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[ackack]

This game threw me for a bit of a loop. I opened Minion without much thought and pretty quickly got hammered. It seemed to me like the issue was that Moneylender/Silver can catch up pretty quickly in the Minion race with Minion/nothing, and when it does it has the structural advantage of a couple fewer Coppers. I didn't get a 4 in any of the early turns, and it seemed like grabbing Minions was more important than getting the Moneylender. But I'm now thinking that I was wrong there.

This then leaves the question of how to open with 5/2 here. Given how things played out I think Minion was a poor choice, but once you get rid of that there are a lot of options. I could see an argument for any of Upgrade (non-terminal trashing, will play it a lot in a Minion deck), Vault (probably helps out a lot in an equal Minion split scenario), Trading Post (trashes fastest, leaves buying power early, does give Silvers which are not so great in a Minion deck) or Moneylender (trashing with buying power, doesn't clog you up with coins you don't want for Minions). What would you do?

[Elyv]

I would open Trading Post. I really like opening with a trasher, and TP is actually very good if you can get it early. You can start getting minions after that.

[Superdad]

Minion is a great engine, but only in the right deck. It shouldn't be blindly pursued.

I think your best best with a 5/2 on this board is to go Trading post Big Money. Pick up Harems with $6-7, province with $8, Duchy with $5, and likely warehouse with <$5.

I think forcing minion with a 5/2 opening, with no trashing is a big mistake.

[rinkworks]

Isn't Minion fairly resilient in the absence of trashing?  I realize you need a critical density, and the denser the better, but it seems like it performs better than most engines do if trashing is not optimal.

Just the same, I'd open Trading Post too.  Trading Post is probably my favorite thing to buy on a 5/2 opening.  Only the presence of a Mountebank or Witch would make me consider changing my mind.  And if I don't get it on that 5/2 opening, I often won't get it at all.

[chwhite]

I agree with Elyv.  Open Trading Post and then transition into Minions after that.

[Superdad]

When you play minions, you can actually *feel* where the critical mass is. Without trashing, all your minions do is continuously cycle your hand. This isn't a bad thing if there is some kind of +action/$ card like Pawn, Festival, etc. But without that (and this board doesn't have it), continuously cycling your deck accomplishes nothing. Infact the opportunity cost for buying your minions is just so high that you are better off spending those buys on literally anything else.

When you see minion you should look for either very strong trashing or +action/+$ cards. If neither exist, I bet you'd be surprised how underwhelming they can be. The only way you are going to get that effect on this board is if you go with Village + Vault + Minions. But then you are probably getting "too cute" for your own good, and losing to big money. That being said, I could get behind opening vault and going for a vault/village/minion engine a lot more than I can get behind a trading post transitiion to minions. TP/Minions just don't go well together.

I would be very very surprised if Trading Post/transition to minions can even remotely compete with Trading Post big money on this board. You actually don't even want that silver in your deck if you are transitioning to minions. Then, TP becomes a completly dead card. You could maybe get to critical mass, but it would take a lot more work than I'd bet it's worth. I think TP transition to big money with warehouse support for when you green would beat a minion transition every time.

And again, if you are going to force minions with a 5/2 start, I think vault/village/minions is probably miles better than Trading Post/minions.

[ackack]

I have no doubt Trading Post open to Big Money is faster than one's own Minion deck. What I'm unsure of is whether that still holds when you've conceded basically all of the Minions to your opponent and are playing with 4 card hands every turn.

[DG]

I suspect that upgrade/nothing, buying a moneylender (or trading post) then minions will be competitive. It's a bit of a risk to run with just a trading post as both trading posts and silver work badly in 4 cards hands (and work much better with expanded hands).

[Blooki]

To be honest, I probably would've auto-pilot opened Minion too.

After reading the comments, I think Trading Post or Vault should be the choice.

On another note, I would've totally gone with Fairgrounds if I felt I was behind in this game (or if I was simply in a frisky mood). Every single kingdom card seems like an acceptable addition to your deck and Upgrade with plenty of useful $5 allows for very fast greening when you decide to spring your Fairgrounds surprise. Barring a very skilled and observant opponent, I think a Fairgrounds gambit would win this game more often than a well-executed Province strategy. This is all conjecture of course and probably a symptom of my Fancy Play Syndrome.

[Anon79]

Minion is resilient to absence of trashing in the sense that if neither player has access to trashing, and one player goes minions while the other does not, the Minion player can get enough Minion density to get enough $ while cycling his hand.

After opening TP/nothing against Moneylender/Silver, if you don't touch the Minions then opponent is going to get too many of them.