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301

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

« on: December 07, 2012, 01:24:35 am »

I had my first really good session with Dark Ages on Sunday (all 4P), I'd played with it a little before that but only a couple games.  I don't really have a handle on any of the cards yet, but I do know I like Ironmonger a lot.  The thing that really jumped out at me about Dark Ages is how much Shelters change the game.  Ambassador and Hunting Party become far less powerful, Baron becomes almost useless, Upgrade and especially Remake are weaker unless there's a really good $2 you want, Swindler gets weaker, Menagerie gets yet better as do Chapel and Steward, and all good trashing really.  Others I'm not sure of (Masquerade?  Is Silk Road weaker, and if so how much?  How much better does Fairgrounds get, I mean is it worth it to keep the Shelters to boost the Fairgrounds?  Great Hall gets better as an opener because of Hovel, but how does Hovel affect the other hybrid Victory cards?)

I'm impressed with how much Shelters change the strategic landscape, and how enjoyable and interesting those changes are.  I'm looking forward to playing with them more.  Bravo, Donald.

302

Dominion General Discussion / Re: "Most hated" dominion cards discussion

« on: December 05, 2012, 05:53:29 pm »

But even more than that, I HATE being able to play Treasures outside of the buy phase. I view Action-Buy-Cleanup as fundamental to the game and it bothers me that Black Market messes so much with that clean delineation.

But that's the best part of Black Market!  It lets you do so many cool things with Tactician, Library, Menagerie, etc...

Agreed!  Even if the card was just: "+$2, you may play any treasures in your hand at this time," I would still love finding ways to exploit use it.

I actually think I would like Black Market a lot more if that's what it did.  It would be far less powerful, more of a niche card, but it would still be just as interesting, and would be infinitely less annoying.

303

Dominion General Discussion / Re: IRL Dominion setup

« on: December 05, 2012, 12:49:30 pm »

So, my layout looks more like this:

|K0| |Cu| |Ag| |Au| |Pt| |Po| |K9|
|K1| |Es| |Du| |Pr| |Co| |Cu| |K8|
  |K2| |K3| |K4| |K5| |K6| |K7|

What does the Polonium card do?

Sorry, I just had to.

304

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Card-specific beginner traps

« on: December 05, 2012, 12:38:45 pm »

Oh, here's a good one that I had to explain to a friend recently: if your opponent buys a Curser, buying Moats will not help you win.  Not that you should never buy Moat, but only buying Moat as your response to a Cursing attack is just not going to cut it.  I find that new players often struggle with the concept that sometimes Moat isn't actually very good at protecting you.  Especially in two-player.  And their misunderstanding of Moat can prevent them (or delay them) from realizing that often the best way to keep Curses out of your deck is to get them into your opponent's deck.

305

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Card-specific beginner traps

« on: December 05, 2012, 02:25:04 am »

That's why they're so croosh, they allow you to build your engine while increasing your VP total at the same time.  The only other card that allows you to do that is Great Hall

Goons says hi.

But I agree with everything else you said. Nobles is an awesome card in the right circumstances. But noobs don't always know when that is.

Oh right, I meant besides the VP chip cards.

306

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Card-specific beginner traps

« on: December 05, 2012, 02:10:53 am »

Nobles can be useful, but they are not the linchpin of a deck.

You're right that Nobles can't be the linchpin of a deck, and trying to build an engine out of only Nobles is indeed a trap.

But Nobles are more than "useful."  Nobles fit nicely into almost any engine, and give VP at the same time.  That's why they're so croosh, they allow you to build your engine while increasing your VP total at the same time.  The only other card that allows you to do that is Great Hall, and that's mainly just good with Crossroads, also Ironmonger (yeah also Ironworks, but Ironworks-Great Hall rush is not really an engine strategy).  I think you really need a source of +Actions other than the Nobles, but in that situation it's really good because it can usually be used to give you +Cards, but can also bail you out in a pinch.

Here's another way to look at it: when you're building an engine, a Nobles buy is kind of like buying a Smithy and paying an extra $2 for 2 VP chips.  Which is pretty damn good, think about it.

307

Dominion Isotropic / Re: Using bots to hack your shuffle luck?!

« on: November 30, 2012, 02:02:25 pm »

you missed a golden chance to pretend that you are a robot!

Damn, you're right.

And thank you for confirming my suspicions, jsh.  Although I'm almost a little disappointed that my theorized "shuffle luck bot" doesn't really exist.  I was all excited to learn about how it was done, and what the Iso devs did to close the security hole

308

Dominion Isotropic / Using bots to hack your shuffle luck?!

« on: November 30, 2012, 01:49:08 pm »

I just had an interesting encounter.  I spanked this Adama fellow on an Ambassador board mainly because he played it badly.  I was able to piledrive the Provinces, and just before I bought the last one to end the game we had this little exchange:

10:39 Adama: holy shenanigans batman... nice bot you got there
10:39 jaybeez: wait sorry, what?
10:40 Adama: you.
10:40 Adama: fraud
10:40 jaybeez: I swear I'm made of flesh
10:40 Adama: no way you could've drawn the way you did
10:40 jaybeez: hahaha
10:40 Adama: see ya cheater
10:40 Adama has returned to the lobby

Have there been people in the past who have somehow hacked Iso to give themselves better shuffle luck?  I'm guessing this dude's just a moron, but still, I'm intrigued.

309

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Best target for King's Court

« on: November 25, 2012, 07:49:51 pm »

KC'ing a Trusty Steed is pretty nice.

Also KC+Coppersmith is awesome in the right situation.

310

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Familiar vs Witch?

« on: November 02, 2012, 08:56:44 pm »

I think the only thing that would make me take Familiar over Witch would be the presence of Scrying Pool.

Edit: and good enough support too, probably +Buy and passable trashing.

311

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Homage to the Best Card

« on: October 27, 2012, 01:59:56 am »

I don't know why anyone cares about Chuck Norris when Reb Brown exists.

312

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Dominion uh...misconceptions

« on: October 23, 2012, 02:26:17 am »

The first time I played Dominion, I thought the only thing you'd ever want to trash is a Curse.  Not an uncommon misconception, and I think this may be in part because most people, like me, start with just the Base set--in which the only Curser is Witch and the only "pure" (i.e. non-TfB) trasher is Chapel.  The use of the TfB cards in the Base set is obvious, even if their optimal use isn't.  But what's Chapel for? you wonder when you first read it.  And then you see Witch, and you realize that the way to combat the unholy (Witch/Curse) is with the holy (Chapel/trashing).  Aha!  That's why there's trashing, so you can get rid of Curses.  It seems so intuitive when you realize it, except it's wrong.  Well, okay not totally wrong, but it does obfuscate Chapel's true power.

I wonder, was that a deliberate design decision?

And am I always alliterative?

313

Game Reports / Interesting Golden Deck variation

« on: October 02, 2012, 01:01:05 am »

Just finished this game: http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201210/01/game-20121001-214534-bbd92588.html

I created a Golden Deck using Fishing Village and Watchtower.  Opened FV/Bishop, and bought a second Bishop before the second reshuffle, and then just trashed all my Coppers and Estates, and one of the Bishops on T11, until I had a deck of 5 FVs, 2 Watchtowers, 1 Silver, 1 Bishop, 1 Province.  I would have all the FVs in play every turn (some from the previous duration).  Playing the FVs allowed me to reduce my handsize to draw the deck with Watchtower(s), then trash the Province with the Bishop, which would give me exactly $8.

I know some people might look at that board and think this is obvious, but I feel like a champ for coming up with it on the spot

(I could have won by more too--I reflexively trashed the Province on the last turn when I should have trashed the superfluous Watchtower).

314

Help! / How did I manage to win this game?

« on: September 28, 2012, 04:37:40 pm »

I just played this game: http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201209/28/game-20120928-131821-ea2d82ce.html

Supply:
$6
Border Village

$5
City
Market
Mountebank
Tribute

$4
Horse Traders
Pirate Ship
Tournament
Young Witch

$3
Ambassador (bane)

$2
Pearl Diver

I got 5/2 and my opponent got 4/3.  I figured I was a dead duck with both Ambassador and Tournament on the board.  So I went for Mountebank, figuring that even if the Curses would come back to me, I had to gamble that the attack would slow him down enough for me to pick up an Ambassador before the second reshuffle and try to catch up.

I pulled out a victory, and it wasn't close really: 31-14.  When the game was over he asked, "How did you get your deck to work?"  And I said, "... I'm actually not quite sure!"

So, what do you think I (unknowingly) did right here?  I think a huge part of it actually was the sheer luck that a Tournament game sometimes requires--I bought my first Province on T14, and got the first prize (Followers) on T15.  I mean, that's really, really lucky especially considering he bought his first Province on T9 and had more Tournaments than me, both at the time and at the end of the game.

But anyway, I can only see four apparent reasons why I was able to win:
- my Mountebank gamble did seem to pay off--I think I did slow him down a fair amount
- he didn't play his Ambassador that well (on T3 he had Amb-CCCE and returned the Estate, buying a Silver.  He should have focused on the Coppers, especially since I opened Mountebank)
- my really extremely lucky Tournament hit, which let me get Followers
- he got the second prize and went for... Diadem?  He had some level-2 Cities and a couple Border Villages, but still.  Seemed like a really weird decision to me, I would have gone Steed or maybe Princess at that point.

Do you see any other key factors though?

315

Dominion General Discussion / When do you want to buy more than one Potion?

« on: September 13, 2012, 01:48:17 pm »

This was kind of prompted by Powerman's article on Scrying Pool that was posted yesterday (which I enjoyed very much, thanks Powerman!)  When do you think it's appropriate to buy two Potions?

I think you might want to do it when enough of the following criteria are satisfied:
- you have a way of turning the Potions into something useful after you don't need them (Mine, Remodel, Salvager, other trash-for-benefit cards)
- there are cheap Potion-cost cards you want a lot of (mainly Scrying Pool I think, but maybe Transmute in some cases?)
- there's a good source of +Buy available (kind of an adjunct to the above, having +Buy and two Potions gives you the chance of buying two SPs in one turn, which maybe is something you need to go for sometimes?)
- you want to go for Vineyards (+Buy is important here again)
- you want to buy lots of Alchemists and you want to increase your chances of being able to topdeck them every turn.

Are there other scenarios I missed?  How many of the above factors have to converge to make buying more than one Potion worth it?

And another question: would you ever want three (or more?!) Potions?  I would think it's exceedingly rare that you'd need more than two.  And maybe two is even too much, I don't know.

316

Dominion General Discussion / Re: What is your favorite expansion?

« on: March 28, 2012, 12:52:39 pm »

Seaside!  I love Durations: Tactician, Wharf, Fishing Village, Caravan, and Lighthouse are some of my favorite action cards.

Although I've mostly played with Base, Intrigue and Seaside so far; maybe my opinion will change as I get more familiar with the other sets.

317

Dominion General Discussion / Re: How often to do Big Money+X?

« on: March 27, 2012, 01:52:48 am »

Well, Remodel is a trash for benefit card and the problem with all trash for benefits cards is that they suck in the beginning. <snip>

Really?  I'm no expert, but I know Moneylender is an elite opening buy.  I've also found Remake to be a great opener, and Salvager can be good too I think.

318

Dominion General Discussion / Re: When do you take the curse in torturer games?

« on: February 21, 2012, 02:03:17 pm »

Okay, that makes sense, thanks for the clarification everyone.

Sorry for the thread derail

319

Dominion General Discussion / Re: When do you take the curse in torturer games?

« on: February 21, 2012, 01:56:42 pm »

One thing it took me a while to figure out:

If you're going to end up taking all (most) of the Curses anyway, just take them. The quicker you empty the pile the quicker you can get on with not being tortured 4 times every turn.

Forgive my ignorance (I'm pretty new to Dominion), but if your opponent played a Torturer, and all the Curses were gone, wouldn't you *have* to discard if you had 2 or more cards in your hand?  My understanding was that when you're supposed to do something, you do "all you can."  So the Torturer gives you a choice: you can take a Curse or discard two cards.  I take that to mean that if there are no Curses to take, you must discard two cards, and conversely, if you have 0 or 1 cards in your hand, you must take a Curse.   The only way to be unaffected by a Torturer is to have <2 cards in your hand AND to have all the Curses gone.

Am I wrong?