Hey guys,
So I decided to get the second edition of the base game for Dominion some time back, mainly just do I can finally get some replacements for my worn cards. After playing countless 2nd Ed. games, I felt like sharing my brief thoughts on the cards and how well they stack up.
Here we go...
Cellar: Always a good buy when you can spare 2 coins. Why worry about trashing Estates when you can just discard them for cards anyway. One of the main cards that makes +Buy worth it in the midgame.
Chapel: Definitely one of the weakest cards in the set. By the time you can line this up with enough Curses, it's probably too late. At first you might feel a diabolic urge to trash your starting Estates with this, but you quickly realise that doing so gets in the way of buying good cards on the turns you draw Chapel and you just fall way behind, even more so if you try trashing Coppers. I find the best use for Chapel is trashing Estates when Bureaucrat is on the board. You're still stuck with the crummy Chapel, but hey Bureaucrat can't topdeck Chapel.
Moat: A real lifesaver against those nasty attack cards, and it can even be played for a nice card boost. I know some people insist on always including Moat when a strong Attack card is on the board, but the better course of action is to just not play with those Attack cards in the first place
Harbinger: I had my doubts about this card, but it's versatility is unreal! Once you get enough of these, you can even start topdecking a clutch Copper to be drawn with another Harbinger, not to mention the cases where you have even better cards in the discard.
Merchant: A very welcome addition to the game. New players love chaining actions, but don't realise how valuable Silver is. Merchant satisfies their craving for fun while guiding them towards having a proper Action/Treasure balance. One of the best designed cards in my opinion.
Vassal: Definitely one of my favourites. That joy of playing a Vassal that discards a Province and my opponents mistaking that for a "dud" always makes me smile. Though it's not the tactical juggernaught Chancellor was in the 1st edition, at least new players have a somewhat easier time picking up on the subtleties of Vassal.
Village: We've all been there. You buy a whole bunch of shiny action cards only to find you can't play them all when they clump in your hand. Luckily, Donald X. came up with a brilliant safety net you can point to if you see a new player struggling with too many action cards. The joy they feel when they finally manage to pair a Village with two other Action cards is just great for everyone involved.
Workshop: This one is easy. Is Poacher, Merchant, Harbinger, or Gardens on the board? If yes, get a Workshop. Otherwise, skip it.
Bureaucrat: It has been said that Bureaucrat is perhaps the most powerful card in Dominion. I'm not sure I'd go that far, but for sure it's a formidable card. It boasts a nice attack with a free Silver that gets into your hand before those Thieves, er, Bandits can get their hands on it (can you tell that I miss Thief?).
Gardens: Whenever this is on the board, really try hard to get at least 30 cards. The benefit of getting 3VP for 4 coins instead of 5 coins cannot be understated. Just be careful not to get them too early. You still gotta get those Provinces!
Militia: Ugh, you know I can forgive how this card forces players to counterintuitively draw back up to 5 at the end of their turn instead of at the start (it makes Bureaucrat better and gives players the chance to think on other players turns), but really this card either does no damage thanks to spare Estates in hand or cripples a turn and slows the game down. I usually veto this card unless I am particularly annoyed with my current opponent(s).
Moneylender: Another dud, sadly. The only time I found this card useful was to prevent my opponent's Thief from stealing my Coppers to power up their Gardens. I still lost, but it was a lot closer than it would have been otherwise. In the absence of Thief (i.e. every 2nd Ed. game), skip it, for obvious reasons.
Poacher: A power card from among the new additions to 2nd Ed. Dominion. Often it's a race to get a whole bunch of these, gaining them whenever you can't do better than Gold. Yeah they force you discard once their pile runs out, but by then you should have some spare Provinces to discard. Occasionally I'll see this card discarding two at a time in 3+ player games. That's when you have to watch out.
Remodel: Now
this is my candidate for strongest card in the game. You want to open with Remodel almost every time. Turn Estates into Silvers at worst and Poachers or Merchants at best is excellent. There are some nice endgame tricks with turning Golds into Provinces and Silvers into Duchies. Even turning Coppers into Cellars or Moats can be effective.
Smithy: The benchmark for strong cards. Get a couple of these along with your treasure buys and you're good to go. Yeah, you can dream about playing Village, then Smithy, then another action you drew with the Smithy, but competitively speaking you probably could have already bought at least a Gold if that Village was a Silver instead.
Throne Room: Ah yes, the awesome but impractical Throne Room. Even in the midgame, you draw it with no other Actions maybe half the time. And that's just during the midgame. Some people like gamble on explosive turns but this card is just not for me.
Bandit: Sorry to say, but I feel like Donald X. replacing Thief with Bandit was change just for the sake of change. The original Thief was one of the pillars of Dominion, being especially effective in 4-player games with Gardens. Bandit's single, unconditional Gold is just not as satisfying. And did it have to cost more than 4 coins? Okay, sorry, mini-rant over.
Council Room: The life of the party! And that +Buy is quite nice to buy both a Province and another Silver or similar card on the side. This is even easier when others play Council Room. This card even lets you be a bit generous to new players who just want to chain their cards.
Festival: Well, it's basically Silver with +Buy, but it doesn't play nice when drawn with Smithy or Council Room. Maybe the +Buy also helps if you draw Festival with too many Golds as well. I want to say it's a safety net card like Village, but it doesn't draw so it's a lot less helpful for Action card chains in practice.
Laboratory: I'm surprised the 2nd Ed. left Laboratory unchanged. You need two to draw as much as a Smithy would, and they individually cost more than Smithy. Yeah you can play other cards besides Laboratories after you finish your chain, but Silvers are good enough in most cases anyway.
Library: So it's like Smithy, but it can skip my Remodel, Cellar, and other Library, as well as stick it to Militia? Sign me up!
Market: This combines that visceral chaining effect of Poacher with the +Buy of Festival. It doesn't slow your cycling like Festival does and thus you see it more often. That's very important if you want to use its +Buy on Copper for Gardens and have it pay off.
Mine: People keep trying to convince me that it takes two plays of Mine to even be on par with Silver, but I like to think of it as a card that slowly but surely gains Poachers (think about it). I often like to pick up exactly two as soon as possible.
Sentry: A friend explained that this is basically a worse version of a card from a later expansion at the same price. I'll admit it's underwhelming, but I have a soft spot for any card that synergizes with Vassal (this includes Harbinger as well). Plus, you can discard pesky Estates sometimes, or even trash them when the Bureaucrat is not looking
.
Witch: I'll admit it's kind of a funny prank the first time when Witch takes people completely by surprise by how effectively it ruins one's deck. After that first game, however, everyone learns their lesson, rushes Witch, and makes the game completely dull. I appreciate Donald X. having a sense of humour, but I wanted to play a game with gags, I'd play Munchkin.
Artisan: Adventurer died for this
. I mean, you can gain a Silver to hand, but Adventurer already drew you two Copper in the worst case, and didn't make you topdeck a card afterwards either. Yeah Artisan can smooth out your treasure if you are overflowing in coin, but generally I am not a fan of cards that tend to only be good for mitigating bad luck.
So what are all your thoughts on the new cards, or the old cards?
Cheers,
Markusin
Author
Topic: Opinions on the 2nd Edition Dominion Base Game Cards (IRL) (Read 4351 times)