Dominion Strategy Forum

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Pages: [1]

Author Topic: Combo: Ill-Gotten Gain/Develop  (Read 6716 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

shark_bait

  • Saboteur
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1103
  • Shuffle iT Username: shark_bait
  • Luckyfin and Land of Hinter for iso aliases
  • Respect: +1868
    • View Profile
Combo: Ill-Gotten Gain/Develop
« on: November 01, 2012, 01:39:30 pm »
+5

Combo:  Ill-Gotten Gains/Develop

If you are reading this article, I’m sure that you are well aware of the infamous IGG/Duchy rush strategy.  In fact, this very strategy has been featured on the front page of the blog already.  The gist of this strategy is to buy things that are good at getting $5 and then when you have $5, you buy IGG.  Some exceptionally good enablers for getting to $5 include things like Ironworks, Horse Traders, Silver, etc…  You continue to buy IGG until around 2 are left in the supply and then start pounding the Duchy pile.  For a more complete discussion about the traditional IGG rush, I would recommend reading the article already posted. 

One card that has incredible synergy with IGG is Develop.  There are a few things that make Develop ideal for synergy with IGG which are summarized below:

1.)    It doubles the effective value of the card being trash – The main benefit here is that much of IGG’s cost is present in the on-gain ability.  When the card is in your deck, it would probably be a $2/3-Cost card because it is almost strictly worse than Silver with only strategies involving Gardens, Trader, Coppersmith, Counting House, etc. actually wanting the extra copper.  So let’s put this in the perspective of what Develop is doing; develop is essentially taking a $2/$3 cost card and converting it into both a $4 and a $6 cost card.  This leads me into the second point about develop…

2.)   It puts the gained cards on top of your deck – That pretty much sums it up.  The gained cards go on top of your deck.  The implication is that you get the benefit of them immediately on your next turn.  You don’t have to wait for a reshuffle and hope that they are on top of your deck.  You get them right away and thus the benefit right away.  This becomes essential toward the end game when you don’t know how many turns will be left.

3.)   It is cheap – Why does it matter that Develop is cheap?  The cheapness (only costs $3) means that you can buy it essentially whenever you want.  You don’t want to open with it because it will hinder you from your initial purchasing of IGG.  You want it sometime mid game when the IGG are running low and it’s about time for the Duchy* rush

*You are not playing a Duchy rush

Okay, so I’ve went through the individual reasons for why this works, it’s time to put it all together.  You are converting your lousy IGG into two powerful cards which will get you Provinces and not Duchies.  You will still probably end the game on Duchies, but the goal is to obtain enough Provinces to overcome a loss in the Duchy split.

With this combo, you will be using Develop to trash your IGG and place a $6 Gold and a $4-Cost card on top of your deck.  You want the $4-Cost to give you the best chance at reaching $8 on your next turn.  For that reason, terminal cash is often the best route.  And thankfully there are a lot of options as shown below:

The Candidates
Navigator
Nomad Camp
Cutpurse
Horse Traders
Conspirator
Bridge
Salvager
Militia
Monument   
Scavenger
Death Cart
Coppersmith
Remodel
Smithy

With the cards listed above most of them will net you with $5 from the 2 cards.  That means that in your other 3 cards, you must get $3.  With the amount of Copper, IGG and Silver in your deck already, that should usually be quite manageable.  There are a few different options in the list.  Trash for benefit cards like Salvager and Remodel will ensure that you get the Province at the cost of trashing the Gold.  Smithy runs off the assumption that you have mostly cash and drawing 3 cards will result in the required funds.  Horse Traders assumes that of the 3 cards, 1 will either be a Silver or an IGG. 

With this strategy, even though you are buying green, you are still improving your deck.  The consequence is that subsequent passes through your deck will find these improved cards which will result in even greater chances for hitting $8 again.  This deck even has the added bonus of having a built in safety feature.  If your Develop and $4-Cost card clash, simply develop the $4-Cost into an IGG/Develop thus guaranteeing development of IGG into Gold/$4-Cost next turn.  Once you've picked up a few provinces in this manner, your opponent will realize what is going on and if they have not followed you with a develop strategy, they are doomed to lose.  Their main source of victory is also their path to defeat.  They can not buy Duchies because you are winning and that accelerates the 3-pile.  And it is very clear that they will not be able to buy as many Provinces as you.  So when running this strategy, you still want to buy Duchies, but your primary objective is to get some Provinces so that you will comfortably win by piling out the Duchies.
« Last Edit: November 02, 2012, 08:14:37 am by shark_bait »
Logged
Hello.  Name's Bruce.  It's all right.  I understand.  Why trust a shark, right?

Is quite curious - Who is the mystical "Celestial Chameleon"?

Rabid

  • Jester
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 840
  • Shuffle iT Username: Rabid
  • Respect: +643
    • View Profile
Re: Combo: Ill-Gotten Gain/Develop
« Reply #1 on: November 01, 2012, 02:11:11 pm »
+2

Nice combo, 1 thing I would add.

When you draw $4 card + develop early game you get to gain IGG + develop to the top of deck.
Then next turn develop the IGG into gold + $4 card.
Logged
Twitch
1 Day Cup #1:Ednever

gamesou

  • Apprentice
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 291
  • Respect: +337
    • View Profile
Re: Combo: Ill-Gotten Gain/Develop
« Reply #2 on: November 02, 2012, 06:50:50 am »
0

For DA fans, you may also add Scavenger and Death Cart (guaranteed province!) to the list.

Logged
Designer of Chronos Conquest

Asklepios

  • Duke
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 394
  • Respect: +116
    • View Profile
Re: Combo: Ill-Gotten Gain/Develop
« Reply #3 on: November 02, 2012, 08:15:41 am »
0

I'd say Salvager/IGG is a strong combo in and of itself, as it accelerates towards the $5 to get the first IGG, turns IGGs into more IGGs, and later into Duchies or Provinces.

OTOH, I think Salvager/Develop/IGG could potentially be even better.
Logged

aaron0013

  • Explorer
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 308
  • Respect: +220
    • View Profile
Re: Combo: Ill-Gotten Gain/Develop
« Reply #4 on: November 02, 2012, 08:28:56 am »
0

I agree with your article entirely. There are usually several times in a game when you can't quite reach $5, and develop is that perfect solution! Getting a gold which nets $3 opposed to IGG which gives a copper and only nets $2 is definitely worth it!
Logged

() | (_) ^/

  • Minion
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 632
  • Shuffle iT Username: p4ddy0d00rs
  • Nemo dat quod non habet.
  • Respect: +526
    • View Profile
    • BGG profile
Re: Combo: Ill-Gotten Gain/Develop
« Reply #5 on: November 02, 2012, 11:06:36 am »
0

LOVE this combo, I've been playing it for some time now.

A few additions/clarifications.

- Nobles and/or Harem is also something to consider as your $6 top-deck, not just Gold.  Played an IGG/Develop with Nobles and Monument yesterday, rolled along amazingly as the topdecked Nobles averted a lot of terminal collision and allowed me to play the tons of Monuments that I was picking up.  And of course, the additional VP from Nobles (Harem works too) was also very good in a low-vp game like this.

- IGG/Develop into Gardens is also a thing.  Downside of putting a Gardens on your deck is mitigated by putting a Gold with it.
Logged

shark_bait

  • Saboteur
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1103
  • Shuffle iT Username: shark_bait
  • Luckyfin and Land of Hinter for iso aliases
  • Respect: +1868
    • View Profile
Re: Combo: Ill-Gotten Gain/Develop
« Reply #6 on: November 02, 2012, 11:17:16 am »
0

LOVE this combo, I've been playing it for some time now.

A few additions/clarifications.

- Nobles and/or Harem is also something to consider as your $6 top-deck, not just Gold.  Played an IGG/Develop with Nobles and Monument yesterday, rolled along amazingly as the topdecked Nobles averted a lot of terminal collision and allowed me to play the tons of Monuments that I was picking up.  And of course, the additional VP from Nobles (Harem works too) was also very good in a low-vp game like this.

- IGG/Develop into Gardens is also a thing.  Downside of putting a Gardens on your deck is mitigated by putting a Gold with it.

Thanks for the feedback, the reason for Gold (and not other 6's) is to keep the article more general.  Using Gold makes it a 2ish (needs a semi decent $4) card combo.  Once you get up to 3-card combos, the applicability for an article like this loses it use as the probability of seeing a game is very limited. 

As for Gardens, I think the better more broad addition would be to mention Alt VP.  Develop allows for the accumulation of VP from gaining and not buying.  VP at different cost increases the likelihood of being able to obtain those VP cards.

I'd say Salvager/IGG is a strong combo in and of itself, as it accelerates towards the $5 to get the first IGG, turns IGGs into more IGGs, and later into Duchies or Provinces.

OTOH, I think Salvager/Develop/IGG could potentially be even better.

Salvager definitely works too!  The benefit of Develop is that you don't cannibalize your deck in the process.

For DA fans, you may also add Scavenger and Death Cart (guaranteed province!) to the list.



Added, I'm not as Familiar to the DA cards because I've only played them IRL.
Logged
Hello.  Name's Bruce.  It's all right.  I understand.  Why trust a shark, right?

Is quite curious - Who is the mystical "Celestial Chameleon"?

() | (_) ^/

  • Minion
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 632
  • Shuffle iT Username: p4ddy0d00rs
  • Nemo dat quod non habet.
  • Respect: +526
    • View Profile
    • BGG profile
Re: Combo: Ill-Gotten Gain/Develop
« Reply #7 on: November 02, 2012, 01:51:02 pm »
0

.
« Last Edit: July 19, 2013, 10:23:52 am by () | (_) ^/ »
Logged

O

  • Jester
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 836
  • Respect: +605
    • View Profile
Re: Combo: Ill-Gotten Gain/Develop
« Reply #8 on: November 02, 2012, 01:55:01 pm »
0

No mention of Develop-Border Village-IGG (an all hinterlands lovefest)?  :(
Logged

() | (_) ^/

  • Minion
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 632
  • Shuffle iT Username: p4ddy0d00rs
  • Nemo dat quod non habet.
  • Respect: +526
    • View Profile
    • BGG profile
Re: Combo: Ill-Gotten Gain/Develop
« Reply #9 on: November 02, 2012, 02:04:01 pm »
+1

.
« Last Edit: July 19, 2013, 10:24:16 am by () | (_) ^/ »
Logged

DWetzel

  • Conspirator
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 246
  • The Human Edge Case
  • Respect: +272
    • View Profile
Re: Combo: Ill-Gotten Gain/Develop
« Reply #10 on: November 02, 2012, 03:45:21 pm »
0

Two potentially very useful "$4 for cash" that you forgot to mention:

Moneylender (which also synergizes in that, well, you've got IGGs around for copper)
and
Baron (especially useful if you've deck counted at all and know there's an estate likely to be coming, and + buy in case you hit the jackpot).
Logged

ftl

  • Mountebank
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 2056
  • Shuffle iT Username: ftl
  • Respect: +1345
    • View Profile
Re: Combo: Ill-Gotten Gain/Develop
« Reply #11 on: November 02, 2012, 04:28:58 pm »
0

Baron in an IGG deck doesn't seem like a good idea. Matching Baron to Estate would be so difficult with incoming curses and with your own coppers.
Logged

Kahryl

  • Explorer
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 323
  • Respect: +155
    • View Profile
Re: Combo: Ill-Gotten Gain/Develop
« Reply #12 on: November 02, 2012, 04:54:18 pm »
0

This combo can be expanded to:

"anything that gives on-buy benefit" combos with "any trash for benefit that scales with the price of the trashed card"

So:
Border Village
Ill-Gotten Gains
(and a bunch of lesser examples: Farmland, Nomad Camp, Inn, Mint etc)

combos with:

Apprentice
Salvager
Bishop
Develop
Remodel (and its 10 variants)
« Last Edit: November 02, 2012, 04:57:16 pm by Kahryl »
Logged

shark_bait

  • Saboteur
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1103
  • Shuffle iT Username: shark_bait
  • Luckyfin and Land of Hinter for iso aliases
  • Respect: +1868
    • View Profile
Re: Combo: Ill-Gotten Gain/Develop
« Reply #13 on: November 02, 2012, 06:10:27 pm »
0

This combo can be expanded to:

"anything that gives on-buy benefit" combos with "any trash for benefit that scales with the price of the trashed card"

So:
Border Village
Ill-Gotten Gains
(and a bunch of lesser examples: Farmland, Nomad Camp, Inn, Mint etc)

combos with:

Apprentice
Salvager
Bishop
Develop
Remodel (and its 10 variants)

Part of my motivation for this article was to try and go a bit more in depth with a card that people often look at (IGG) and automatically decide that the optimal strategy is the rush.  I suppose if I were to expand this article even more I would rather make it "Beating the Rush" and focus on cards/boards that beat an IGG rush.

The article you suggested definitely has a niche to fill and it would be great to see one written.  It also looks like it could be quite a large one.  Any takers?  ;) 
Logged
Hello.  Name's Bruce.  It's all right.  I understand.  Why trust a shark, right?

Is quite curious - Who is the mystical "Celestial Chameleon"?
Pages: [1]
 

Page created in 0.047 seconds with 21 queries.