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[Jorbles]

I was digging around on the opening's page, and I came across this baffling opening.
Level 5   Sea Hag / Fool's Gold

Any thoughts on why this is such a strong opening? I guess in a Sea Hag game you're going to come across hands with $2 more often than other games, but with all those extra Curses in your deck is FG really that great?

This is ranked as stronger than Sea Hag / Silver, but SH/S is still Level 4. Since that's about as basic a Sea Hag opening you can do, maybe it's just that opening Sea Hag is so damn strong that it doesn't matter what you open with it. I'm still surprised to see Fool's Gold above Silver here though. Any thoughts?

edit: added a link for convenience

[jsh357]

Since Duchies are usually more important in Hag games, i'd imagine FG is quite powerful.  Getting 2 in hand is a guaranteed Duchy or more.  Gaining the Gold on a Province buy is probably also strong.

[blueblimp]

First thought: as a curser, Sea Hag is good at breaking up combos, so its strength will be higher when Fool's Gold is present. Since a SH/FG opening guarantees FG is present on the board, whereas with SH/Silver you don't know, that would influence the rankings.

Second thought: In Sea Hag games, it's pretty hard to hit $5. FG makes it easy to hit $5, because it happens whenever you get two of them in hand.

(But neither of these reasons explain why YW/FG is ranked lower than YW/Silver... possibly because YW/FG openings occur most often when FG is bane, which decrease the strength of YW?)

[Jorbles]

Actually I kinda see how one of these games would go now. One player opens Sea Hag/Fool's Gold, their opponent probably opens Sea Hag and either mirrors or goes with a Silver or Silver equivalent. From this point the Fool's Gold player just has to keep buying Fool's Golds and their opponent will probably help them run out the pile (to prevent a FG monopoly), at which point it's just a Duchy rush. The Curses will be run out by the Hags for the third pile. The player with more Fool's Golds is more likely to spike a Province and will hit $5 for Duchy more consistently.

[popsofctown]

The Fool's Golds are never underspending.  I think that overpowers the fewer collisions.  Every strategy but big money is going to get hit hard by that, and FG already has the leg up on big money so it can take a hit and beat BM.

[Geronimoo]

The sim says Sea Hag BM gets crushed by Sea Hag/FG 80-20

[Copernicus]

I forget what happens in a mirror opening, if that counts. If mirrors don't count, then the person who opens Sea Hag either has it unopposed or is already winning the Fool'sGold race.

[DG]

The sim says Sea Hag BM gets crushed by Sea Hag/FG 80-20

That changes as soon as the money player buys fool's gold with only 2 coins in hand. Unfortunately my simulator is still crashing so I can't tell you much more .

Remember that the council room stats might be showing sea hag with fool's gold as a strong opening for a 5/2 hand.

[Khyad Halda]

With Sea Hag there are a lot of $2 hands.  You make your $2 hands in the future better by buying FG (making future FGs better).

[Davio]

I'm not surprised.

FG is, if nothing else, a very handy stepping stone.
In Colony games you need 3 to get a Platinum.
If you get 2 together, you have at least $5, an important price point, and maybe $6 for a regular Gold if you so wish.

Not all FG games are money games.
I can envision a lot of boards in which you use your FG's like Treasure Maps.
Hope for an early collision and gain some tempo.

A single Silver still needs 3 Coppers to get $5, that's 4 cards total. FG can do it with 2.
I think the advantage you get on a collision in this case mostly offsets the disadvantage when it's only a Copper.