Browsing by and saw this thread reappear, thought I'd post my own thoughts as a self-proclaimed 'intermediate' player. Top is favorite, bottom is least favorite. Asterisk is unowned, but played online plenty
1. Adventures - What's more exciting than going on an adventure? Love events, love reserves, love tokens. Less into the Travelers, but still think they're interesting. Distant Lands is beautiful; I always want to force Miser to work out rather than trashing; Raze is cRaze-y; Dungeon is my favorite sifter, and I love it when sifting is strong enough to makeup for weak trashing; Amulet; Relic might be my favorite attack in the game; oh but wait there's Bridge Troll; Transmogrify is definitely my favorite remodeller in the game (sorry Butcher, you're still cool though); half the time when I look at a board I think, "wouldn't it be great if Seaway were an event here?;" Storyteller is so weird!!!; I could go on and on.
I think this set has a LOT of cards that are impactful in a large variety of ways, and the tokens just multiply the possibilities from there. Nothing feels quite as bonkers as, say, King's Court, but a lot of stuff feels more powerful than the average card to me. I think I'd recommend this as a third or fourth purchase to most players. I think the events, reserves, and tokens are pretty intuitive concepts that absolutely alter the game without complicating it beyond 'Dominion'. But I have a couple friends who disagree, and feel like this goes a bit too far.
2. Cornucopia+Guilds - I've only ever known these as a single box, and man it's a great box. I recommend this as the second buy (after Base) to friends, and there are a couple reasons. First off, once the player understands how money cards work, the coin tokens feel like a very natural offshoot. We usually ignore the details and say use them whenever during the buy phase - very simple. Second, there are a lot of fun cards in here that feel pretty balanced to me. Merchant Guild is one of my absolute favorites; Herald is great; Butcher is second only to Transmogrify (like I said, you're still super-cool) as a remodeller; who doesn't love Menagerie?; I think Plaza is a great village for beginners who usually still have some treasures around to discard, and then feel clever about drawing again later; Jester is ridiculous; I'd probably put Advisor on 90% of boards if I could; Horn of Plenty!!
I think the simplicity here would threaten to trump the craziness of Adventures, but I have to admit that there are some cards I really don't like in this box. Hunting Party just feels like an overpowerful Laboratory, which already felt like a pretty strong card. Tournament isn't very fun, and seems to dominate the strategy on every board it appears. I don't think I've ever successfully used Harvest to any good effect. And I wish I felt like I knew how to win with Fairgrounds on a 'standard' board (ie no piles with individually named cards).
3. Base 2nd ed - Man, this box is great. Not much more to say, really. I need some Vassals.
4. Empires - This feels like a dangerous tipping point to me. I like the Landmarks, but they don't feel like as much fun as Events, sometimes altering the rules beyond the point where it still feels like 'Dominion' to me. There are lots of well-balanced cards here I think, but some of them can really require spending time thinking about the future. Like, if Villa's on the board, not only could a turn have two action phases, the player also spends more time trying to figure out if it's worthwhile to plan on eventually having two action phases. Does anyone actually know when to start buying Castles? Archive is great, but it takes a minute, and the payoff is in the future, not now. Debt necessitates comparing future costs with present gains (despite this, I really like Debt overall). Groundskeepers are potentially useless until the right future turn. So do I buy them now? Also is it just me, or is Wild Hunt potentially bonkers? If I complained about Hunting Party up above, I probably should complain about this one too. I do love Farmer's Market though.
That was a lot of rambling to explain why this isn't higher. It isn't any lower because, man, these are some interesting, thought-provoking cards! Does Charm suck? Probably not, that's probably just me sucking! Also, Enchantress is actually probably my favorite attack, even though I still love Relic. All in all though, I don't recommend this one as an early buy. This set expands the 'headspace' around Dominion more than the 'playspace', if that makes any sense. I really don't think the box should say 30min for a game on this one.
5. Hinterlands* - When I look at card lists for expansions I don't own, man does this one look great! Maybe no game-changers in here, but so many interesting cards! I haven't played with them as much so I won't do another goofy list, but this one's almost certainly next on my to-buy list. How have I lived without Haggler in my life??
6. Intrigue 2nd ed - This is not at all a slight against Intrigue. I like a lot of these cards. Wishing Well is hilarious; Masquerade is a favorite; Lurker is super-interesting; Conspirator and Bridge are classics for sure. The attacks are pretty great too. Maybe Swindler and Torturer could have cost more...? But they're still ok. Love Duke and Nobles too. It's interesting to think that, before this expansion, there was no concept of choosing between actions on a card, or Victory-Action cards. But having been introduced to Dominion at a point far beyond that, I take a lot of this for granted now. And there are not many true favorites for me in here. I think Intrigue is the ultimate complement - I feel like I can always turn to it to fill out a board, but I rarely start here when thinking of cards it'd be fun to put in.
7. Seaside* - First off, the box has that nice shade of blue. Secondly, lots of these cards are great! Again since I haven't played with them as much, I won't do a list. But I should point out that there are a few cards in here that feel like duds. Merchant Ship for $5? Explorer for $5? And Ambassador sounds cool in theory, but in practice is it really that fun? Same with Embargo, which is sad because this sounds like such a great idea, but I don't think I've ever played a game where it ended up adding much.
8. Dark Ages* - Looks like there are lots of cool interesting cards in here (Band of Misfits, Count, Sage, Storeroom, plenty more), but some real bummers to play with as well (Cultist, Rebuild, Beggar?, Knights). I'm not sure how much Shelters really add for me - you want to trash them anyways usually, right?
9. Alchemy - I like several of these cards. Golem is pretty fun even if it takes so long to get and probably wasn't the fastest option. Apprentice is awesome. Actually as I look over these cards, I really enjoy all of them other than Herbalist (which is just too boring), Scrying Pool (takes too long), Philosopher's Stone (takes way too long, and I was forced to read the first Harry Potter in grade school and thought it was awful before turning around on the series later), and Transmute. The issue is, of course, that there are just not many cards in here period. Also, even though I like Possession, I understand that it can create un-fun games.
10. Prosperity* - I know a lot of folks like this one, but honestly I look at the card list and I'm pretty underwhelmed. Lots of treasures that are kind of neat, but only Quarry gets me actively excited. Oh and I genuinely love Contraband. But is Venture really worth $5? City sounds like a cool idea, but I haven't played many games with it where it turned out to be very interesting. The real problem though is that there are lots of cards here that feel super powerful without feeling very interesting. Goons might be my least favorite card in the game. Mountebank is also not very fun. Grand Market has the cool buying condition, but it's not so interesting once it's in your deck. King's Court is just bonkers - sometimes fun, but not always. Is Expand really worth $7?
Nocturne - I've barely played with these cards at all. In the few games that I have played, I'd say that Night is pretty cool and the alternative treasures to start with are great, but Boons and Hexes and States(?) push the game past what I think of as 'Dominion', at least at the moment. Just reading the cards a bit, I really like the idea of playing a card that you don't yet have a copy of in play (Imp, Conclave). I also remember liking the Vampire and Bat thing from a game I played. Is Cobbler a good card? Sounds pretty interesting, but like Band of Misfits (also an interesting card), I don't often get the feeling I want to pass up some other $5 for the chance to have more $4's.