By itself,
Gear money is pretty okay. But, Gear money really appreciates trashing Estates and gaining extra Silvers without losing tempo. It shouldn't be surprising that Gear money's strongest supports do both!
Gear + Trade (requires
/
opening)
The synergy here is pretty clear: Gear draw and saving helps set up Trade turns that turn your Estates (and a Copper) into Silvers. But I was shocked at just how fast this strategy was.
Step 1: Open Gear x2.
Step 2: Buy a third Gear and execute a Trade on two Estates, followed by a Trade on an Estate and a Copper. With decent draws (a Gear on turn 3 is usually enough), you can accomplish this by turn 5! If your turn 4 is less fortunate, keep saving for the Trade and buy a Silver.
--- At this point, your deck is 3 Gears, 4-5 Silver, and 6 Copper ---
Step 3: If your opponent is racing for Provinces (and you were fortunate to get double Trade by turn 5), you can start Provincing as early as turn 6 and almost always grab 4 Provinces by turn 9! This is super fast and reliable. After this point, your green will gunk up the works, but you should be able to buy Duchies or save up for the fifth Province as required. On the other hand, if you need to grab 6 Provinces (usually against an enginey strategy), you should start Provincing on turn 7 at the earliest. If you've already Traded your Estates by turn 5, I recommend buying a Gold on turn 6. You could Trade Coppers, but I think it's better to save the extra Copper for the next turn. You might want to grab another Gold later on if you start to falter. Depending on your draws, you can get 6 Provinces by turn 12-14, which is a very tough pace to beat. You can't really get 8 Provinces in a reasonable amount of time, so I wouldn't recommend this in the presence of strong Alt VP.
Gear + Transmogrify (requires
/
opening and Estates!)
Transmogrify does three things that Gear money appreciates:
- Removes Estates
- Adds Silvers
- Mills Provinces
And Gear helps put the Estates and Provinces into your starting hand for Transmogrify. The result is a fast and very robust money strategy:
Step 1: Open Gear + Transmogrify.
Step 2: If you see Transmogrify on turn 3, do your happy dance. Either way, get two more Gears and then Silvers with your sub-$6 buys/gains. If you have Transmogrify on the mat, you might want to buy a Silver over a Gear (with the expectation to upgrade an Estate into a Gear on the next turn). Once you have two Golds, you'll be ready to start Provincing. You probably won't have trashed all of your Estates by this point - this is fine, just trash them when you have the opportunity.
Step 3: Do the Gear thing, where you exactly buy Province each turn and set aside the money you don't need. If you get the opportunity, use your Transmogrify to trash Province into Province. This strategy has a little more variance than the Trade one, mostly due to how often Transmogrify misses your shuffles. Still, it's pretty fast in the worst case and scary fast in the best case.
4 Provinces, Turn 10-12, ~24-27 VP
6 Provinces, Turn 12-16, ~30-39 VP
8 Provinces, Turn 14-18, ~42-55 VP