Scout is often considered THE worst card in Dominion. Indeed, it was ranked as the
worst $4 card in Qvist's latest rankings, and on the main Dominion Strategy site, it was rated as the
second worst $4 card by Theory. Often the
butt of dominion jokes, it is easy to simply see Scout on a board and resign yourself "To a 9-card board". But is it really
that bad? Are there cases where even the lowly Scout shines?
When Scout is GoodCase 1: Great Hall (and Nobles, Harem)The dual type victory cards were what Scout was specifically designed for. Three of these dual type cards are in Intrigue with Scout, while the other one (Island) is a card that you actively try to get out of your deck by setting aside. What does this mean? In intrigue heavy games, Scout is much more likely to make an impact. The presence of dual type cards makes Scout more
intriguing to say the least.
Case 1A: Ironworks/ Great HallIronworks/Scout/Great Hall is a well known 3 card combo, as
pointed out by Theory. Basically Ironworks is used to gain the Great Halls (getting +1 card/+1 action) and Scout is used to draw all the Great Halls (and Estates to boot!) into your hand. It isn't super fast, and even gaining all 8 Great Halls will hardly win a game by itself, BUT using this as an entirely in turn operation (gaining all the cards you need from an Ironworks or two) and still being able to buy cards in your buy phase makes this a viable addition to your normal play.
Case 1B: Crossroads/ Great HallThis is another 3 card combo where scout proves useful. Crossroads works best when you have many victory cards in hand, especially when those victory cards are not complete duds. Scout allows you to get more victory cards in hand, Crossroads gives you an extra card for each of the victory cards you get in your hand, and then Great Hall gives you a further extra card. This can lead to ridiculously large hands, and if you have a way of gaining components quickly (say, Haggler) this can be a dominating strategy, especially because adding Provinces doesn't hurt this strategy. On
this board, we are faced with that exact setup! Both of us recognize and go for it, but my opponent does better by picking up more Great Halls.
Case 2: TunnelAlthough it is easy to group Tunnel more with Great Hall than Estate, Tunnel technically isn't an action. However, it still is a victory card you are likely to buy early, which means you have a higher chance of drawing more cards with your scout. If only there was a card that liked big hands with tunnels in it...
Case 2A: Tunnel + DiscardTunnel is bought early because if discarded it yields a gold. This can either be done by say, an opponent's militia, but that is very unreliable. It is often
much easier to trigger the discard by yourself. While the king of Tunnel combos (Vault) is simply too fast as is, a weaker discard that isn't reliable enough for Tunnel on its own would benefit from Scout -- Oasis, Hamlet, etc.
Here is a great game where both players use Hamlet / Tunnel / Scout. Here's
one where Scout is useful in a YW / Tunnel game. And
here is one where it is used in a draw engine: Scout / Tunnel / Cellar
Case 3: Silk RoadsSilk Road games encourage the buying of lots of victory cards. While Scout is certainly not enough support alone for Silk Roads, it definitely helps handle all the green. The problem is Scout and SR both cost 4 so they are competing, but an early Scout or two may be worth the delay in SR.
Case 4: Counter to AttacksScout does good as a defense mechanism against certain attacks. These include Fortune Teller, Bureaucrat, Ghost Ship, Spy, and Scrying Pool. But, the one attack that really gets stopped cold by Scout is Rabble. Rabble has the potential to be the nastiest attack, as leaving 3 Victory cards for you to have in your next hand pretty much guarantees a dud. However, with Scout you will draw all of the victory cards that are left on your deck (and spy the card remaining). If you have something to take advantage of having the extra cards in your hand, like Warehouse, Cellar, or Vault, you can get a great hand, and the counter can be even better than Farming Village's.
Case 5: Order of Top of Deck is importantWhile half of Scout's benefit is putting green cards into your hand, the other half is being able to order your deck. This normally isn't a huge deal because you will draw all 4 cards at the start of your next turn anyway, but if you have the ability to draw 1 more card this turn, choosing the best of the 4 can be huge.
Case 5A: Baron / TournamentThis is only half of a combo. Why? Both of these cards need to be matched up with a certain victory card. Scout is wonderful here if you have both Scout and Tournament / Baron in hand, as you will get a very good chance of matching up your action with its respective victory card. The problem however, is that while you might pull the province into your hand, you might leave that matching tournament on top of your deck and
ruin its matching up. This is why it is very important to also have a cantrip in hand (even the Pearl Diver is sufficient) so if you play Scout, you can still draw the other half and make the combo this turn.
Case 5B: Scrying Pool / Alchemy in general(Thanks to chwhite)More good partners to Scout are Vineyard and Scrying Pool. Both of those cards need non-terminal actions, Scrying Pool to increase draw power and Vineyard to pump up VP without increasing terminal clashes. Scout could do absolutely nothing for you and still be of value with these two cards around. However, he reordering and clearing is particularly useful with Pools: take green into your hand, set up a Treasure to discard, pick up Actions. Sweeping green into your hand helps with Vineyard, too, especially if you're relying on cantrips etc. and would be liable to choke on Vineyards as you green.
Here are a couple examples of Scout providing actual value to Pool (and other) decks:
Here it doesn't really ever sweep up green, but it does encheapen Peddler and improve Pool efficiency.
Here both Nobles and Copper-specific trashing boost Scout as well.
Here the Scout almost always improved the next hand by sweeping a bit of green into the current one. It's a fun contrast of styles, as Feast/Duke edges out Vineyard/Transmute.
Here, an odd case where Scout is used as support for Tactician/Vault. Heumidin's Turn 17 is the best example of it in action.
Lastly, the main thing here is University gaining lots of cards (including Great Hall) and then getting points from Gardens and Scout becomes a good pile to gain from University later on.
Perhaps the best situation for Scout is not all-Intrigue games, but Intrigue/Alchemy games. A
lot of the potion cards make it less bad than usual.
So with all of these uses, why isn't Scout the
best $4 card in Dominion?
When Scout is BadCase 1: TrashingObviously, a large majority of decks improve by at least eliminating the starting estates in some way. However, not having victory cards kind of conflicts with Scout, as you will not be drawing any cards and will simply be reordering. How bad is this? Compare a Scout where you never draw a card to Cartographer (ignoring the potential for discard). They're the same, but Scout draws 1 less, and costs 1 less. Now compare Smithy to Moat. 1 card difference, $2 difference, and moat is a weak $2 and smithy is fairly strong at $4. So... no victory cards makes Scout very bad, yes.
Case 2: CursingOne of the biggest problems with Scout, is it doesn't grab curses off of your deck. The point of Scout is to take the weak cards off your deck to prepare your next hand (while maybe improving this hand too!), but the worst cards in the game (curses) stay on top of your deck. This means that you will have even less of a chance of grabbing your victory cards, and Scout becomes even worse.
Case 3: Hand Size Reducers (Not named Ghost Ship)Militia cripples Scout. Why? Well, if you get Militia'ed with a Scout in hand (and you keep it) you will only have 2 cards in your hand left to use for other purposes. This is the problem with Village, Pearl Diver, etc. as well, but it is magnified here because you are not even guaranteed to draw a card, and if you do it's a victory card so that won't help much here anyway.
Case 4: No Alternative Victory CardsIn a normal game (only E/D/P as victory cards), you are likely to only have your 3 estates for the early / middle portions of the game. Then, somewhere around turn 10 (maybe earlier or later depending on the board) you start buying provinces, and by about turn 15 the game is basically over. This means for roughly 2/3 of the game, you will be getting very, very little benefit (if any at all) from the Scout, and you almost always would have been better off with a Silver. Expanding on this...
Case 4A: Any game where Provinces are the dominant (only) strategyWhich is most of the games. In a province game where the player who gets the most provinces wins, the Scout is simply too slow and ineffective. As much as the presence of Great Hall / Tunnel / Nobles help Scout, their absence hurts more. So if you see no green kingdom cards, you are probably safe playing a "9 card kingdom".
Case 5: Lack of cantripsPart of the problem with Scout (well most of it, actually) is that you are not guaranteed a card when you play it. So if there are no Victory cards all you do is reorder, which isn't all that important because you can't draw them anyway. Enter the cantrip. While it's very little consolation for not drawing a card, at least if you get to choose which of the top 4 cards to draw with a cantrip, you can start a Village-Torturer chain, or you can put the Gold on top and get to $8 for a province. Because if you have no draw, you can keep looking at the top 4 cards till oblivion and you won't be helped.
ConclusionIs Scout the worst dominion card? It's an endless debate, but Thief makes it hard to say it is. There are certain niche situations where this card is nice, but it is not a game breaker. Gainers / multiple buys make Scout much better, as you will not often want to spend your buy on this card. Even in situation where Scout is good, it still is a weak card at best. Few games have been won with the addition of scout, but many have been lost. So if you don't have a plan for Scout, you are probably safer ignoring it!
Works with:Great Hall, Nobles, Harem
Tunnel, Silk Road, Vineyards
Rabble, Fortune Teller
Ironworks
Scrying Pool
Conflicts with:Fast games (JoaT, Masq)
Trashing
Cursers (especially Mountebank!)
Militia
Lack of Alt. VP
Note: If anyone has more game logs of Scout being particularly good or bad, please comment with them. Thanks!
