Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[anatomist]

I've played a few dozens of games now, so I'm still in the beginner group, but this following scenario has come up a few times and I don't know how it is supposed to be handled. Maybe I'm just missing a very basic rule that would explain this and I've not seen it.

I've assembled a deck in several games now that basically allows me to continue drawing cards and the cycle never ends.
Imagine a deck full of council rooms and festivals with some other cards mixed in.  It allows me to keep my actions and draws going forever. I may end up with 8 cards in my hand due to the council room, then have other cards to play which are discarded. As I play them, I can draw more cards which I do from my deck. I then run out of cards in my deck and reshuffle my discard pile, placing them back in the draw pile (the deck). Then I continue to play the cards in my hand, which give me more actions and additional draws.
I end up in a never-ending cycle of drawing, playing, discarding, reshuffling, drawing, playing, discarding... All the while gaining +$2 and + 1 buy, + 1 or 2 action forever.

Is that just a quick way to win the game or what?
Thanks.

[Jimmmmm]

Your cards should stay in play; they aren't discarded until the Clean Up phase at the end of your turn.

[eHalcyon]

Jim is correct; any card you play is not yet discarded and thus does not yet go back into the deck if you trigger a reshuffle in the middle of your turn.  You cannot play the same card more than once a turn, the exception being Throne Room (and some expansion cards -- King's Court, Procession, Counterfeit).

[anatomist]

AAAhhhhhhh! Thank you.

[Kuildeous]

I'm sure that BGG has a play mat that you can print out, but imagine the play area as having the following sections:

* Draw deck
* Discard pile
* Play area

The play area contains the action cards you played and treasures you played.

There is also a "set aside" area for when you flip through your deck for something specific. For example, when you play Adventurer, you flip over cards until you reveal two treasure cards. If your draw deck runs out, you don't shuffle those with the discard, as they are in a different area. They go into your discard after you resolve Adventurer.

Some cards create little pockets that are untouchable through other means. Haven, Island, and Horse Trader all place cards in special little places.

[Drab Emordnilap]

Some cards create little pockets that are untouchable through other means. Haven, Island, and Horse Trader all place cards in special little places.

Technically, Haven and Horse Traders also move cards to the "set aside" zone. Not that anything else interacts with them there.

[GendoIkari]

Some cards create little pockets that are untouchable through other means. Haven, Island, and Horse Trader all place cards in special little places.

Technically, Haven and Horse Traders also move cards to the "set aside" zone. Not that anything else interacts with them there.

f.ds: Taking a simple answer to a simple rules question and making it into a complex pedantic thread about edge cases since 2011.

 

[SirPeebles]

I remember making this mistake during my first few games with friends.  There was definitely a collective "ohhhh" when we realized why the rulebook made such a big deal about having a third phase. 

But this was before we understood the ABCs of dominion. Action. Buy. Clean-up.

[Morgrim7]

I made this mistake too...along with a bunch of other weird ones like +$3 meant gain three coppers...ugh..

[Cuzz]

I made this mistake too...along with a bunch of other weird ones like +$3 meant gain three coppers...ugh..

My main one was stuff like, buy gold, put into hand, play gold, buy something else.

[Kuildeous]

I made this mistake too...along with a bunch of other weird ones like +$3 meant gain three coppers...ugh..

This error is actually quite common. It's gotten to the point that when I explain the game, I specifically point out that when a card says +$X, you do not actually get a card for that. It just goes into your coin pool, which treasures also contribute to.

I can see how it comes about, though. The first time you play the game, you aren't thinking about coin pools. You're looking at this myriad of 16+ cards, thinking, "Where the hell do I even begin?"

[RichardNixon]

One fun way to take an advantage of a deck like this however is secret chamber. After you draw your whole deck, you can play a secret chamber to discard everything except a few council rooms or something. Then you can draw them again, and play a second or third secret chamber to discard them over and over.

[SirPeebles]

In this thread I describe a buy phase engine megaturn which replays the same few cards over and over again while gaining them, emptying three piles at once.  But this is an edge case.

http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=4050.msg86383#msg86383

[SirPeebles]

One fun way to take an advantage of a deck like this however is secret chamber. After you draw your whole deck, you can play a secret chamber to discard everything except a few council rooms or something. Then you can draw them again, and play a second or third secret chamber to discard them over and over.

This works really well in a scrying pool deck.  After drawing your deck, discard all of you action cards aside from a single scrying pool to secret chamber/vault/store room.  Then play the scrying pool to draw them all back at once.

[^_^_^_^]

I'm sure that BGG has a play mat that you can print out...

Does anyone know if there is such a thing? It would help me this Christmas when I shall introduce my family to Dominion.

[qmech]

I'm sure that BGG has a play mat that you can print out...

Does anyone know if there is such a thing? It would help me this Christmas when I shall introduce my family to Dominion.

It could be this, but I don't have a BGG account to check the download.  (It's the first hit on Google.  Interestingly, most of the results seem to be for somewhere to lay out the supply, rather than a playing aid.)

[Jeebus]

Spielbox came with Dominion play mats at some point. Not recently. A friend of mine have these and laminated them. They have spaces for deck, play area, and discard.

[TWoos]

I'm sure that BGG has a play mat that you can print out...

Does anyone know if there is such a thing? It would help me this Christmas when I shall introduce my family to Dominion.

It could be this, but I don't have a BGG account to check the download.  (It's the first hit on Google.  Interestingly, most of the results seem to be for somewhere to lay out the supply, rather than a playing aid.)

I downloaded that one before.  It's a player mat, and it's very useful for a new player, not so much for anyone else.  There are better fan-made mats with areas for set-aside, duration, and so on.

[Polk5440]

In this thread I describe a buy phase engine megaturn which replays the same few cards over and over again while gaining them, emptying three piles at once.  But this is an edge case.

http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=4050.msg86383#msg86383

... and ends in finite time, while the rules error in the OP may cause a turn that does not.