The best thing about Dominion is that every game is different. Sometimes wildly so. So before you even play your first copper, take a minute to read the board and form a strategy. If your opponent is impatiently yelling at you to go, feel free to curse them out and take up to 3 minutes and 59 seconds out of spite. (Note: Don’t actually do this).
What do we have here?
“If you don't know where you are going, you'll end up someplace else.” - Yogi Berra
Have you ever gotten through a few turns to only suddenly realize, wait, this game has Colonies!? I have. I do a lot of dumb things. Take a moment to see ALL the available card shaped cards and card shaped non-cards. If you’re unfamiliar with any of them, read what they do.
Deck Roles
“Know your role and shut your mouth.” - Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson
There are a few main effects that cards give in Dominion that serve specific purposes in a deck. I call them deck roles.
-Trashing
-Extra Buys/Gains
-Extra Actions
-Draw/Cycling
-Attacks
-Economy
Generally the more deck roles that are present and the more strongly they are fulfilled, the stronger the deck you can build. So before you make a plan, find which cards can fulfill which of these roles, and how strongly they do so. For example, Chapel trashes incredibly fast. Trade route trashes very slowly but also weakly fulfills the role of an extra buy.
Starting Out
“The beginning is the most important part of the work” - Plato
With Nocturne, now more than ever, pay attention to your starting deck. Sometimes you have shelters replacing your estates or heirlooms replacing your coppers. These cards can possibly fulfill certain deck roles or otherwise impact the overall strategy. For instance, shelters make rebuild weaker, or Goat might let you skip a weak trasher (but probably not a strong one).
The Power Cards
“It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him.” - Gandalf the Grey in The Hobbit
Some cards in dominion are so strong they can warp the game. These cards are exceptionally good at something (like Donate for trashing) or perform multiple roles very well (like Cultist for attacking and drawing) or they have some unique but strong ability (like Rebuild). Identify these cards and see how they fit into your plan, or how to build a plan around them. Often you need to buy them, unless you have a very good reason not to. Furthermore, ask yourself a couple of questions. How quickly do you want your first copy? And how many copies do you want? Is the pile likely to run out? Mountebank, for example, you might only want one or two, but you want it ASAP. King's Court you want a lot of, but you need to do some building first.
Alternate Paths to Victory
“I love the smell of napalm in the morning...Smelled like Victory” - Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore in Apocalypse Now
Alternate victory points consist of any card that’s green or produces VP chips. You win the game by having more points, so pay special attention to these. Some alternate VP is strong enough to potentially build around completely. Some you can just pick up on your way to provinces or as a consolation for not hitting $8, to eke out a few more points.
So What’s the Plan?
“Plans are of little importance, but planning is essential.” - Winston Churchill
Now that you know every resource available to you, how do you go about actually building a winning deck? Well, to give the most useless advice in these parts - it depends on the board. But for generally useful advice, have an idea of what you want your final deck to look like. Will you have removed your starting cards with Forager while drawing your deck with a Fortress/Rabble engine, with a payload of Gold and Silver? Good, now you can figure out the best way to get there.
Adaptation
The best laid plans of [Rats] and men often go awry. - Robert Burns
Finally, don’t be afraid to change gears mid game. Maybe you missed some strong interaction. Or your original plan isn’t coming together. Or you just got some rotten luck. But that’s something that happens after the game starts and is a topic for another article.