no card game that I know allows you to track decks with tools
A digression, but techniques for tracking decks in Pandemic have always been tacitly allowed, and then were explicitly encouraged in Pandemic Legacy Season Two.
Analagously, hand-tracking using a notepad and pen is allowed in MTG. Of course, that is a "serious" game. If Dominion simply isn't a "serious" game and should do work not to ever be one, then it makes sense that a veteran would quit it after playing it too much. Generally the games you stick with even longer than Awaclus has stuck with Dominion are "serious". Move notation is required in tournament chess, because it's the only way to track the 50 king move rule, even though chess is a "basic serious game" of sorts.
Sirlin encourages you to look through your discard pile and bag to figure out what's left when you play his Dominion, Puzzle Strike. His viewpoints shouldn't be popular around here, but when you're insisting "nobody does this", then anybody works as a counterexample.
EDIT: Just saw wero's post.
Behavior reminiscent of note taking in MtG includes:
- You can look through either graveyard at any time
- When you use a card that happens to show your opponent's hand (Like Pillage), you can pause the game to jot down what cards are in your opponent's hand.
- You can have notes that you wrote before the match began in your deckbox, and you can consult those notes between games. You cannot consult those notes during games. In tournament play you can change a few cards in your deck out for others, notes about that strategy are what will go in your deckbox.
- You can pause the game to ask a judge for the official rules text of any card. You can do this even if the card hasn't been seen this game, you can do it just because you think someone MIGHT play that card this game. (It'd be like, you could ask whether Relic is an attack or not just because Black Market and Peasant are in play)
The second happens even in relatively casual games and would be the most notable comparison.
Oh, so yeah, you cannot consult your decklist during a game. Notes that were created before the match can only be viewed between games. In tournament play you usually have your entire deck memorized, so it's not a big deal. It's not as hard as it might seem, there's lots of duplicates, and if you have a card at all and you know it's a pretty good card, you know you brought 4 of it, the max that can be put in a deck.