Game log:
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201108/09/game-20110809-133112-64a64f51.htmlMuch like the
combo that's currently on the front page, looks like Baron/Duke works pretty well. In the above game, I went for it, while my opponent went for a draw chain involving Menagerie, Envoy, and Rabble with money, and won by a large margin despite my opponent picking up three early provinces before switching horses mid-race to contest my Duke/Duchy dominance.
Like Horse Traders, Baron is a pretty good way of getting extra buys while also guaranteeing that you'll get $5 on a whole lot of turns. Its advantage seems to be that it allows you to spam Estates for a few extra VP without worrying about greening up your deck (and the Estate-gaining ability helps your weaker turns be less useless), while the disadvantage is that you require three different cards (Baron, Estate, Copper) to hit $5 instead of (Horse Traders, Copper, Copper), which might be easier to hit.
In the game above, I was further helped by the presence of Gardens (which is always nice in a +buy deck which is already spamming coppers and greens as part of its strategy), but they didn't end up being worth as much as my Dukes/Duchies, and the points I got from them weren't the difference between winning and losing here, so I think they didn't have much effect on the game.
A couple insights from the simulator:
-A simple version of this strategy (open Baron/Silver or Baron/Estate, then prioritize Duke/Duchy>Baron>Silver>Estate>Copper) beats Big Money Ultimate handily, and _Single Envoy narrowly.
-If you happen to hit an $8 turn, buying Provinces actually
hurts this strategy, since it makes it easier to end the game on Provinces instead of piles. It's a big enough difference that whether or not you have a Province buy at the top of the list is the difference between narrowly beating Envoy Big Money and narrowly losing to it.
-Loses narrowly to the equivalent HT/Duke strategy that was posted (using the same buy order I outlined above, but with HT instead of Baron).
-Gets stomped by Money+Attack decks (_Single Witch, BM Mountebank, and MB Militia all win around 75%).
And finally, stuff I wanted to ask you guys:
-What do you think my opponent should have done differently, if anything? Was switching strategies to fight me in the Duchy race a bad idea?
-If you're trying to pull this off, when (if ever) do you think it's a good idea to favor Estates over Silvers? Or should you just assume that, with all those Barons, you're going to empty Estates anyway and always favor Silver?