We hear a lot around here about "hard counters" and "soft counters." But what are they? The term has floated around the gaming world for some time, particularly in the video game world. They simply mean this: A hard counter is a response to an attack that not only renders that attack nearly or completely useless, it may well convert the attack into an outright benefit. A soft counter is a response to an attack that still causes some damage to be suffered, but less damage than if that counter had not been played. One can extend that concept to plays beyond mere attacks; more on that later.
In Dominion, the textbook case of the hard counter is the Moat: It shuts down every Attack in the game, and it makes giving opponents Curses significantly harder. It may not make the Curses systematically go away as with Watchtower, but at least it holds them back, plus it can deal with any other Attack. Ambassador? Not happening. Saboteur? Haha, you've completely wasted that card now. And Donald X was kind enough to include the Moat on the recommended first-game board, something that gives newbies a little bit of security from that pesky Militia.
Some hard counters, by contrast, are situational to the Attack. One case of this is the Sea Hag, whose hard counters include Jack of all Trades and Lookout: Both of these cards are guaranteed to hit the Curse just gained, so long as that Curse hasn't already been moved (say, with another Sea Hag). Jack already knows that the next card is worthy of being trashed, and if he already had a Curse in his hand, he can just discard that top-of-deck Curse. Lookout loses its single biggest liability after a Sea Hag gives you a Curse: It is guaranteed to hit at least one card you know you want to trash.
One soft counter to Sea Hag is Farming Village. It doesn't get rid of the Curse; it just moves it to your discard pile. But by doing so, at least you'll see the Curse on one fewer shuffles. Considering that Curses' deck-clogging can be just as bad, if not worse, than their -1 VP, this can make a difference in a close game.
Note that a soft counter to one attack can be a hard counter to another, and of course, it may not counter a third attack at all. Again, Farming Village provides a great example. Its soft counter to Sea Hag is even softer against other cursers, because those Curses start in your discard pile. But against top-of-deck attacks such as Spy, Fortune Teller, and especially Rabble, suddenly Farming Village becomes a hard counter. Have you ever been unfortunate enough to have to put three Victory cards back on your deck because of a Rabble chain? No problem, just play a Farming Village and discard them all, plus any additional Victory or Curse cards immediately behind them. Bonus points if any of those cards are Tunnels!
Possibly the defining hard counter in the game is when Scheme is the Bane to Young Witch. All you have to do is pick up a Scheme and keep putting it back on top after every turn that you play it, and presto--Young Witch is completely shut down. It becomes nothing more than a very bad Warehouse. Aside from Minion, your opponent will likely have a great deal of difficulty overcoming this.
Speaking of Minion, that introduces the ideas of soft and hard counters to strategies, not just Attacks. Has your opponent stocked up on Treasuries? Play a discarding attack. What about an everlasting KC-KC-Scheme-Scheme hand? Minion wipes that out. But be careful, Minion has ways of being hard-countered, such as via Tunnel, or Library, or Horse Traders...
The line can get a little fuzzy when trying to figure out where the line between "hard counter" and "soft counter" is. Few would argue that Library is anything but a hard counter to Militia, because not only does playing it in response give you +5 Cards unconditionally, you can go right past any Actions, meaning you are guaranteed to not draw any actions dead (unless your deck is very thin). But what about Watchtower, which is still strong but a strictly worse reaction to Militia? And Jack of all Trades, which would be just a Smithy-plus-benefits? I still think the case can be made that all three are hard counters, because while Watchtower and Jack don't get you as many cards as Library does, they do other things that make them powerful. So perhaps it is not just the card's reacting to the Attack, but what it does in addition, that can help separate hard from soft counters? Let the jury decide.
Now it's your turn. What are some of your favorite hard counters and soft counters, other than the ones listed here?
