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[ehunt]

I realize that the hive mind must have thought of this before, as they're in the same expansion, but I just found it. The presence of expand (as with any 6 or 7) softens the blow of contraband; later, you can expand the contrabands into provinces. It just worked well for me in a game against a friend, but there wasn't much going on on the board. Anyone have thoughts? The board I played was, I think:

expand, contraband, counting house (?), royal seal (?), talisman, navigator (?), fishing village, warehouse, pawn, haven

Would this work on better boards?

[painted_cow]

I would not call this a real combo, but if they are both on the board its a good synergy to consider. Opponents denying you Gold? Get an Expand.

It worked out okay for me in some games. But its not any type of "must buy combo".

[HiveMindEmulator]

I think it works better with contraband/forge. Contraband will allow you to get a very early gold or very early forge, both of which are quite powerful. Then you can later forge the contraband into something useful. Getting an early expand is not as good, imo. It only trashes a single card and doesn't do much with copper. Yes you can turn estates into 5s, but if there are any really good 5s, you probably should just buy one of those 5s instead of contraband in the first place.

[randomdragoon]

I think it works better with contraband/forge. Contraband will allow you to get a very early gold or very early forge, both of which are quite powerful. Then you can later forge the contraband into something useful. Getting an early expand is not as good, imo. It only trashes a single card and doesn't do much with copper. Yes you can turn estates into 5s, but if there are any really good 5s, you probably should just buy one of those 5s instead of contraband in the first place.

I think the main point is you can expand a contraband into a province, when normally a contraband is a major liability when you are going green.

[Kuildeous]

I don't really see it as a combo and more of recognizing the necessity of trimming the fat. There are a few cards that are great to buy early on which just become dead weight later. Moneylender is one such card. So is Chapel if there aren't any Curses. Even the Chancellor becomes just a terminal silver late in the game when you don't want to shuffle your deck. Contraband is a great card early on, especially if there are plenty of good cards to choose from when your opponent forbids you from buying Gold or Platinum, but it becomes an albatross later when you're prevented by buying Province or Colony. Your only hope is to get the coins needed with only four cards instead of five.

Although, I'd say that Contraband is less of a dead card than Moneylender or Chapel, since you could still use it for good effect. Got 10 coins? Maybe you can't buy that Province, but you can buy two Duchies. Sure, it's not the most ideal situation, but if there's not another shuffle coming up, who cares? If there are other victory cards, then you can mitigate the harm of the Contraband by spending your 8 on a Nobles and an Estate. They're worth the same as a Duchy, and give you a useful card if you need to reshuffle (though buying that Estate with an impending reshuffle probably isn't the most efficient use of your deck).

Trashing it before the late game is ideal. Trashing it for a benefit is even better. I'll gladly buy a Contraband (maybe even two or three!) if the board also has Salvager or Apprentice.

I almost wonder if there ought to be a term for cards that shine early and then become useless later. Balloon loans maybe, if I want to use boring mortgage terms.

[WanderingWinder]

I wouldn't call it a combo. I'd say that the cards have some synergy.
Synergy= the two cards play together better than they do separately.
Combo = cards that have so much synergy it overshadows the natural 'base' strength of both.

[ehunt]

I like that distinction.

DAE feel a constant need to make sub par cards "work?" I have it bad for contraband.

[chwhite]

DAE feel a constant need to make sub par cards "work?" I have it bad for contraband.

They're not really "subpar", but I go for Gardens and Apothecary way more than I ought to.  Trade Route too, and that one is actually pretty weak (though better than Contraband IMO).

[NinjaBus]

This combo also has the problem of opponent simply denying the expand purchase. On certain boards, such as those without extra buys outside of contraband or those with upgrade/remake can be pretty critical.

[Kuildeous]

This combo also has the problem of opponent simply denying the expand purchase. On certain boards, such as those without extra buys outside of contraband or those with upgrade/remake can be pretty critical.

True, but the opponent can only deny Expand for too long. If you can afford Expand, then you can afford Gold (unless you used a Quarry). In fact, if you're getting to the point where you can afford Expand, then you're going to be able to afford Provinces soon, and woe be to the opponent who foolishly chooses Expand instead of Province.

Also, unless you bought four or five Contrabands (why would you do that?), you're going to be able to afford Expand on your own without Contraband. Your opponent can't deny you the Expand if you don't let him.