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Messages - eHalcyon

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51
So, umm, Harbinger?

Keep the art, just use Portent or Augury as the name is my suggestion. But I suppose the designer might want a final say.

The spirit of the name was the link to Envoy, since both are draw cards with another player having some control over what you can draw.  Portent or Augury would be getting at the other definition of Harbinger, not the one intended.

Open to other ideas, but my own suggestion will be Outrider.

52
Dominion General Discussion / Re: Interview with Donald X.
« on: September 26, 2016, 12:14:06 am »
For cards that were removed from Dominion/Intrigue and didn't get an obvious analogue (e.g. Coppersmith), is it now more likely for those concepts to reappear sometime in the future?

53
Dominion General Discussion / Re: Dominion and Intrigue second editions
« on: September 26, 2016, 12:08:33 am »
First impressions!  (Thanks to Nolan, Mameluke and Marcory for compiling the text.)

I wrote this before reading most of the discussion that followed.  I'm reading that discussion now, before posting this, and I'll try to bold any of my observations that weren't already mentioned by others.

Quote
[/u]Artisan Action
Gain a card to your hand costing up to $5.
Put a card from you hand on to your deck.

Feast replacement?  No self-trashing though, so this reminds me more of Workshop which hasn't[/b] been removed.  The top-deck requirement is a cool, underused thing to include.  The good thing about it is that it gives the player a more interesting decision than discarding, and it could be either a benefit or a drawback for the card depending on your hand and how you use it.

Oh, maybe this is also partially the Adventurer replacement -- $6 cost, thing goes into your hand.

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Bandit Action
Gain a Gold.
Each other player reveals the top 2 cards of their deck, trashes a revealed treasure other than Copper, and discards the rest.

Basically this is what you always wanted to do with Thief in Base-only games -- trash good treasures, gain the Gold.  Bandit is Thief at its best in Base-only (at least for 2p games).

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Sentry Action
+1 Card
+1 Action
Look at the top 2 cards of your deck.
Trash and/or discard any number of them.
Put the rest back in any order.

Replacement for Spy, right?  Now more functional with expanded surveillance and optional trashing, but without the slow attack.  Seems like a much stronger Lookout, which I'm fond of already.  The name reflects that too!

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Poacher Action
+1 Card
+1 Action
+
Discard a card per empty supply pile.

Closest thing to the theoretical basic Peddler so far; AJD mentioned how this is the first "strictly" worse Peddler we've gotten.  It's interesting because it may not actually be a drawback very often -- it obviously doesn't apply early and often not into the mid-game, and when it does start to kick in then you'll often be greening and/or have a way to draw junk into your hand to discard, so it's a minor penalty overall.  The cool design aspect of this extra line is that it doesn't close off design space via "strictly better/worse" walls.

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Harbinger Action
+1 Card
+1 Action
Look through your discard pile. 
You may put a card from it onto your deck.

RIP fan card name.  I've seen lots of variations on this general concept and made a few fan cards like it myself, so I'm definitely a fan.  It has plenty of uses (obvious one: slower but potentially wider-reaching Scheme), but its main weakness will be Counting House syndrome -- draw it too early in your shuffle and it won't do much for you.

It bothers me a tiny bit that it says "onto your deck" instead of "on top of your deck".

I guess I'll count this as the Chancellor replacement?  Not really similar at all, but they both interact with the discard pile, ha.  Or maybe it's more like Adventurer, but with more flexibility (depending on size of discard pile).

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Merchant Action
+1 Card
+1 Action
The first time you play a Silver this turn +.

I'm surprised that this is in Base instead of in Intrigue, since this is a Coppersmith/Peddler hybrid and Base is already getting Poacher, but I guess Coppersmith wasn't really on-theme for Intrigue anyway.

I don't know about this one.  My first impression is that this would be really easy to use, so it may as well just be a straight up Peddler for $3.  Still, a restriction is a restriction.

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Vassal Action
+
Discard the top card of your deck. If it is an Action card, you may play it.

It's a Herald variant!  It'll play very differently since it's "terminal" and optional, and the guaranteed discard is a small change as well.  Sounds neat.  If you can flip non-terminals with it, it's like an activated Conspirator!

Didn't really identify something as "the Woodcutter replacement", so Vassal can be it.  They're both terminal Silver, sort of!  (I know removals and replacements aren't supposed to match up perfectly.)

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Courtier Action
Reveal a card from your hand.
For each type it has (Action, Attack, etc.), choose one: +1 Action, or +1 Buy, or +, or gain a Gold.'
The choices must be different.

Tribute replacement.  It loses the minor player interaction of Tribute, but lots of inexperienced players disliked it anyway (I've seen plenty of people complain about it being an attack, heh).  The change makes it more reliable, and the Pawn-like choices make it flexible.  The non-vanilla options stand out to me because if you choose those two specifically, this is effectively Explorer.

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Patrol Action
+3 Cards.
Reveal the top 4 cards of your deck. Put the Victory cards and Curse cards into your hand. Put the rest back in any order.

I think this is an excellent new take on Scout.  The 4 card filtering should feel pretty great on top of the +3 cards -- you could draw up to 7 cards in one go!  Most of those 7 cards would be junk, but it would still be fun to have that huge draw from just one play.

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Replace Action/Attack
Trash a card from your hand. Gain a card costing up to more than the trashed card. If the gained card is an Action or Treasure, put it onto your deck. If it's a Victory card, each other player gains a Curse.

Remodel variant, not really a direct replacement.  Saboteur maybe, since it's an Attack (but a really different one). 

As a second Curser for Intrigue, it's nice for those groups out there who permaban Torturer.

Quote
Diplomat Action/Reaction
+2 Cards.
If you have 5 or fewer cards in hand (after drawing), +2 Actions
-----------------
When another player plays an Attack card, you may first reveal this from a hand of 5 or more cards, to draw 2 cards then discard 3.

The top is an interesting parallel to Shanty Town.  The reaction makes this the Secret Chamber replacement, and it seems like a good change.  This version of the reaction leaves your hand 1 card smaller, but discarding instead of putting cards back on top is usually going to be better for you, I think.

I'm curious about why it got the awkward phrasing to prevent multiple uses of it.  Did it slow the game too much and become unfun for players as they used it multiple times to try to get a better hand, only to end up hurting themselves?

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Mill Action/Victory
Worth 1
+1 Card
+1 Action.
You may discard 2 cards for

Great Hall, now with a partial Secret Chamber effect.  Sounds like a fine improvement.

Quote
Secret Passage Action
+2 Cards
+1 Action
Take a card from your hand and put it anywhere in your deck.

What stands out to me the most is that this is a variation on the "Lab, discard 1" outtake which was deemed too strong for $4.  Here, instead of discarding, it's "put it anywhere in your deck".  Like Artisan, doing this instead of discarding is a neat change.  I guess it works because putting cards back is often worse than discarding, because you can't just toss the junk.  If you put junk back, it'll come back to hurt you.

With this card, at least you can put the junk on bottom.  You also have the option to top-deck something, or to put it second from the top for combos with Wishing Well and other cantrips that care about the top of your deck.  Are there any other deck positions that really matter besides bottom, top, second from top?  I guess sometimes you'll want to put stuff just low enough that you'll get it next hand, but it won't interfere with any additional draw you'll play this turn.

Overall, I really, really like "put it anywhere in your deck" and I can't believe it didn't exist already.  I wish I had thought of it and put it on some fan cards earlier.

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Lurker Action
+1 Action.
 Choose one: Trash an Action card from the Supply, or gain an Action card from the trash.

I feel like this has to exist as a fan card somewhere already.  It kind of makes me nervous, but I guess it's a good thing that it has some second-player advantage.  If multiple players open with it, it'll be risky for the first person to play it to trash a good action card.  I wonder how often the right move will be to open double Lurker (which, if successful, combine into "Gain any Action card from the Supply").  Probably not often, but... sometimes?



Some notes after reading other posts...

@Seprix -- it's Harbinger, not Harbringer.  I see that J Reggie already pointed it out, but I needed to mention it myself. :P  Also note that the -g sound there is like in "binge". 

@trivialknot -- they'll always be Peddler variants to me.

54
One of these is mine.

Quote
Ambush
Types: Event
Cost: $2
+1 Action
+1 Buy

Return to your Action phase.

I think Villa already covers this sufficiently.

Quote
Appraise
Types: Event
Cost: $0
You may discard a card costing at least $3. If you do, +1 Buy, and cards cost $1 less this turn, but not less than $0.

Sounds decent to me, but I'm worried that it may make greening too easy, since it turns Duchies and Provinces into almost-Highways.  A neat thing is that it keeps itself in check and doesn't really allow you to bring Provinces to $0 (unless there are Colonies, in which case you can't bring Colonies to $0) because eventually there won't be a card costing at least $3 to discard.

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Blackmail
Types: Event
Cost: $5
Gain a card costing up to $4. Each other player reveals the bottom card of their deck and gains a Curse if it isn't a Curse. All players put any cards gained from this Event on the bottom of their deck.

I dunno, it doesn't inspire me.

Quote
Coin Collection
Types: Event
Cost: $0
You may discard a Copper, a Silver and a Gold. If you do, gain a Province.

Kinda sounds too easy.

Quote
Credit
Types: Event
Cost: $0
Take up to <9> and gain a card costing exactly $3 less than the amount of debt you took.

Wording could use some cleaning up, but the intention is clear enough.  It sounds fine to me.  Should be interesting for players to decide when the debt is worth getting the card early.

Quote
Depository
Types: Event
Cost: $0
+1 Buy
+$8

You may not buy any victory cards this turn. At the end of your turn, if you bought at most 1 card, gain its $ cost in VP and debt +<2>. Otherwise, take <9>.

Wording could use a lot of cleaning up.  If I'm parsing it correctly, you can gain pretty much any non-Victory card with a coin cost of $X along with a bonus of X VP, but at a cost of <X+2>.  The VP value here is kind of ridiculous and, at first glance, it sounds like a no-brainer.  The debt (which can't be paid off this turn) may be a little tricky to handle, but it doesn't sound too bad to me.  The "otherwise" seems like unnecessary power, especially on a final turn -- it's just an extra $8 to help you 3-pile.

I think this would be far too powerful.  The VP return is just too much.

Quote
Exploit
Types: Event
Cost: $7
Turn your Journey Token over (it starts face up) and reveal the top three cards of your deck.

If it's face up, gain a copy of each of the three cards.
If it's face down, trash all three cards.

Weird, but might be interesting.  Buy it early to trash junk, buy it again late to boost.  Could be pretty swingy though.  It's tough to get $7 early; the first time you can afford it, you're probably risking trashing some important early buys.  And a late buy for the gain is really risky without some topdeck control unless you have other trashing available (in which case, you wouldn't buy this in the first place).  I think this would be better at a lower cost, but it could be fun.

Quote
Forgery
Types: Event
Cost: $4
+1 Buy

You may reveal an Action card from your hand. If you do, gain a copy of that card.

Hmm.  A key drawback is that you can't play the action card you want to copy, which you usually want to do.  If it was a terminal you were unable to play, then gaining more copies of it may be a bad idea anyway.  But I can imagine use cases where this is handy, saving you a buy and possibly giving you a cost reduction.  Could be interesting.

Quote
Goldrush
Types: Event
Cost: <4>
Gain the top card of the Goldrush pile.

Setup: Take the top card from each kingdom supply pile. Arrange them by $ cost first and name second to form the Goldrush pile.

Clarification: The Goldrush pile is not in the supply. Cards in the Goldrush are "from" their original piles, not the Goldrush pile, so e.g. Ambassador will return a card which was gained using Goldrush to its original pile.  Debt and potion costs are ignored when arranging the Goldrush pile.

I assume it should be ordered cheapest to most expensive?  Using Debt is nice here because it means it can be OK even when you're gaining a $2... that said, it's still gonna be rare where that's better than just buying the $2 outright, so I wonder how often Goldrush will be ignored simply because nobody wants to take that hit.

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Hired Help
Types: Event
Cost: $2
+1 Action
+1 Buy

Return to your Action phase.

I think Villa is enough.

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Insider's Deal
Types: Event
Cost: $0
Once per turn: Take up to <6>. Gain a card costing exactly $1 per <> taken and a Copper, putting each on top of your deck.

Defer payment in exchange for gaining a Copper.  Sounds OK.

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Invent
Types: Event
Cost: $1
+1 Buy
Once per turn: Flip your Journey Token over. If it's face up, +$3

I like it.  It's like a coin token, but more nuanced.

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Moon Bridge
Types: Event
Cost: $1 <2>
Once per turn: +2 Buys, and all cards (including cards in players' hands) cost $1 less this turn, but not less than $0.

The debt cost is usually going to be meaningless because you need to pay it off before buying anything else.  So, you pay $3 and get a $1 discount.  That means you need to buy 3 things to break even.  You might do it anyway just for the +Buy, and you might be able to buy even more stuff for a real deal.  I think this is OK, better without the debt.

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Offering
Types: Event
Cost: $0
You may trash a Gold, a Silver and a Copper from your hand. If you did, gain a Province, a Duchy and an Estate.

Very similar to Coin Collection.  This is a bit more extreme, trashing the Treasure and gaining more VP cards.  I think that makes it more interesting because you can't keep doing it without refilling on Treasure, and using this clogs your deck a lot more.  Actually seems pretty interesting.

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Prophecy
Types: Event
Cost: $4
At the start of the Clean-up phase:

+5 Cards
Discard 5 cards.

At the start of the clean-up phase?  Isn't that pretty much meaningless? 

Assuming it's at the end, so you're setting up your next hand... it's pretty similar to Scouting Party, but with a lot more AP.  I'm not really a fan.

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Rally
Types: Event
Cost: <3>
+1 Buy

Put a card from your discard pile on top of your deck.

I'm a fan of top-decking what you want on-demand, though I wonder if <3> is too much.  Might be worthwhile for reliability though!

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Renovate
Types: Event
Cost: $3
Trash a card you have in play. Gain a card costing exactly $2 more, putting it on top of your deck.

Sounds good to me.  The exact increase is important, and top-deck and the need to re-buy it sufficiently differentiates it from Remodel, IMO.

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Report
Types: Event
Cost: <8>
Gain a card costing up to $5. Put your deck in your discard pile.

I think I like Credit more, which is more flexible but lacks the Chancellor effect.

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Sustain Endeavor
Types: Event
Cost: $4
Once per turn: Set aside a card you have in play and play it at the start of next turn.

I don't like how messy this is with Durations, especially the ones that can last more than one turn.

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Tavern
Types: Event
Cost: $2
+1 Buy

Put a non-Reserve Treasure or Action card from your hand on your Tavern mat.
If it is a Treasure you may call it at the beginning of your Buy phase.
If it is an Action you may call it at the beginning of your turn to play it.

I'm OK with this (I think I submitted an Event like this before) but the wording could probably be simplified.

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Toll Bridge
Types: Event
Cost: $1
+1 Buy

All cards cost $2 less this turn but not less than $0. Each other player chooses one: draw a card, or +1 VP.

I think this can be abused too easily on a board with +Buy.  All you need is $4 to buy this 4 times and Provinces are free.  Other players are getting a benefit too, but that's meaningless if you have enough +Buy to piledrive the Provinces.  It's not trivial to get all that +Buy, but it's often not difficult either.  It just usually doesn't come into play because amassing +Buy usually means diminishing returns.

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Tollhouse
Types: Event
Cost: $2
Each player with <> gains a Curse. If they do, they lose all <>.

In games containing this, when you shuffle, take <1>.

I think this could get political.  Player A finishes their turn, reshuffles, takes a debt.  Now player B can choose to buy Tollhouse to curse Player A specifically.  It's rare for this to hit each other player (in games with 3+ players) because a lot of cards will desync the players' reshuffles after the first few turns, and it's almost guaranteed that a player will pay off their debt on their next turn anyway.  This is more interesting with debt cards.

To the designer, if you don't mind the minor politics inherent in this design, I'd suggest a slight tweak -- make it cost $0 but add "Take <2>" to the end.

55
General Discussion / Re: TV shows
« on: September 21, 2016, 04:50:32 pm »
Watching D&D episode of Community... might be best episode ever.

Also Christmas episode of Season 2.. might have teared up a little.

Chaos theory is best episode ever!

Want to post the gif but maybe it would be spoilers...

Paintball episodes are also classic.

56
General Discussion / Re: Random Stuff Part III
« on: September 19, 2016, 02:06:03 pm »
...Who will then also download it illegally.

And tell their friends about it. By the end of the day, you've gained a bunch of fans for free. That's super useful to a creator.

It can be useful, but it is still thievery. And at the end of the day, if everyone is a utilitarian who thinks the way that you do, why does anybody have to pay for anything? Your very luxury of not paying for content is supported by thousands upon thousands who do end up paying for it. If nobody pays for it, there will be no product. If this is the case, why skirt around the rules and mooch off of someone else's hard work?

Quote
The argument itself was bogus, presenting only two options where more exist.

It was eHalcyon who was suggesting that silverspawn should neither pay for entertainment nor download it illegally, because reasons.

True. It is obvious that handling with this concept in theory is going to be tricky, because the real world is usually more complicated than theoretical land.

I was waiting for an answer so I could elaborate with basically what you have here. I don't think a system works if it breaks down upon everyone following it. silverspawn already said that thievery should be illegal, so I'm wondering how he justifies it for himself. There's no reason for it to be tied to the donations. Doing a good deed doesn't give you a license to do a bad deed after.

57
General Discussion / Re: Random Stuff Part III
« on: September 19, 2016, 01:24:49 pm »
Frankly, though, I do think that everytime you want to spend money on a movie or a game which you could get for free, you should instead get it for free and donate the same amount here or here.
Do you do this?

I've spent very little money on things I could get for free for several years now, and donated not quite half of my savings to GiveWell's Give Directly a while ago, so in effect I think I've been largely doing it. I did not do the literal thing of making lots of small donations every time. I'm pretty sure I don't actually have enough money to pay for all music and movies I have on my hard drive even if you subtract the above amount.

Right now I'm trying to figure out whether it's crazy to donate to anything not related to climate change even if it's efficient. I mostly chose Give Directly to make sure charity doesn't have the humiliating factor. "I am wealthy, I will do this thing for you, you will be grateful." Or things like destroying local businesses by donating old clothes. With direct donations I imagine it's quite easy to ... well maybe not forget that it is charity, but not be bothered by it, and it doesn't damage their economy, and it's sure not to be spent on useless things since they can decide themselves what they need most, and it's documented that most of it is in fact used for very essential things. ... still it won't help us at all to avoid global collapse. So I'm sure it's better than keeping it, but it might be much worse than other causes. I might retract that donation and give it to the second thing I linked instead, if I could (which of course I can't).

But why don't you donate without illegally downloading all that stuff?

58
General Discussion / Re: Random Stuff Part III
« on: September 18, 2016, 10:35:34 pm »
Except, of course, that any time spent on that entertainment is time you could have spent volunteering for those charities.

Volunteering directly for the really good charities Silver mentions is often not a great way to further their causes. If you look at how much human life you can save (usually measured in disability-adjusted life-years, by groups like the WHO), it's almost always orders of magnitude better to send money to a third world country to treat specific problems there (malaria, parasitic infections and malnutrition being the most common ones) than to get involved yourself.

Fair enough.  So you should spend all your time working to earn money to donate.

59
General Discussion / Re: Random Stuff Part III
« on: September 18, 2016, 09:46:16 pm »
If you believe that it is more ethical to not pay for entertainment and donate that money to charity instead, then the real ethical thing is to donate the money anyway and also not steal the entertainment.  It's not a necessity, you can just not play the game and not watch the movie.  Or you can only play/watch things that are legally free.

Except, of course, that any time spent on that entertainment is time you could have spent volunteering for those charities.

60
General Discussion / Re: Random Stuff Part III
« on: September 18, 2016, 02:58:52 am »
Portal and Portal 2 were great.  I think I have Talos Principle purchased but I haven't played it yet.


61
General Discussion / Re: Random Stuff Part III
« on: September 17, 2016, 02:36:04 am »
let's talk about the portal series.

Is anyone else as obsessed with it as I am?

Did you just recently play the games for the first time?

62
Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Dragon
« on: September 15, 2016, 08:54:46 pm »
Potion and Diadem are easy enough.  Potion doesn't produce coins so it doesn't contribute.  Diadem just produces $2 and no bonus.  I guess Venture would just produce $1 only as well.

63
Other Games / Re: pokemon go
« on: September 15, 2016, 07:06:54 pm »
Upgrade storage whenever you feel like you need more storage.  Item storage is a bigger deal when you don't have easy access to pokestops; more storage lets you go somewhere with stop density, fill up and then just last on that for a while.  Personally, I like having the storage space to hold onto 50+ ultra balls, because I know first hand how quickly I can burn through those against a rare Pokemon like Dragonite.

Pokemon storage is handy for a few things.  It's good if you catch a lot at once and want to hold on to them to check IVs later.  Appraisal makes it easier to transfer immediately though.  Personally, a fair amount of my space is getting filled up with rare Pokemon that I don't want to transfer (may be good for trades in the future!), common stuff I'm saving for mass evolution, various Pokemon with decent IVs that I intend to evolve in the future (and back-ups in case the first try has bad moves), various Pokemon with high CP that I might evolve if I have a surplus of candy and don't really plan to power up... I'm a bit of a hoarder, actually.

Incense has never really worked out for me so I don't intend to buy it.  I still have a free one I haven't used yet.  You get more out of it if you're moving, and research from folks online seems to indicate that you'll have better odds of rare stuff if you use it in the middle of nowhere, far away from where Pokemon spawn naturally.  That said, rare stuff is certainly possible... I just haven't experienced it myself.

Lures can be good but I'm selfish.

I think balls are there mostly as a last resort.  Like, you run into Dragonite but you're out of Pokeballs and pokestops are far away.  Buy some pokeballs quickly!!  But there are enough pokestops around me that this has never been an issue for me.

Incubators are actually pretty good.  If your goal is to fill up your Pokedex, eggs can get you a lot of stuff not normally found around you.  For example, I've never seen a Doduo wild but I've hatched several from eggs, enough to evolve one into Dodrio.  If your goal is to get strong Pokemon, hatched Pokemon usually have better IVs.  Moreover, hatching Pokemon gets you a nice bit of candy (I think it's 5-35) and stardust.  If you want to be super cost efficient, just save disposable incubators for 10k eggs only.

Lucky Egg can be good, but I feel some buyer's remorse from them.  I got enough out of Pokemon Go as a free player that I decided to put money into the game.  I was past level 25 with no more Lucky Eggs remaining, and no chance of another free one until Level 30.  Since I had enough to do mass evolution, I wanted another egg.  And to get the best deal, I bought the 25 pack... Now I'm at level 29 and I've only used 2 eggs so far.  One more mass evolution should get me to level 30.  And from then on, levelling up has vastly diminished returns, so I'm not sure if all those eggs wil be worthwhile.  That said, it may be good long-term if they raise the level cap later.

64
Other Games / Re: pokemon go
« on: September 13, 2016, 09:52:21 pm »
I'm guessing just being a wonder isn't enough to warrant caring?  My 99 CP Goldeen is a wonder with Attack/HP equally tops.  But in the end, it's worthless, right?

Probably not worth powering up.  Seaking just isn't very strong, and the investment to get that Goldeen levelled up is extremely high.  And Seaking currently doesn't get a single Water-type attack.

Re: STAB, it is very important at this time, but that doesn't mean it will always stay that way.  I actually hope that Niantic will adjust the multipliers so that type effectiveness has a bigger impact than STAB (in the real games, it's 2x for super effective, 1.5x for STAB; in PoGo right now it's 1.25x for either).  That way, more moves will have some niche uses rather than being subpar (almost) every time.

65
General Discussion / Re: Random Stuff Part III
« on: September 10, 2016, 06:43:30 pm »
...has nothing to do with racism or classism and everything to do with laziness and reluctance to learn about any kind of music that you're not already familiar with.

The thing is, reluctance to learn about unfamiliar things is one of the roots of intolerance and prejudice.

66
Other Games / Re: pokemon go
« on: September 08, 2016, 06:21:59 pm »
It really depends on what you want t do.  When you evolve something, the level and IVs remain the same, but the Pokemon's base stats change (almost always going up) and the moves will get re-rolled (and sometimes the evolved Pokemon has different move possibilities).  Because the base stats go up, evolving will pretty much always make the Pokemon stronger.

If you want the strongest Pokemon possible eventually, then IVs are the main concern.  You can always raise their level later (by powering them up via stardust investment).  If you want strong Pokemon now and don't plan to power them up, then IVs don't really matter and you can just evolve your highest CP one.

In practice, it's probably best to go for a mix depending on what Pokemon are common in your region and which ones you want to use.  Aside from all the mass evolution fodder, I'm mostly reserving evolution of uncommon/rare and powerful Pokemon for those with decent IVs, which usually means hatched Pokemon.  For common ones that are decently strong, I'm still waiting for high IVs but I'll also use excess candy to evolve some high CP ones too.  For example, I have tons of Nidoran (both male and female), Clefairy and Drowzee candy, so I've evolved a few of each based solely on CP.  I'm not going to power them up, but they're useful for attacking and holding gyms now and again.  I still have plenty of candy remaining in case I ever get a great specimen.

These aren't strict rules, of course.  I've evolved some Pokemon with 80ish IVs rather than waiting for 90+.  My Victreebel is 87% but I've invested some stardust into it now because it has the best moveset and evolving another one is an unnecessary gamble.

tl;dr - it's ideal to get one with high IVs AND high level, but it's not really practical because it's tough to find both.

67
Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Duration cards with wholly delayed effects
« on: September 08, 2016, 01:48:51 pm »
Being delayed is generally worse, but not even close to strictly worse. Dinghy is probably better at $2 but it might be OK at $3.

68
Dominion Online at Shuffle iT / Re: Creating Dominion
« on: September 07, 2016, 01:34:11 pm »
Peasants are only $2 each.

69
Other Games / Re: pokemon go
« on: September 07, 2016, 01:03:10 pm »
You can collect every 21 hours. For each gym you are in at that time you get coins and stardust.  So yeah, it's more worthwhile to take opposing gyms right before you plan to collect.

I'm in a suburban area but I think there are a few stubborn players who are busting down gyms before they get to level 8+ (I am also one of those players). I set up a full level 7 gym last night, but now it's level 6 in a different colour. Sitting on top of gyms isn't an issue for me. Even without stardust I'm pretty much never lower than third, and I find it rare that people will knock out a couple levels without finishing the job. This is why the 1000cp Jolteon in my single level 10 gym is still there despite being so weak.

Edit: I think Lapras is the strongest defender, whether you're training or just attacking. At least with Exeggutor there's a double Bug weakness to take advantage of and several viable Fire types. I've got nothing that can reliably take Lapras. I find Hypno annoying to train against too.

70
Other Games / Re: pokemon go
« on: September 06, 2016, 05:35:04 pm »
If you're concerned about IVs, level 20 is basically when it's OK to start using stardust.  This is because hatched Pokemon are more likely to have good IVs and the level of hatches is capped at 20.

I'm level 29 now and still haven't really powered anything up.  I think I'm going to put some stardust into a couple now though.  I've got Victreebel and Machamp with decent IVs and (more importantly) the moveset I want.  I've been using them without powering them up for a while now but I feel like it'll be worth powering up the Victreebel especially so it'll run over all the Water-types in gyms more easily.  I also have a good Vileplume, but I'm going to leave it where it is for the purpose of training gyms (you get more prestige from training when you win with a Pokemon of lower CP).  I'm holding off on powering up my Mud Shot Golem for the same reason.

Powering up works the same way no matter what level you're at.  Your level only means you can power up more.  If you max out a Pokemon now, you'll be able to power it up two more times when your trainer level goes up again.  The main reason to put off powering up is to not waste stardust since you'll probably catch or hatch a better Pokemon later.  But if you already have a good Pokemon that you want to power up, just go for it.

71
Other Games / Re: pokemon go
« on: September 05, 2016, 10:47:32 pm »
So I've got my first level 10 gym.  It's one that I've near my home which I've held for 80% of the time anyway, but it was usually at level 6-8.  I find that it tends to be stable over the week but then it gets taken down at some point on the weekend.  Maybe now that it's level 10 it will last.  It was nice because the bottom 2 Pokemon were a 10xx Jolteon and 18xx Flareon, so I just trained against them with my 1291 Golem (with Mud Shot and Earthquake).  Around +800 prestige each time and I barely needed to dodge.  Depending on how soon the Flareon AI chose to use its Fire Blast, sometimes I could not dodge at all and come out with 33% HP remaining.  Another guy was there so we took it up to 42k/50k prestige with 4 open slots.  It's now at level 10 and one slot still open.

This weekend I've been trying to raise up some other big gyms, but I haven't had any luck.  On Saturday I raised multiple gyms up such that they would hit level 7 if they got filled up... and most never did before getting taken down.  One got up to level 9 but the bottom 6 Pokemon were all super weak and that gym was taken down later as well.  Today I tried some other gyms in the same area.  I found 3 that were already level 5-6 with decent Pokemon already, trained them up and joined them.  I thought they had a decent shot of lasting, but they've since fallen as well.  So now I'm holding onto just 2 gyms, and we'll see if that second one falls.  Last I saw it was at level 8 so maybe it'll stand for a while yet.  I don't think I'll have time to try this again in the future.

The most annoying things about gym battling are glitches and lag.  Against one gym full of Water-types, I was able to use my Victreebel to take down 3 in a row.  Then in the next battle, an undying Blastoise prevented a single victory.  In another training situation, I was trying to use a 13xx Clefable and a 10xx Cloyster against a Dragonite.  The CP gap was big enough to need some dodging, which wouldn't be difficult except for occasional spikes of heavy lag.  Ugh.

72
You mean you're looking at cards just for the point of the contest?  Fan cards are meant to be used. I'm looking for good cards to add to my list to print and play with.

I don't have a group that plays Dominion regularly.  We don't meet for games too often as it is, and when we do we play other things (I beat them too soundly in Dominion, even when I mess around).

73
Oops, I don't think I voted.  I could have given Mountain Dwellers the win.  Oh well...
I still don't understand how Mountain Dwellers got so many votes (in either contest it was in). It's a peddler that usually only works in big money decks. blah.

IMO, Troglodyte Caves was easily the better one from the previous contest.

It's not so much that I like Mountain Dwellers, but that I like it more than the rest.  I gave my reasoning here.  Dunno about all the other entries because I forgot to go through them earlier and it feels like the effort would be wasted when those other entries had already lost.

74
Oops, I don't think I voted.  I could have given Mountain Dwellers the win.  Oh well...

75
General Discussion / Re: Random Stuff Part III
« on: September 01, 2016, 01:33:33 am »
Is there a thread where it's really easy to just find every single Dominion card?

http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/index.php/All_Cards

Adventures and Empires are still missing though.

no they're not. I just looked through it.

Aw darn, you replied before I deleted my post.

I misread the link.  I thought it was this one:

http://dominionstrategy.com/all-cards/

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