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Leprechaun
werothegreat:
Playing Leprechaun is a lot like being at a casino. Sometimes you win a little bit, and sometimes you just screw yourself over, but the house always wins in the end. Unless you cheat by counting cards and make off with a jackpot.
First and foremost, Leprechaun is a Gold gainer, and a cheap one at that. To compensate for this, the spiteful fairy Hexes you for stealing from it. Sometimes this does absolutely nothing, like if you get Fear, and Leprechaun was the only Action you played this turn. Other times you wish you really hadn't played the card, like hitting Locusts. So what are the odds of getting a good or bad Leprechaun? Considering purely playing just Leprechaun from a five card hand, we have:
* 1 ignorable Hex (Fear)
* 3 that aren't too bad (Bad Omens, Famine, Greed)
* 4 that swing depending on what else you have in hand (Delusion, Envy, Haunting, Poverty)
* 4 that you want to avoid (Locusts, Misery, Plague, War)
So if you have a hand of Coppers and an Estate, that's 2/3 of the time that you don't really care what the Hex is. If the rest of your hand is Silvers, maybe just play those instead. But on average, you're running about a half chance of a good (or at least not that bad) outcome.
But if you're counting cards, none of this matters. Get Leprechaun down as your 7th card, and you get the pot of gold AND the rainbow, and the mischievous little cobbler even lets you get off scot-free. A Wish is a powerful thing, and if you have an engine that can reliably play Leprechaun at the right time, it is a worthy addition to your deck.
However, you have to make sure it's your 7th card. This requires careful planning - if you want to play more Actions after, you have to get in at least one village first. Prioritize sifting and draw to get to your Leprechaun in time. If he's already in hand, it's okay to get some terminals down to fulfill the 7th card condition. The main thing is to just keep track of what you're doing, and not just throw down cards without thinking.
A nice thing to look out for are Throne Room variants - while you can't normally play multiple Leprechauns in a turn for multiple Wishes, Throne Room can! Though not Royal Carriage. And maybe stay away from Prince. And Golem and Ghost.
Awaclus:
TL;DR don't ever buy Leprechaun unless you're playing the most reliable engine ever.
faust:
--- Quote from: Awaclus on February 16, 2018, 03:31:53 am ---TL;DR don't ever buy Leprechaun unless you're playing the most reliable engine ever.
--- End quote ---
I find that Leprechaun is still pretty good if you only manage to play it every other turn, and most deck-drawing engines will manage that on average. A better tl;dr is that you should have a use for the Golds you get, not only the Wishes. And don't just play it if you're not getting the Wish, unless you have been super careful about Hex tracking.
werothegreat:
--- Quote from: Awaclus on February 16, 2018, 03:31:53 am ---TL;DR don't ever buy Leprechaun unless you're playing the most reliable engine ever.
--- End quote ---
I disagree. I think enough of the Hexes are usually low impact enough that you can safely play Leprechaun just for the Gold, especially early game.
Chris is me:
--- Quote from: Awaclus on February 16, 2018, 03:31:53 am ---TL;DR don't ever buy Leprechaun unless you're playing the most reliable engine ever.
--- End quote ---
Opening Lep is a fine way to get Golds early, as the Hexes are often fine. You generally have better things to be doing, but sometimes you want early economy without wasting time on buying and building up to it.
Activating Lep just twice for the Wishes is enough to make it worthwhile to have done so, in my experience. You can usually do this best after you’ve thinned but before you’ve finished building up, and then this helps you build up! Later when the engine is getting too big to have a reasonable shot of playing it 7th, just trash it for benefit, like you probably will do with the Golds.
This isn’t to say it’s a *good* card, or a buy on Any Given Board, but like many lazy generalizations, dismissing Lep to the realm of only “the most consistent engine ever” is denying its potential.
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