Dominion Strategy Forum

Dominion => Game Reports => Topic started by: benjigab on October 19, 2012, 05:43:36 am

Title: What was wrong with my Potion/Fool's Gold opening ?
Post by: benjigab on October 19, 2012, 05:43:36 am
I just played this game :

http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201210/19/game-20121019-022905-11b86fa4.html

It was a Colony game, with Familiar, Fool's Gold, Vault, Woodcutter, Golem and Venture.

My (higher-rated) opponent resigned saying i was just a "noob" who had been lucky. I don't claim to be the best Dominion player (I make stupid mistakes all the time, and I too often don't think things through), but still, I feel that, even on a Familiar board, letting your opponent have all ten Fool's Golds is a bad idea. What do you think ? Was I just lucky ?
Title: Re: What was wrong with my Potion/Fool's Gold opening ?
Post by: Davio on October 19, 2012, 05:52:20 am
Meh, I may have been a bit too harsh on you.

Point being that it's a game where Curses will be flying around due to Familiars so Fool's Gold is a worse choice than usual.
And you want to buy a Familiar and to increase the odds of succeeding you need to get a Silver with your Potion. You bought essentially a Copper with your Potion.

Plus it's a Colony game so you want to switch over to Platinums at some point.

I had horrible luck with my Potions so you could run away with Familiars.

In conclusion: You got lucky.
Title: Re: What was wrong with my Potion/Fool's Gold opening ?
Post by: ashersky on October 19, 2012, 06:46:26 am
To be fair, with the 5-2 split, it was potion/nothing or potion/FG, so silver wasn't an option.  Venture was there to enable as well.

Shuffle luck played a part for sure, so I get the frustration, but I don't know that it was so bad a play.
Title: Re: What was wrong with my Potion/Fool's Gold opening ?
Post by: cherdano on October 19, 2012, 06:50:15 am
With a 5/2 opening I would definitely go potion/fool's gold. I don't think you can afford not to contest FGs, with venture, moneylender, golem and councilroom they are just too good.
Title: Re: What was wrong with my Potion/Fool's Gold opening ?
Post by: DG on October 19, 2012, 07:46:50 am
You have to take a fool's gold with the opening 2 coin hand. There are plenty of choices for the 5 coin hand, even saboteur maybe, but potion certainly isn't bad.
Title: Re: What was wrong with my Potion/Fool's Gold opening ?
Post by: RisingJaguar on October 19, 2012, 08:47:42 am
I can understand Davio's frustration though.  He clearly has more money in the short run (after T4), with the silver > Fool's gold, then gets potion + <$3 two turns straight?  That's pretty brutal.  (It's hard to see in T6 but I'm pretty sure that is what he draws with his familiar).  I'm actually surprised it ended up 6-4 instead of 7-3...

Then add to the fact that he's getting cursed one cycle earlier than his opponent for the rest of the game.  It's a little annoying for sure knowing you weren't clearly beaten by a strategy vs. being beaten mainly by coin distribution. 

Would Fool's gold actually won? That I don't know.  But it is the best option at 5/2. 
Title: Re: What was wrong with my Potion/Fool's Gold opening ?
Post by: Davio on October 19, 2012, 08:55:52 am
Let me just add this: No sleep due to crying baby + unlucky Familiar split = a lot of frustration. :)
Title: Re: What was wrong with my Potion/Fool's Gold opening ?
Post by: benjigab on October 19, 2012, 12:26:32 pm
I guess I got the wrong opening split, but then got really lucky afterwards. I could have had trouble getting to 3+P. Would the odds of hitting 3+P have been much higher if I had gone potion/nothing ?
Title: Re: What was wrong with my Potion/Fool's Gold opening ?
Post by: Drab Emordnilap on October 19, 2012, 12:40:26 pm
I guess I got the wrong opening split, but then got really lucky afterwards. I could have had trouble getting to 3+P. Would the odds of hitting 3+P have been much higher if I had gone potion/nothing ?
No, Potion/Nothing is actually worse for getting to $3P. I think you made the best of a bad opening split. The only other options I would consider are Woodcutter/Fool's Gold, getting a potion hopefully on the next shuffle, or Vault/Fool's Gold, ignoring Potions.
Title: Re: What was wrong with my Potion/Fool's Gold opening ?
Post by: blueblimp on October 19, 2012, 01:35:20 pm
You have to take a fool's gold with the opening 2 coin hand. There are plenty of choices for the 5 coin hand, even saboteur maybe, but potion certainly isn't bad.
Saboteur sounds interesting. If it hits a Familiar, that does a lot of damage. Not sure that's enough to make it a good opening.
Title: Re: What was wrong with my Potion/Fool's Gold opening ?
Post by: popsofctown on October 19, 2012, 03:37:19 pm
Name calling because your opponent was fortunate enough to draw his Potion the right way is totally uncalled for.