Merchant Guild: This started out thinking it could cost $4, like Bridge. As it turned out, it could not.
It shines more with other cards that give you coin tokens because you can save some coin tokens and then use the additional buy in not only buying a Copper, but two good cards.On the contrary, saving up tokens to use on turns with MG is rather like treading water. ("Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place.")
It's even better if your deck manages to give you additional buys. As you may have noticed, Candlestick Maker is a very powerful $2 cost card and gives you not only Coin Tokens but also giving you +Buys. A stack of CMs and some MGs is already a very solid deck. While you're using some buys to pick up CMs and get 2 Coin Tokens instead of the normal 1 Token you can start greening much earlier. Play 4 CMs and a Merchant Guild, buy what you want and 5 Coppers. You just gained 10 Coin Tokens! That should be enough for a couple of Provinces in the next couple of turns! (This is just an example, I'm not saying that you should do this)
I don't really see that MG interacts with other token providing cards (besides butcher, naturally, tho MG is little different from other sources of coin tokens in this regard).QuoteIt shines more with other cards that give you coin tokens because you can save some coin tokens and then use the additional buy in not only buying a Copper, but two good cards.On the contrary, saving up tokens to use on turns with MG is rather like treading water. ("Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place.")
More generally, the more buys you use, the more coins you get from MG, and if you can buy stuff that helps you (copper usually hurts), so much the better. Thus, the point here is that MG does well with cheap non-terminals or with big engines that churn out lots of $$.QuoteIt's even better if your deck manages to give you additional buys. As you may have noticed, Candlestick Maker is a very powerful $2 cost card and gives you not only Coin Tokens but also giving you +Buys. A stack of CMs and some MGs is already a very solid deck. While you're using some buys to pick up CMs and get 2 Coin Tokens instead of the normal 1 Token you can start greening much earlier. Play 4 CMs and a Merchant Guild, buy what you want and 5 Coppers. You just gained 10 Coin Tokens! That should be enough for a couple of Provinces in the next couple of turns! (This is just an example, I'm not saying that you should do this)
Unless you want copper (slog), buying copper for the tokens is something you'll only want to do in the endgame. So, the point here seems to be that excess buys lengthen the life of your engine by allowing you to go hard for green and buy lots of copper but still be able to hit $4-6 very reliably for several turns (lots of copper + lots of tokens makes this quite easy).
How often this is likely to be useful isn't clear to me. It sounds good on paper, but you'll have to leave two provinces during your big turn in order for your longevity to make a difference, but a strategy that produces a big turn is likely to be relatively slow in getting off the ground, so will leaving provinces in the supply allow you to surpass your opponent who, if she's playing money, probably has ~3 provinces and a duchy or two already? So this is probably going to be best in the presence of alt-VP like Fairgrounds/Silk Roads/Gardens that allow you to profit more from a longer game.
My current analysis of Merchant Guild is that it is something of a weak card, and is vastly less essential than the other $5 coin token producers, Baker and Butcher.
Quote from: Donald X.Merchant Guild: This started out thinking it could cost $4, like Bridge. As it turned out, it could not.
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Similar why you could combine both effects from Duration cards into one card to get a feel for its strength (So Caravan is like a Lab, especially if you play one each turn) we could do this here too. Merchant Guild is then a Woodcutter at worst, which is pretty weak, sure. But even if the coin token is delayed, I think a fictional card that says: "+1 Buy +1 Coin. Gain a Coin Token" would be a solid $4 cost card, just only because it's strictly better than Woodcutter, but also mostly better than Nomad Camp. But Merchant Guild is later in the game mostly like "+1 Coin. Gain 2 Coin Tokens. Gain a Copper" if you ignore the delayed effect. A terminal Gold for the cost of a Copper feels like a Mandarin or a Count, so is already a solid $5 cost card.
Quote from: Donald X.Merchant Guild: This started out thinking it could cost $4, like Bridge. As it turned out, it could not.
...
Similar why you could combine both effects from Duration cards into one card to get a feel for its strength (So Caravan is like a Lab, especially if you play one each turn) we could do this here too. Merchant Guild is then a Woodcutter at worst, which is pretty weak, sure. But even if the coin token is delayed, I think a fictional card that says: "+1 Buy +1 Coin. Gain a Coin Token" would be a solid $4 cost card, just only because it's strictly better than Woodcutter, but also mostly better than Nomad Camp. But Merchant Guild is later in the game mostly like "+1 Coin. Gain 2 Coin Tokens. Gain a Copper" if you ignore the delayed effect. A terminal Gold for the cost of a Copper feels like a Mandarin or a Count, so is already a solid $5 cost card.
I'm still convinced that this card is much better priced at $4, and even then I'd actually prefer Bridge more than half the time.Quote from: Donald X.Merchant Guild: This started out thinking it could cost $4, like Bridge. As it turned out, it could not.
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Similar why you could combine both effects from Duration cards into one card to get a feel for its strength (So Caravan is like a Lab, especially if you play one each turn) we could do this here too. Merchant Guild is then a Woodcutter at worst, which is pretty weak, sure. But even if the coin token is delayed, I think a fictional card that says: "+1 Buy +1 Coin. Gain a Coin Token" would be a solid $4 cost card, just only because it's strictly better than Woodcutter, but also mostly better than Nomad Camp. But Merchant Guild is later in the game mostly like "+1 Coin. Gain 2 Coin Tokens. Gain a Copper" if you ignore the delayed effect. A terminal Gold for the cost of a Copper feels like a Mandarin or a Count, so is already a solid $5 cost card.
These are really vague analogies that I don't think show anything. Most importantly, it doesn't mention at all how the card actually plays in practice, because if you're often using it as "+1 Coin. Gain 2 Coin Tokens. Gain a Copper" you're misplaying it grossly, and if that were it's main use it would be worth getting only very rarely, as gaining the Copper is really bad most of the time.
I don't think your first example game really shows a great merchant guild game. Four Provinces in 17 turns isn't good enough. It still shows the poor initial income from the merchant ship and how the delay in earning coins stunts deck development and endgame closure. I suspect that the same deck with highways instead of merchant guild would have been as strong if not stronger.
My difficulty with merchant guild isn't the lack of endgame power. My problem with merchant guild is that it seems hard to find the right time to add it into any deck. In that first example you had to essentially create your hamlet/library engine before getting any benefit from the merchant guild. The guild should theoretically be used to provide cheap engine components from extra buys/coins yet it doesn't provide the income to construct that engine until your engine is already in place! This is my consistent problem with merchant guild.
Four Provinces in 17 turns isn't good enough.Agreed, and to expand on this, 17 turns to 4 Provinces is the BMU average.
Scrying Pool, University, Watchtower, Cutpurse, Talisman, Wandering Minstrel, City, Merchant Guild, Merchant Ship, SoothsayerQvist plays 3 Copper, 1 Silver, 1 Potion
Qvist uses 38 coin tokens
I just played another great Merchant Guild game against PitrPicko (semi-finalist of GokoDomII).
Certainly one of my favourite cards. What is your maximum number of coin tokens you collected?
75 in turn 13: http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20131206/log.50745d1a0cf28ed55d9d6498.1386348818120.txt
73 in turn 14: http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20131206/log.50745d1a0cf28ed55d9d6498.1386360857424.txt
In the first game I triggered a dumb reshuffle, otherwise I probably could have ended the game next turn in a megaturn. I love Merchant Guild.
Certainly one of my favourite cards. What is your maximum number of coin tokens you collected?
75 in turn 13: http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20131206/log.50745d1a0cf28ed55d9d6498.1386348818120.txt
73 in turn 14: http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20131206/log.50745d1a0cf28ed55d9d6498.1386360857424.txt
In the first game I triggered a dumb reshuffle, otherwise I probably could have ended the game next turn in a megaturn. I love Merchant Guild.
Here's what I don't get: at first glance, it seems like Bridge would have been better in either of these situations, allowing you to pile Provinces on that turn instead of getting lots of coin tokens.
(This isn't a full article, just some comments)
You won by three-piling? Isn't that immoral?