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Author Topic: Official Dominion Tournament at U-Con, Nov 23, 2013, Ypsilanti, MI  (Read 41605 times)

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Polk5440

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Re: Official Dominion Tournament at U-Con, Nov 23, Ypsilanti, MI
« Reply #75 on: November 24, 2013, 10:25:26 am »
0


Game 2:  Haven, Urchin, Cutpurse, Horse Traders, Spice Merchant, Trader, Cache, Counting House, King's Court, Forge

This was the least interesting of the semifinals.  There is not potential for an engine, even with KC.  As it is, I went for a Single Trader and a Single Spice Merchant.  I was able to Cache in on the golden $5 with Trader in hand a couple of times.  I ended up winning this one on turns after I got $7/$7/$4 in my last 3 hands of the game.

Hmmm. I think I would have tried a single Cutpurse and a single Trader here. I would definitely pick up a Haven on $2, and might actually pick one up anyway -- a little smoothing could be good. Interesting that you went for Spice Merchant!
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Re: Official Dominion Tournament at U-Con, Nov 23, Ypsilanti, MI
« Reply #76 on: November 24, 2013, 11:12:47 am »
0

Group photo: http://www.adamhorton.com/files/dom01.jpg

Scout: http://www.adamhorton.com/files/dom02.jpg

Advisor: http://www.adamhorton.com/files/dom03.jpg

As I write this these are not cropped or anything, I may re-upload.
This needs more love!

Looks like a blast, I wish events like this weren't so far away.
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AdamH

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Re: Official Dominion Tournament at U-Con, Nov 23, Ypsilanti, MI
« Reply #77 on: November 24, 2013, 11:27:26 am »
+1

Group photo: http://www.adamhorton.com/files/dom01.jpg

Who is who? I know which one is robzy, no idea about you, lip or sharky.

Post edited with names. Sleep is a wonderful thing.
« Last Edit: November 24, 2013, 11:28:33 am by AdamH »
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AdamH

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Re: Official Dominion Tournament at U-Con, Nov 23, Ypsilanti, MI
« Reply #78 on: November 24, 2013, 12:23:32 pm »
+4

The pictures I linked to before have been cropped and re-uploaded. If you follow the logical progression you might find an outtake that I found particularly amusing  ;)

Colony, Platinum, Potions, Herbalist, Masterpiece, Swindler, Farming Village, Remake, Witch, Hoard, Bank, Expand, Peddler

My first game. It seemed to go very differently than most others. I opened Remake/Silver to play defense while one of my opponents opened Witch. My Remake misses the shuffle so I quickly get a second and third Remake to play catch-up. Villages go down quickly because you need them (the only draw is Witch) and before I can blink two piles are empty and there are only four curses. left. I grab a Province and on my next turn only two curses remain and there's a Witch in my hand. After some counting I realize I have the win so I take it. I was the only one with a positive score.

Native Village, Secret Chamber, Vagrant, Lookout, Bridge, Sea Hag, Butcher, Ghost Ship, Tribute, Harvest

This board. Ugh. I decide to open 5/2 and get Butcher/Native Village. One of my opponents telegraphs heavy Ghost Ships and the other, I'm not sure, so I aim to go for NV/Bridge. After getting my first NV from an Estate with Butcher and a Bridge, the other opponent starts in on the Sea Hags and immediately my Butcher goes to my NV mat. Crap.

I decide to stay the course and go to NV/Bridge still. I manage to get 6 NVs but even with the top-deck control I'm unable to stop ALL my coppers from getting stuck on the NV mat. I have to buy two Silvers to keep my economy up and it takes FOREVER to get enough cards on my NV mat. Ghost Ship guy starts getting Provinces and I only have two Bridges so I can't trigger yet. Sea Hag guy makes a deck that can do nothing but play Sea Hags, though, so I contemplate triggering just enough to take second for a while. But piles are not low so I continue to build.

Once the curses stop pouring in I manage to pick up five Bridges and I hear the 5-minute warning on time. If time runs out we all get one more turn until everyone has had an equal number of turns, so once we get the 1-minute warning (or piles are in danger) I plan to go off because I can put together a decent turn. The 1-minute warning does not arrive and they tell me my next turn would be my last (I had top-decked a Native Village to a Ghost Ship play). Minor freakout, but I show Elestan my Native Village mat and explain and he lets us all have one more turn.

I get everything into play (5 Bridges) and I play my Butcher to trash a curse. I mis-count thinking I needed one of the coin tokens to get 6 Provinces so I take a copper. Turns out I didn't need them and could have gotten an Estate. I tied with Ghost Ship guy for first place. Counting FTW!  ::)

Colony, Platinum, Potions, Courtyard, Develop, Menagerie, Warehouse, Fortress, Noble Brigand, Duke, Grand Market, Transmute, Apothecary

This board was so much fun to play. Most everybody else seemed to go Apothecary first, but I didn't want to do that. I figured it would be faster to try and thin with Develop, draw with Courtyard, and line up three Silver/Golds to get Grand Markets. I Develop 3-costs into Fortress/Courtyard on the deck and with some fortunate draws I get 7 Grand Markets. Very shortly I see a forced win on the 3-pile and take it. It seems a lot of people took a long time on this board but this game was very short for me. This probably had something to do with the fact that EFHW and I are both very fast players IRL, plus the 3-pile ending.

Duchess, Tunnel, Baron, Bishop, Jack of All Trades, Silk Road, Scout, Walled Village, Hunting Grounds, Count

Some played this board 4-player, but I played it 3-player. There's an engine to be built here, but in a 3P game I thought it might lose if the other two players both go for the slog, so I go for the slog with Count and Jack to support. I gain the living crap out of Duchies/Duchesses, but I only manage to trigger one Tunnel (that's me and Tunnel for you). I ended this game with like 76 points or something because I have seven 5-point Silk Roads, so I won this one as well.

Potions, Crossroads, Fortune Teller, Hermit, Rats, Highway, Knights, Rebuild, Harem, Vineyard, Golem

This was by far my least favorite kingdom, as it exemplifies everything I hate about Knights. Dame Trasher was on top, and with my first-player that I earned from the prelims I should have just opened 5/2 and got her, but I was worried that she would run into another knight before she did me any good and then I've done nothing to help my deck, so I opt for a more conservative Silver/Silver opening. This proves to be a costly mistake as my silvers constantly get either hit by Knights or skipped by Fortune Teller attacks, so it's three shuffles in before I ever hit $5. You make your own shuffle luck.

Dame Trasher sticks around for long enough to do what she needs to do, and I get some Rats for defense. One of my opponents sees this and says, laughing, to someone watching the game "look, he doesn't know how bad Rats is!" I thought he was kidding, turns out he wasn't and proceeded to lay into me for five minutes after the game about it. What a swell guy.

But Dame Trasher guy manages to put together a deck with only Crossroads and Platinum left and completely owns us. I got last. I hate how certain cards can provide opportunities to only one player and this is a prime example of that; Dame Trasher is the reason I now do not use Knights anymore in my home games (Sir Buys and Ruined Market don't seem to matter enough). Granted in this match I should have taken it and I deserved to lose because of it, but screw Knights. My only decision at this point is if I hate them more or less than Tournament. Humbug.

Fool's Gold, Squire, Doctor, Market Square(Bane), Menagerie, Shantytown, Watchtower, Young Witch, Merchant Guild, Pillage, Tactician

The only game I played with Probzt (Robz) the whole time, and this one was probably my favorite kingdom out of all the ones I played. Probzt was making puns the whole time, I guess he knows the way straight to my heart, so I may have been a little distracted  :P

So the Doctor opening is something we all do. I follow up with a Watchtower so I can buy and trash Squires for Pillages to get early economy while trashing Coppers with Doctor. The third guy goes for Doctor and Young Witch into money (no Fool's Gold, though, which I found weird) and Probzt and I go for a Double-Tactician engine with Merchant Guilds.

I lose a turn of pace when I draw my entire deck except for one card which is of course my other Tactician, Probzt pulls the trigger early, ending the game on piles in last place and I take second.

Poorhouse, Coppersmith, Gardens, Moneylender, Noble Brigand, Bandit Camp, Counterfeit, Ill-Gotten-Gains, Rogue, Thief

Everyone has a problem with this kingdom. I don't. Granted, if the guy going for the straight-up IGG/Gardens rush had gotten a Coppersmith at some point he would have probably beat me, but Thief/Gardens with Poor House support has me winning this one on turns.
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Elestan

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Re: Official Dominion Tournament at U-Con, Nov 23, Ypsilanti, MI
« Reply #79 on: November 25, 2013, 02:05:40 am »
+3

The 1-minute warning does not arrive and they tell me my next turn would be my last (I had top-decked a Native Village to a Ghost Ship play). Minor freakout, but I show Elestan my Native Village mat and explain and he lets us all have one more turn.
While I'd love to say I was just a softie, if I had given the one minute warning on schedule, I would have felt obliged to end the game anyway, regardless of the mountain of cards on your NV mat.  But you had the right to rely on that warning, so letting the game go one more round was the most fair way to remedy its lack.
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dethwing

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Re: Official Dominion Tournament at U-Con, Nov 23, Ypsilanti, MI
« Reply #80 on: November 25, 2013, 11:40:04 am »
+3

Quote
Duchess, Tunnel, Baron, Bishop, Jack of All Trades, Silk Road, Scout, Walled Village, Hunting Grounds, Count
I opened Jack/Silver and planned to just play double jack from last position, and maybe pick up some silk roads later if the game went long enough. Turn 3 I hit 2 dollars and picked up a duchess. Should have just passed I think, ended up trashing her later.
One guy went bishop/walled village and this helped my deck a ton, as I could trash on his turn and re-draw on mine. I thought I was comfortably ahead, but the game ended early when he trashed his one hunting grounds and emptied the estates out of nowhere. I tied for 2nd at 55, winning on turns.

Quote
Colony, Platinum, Potions, Herbalist, Masterpiece, Swindler, Farming Village, Remake, Witch, Hoard, Bank, Expand, Peddler


I felt the remake was strong enough defense against witch/swindler that I could ignore them. I opened silver/remake, and got 3 or 4 remake. I was able to clean all the junk out of my deck by the end, and won by remaking a bank into a province and farming village to end on piles.

Quote
Native Village, Secret Chamber, Vagrant, Lookout, Bridge, Sea Hag, Butcher, Ghost Ship, Tribute, Harvest
My opponents ignored ghost ship, and I locked them the whole game. I went native/village bridge and aimed for a mega-turn, which is not one of my strong suits. I pulled the trigger way too early and only won by a single point.

Quote
Haven, Urchin, Cutpurse, Horse Traders, Spice Merchant, Trader, Cache, Counting House, King's Court, Forge

From 3rd position, cutpurse/urchin scared the crap out of me. I wanted to go trader, but I left myself an openning by putting my 4 dollar hand second. If anyone opened cutpurse I was going to get horse traders. Fortunately, no one did, and one urchin didn't scare me. I only got trader/cache one time, but it was enough.


Quote
Fool's Gold, Squire, Doctor, Market Square(Bane), Menagerie, Shantytown, Watchtower, Young Witch, Merchant Guild, Pillage, Tactician[

The doctor opening was pretty obvious, and I decided to go with market square / fools good. It was good as the bane, as buys to get lots of fools gold, and triggered gold's off of the good doctor. I think I had 8 fools gold and was getting double province turns rediculously fast. This game was over in minutes.



Quote
Poorhouse, Coppersmith, Gardens, Moneylender, Noble Brigand, Bandit Camp, Counterfeit, Ill-Gotten-Gains, Rogue, Thief
I missed the thief/IGG interaction, and wish I had bought thief instead of coppersmith. One province was enough to overcome my garden deficit though.

Quote
Potions, Crossroads, Fortune Teller, Hermit, Rats, Highway, Knights, Rebuild, Harem, Vineyard, Golem
My least favorite kingdom, and the one I played the worst. I went straight rebuild, which got the smackdown from the knights. Managed 2nd place on a few colonies I managed to sneak by the knights.


Quote
Shelters, Potions, Platinum, Colony, Cellar, Scheme, Fishing Village, Baron, Marauder, Baker, Fairgrounds, Governor, Goons, Scrying Pool.
I really wish baker hadn't been in this set. I mean, I didn't lose because of it. I lost because I misplayed and bought a 2nd goons when I should have been focusing on Governors. But being able to open Goons was just so good, and first player advantage was pretty strong. As I said before, my 5 copper hand turn 3 was decimated by his turn 3 goons, and I felt like I was 2 steps behind the rest of the game.
I think library could have replaced the useless Baron. It's good defense against discard attacks, and combos wonderfully with fishing village.
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AdamH

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Re: Official Dominion Tournament at U-Con, Nov 23, Ypsilanti, MI
« Reply #81 on: November 25, 2013, 11:49:49 am »
0

I may be the only one, but I liked seeing Baron in the last set (with Shelters). It's a way of saying "if you want 8-point Fairgrounds you have to deal with MEEEE!!!!!" (well you don't HAVE to, but ya know...)
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Elestan

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Re: Official Dominion Tournament at U-Con, Nov 23, Ypsilanti, MI
« Reply #82 on: November 25, 2013, 11:14:19 pm »
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Quote
Shelters, Potions, Platinum, Colony, Cellar, Scheme, Fishing Village, Baron, Marauder, Baker, Fairgrounds, Governor, Goons, Scrying Pool.
I think library could have replaced the useless Baron. It's good defense against discard attacks, and combos wonderfully with fishing village.

That would break the one-card-per-set design rule; I'd need to use a card from Intrigue.  How about Masquerade?   :o

More seriously, how about Minion?
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dethwing

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Re: Official Dominion Tournament at U-Con, Nov 23, Ypsilanti, MI
« Reply #83 on: November 25, 2013, 11:26:56 pm »
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Wow, for some reason I thought Baron was from base set. Cellar was of course the base set card. Yeah, Minion would do the same job basically.
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Elestan

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Re: Official Dominion Tournament at U-Con, Nov 23, Ypsilanti, MI
« Reply #84 on: November 26, 2013, 01:02:14 am »
+1

Quote
Potions, Crossroads, Fortune Teller, Hermit, Rats, Highway, Knights, Rebuild, Harem, Vineyard, Golem
Quote
I get some Rats for defense. One of my opponents sees this and says, laughing, to someone watching the game "look, he doesn't know how bad Rats is!" I thought he was kidding, turns out he wasn't and proceeded to lay into me for five minutes after the game about it. What a swell guy.

If it makes you feel any better, you beat that guy's score solidly in both the prelims and semis.

I think that (as often happens with situational cards), many people first try to use Rats at the wrong time, or in the wrong way, and upon failing, defensively presume that it must be the card's fault, rather than questioning their use of it.  Rats isn't a deck-trimmer; it's a fast Remodel variant that turns a (presumably) useless card into a slightly less useless card.  Clearly, your opponent hadn't caught on to the defensive potential of Rats vs. Knights.

One of my design parameters for this Kingdom was to have deck thinning require the concerted use of two components (Rats to eat Copper, and either Hermit to convert Rats->Hermit->Madman, or an opponent's Knight to just slay the Rats outright).  But even though it's tricky to do, it's actually pretty fast, because Rats is a cantrip, Hermit can hit your discard pile (so you don't need to connect it with the Rats), and an opponent's Knight doesn't cost you an action and gives you the bonus card to boot.

Fickleness of the Knights aside, this is actually my favorite set of the tournament.  There are at least three very distinct strategies available, with a couple variants, and the right one to choose very much depends on what your opponents are doing.
« Last Edit: November 26, 2013, 09:00:27 am by Elestan »
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Elestan

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Re: Official Dominion Tournament at U-Con, Nov 23, Ypsilanti, MI
« Reply #85 on: November 26, 2013, 08:55:10 pm »
0

Dame Trasher guy manages to put together a deck with only Crossroads and Platinum left and completely owns us. I got last.
Incidentally, Colony&Platinum are not supposed to be in that Kingdom.  They were put in by accident, and by the time I noticed, play had already begun.
« Last Edit: November 13, 2014, 01:17:02 am by Elestan »
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Elestan

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Save the Date: U-Con Gaming Convention, November 14-16, 2014
« Reply #86 on: November 27, 2013, 10:57:32 am »
+4

The dates for the next convention have been announced, BTW:  November 14-16, 2014

I'm not promising to run another tournament right now, but if I do, that'll be the weekend.
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AdamH

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Re: Official Dominion Tournament at U-Con, Nov 23, Ypsilanti, MI
« Reply #87 on: November 27, 2013, 10:08:47 pm »
+1

Incidentally, Colony&Platinum are not supposed to be in that Kingdom.  They were put in by accident, and by the time I noticed, play had already begun.

That really changes things. In the game I played with this set, once people got Platina they stopped caring about Knights. In a Province game this kind of thing can never happen... on the other hand, it strengthens Rebuild a touch.
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Elestan

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Re: Official Dominion Tournament at U-Con, Nov 23, Ypsilanti, MI
« Reply #88 on: November 27, 2013, 11:19:28 pm »
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Incidentally, Colony&Platinum are not supposed to be in that Kingdom.  They were put in by accident, and by the time I noticed, play had already begun.
That really changes things. In the game I played with this set, once people got Platina they stopped caring about Knights. In a Province game this kind of thing can never happen... on the other hand, it strengthens Rebuild a touch.

Yeah, having the Plats in there probably made it easier for an early leader to lock in that lead.  My intent was to have the money strategies always be vulnerable to the Knights.
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AdamH

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Re: Official Dominion Tournament at U-Con, Nov 23, Ypsilanti, MI
« Reply #89 on: September 15, 2014, 09:29:32 am »
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Does anybody know of a similar tournament happening at U-Con this year? I'm beginning to get hyped at the possibility.
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Re: Official Dominion Tournament at U-Con, Nov 23, Ypsilanti, MI
« Reply #90 on: September 15, 2014, 09:43:15 am »
+2

Does anybody know of a similar tournament happening at U-Con this year? I'm beginning to get hyped at the possibility.

U-Con is the weekend of 15 November.  I am not entirely certain, but I believe Elestan said he would be running it again when I saw him at DetCon.
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Re: Official Dominion Tournament at U-Con, Nov 23, Ypsilanti, MI
« Reply #91 on: September 15, 2014, 12:19:05 pm »
0

Sweet. Going to have to brush up on my Dominion
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Re: Official Dominion Tournament at U-Con, Nov 23 2013, Ypsilanti, MI
« Reply #92 on: September 20, 2014, 01:43:30 am »
+3

Does anybody know of a similar tournament happening at U-Con this year? I'm beginning to get hyped at the possibility.
Yes, I didn't go crazy enough last year, so I'm doing it again.  :-)

It will be on the weekend of Nov. 15, but they haven't confirmed my game slot yet; Saturday is most likely.  Once registration opens, I'll post an announcement here.

If you can swing it, I'd encourage out-of-town folks to get a room at the hotel; the con usually offers a discounted rate, and it's a lot more fun when you don't have to rush in and then rush home.  The con runs all day (and much of the night) Friday and Saturday, and Sunday through about 6pm.

Also, if anyone wants to get their con admission for free (well, a small, fully-refunded deposit), you can sign up now to be a Gamemaster at https://www.ucon-gaming.org/reg/gcs/gm/submit.php.  Just offer to run a few hours of games, and you get your badge deposit back when you're done.  I'd love to have some people run introductory and advanced Dominion tutorials prior to the tournament!
« Last Edit: September 26, 2015, 02:33:06 pm by Elestan »
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