Paragraph defending
Counting House incoming:
I think
Counting House is better than people give credit. Assuming there is no trashing, it can be decent for swinging up to a higher money value, and it is half-decent in Colony games. It is not very often that it can be used as your primary strategy, but if there is any amount of a slog going on, it can be a decent buy. I would say that
Saboteur has fewer instances where it can be used (and to be clear, I like
Saboteur). You're not really getting anywhere with
Saboteur unless you're playing 3-4 in a turn (and if you can do that, surely there's something better to play than
Saboteur) or two other players decide to start a
Saboteur war.
Mine is probably harder to justify than
Counting House in more games.
Tribute is too inconsistent to be good: It is all the swinginess of
Counting House but without any certainty of its actual effect. It is similar to how one cannot rely upon
Ironmonger to build an engine-- either drawing cards or providing actions-- except that Ironmonger is nice because it's at least a Cantrip, so you always know you'll end up ahead when you play it. If you have
Tribute and another great Action in your hand, which do you play?
Tribute might end up being nonterminal, but you can't be certain, so you have to play your other Action.
Also, I harbor an irrational grudges against
Explorer and
Outpost. I know neither are that bad, but I always feel a little bit sad when one of the Kingdom card slots is occupied by one of them.
Now with Scavenger, there exists even a more powerful combo for a guaranteed Province each turn in a deck with 4 Stashes and 2 Scavengers.
Scavenger itself produces $2, so you only need 3
Stashes and 2
Scavengers to make this work. Also it's stopped by Attacks that mess with your hand.
I think Counterfeit is pretty mediocre
I disagree, I think it's amazing.
I agree with Qvist. It's not the best thing ever, but if you want some trashing, it is clearly better than
Moneylender. When you trash a Copper with it, you get the same +$3 as
Moneylender, but it's a Treasure, so you don't need to worry about having the Actions to play it; it provides a +Buy so you can build a fun engine out of cheap components; even when it doesn't collide with Copper, or when you are out of Coppers, it provides $1; and at the end of a game you can start trashing Silvers and Golds for bigger money swings to start picking up extra Duchies (with those +Buys it handily gives anyway) or just to jump up to snagging those last couple Provinces.
Prediction:
Rebuild is Dark Ages's strongest $5. Maybe people don't think it now (mabye they put
Cultist higher), but
Rebuild is one of those cards that requires you to completely change your thinking for the game-- particularly if you start with three Estates.