Late game Lab is better than Witch too
I am comparing cards that are extremely similar.
"early game Stables is better then Kings Court too but it would be foolish to say Stables is better then Kings Court"
You rarely even get KC early game though, and it rocks once you get even a semi-good action density.
The community ranked Cartographer pretty low too, so I guess the trend has shifted a bit.
Interesting, though.
Why wouldn't I want a Cartographer as my first $5 buy? Because it doesn't do anything for the turn I'm playing it. It's pretty good afterwards, but only a Cantrip (which doesn't help my actual turn) the turn I play it. Still, I wonder if there is something that Stables enable which Cartographer can't enable just as good. That said, I think, Cartographer could be even a stronger opener than Stables! It nets you a 4-Card-hand +0.7 Coins and you may discard up to 4 Cards from your draw pile. Stables ditching Copper nets you roughly a 4-Card-hand with +1.1 = 2.1 - 1.0 Coins and let's you draw 3 Cards from your draw pile. Maybe we're underrating Cartographer?
I also want to add, that, if the cycling from Stables ist so good, then why is Cellar so low?
I know. Stables increase hand size by one and Cellar decreases it by one, but Cellar could be better than Stables (high potential). Actually, I believe they work pretty well together.
Of course, it all depends on the board. If there is Jack, Stables will be amazing. If there is no Jack, but Moneylender, Stables are not gonna be as good. (I wonder if Stables + 1 Jack ist better than Double-Jack on a BM-board -->
I've proved this on the simulator. Stables+Jack is slightly better. Here is what I've done:# Buys one Jack of All Trades and some Stables otherwise plays a version of Big Money.
#
# This has no Colony rules, because it would be a terrible strategy in
# Colony games.
{
name: 'StablesJack'
author: 'c4'
requires: ["Jack of All Trades", "Stables"]
gainPriority: (state, my) -> [
"Province" if my.getTotalMoney() > 15
"Duchy" if state.gainsToEndGame() <= 5
"Estate" if state.gainsToEndGame() <= 2
"Jack of All Trades" if my.countInDeck("Jack of All Trades") < 1
"Gold"
"Stables" if my.countInDeck("Stables") < 1 or my.countInDeck("Gold") > 2
"Silver"
]
}
I expected this to be far better than doubleJack, but it's only slightly better. I've also tried to deny duchies because Stables has more longevity, but this was as terrible as losing 95% of all the games)
--------
Discussing these Cards, I learn a lot about them. So even if I'm wrong like 60% of all the time, I'm still fine discussing it and being corrected.