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76

Dominion Articles / Re: fast start with tournament into rebuild

« on: December 20, 2012, 03:15:04 am »

Hmm, I don't know about that mega-turn ending. From my experience Duchies are often the bottleneck in Rebuild games. They are usually gone first and then there's no point in Duchy gainers any more.

That's totally true.  Getting the Duchies out of the game is also a great defense against an opponent running a Rebuild.  If you see your opponent buying estates and you know they're going to become duchies, reduce the duchies to zero and those estates become nothings.  I also encountered how awesome Counts can be for getting all the Duchies.  Count doesn't do much to reduce other pile sizes though, but Tourney Rebuild helps you focus on Provinces.  The thing is Tourney Province is a pretty swingy setup to begin with, the kind of thing that "snowballs," so anything that gives you the edge in the snowballing is really beneficial.  But if your opponent is doing the same thing you might as well consider it to be a really fast, really boring game that depends completely on luck. I almost want to give myself a -1 now that I realize that this is a swingy luck based combo at heart.

Nah, don't be hard on yourself. I agree it's really strong until your opponent starts denying you those Duchies. And in a mirror it's just super fast and hence swingy.

77

Dominion General Discussion / Re: I rarely find [insert card here] useful, but when I do it is a TON of fun!

« on: December 19, 2012, 06:40:19 pm »

Do you not see the top sticky in this forum?  ;-)

Woah thanks. This might sound silly, but I usually don't pay attention to stickies.
In most boards they're just always the same all year long.

78

2012 / Re: Witch Division: Bracket and Results

« on: December 19, 2012, 06:36:50 pm »

once again I have a time zone issue - hoping to play my game this weekend sometime, or maybe on friday.

I am forfeiting my match to ddubois

What happen?

Somebody set up us the bomb.
Main screen turn on ...

79

Dominion General Discussion / Re: I rarely find [insert card here] useful, but when I do it is a TON of fun!

« on: December 19, 2012, 06:30:09 pm »

I think saboteur is very fun. But it's useful more often than "rarely", so...

I just ranked it last of the $5 cards on Qvist's Extraordinary List of Dominion Science.  I find Harvest more useful more often.  Not even kidding, but also not the best player ever, so there's that to consider.

Wait, the ranking is already on?
When is the deadline?

80

2012 / Re: Gardens Division: Bracket and Results

« on: December 19, 2012, 06:27:40 pm »

Congratulations to gamesou and nice report, Tables!
I knew one of you would win.

81

Dominion Articles / Re: fast start with tournament into rebuild

« on: December 19, 2012, 10:07:00 am »

Hmm, I don't know about that mega-turn ending. From my experience Duchies are often the bottleneck in Rebuild games. They are usually gone first and then there's no point in Duchy gainers any more.

82

Council Room Feedback / Re: Anyone want to maintain councilroom?

« on: December 19, 2012, 03:36:13 am »

Anyone know how to download Goko logs in bulk?

Code: [Select]

GET http://dominionlogs.goko.com/20120727/ | grep -oE 'a href=\"([a-zA-Z0-9\.]*)\"' | sed 's/a href=\"//g' | sed 's/\"//g' | xargs -I{} wget "dominionlogs.goko.com/20120727/{}"

... and maybe loop this over the date...

edit: simplified

edit2: better would of course be goko had some compressed version of the day, because obviously there is a lot possibility to compress

Yeah, I also just checked that out. The format is also pretty minimalistic which makes it easy to parse and it could be pretty-printed into the nice colored HTML format that we know and love.

83

Dominion General Discussion / Re: I rarely find [insert card here] useful, but when I do it is a TON of fun!

« on: December 18, 2012, 05:03:04 pm »

Yeah I definitely was expecting Outpost in this list.

For me personally it's definitely Develop. Something about top-decked villages just always makes me smile.

84

Dominion Articles / Re: Request: Winning the Curse War

« on: December 18, 2012, 05:00:35 pm »

Here's a nice example that I just played where I used an early Cartographer to accelerate my Young Witch plays. (I'm hugo in this one)
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201212/18/game-20121218-135102-6092f3d1.html

It also showcases a low-economy transition into a nice engine like I mentioned in the previous post.

85

Dominion Articles / Re: Request: Winning the Curse War

« on: December 17, 2012, 04:39:56 am »

Some of these have already been mentioned but here is my advice:

• Scheme: A Curser / Scheme opening is great. Always put back your Curser. Later you want to add more Schemes, not more Cursers. With two Schemes in play you can put back a Scheme and the Curser to guarantee you playing the Curser three turns in a row.
• Sifters like Warehouse and Cellar are invaluable. Don't be afraid of discarding your coppers. Your goal is to play your Curser more often, not to optimize your $ on each turn. However, when sifting, be aware of your shuffles and make sure your Curser doesn't miss a reshuffle. With a pricepoint at 2$ or 3$, you can usually open Sea Hag/Young Witch + sifter.
• Generally prefer Oasis (it helps with cycling) and Lighthouse (blocks attacks) over Silver.
• Even without non-terminal Sifters I often prefer a no-money opening in these games when there's a cheap Village and something like for example Storeroom. Or I would buy a second Young Witch with Village support because it transitions nicely into later stages - IF there's a way to clean up after the early game and an engine to be built afterwards.
• With Hunting Party on the board I like a Silver + Curser opening with low card-diversity (ie. only add more Silvers and Hunting Parties). It can be kind of slowish and might even lose the Curse split to a double Curser player but with the Hunting Party advantage you're still miles ahead.
• I often ignore Moat and/or the Bane card if they don't fit into my follow up strategy in favor of the things mentioned above. Moat can be nice in a big-money follow-up. But double Young Witch and double Witch is too.

86

2012 / Re: Thief Division: Bracket and Results

« on: December 17, 2012, 03:20:08 am »

Yeah, Fabian definitely deserved the win, I was lost on all the boards and generally just played a lot worse. I don't even know if I should comment because I just suck. The outcome had nothing to do with luck.

It makes me feel better about my own loss to Fabian.
But you can still get your revenge in the losers bracket, for example by taking out the other Swede - Lekkit.

87

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Interview with Donald X.

« on: December 14, 2012, 11:28:40 am »

I would imagine it would mostly behave like normal treasure in a black market game. I don't think it could create any more confusion than that. Double Tactician fun
But then again BM already does that.

88

Loser's Bracket / Re: Losers Bracket RD 2 Signups - 9/???

« on: December 14, 2012, 04:34:14 am »

Hihi, Mergus just got DESTROYED. 

89

Loser's Bracket / Re: Losers Bracket RD 2 Signups - 9/???

« on: December 13, 2012, 04:47:56 pm »

Then it is official. We just created a rivalry out of thin air.
Well played!
Insomniac makes it sound really exciting.

90

Loser's Bracket / Re: Losers Bracket RD 2 Signups - 6/???

« on: December 13, 2012, 11:59:06 am »

Ok, if Lekkit is in I want too!

91

General Discussion / Re: Everyone with right-aligned Pokemon signatures

« on: December 13, 2012, 08:38:07 am »

Look, now I have one too.

92

Dominion General Discussion / Re: When is silver bad?

« on: December 10, 2012, 08:01:10 am »

Generally you want to stop for a second and rethink a Silver purchase when there are Cards that look through your deck for specific other cards.
Hunting Party and Sage come to mind.
I'm not saying you never want Silver in a Hunting Party or Sage deck, but if there's a better card that you want to play reliably and often you should look if there's a way to get there without Silver.

93

2012 / Re: Thief Division: Bracket and Results

« on: December 10, 2012, 04:44:06 am »

Round 2, Fabian wins 4-1 over PitzerMike

Game 1 Fabian 38 - 15 PitzerMike
(Note: Mike's browser wouldn't cooperate when we started playing, so after he installed a different browser, we restarted game 1. That's what the "required cards" in the game log are about)

I have no idea what's good on this board. I was scared of playing a strict BM type strategy (Bureaucrat or Envoy based) as I felt it would lose to a deck with 10ish Alchemist and a Swindler. I decided to go for Alchemists and try to thin out my deck with Spice Merchant. Bureaucrat could maybe help rebuild my economy, and if I got a chance to pick up a Haven, it could help spread out my terminals. Swindler is always kinda high-variance and it's tough to predict how games will go, but that's more or less what ended up happening. I had better Swindler luck overall, and Mike's deck was kind of a mess and this wasn't very close.

Game 2 Fabian 15 - 8 PitzerMike
A scary engine board with Worker's Village and Bridge and some trashing in the form of Remodel. I think I misjudged this board, deciding to skip out on Alchemists getting too many Lighthouses, especially after he got rid of his Swindler. I sort of realized that the only good card draw was Alchemist, and I got a Potion on turn 6, which didn't end up doing much. This turned into kind of a mess for both of us, with way more Lighthouses clogging up our decks than we wanted probably, and when I allowed him to win the Bridge split 6-4 after being down 3-4, I didn't particularly like my chances. However, with two empty piles I could take a pretty big lead with Province + 4 Estate on turn 13, and his deck couldn't really manage anything, and I was able to buy out the rest of the Estates.

Game 3 Fabian 42 - 49 PitzerMike
My plan was to thin out my deck a lot, and end up with a deck with some number of Bazaars and Monuments. Mike went more for a Monument/BM approach, and quickly bought lots of Provinces. I thought I was making a good comeback, and overtook the lead with two Provinces remaining. By that point my thin deck was bogged down by all the green cards though, and I couldn't get much going, and Mike could buy the last two Provinces. Don't think I did very well in this game either.

Game 4 Fabian 29 - 25 PitzerMike
I open Remodel/Fool's Gold while Mike goes for Potion/Silver, hoping to ride Familiar to victory. He gets to deal out a Curse on turn 6, and then twice more on turn 7, and I'm not too happy about that. Overall I feel my strategy isn't too bad here though, and I manage to empty the Province pile by Remodeling away Province for Province twice in the end-game. Mike was getting close to mounting a comeback with Dukes, but didn't have quite enough time.

Game 5 Fabian 58 - 39 PitzerMike
A pretty fun board where we both open Fool's Gold/Mint, and I win the split 6-4 despite being in second place due to some terrible reshuffle draws on Mike's part. He seems to be in ok shape anyway, as he gets to Goons and Apprentice first. He trashes his Mint at some point though, which I think might have cost him, as my end game of Apprenticing away Platinum to draw my deck and playing Mint for another Platinum and buying a few engine pieces is pretty good. On my final turn, I know my deck can produce $34 and three buys (one Goons, one Herbalist), so I can comfortably Apprentice away Colony, and then Apprentice another Colony, to draw my deck and guarantee victory with three Colonies remaining (I also got an extra $5 I didn't consider, since I can Mint for another Platinum).

I think I made some pretty poor decisions in a few spots, possibly from being super tired after having been up all night, so I'm definitely happy to have advanced. Thanks to Mike for some good games, see you around

Here are some of my thoughts about our games. Overall Fabian showed better end game control and deck tracking skills so in the end it was a well deserved win. I believe I had a shot at all the games except the first one where Swindler just hit me real hard. Also thanks for handling my browser dilemma like you did. I have now found out that my system clock was reset and as a result the Google certificate was invalid and I couldn't log in on Iso

Game 1: Fabian's first 2 Swindler plays hit my opening Spice Merchant and Swindler and turned them into Bureaucrat and Workshop. The game was pretty much over right there. I tried to switch into BM instead of the Alchemists that I originally wanted to pursue but there wasn't anything to be done.

Game 2: I identified the Alchemists as the only source of good draw and planned to line up a few Bridges eventually. With a nice Alchemist lead and the Bridge split won I was feeling in great shape. Still on tilt from the first game I think I overbought the Lighthouses because Swindler was on board again allowing Fabian to pile out on Estates so quickly I just couldn't react in time.

Game 3: Was very close until the end. I felt lucky when I was able to buy the last 2 Provinces in time to seal the deal. I was scared of the game going on any longer because Fabian's Monuments brought in so many VP tokens and it didn't look like he was stalling.

Game 4: Going for Familiars and then contesting the Fools Golds looked like a good idea on paper. However coming back from a deficit from Fabian's early Province buys proved to be the real challenge here with Remodel allowing him to burn through the Provinces. I figured my only chances were Duchies / Dukes so that's what I did. I also had to watch for a possible 3-pile ending with FG gone and Curses almost gone. In the end it got very close - an additional Duke could have turned the game around.

Game 5: Like Fabian mentioned my opening shuffles weren't particularly good with my Mint in a CCEE hand and not being able to play it on a FG at all. So I lost the FG split 6 - 4. I then apprenticed my Mint to get a kickstart in Platinums. But I already had a feeling that this might have been a mistake and I'm now convinced it was. With a nice lead and his Mint still available Fabian could afford to apprentice Platinums and Colonies and end it quickly.

All in all these were pretty fun games and interesting boards - especially Game 2, 3 and 5 I think. But I'm still sad I won't be able to play Eevee or Young Nick in the 3rd round. Good luck to Fabian in the rest of the tournament and I hope we will meet again on Isotropic soon.

94

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Now that Dark Ages has been out for a while...Thoughts on cards?

« on: December 08, 2012, 05:46:15 am »

Yesterday I played a RL game with Cultist and I opened Sage / Horsetrader.
This is a real power combo and was a pretty one sided affair.
Just make sure you only add Cultists and Sages early on and the ruins will be gone in no time.
We had Hamlet on the board too which helped play "disconnected" Cultists and didn't interfere with Sage.

In another game I've played recently, Marauder looked like one of the best Duke enablers in the whole game. Open Marauder / Silver and you can pretty much skip the economy buildup phase and go directly into the Duchies.3$->Silver, 4$-> another Marauder (up to 4 or even 5) 5$+-> Duchy or Duke. Adding coppers also seems like a good idea. All the ruins slowed my Provincing opponent down so much that I could easily grab all Duchies and Dukes and even add Gardens later on just for the fun of it.

95

Loser's Bracket / Re: Losers Bracket Sign-Ups - 15/64

« on: December 07, 2012, 03:18:12 am »

I'm assuming the main point is for the early eliminated players to play a few more games.
I would think that letting in people who were late to the party - like these two - couldn't really hurt. Especially if there's not too many sign-ups for the losers bracket and I don't think there's any prize or whatever on the line?

96

2012 / Re: Bummed I missed it...good luck everyone

« on: December 07, 2012, 03:06:27 am »

Same here. I never really come to this site, but have fun to everyone who got in. I'm rooting for shark_bait - I know he did well last year, and my games against him has been mostly embarrassing.

I guess being good at shuffling only gets you so far in real life dominion.
Baiting the sharks however ...

97

2012 / Re: Upsets

« on: December 06, 2012, 03:49:10 pm »

Interestingly these are all in the 40-50 over 15-25 range.

98

2012 / Re: Thief Division: Bracket and Results

« on: December 05, 2012, 07:02:19 pm »

I think Minion is the right choice there. What else would you buy with $5? Minion combos pretty nicely with Jack because if Jack is in the hand with Minion, it's essentially +$2+1 card, other wise it's either a Silver or lets you flip your hand (and attack -- though the attack can be defended decently with Jack), hopefully to find another Jack and refill back up to 5 cards. The only thing that can go wrong is if it's the card drawn by your Jack, which is a much lower probability occurrence than the beneficial cases.

Well, there are Duchies to be gained for 5$. Well it probably was too early for that, but with Jack I'm never quite sure if there is such a thing as too early. Anyway, if the game we played is any indication, I guess I was wrong.

99

2012 / Re: Thief Division: Bracket and Results

« on: December 05, 2012, 05:47:32 pm »

So here are the results of the first round clash of the Austrians.

Match result: Loppo (seed 21) 3-4 PitzerMike (seed 44)

Game 1: PitzerMike 24-10 Loppo
A colony game with many power cards Ambassador, Horn of Plenty, Jack of All Trades, Masquerade, Mountebank, Torturer, villages too. I think we were both overwhelmed so there was a little bit of indecisiveness on both sides. But my village-heavy torturer deck eventually got the upper hand allowing me to play my two ambassadors more often clearing out my deck. From there on there wasn't much Loppo could do against the torturer chain + HoP. I drained the HoP pile for the win.

Game 2: PitzerMike 37-31 Loppo
A kind of meh board with Fishing Village and Black Market but not much engine potential due to the lack of power cards. Both sides were kind of hoping to get something good out of the BM deck but I missed an early Witch from the BM because I only had 4$. Loppo got a Bishop out of the BM and gained a nice lead. I did what I could with what I had and for some reason won with a few lucky turns at the end I guess. I wasn't really happy with my play in this set, but I'll take a lucky win any day. The tables would turn anyway in the next set.

Game 3: PitzerMike 44-48 Loppo
This one had Ambassador, Fortune Teller, Horse Traders, Inn, Margrave, Monument, Pearl Diver, Rabble, Sea Hag and Possession. We both tried to make something happen by opening Horse Traders into Inns and the 5$ attacks. We both ignored Sea Hag due to the presence of Ambassador. The game quickly degenerated as we both got a second ambassador with noone really coming out ahead. Although we almost mirrored each other I somehow got a nice mid-game lead, not sure why. I was quite confident I could close it out when Loppo's desperation possession hit me with a province and an ambassador in hand. *ouch* I had totally forgotten about that.

Game 4: PitzerMike 32-43 Loppo
After the loss in game 3 and it being my first tournament and all I suddenly got really nervous. I tried big money on an obvious engine board and Loppo punished me like I deserved. Not sure what else to say, I definitely got outplayed in this one.

Game 5: PitzerMike 55-46 Loppo
This one was really nice with most notably Chapel, Outpost, Tactician and Colonies. While Loppo only added money to his Tactician and Outpost, my earlier Outpost also allowed me to add a few other cards (a Shanty Town, 2 Navigators and a Crossroads for the actions). This setup can be quite tricky due to the combination of Tactitian, Outpost and an extremely trimmed decked allowing for huge swings (discarding to Tactitian vs. having the Tactitian turn). The Navigators allowed me to get the most out of my final Tactitian turn securing the win with 2 Colonies + 1 Duchy bought.

Game 6: PitzerMike 36-40 Loppo
A double Jack mirror with Farmland and Minions on the board. I was pretty sure ignoring Minions was the right call on my part and was quite happy when Loppo added 2 to his deck. Everything went according to plan until I had a 9$ hand to buy the last province discarded by a Minion. After that my last three turns were quite terrible allowing Loppo to catch up with cute Farmland play for the win. I'm still not sure if Minions are the correct play here.

Game 7: PitzerMike 52-43 Loppo
Another BM board - at least that's what I thought - with Chapel being a trap and a little twist that was Trade Route. I opened Silver, Oracle. I think Loppo might have been looking for the engine at first judging from the Nomand Camp opening and because Nobles were there too. But he quickly followed me into BM too. We both added 2 Trade Routes in the mid-game as the game degenerated into a greening fest and Nobles made them 4$. But I felt I had a small lead throughout the whole game and rode it out to the end.

At the end I jumped up from my seat and screamed in joy.
Then I struggled with getting out my contact lens for like 15 minutes because I still was kind of shaky.
Then I got me a cold one which helped.

Overall I was really happy with the games and want to thank Loppo for the fun series. I was really nervous too so I hope it'll be better next week versus Fabian. I still see so many holes in my play but maybe that's just the Dunning–Kruger effect right there.

100

2012 / Re: Gardens Division: Bracket and Results

« on: December 05, 2012, 12:38:36 pm »

Maybe the guy who complained about missing the cut can jump in?