I just updated the first post and will update the $2 cards post with the openings as Councilroom is back online.
| #12 ▲9 Oracle (Hinterlands) Weighted Average: 13.3 ▲5.03 / Median: 13.5 ▲6.5 / Mode: 10 ▲10 / Standard Deviation: 5.3 ▼0.5 Highest Rank(s): #6 (2x), #7 (1x) / Lowest Rank(s): #25 (3x)
What a big jump and it's of course a Hinterlands card! It went up 9 ranks with being ranked 5 ranks higher in average. The mode even went up 10 points (it was #10 8 times). It had a high deviation last time already, but after the big change it has an even higher one, the second highest deviation in this list. It was really underestimated and some still do.
A 2 card-drawer with a spy-effect seems so innocent. But sometimes you even prefer it to Smithy which itself is a good $4 card. You can use it very well in Big Money games where the additional attack part comes handy. The problem with the attack is - like Spy - you do little damage with messing up the top cards. But discarding 2 cards to draw the next two helps cycling through your deck in the early game. But you draw still only 2 cards what is still not very good if you use it in an engine. And the luck factor is high and you have to make hard decisions. Do you want to make your opponent discard the Silver and Estate? It really depends on the cards he has in hand, but you don't know that. And if you choose to put them back on top, he may even choose the order, another help for him. On the other side, it's great if you can discard two Golds. So, the attack part is weak, mostly you buy it because you need the +2 cards with the minimized draw luck, which is good in Big Money.
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| #11 ▲1 Village (Base) Weighted Average: 12.89 ▲1.21 / Median: 13 ▲0.5 / Mode: 13 ▲5 / Standard Deviation: 3.6 ▲1.0 Highest Rank(s): #6 (2x), #7 (3x) / Lowest Rank(s): #19 (1x), #22 (1x), #23 (1x)
That's the best $3 card from the base set. It was #13 10 times.
Vanilla village is very hard to rank. How do you rank a card that does nothing beside giving an additional action? It's a card that is important for all engines, but is useless if "Big Money" is the dominant strategy. It's no exciting card for sure, when there are all other engine components there you're glad to have it. The low ranks may come from Big Money players and the high ranks from engine builders. Am I right?
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| #10 ▼2 Watchtower (Prosperity) Weighted Average: 11.27 ▼0.95 / Median: 11 ▼1 / Mode: 11 ▼1 / Standard Deviation: 4.0 ▲0.2 Highest Rank(s): #2 (1x), #3 (1x), #5 (4x) / Lowest Rank(s): #19 (3x), #21 (1x)
We're in the Top 10 and Watchtower lost 2 ranks. It's in the nowhere with a big lead over Village, but still far behind #9. It's the second card with a second place and it was 11 times on #11.
There are two Reaction cards for $3 and this time Watchtower loses. Watchtower is very versatile what makes it a great card. At first it can draw up to 6 cards what makes it a worse Library and is great in Hamlet, Festival or other decks where the non-terminals draw equal or less cards than you discard. Then it is even an Smithy equivalent. Even if two Watchtowers collide you can use the Reaction part from the second Watchtower for the card you buy. You can put your new card on top of your deck and have it in your hand in the next turn. But Watchtower is even a better defense card. The strongest attacks are Cursing and Discarding Attacks. You can trash the gained Curses immediately and can draw to a more than full hand after discarding. And, with one of the discarding attacks it combos too: Goons / Watchtower is great as you can buy additional Coppers or Curses for VPs and can trash them immediately without clogging up.
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| #9 =0 Tunnel (Hinterlands) Weighted Average: 9.75 ▲0.57 / Median: 9.5 ▼0.5 / Mode: 8 ▲3 / Standard Deviation: 4.5 ▼0.1 Highest Rank(s): #1 (1x), #2 (1x), #3 (2x) / Lowest Rank(s): #17 (1x), #24 (1x), #25 (1x)
Tunnel stays on the same rank, but still won a few points. Its deviation is still very high, because it's the first card with a first place but it has still one vote on second last. Its mode went up a little bit with being on #8 10 times.
Tunnels 2VP for only $3 is already very good. You have to pay $2 more for getting one point more. And the Reaction part is really strong. Mostly there is at least one card on the board which can trigger it. It combos great with Vault, Cellar, Inn, Embassy and such. Young Witch / Tunnel is currently the 33rd ▼13 best opening. So Tunnel is one of the rare scenarios when buying a victory card as an opening buy can be really good (beside Island). It's also a great defense card against Discarding Attacks like Militia, Goons or Margrave or even Minion. On boards with many discarding synergies, you mostly can observe a rush for Tunnels. And then not only the Tunnels can deplete, the Gold pile can too. But still it's very situational. If there's no action which can discard, Tunnel is nice in the late game if you miss $5, but no game changer.
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| #8 Scheme ▲2 (Hinterlands) Weighted Average: 8.91 ▲2.08 / Median: 8 ▲3 / Mode: 8 ▲3 / Standard Deviation: 3.6 ▲1.5 Highest Rank(s): #2 (2x), #3 (2x) / Lowest Rank(s): #17 (2x), #19 (1x)
So basically Scheme and Watchtower switched places. And here's the next Hinterlands card which got a big boost of 2 points. Median and Mode went up 3 points (it was on #8 10 times) too and the agreement on this card is much higher than last time.
Scheme is a cantrip and mostly don't hurt in your deck as long as you don't draw it dead. But how big is the benefit? If you're building an engine around a key card (like Hunting Party), Scheme is very handy as you can be sure to have that card in hand nearly every turn. With +Buy you could even buy more Schemes to add to your engine. Even with a simpler strategy, but a strong attack, Scheme is very nice, as is basically replaces the second copy of that strong attack card and you eliminate the possibility of colliding. As Double Ambassador is already a strong opening, on those boards you really want to open Ambassador/Scheme and you can later use the Scheme to top deck another card if you want to, so it's no surprise that Ambassador/Scheme is on #43 of the best openings. Be aware of Minion, as Minion could completely destroy your top-decking. Scrying Pool + Scheme is good, Golem + Scheme + strong attack is strong and King's Court + Scheme is just crazy. On the other hand, in big money games or with very thin decks, Scheme is not worth a buy and you better buy a Silver.
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| #7 ▼1 Warehouse (Seaside) Weighted Average: 6.91 ▼0.69 / Median: 7 ▼1 / Mode: 7 ▼3 / Standard Deviation: 2.1 ▲0.5 Highest Rank(s): #2 (2x), #4 (3x) / Lowest Rank(s): #11 (2x), #12 (1x), #13 (1x)
We're entering the Tier 1 cards now after a big gap of 2 points. Warehouse lost one rank, but has very low deviation with #13 as the worst rank. Its rank isn't surprising as it voted on #7 18 times.
Warehouse is the better Cellar, it is a very useful deck sifter. You can draw 3 cards and discard the most useless ones. It's also a card that works fine with Tunnel and of course with any Attack (Sea Hag / Warehouse is better than Sea Hag / Silver on #98) as it is non-terminal and can draw your terminals more often. It's also great if you want cards together that gain strength when they collide, like Fool's Gold or Treasure Map. Because you have one card less in hand after you played it, it synergizes with "draw up to" cards (JaoT/Warehouse is better than JaoT/Silver on #126) And you can even play it if your hand is good and discard the useless cards on top of your deck (which are coincidental there or from any Attack like Rabble). It loses power on boards with discard attacks, but with cursing attacks it's great. It's a great addition to any deck which isn't a terminal draw Big Money deck.
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| #6 ▲1 Swindler (Intrigue) Weighted Average: 6.51 ▲0.78 / Median: 6 ▲1 / Mode: 6 ▲3 / Standard Deviation: 3.4 ▲1.2 Highest Rank(s): #2 (1x), #3 (2x) / Lowest Rank(s): #11 (4x), #17 (1x), #25 (1x)
As there's now way higher consensus on Swindler, it's now on #6 where it was voted 14 times. It still has two big outliers on #17 and #25.
Swindler is the third $3 Attack and this time it is a good one. It's a great opening buy and can turn the Coppers of the opponents into Curses (Tournament + Swindler and Swindler + Chapel are both at around #100). Later in the game it can turn the new good $5 cards into Duchies. With special cards on the board, the punishing can even be worse, like swindling the only Potion into a Treasure Map or Coppersmith or vice versa, turning the Sea Hag into a Potion. Maybe the outliers are punishing it too, for its high luck-dependant attack. Both players may open Swindler and one can turn the other Swindler into a Chancellor. Or you hit 3 Coppers and turn them into Curses and your opponent hit 3 Estates and turn them into ... Estates. Bad luck! Of course you can decrease bad luck by adding a Spy-like attack, but most of the time it's not worth it. Beware with Peddler on board. Trashing a Province and turning into a Peddler, great. Hitting a Peddler when the Peddlers are out, bad! And beware in the end game. Hitting a Curse when the Curses are out is suboptimal, but hitting a Province and giving your opponent the last Province, can win or lose you the game.
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| #5 ▼1 Steward (Intrigue) Weighted Average: 6.40 ▼0.84 / Median: 6 =0 / Mode: 6 ▼1 / Standard Deviation: 2.5 ▲0.3 Highest Rank(s): #3 (4x) / Lowest Rank(s): #12 (1x), #14 (1x), #16 (1x)
We're in the Top 5 and it was very close, but Steward has beaten Swindler, with the same Median and Mode (it was 12 times on #6). It loses still a rank and nearly one point too. The deviation decreases a little bit too.
Steward's strength is its flexibility. It's one of the rare trashers that are good openers and still good later in the game, in this case for $2 or 2 cards. It leads to very difficult decisions (Steward and 4 Coppers: Trashing or Gold?) but either decision is strong. And it is also rare for a non-attack card that is terminal to say about: "It is usually a good buy" (even though it's the opening buy) Tournament / Steward is currently the best Steward opening at #40 ▲9.
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| #4 ▲1 Menagerie (Cornucopia) Weighted Average: 5.18 ▲0.5 / Median: 5 =0 / Mode: 4 ▲1 / Standard Deviation: 2.8 =0 Highest Rank(s): #1 (1x), #2 (4x) / Lowest Rank(s): #12 (2x), #19 (1x)
Menagerie is the second card in this list that got first. It got a little boost compared to last time and even went up 1 rank with a solid lead over #5. It has one big outlier, but the consensus is really high with being on #4 18 times.
Menagerie can be very strong, a double-Laboratory, or only a cantrip. Ok, it only hurts when you draw it dead, but it sill needs enablers like cards that can discard (best: non-terminal like Warehouse or Hamlet) or heavy-trashing (to get rid of your Coppers) to use its full strength. Its best use may be to counter Discarding attacks. After a Militia or Goons attacks, just play Menagerie and you have a 5-card-hand again. Of course it's also good if there are many good cards on the board you want to have, or you buy many good cards out of the Black Market deck, so you can maximize the possibilty to have different cards in the deck. In comparism to Warehouse its not always a good addition to your deck, but when it is, it's so good. I think it went up a rank because there are many cards in Hinterlands that let you discard or gain additional (different) cards for enabling your Menagerie. You definitely need luck to enable it, but you get different cards so fast and if you get rid of your Coppers, that's often the case. It isn't that good as opener of course, but still Remake / Menagerie is way better than Remake / Silver and the best Remake + X opening at #142.
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| #3 =0 Fishing Village (Seaside) Weighted Average: 3.24 ▼0.25 / Median: 3 =0 / Mode: 3 ▼1 / Standard Deviation: 1.5 =0 Highest Rank(s): #1 (7x) / Lowest Rank(s): #7 (1x), #8 (1x), #10 (1x)
We're in the Top 3 and there's no doubt about these cards after a jump of nearly 2 points. All 3 cards have very low deviation, so has Fishing Village. It was voted on #3 32 times and was only voted #5 or lower 6 times.
What makes Fishing Village a good village, one of the best in the game? It hasn't 2 of the biggest problems in combination with villages. 1.) A Smithy-Village chain still may lack the money. FV gives money instead of a card. 2.) You draw 2 terminals with no village in hand. FV gives also an additional action in the following turn and therefore a total of 3 actions, minimizing the chances of not being able to play colliding terminals. So, if you're definitely going to build an unstoppable engine, buy as many FVs as you can. FV / Wharf is so much superior than Smithy / Village and FV / Torturer can hurt so much. You only don't want to buy it if you're going BM, because then you have basically a Lighthouse if you don't use the +Actions. Fishing Village / Masquerade is currently the best opening on #55.
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| #2 =0 Masquerade (Intrigue) Weighted Average: 2.21 ▲0.22 / Median: 2 =0 / Mode: 2 ▼1 / Standard Deviation: 1.2 ▲0.3 Highest Rank(s): #1 (16x) / Lowest Rank(s): #5 (4x), #7 (1x)
Masquerade lost again the battle for #1. It got a little boost, but it wasn't enough. It has the lowest deviation of all cards in this list, so no doubt here as it was only voted 7 times out of the Top 3 and 31 times on #2.
At first it seems so harmless (at least to me). Even though it is no attack by definition, most of the times it feels like it is one. I cannot desribe the power of Masquerade better than theory did: "By drawing 2 cards, Masquerade combines solid buying power with its deck-thinning, thus allowing you to improve your deck along two axes at once." It's a hard counter to cursing attacks, so you may even choose not to go for the cursing attack with Masquerade on the board. And if you have a discarding attack and play Masquerade afterwards it's even a harder attack, allowing the (in)famous Masquerade pin. I still have problems to pass the cards in the right order if I play multiple Masquerades per turn but that doesn't decrease its power. It dominates nearly all games; it's great for simple Big Money and it's great in engines too and it's a defense against cursing what do you want more? And Tournament / Masquerade is #8 =0 in the best openings list.
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| #1 =0 Ambassador (Seaside) Weighted Average: 1.63 ▲0.57 / Median: 1 ▲1 / Mode: 1 =0 / Standard Deviation: 1.4 ▲0.5 Highest Rank(s): #1 (41x) / Lowest Rank(s): #6 (2x), #7 (1x)
Ambassador is the best $3 card and this time it wasn't even close, it was only voted 13 times not first or second and more than the half of all of you placed it first. I think it deserves the #1 spot.
Let's start Ambassador war! In some games the ping-pong of Estates of Coppers is so important that you rather risk open Double-Ambassador and colliding two Ambassadors instead of losing the Ambassador war. Some say it's undercosted and the best attack relative to its cost. You can even buy a curse and turn Ambassador into a Curser. If you lose Ambassador war badly, there's no good chance to recover and building a good engine. But beware: Don't forget building up your own economy. Your opponent is flooded with Coppers and Estates. But he can buy good cards too, so don't forget that. But the power is undeniable. Tournament / Ambassador is #3 =0, Caravan / Ambassador is #7 =0 and Spice Merchant / Ambassador #18 in the openings list with many other good Ambassador openings to come (Double-Ambassador is #61 ▼17 and the best double opening).
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