It has been quite a while after
my first attempt at a puzzle. While the desired effect is much easier to achieve now with Scheme, it is still interesting to see Pearl Divers and Havens to have their day.
Ok, back to the main topic.
What is the complete dominance in Dominion? You and your friend were chatting after he beat you by more than a hundred points with massive Goons. (No worries, it is solely due to his early unbelievable lucky draws.)
"Just like what I did to you!", he said.
"Or when I kill your deck with multiple saboteurs? Or when I fatten your deck with coppers, estates, and curses and then cruise to victory?" While you are thinking, your friend just couldn't stop.
"what you are describing is massacre," you said, "sure it is a big win, but there is no intricacy, no elegance in it. And it can be pulled off by anyone, by better luck. Exactly like what you just have done."
"How about this", you contemplated for a while, "after you have set up your deck, you have no money to spend and only 1 buy per turn..."
"Ha. You must be thinking about the Horn of Plenty Mega turn aren't you", your friend interrupted.
"No, not at all. It's indeed a bit more intricate, but the win is usually not lopsided in those HoP games," you said.
"So after you have set up the deck, you have no money and no extra buy, yet after several turns, with all your opponent can do to stop you, you still end up with all the Colonies in your deck. How's that?"
"Highway to the end?" Your friend hesitated.
"Come on. even if you played all 10, the Colony still costs $1."
EDIT:
"Highway enough to Ironworks or Upgrade/remake/remodel?" Your friend then suggested.
"Oops. I didn't think of that. Apparently I didn't have enough sleep. Or maybe there is a good reason why I was beaten." You thought in your mind.
"Nah. That would be a stretch to be called as dominance. Your opponent literally has to sit there and wait for you to set that up."
You said so, but with uncomfortable feelings that once your friend knew what you were thinking he would complain for the same. Well, there is no clear cut distinction here, you always need some form of incompetency from the opponent to dominate him...
"Alright, I give up. What is the scenario you have in mind?"
You shook your head and smiled. "That's what separates between us. If I were asked I certainly won't give up just after a minute or two. The loss is just pure bad luck." Of course you didn't say it out loud; this line is just what you were thinking.
The Challenge1. 2-player game.
2. You end up
with all 8 Colonies at the end of game.
3. In the engine-setup phase, your opponent is sufficiently incompetent. You can assume it is equivalent to he is passing every turn. In this phase you can have any numbers of coins and buys, but you are not allowed to buy any Colony.
4. After your deck setup is completed, that is, in your scoring phase, your opponent will do whatever he can to stop you from getting all the Colonies, even in the situation when he is clearly hopeless to win. In this phase
you are not allowed to play any treasure, or any card that offers +buy or +coin. You can have them in your deck though.
5. In the setup phase, you may assume perfect luck or not, since your opponent is doing nothing it doesn't matter. In the scoring phase however, you should play with worst luck.
6. What is your idea of complete dominance?
EDIT: to clarify, the opponent won't magically have any card in their deck. However, they will try to acquire cards that will stop you with perfect luck in your scoring phase. I am sorry that I missed a big bunch of tricks there. They are all legitimate solutions to the original problem. For people who are still interested in my intended problem, here's a big constraint/hint:
7. You don't gain any cards (unless your opponent forces you to do so) in any of your turns in your scoring phase.
It's probably too big a hint; but you would get the idea why I think this is dominance.