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1

Dominion General Discussion / Re: How do you feel about Champion?

« on: June 08, 2015, 06:18:01 pm »

I quite like champion. Its fun, and if the board has no villages, or expensive villages, there is an interesting tension of when to start "overbuying" terminals. You want to set your self up to quickly transition to an engine, so a few cards with extra buys or gainers are great to grab a bunch of moats or whatnot just before you play your champion.

I agree though, warrior is unfun/swingy. If you warrior your opponents warrior early on, its really frustrating and back breaking in games where champion is critical. They also chain like crazy once you get a champion, so sometimes the first person to champion really wipes out the other players decks, but that feels a little more like a big dramatic deliberate part of the game. But if it happens early its more like "oops, look we just did the same thing but now you loose".

Overall both the traveler sets have been super fun. Chains of one person after the next playing treasure hunter are a little random but wacky and fun. 6 silver? OK...  Peasant was lots of fun too, and much better for engines.

2

Rules Questions / Re: Warrior + Tunnel

« on: May 12, 2015, 06:23:29 pm »

That is really weird... I guess it makes sense because you aren't allowed to look at cards below the top discard card... Still, it feels... unsatisfying.

3

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Some cards ideas from a while back

« on: December 04, 2014, 05:55:58 pm »

I like fence. I think it could be made an appropriate power level by just making it able to trash only 2 cards. It would still be a super fast trasher in an engine, because if you draw it with a village, you can trash and not loose options for the rest of your turn.

Actually, it might STILL stronger than a remake after the "nerf". Average scenario: trash a copper and an estate, draw 2, end up with 4 in hand and buy an engine component, which is better than a silver (and you might have had nothing to get with 2). And pretty often you will trash two things and draw up to $5, especially if you opened with a silver.

4

Dominion Articles / Re: Top 10 Cards beginners don't understand

« on: October 30, 2014, 05:11:50 pm »

I definitely agree with stonemason being on this list. I played a game just the other day that was a colony game, with a SP engine, bishop, fortress, and stonemason. Oh, and there was no +buy. My opponent went for a bishop/fortress deck, but I realized I could close the game faster by stonemasoning colony into plats, and then plats into provinces. I think I emptied the province pile over 2 turns.

Not to mention it was a no brainer to pay 4P for two scrying pools, so I already had the stonemasons.

5

Goko Dominion Online / Re: I really really hate tournament, but how do I avoid it online?

« on: March 21, 2014, 05:03:10 pm »

Is Rebuild actually good to get on 5/2? It seems like no silvers would hurt your ability to buy more rebuilds... I mean, you want rebuild early... but THAT early?

I guess it depends on what your other options are, but I think regardless, I would not be excited about opening Rebuild/nothing to my opponent's silver/silver.

I'm not a fan of veto mode. But, allowing pre-banned cards sounds okay. But, to be honest, I would rather there be an outright ban list that the majority agree on and not banned just because people hate playing the card but ban the card because the card actually causes to many unbalanced games like Tournament, for instance.

However, more than a banned list, what I think would benefit pro games the most is the ability to start with identical hands. I think a large problem with a lot of cards is that one player gets 5/2 and the other gets 3/4. This is very problematic with Cultist games where one person is likely to win the ruins split 8-2 and also Mountebank for instance and Rebuild. These cards would not be as powerful if each player got the same starting hands. Tournament though would still remain pretty random as would Black Market.

6

Dominion Articles / Re: Montebank Article Request

« on: February 11, 2014, 07:53:44 am »

So if 5/2 isn't as overwhelming with mountebank, why is it consistently a higher ranked opening than witch?

The first play of mountebank, you are guarenteed to give two pieces of junk. The second play of mountebank, your opponent has at least 15 cards, so there's at least 2/3 chance your going to hit them with that too. Seems to me there's pretty bad odds for you to "catch up" if your opponent gets 5/2 and you don't. I mean curse giving will slow down at some point, but I think that that feeling of "catching up" is somewhat of an illusion with two somewhat equally matched opponents. Even if you get your first mountebank after the first reshuffle, you are going to be playing it less because of two pieces of junk in your deck, and you are going to have less economy to buy more mountebanks and other good cards.

I just think that "2 pieces of junk" > "sometimes misses".

Montebank is a card so awesome everyone thinks its obvious: buy one asap, probably several. However, if you look at the wiki site, there is obvious evidence that people DO NOT understand Montebank as well as they think:

"The fact that the attack can be blocked by discarding a Curse leads Mountebank to be more of a self-limiting card than other straight-up cursers like Witch, Sea Hag, or Familiar. It also, however, makes it more of a swingy card. This has several interesting effects and interactions. A 5/2 opening is not quite as an overwhelming advantage with Mountebank as with Witch, although it still provides an advantage--this is because a lead in cursing is more likely to equalize after both players get Mountebanks and play them slightly. It is also not as advantageous to buy multiple Mountebanks as it is to buy multiple copies of other cursers."

This paragraph is utterly false.

You are definitely wrong about this. Someone who gets Mountebank one shuffle earlier than his opponent is less guaranteed to get a more favorable Curse split than someone who gets a different cursing attack one shuffle earlier. The only part of that paragraph that I would disagree with is the final sentence, since once you commit to Mountebank, there needs to be a good reason to pick up something else at $5.

With witch, if you buy two witches and your opponent buys three, they might only beat you 6/4 on the split at best. But with mountebank, the game crawls forward after each person gets hit about twice. But at this point there are still 12+ pieces of junk to hand out! Even if you only hit every other time, or every third time, its STILL worth it to play it often. If you can play mountebank multiple times a turn, its even better. But even without villages, I rarely want less than three Mountebanks, unless I have some way to play them more often, like with HP.

The problem is that once there are about 4 Curses left in the supply for a 2-player game, the impact of future Mountebank plays is far less than the impact of other cursing attack plays. In the case of other cursing attacks, the Curse pile will deplete around the middle of the game, so winning the Curse split will yield a better deck quality and thus a better endgame. For Mountebank, the last few Curses in the supply will be trickling into players' decks at the end of the game (if the Curse pile empties at all), and at that point, the change in deck quality doesn't matter beyond a couple of VPs.

You seem to be suggesting that Mountebank kills all engines and therefore you have to unequivocally slog with as many of them as possible. This is bad advice. Engines are still possible with Mountebank around, and the opportunity cost of getting your second or third Mountebank is pretty high if there are good competing $5s because those extra Mountebanks are much less likely to successfully hit your opponent. Your goal should be to play Mountebank as often as possible, which doesn't necessarily mean to buy as many as possible.

7

Dominion Articles / Re: Montebank Article Request

« on: February 08, 2014, 06:39:05 pm »

Fair enough about there being other ways to play more mountebanks. I agree, if there's strong trashing, you can still play an engine. However, this is my main thesis:

If you ARE in a slog/BM situation with Mountebank, in many cases you need more Mountebanks precisely because the curse pile will be emptying so slowly, and the game is going to go so long. In a witch slog, you can often say two and done. Not so with Mountebank, typically, in my experience.

8

Dominion Articles / Montebank Article Request

« on: February 08, 2014, 04:52:09 pm »

Montebank is a card so awesome everyone thinks its obvious: buy one asap, probably several. However, if you look at the wiki site, there is obvious evidence that people DO NOT understand Montebank as well as they think:

"The fact that the attack can be blocked by discarding a Curse leads Mountebank to be more of a self-limiting card than other straight-up cursers like Witch, Sea Hag, or Familiar. It also, however, makes it more of a swingy card. This has several interesting effects and interactions. A 5/2 opening is not quite as an overwhelming advantage with Mountebank as with Witch, although it still provides an advantage--this is because a lead in cursing is more likely to equalize after both players get Mountebanks and play them slightly. It is also not as advantageous to buy multiple Mountebanks as it is to buy multiple copies of other cursers."

This paragraph is utterly false. Three things about mountebank games:
- Two pieces of junk is devastating - so first person to mountebank often wins, and 5/2 is nigh unbeatable.
- In most cases it is even MORE important than with witch to play mountebank often.
- The games are SO slow because of so much junk, and you aren't guaranteed for curses to run out.

With witch, if you buy two witches and your opponent buys three, they might only beat you 6/4 on the split at best. But with mountebank, the game crawls forward after each person gets hit about twice. But at this point there are still 12+ pieces of junk to hand out! Even if you only hit every other time, or every third time, its STILL worth it to play it often. If you can play mountebank multiple times a turn, its even better. But even without villages, I rarely want less than three Mountebanks, unless I have some way to play them more often, like with HP.

You really need to play for the long game with Mountebank because the game is so slow.

I also think that people don't realize that Mountebank is SO powerful, it often makes sense to play into defenses: ambassador, lighthouse, etc. Not all of the time of course, but way more than other cursers, because when it hits, its so devastating.

So I don't have time for full article, but I'd be interested in if anyone has any other thoughts .

9

Dominion Articles / Re: When to think

« on: August 10, 2013, 10:10:33 am »

Random Question, since you mentioned shelters vs estates:

If you are going first and have copper x 5, how do you know if its a shelter game? I bought an ambassador recently on 5, and it ended up being a shelter game and I was really irritated.

Also, I think your definition of endgame is too restrictive. For me the endgame is whenever you start doing calculations of points, and there is some possibility of the game ending in several turns. The beginning of the endgame is about setting yourself up in a position where you can win, such as: -empty piles, -win because you are more set up to stand up to greening, -play to your "outs" if you are behind

10

Goko Dominion Online / Re: Black Market + Stash now for purchase with Gokoins

« on: July 27, 2013, 10:59:52 am »

Wow, isn't 10 Gokoins like 1 dollar? 100 VP = 1 dollar is a horrible exchange rate. I hope they leave most of the promos as VP only, otherwise I'm going to feel stupid for spending so much time for governor and envoy.

11

Help! / Re: Rebuild help

« on: July 14, 2013, 04:37:10 pm »

yeah, I wouldn't have bought the province, I'd have bought a rebuild instead, but its bad luck getting 8 so early.

12

Help! / Re: Rebuild help

« on: July 14, 2013, 04:35:57 pm »

You definitely want at least 2 rebuilds, even when going against another rebuild strategy. Against a non-rebuild opponent, I'd even say you want 3, to drain the provinces and end the game faster.

I think I do like feast here over baron. I'd probably buy a feast most times I hit 4, until duchies are nearly out. You have no other terminals to play and you really want rebuilds and duchies, so yeah, its good.

13

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: $2 copper attack

« on: July 14, 2013, 02:37:30 pm »

What about copper junking with this clause:
- each other player gains a copper, or reveals a hand with 3 or more copper (would be weak early, I know)

14

Game Reports / Re: Countering the rebuild

« on: July 14, 2013, 01:19:39 pm »

This IS a very interesting board. Would a hybrid strategy with an IGG or two into say 2 or 3 rebuilds be good here? I feel like the IGG would help your economy and slow down your opponent from hitting 5 as often.

Another interesting question: without IGG here, do you even want to consider minion? There is a weird synergy/anti-synergy thing going on between rebuild and minion. And they are at the same price point. Also does rebuild beat minion all the time?

 

15

Help! / Re: I do not understand how to use Governor.

« on: June 19, 2013, 11:29:55 pm »

Similar to hive mind, I think you gained gold too many times.

I think we have this idea of governor that is like this:
1. only gain gold till you start buying provinces
2. THEN use the other two options for a mega turn

But I think you win games by being more nuanced.

There were a couple of turns where you bought nothing, why not buy at least a haven? Also, on mid-game turns with a govenor or two and $1-4, you might want to consider using draw. Even if it helps your opponent, buying more governors/journeymen is important to your strategy. It just seems a waste to not use $3, so I'd draw more cards till I get $5 and then use the rest to give gold.

16

Goko Dominion Online / Re: I quit for the first time today...

« on: June 11, 2013, 09:59:30 am »

I hate that resigning counts as a quit in >2P games.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think abandoning a 3/4 P game counts as a quit even if you do it with bots, for example, in campaign mode. I think that's how my quit rate got to 8%, even though I play almost all 2 player and certainly try not to quit in a bad way.

17

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Combos that seem good but dont work out. (Nombos)

« on: June 06, 2013, 08:47:56 pm »

then you are screwed

If he buys multiple tunnels without getting a minion, you are NOT screwed. Presumably, you don't buy your tunnels until you already have minions, so now you have fewer tunnels than your opponent. Just don't use the discard effect unless its REALLY beneficial to you. You have a shot at trapping your opponent with useless tunnels if he tries to hard to trap you. If he buys minions too, well then its just a mirror and you're not screwed, its just a tough, tactical game.

 

18

Dominion: Guilds Previews / Re: Preview #4: Butcher

« on: June 06, 2013, 01:06:31 pm »

I agree that this is a weak copper trasher, but on boards that there are no good $2s, it is better than remodel, because copper->estate is just TERRIBLE. If there's an engine piece at $3, the difference is even bigger.

I guess in retrospect though, you won't USUALLY want to save coins, so depending on having an extra coin probably doesn't make sense. So yeah, you are mostly right. I still super like the card though, and I think the fact that its never a dead card makes it well worth the upgrade to 5. I love remodel, but hate when I get hands like copper,copper,silver,silver,remodel.

Nobody has mentioned that this is a decent Copper trasher. Estate->Silver leaves you an extra token, with which you can Copper->Silver. Though it may often be better to save those coin tokens, especially if there is a better treasure trasher available.

That's actually pretty weaksauce. Mine does the same thing, but it allows you to keep the Silver in your hand, as well as working in other ways, and it's one of the worst $5 cards. I think if you're using Butcher to turn Copper into Silver, you're probably doing it wrong.

But this is so much more useful than Mine overall! And you could also turn copper into a $3 engine piece. Our save up more coin tokens to hit $4 or higher. The Silver example is a minimum which is still decent.

I disagree! I think Butcher will be about as good of a Copper trasher as Remodel, which is to say: very bad. If you're using it to get $3 cost cards, you're giving up a huge opportunity cost of using the coin tokens on other things, such as buying $5 or $6 cards that are going to likely help you much more than turning a Copper into a $3 card.

19

Game Reports / Re: Minion Game

« on: June 06, 2013, 06:44:21 am »

While I don't disagree with Davio, I think your real mistake was less subtle than lookout vs warehouse.

I think you mostly just ignored building up your economy, which kept you from reaching 5, which is critically important.

You got 1 silver, a lookout, a warehouse and a pawn in the first 4 turns. IF you are going to get a lookout, you definitely want a second silver to reach 5 more often. Your pawn buy is probably early (as you aren't reaching 5 consistently yet, and silver is better at helping you do that). Your second lookout is definitely a mistake for the same reason.

I actually really like 1 lookout here, perhaps after the 1st reshuffle, because minions help you play it so often, and a tight minion deck is awesome. But definitely not two, and you definitely need to prioritize economy.

20

Rules Questions / Re: Forge coppers into curse, even if there are no more curses in the supply ?

« on: May 13, 2013, 07:21:50 am »

Its right.

You're not allowed to gain a card from workshop or remake that has an empty supply pile, why should this be any different?

Another example: swindling your opponents peddler when the peddler pile is out: you have to give them a province, you can't choose to "give" them a non-existent peddler.

21

Rules Questions / Re: Forge coppers into curse, even if there are no more curses in the supply ?

« on: May 13, 2013, 07:19:43 am »

Its right.

You're not allowed to gain a card from workshop or remake that has an empty supply pile, why should this be any different?

22

Dominion General Discussion / Re: What is your least favorite promo card?

« on: May 06, 2013, 10:23:36 am »

Envoy should not have existed. It synergizes with practically no other card. (Someone is probably going to prove me wrong on that statement, but oh well.)

Envoy synergizes well with filtering cards like warehouse. Also, hamlet, because you have lots of cards of low quality to discard. The two actually very quickly make a good engine b/c they are so cheap and you already have +buys. Envoy is also excellent with throne room and kings court. More generally, envoy synergizes with drawing through your deck, because you eventually get all those good cards back.

23

Dominion General Discussion / Re: The Dominion Cards Lists 2013 Edition: $5 cards (Part 4/6)

« on: May 02, 2013, 10:50:36 am »

I've played a lot of DA games since it's the 2nd expansion I got. Rebuild is good, but easily beaten if the non-rebuild player grabs enough duchies. Rebuilds are limited in Provinces by the number of Duchies they get. With the right cards, getting 5 Duchies is not impossible, especially if the Rebuild player has to buy Rebuilds too. Sure they can simply empty the Province pile, but they'll be slow at doing that and not increasing their points. Colonies are another story, and just crazy for Rebuild.

It is a game changer though, as said before.

As KingZog says, it changes the game. Its reasonably strong, but I think right now, people are only just learning how to play it, but don't know how to play AGAINST it at all. It grabs green cards quick, and empties out duchies, so if you are playing an engine, you can't hope to catch up that way later. So its a little like playing a rush strategy, and you need to play accordingly.

24

Dominion Articles / Re: Knights

« on: April 01, 2013, 09:50:01 pm »

A deck full of Rats is pretty safe against Knights too.

Yeah well, you can also buy out the Curses to defend against Possession...

Both of these comments are simplistic. Rats really ARE good against knights, ESPECIALLY in the absence of other good trashing. You don't need or want ALL rats obv, but a knight hitting a rat, which "was" an estate or copper, and also allowing them to draw a card, is huge.

Also, making your deck bad against a possession player is a real thing. Obviously it depends on either being ahead, or having a lot of possessions in your deck. In most cases you'd probably buy VP instead, but maybe if you are trying to three pile, buying curses might be a good call...

25

Dominion Articles / Re: The Hand-size reduction fallacy

« on: March 10, 2013, 04:14:44 am »

Yo dawg, I heard you liked fallacies, so I fallaciously put a fallacy in this fallacy.