This was such a terrific afternoon. Robz888 was a pleasure to play with as we got a chance to discuss all things Dominion while getting some very high-quality games in. My thoughts:
Game 1: Did he mention that there was nothing costing more than 5? Yeah, it was a pretty sorry board.
Game 2: I definitely should have opened Duchess. That was horrible. Also, I was player two and had a 2/5, not 5/2 so the Curse did not hit before his first reshuffle. Having said that, Sage doesn't even give a Rat's ass about a Curse that it can skip over anyway. I think Sage was very good here, especially because the Duchy dancing didn't take long enough for them to clog up Sage. He bought at least three or four IGG in a row.
Game 3: Damn, did I get lucky with Cultist chaining. Procession + Cultist, if you have a few in deck, is just dirty because you have two chances to chain, you get the +3 cards and then, to top it all of, hey, take a Goons. The Goons proved to be not that effective because Necropolis was the only source of +2 actions.
Game 4: My intention here was to go Scavenger for a little bit of accelerated tempo and then to spam Rebuilds. It worked pretty well, but that's because the board was relatively weak. My two Feodums were worth 6(!) by the game's end, even though I had to trash multiple into Estates because Feodums and Duchies had ran. We played with 12 Feodums by accident. If you haven't played IRL in a while, you tend to forget how much set-up there is. Do we use Platinum and Colonies? Are there Shelters? Make sure there are the right amount of VP's, Ruins, and Curses, etc.
Game 5: This board was very interesting, and confusing. Bank, Fairgrounds, Counterfeit, Graverobber, Fortress, Squire, Alchemist, and some others that I can't remember. My general strategy was to go for Alchemist, Banks, Counterfeits on the big turns and maybe Squires for extra buys. That doesn't really work when you don't get the Squires
. His strategy was definitely better, though I wonder if mine could have worked if I had contested Fairgrounds harder (instead of Provinces). I was totally lost that game, I must admit.
In all, I was most proud of recognizing Rebuild's power, though I am still not sure of how good it is. At least strategy can be simulated!
The hardest thing of all, though? Restraining ourselves from talking about MVII!
We both agreed that if the timing is right, it would be great to do it again. Any other DC-residents are welcome!
I'll let Robz888 do the honor of posting about how some of the cards combo with Scout. As a teaser...Ironmonger and Mystic definitely like to be able to rearrange the top cards on your deck.