A few hours until the previews will come out. So there's time to read the last part and discuss a little.
| #10 ▼2 Tactician (Seaside) Weighted Average: 10.63 ▼0.50 / Median: 10 =0 / Mode: 10 ▲2 / Standard Deviation: 6.1 ▼1.1 Highest Rank(s): #2 (2x), #3 (3x) / Lowest Rank(s): #26 (1x), #28 (1x), #32 (1x)
Tactician has a huge lead over the last card with over 3 points. The consensus it lost may also be the reason for losing 2 ranks as it had much more lower ranks than last time. It was 8 times in the Top 5.
Tactician makes use of the phrase "One big turn is better than 2 mediocre ones". So in deck in that you can't guarantee a Province each turn, with Tactician it's still very likely to get 2 Provinces each 2 turns. This applies especially to cards that take profit of big hand sizes like Forge, Bank or Tournament+Province. It's also great to get key cards like King's Court early or as a defense against discarding attacks (0/8 is definitely better than 3/3). And in combination with Black Market or Action cards that let you gain virtual money like Vault/Secret Chamber, Baron or a bunch of Festivals/Conspirators/Grand Markets you can even setup a Double Tactician strategy. You can play your second Tactician in your Tactician turn and still have enough money to buy something and get another 10 card hand in the next hand.
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| #9 ▼3 Torturer (Intrigue) Weighted Average: 10.40 ▼1.84 / Median: 9 ▼2.5 / Mode: 9 ▼3 / Standard Deviation: 5.0 ▲2.8 Highest Rank(s): #4 (4x) / Lowest Rank(s): #23 (1x), #24 (1x), #27 (1x)
Torturer is the 5th best $5 Attack Card. It was 11 times in the Top 5 and it has very few low ranks, therefore the much lower deviation this time. But it lost still 3 ranks with nearly 2 points worse.
A single Torturer is not that great. You can choose to take a Curse in hand or discard. Taking the Curse in hand is not that great as getting it onto your discard pile or even on top. If you have a Forge or a Jack of All Trades in hand, a Curse in hand doesn't hurt you that much. In all other cases it's just a Militia-like discarding attack. But multiple Torturers can really torture you, especially because you have a choice, but still are between the devil and the deep blue sea. So Torturer highly depends from Villages; especially with Border Villages, Fishing Villages or Crossroads a Torturer Chain is definitely the way to go. The first one that gets this set up is likely to win. When the Curses are gone, Torturers are no danger anymore. But the Curse split is likely highly in your favor and you already have a good running engine to maybe pick a few more treasures and then go green. Only with direct Cursers you may still skip them, because until you've set up this chain, there are few Curses left. The drop in rating may also come from the time it takes to setup this chain if there are no strong villages. Torturer/Chapel is a #69 ▼27 opening and Torturer/Crossroads is at #91.
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| #8 ▼3 Minion (Intrigue) Weighted Average: 9.69 ▼1.46 / Median: 9 ▼3 / Mode: 7 ▼1 / Standard Deviation: 4.5 ▲1.8 Highest Rank(s): #3 (4x) / Lowest Rank(s): #18 (1x), #19 (1x), #26 (1x)
Minion is the 4th best $5 Attack Card. It was only voted in the Top 5 8 times. It has a really low deviation now, but lost 3 ranks like Torturer.
Minion's discard attack can hit even stronger than any other discard attack. You have one card more than with Militia, but against Minion you cannot choose which card to keep. The non-terminal $2 is great in every engine and the discard option helps you to cycle faster. Those two benefits make it a self-working engine. If you win the Minion split, you can play the first Minions in your hand to get $2 and the last one to get the next 4 cards, then just proceed. And every non-terminal card with virtual coins and/or a non-terminal trasher fit very well in a Minion deck. Yes, there has to be some requirements: You are playing a 2-player game and have a thin deck and don't play with Colony, ... to name the major issues. The time it takes to setup this and these restriction may be the reason for the lower rating this time. But then a Minion deck is super strong. Minion/Chapel is the #13 ▲4 best opening.
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| #7 ▲2 Ghost Ship (Seaside) Weighted Average: 9.29 ▲1.30 / Median: 8 ▲1 / Mode: 7 ▲1 / Standard Deviation: 5.7 ▲2.7 Highest Rank(s): #2 (1x), #3 (1x), #4 (3x) / Lowest Rank(s): #24 (1x), #28 (1x), #31 (1x)
Ghost Ship is now the third best $5 attack card. It was 11 times in the Top 5 and has much more agreement than last time and went up 2 ranks.
Ghost Ship is very strong because it's a discard attack in which you don't have to discard, you have to top deck. So this messes up this turn and the next turn. You have then to choose to get 2 mediocre turns or a bad turn and hopefully a better next turn if you aren't getting "ghostshipped" again. This results in really slow games in which it takes long until you reshuffle and see the newly bought cards the first time. The difference to all other strong attack cards is you don't want to play as many as you can in one turn, you just want to constantly play it each turn. That's the reason why Ghost Ship with Schemes can be devastating. If there are no good defense cards / counters, you are in a pin you aren't likely to get out soon. So in comparism to Torturer and Minion a single play is stronger and may be the reason it was voted higher than those 2 cards this time. Ghost Ship/Chapel is the #23 best opening.
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| #6 ▲9 Governor (Promo) Weighted Average: 8.41 ▲9.13 / Median: 7 ▲8.5 / Mode: 7 ▲4 / Standard Deviation: 8.1 ▲1.5 Highest Rank(s): #1 (5x) / Lowest Rank(s): #23 (2x), #39 (1x), #46 (1x)
Governor made a big jump of 9 ranks and is over 9 points better. The deviation is also lower, but still pretty high for a high ranked card. It has two really big outliers, with one being third last! On the other side it's the first card with a first place - 5 times!
The different options make it difficult to play. And depending on what you choose it can a really bad card or a great one. That may also explain the high deviation. Like Council Room, the +1 card may pretty huge for your opponent if you choose +3 cards. And if you even choose that multiple times in a row, you give your opponent a great hand too. So either do that only if you a) play a discard attack afterwards, b) can end that game in a mega turn or c) possess your opponent afterwards. In all these 3 cases Governor is really powerful. The remodel effect is bad in the early game, you're helping your opponent even more for letting him trash his Coppers or get a Silver for an Estate, you can use it in the end game to remodel your treasure card in respective Victory card. The best option without above mentioned supporting cards may be the Gold gaining. The Silver can be really bad for your opponent in a Colony game or if he builds a deck with high action density. And you can pick up Governors over Golds because you can get Golds with Governor later. That leads to a state where Governor can combo with itself. Gain many Governors, choose the gain Gold option every time. With many Governors and Gold in your deck use a few Governors for +3 cards and the rest to remodel your Gold into Provinces in a mega turn. Its power in a thin deck shows the rank #3 ▲3 in the best openings for Governor/Chapel.
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| #5 ▼1 Hunting Party (Cornucopia) Weighted Average: 5.98 ▲0.14 / Median: 5 ▲1.5 / Mode: 5 ▲2 / Standard Deviation: 3.0 ▲1.1 Highest Rank(s): #3 (8x) / Lowest Rank(s): #13 (1x), #14 (1x), #17 (1x)
Another big gap of 2.4 points and we're in the Top 5. It has a really low deviation, because it was never voted first or second, but has no really bad votes. It loses one rank although it is a little better than last time. It would stay on #4 if we take the unweighted ranking into account.
After Stables and Laboratory, Hunting Party is the best non-terminal hand-size increasing $5 card. The advantage is the even better filter effect than Stables to get the cards in hand you really need. It's also an engine on its own, just have one Gold and at least a Silver and a good terminal action which gives you at least $2, like Goons, Monument, Horse Traders, Haggler or Baron. With at least 5-6 Hunting Parties you are almost guaranteed a Province each turn because you only have few different cards in your deck and get those all in hand. Going green doesn't hurt you much (only Duchies) and with Cursers you only need a Hunting Party more to filter Curses. It's not strictly better than Laboratory if there are no different cards left in your deck, but that mostly occurs only if you already have a very strong deck or you have a heavily trimmed deck what you don't need when you go for Hunting Parties. The only thing you have to watch out in such a deck is when to trigger the reshuffle so you get at least a Hunting Party in the next hand again. Hunting Party/Chapel is the #22 ▲2 best opening.
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| #4 ▲3 Ill-Gotten Gains (Hinterlands) Weighted Average: 5.91 ▲3.41 / Median: 5 ▲2 / Mode: 4 =0 / Standard Deviation: 4.3 ▲4.4 Highest Rank(s): #1 (1x), #2 (1x), #3 (6x) / Lowest Rank(s): #15 (1x), #20 (1x), #28 (1x)
Ill-Gotten-Gains is no attack per se, but we could call it the third best $5 attack card instead of Ghost Ship. It went up 3 ranks and over 3 points and its deviation is halved, so the agreement is high. It also has one first rank. It is on #5 in the unweighted ranking. But in this list it was very close too, it has a lead over Hunting Party of only 0.07 points.
I remember reading Ill-Gotten-Gains the first time and it seemed not that strong. You have only a one-shot curser to get a better Copper? The previously high deviation showed that many players thought about it that way. But that's not like it is. A Ill-Gotten-Gains Rush is really strong. Just buy Ill-Gotten-Gains every time you get to $5. The optional extra Copper make that possible. With a 5/2 opening it's even possible to deal out a Curse before the opponent's first reshuffle, especially for the first player. When the IGGs are gone, the Curses are gone too, so you just have to empty the Duchy pile to win the game and IGGs give enough money to accomplish this. Often you are even able to pick up a Province in between. But you have to be sure to hit your opponent. While these Curses are nearly unstoppable, not even with Moat or Lighthouse (making IGG even stronger), with Trader or Ambassador on the board the Curse pile won't be empty if you empty the IGG pile and your opponent may have enough time to pick up enough Provinces before you empty 2 piles. The same applies with other Cursers on the board. But in all other cases when IGG is on the board, a IGG rush is probably the dominant strategy. It has currently the highest per gain win rate of all kingdom cards (1.21 ▲0.01), even higher than Grand Market or any alternative victory card.
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| #3 =0 Wharf (Seaside) Weighted Average: 3.52 ▲1.37 / Median: 3 ▲2 / Mode: 3 ▲2 / Standard Deviation: 2.0 ▲0.5 Highest Rank(s): #1 (8x) / Lowest Rank(s): #8 (2x), #14 (1x)
Wharf is the best non-attack $5 card. There is no doubt, it has only one rank below #10, it was 8 times first and it has the lowest deviation of all $5 cards too. It was 27 times on #3. It has a lead over Ill-Gotten-Gains of 2.4 points.
+2 Cards are mostly weak. The benefit you get in this turn is pretty weak too. But the duration effect of +2 Cards without playing an action is like 2 Caravans or if you played 2 Laboratories at the start of your next turn. And Laboratory is already a #15 Card of the same cost. If you have 2 Wharves and you play them alternating each turn, you start each turn with 7 cards and basically each Wharf is a Council Room without the drawback of giving your opponent an additional card. And as already mentioned the +Buy for a terminal draw is really nice too, you need it with so many cards in hand. You can use Wharf for Big Money with less probability of colliding (because of the duration effect) or you can build an engine. In combination with Fishing Village you are almost guaranteed big hands (like you're playing Double Tactician) and even have enough Actions left for Attacks. No matter if you're going Big Money or build a engine with it, Wharf is so strong that those games are over very quick. Wharf's draw and +Buy is also good for Fool's Gold, making Wharf/Fool's Gold the #12 ▲32 best opening. Wharf/Chapel is "only" on #46 ▼19.
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| #2 =0 Witch (Base) Weighted Average: 2.55 ▲1.20 / Median: 2 =0 / Mode: 2 =0 / Standard Deviation: 4.4 ▼0.1 Highest Rank(s): #1 (20x) / Lowest Rank(s): #10 (1x), #23 (1x), #26 (1x)
It was very close, even closer than last year, but Witch is only #2. With 20 first and 27 second places there is no doubt about such a high rank. It has two strange outliers and was only voted 7 times outside the Top 5.
Cursers are the strongest cards in the game, I think everyone agrees. There are only 5 guaranteed Cursers, one gives you no benefit and only costs $4, another one is a one-shot and ranked #4 on this list, the third one has Potion in its cost and the fourth is a Prize Card. So Witch is a guaranteed Curser with no drawback and definitely one of the strongest cards in the game. Not only you can curse your opponent, you get 2 additional cards. Have you ever played your King's Court with Witch? This is basically "Game Over" for your opponent. The defense with Witch on the board is mostly to get it for yourself, faster than your opponent and play it more often. Witch/Chapel is the #4 ▲1 best opening, but it is good with every 5/2 split. It is in the Top 100 14 times, even Witch/nothing is on #93 ▼40.
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| #1 =0 Mountebank (Prosperity) Weighted Average: 2.41 ▲1.12 / Median: 2 ▼1 / Mode: 1 =0 / Standard Deviation: 4.2 ▲1.0 Highest Rank(s): #1 (29x) / Lowest Rank(s): #16 (2x), #18 (1x), #22 (1x)
As already said, the decision was close, only 0.14 points between those two cards. But it has 9 more first places and was only voted 6 times outside the Top 5 even though its outliers are even less explainable.
Witch already is very strong, but Mountebank managed to beat it again. Yes, it cannot deal out curses guaranteed, but dealing out 2 junk cards per play is really strong and if the opponent has a Curse in hand, he is mostly behind in the Curse split anyway. So, it's stronger in the beginning where junk hurts you more. Your deck can get clogged up so fast. Then it may not hit every time in the middle game, but when the Curse pile is empty, you can still deal out Coppers, that's another advantage. While $2 is mostly weaker than +2 cards (especially in Colony games), there's no big difference in Cursing games as your deck has more junk and it's more difficult to get a money average of $1 per card at the start anyway. So, it really depends on the board which card is stronger, but mostly it is Mountebank because it hurts more. Just beware with Trader on the board or you may be giving your opponent 2 Silvers. Another reason for Mountebank being first is the opening list. Mountebank/Chapel is the overall best opening =0. Mountebank is 13 ▼1 times in the Top 100, with Mountebank/nothing even on #64 ▼35.
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