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[RD]

Which cards have taught you the most about the game as a whole, at different levels of your play?

Tactician: I always tell beginners to play with this card. As we know, "Dominion with huge hands" is a very different game with its own rules, where cards like Bank and Forge start going wild and elaborate combos are executed with laughable ease. Tactician lets you experiment with this kind of gameplay without the need for engine-building skill. Now when your plan totally falls apart, you can tell your payload was a dud, not that you bought your Villages and your Smithies in the wrong order or something. Then conversely, when you see the same cards in a non-Tactician game, you know the combo works and it's just a question of whether you can set it up fast enough. (Or, you know the combo doesn't work and not to waste your time, it's a BM game or whatever.)

Fairgrounds: This card, and to a lesser extent Menagerie, really forced me out of my "2-3 key cards" comfort zone at a time when I needed it. Building ramshackle decks with all kinds of strange parts, some of which you wouldn't normally buy, is often a necessary skill: more than ever in the age of Dark Ages.

[jaybeez]

Witch: Cursing attacks are exceptionally strong.

I learned this in my very first game of Dominion.

Edit: so okay, to not be glib about it, that first game taught me, or rather planted the seed of the idea, that you can't really choose a "play style" for yourself, you have to be willing to constantly adapt to what's available in the kingdom and what your opponents do.

[GiB]

Warehouse : Perfectly illustrates sifting. Also teaches you to be careful with your reshuffles.

Steward, Jack : Cards with weak effects but fitting multiple roles can be very strong.

Moat : I'll find a reason for that later.

[Jimmmmm]

Copper, Estate: "Good" cards which are not good enough are actually bad.

[Davio]

Goons, Bishop, Monument: You can actually win without having to destroy your deck in the end.

[terminalCopper]

Definitely chapel.

My first thought on it: "I guess, this one is supposed to clear out curses ... not really impressive, that's why it only costs 2$."
Second thought - seemed pretty creative: "Wait, maybe we can trash those estates to see good cards more often?"
Third idea - i really felt like a sneaky genius when I had it: "Whoah, maybe it is even a good idea to trash coppers!!!"

Looking back, I'd say, chapel is the card which taught me the baseline of dominion: The summed value of your deck is by far less important than the average value of a hand.

[Morgrim7]

Scout: Even Donald X isn't perfect.

[michaeljb]

Rebuild: Even Donald X isn't perfect.

FTFY

[awildnoobappeared]

Comparing Workshop with Feast highlights the gap between what to expect from a $4 and $5 card.

[Awaclus]

Comparing Workshop with Feast highlights the gap between what to expect from a $4 and $5 card.

I remember comparing them and concluding that Workshop is OP.

[Fragasnap]

Goons, Bishop, Monument: You can actually win without having to destroy your deck in the end.

Apprentice, Graverobber: But sometimes, you can win so much more by literally demolishing your deck in the end.
Really, Remodel teaches this well, but I didn't really appreciate the strength of Trash-for-Benefit cards until I started playing more with these two.

[brokoli]

Village.
Chapel.
Smithy.
Witch.
The four most important cards of the base game.

Moat.
At first it seemed good, then it seemed awful. Finally you understand when you should take one and when you should not.

Conspirator and Scrying pool.
Makes you understand how to optimize your engine building.

All trash for benefit.
Always hard to choose what to trash.

EDIT : I forgot Gardens ! Very important card from the base game too, you discover completely different strategies.

[Asper]

Goons, Bishop, Monument: You can actually win without having to destroy your deck in the end.

Apprentice, Graverobber: But sometimes, you can win so much more by literally demolishing your deck in the end.
Really, Remodel teaches this well, but I didn't really appreciate the strength of Trash-for-Benefit cards until I started playing more with these two.

Salvager fits in here. I'd usually think of it before thinking of Graverobber.

[sitnaltax]

Remake, especially as contrasted with Remodel, taught me a lot about the tempo of the game. The first time I saw Remake I was very unimpressed because it hurts your hand more than Remodel and doesn't let you jump to Provinces (usually) or rush them; and like most of us I gave Turbo Remodel a couple of tries because it looks so promising. But as it turns out, the little extra bit of early deck-cleaning and Silver-gaining is a huge deal.

[Ozle]

Moat.
At first it seemed good, then it seemed awful. Finally you understand when you should take one and when you should not. And the answer is never.

FTFY

[Awaclus]

Moat.
At first it seemed good, then it seemed awful. Finally you understand when you should take one and when you should not. And the answer is never.

FTFY

So you should never take one, and you should never not take one?

[Jimmmmm]

Moat.
At first it seemed good, then it seemed awful. Finally you understand when you should take one and when you should not. And the answer is never.

FTFY

So you should never take one, and you should never not take one?

You should never do neither.

[PSGarak]

Great Hall: This is the card that actually made me realize that a cantrip is not actually drawing anything, but in fact merely replacing itself. My Ironworks-Great Hall engine was much less impressive than I thought.

Nobles: Being able to draw doesn't you until you have something worth drawing. The fact that this card competes directly with gold forces you to make hard decisions. I learned the correct answer to that decision before my peer group did, and had a significant margin of victory as a result.

I'll also echo Tactician, it made me realize that Dominion has super-linear scaling and that impacts quite a lot of long-term strategy.

[Ozle]

Moat.
At first it seemed good, then it seemed awful. Finally you understand when you should take one and when you should not. And the answer is never.

FTFY

So you should never take one, and you should never not take one?

Yes

[GeoLib]

Moat.
At first it seemed good, then it seemed awful. Finally you understand when you should take one and when you should not. And the answer is never.

FTFY

So you should never take one, and you should never not take one?

Yes

No. Depends on the Kingdom

[DG]

Smithy.
Sea Hag.

[AJD]

Ambassador. It really effectively teaches the lesson "Estates and Coppers are bad; you don't want them."

[JacquesTheBard]

Upgrade, and later, Junk Dealer. Chapel teaches you that trashing is valuable, but the cantrips teach you how to trash in the midgame as well as the beginning, and how to balance the long-term value of a thin deck with the short-term need to keep a decent hand.

[Jimmmmm]

Curse. At first you think, "NO! NOT MY PRECIOUS POINTS!" But then you realise the main effect is junking your deck with useless $0 cards.

[pst]

Moat.
At first it seemed good, then it seemed awful. Finally you understand when you should take one and when you should not. And the answer is never.

FTFY

So you should never take one, and you should never not take one?

"Buy a Moat, and you will regret it; don't buy a Moat, you will also regret it; buy a Moat or not, you will regret it either way. " -- Kierkegaard