"$5 for a Silver that I have to flood my deck with Coppers to get full use out of? No Thanks!" That's what we all said as Donald X. announced Ill-Gotten Gains (IGG) in the lead up to Essen 2011. As usual, all of our first reactions were wrong. Very wrong.
We had all mostly ignored the cursing effect of the card. It's only a one-time thing, so does it really matter that much? Yes. Yes it does. It is true that after the cursing, each IGG buy is effectively a Copper with the ability to gain more Coppers in your deck, however the cursing happens immediately, making it the first (and currently only) card which can put a Curse into your opponent's deck before they shuffle it for the first time. The longer the Curse is in a deck, the more disruption it will cause, and the more damage it will do. Similarly, the curse is "unblockable" by conventional means. Everybody knows that cursing is the strongest type of attack in Dominion, but IGG is not an Attack card and the distribution of Curses is not triggered by playing the card. Because of this, Moat and Lighthouse can do nothing to block the Curse, and you can't even reveal a Horse Traders or Secret Chamber to "make up" a little bit for taking a Curse. Trader and Watchtower, however, can still be used to mitigate the effects of the IGG as they react to (would) gaining the Curse, rather than an Attack being played.
After you've handed out the strongest Curse in the game, you are left with a crippled Silver in your deck (but hey, it's better than the Curse the other guy has!). Luckily, it's not as bad as it sounds. By the time you've emptied the IGG pile, there are not one but TWO empty piles: IGGs and Curses. The game will now end not when Provinces are depleted, but when ANY single pile is depleted. Now, hopefully at this point you have a deck full of (weak) Treasures while your opponent has a deck of Curses (in reality you will have some curses too but let's assume you've won the IGG split 6/4 or better). All you have to do is run out any pile of your choosing while keeping ahead in points. Fortunately, Duchy can help you score points and costs $5, which with your density of Copper-like cards and potential to flood your deck with more whenever you please is a pretty comfortable price point to be aiming for. Every now and then you'll draw a hand something like Copper/Copper/IGG/IGG/IGG, in which case feel free to grab the Province.
If you like to do something 'fun' and not-necessarily optimal every now and then, there are a LOT of interesting things you can do with IGG other than rushing three piles with Duchy. Just check out the
Game Reports subforum on Dominion Strategy and you will see plenty of examples of people using trash-for-benefit with IGG (who cares about losing a sub-Silver when you get $5 worth of benefit for it!), or even using IGG to facilitate a Coppersmith and/or Counting House strategy which are usually too weak to play at a competetive level.
IGG isn't always the Dominant strategy though. There are cards which can cause enough disruption to the IGG Duchy rush that make it a losing proposition. Essentially, any card which can cause the IGG and Curse piles to deplete at different rates will upset the rush. If the Curses run out first, you've got to spend $5 turns buying cards worth less than Silver and not even hurting your opponent in the process before you can start on the Duchies. If the IGGs run out first, well, you're in trouble. Other strong cursers are the first of these card that come to mind (they empty Curses quicker than IGGs). In this case it may be a better idea to play a more standard Curse game and buy one or two IGGs to back up your main curser and maybe swing a 6-4 or even 7-3 Curse split in your favour. IGG can be just as powerful a support card as it can be a centerpiece to a strategy. However, a slightly more subtle yet quite a lot more harming counter to the strategy are the two cards which can cause Curses to still be in the supply when IGGs have run out: Ambassador and Trader.
Works with:- Trash-for-benefit.
- 5/2 split to give your opponent a curse before they shuffle the first time.
- Coppersmith/Counting House and other Copper-based strategies.
- Duchy.
- Can provide support for other Cursers.
Conflicts with:- Other fast cursers conflict with an IGG rush.
- Ambassador/Trader.
- Opponent's heavy trashing MIGHT be able to overcome an IGG rush, but then you should trash away your Copper too and carry on as of the IGG rush didn't happen.
- Embargo.
- City. They'll be powered up for both players, but if you're focussing your $5 buys on IGG your opponent will have more Cities.