| #10 Native Village (Seaside) Weighted Average: 51.0% ▼0.3pp / Median: 47.4% ▼5.9pp / Standard Deviation: 19.2% ▼2.7pp Highest Value(s): 94.4% (1x), 89.5% (3x) / Lowest Value(s): 26.3% (5x), 15.8% (1x)
Native Village has nearly the same value, but loses a rank in comparism to last year if we ignore Dark Ages cards. It would also have been a rank higher if we would take the unweighted ranking into account. It has also the second highest deviation in this list.
The problem with NV is that you get no immediate benefit beside the +2 Actions. If you use it as a cheap village you only draw 1/2 card per play. But that's not the intended use. But you can use it either as a pseudo-trasher by putting bad cards on the mat. But normally it fails that you cannot choose the card to put there. You need assistence with cards like Spy or especially Apothecary. The best use may be to use it for mega-turn with a lot of buys. NV+Bridge is the most effective combo. It's also neat on boards with heavy cursing to either forge a big hand or to get at least once to $6-$8.
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| #9 Pawn (Intrigue) Weighted Average: 52.4% ▲3.2pp / Median: 52.6% ▼0.7pp / Standard Deviation: 14.0% ▲3.1pp Highest Value(s): 86.7% (1x), 84.2% (1x), 73.7% (1x) / Lowest Value(s): 27.8% (1x), 15.8% (2x)
Pawn is now better than Native Village and has the same rank as last year even though one Dark Ages card is still coming. And like said before it would be on #10 with the unweighted ranking. And having a real bad deviation last year, this year it has way more agreement.
Pawn is bad if you don't know how to play it and simply use it as a cantrip. But it can be very useful as a cheap source of +Buy and in the beginning it's mostly a cheap Silver if you use it for card + money. Its flexibility makes it good. But it's not great, but can be very useful in a lot of case. It's great as source of +Buy or +$1 in Minion games and is good in engines with draw-up-to-X cards like Watchtower. It can win your game because you picked it up for +Buy but normally it's no game-changer. And if you use it for card + action it at least doesn't hurt.
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| #8 Haven (Seaside) Weighted Average: 56.7% ▼1.7pp / Median: 57.9% ▼2.1pp / Standard Deviation: 17.5% ▼3.0pp Highest Value(s): 94.7% (1x), 80.0% (1x), 78.9% (6x) / Lowest Value(s): 21.1% (2x), 0.0% (1x)
Haven is on the same rank as last year (ignoring Dark Ages). This time it has two big outliers on both sides. One voted it second and one voted it last, this caused the drop in consensus this year.
Haven reduces your hand size by one, but your next hand size is bigger, that hurts very rarely, so it's like a mini-Tactician. And this ability to minimize draw luck is great. You have $11, just set a Gold aside. You have $7, just set a Copper aside. Two terminal actions in hand, no problem. A village you don't need this turn, etc. You get your maximum out of your money and your actions. It's a very good card, but no game-changer what may be the reason why it isn't a tier 1 card. It supports every strategy but isn't a strategy on its own. Still it's one of the best $2 cost cards for a 5/2 opening split. Trading Post / Haven is the best Trading Post opener on #14 ▼5 and Mountebank / Haven is on #23 ▼8.
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| #7 Crossroads (Hinterlands) Weighted Average: 64.9% ▲3.2pp / Median: 68.4% ▲8.4pp / Standard Deviation: 14.4% ▲0.7pp Highest Value(s): 89.5% (1x), 84.2% (6x) / Lowest Value(s): 40.0% (2x), 36.8% (1x), 13.3% (1x)
We make the next bigger gap and come to another card which stays where it was. Crossroads only has 7 below average votes with one bigger outlier and now already some really high votes. Its rating is also way better than last year.
Crossroads is the only card with +3 Actions so far (yeah Fishing Village has it too in some way). And this can be very useful. The problem is the luck factor you need with that card. If you buy it early and get a hand with 4 coppers, you wish it were a Silver or one of the next $2 cards. Later you draw it with 3 Estates and you draw now your Vault and you can buy a Province for sure. It combos well with cards that take advantage of big hands. So Crossroads + Vault is very good as is Wharf/Crossroads. And of course it's great with your good $5 attacks, especially setting up a Torturer chain. Baron + Crossroads is also nice because it gives you the actions to play multiples and you can much easier connect Estate and Baron together. Crossroads is rarely a reason to go green earlier, but it helps a lot in the end game and can assure you won't lose your buying power. And sometimes there are so many good terminals that you only want it for its 3 Actions. As mentioned above another problem is that it only synergizes with victory cards not with curses what makes it a worse alternative to Cellar in cursing games. Drawing without having to discard is often better because you have targets for other cards, for example trash-for-benefit cards. Torturer / Crossroads is the second best Torturer opener on #85.
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| #6 Squire (Dark Ages) Weighted Average: 70.9% / Median: 73.7% / Standard Deviation: 17.8% Highest Value(s): 100% (1x), 94.7% (4x) / Lowest Value(s): 42.1% (5x), 26.3% (1x)
Squire is the best Dark Ages card in this list without a doubt. It is also the first card which got voted first. But it has a pretty high deviation as it is still new and has a big outlier with 26.3%. It was voted 8 times below average.
Squire is strong because of its flexibility similar to Pawn. Squire's first option +2 Actions is stronger than Pawn's +$1, +1 Action and can be useful in engines or when Squires collide. Squire's second option +2 Buys is also stronger than Pawn's +1$, +1 Buy and can be very useful in buying more Squires, in alt-VP games like Gardens games where buying Coppers isn't that bad and of course in engines where having extra buys is very important. And Squire's third option, gaining a Silver is a great choice whenever you don't need Actions or Buys and can be great if you go for Feodum or any other alt-VP too. And there's its on-trash effect which is very powerful. You can open Chapel/Squire, trash down your deck and gain a Goons on the way. It only misses the draw, but is useful in any engine and most alt-VP games.
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| #5 Lighthouse (Seaside) Weighted Average: 75.6% ▼1.5pp / Median: 78.9% ▼1.1pp / Standard Deviation: 13.2% ▲0.6pp Highest Value(s): 100% (2x), 94.7% (1x) / Lowest Value(s): 52.6% (2x), 31.6% (1x)
Lighthouse was on #4 last year, so it has lost one rank. It was voted only once below average and has really high consensus.
With Lighthouse on the board, you really need to evualate if it's worth buying a attacking engine. It may the best Reaction that isn't even blue. Why? Most important: It's non-terminal. Unlike Moat, it cannot collide with other terminal actions or another copy. Second: It gives you money. It may look like a Copper, but after you play it, you are safe and get even another $1 the next turn. No surprise Trading Post / Lighthouse is the #21 best opening. Without the reaction part it's still nearly as good as Silver, but on boards with heavy attacks, it's clearly superior to Silver. You only have to make sure you play one Lighthouse each turn.
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| #4 Fool's Gold (Hinterlands) Weighted Average: 81.2% ▲4.9pp / Median: 84.2% ▲4.2pp / Standard Deviation: 14.4% ▲2.6pp Highest Value(s): 94.7% (9x) / Lowest Value(s): 52.6% (2x), 15.8% (1x)
Fool's Gold went up a rank and with the unweighted ranking taking into account it would have been even on #3. The was only one big outlier below average and a lot of votes on #2. It also gained a lot of consensus in comparism to last time. You might call it the winner of this list.
Going for Fool's Gold is its own strategy. If you buy just one or two, it mostly isn't worth it, because the reaction part isn't the strong part. You want FG in masses, in high density. With a card with money and +Buy and/or a card drawer it's really great and you have to go for it. Goal: Get as many FGs as you can. Margrave + FG, Wharf + FG (#11 best opening) or Nomad Camp + FG are good combos, Remodel + FG and Mine + FG as well, but you can get even higher density with Mint. Mint + FG is the fifth =0 best opening on Councilroom. That may reason enough that FG deserves to be in the Top 5. Connecting at least two FG isn't that hard if you've got lots of them. And then it's better than Silver. But you really have to analyze when to buy it. On boards with strong cursers where it's unlikely to connect them, it's one of the worst cards - on other boards it's the best card.
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| #3 Courtyard (Intrigue) Weighted Average: 82.4% ▼1.1pp / Median: 84.2% ▼2.5pp / Standard Deviation: 14.1% ▼2.6pp Highest Value(s): 94.7% (8x) / Lowest Value(s): 47.4% (1x), 42.1% (1x), 33.3% (1x)
Courtyard is only slightly better than Fool's Gold and with the unweighted ranking it would be on the fourth rank. It even got 3 votes below average and 1 vote less on the second place then Fool's Gold.
Courtyard is really great with Big Money. Like Haven it minimizes shuffle luck by putting a card on top of the deck, so if you have too much money or a second Courtyard in hand, that's no problem. But you don't get a 6 card hand like with Haven. But the card draw makes it one of the best Big Money enablers and that's outstanding for a $2 card and if you compare it with Smithy which costs $4. Its concept is simple but very effective. Don't underestimate the power of Courtyard. Additionally Courtyard is also a good drawer in engines as you can put your strong colliding terminal action also on top of your deck. So it's nearly everytime a very strong card.
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| #2 Hamlet (Cornucopia) Weighted Average: 88.2% ▲3.7pp / Median: 89.5% ▲2.8pp / Standard Deviation: 11.3% ▼0.3pp Highest Value(s): 100% (4x) / Lowest Value(s): 66.7 (1x), 46.7% (1x), 44.4% (1x)
Hamlet is on the same rank as last year and got 4 first rank votes. It was only voted twice below the upper third and gained a lot of points with a rise of 3.7pp
It's one of the best villages around. Yes, you have to discard one card as "payment" for the second action, but if you really need the +2 Actions there's no problem for you to discard that Copper. And most important: Most engines lack +Buy. Hamlet may provide that for another card as payment. Even if you don't need the +2 Actions for your strategy, a non-terminal card with +Buy is always worth to buy. So, if you use both options, you have a Worker's Village for $2, but you have to "pay" for that options. And when you got your first Hamlet you can easily buy more Hamlets with that additional +Buy. With "draw up to" cards like Watchtower or Library it's brilliant and everybody's favourite for engine building. Of course it's not that useful in Big Money boards what may be the reason for many prefering the more flexible Courtyard over Hamlet.
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| #1 Chapel (Base) Weighted Average: 99.3% ▲0.9pp / Median: 100% =0 / Standard Deviation: 3.0% ▲1.1pp Highest Value(s): 100% (48x) / Lowest Value(s): 89.5% (3x), 88.9% (1x)
Really, that's still no surprise. A nearly perfect score, it got even better ratings and has a higher consensus with only 3% of deviation!
So, what's up with that uber-card? Even Donald X. admitted that Chapel is a little bit overpowered and he won't release another card so strong like Chapel in future expansions. Trashing is important in the beginning, and the cost of Chapel enables everyone to open with Chapel. As Councilroom shows it's veeery strong, but only if you open with it. You even want to start Chapel/Silver with 3/4. It's not every time a must-buy but in most occasions it is. It's so strong that you already can say you lost if your opponent opened Witch/Chapel and you have a 4/3 start. With Mountebank/Chapel on #1 =0, Govenor/Chapel on #3 ▼1 and Tournament/Chapel on #4 ▲2 it's three times in the Top 5 openings, 6 times in the Top 10 and 29 ▲2 times in the top #100. So, its power is undeniable. I do agree that it's more often skippable than it used to be, especially on Big Money boards or other boards with strong key cards which you want ASAP.
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