels so mirrored and even afterwards that it seems very hard to force an asymmetry to generate an advantage.

My favorite strategy would be engines that really let you bear down on your opponent and near-cripple them (which is why I liked the masq pin), but it sucks to be on the receiving end. My favorite is therefore just smashing some super elaborate wonky strategy with a simple easy BM. It gives me some sort of sadistic satisfaction to win that way.

What’s the most important Dominion advice you can give people aspiring to reach the semifinals? What's the most important skill a lot of people are lacking?
Er, I dunno, honestly, I don't really feel that I'm much or even at all better than my opponents so far, and a lot of my advantages had some luck element to them thus far. I guess I can say that it's important to stay positive mentally, to not get tilted by losses, even really silly ones, to avoid small misplays. Small misplays as we all know can have huge huge impacts on games, and its really easy to throw a practically won game by like say not buying messenger first in a 3 pile, so I think staying in the right state of mind is a underrated factor to success.

For an ingame skill, I think being able to judge when BM is good is one. Sometimes I think I err too much towards BM (generally I underestimate single province engines) but especially with fragile or wonky engines, I find myself winning while my opponent tries to do a lot but achieves nothing.

What cards do you think are over- and underappreciated by the community at large and why?
Man I think there's a bit of an underappreciation of Silver now. It's like the popular opinion of Silver oscillates over time and right now we're sort of at the point where it's underappreciated but it's beginning to right itself. At one point I was losing a ton of games due to buying too little silver and crippling my early economy. Not so much at the top level but at my "match appropriate rating" level I see a lot of people subscribing to the blanket 'yellow is purple' attitude without appreciating all the nuance which comes with it and losing out on a lot of speed early. Same logic applies to gold/silver gainers as payloads/accelerants.

For over-appreciated, I dunno, I think fds is kinda pessimistic when it comes to cards. The closest I can think of is Treasure Trove on release, but that quickly got corrected. Maybe shitty trashing (transmute, trade route) on sloggy/bm boards? I regularly see people going for trashing when it's not going to help much, especially in BM when killing an estate puts you in an awkward hole lategame.

If you could make a Dominion card/mechanic that describes you, what would it be?
Wow. Uh, probably something quick, simple and not very creative. +2 cards, trash a card. Sounds great, doesn't it?

How would you describe your tournament run so far?
I definitely never expected to get so far. I don't consider myself anything special, I just sort of... didn't lose? I certainly played quite a bit more careful than regular games and made much fewer mistakes as a result. Definitely quite a few memorable games in the process, though.

Suppose you're reaching the finals. In game 7 you win by spotting that one of the twelve removed cards is the key card. Which one would you want it to be?
Everyone's gonna pick coppersmith for sure, I bet. If bureaucrat had been removed I'd totally pick it. How about, secret chamber for the reaction?

Do you play  games other than Dominion?
My first game that I really spent hours on and read up heavily about was Age of Empires 3, but I dropped it because it was a p2p game and ping from Asia was pretty nasty to play with. I still do follow the scene, though and I think it's an amazing game.
After that, till today, I've been playing League of Legends, been playing since the start of Season 2.
Recently I've gotten very into Eu4*[Europa Universalis] (as people on Discord might have notixed). I'm very keen on the setting and for once it's a sinple player game that I can sink hundreds of hours into. I get pretty bad ladder jitters sometimes and when that happens I don't feel like competing against other people.


For board games, literally none. Not even Monopoly, until very recently.

How do you like to spend your time when you aren’t playing Dominion?
I like doing Olympiad math problems, reading about math, and playing LoL, mostly. Once in a while I'll dabble in some things, like the piano, building robots and stuff, recently even running, but noting much long term.

If you could choose one person on F.DS to be with you on an desert island, who would it be and why?
Woah, I don't think I really know anyone well enough to answer this question meaningfully. Maybe Seprix? He talks a lot, that could be entertaining for a while. Then again, maybe not.
« Last Edit: November 11, 2016, 07:32:22 am by drsteelhammer »
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drsteelhammer

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Re: Interviews
« Reply #1 on: November 11, 2016, 07:31:15 am »
+9

Interview with michaeljb:

How old are you, where are you from, what do you do for a living?
I'm 25, from the suburbs of Denver, CO, and I'm a software developer at the National Snow and Ice Data Center, which is part of CU Boulder.

How did you get introduced to Dominion? What kept you playing Dominion?
My uncle introduced me to Dominion and Intrigue at the same time. He's always been the guy with awesome board games; years ago he introduced my family to Carcassonne and Puerto Rico. A couple months later I had all the expansions--everything through Alchemy!

I was instantly hooked. I loved the cycle of buying cards to buy better cards to buy the cards worth points that slowed your deck down. That fundamental idea, along with the endless modularity of using ten kingdom cards at a time has kept Dominion as my favorite game, even as my game collection and exposure to a wide range of games has grown over the years.

How much do you play Dominion IRL?
Not very much any more. I started tracking all my board game plays on BGG around a year ago, and in 2016 I've only played 5 games of Dominion. The friends my wife and I played with the most got burnt out on it; well, they're a couple, and half of them got burnt out on playing with anything newer than Prosperity.

For a while I brought Dominion to work on Fridays (even got a bit of Adventures and Empires playtesting in there), but it ended up being challenging to get to the table.

Have you played with Empires yet? How do you think it will change the game?
I did some playtesting on it; not as much as on Adventures. I haven't played as much with the final versions of the cards, so it all still feels pretty new to me.

I see Empires kind of like Prosperity 2. Colonies and a number of other cards really shook up Dominion at the time; I have similar feelings about Landmarks, split piles, and Debt.

How did you find F.DS? What kept you coming back?
I was active in the BGG Dominion forums before DominionStrategy.com existed; I believe I followed whatever link Theory shared when he announced the site to the BGG community.

I've always loved games with strategy, so discussion about the in-depth strategy in my favorite game was sure to keep me hooked.

What was the most memorable Dominion match you’ve ever played?
IRL I'd say Genghis Con in Denver in 2012. It was the first IRL tournament I'd been to; I finished first place, and my friend who came with me finished third. There were around 15 players, and all the games were 3 or 4 players, but it was still really exciting to win the tournament. The one game I remember most, nobody else really knew the power of Hunting Party, I built a Hunting Party/Horse Traders deck and smoked the table.

Online is harder to say. There was one tournament where I had a match against Julle who was very high on the isotropic leaderboard. I won the match, and mainly remember the game where I went hard after Black Market, desperate to pull the Goons. I did, and it carried me to victory. I think there's a video of that game on my youtube channel (which hasn't been updated in ages).

What are your favorite and least-favorite Dominion cards, and why? What about favourite strategies?
It's really tough to pick a single favorite. There's certainly a few that always come to mind quickly, I'll go with Counterfeit for now. Treasures that do things are neat--Prosperity was the first expansion I got when it was just released--and it's very satisfying to trash the good cards you needed (Gold) to end up with enough points for the win and a deck that couldn't possibly go further.

Rebuild makes me want the kingdom to be rebuilt.

I think I'm most partial to any strategy where I can fall behind early on VP, but outlast and eventually overtake my opponent. Bishop games where I can just keep trashing Golds until the last turn or two, Goons games where they start buying Copper too early (haven't run into this particular one as much lately), Ambassador games that can take the engine a while to get built, or any game where you can just barely grab a lead and end it on piles.

What’s the most important Dominion advice you can give people aspiring to reach the semifinals? What's the most important skill a lot of people are lacking?
The most important advice I've given myself reaching this point is to focus on one game at a time, and really take the time to study the kingdom.

When I'm playing casually, I usually don't have the patience to really consider the kingdom before I get going, and my sessions are filled with mutterings of "Oh yeah, that's there," and, "How did I not see that?"

In matches for previous tournaments and league play, I've often been too focused on the series score at the end. "I need 3.5 wins to advance to the next round" or "I need 4 wins to keep pace with the player at the top of my group". But that just takes focus away from the one thing I can actually influence, the current game.

It's tough to point to some skill and make a general statement that a lot of players lack it. I'll go with one that I feel like I lack: deck tracking. In my case, I think it takes more focus and patience than I usually care to muster, but it doesn't just matter for Wishing Well!

What cards do you think are over- and underappreciated by the community at large and why?
I feel the Page line is over-appreciated. It takes a long time to get to Champion, and there are a lot of boards where its Lost Arts effect isn't worth all that effort.

Explorer seems under-appreciated (they can't all be the most accurately appreciated card ever). Silver flooding is not the most exciting thing, but I think it deserves more credit than it gets.


If you could make a Dominion card/mechanic that describes you, what would it be?
It would be a junk card that other Attack cards could distribute to your opponents. Wait, that's just my avatar.

I think it would have to involve either trash-for-benefit, or something that pushes toward three pile endings. I'll leave the rest of the card design to Donald.


How would you describe your tournament run so far?
It's been fun, exciting, and tense. It's a little surprising to myself that I made it this far. I very nearly won my first match against a top-10 seed 4-0, and in the very next match, I did win 4-0 against a top-10 seed. I've learned and re-learned lessons about staying focused and keeping calm after making bad decisions. I won my one match that went to 7 games by buying out the whole Curse pile on one turn. It's been awesome.

Suppose you're reaching the finals. In game 7 you win by spotting that one of the twelve removed cards is the key card. Which one would you want it to be?
Probably Saboteur. Runner up would be Thief. It's fun when you can really mess with your opponent's deck (RIP Masquerade pin, 2010-2016).

Do you play games other than Dominion?
Absolutely. Some of my most played games in 2016 are Splendor, Marvel Legendary, Roll for the Galaxy, 7 Wonders Duel, Viticulture, and Pandemic The Cure, all fantastic games. I've also been playing a lot of War of the Ring lately, which has been amazing.

How do you like to spend your time when you aren’t playing Dominion?
I think my previous answer speaks to this one :) There's also trading games (check out Math Trades on BoardGameGeek, they're great), and reading/watching videos about new games.

Board gaming aside, my wife and I watch a lot of movies and TV shows. Here, I'll recommend Buffy the Vampire Slayer, it's fantastic.

I also play hockey. My dad's the team captain, and would probably want the world to know that in our most recent game, I scored a goal where he got the assist.


If you could choose one person on F.DS to be with you on an desert island, who would it be and why?
I think Ozle would be the most entertaining. Celestial Chameleon could fill the days playing through his crazy puzzle solutions. I could fill the days trying to persuade RoadRunner to see the truth about Scout. Maybe Geronimoo and I could get the First Game Engine to crack 90% against Smithy+BM.

Hmm, I see cheated there by listing more than one person. I'll go with Ozle
.

« Last Edit: November 11, 2016, 07:32:59 am by drsteelhammer »
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drsteelhammer

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Re: Interviews
« Reply #2 on: November 11, 2016, 07:52:09 am »
+3

What we've learned so far:

We're all not in the semis because we hate Silver.
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tailred

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Re: Interviews
« Reply #3 on: November 11, 2016, 09:29:26 am »
+1

Hey, we both mentioned the masq pin (RIP)
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Re: Interviews
« Reply #4 on: November 11, 2016, 03:38:50 pm »
0

Love these interviews!  Love getting insight into not only Dominion stuff but people's real lives.  Good luck to all.
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drsteelhammer

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Re: Interviews
« Reply #5 on: November 12, 2016, 12:56:16 pm »
+8

In approximately 22 hours jsh and Stef will play their match, so here's jsh:

How old are you, where are you from, what do you do for a living?
I'm recently 30, I live in South Carolina (southeast US for you people outside the country), and presently I am a graduate student waiting to start teaching.

How did you get introduced to Dominion? What kept you playing Dominion?
My group of game developer friends started playing Catan several years ago, and eventually we decided to check out other designer games that could be played online. That's when I was introduced to isotropic. During my first game, I found the game interesting but didn't get it. In the next game, I saw that the kingdom was randomized out of over one hundred cards, and that just blew my mind. It still does, which is what keeps me playing. That and my somewhat tragic tendency toward compulsive behavior.

How much do you play Dominion IRL?
Around the release of hinterlands, my wife and I played many times a day, but as of now I have not played with real cards since a single game near the release of empires. It's not that I don't want to, but the interest is no longer there with people I know.

Have you played with Empires yet? How do you think it will change the game?
I was a playtester, at least early on. I think empires is a very complicated expansion that will make players have to think harder than ever about their end goals. I still barely have a grasp on it myself.

How did you find F.DS? What kept you coming back?
I found f.ds when I started playing with random players on isotropic and wanted to learn basic strategies so I didn't lose so much. The original blog was pretty helpful, and I eventually found the forums. A desire to discuss the game and lighten up various discussions kept me coming back, but these days it is honestly just a habit. I check the site frequently on my phone while waiting on buses and such, not really intending to post much anymore.

What was the most memorable Dominion match you’ve ever played?
I have played over 20,000 games so this is very difficult to answer, but I'd have to say the first time my friend Kevin bought a bunch of markets then emptied the peddler pile. Somehow I didn't see it coming and it was like the game had completely changed in my mind. I've had a lot of other experiences like that with Dominion, and those wow moments are part of what makes it so much fun.

What are your favorite and least-favorite Dominion cards, and why? What about favourite strategies?
Favorite cards: black market, watchtower, advisor. Black market makes every game an adventure, watchtower almost always has a cute trick, and advisor seems like it should be awful but is amazing.

Least favorite: swindler, possession, page. I don't really want to focus on the negative.

As for favorite strategies, I'm quite fond of menagerie combos and rush games that have a solid enabler. I know some find the latter boring, but something about fast games can be exhilarating.

What’s the most important Dominion advice you can give people aspiring to reach the semifinals? What's the most important skill a lot of people are lacking?
My advice for advanced players trying to improve is to focus on the endgame. People put a lot of stock in early game play because it's easier to talk about, but your actions late in the game are what actually wins or loses most games. Even if your deck is worse, there is often a way to stay afloat. Endgame isn't just watching points, but being aware of each player's capabilities and preparing for what actions the opponent might take. I'm sorry if this seems vague, but it's a very complex topic.

What cards do you think are over- and underappreciated by the community at large and why?
I'm going to assume this means in terms of power. I think the most over appreciated cards are single-card trashers like forager, loan, and moneylender. I'm not saying they're bad, but you can't play them like they're a chapel and expect the same speed.

There most under appreciated cards are remodelers, particularly graverobber, forge, butcher, and expand. These cards have an enormous impact on a lot of games but tend to be considered weaker or ignored by novices.

If you could make a Dominion card/mechanic that describes you, what would it be?
Probably messenger. I'm always looking for the silly, niche use of a card that might actually be good.

How would you describe your tournament run so far?
I have been very fortunate not to have faced any top seeds, but my opponents put up a good resistance. This is the best I've done in a Dominion Strategy tournament so far, so even if I lose here I can walk away feeling good about it.

Suppose you're reaching the finals. In game 7 you win by spotting that one of the twelve removed cards is the key card. Which one would you want it to be?
Great Hall. It did nothing wrong.

Do you play  games other than Dominion?
Yes. Mostly video games, though. I'm a big fan of classic jrpgs, bitty obviously play plenty of other things. Dominion tickles particular spots on my tummy that other board games don't really try to. My second favorite board game is probably Hanabi.

How do you like to spend your time when you aren’t playing Dominion?
Mostly trying to convince my wife I love her more than Dominion.

If you could choose one person on F.DS to be with you on an desert island, who would it be and why?
Isotropic Was Better; she truly understands the truths of the world.
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drsteelhammer

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Re: Interviews
« Reply #6 on: November 13, 2016, 10:33:55 am »
+10

Last but certainly not least, here is Stef's interview. Their match will also start in 2.5 hours so watch out for that.

How old are you, where are you from, what do you do for a living?
I'm 37 and live in Amsterdam, Netherlands. I'm creating the new Dominion Online implementation, but I guess you already knew that.

How did you get introduced to Dominion? What kept you playing Dominion?
I was introduced by a friend when I visited him in Zurich. This was shortly before Intrigue was release in the Netherlands. I instantly loved it, and the variety of the game with the random setup kept it interesting. Donald making a couple of expansions really helped there.

How much do you play Dominion IRL?
Not so much anymore. I still have one friend I usually play a game or two with when we meet. And I explained the game to my nieces this summer, they also immediately loved it.

Have you played with Empires yet? How do you think it will change the game?
Yes I have, and I really like games with Empires cards. I think it's mostly the fun that comes from exploring the unknown though. If Empires was really old and Cornucopia was just released I'd probably feel the same about Cornucopia. Or any other set for that matter.

How did you find F.DS? What kept you coming back?
I found out about f.ds right when I found isotropic, which was remarkably late for someone already playing so long. I immediately liked the fact that everyone was discussing strategy and almost all of that discussion was very constructive, even though I now think most of it was wrong from a strategic point of view.

What was the most memorable Dominion match you’ve ever played?
I remember so many that it's hard to name one. But hey, this one I have on video.

What are your favorite and least-favorite Dominion cards, and why? What about favourite strategies?
I love Black Market, it has been my favorite for a long time. I like how it forces you to think on your feet; you have to constantly reevaluate your deck and strategy.
For favorite strategies... I like anything that is at that point in time considered an unusual strategy. I also really like decks that can use cards on the same turn they gain them.


What’s the most important Dominion advice you can give people aspiring to reach the semifinals? What's the most important skill a lot of people are lacking?
Ugh, so many answers I could give here. I think there is a group of good players that would be helped if they dropped the word "engine" from their Dominion vocabulary. It's a very broad term, and using a single word for such a wide range of strategies might stop their board analysis dead in its tracks.

What cards do you think are over- and underappreciated by the community at large and why?
I think Ironmonger is over appreciated at the moment. The why would be because the first Ironmonger is extremely good, and the second one is still really good. But people often continue buying them after that, even when they're trying to build an engine (uh oh) and there is a real village on the board as well. My vote for under appreciated would be... Inn?

If you could make a Dominion card/mechanic that describes you, what would it be?
Hum, people are more complicated then dominion cards.

How would you describe your tournament run so far?
I think I played pretty solid so far, except for my first two games against Gamesou which I totally threw away due to careless and bad play on my end. I was very fortunate to be still in it after that.

Suppose you're reaching the finals. In game 7 you win by spotting that one of the twelve removed cards is the key card. Which one would you want it to be?
I would love it to be one of the 14 new cards. Why are people so focused on these cards we finally can get rid of? What we get in return is so much better!

Do you play games other than Dominion?
I play quite some Bridge, I really like that. I only play IRL, and often with people who are so much better at the game then I am that I can barely argue with them at all. All I can do is ask and they will explain. It's a great and also humiliating sensation.
I also like openra at the moment, but I'm not actually good at it.
There used to be many many boardgames I liked to play, but it hasn't happened all that much in the past year.


How do you like to spend your time when you aren’t playing Dominion?
So... I like bridge. I also spend lots of time on my work at the moment and I like most of it. I play some squash and like sailing and swimming, but mostly in the summer. 

If you could choose one person on F.DS to be with you on an desert island, who would it be and why?
It feels a bit like I've been on a deserted island with Philip over the past year. The why is very clear - to create a new Dominion Online that everyone can enjoy for the years to come.
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drsteelhammer

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Re: Interviews
« Reply #7 on: November 13, 2016, 10:38:01 am »
+2

Suppose you're reaching the finals. In game 7 you win by spotting that one of the twelve removed cards is the key card. Which one would you want it to be?
I would love it to be one of the 14 new cardS. Why are People so focused on these cards we finallY can get rid of? What we get in return is so much better!


Fixed it as well as I could while keeping my "journalistic" integrity.

The sentiment is nice, though.
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Re: Interviews
« Reply #8 on: November 13, 2016, 10:43:19 am »
0

What’s the most important Dominion advice you can give people aspiring to reach the semifinals? What's the most important skill a lot of people are lacking?
My advice for advanced players trying to improve is to focus on the endgame. People put a lot of stock in early game play because it's easier to talk about, but your actions late in the game are what actually wins or loses most games. Even if your deck is worse, there is often a way to stay afloat. Endgame isn't just watching points, but being aware of each player's capabilities and preparing for what actions the opponent might take. I'm sorry if this seems vague, but it's a very complex topic.


Is there a good strategy article out there on this?  This is my current hurdle.  I'm a couple steps down from the top players (iso 38ish) with about 3000 games lifetime (iso, MF, IRL).  I know card rankings and can put together a good starting approach most of the time.  But I really don't deck track well (especially my opponents' decks) and struggle to find a comeback plan when I fall behind.
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Titandrake

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Re: Interviews
« Reply #9 on: November 15, 2016, 01:01:39 am »
+2

What’s the most important Dominion advice you can give people aspiring to reach the semifinals? What's the most important skill a lot of people are lacking?
My advice for advanced players trying to improve is to focus on the endgame. People put a lot of stock in early game play because it's easier to talk about, but your actions late in the game are what actually wins or loses most games. Even if your deck is worse, there is often a way to stay afloat. Endgame isn't just watching points, but being aware of each player's capabilities and preparing for what actions the opponent might take. I'm sorry if this seems vague, but it's a very complex topic.


Is there a good strategy article out there on this?  This is my current hurdle.  I'm a couple steps down from the top players (iso 38ish) with about 3000 games lifetime (iso, MF, IRL).  I know card rankings and can put together a good starting approach most of the time.  But I really don't deck track well (especially my opponents' decks) and struggle to find a comeback plan when I fall behind.

Unaware of one, but I can take a stab at it.

1. If you track VP (for games without the point counter) it's a small jump to track actions.
1a. If you aren't tracking VP in games without the point counter, you should get on that.
2. Whenever you buy an action, practice counting how many of that action you have right now. Should be slightly easier because you're already thinking about the action. If you can count # you have, counting # opponent has is easy - just do (10 - pile size - number you have).
3. Counting number of an action card you have left in your deck is significantly harder, but you can often get away with remembering just the key village or just the key +Cards. Key actions in your deck = ones on your mind = easier to remember, and they're also the most important cards in your deck, so hey, win-win.
4. For comeback plans, assume your opponent gets unlucky and act accordingly. In worlds where you win, what has happened? (Common scenarios: my opponent misses $8 a few times and you hit $8 enough, your opponent duds for 1 turn and the payload you bought this turn was enough to get the lead.)
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Burning Skull

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Re: Interviews
« Reply #10 on: November 15, 2016, 01:26:01 pm »
+1

I hoped for more controversy in these interviews...
« Last Edit: November 16, 2016, 12:38:47 pm by Burning Skull »
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