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[timchen]

Well, seeing Blooki's interesting puzzles I cannot help but trying to make one myself. Here it is:

One day, you introduce your friends to Dominion. Three newbies are eager to know the awesome game.

Knowing they are smart, you start directly from a random setup. The setup turned out to be pathetic however, as there are no +2 action cards, and no cards that draw two or more than it discards (also excluding Watch Tower and Library). Your friends cannot wait to start the game, so 4 of you nevertheless just sit and start.

"It's ok, without those +actions and +cards, the game shall be simpler and quicker." You think.

Alas, it is not the case. All of your friends, despite being noobs, notice immediately a very powerful card you somehow overlook. Goons. In no time, each of them has more than two copies of it, and practically every single turn everyone is hit by Goons.

"Not fun." Says one of your friends. "Really. We just sit here, not being able to afford much, and forces other to be the same."

This annoys you. As your favorite game ever, you cannot stand someone criticize it. At the same time, the deck you are planning is finally completed. And you just have the perfect draw.

"Really, let me show you why I like the game so much."

From this turn on, you score 20+ VPs every turn. With any kind of draw. (until the supply depleted of course...) Your friends are wowed.  They now become keen Dominion players as well!

What did you do?

Edit: I forgot to warn, that while the constraints are strictly obeyed, the other descriptions may not be so accurate. After all this is a puzzle, and the answer I have in mind is pretty unrealistic to build for in a real game.

Edit2: Sorry the original constraint is incorrect. I meant to say those cards that increases your hand size do not exist...

Edit3: it turns out that the problem is actually somewhat harder than I think. Let me, therefore, gives further hint below:

The first hint:
In my solution, in addition to the cards mentioned below by WanderingWinder, there are several other important cards. The most tricky ones I think, are
Haven and Pearl Diver.


Now If you looked at the hint above, and still have no clue, here is a further hint.
In my solution, You need five of them each.

[WanderingWinder]

multiple horse traders, possibly other stuff too. And definitely King's Court

[timchen]

Yes, yes, and yes.

Edit:

Let me add a hint (Or rather, another constraint):
Presumably, there exists some answer which involves KC on +1 card +1 action cards to draw a large enough hand to work with. My solution does not have this. Also, it is easy to check in my solution that no matter what the draw is, you can gain the same amount of VPs every turn, provided that the supply does not run out.

[Blooki]

Does Tactician violate the card-drawing constraint?

[timchen]

I would say so. I didn't use the card. You are welcome to post a solution with the card though.

[Blooki]

Scrying Pool & Minion off limits, yes?

[timchen]

Ouch. Found a bug in the wording. Yes, the Scrying Pool is off limits. Minion, however, is ok in my standards... I have to change the wording to reflect this. Thank you for reminding me this!

Not that I am saying I use minions though.

[timchen]

Didn't see further response after half a day... kind of disappointed 

Let me say some other things about the puzzle. The constraints (no +2 actions, no cards draw two or more than it discards) are actually meant to help. (Unlike some of Blooki's puzzle where the key is in some sense to find a loophole in the constraint ) The intended solution does not need those cards. And I have a feeling that the intended solution is among the simplest that satisfies the conditions (hit by goons every turn, gain 20+ VP every turn, regardless of draw), with or without the constraint.

Therefore, if you find a solution satisfying the condition but not the constraints, you are welcome to post it too. Just one requirement: no Scrying Pool.

The hints are, of course, not necessary to know to solve the puzzle.

[nomnomnom]

If you allow finishing the game in one turn many (silly) solutions are possible.
e.g.
Your deck consists of Chapel, 10x Grand Market, 10x Conspirator, 9x Market, 9x Minion, 9x Peddler, 1x Bridge, 9x Treasury and 9x Bazaar and your hand is 3x Grand Market. You will be able to buy all Provinces in one turn and end the game.
or
Because of Chapel and Island your deck consists of Minion, 3x King's Court and 3x Bridge. Your hand is Minion and 2x King's Court. King's Court on King's Court on Minion lets you draw King's Court and 3x Bridge and King's Court on King's Court on Bridge lets you buy all the Provinces.
or
In your deck you have no other Actions aside from Golems, 1x Counting House and 2x Pawn. Also you have 24x Copper in your deck and only three Provinces are left in the supply. Your hand is 2x Pawn and Golem. You play the Pawns with +1Action/+1Buy and the Golem-Counting House-Combo will put the 24x Coppers in your hand. You buy the last three Provinces and end the game.
or
Because of Black Market your Fairgrounds are worth 20 VP each and there are only 2 Fairgrounds left in the supply. Your hand is Chancellor and 2x Stash and you have a 3rd Stash in your deck. You can buy one Fairgrounds this turn and if you put the Stashes on top of your deck you will be able to buy one next turn as well.

[timchen]

Good point! Indeed it is sort of a loophole in my description. Indeed, even if I implied that your engine works for more than one turn, I cannot deny that your Fairground+Stash engine is a valid answer.

Let me therefore add the following hint/constraint for my intended answer (or some other answer that might exist as well):

In the purest form, I am expecting some engine which after a turn the deck is unchanged. That means without the supply issue you can get points indefinitely, something similar to KC*2 Monument*3. (Only in that example you really don't need the supply at all...)

On the other hand, I think it would also be very interesting, if you can find a way to gain 20+ points, in 5 consecutive turns, with or without adding cards to your deck, for any draw. Since my solution can only last for 5 turns given the supply constraint, I think this should count as a solution as well.

And a clarification which I hope is assumed but can also work as another hint: I said in the description that you just got the perfect draw, this includes the hand you start with in that particular turn, some duration cards you played the turn before that, and the discard pile you end up with after the clean-up phase the turn before. The deck order in that turn, however, is not included. This is because when I said you got the perfect draw, you haven't started the turn. Certainly, after this particular turn you cannot assume any of the above by luck.

[Blooki]

Didn't see further response after half a day... kind of disappointed 

Sorry, but just FYI and a little about myself. I'm a total binger. I'll be obsessed about something one day and put it out of mind the next. Also, weekends are always busier than weekdays for me. I'll get cracking tomorrow.

[timchen]

You don't have to be sorry. My own problem actually... I somehow just ended up with a very interesting problem (or rather, very interesting solution) and was eager to see what others think about it.

[Blooki]

To be honest, a big part of it is just that the puzzle is hard. Without Watchtower, I'm having a lot of difficulty guaranteeing success irregardless of deck-state w/o a convoluted proof after bloating the deck w/ buys. I'm thinking it has something to do w/ Havens and maybe effective trashers.

[timchen]

Ok, here is some further hint to my solution:

1. Suppose you can draw 8 cards in the clean-up phase every turn. Can you use a 8-card deck to generate 20+ VPs per turn, without altering the deck?

2.In the settings (hit by Goons every turn), is there a way to consistently draw the 8 card "payload" by a bunch of other cards, at the same time controlling your draw in the next turn, so that you can "rinse and repeat"?

Without Goons, 2. is pretty easily achieved using Tactician.

[timchen]

Here comes the solution!

Your entire deck contains 5 Horse Traders, 5 Havens, 5 Pearl Divers, 3KCs, 2 Explorers, 2 Bishops, 2 Cellars, and 1 Province.

In the turn before the perfect draw, you set aside a Haven and a Cellar with two Havens. You draw 5 HTs in hand, and either there are no cards in your discard pile, or there are no more cards in your draw deck.

When hit by Goons, you reveal all the HTs and set them all aside. In your turn you draw 5 extra cards and get the 5 HTs back in hand, as well as a Haven and a Cellar which you have set aside last turn. All the remaining cards are now in the draw pile. You play the Cellar, discard all the HTs and draw another 5. Now you play Pearl Divers if you have them until you've played three, moving all the Havens or Cellar to the top of your deck if you see them at the bottom. After you have played three or when you don't have one in hand, you play Haven, setting aside a Cellar if you have it in hand, or otherwise a Haven. After you have set aside both, just continue to play PDs, causing a reshuffle with a single PD unplayed in hand. Now your deck contains only the five HTs you discarded. You play KC*3, Explorer*2 (reveal Province every time), Bishop*2 (trash all the Golds you gain from Explorer) to get 4*6=24 VPs. Do not play your last PD under the last KC chance.


In the cleanup phase, you draw the 5 HTs. Rinse and repeat.

It is easy to count that to set aside a Haven and a Cellar you need 5 Havens total. You need 5 PDs because you need 3 to pull 2 Havens and a Cellar from the bottom of your deck in the worst case, another one to cause a reshuffle, and finally the last one, which you might draw on the one you used to cause a reshuffle, and cannot be played since you will draw a HT otherwise.

In my original intended answer I thought 2 Havens and 4 PDs can do the job. It turns out if Haven is the second-to-last card in the deck with the last one being anything but Cellar, this scheme does not work. I have to set-aside one Haven to help me overcome this situation, which causes another Haven in the deck to be drawn, hence one more PD as well.

[rinkworks]

Oh my goodness.  That solution is amazing.  I'd never have gotten it -- never even come close -- but props to you for an incredibly interesting scenario.