You want these if you can get away with it.
In Dominion, there are many cards that give +1 Card, +1 Action, +
, or some similar bonus. These are called Peddler variants, named after
a card from Prosperity. Poacher is the simplest such card, especially when none of the piles empty except for Provinces.
In this article, we will first consider Poacher in the case where no piles empty, and then in the case where piles empty. Then we will discuss how to predict whether piles will empty, and show a few examples.
Poacher without discardIn many cases, you will be deciding between Poacher and Silver, since they cost nearly the same and serve similar roles. Poacher... is just better than Silver. In almost all cases. Poacher gives you
, plus the value of one average card from your deck. For most of the game, in most games, the average card in your deck is better than Copper (if not in terms of economy, by providing some other utility such as trashing or gaining). Therefore Poacher is better than a Silver.
Another way of thinking of it is that Poacher + Copper = Silver. Therefore Poacher = Silver - Copper. Buying Silver instead of Poacher is a bit like buying Copper instead of nothing.
Another thing is that Silvers anti-synergize with each other by getting in each other's way. They slow down your deck cycling, making you see important cards less often. By contrast, Poachers do not get in the way of each other and do not slow down cycling.
Some reasons you might get Silver instead of Poacher:
-You have only
.
-There's something that cares about the card names (e.g. Merchant).
-There's something that cares about card type (e.g. Smithy without extra Actions).
-You're playing a very junked deck where your average card is worse than Copper.
-You're drawing your whole deck either way.
-You're worried that a pile will empty.
There are often other things you want to prioritize over Poachers, but as far as building your economy goes, a stack of Poachers is great. That is, as long as you don't get the
whole stack...
When piles emptyIf a single pile empties, it's not the end of the world! Poacher is still as good as Oasis (from Hinterlands), which is an okay card costing
.
In a few cases, discarding cards is actively helpful. The most notable case is when you have draw-to-X cards such as Library. You can also discard cards with the intention of trashing them with Sentry. However, even in absence of such interactions, discarding cards can be mostly harmless.
More specifically, it's mostly harmless in games where you have some cards which are worse than copper. For example, if you never trash Estates. Or if the pile that emptied are the Curses or Duchies, you probably have some Curses/Duchies around to discard. Even if you're forced to discard Copper, Poacher is still as good as the average card in your deck, and had also provided benefit earlier in the game.
But there are two caveats. First, be mindful of mid-turn shuffles, which will include the junk cards that you discarded. Second, there is an antisynergy with other discard effects (e.g. Cellar, opponent's Militia, other Poachers), because you only have so much junk to discard. There's also an antisynergy with cards that trash your junk, although you can usually use the same cards to trash your Poachers if you don't like them anymore.
If more than one pile empties, then Poacher usually becomes garbage.
How to predict when piles will empty-Cards that give +Card and +Action (e.g. Merchant, Laboratory)
-A draw engine (e.g. Village, Smithy, and Market)
-Victory cards that compete with Provinces (e.g. Gardens)
-Cards that hand out Curses
-Gainers and a pile worth gaining (e.g. Workshop)
-Bonus tokens from Adventures
These signs only matter if they're good enough to go for. For instance, Gardens obviously won't cause any piles to empty if Gardens is so bad that nobody goes for it. Of course, if you go really heavy on Poachers, your opponent might decide that Gardens are good after all because it messes up your strategy. It's not an all or nothing decision. If you think there's a moderate risk of piles emptying, you might get just a few Poachers, as much as you can get away with.
Another obvious point is that piles are more likely to empty the more players you have, and they empty quicker too. With 4 players you may find that even terminal actions get depleted because everyone wants 2-3 copies.
Some special consideration needs to be given to the Poacher pile itself. Obviously, you should never get 9 Poachers, because your opponent can pick up just one and ruin your deck. On the other hand, if you get 6, it usually isn't worth it to your opponent to pick up the last 4, because that's expensive and ruins their own deck almost as much. In 2-player games, you and your opponent often end up with a similar number of Poachers, because nobody wants to get so far ahead that their opponent can counter by emptying a pile.
Example GamesThese examples are all sourced from Burning Skull's
How to Base Dominion series on YouTube.
Example 1Discarding with Poacher is good here because of its interaction with Library. BS takes 6 Poachers to opponent's 2, and wins.
Example 2This is a Chapel game where no piles are in danger of emptying. Because of Chapel, the average card is a lot better than Copper, so Poacher is way better than Silver. I'd like to note that in turn 5, instead of buying a Poacher, BS opts to trash an extra Copper and buy a Silver. This is a clear, if minor, mistake. Recall that Poacher + Copper = Silver, except that Poacher + Copper is better because you can trash the Copper later.
Example 3In this game, Merchant/Workshop is good and leads to an empty pile. However, by the time it has happened, the Poachers have already done a lot of work. Also, both players have 2-3 Poachers so it hurts them about equally.
IMO this article is "long" and I would appreciate suggestions for things to cut.