I haven't really sat down to collect my comprehensive thoughts on the matter, but here are a few observations:
1)
Balance between card types - Crossroads seems to single-handedly remove the penalty of having green in your deck. Meanwhile, I can't count the number of games where poor foresight led to a deck full on dead Spice Merchants and Stables. The action only decks of pre-Hinterlands, while still rather strong, are no longer a no-brainer. I suspect this actually a top priority for Donald (perhaps he can comment and correct me if I'm wrong) and overall I think it's wonderful for the game. However, I feel that it leads to more variance as it becomes much harder to be able to design an engine with a high probability of activating off of a hand of 5 random cards if a higher proportion of cards are treasures and victory cards (thought I guess this is why... we have the following).
2)
Variance reducers - Embassy, Oracle, Inn, Scheme, Mandarin, Cartographer. That's a lot of cards in one set that improve your hand (whether the current or ones in the near future) especially when it comes to how to properly handle "cloggers" (victory points, treasures, terminal actions) or key starters for action chains.
3)
Winner ends the game on his terms - Is it just me or are fewer games ending on Provinces/Colonies? With all the alternate victory cards as well as massive alternate gaining/buying (Border Village, Develop, Haggler, Farmland), 3 piles seems to be en vogue now. I've found that it's not always the player/deck with the most buying power and potency that wins, but the one with the prowess to end the game whenever a lead, however slight, is achievable. Here's an example of a game where my decision to go Transmute (a card that almost NEVER had utility before) and Develop seems to have given me the advantage due to the ability to end on Duchies before my opponent, who seemed to be going for standard big money to Provinces (though there was a possibly reactionary shift to Develop as well), could amass a large enough lead. It certainly wasn't a blowout and his next turn would've been a menacing Tactician one, but even then I doubt he could've ended the game thus giving me more tries to eclipse him and end again on my terms.
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201110/19/game-20111019-130611-94866314.htmlUPDATE: Here's another game where Provinces looked wholly unattractive from the get-go. 19 out of 25 buys were Victory cards (the other 6 were Silvers) and I didn't even begin to touch what would've been 4-5 point Gardens!
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201110/19/game-20111019-231449-d195c9d2.htmlOr have I read too much into these games?
What do you all think? Any other major trends you see stemming from Hinterlands?
