It’s probably hubris to choose Governor as the subject of my second forum article--because the Governor is quite a tricky customer--but I feel pretty confident with the card, and I see a lot of players make basic mistakes with it that can be avoided. So, here is an article about Governor. (Disclaimer: I am not saying that I am the definitive authority on Governor. I intend this article to be a jumping-off point for further Governor discussion.)
Governor should be called Jack-of-All-Trades, because it does so many different things for you. (And Jack should be called Governor, because it exerts dictatorial control over your deck.) As the most interactive card in Dominion, Governor presents a fundamental challenge: How do I make this card benefit me more than my opponent? Note that the dilemma doesn’t make Governor bad; in fact, it’s a powerful and versatile card that rarely gets ignored. But if you’re not careful about your choices, you will undoubtedly help your opponent more than you help yourself.
Governor is one of those self-synergy cards--indeed, it does basically everything you could want from a card, except attack your opponents--so you typically want as many of them as possible. Governor is seldom passed up entirely, but there are a couple of $5 cards that you would want before your first Governor. These include the $5 cursers, and maybe something like Haggler, so you can buy Gold and gain Governors.
But once you’ve gotten mandatory purchases like Witch out of the way, you usually want lots and lots of Governors. More Governors mean more Gold, more draw, more remodeling, and ultimately, more Provinces.
There are 2 important things to keep in mind as you build your Governor deck: 1) Governor loves money but hates Copper, and 2) Governor is non-terminal in all its functions, so you can afford at least 1 strong terminal.
Clearing out Coppers is very important. Later on, Coppers will stand between your Governors and the Golds they want to Remodel, and all the extra Silvers from your opponent’s Governors means you will never lack cash, anyway. So Moneylender and Spice Merchant are great, because they rid you of Coppers without crippling your purchasing power--and you need to buy Governors fast. (Moneylender yields more net cash, but Spice Merchant moves through your deck faster and can serve as an important source of +buy later, so they are both great.) And mass Copper trashers like Chapel are great (a 5/2 start with Governor and Chapel is basically as fast a game of Dominion as you could ever have), but a well-timed Mint is also excellent.
As for your terminal, it should obviously be a discarding Attack if one is available. You will also desperately want an extra +buy to mitigate the risk of drawing a huge hand without any Governors.
It’s also worth keeping in mind that Governor works quite well with other cards that accomplish the same functions. Hoard can gain you Gold, and Laboratory and Stables can give you draw. Of course, these things compete at the same price level as Governor, and you don’t really want them unless the Governors are out, and if the Governors are out, it’s almost certainly about time to Green, so the window of opportunity there is slim. However, Governor goes very well with other cards that accomplish its remodel function, namely Remodel and Expand. (And later, if your opponent uses the trashing ability, these 2 cards are conveniently priced to convert into victory points for you).
So when do you do what? Let’s look at Governor’s 3 different functions.
You Get a Gold; Your Opponent Gets a Silver
When you first begin acquiring Governors, this is the first thing you should do with them. Governor decks want to be brimming with Gold so that later you can remodel a bunch of them into Provinces all at once. The Silvers will boost your opponent’s purchasing power, but they also get in his way if he is trying to build a low-treasure engine. Of course, given the availability of Governor, trying to construct a low-treasure engine is probably a losing move anyway. In all likelihood, your opponent is also pursuing Governors (and giving you a fair amount of Silver, too), in which case the free Silvers are mostly a welcome addition to the deck, but will get in the way of connecting Governors and Gold.
How much Gold do you want? It depends, but remember--ideal play would be turning each and every one of them into a Province, and using any leftovers to buy the last Province or a Duchy. This means you are going to be using Governor to gain a Gold at least 4 times, but probably (hopefully) more. This is one of many reasons why you will want as many Governors as you can get your hands on.
You Get +3 Cards; Your Opponent Gets +1 Card
Here is where most Governor-related mistakes are made. Remember that Council Room, which also gives your opponent +1 Card, is a decent-ish $5, rather than a great $5. Using multiple Governors for multiple cards is even more worrisome, because though you may make good use of your huge hand, your opponent also has a huge hand to make use of--and he got his for free. Wharf is the best $5 non-Attack precisely because you get to start your next turn with 2 extra cards. With Governor, you can accomplish that for your opponent by default. In fact, the +cards function of Governor is where the relative benefit to your opponent is undoubtedly greatest.
Thankfully, there are ways to mitigate this benefit. If you intend to end the game (or have a good chance at it) by drawing cards, then your opponent will never actually reap the benefit. (And because of this, the final Governor turn is often a go-for-broke, all-or-nothing, end-the-game-or-die scenario.) But an easier way to fix this is to simply play a discard Attack at the end of your turn. Keep in mind that this doesn’t entirely solve the problem: Your opponent still gets to hold onto his best 3 cards out of however many you gave him, and if he’s smart, these will include a Governor and discarder of his own. But at least he doesn’t get to start with an 8-card hand.
Often times, you will find yourself betting on drawing the discarder with your Governor. This is one reason Governor is really a difficult card--it demands expert memory of what’s left in your deck. You might mitigate the risk here by doubling up on your discarder. You would do that anyway if it’s Goons, but in the case of Militia, consider a second or third. Remember that the additional Silvers from your opponents Governors will more speedily dilute your Action density.
Eventually, you want to play Governor for cards in order to draw many more Governors and Golds, and squeeze several Provinces out of your turn. And you do that by utilizing the final function of Governor.
Trash a Card and Gain a Card Costing Exactly $2 More; Your Opponent Trashes a Card and Gains a Card Costing $1 More
In the end, Governor is a fancy Remodel that goes to great lengths to put the cards you want to remodel into your hand. But if you’re using this function of Governor to do anything but gain Provinces, you are probably making a mistake. Trashing Coppers and Estates is a huge misuse of your Governors. You missed the opportunity to gain a Gold, and you gave your opponent a free trash. Early on, an exactly +$1 trash is situationally better than an exactly +$2 trash, because a +$1 trash just kills Coppers outright, and turns Estates into Silver. Governor is an elite $5 card. You insult it by using it to clear out your riffraff.
Using Governor to remodel Silvers into more Governors is a more sensible use of the power, so long as you have enough cash to buy another one without the Silver, or you didn’t have enough to buy one even with the Silver.
So what do you do with Governor’s remodel ability? Trash your Gold into Provinces, that’s what. The great thing here is that whereas you need $16 and another buy to snag 2 Provinces, you only need 2 Governors and 2 Golds--or 1 Governor and $11, including at least 1 Gold--to make 2 Provinces. Border Villages and Hoards, but also Nobles, Harems, and Farmlands, are also good contenders for remodeling, given their availability. And your Silvers can become Duchies.
You need to watch out for your opponent’s $4s and $7s, though. Caravans, Farming Villages and Spies get turned into last minute Duchies. King’s Courts and Expands (both cards that work extremely well in Governor decks) become Provinces. Fortunately, you trash before your opponent gets the option to do so, meaning if you can both get the last Province, you get it first.
Putting It All TogetherMuch of the difficulty of Governor arises from predicting when you need to go for Provinces. A strong enough Governor deck can grab 3 or even 4 Provinces in one fell swoop, or the last 2 Provinces and enough Duchies to end it. But you only want to give your opponent the benefit of a huge hand if he will never get to play it. The timing is tricky.
Let’s say you’ve bought a bunch of Governors and gained a bunch of Gold; your opponent just snagged his first Province. Your hand is Governor-Gold-Silver-Silver-Copper (a decently likely hand). You could 1). Buy a Province and gain a Gold, 2). Remodel a Gold into a Province and buy a Duchy, 3). Draw for more cards.
If you choose the third option, you absolutely must draw another Governor, or a source of +buy. If you draw Gold-Gold-Estate, you have actually decreased your options since your starting hand--because you no longer have Governor--while boosting your opponent’s hand. This is why Governor strategies necessitate keeping careful track of what’s left in your deck. If you are unlikely to draw more Governors with more Gold, don’t bother hitting the card option.
It’s also critical to keep track of the score, because in a Governor game, the penultimate Province is certainly not the second-to-last Province. If you leave your opponent 2 Provinces, there is a good chance he can end the game.
When you either suspect it’s the last turn or need to make it so in order to have a good chance of winning, go for broke. Use a Governor or 2 for plus cards. Hopefully, you will draw more Governors, some Gold, and some +buy. Take a minute and think about how to maximize your points: Perhaps you buy 2 Provinces and Governor a Silver into a Duchy.
There’s one more special accomplice to Governor worth mentioning: Watchtower. Since you will be gaining a lot of Silvers and Golds, Watchtower can put them on your deck, and you can buy more Governors sooner. Governors can go on top of your deck, too. Watchtower gives a burst of speed to an already quick deck, and can give you the advantage in a Governor showdown.
It's worth mentioning that Governor is still strong in Colony games. The remodel function is weaker, because you won’t be gaining many Colonies, but the opportunity to grab a Province off a Gold here and there is nice. The Gold-gaining can keep your deck afloat, and the +card effect is arguably stronger for you than normal, because 1 extra card for your opponent is less likely to push him into Colony territory than into Province territory.
Lastly, if you want to build a typical action-draw deck with virtual money, Governor is not for you. But Governor is a strong enough card that it's presence will render the vast majority of engine strategies obsolete. Besides, your opponents Governors will really hurt you if you don't want treasure.
One more thing: Don't draw a 4/3 opening against your opponent's 5/2 opening if Governor is available. This is not the path to greatness.
Works with:Other Governors
Gold
Farmland
Border Village
Discard Attacks
Watchtower
Copper Trashers
Possession (Give your opponent a giant hand first, then Possess him and remodel all his Gold into Provinces)
Doesn’t work with:Non-Treasure engines
Your opponent's $4 and $7 cards
Most alternate VP strategies, particularly Silk Road and Gardens (because the prices of these cards make them easier for your opponent to gain off your Governor remodels than vice versa)
Edit 1: Added Farmlands and Possession to "Works with"
Edit 2: Fixed the order of who trashes first in the remodel scenario
