(Note: This article is dealing with 2-player dominion. Thief is a lot better, and in many ways a different animal, in the multi-player game; as a quick note, a concept like thief-gardens is a real thing there. And it keeps getting better with more players - while generally still not being super-strong).Thief is a card that consistently gets tossed up as one of the very worst kingdom cards in 2-player dominion. It was voted THE worst $4 card in
Qvist's rankings. According to
CouncilRoom, it is one of the least-bought cards, it has the WORST 'win rate with' and one of the best 'win rate without'.
And you know, it is really bad. It sucks.
BUT, it's not SO bad. I certainly don't think it's the worst card in the game, or the worst card at its price-point even (we're looking at you, scout, in both instances). And there are situations where it's handy, or even downright good. Let's explore.
A little bit about the card first. Noble Brigand looks just like an improved version - and largely, it is just that, a much-improved version. The exceptions are when you can steal some more exotic treasures - platinum, cache, venture, bank, and especially something like fool's gold or Ill-gotten gains. These give thief a bit of a leg-up. But hey, it's still not great without some major help.
At what point in the game do you want thief? Well, that's sorta tricky. The problem is that buy thief, reshuffle thief into deck, play thief and steal nice treasure, reshuffle that treasure into your deck, play that treasure... well, it takes quite a while. A lot longer than just buying the treasure.So you need to steal some multiple things to make it worth it. Which means buy it early. But on the other hand, you need to actually hit those good treasures, and at the beginning of the game... you're coming up copper an awful lot. To answer the question, it depends on why you want the thief. Which brings us to...
But in which games do you want thief at all?
(It's not many).
First of all, let's say the board is really bad. I mean REALLY bad. I mean like, there is nothing going on, you're buying... literally big money. Thief helps you out here.
Thief+big money is better than big money. And you want the thief... right away. You may come up copper a good bit early, but a) trashing their copper is bad, but not THAT bad in pure BM; keep in mind that their economy is largely copper-based at this point; b)if you are able to snag an early silver, it's pretty massive against a BM opponent. It helps you a good bit, but you have to look at it as an attack, too. But okay, these boards are super rare...
Probably the best-known case of good thieves is in
super-trimmed money decks. If your opponent has chapeled down to the point where silver and gold are a significant portion of their deck, they are ripe for attack - it can cripple their economies, which are dependent on only a few cards (meaning that stealing one is a big blow), and you get a nice benefit in the process. Of course, it's very rare to get a good opponent caught in chapel-big money...
More likely, you have a mediocre-ish board with some pretty good
alternate VP. Let's say duke. Thief is pretty excellent here, because it gives you longevity, which you need for the long game, and because you both actually want those coppers.
Here is a game with Duke and Silk Road where I use thief to good effect.
Here's another one where I use thief to help out with a Harem/Silk Road strategy.
Perhaps the most important role for thief is
attacking coppers in those rare situations where they are very important. If your opponent is using moneylender for some form of big money, this is an even better situation for thief than chapel-thinned decks. Moreover, thief can really eat into
aptohecary-based strategies and some
coppersmith-based strategies, and presumably counting house-based strategies. Again, this doesn't come up that often, but you need to keep your eyes on thief when those strategies are around, because it can be a very hard
counter.
Finally, thief can be useful in engines where some treasures are still important. My #1 exhibit for this article is
this game against Marin. Both of us build up nice engines, and then we both get thieves. Now, the thieves don't look like they do THAT much (though they are mildly helpful), but their big function here is to limit the treasures either of us want to buy. In an engine like this, where you can really draw everything, you often want to expand, just a little bit, your buying power with some treasures. But the prospect of thief is going to put slight dampers on that. In this situation, the stolen treasure helps them, too, and helps them immediately. Of course, you don't have the greatest chances to hit, but it can be a strong consideration anyway - and one both of us saw fit to go for.
Works with:
Opponents who have very few actions
Opponents' trashing, particularly copper-trashing
Alternate VP
Copper-philic strategies
Doesn't work with:
Virtual money
Most actions, which are better.
