Dominion Strategy Forum

Dominion => Dominion General Discussion => Let's Discuss ... => Topic started by: schadd on July 12, 2016, 07:42:07 pm

Title: empires: cards that change the cost of things, asterisk (annex, delve, wedding)
Post by: schadd on July 12, 2016, 07:42:07 pm

(http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/images/b/be/Annex.jpg) (http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/images/9/9d/Delve.jpg)
(http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/images/b/b6/Wedding.jpg)

well, maybe only delve does that exclusively. annex does another significant thing, and wedding gives you that vp. but hey, you'll pretty much never buy these things when you don't want to gain that card.


ah, the power creep in dominion is so frustrating! you're forced to buy the new expansions to keep up! haha, that was a joke that i made just then. intuitively, having these around will make for 'stronger' games in general but if delve is there then that means ferry might not have been there, and ferry is a big deal. they all do push the game in a direction, regardless: delve lets you get silvers in bulk or in addition to other stuff more easily, wedding means bm or whatever happens to want golds on the board has more options to that end (although it's hard to pinpoint what parts of the game those decks benefit, since it is strong both at the present and at the end of the game) and annex looks like it'll make the endgame more consistent, or something.


-does 'breaking dominion' mean anything at all ever, and did any of these cards accomplish that goal?
-do the thematic elements of these cards make you feel weird
-where do you put these during setup? should you put them next to the cards they gain, so you can consider your options?


Title: Re: empires: cards that change the cost of things, asterisk
Post by: drsteelhammer on July 12, 2016, 07:55:17 pm
why are these in one thread? :(

We are discussing Wedding already, and Annex most definitely deserves its own thread  :-\
Title: Re: empires: cards that change the cost of things, asterisk
Post by: schadd on July 12, 2016, 08:21:30 pm
why are these in one thread? :(

We are discussing Wedding already, and Annex most definitely deserves its own thread  :-\
pandering to
maybe grouping them in arbitrarily chosen groups of 3,


if it doesn't work then i will not do it in the future. but annex is the only one that loses out if this doesn't work, it looks like you're saying, and you can fix that by talking about it.
Title: Re: empires: cards that change the cost of things, asterisk
Post by: Limetime on July 12, 2016, 09:19:00 pm
Annex seems like the olny one I would buy without particularly wanting the duchy.
Wedding I would very very rarely buy without wanting the gold.
Annexes ability is really good. Keeping 5 junk + the duchy out of the shuffle seems really powerful.
Title: Re: empires: cards that change the cost of things, asterisk
Post by: Seprix on July 12, 2016, 09:50:28 pm
Annex is almost like Inn. If you want Inn, you might want Annex. If you're going to generate significantly more money than $8 or want to ensure deck control (with a free Duchy), Annex is going to be worth it. Annex is a deck control Event.

I could even see potentially buying an Annex, just to get thinner quicker.
Title: Re: empires: cards that change the cost of things, asterisk
Post by: eHalcyon on July 12, 2016, 09:54:03 pm
Annex seems like the olny one I would buy without particularly wanting the duchy.
Wedding I would very very rarely buy without wanting the gold.
Annexes ability is really good. Keeping 5 junk + the duchy out of the shuffle seems really powerful.

Annex is also the one of the three where it seems very reasonable and not uncommon to buy a Duchy for $5, since <8> will cost you a net $3 extra, which can be significant.  With Wedding, it shouldn't be too much to take on an extra <1> to gain the VP (and you'd probably be buying it earlier when you haven't hit $6 anyway).  And only specific and rare situations make it better to buy Silver over Delve.  Right now, I'm only coming up with cost reduction and on-buy effects like Goons, Merchant Guild, Talisman, Haggler (if for some reason you really want to gain $2s, which is itself rare).
Title: Re: empires: cards that change the cost of things, asterisk
Post by: Seprix on July 12, 2016, 09:57:48 pm
Delve is a pretty powerful event. I mean, I wrote an article on it. :)
Title: Re: empires: cards that change the cost of things, asterisk
Post by: Beyond Awesome on July 12, 2016, 09:57:55 pm
While there are Events that break Dominion, these are not the Events you're looking for.
Title: Re: empires: cards that change the cost of things, asterisk
Post by: Seprix on July 12, 2016, 09:59:10 pm
While there are Events that break Dominion, these are not the Events you're looking for.

So make like a Sage and move along.
Title: Re: empires: cards that change the cost of things, asterisk
Post by: Chris is me on July 12, 2016, 11:48:29 pm
i don't really get annex. it seems really niche that you'd want its benefit for such a steep cost. i guess, your engine misfired, you need vp, it's one of those really thin engines like apothecary or advisor based or whatever that completely choke on green, cool, shuffle your deck. but it is SO LIMITED in what it can do. it just puts cards from your discard back into your deck. you have to buy it at just the right time to get a benefit. I guess i'm just confused by it and i'll have to play a game where it really dominates to get it.

wedding and delve had separate threads if not here

the concept of "breaking dominion" is itself kind of silly and these cards certainly aren't close enough to doing it.

also the art / theme of these cards are weird and wedding seems like it has like multiple wives and one husband what the fuck
Title: Re: empires: cards that change the cost of things, asterisk
Post by: trivialknot on July 12, 2016, 11:50:31 pm
Annex is one of those cards that just seems obviously terrible... but maybe it's secretly powerful!  One day, I will uncover its hidden strength, just as I once did for Chapel, and as I have yet to do for Scout.
Title: Re: empires: cards that change the cost of things, asterisk
Post by: Limetime on July 12, 2016, 11:52:27 pm
i don't really get annex. it seems really niche that you'd want its benefit for such a steep cost. i guess, your engine misfired, you need vp, it's one of those really thin engines like apothecary or advisor based or whatever that completely choke on green, cool, shuffle your deck. but it is SO LIMITED in what it can do. it just puts cards from your discard back into your deck. you have to buy it at just the right time to get a benefit. I guess i'm just confused by it and i'll have to play a game where it really dominates to get it.

wedding and delve had separate threads if not here

the concept of "breaking dominion" is itself kind of silly and these cards certainly aren't close enough to doing it.
By the time you want duchy your not super strong engine is choking on green.
This is when Annex is usefull. This is not very rare.
No idea how you guys think it's incredibly weak.
It seems like Inn on gain ability which is usefull a bunch of the time and this works in bm aswell.
Title: Re: empires: cards that change the cost of things, asterisk
Post by: Chris is me on July 12, 2016, 11:54:12 pm
i don't really get annex. it seems really niche that you'd want its benefit for such a steep cost. i guess, your engine misfired, you need vp, it's one of those really thin engines like apothecary or advisor based or whatever that completely choke on green, cool, shuffle your deck. but it is SO LIMITED in what it can do. it just puts cards from your discard back into your deck. you have to buy it at just the right time to get a benefit. I guess i'm just confused by it and i'll have to play a game where it really dominates to get it.

wedding and delve had separate threads if not here

the concept of "breaking dominion" is itself kind of silly and these cards certainly aren't close enough to doing it.
By the time you want duchy your not super strong engine is choking on green.
This is when Annex is usefull. This is not very rare.
No idea how you guys think it's incredibly weak.
It seems like Inn on gain ability which is usefull a bunch of the time and this works in bm aswell.

But you don't get to take that green out of your deck! It has to already be in your discard pile for you to get a ton of benefit from this. it's really a "circumstances are just right" thing i think. i wouldn't say it's super weak but it's really situational (but i mean i guess that's literally what events are for)
Title: Re: empires: cards that change the cost of things, asterisk
Post by: Limetime on July 12, 2016, 11:56:18 pm
i don't really get annex. it seems really niche that you'd want its benefit for such a steep cost. i guess, your engine misfired, you need vp, it's one of those really thin engines like apothecary or advisor based or whatever that completely choke on green, cool, shuffle your deck. but it is SO LIMITED in what it can do. it just puts cards from your discard back into your deck. you have to buy it at just the right time to get a benefit. I guess i'm just confused by it and i'll have to play a game where it really dominates to get it.

wedding and delve had separate threads if not here

the concept of "breaking dominion" is itself kind of silly and these cards certainly aren't close enough to doing it.
By the time you want duchy your not super strong engine is choking on green.
This is when Annex is usefull. This is not very rare.
No idea how you guys think it's incredibly weak.
It seems like Inn on gain ability which is usefull a bunch of the time and this works in bm aswell.

But you don't get to take that green out of your deck! It has to already be in your discard pile for you to get a ton of benefit from this. it's really a "circumstances are just right" thing i think. i wouldn't say it's super weak but it's really situational (but i mean i guess that's literally what events are for)
It is pretty much Inn exept it gains a different card.
I am at the bottom of a shuffle approximately 3 times per game when this is good.
Title: Re: empires: cards that change the cost of things, asterisk
Post by: aku_chi on July 13, 2016, 12:17:02 am
The fact that Annex costs Debt makes it more attractive in lategame Duchy-dancing situations.  If you have an extra buy, you can use Annex to gain another Duchy to make it harder for a buy-limited opponent to end the game with a win.  And, ideally, you can use Annex to set up your next turn to pay off the debt and be in a position to win the game.

Even in a draw-your-deck engine, I can envision situations where it might make sense to buy some engine components, (perhaps some VP,) and then Annex: to guarantee that your next turn will kick off with those buys.  If you wanted the Duchy anyway, 3 debt is a small price to pay for added reliability in the endgame.  In brittle engines with strong payload, 8 debt might also be worth the reliability.

Annex seems situationally strong.
Title: Re: empires: cards that change the cost of things, asterisk
Post by: trivialknot on July 13, 2016, 12:18:18 am
The Inn comparison is a good one, because Inn also puzzles me.  I buy it at the end of a shuffle, putting all my actions back in my deck, but then I just discard a bunch of actions to Inn, and the rest end up skipping the shuffle.  I'm sure I must be using it wrong.

Annex can prevent your engine from choking on green, but it also adds green to your deck.  This seems to be at cross-purposes.  And if you're drawing a significant part of your deck, it won't be long before it's all shuffled back in.

I thought that if Annex had secret power, it might actually be in a more money-ish deck.  Usually BM decks green sooner than engines, it's just that they slow down horribly and can't end the game.  Annex could prevent the slow-down.
Title: Re: empires: cards that change the cost of things, asterisk
Post by: Donald X. on July 13, 2016, 12:31:14 am
also the art / theme of these cards are weird and wedding seems like it has like multiple wives and one husband what the fuck
dude, take it to the Racism / Sexism / Polygamy forum
Title: Re: empires: cards that change the cost of things, asterisk
Post by: AJD on July 13, 2016, 01:33:24 am
The Inn comparison is a good one, because Inn also puzzles me.  I buy it at the end of a shuffle, putting all my actions back in my deck, but then I just discard a bunch of actions to Inn, and the rest end up skipping the shuffle.  I'm sure I must be using it wrong.

I mean, the Inn itself doesn't have to be one of the ones you shuffle into your deck.
Title: Re: empires: cards that change the cost of things, asterisk
Post by: mail-mi on July 13, 2016, 01:58:15 am
wedding seems like it has like multiple wives and one husband

The front one is the wife, the followers are bridesmaids.
Title: Re: empires: cards that change the cost of things, asterisk
Post by: Seprix on July 13, 2016, 11:28:33 am
also the art / theme of these cards are weird and wedding seems like it has like multiple wives and one husband what the fuck

From some page on Roman weddings:

Quote
On the wedding day, the groom would lead a procession to his bride's family home, where the bride would be escorted by her bridesmaids to meet her future husband.

However, here is something you can complain about instead:

Quote
Men would usually marry in their mid-twenties, while women married while they were still in their early teens.
Quote
Marriage in Roman times was often not at all romantic. Rather, it was an agreement between families.

So that chick in Wedding is more likely than not a young teenager, at least historically. Try unknowing that.  :-[

Interestingly though, quite a few aspects of Roman marriage were quite modern.

source: http://www.pbs.org/empires/romans/empire/weddings.html