Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Geronimoo]

Let's do a poll!

[cayvie]

i don't have a strong opinion either way!

[Lekkit]

It takes too much time. That's the only reason I don't really like it. Other than that, It's a fun card.

[brokoli]

I hate it and love it at the same time 

[paddyodoors]

I really do love it.  Great card, none of the whining ever gets to me.

As for "emotionally negative," its really a zero-sum game.  Those times when you are possessed on your hand of all green/curse/copper cards, it is quite satisfying.  Those times when your KC megaturn is being played out by your opponent, it is quite depressing.

However, that is only when being possessed.  Don't forget, barring an edge case with Black Market, you could be doing the possessing and have the same chances of inflicting "emotionally negative" or "emotionally positive" turns.

So, in the end, Possession doles out emotional positivity/negativity in balance.

Also, I have found that the increased game time is generally negligible except in turns with insanely long action chains.  However, YMMV.

[Geronimoo]

Another fun thing to try in a Possession war, is playing Possession in the possessed turn if your hand is mediocre. Your opponent will not be able to buy anything useful and you may improve your next turn. It confuses the hell out of some people

[shark_bait]

I personally LOVE this card.  When  I see it, I first think of whether or not to go for it.  Sometimes yes, sometimes no.  I also love the change in play style that results in game from this card.  When I see an opponent going for possession, I immediately switch my play style with the goal of greening early so that I'll get all of my good hands before they possess me.  Despite what some people may say, I actually find many aspects of this card strategic.  But I can see how some people may hate the "luck" factor of, "My opponent just possessed my last province/game-winning hand".  But hey, lucks a part of the game.  If you can't handle a bit of possession luck, it'll be tough to handle all the other various "luck" aspects of dominion.

[greatexpectations]

i really don't like the card.  admittedly, a lot of this stems largely from some awful experiences in group games when i was first learning the game. (can we all at least agree that possession in group games is a mess?) i have since played with it more but it is still a card i have a few problems with.

first and foremost - possession games take longer. sorry paddy, it is not at all a matter of opinion, it is a simple fact. we don't have a metric for determining how long games take in physical time, but we do have turn data.  possession is 14th slowest in province games and 12th slowest in colony games, losing out almost exclusively to the cursers. but to add to the length just in turns you have to consider that you can have multiple possessions played per turn.  with any semblance of an engine (and god forbid scrying pool / hamlet) this will take forever. 

[Hunting Party of One]

In my opinion, this is a great card!  Very creative, a nasty attack, and it's fun.  There are so many whiners out there, "it's too slow"  "i get frustrated"  etc., etc.  It's part of the Dominion world and all the cards do something different and have their place and time to play.  You win some, you lose some.  Possession is a great part of the game.  No one whines they're playing KC/Possession on an opponent!

[Morgrim7]

I hate it and love it at the same time 

Me too!

[Lekkit]

I actually often apologize to my opponent when I King's Court Possessions. I can agree that long turns are part of the game, but when my opponent takes like 5 or 6 long turns in a row, followed by me playing some money and buying a green card, and then back to my opponent's long turns again, I feel like I'm not really needed for the game. It's basically me watching my opponent play a solitaire game. And a really long one.

I dislike the card for the same reason I dislike Munchkin Quest. When I want to play a game, I want to play it. Not just watch someone else play for a really long time.

[paddyodoors]

first and foremost - possession games take longer. sorry paddy, it is not at all a matter of opinion, it is a simple fact. we don't have a metric for determining how long games take in physical time, but we do have turn data.  possession is 14th slowest in province games and 12th slowest in colony games, losing out almost exclusively to the cursers. but to add to the length just in turns you have to consider that you can have multiple possessions played per turn.  with any semblance of an engine (and god forbid scrying pool / hamlet) this will take forever.

No need to be sorry... and hey, don't get me wrong -- I'm not saying it doesn't take longer, I'm saying the increased time is negligible in comparison with other "nasty" cards.  It looks like you are actually backing up that assertion with your references to the cursers.

But there are plenty of cards which make the game "longer."  Ambassador, cursers, etc.  Attacks in general.  I just don't see how Possession is special in this regard.  Cursers make the game longer by giving curses, Possession does it by possessing... it may "feel" longer because when we play, we are always getting ready for "our" turn and when people play things like Outpost or Possession, "our" turn gets pushed back further.  But in the end, it doesn't look like the game is more prolonged by Possession vs. Sea Hag or Mountebank.

Thoughts?  Not trying to say everyone should love this card.  Just saying I think it is a fine addition to the subtleties of this fine game, on par with many other fine cards.

[Davio]

The reason why I dislike Possession is: the situations in which it's good are exactly the situations in which it's the most annoying: When it can be played over and over again or when it's KC'd.

I don't mind the occasional Possession during a playthrough of one's deck, but when you get KC-possessed, ugh.

Luckily it's often a trap card and therefore not much of a nuisance.

[paddyodoors]

But in the end, it doesn't look like the game is more prolonged by Possession vs. Sea Hag or Mountebank.

Obviously KC, TR, or spammed Possessions are the exception.  I think this is what you are talking about with the Scrying Pool/Hamlet reference.  KC/TR/spam, especially when they can be played every turn or nearly so, can effectively double or triple the amount of turns being experienced for each game turn.  It does take longer than the cursers there.

[philosophyguy]

The reason that Possession is different from cursers in terms of enjoyability is that, even with curse-heavy decks, you at least get to do something. Even though the game is a slog, you are at least a participant in it. Contrast that with Possession; if your opponent averages one Possession per turn, you have dropped from about 50% of the playing time to 1/3. If they are double-Possessing you, you're playing about as much as you would in a four player game, but it's the same person playing for all the rest of that time.

I think Possession is much worse on isotropic because you probably don't know the person in real life and there's little conversation. Even being able to talk with your opponent could help keep them engaged, but isotropic is not built to accommodate that nearly as well as real life, chat box notwithstanding.

[greatexpectations]

No need to be sorry... and hey, don't get me wrong -- I'm not saying it doesn't take longer, I'm saying the increased time is negligible in comparison with other "nasty" cards.  It looks like you are actually backing up that assertion with your references to the cursers.

But there are plenty of cards which make the game "longer."  Ambassador, cursers, etc.  Attacks in general.  I just don't see how Possession is special in this regard.  Cursers make the game longer by giving curses, Possession does it by possessing... it may "feel" longer because when we play, we are always getting ready for "our" turn and when people play things like Outpost or Possession, "our" turn gets pushed back further.  But in the end, it doesn't look like the game is more prolonged by Possession vs. Sea Hag or Mountebank.

Thoughts?  Not trying to say everyone should love this card.  Just saying I think it is a fine addition to the subtleties of this fine game, on par with many other fine cards.

haha well i am trying to say that it is certainly not negligible. as many have pointed out, possession is almost entirely ignorable for many fast games. i would say that you can ignore it more than you could ever ignore sea hag or mountebank or similar.  because it is often ignorable, this brings down the average turn value, suggesting that games you actually play possession take more turns than other attack games.

and that is just based off of average turns!  the turn data shows us that possession is already on par with other attacks, but that doesn't even include all of the extra 'outpost' turns taken throughout the game.  it would only take 3-4 extra possession turns per game to make possession the longest game by turns, and i have seen that many possessions played in one turn.

[Ozle]

Can I have an option for 'I just plain don't like it'

[ecq]

It can be enjoyable when things are roughly equal. Oddly, the reasons I don't like this card are the same reasons I don't like Tournament: it's swingy, it tends to reward the person who is already winning, and it does very little to help end the game.

Your first $6p hand gets possessed, giving your opponent 2 Possessions to your 0.  My blood pressure just skyrocketed thinking about it.

[chwhite]

I really do dislike Possession's interaction with Ambassador and Masquerade (and Island), but that's it.  Most of the time Possession is a fine card that I'm happy to see in the setup.  It's usually a trap, and I'm glad to play with trap cards out; when it's worth it, you need to change your strategies a bit- always good to see more strategic avenues in Dominion- but it rarely has the potential to harm the possessed player, and frankly most of the ways in which you can harm a possessed player (e.g. burying their Alchemists and Treasuries) strike me as just good, creative play.

It's a little swingy, but not nearly so much as its reputation, and it's also way more strategic than said reputation.  Sort of like Tournament (though it's also a much worse card than Tournament usually).

[AHoppy]

I hate it and love it at the same time... I just never know when I should go for it and when I should build my deck to defend against it...  so I love it when it works out really well, but I hate having to make the decision of whether or not to go for it... But it definitely makes some interesting games.  So I'd say I like it more than I hate it.  KC-Posession is kind of really fun

[LastFootnote]

I neither hate nor love Possession. Why isn't there a poll option for me? 

[HiveMindEmulator]

If you can't handle a bit of possession luck, it'll be tough to handle all the other various "luck" aspects of dominion.

The thing about possession luck is that is often supersedes everything else. There are a lot of times when you get a bit unlucky on a few draws and then lucky on others, and in the end it all kind of cancels out. But the luck of hitting the first possession is often something that just can't be overcome. Theses snowballing kind of effects (which also occur with stuff like familiar, tournament, and GM) are a little more annoying than your average lucky occurrence.

[Papa Luigi]

I don't hate Possession because it relies too much on luck, or adds too much variance. Dominion still has a lot of luck involved, and that's a good thing. If the better player won 100% of the time, it wouldn't be much fun.

I dislike Possession simply because it's annoying and slows down the game. Although it can be fun.

I still remember the first time I played a Possession on Isotropic. It was against my brother. I didn't read the card carefully enough and thought that HE would gain the cards I bought, so I bought a Curse. I ended up being able to trash the curse on my next turn anyway, but it was still funny.

Against random opponents (not friends), I don't find it particularly fun.

[pauley_walnuts]

I don't hate it because it can be tons of fun.

I also don't love it because sometimes I get confused with card interactions. For instance, IGG was on the board, and when I played Possession, my opponent had two in hand. I thought that I could buy a province on that turn by gaining coppers in his hand. No, those coppers ended up in my discard pile instead! Definitely a learning experience.

[Brando Commando]

It's a unique strategic addition to the game, which is pretty much a good thing. The big downside from my perspective is that when it's a strong buy, that's when the variance gets frustrating. If you could only mitigate its power swing in a few more situations than currently exist (there are a decent number covered by theory in the DS article on it, but still a limited number and mostly focused on attacks and VP-chip gainers), I would be a pretty unequivocal fan.