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Qvist

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Merchant Guild
« on: June 29, 2013, 12:35:46 pm »
+12

Alright, let's talk about Merchant Guild. Many commented that's it's a very weak card. I disagree. (This isn't a full article, just some comments)



Quote from: Donald X.
Merchant Guild: This started out thinking it could cost $4, like Bridge. As it turned out, it could not.

I can see why this is true. Coin Tokens are really powerful.
Merchant Guild feels like a duration card, all coin token cards in general do. But all other coin token generating cards let you spend the coin token right away. So, this is feels more like a Duration card as you get the good effect not before your next turn.

Let's compare it with a few cards.
Treasury and Merchant Guild have the same cost. Treasury gives you +1 Action +1 Card and +1 Coin this turn and a free coin the following turns as long as you don't buy a victory card.
Merchant Guild doesn't give you an Action and doesn't give you a card, instead only +1 Buy. This is really weak. But you get at least a Coin Token which you can spend on any following turn. So, this feels a little bit like an opposite Treasury. While Treasury is good early in the game in ramping up your economy, Merchant Guild is the opposite. It's getting better later in the game.

I've seen many players buying Coppers from it right of the bat. I feel this is a misplay, similar to why additional Coppers for Goons is a misplay because usually you want to play your good stuff more often early on and those Coppers prevent that. But in slogs this might be a good move as those Coin tokens will be super handy soon. But you can pick up those Coppers as soon as you green and then it's great.

Similar why you could combine both effects from Duration cards into one card to get a feel for its strength (So Caravan is like a Lab, especially if you play one each turn) we could do this here too. Merchant Guild is then a Woodcutter at worst, which is pretty weak, sure. But even if the coin token is delayed, I think a fictional card that says: "+1 Buy +1 Coin. Gain a Coin Token" would be a solid $4 cost card, just only because it's strictly better than Woodcutter, but also mostly better than Nomad Camp. But Merchant Guild is later in the game mostly like "+1 Coin. Gain 2 Coin Tokens. Gain a Copper" if you ignore the delayed effect. A terminal Gold for the cost of a Copper feels like a Mandarin or a Count, so is already a solid $5 cost card.

Interactions with other cards:
I've picked Merchant Guild up for the +Buy and the gaining of coin tokens only a lot of the times. But, so far we are totally ignoring the stacking effect where the true power is revealed. It shines more with other cards that give you coin tokens because you can save some coin tokens and then use the additional buy in not only buying a Copper, but two good cards. It's even better if your deck manages to give you additional buys. As you may have noticed, Candlestick Maker is a very powerful $2 cost card and gives you not only Coin Tokens but also giving you +Buys. A stack of CMs and some MGs is already a very solid deck. While you're using some buys to pick up CMs and get 2 Coin Tokens instead of the normal 1 Token you can start greening much earlier. Play 4 CMs and a Merchant Guild, buy what you want and 5 Coppers. You just gained 10 Coin Tokens! That should be enough for a couple of Provinces in the next couple of turns! (This is just an example, I'm not saying that you should do this)

Multiple Merchant Guilds
As you already can see Merchant Guild is great in setting up an engine with cheap engine pieces like Hamlets. You get a little bit loss of tempo, but you have a lot of endgame speed up and control (coin tokens give you in general a great endgame control). Now let's have a look at multiple Merchant Guilds. Here's where it's start getting crazy. If you have 2 Merchant Guilds in play, you usually should buy at least 2 cards and at that point you usually have some coin tokens, so you really should spend some, because you get them right back. If you buy 2 cards, you get 4 Coin Tokens (for $6 total), so you have a terminal Gold in Merchant Guild (as said before), but not for the cost of a Copper, usually you can buy useful stuff for that. But your goal if you want to setup a Merchant Guild mega turn engine is at least 3 Merchant Guilds in play. This is usually right when you want to starting greening so that you have 4 Buys which you should all spend for 12 Coin Tokens so that each Merchant Guild was like a terminal $5, but even better: In Coin Tokens.

Let's have a look at some examples:

http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130627/log.50745d1a0cf28ed55d9d6498.1372373202581.txt

Here I've built a Hamlet/Library draw engine with Merchant Guild as my endgame mega turn plan. I loaded up on the Hamlet because they are really important for me as I will need all the +Buys for Merchant Guild. This was probably a mistake, an early Merchant Guild while picking up Hamlets would have been great. 5/2 would have been awesome here. I got my first Merchant Guild only in turn 8 as I picked up a Library earlier. My opponent already bought his first Province the turn before. Turn 10 was my first bigger turn where I bought my second Merchant Guild and an Ironmonger. My opponent then bought his second Province. I was getting worried because I need at least one more Merchant Guild and especially more Libraries. My opponent bought his third Province in turn 12 and I got really really unlucky with a hand of "Merchant Guild, Library, Copper, Estate, Library". The turn after I got unlucky again, but I knew I had to get coin tokens now, so bought 3 Coppers for 3 Coin Tokens only. 2 dud hands and I felt I already lost. Turn 14 for my opponent and his fourth Province while I had none. Then I had to start greening. In turn 15 I bought a Province with only one MG in play. I had to use 1 Coin Token, but got 3 back. Opponent buys Duchy then - still down 21 points. In turn 16 my engine finally starts kicking in. I get all my Merchant Guilds in play and can buy a Province and a Duchy and 4 Coppers for 18 Coin Tokens! My opponent buys another Duchy, I'm still down 15 points with only 2 Provinces left. But with so many coin tokens I'm not that worried anymore. I can buy 2 Provinces and 1 Duchy and 2 Estates for a 2 point win on the last turn. Man, this was great and shows in my opinion the strength of a Merchant Guild megaturn and how you can "equalizing" the loss of tempo you get from buying those at the beginning. What's even better in those games is that even if you aren't able to finish this turn you can delay the game in picking up Duchies while still getting Coin Tokens and try to finish the next turn. This end game control is great.

http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130628/log.50745d1a0cf28ed55d9d6498.1372458377575.txt

Let's ignore the fact that I got 4/3 on a board with Familiar that basically was an auto-win here. I was just wanted to show you: Man, Scrying Pool+Village+Merchant Guild is amazing. Let's just look at the last turn where I got 5 Merchant Guilds in play to get 30 Coin Tokens. That's just crazy. One or two more turns and I could have piled out the Provinces.

Summary:
Merchant Guild is no top $5 card, but it's definitely way better than many on the forums commented. It has many uses (Slogs, other Coin Token cards, Engines with cheap components) and is not only useful in megaturn strategies, but there it can really really shine.

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Re: Merchant Guild
« Reply #1 on: July 01, 2013, 10:21:46 pm »
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One feature that seems to me important with an MG engine is figuring out how to grow your pile of coin tokens continuously. Early on, that happens because even though you've only got one MG and you're only buying one or maybe two cards per turn, you're also not necessarily spending many coin tokens - just using them instead to round out buys. But once you start having two or three MG in play, you can often have enough money from other sources that even if you spend all your existing tokens on buys, you still end the turn with more tokens than you started. I've only played three or four games with it so far, so I think I've never made purchases that individually gave me more coin tokens than the price of the buy (other than maybe a copper or two), but if your engine can buy one or two cards with its ordinary money (whether from actions or coin cards), then you can still often get this sort of growth going.
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Re: Merchant Guild
« Reply #2 on: July 02, 2013, 12:29:56 am »
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Here's a nice game I played with Merchant Guild + Scrying Pool.  Very powerful (though, I would have preferred Goons!)

http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130630/log.507522bf0cf284b7e3427f27.1372644868152.txt
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Re: Merchant Guild
« Reply #3 on: October 15, 2013, 03:51:29 pm »
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I don't really see that MG interacts with other token providing cards (besides butcher, naturally, tho MG is little different from other sources of coin tokens in this regard). 

Quote
It shines more with other cards that give you coin tokens because you can save some coin tokens and then use the additional buy in not only buying a Copper, but two good cards.
On the contrary, saving up tokens to use on turns with MG is rather like treading water.  ("Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place.")

More generally, the more buys you use, the more coins you get from MG, and if you can buy stuff that helps you (copper usually hurts), so much the better.  Thus, the point here is that MG does well with cheap non-terminals or with big engines that churn out lots of $$.

Quote
It's even better if your deck manages to give you additional buys.  As you may have noticed, Candlestick Maker is a very powerful $2 cost card and gives you not only Coin Tokens but also giving you +Buys. A stack of CMs and some MGs is already a very solid deck. While you're using some buys to pick up CMs and get 2 Coin Tokens instead of the normal 1 Token you can start greening much earlier. Play 4 CMs and a Merchant Guild, buy what you want and 5 Coppers. You just gained 10 Coin Tokens! That should be enough for a couple of Provinces in the next couple of turns! (This is just an example, I'm not saying that you should do this)

Unless you want copper (slog), buying copper for the tokens is something you'll only want to do in the endgame.  So, the point here seems to be that excess buys lengthen the life of your engine by allowing you to go hard for green and buy lots of copper but still be able to hit $4-6 very reliably for several turns (lots of copper + lots of tokens makes this quite easy). 

How often this is likely to be useful isn't clear to me.  It sounds good on paper, but you'll have to leave two provinces during your big turn in order for your longevity to make a difference, but a strategy that produces a big turn is likely to be relatively slow in getting off the ground, so will leaving provinces in the supply allow you to surpass your opponent who, if she's playing money, probably has ~3 provinces and a duchy or two already?  So this is probably going to be best in the presence of alt-VP like Fairgrounds/Silk Roads/Gardens that allow you to profit more from a longer game.
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Robz888

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Re: Merchant Guild
« Reply #4 on: October 15, 2013, 03:57:28 pm »
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My current analysis of Merchant Guild is that it is something of a weak card, and is vastly less essential than the other $5 coin token producers, Baker and Butcher.
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Re: Merchant Guild
« Reply #5 on: October 15, 2013, 04:04:37 pm »
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I would say that it is usually not great, but it can be amazing.  I had a game where I literally could spend all the money I wanted, and I was getting stopped by how many buys I had.
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Qvist

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Re: Merchant Guild
« Reply #6 on: October 15, 2013, 04:19:08 pm »
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I don't really see that MG interacts with other token providing cards (besides butcher, naturally, tho MG is little different from other sources of coin tokens in this regard). 

Quote
It shines more with other cards that give you coin tokens because you can save some coin tokens and then use the additional buy in not only buying a Copper, but two good cards.
On the contrary, saving up tokens to use on turns with MG is rather like treading water.  ("Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place.")

More generally, the more buys you use, the more coins you get from MG, and if you can buy stuff that helps you (copper usually hurts), so much the better.  Thus, the point here is that MG does well with cheap non-terminals or with big engines that churn out lots of $$.

Quote
It's even better if your deck manages to give you additional buys.  As you may have noticed, Candlestick Maker is a very powerful $2 cost card and gives you not only Coin Tokens but also giving you +Buys. A stack of CMs and some MGs is already a very solid deck. While you're using some buys to pick up CMs and get 2 Coin Tokens instead of the normal 1 Token you can start greening much earlier. Play 4 CMs and a Merchant Guild, buy what you want and 5 Coppers. You just gained 10 Coin Tokens! That should be enough for a couple of Provinces in the next couple of turns! (This is just an example, I'm not saying that you should do this)

Unless you want copper (slog), buying copper for the tokens is something you'll only want to do in the endgame.  So, the point here seems to be that excess buys lengthen the life of your engine by allowing you to go hard for green and buy lots of copper but still be able to hit $4-6 very reliably for several turns (lots of copper + lots of tokens makes this quite easy). 

How often this is likely to be useful isn't clear to me.  It sounds good on paper, but you'll have to leave two provinces during your big turn in order for your longevity to make a difference, but a strategy that produces a big turn is likely to be relatively slow in getting off the ground, so will leaving provinces in the supply allow you to surpass your opponent who, if she's playing money, probably has ~3 provinces and a duchy or two already?  So this is probably going to be best in the presence of alt-VP like Fairgrounds/Silk Roads/Gardens that allow you to profit more from a longer game.

Merchant Guild is a card with a delayed effect. That means that you lose tempo early game only to gain tempo in the end game. That is also true with Coin Tokens in general. That's why Coin Token cards help in general. Nothing is more frustrating than getting a good Double Merchant Guild early game with no other economy all around, but if you already got a few coin tokens from another card you can spend them, as you will get some of them back.

I agree that you have to definitely wait until you buy Copper. But Merchant Guild is still no Goons where you totally can ignore Provinces. All I'm saying is that if you are able to get like 5 buys and 2 MGs in play, this is already end game. I'm not talking about a big loss of tempo here as I'm not aiming for a mega turn. Let's say a Stables draw engine with a Forager or Market Square mixed in and Shelters (for Necropolis). Merchant Guild is here the perfect terminal as you can go green pretty early. On the turn you manage to get 4 buys with 2 MGs in play you can get 8 Coin Tokens and the Coppers aren't that bad as you still have Stables. This should be enough to get a Province for a couple of turns in a row. Or let's take Wandering Minstrel and Merchant Guild. WMs filter for Merchant Guilds and if you manage a triple Merchant Guild turn, go ahead and buy those Coppers. 12 Coin Tokens are worth it, even if you didn't green already as the WMs will help you to still filter. Of course just a few example that may help you what I mean. Merchant Guild is a decent payload if the board lacks strong terminal attacks. You don't have to always go for a mega turn, but don't underestimate the power of coin tokens.

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Re: Merchant Guild
« Reply #7 on: October 15, 2013, 04:23:39 pm »
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My current analysis of Merchant Guild is that it is something of a weak card, and is vastly less essential than the other $5 coin token producers, Baker and Butcher.

Yeah, I did say that it isn't a very strong card. It's average at best. But this thread was just to show where it shines, how it can be used and that it's still way better than many comments here suggest, like "This should cost $4, it's so weak". No it shouldn't, no it isn't.

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Re: Merchant Guild
« Reply #8 on: October 15, 2013, 04:39:47 pm »
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I'd like to see that case taken up a bit more explicitly.  Why is it not a $4 cost card?
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Re: Merchant Guild
« Reply #9 on: October 15, 2013, 04:46:30 pm »
+1

Quote from: Donald X.
Merchant Guild: This started out thinking it could cost $4, like Bridge. As it turned out, it could not.

...

Similar why you could combine both effects from Duration cards into one card to get a feel for its strength (So Caravan is like a Lab, especially if you play one each turn) we could do this here too. Merchant Guild is then a Woodcutter at worst, which is pretty weak, sure. But even if the coin token is delayed, I think a fictional card that says: "+1 Buy +1 Coin. Gain a Coin Token" would be a solid $4 cost card, just only because it's strictly better than Woodcutter, but also mostly better than Nomad Camp. But Merchant Guild is later in the game mostly like "+1 Coin. Gain 2 Coin Tokens. Gain a Copper" if you ignore the delayed effect. A terminal Gold for the cost of a Copper feels like a Mandarin or a Count, so is already a solid $5 cost card.

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Re: Merchant Guild
« Reply #10 on: October 15, 2013, 05:56:55 pm »
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I'm still convinced that this card is much better priced at $4, and even then I'd actually prefer Bridge more than half the time.

Quote from: Donald X.
Merchant Guild: This started out thinking it could cost $4, like Bridge. As it turned out, it could not.

...

Similar why you could combine both effects from Duration cards into one card to get a feel for its strength (So Caravan is like a Lab, especially if you play one each turn) we could do this here too. Merchant Guild is then a Woodcutter at worst, which is pretty weak, sure. But even if the coin token is delayed, I think a fictional card that says: "+1 Buy +1 Coin. Gain a Coin Token" would be a solid $4 cost card, just only because it's strictly better than Woodcutter, but also mostly better than Nomad Camp. But Merchant Guild is later in the game mostly like "+1 Coin. Gain 2 Coin Tokens. Gain a Copper" if you ignore the delayed effect. A terminal Gold for the cost of a Copper feels like a Mandarin or a Count, so is already a solid $5 cost card.

These are really vague analogies that I don't think show anything. Most importantly, it doesn't mention at all how the card actually plays in practice, because if you're often using it as "+1 Coin. Gain 2 Coin Tokens. Gain a Copper" you're misplaying it grossly, and if that were it's main use it would be worth getting only very rarely, as gaining the Copper is really bad most of the time.
« Last Edit: October 15, 2013, 06:00:14 pm by SheCantSayNo »
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Re: Merchant Guild
« Reply #11 on: October 15, 2013, 06:26:24 pm »
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I'm still convinced that this card is much better priced at $4, and even then I'd actually prefer Bridge more than half the time.

Quote from: Donald X.
Merchant Guild: This started out thinking it could cost $4, like Bridge. As it turned out, it could not.

...

Similar why you could combine both effects from Duration cards into one card to get a feel for its strength (So Caravan is like a Lab, especially if you play one each turn) we could do this here too. Merchant Guild is then a Woodcutter at worst, which is pretty weak, sure. But even if the coin token is delayed, I think a fictional card that says: "+1 Buy +1 Coin. Gain a Coin Token" would be a solid $4 cost card, just only because it's strictly better than Woodcutter, but also mostly better than Nomad Camp. But Merchant Guild is later in the game mostly like "+1 Coin. Gain 2 Coin Tokens. Gain a Copper" if you ignore the delayed effect. A terminal Gold for the cost of a Copper feels like a Mandarin or a Count, so is already a solid $5 cost card.

These are really vague analogies that I don't think show anything. Most importantly, it doesn't mention at all how the card actually plays in practice, because if you're often using it as "+1 Coin. Gain 2 Coin Tokens. Gain a Copper" you're misplaying it grossly, and if that were it's main use it would be worth getting only very rarely, as gaining the Copper is really bad most of the time.

I agree. I think it would see more play at $4 and not be at all broken.
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Re: Merchant Guild
« Reply #12 on: October 15, 2013, 09:35:16 pm »
+1

I don't think your first example game really shows a great merchant guild game. Four Provinces in 17 turns isn't good enough. It still shows the poor initial income from the merchant guild and how the delay in earning coins stunts deck development and endgame closure. I suspect that the same deck with highways instead of merchant guild would have been as strong if not stronger.

My difficulty with merchant guild isn't the lack of endgame power. My problem with merchant guild is that it seems hard to find the right time to add it into any deck. In that first example you had to essentially create your hamlet/library engine before getting any benefit from the merchant guild. The guild should theoretically be used to provide cheap engine components from extra buys/coins yet it doesn't provide the income to construct that engine until your engine is already in place! This is my consistent problem with merchant guild.
« Last Edit: October 16, 2013, 05:47:23 am by DG »
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Re: Merchant Guild
« Reply #13 on: October 15, 2013, 09:41:49 pm »
0

I don't think your first example game really shows a great merchant guild game. Four Provinces in 17 turns isn't good enough. It still shows the poor initial income from the merchant ship and how the delay in earning coins stunts deck development and endgame closure. I suspect that the same deck with highways instead of merchant guild would have been as strong if not stronger.

My difficulty with merchant guild isn't the lack of endgame power. My problem with merchant guild is that it seems hard to find the right time to add it into any deck. In that first example you had to essentially create your hamlet/library engine before getting any benefit from the merchant guild. The guild should theoretically be used to provide cheap engine components from extra buys/coins yet it doesn't provide the income to construct that engine until your engine is already in place! This is my consistent problem with merchant guild.

Yeah, but Highway wasn't in the game. So, I guess that's not a valid argument.
I don't know. I think it's a really good example. I didn't play perfectly and had bad shuffle luck. That's why the start was horrible and the game took much longer. But still I was able to win and had the control about the end game. I think this shows well the power of Merchant Guild in this particular game. But that's just my point of view...

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Re: Merchant Guild
« Reply #14 on: October 18, 2013, 01:38:56 am »
0

Four Provinces in 17 turns isn't good enough.
Agreed, and to expand on this, 17 turns to 4 Provinces is the BMU average.

In the second game, except for the last turn, there's only one point where you receive more coin tokens from a buy than the card cost in coins. (A Scrying Pool on turn 16.) That means you're not getting more bonus $ than Bridge would give you. One way Bridge might be better: on turn 11 (the first time you play MG), you could have left the Potion on top, then spent the 3 Copper, Potion, and Bridge on SP+Village. On turn 12, you might have drawn that Village, allowing you to play both Bridge and Moneylender on that turn, instead of being stuck choosing between MG and Moneylender. Etc.
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Re: Merchant Guild
« Reply #15 on: October 18, 2013, 11:18:46 am »
+1

The reason that Merchant Guild doesn't cost $4 is how quickly they escalate as more of them are in play. $4 cards are much easier to accumulate than $5 cards. I'd rather have 7 Bridges played than 7 Merchant Guilds in play. But the far more common scenario is that I have 3 or so. I'd much rather have 3 Merchant Guilds in play than have played Bridge 3 times. I'm almost always willing to buy a few Coppers for 12 Coin tokens; that could easily clinch the game for me right there.

I think the community's perception is biased toward super mega engines, which are much more practical in 2-player games.
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Re: Merchant Guild
« Reply #16 on: October 18, 2013, 03:10:04 pm »
+2

I think MG costs $5 because money smoothing is pretty great. One MG is arguably quite a bit better than one Bridge.
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Re: Merchant Guild
« Reply #17 on: October 29, 2013, 07:40:40 pm »
+6

I just played another great Merchant Guild game against PitrPicko (semi-finalist of GokoDomII).
http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20131029/log.50745d1a0cf28ed55d9d6498.1383089035572.txt



Code: [Select]
Scrying Pool, University, Watchtower, Cutpurse, Talisman, Wandering Minstrel, City, Merchant Guild, Merchant Ship, Soothsayer
This is basically the Merchant Guild dream board. University/Watchtower is already great on its own. Scrying Pool and Wandering Minstrels have a nice interaction. Merchant Guild helps here with the buys for getting a Potion cost card and a second card. And Watchtower could even trash Coppers that you buy with Merchant Guild in play (just like with Goons). I totally ignore Soothsayer on this board although there is no trashing (beside Watchtower in hand to trash them immediately).

So I open Watchtower/Potion, buy University and another Watchtower on the next shuffle. Then I get already the perfect turn 5. I can gain Merchant Guild from University and put it on top of my deck to draw it in this turn. The coin token I got was perfect for money smoothing as I needed it in the following turn to buy a second Potion. On turn 8 I could again use another token to smooth and buy Wandering Minstrel and a third University (and gain 2 more tokens). On turn 11 the engine already kicks in and I needed another token to get to $5, but get 2 tokens back because I have two Merchant Guilds in play. Now I can accumulate tokens quickly.

tl;dr: Turn 16:
Code: [Select]
Qvist plays 3 Copper, 1 Silver, 1 Potion
Qvist uses 38 coin tokens

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Re: Merchant Guild
« Reply #18 on: October 30, 2013, 05:12:05 pm »
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I just played another great Merchant Guild game against PitrPicko (semi-finalist of GokoDomII).

Not opening silver/potionWT/potion here on 4/3 is kind of suicidal, though. And 16 turns seems a bit long to me. T7, e.g., should've been two trashed curses. You don't want silvers and you drain a pile. And I don't think you want to buy coppers (t11). I'm not sure, it's half a province and you have all these WM but I would hesitate to buy them even for 4 tokens. Certainly not for 2 tokens (t13).

And then again (although i really like MG, too): What if MG had been bridges here?

Edit: sorry, my mind and my fingers were not working in the same directions. I was still puzzled why you would want to open silver here.
« Last Edit: October 30, 2013, 06:20:14 pm by lespeutere »
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dondon151

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Re: Merchant Guild
« Reply #19 on: October 30, 2013, 05:21:16 pm »
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I thought Potion/Watchtower was a classical opening if you're only aiming for $2P.
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Qvist

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Re: Merchant Guild
« Reply #20 on: October 30, 2013, 05:40:47 pm »
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Like dondon said, I only want to get to $2P, I don't need to open Silver. Turn 7 I missed the second buy and trash for token, yeah and you're probably right that I don't necessarily need Silver at that point. I got the tokens for Copper because of WM indeed. I had so many of them that I didn't mind some Coppers. I find that getting Coppers is often more benefitial (or at least less hurtful) than with Goons.

If it would have been Bridge, I would have had trouble at turn 6 and 8 (and maybe turn 13) where I need the smoothing. Also, it gave me a lot of endgame control. Piles were running low pretty fast, so I could spend 5 coin tokens in turn 14 to buy 2 more Cities and gain 6 tokens back. With 2 Bridges I would have been 1$ short. I mean often it's not a big difference, but still both money smoothing and end game control is a big favor for Merchant Guild. Yeah, 16 turns doesn't seem fast and I was maybe overbuilding, but I wanted to play safe.

blueblimp

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Re: Merchant Guild
« Reply #21 on: October 30, 2013, 06:02:39 pm »
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I think MG is generally overrated but even I admit that MG/Watchtower is a great combo.
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lespeutere

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Re: Merchant Guild
« Reply #22 on: October 30, 2013, 06:21:06 pm »
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I edited my post to what I actually meant.  ::)
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Qvist

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Re: Merchant Guild
« Reply #23 on: December 06, 2013, 06:23:44 pm »
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Certainly one of my favourite cards. What is your maximum number of coin tokens you collected?

75 in turn 13: http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20131206/log.50745d1a0cf28ed55d9d6498.1386348818120.txt
73 in turn 14: http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20131206/log.50745d1a0cf28ed55d9d6498.1386360857424.txt

In the first game I triggered a dumb reshuffle, otherwise I probably could have ended the game next turn in a megaturn. I love Merchant Guild.

Schneau

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Re: Merchant Guild
« Reply #24 on: December 06, 2013, 06:33:18 pm »
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Certainly one of my favourite cards. What is your maximum number of coin tokens you collected?

75 in turn 13: http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20131206/log.50745d1a0cf28ed55d9d6498.1386348818120.txt
73 in turn 14: http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20131206/log.50745d1a0cf28ed55d9d6498.1386360857424.txt

In the first game I triggered a dumb reshuffle, otherwise I probably could have ended the game next turn in a megaturn. I love Merchant Guild.

Here's what I don't get: at first glance, it seems like Bridge would have been better in either of these situations, allowing you to pile Provinces on that turn instead of getting lots of coin tokens.
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