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[HiveMindEmulator]

I know I'm not the best engine-builder, but the percentage of games where I draw my whole deck is quite low, <10%.  The focus of the article is on these rare situations.  ftl seems to say that BC isn't very good in those "middling" engines which seem to come up *much* more frequently (for me).  Does this mean BC is a niche card?

I don't think he means to imply that, though it's maybe not explicit enough in the article. The thing with Spoils is that it's a delayed +$3. If you can draw your deck every turn, this delay is just until your buy phase, which is perfect. But if you only half-draw your deck then you get $3 some time in the next 2 turns, which is not bad either. The quicker you get through the deck, the better it becomes. But even if it takes a while to get the spoils, it can't be that bad since it's at least a village, which is a very useful card.

[Guy Srinivasan]

I know I'm not the best engine-builder, but the percentage of games where I draw my whole deck is quite low, <10%.  The focus of the article is on these rare situations.  ftl seems to say that BC isn't very good in those "middling" engines which seem to come up *much* more frequently (for me).  Does this mean BC is a niche card?

I don't think he means to imply that, though it's maybe not explicit enough in the article. The thing with Spoils is that it's a delayed +$3. If you can draw your deck every turn, this delay is just until your buy phase, which is perfect. But if you only half-draw your deck then you get $3 some time in the next 2 turns, which is not bad either. The quicker you get through the deck, the better it becomes. But even if it takes a while to get the spoils, it can't be that bad since it's at least a village, which is a very useful card.

It's actually much better in an engine that draws your whole deck. If you can reliably draw your whole deck then you're "wasting" a bunch of +Card, so you get a free +$3. If you can't, then that +$3 still takes up a card, so it's really only worth something like +$3 - the average value of a turn divided by the number of cards you go through in a turn.

[flies]

It's actually much better in an engine that draws your whole deck. If you can reliably draw your whole deck then you're "wasting" a bunch of +Card, so you get a free +$3. If you can't, then that +$3 still takes up a card, so it's really only worth something like +$3 - the average value of a turn divided by the number of cards you go through in a turn.

Right.  i'm wondering what it's worth in a deck that doesn't draw itself.

[HiveMindEmulator]

It's actually much better in an engine that draws your whole deck. If you can reliably draw your whole deck then you're "wasting" a bunch of +Card, so you get a free +$3. If you can't, then that +$3 still takes up a card, so it's really only worth something like +$3 - the average value of a turn divided by the number of cards you go through in a turn.

Right.  i'm wondering what it's worth in a deck that doesn't draw itself.

It's still very good. It essentially gets you a village next shuffle and a gold the following one. I'd venture to say that if you're building an engine that needs villages, it will usually be preferable to Gold.

It's of course at its best when you can draw your whole deck, by the same argument that anything that gains a card is better when you can draw your whole deck, but it's still really good if you can't.

[clb]

I like how this article shaped up, ftl. Nice work. I sent the link on to my non-forum friend who is a fan of Bandit Camp.
I would suggest that another card to look out for as a Spoils-trashing risk (or as a good move) is Counterfeit. I felt like "the Spoils is leaving my deck anyway, so why not get double the use now and a +buy to boot?" It seemed like the right thing to do, but perhaps on the back end of the game, rather than the build-up phase?

Edit: can't spell.

[ftl]

If you play Counterfeit on a spoils, it doesn't end up being trashed. It is returned to the Spoils pile before Counterfeit has a chance to trash it. (Since counterfeit says "play it twice" and then "trash it", and the spoils returns to the spoils pile as part of playing it.)

It definitely works well with Spoils, though. Counterfeit+Spoils = $7 with a +buy, even better than Gold+Spoils.

[clb]

Good point. I sometimes get lost in the order of operations. play, return, play, fail to trash rather than play, trash, fail to return, play.

Edit: added blue dog in signature line for penance. 

[ftl]

I like my article and ima put it on the wiki now