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[DooWopDJ]

I am going to attempt my first use of Black Market (and I already have the Black Market pile created).
I understand that it is recommended that the Black Market pile be 'random', but since players can agree to which cards to allow that is the option I used for compiling my first Black Market pile.

But my puzzle/challenge is:
If you were to design a recommended 25 Card Black Market pile, which cards would you include?
Note: I would add a caveat, that the Black Market pile should be independent of the original 10 Kingdom.

Thanks
-DooWopDJ

[GendoIkari]

Treasure Map
Fool's Gold
Port
King's Castle
Avanto
Magpie
Cultist
Transmute
Peddler
Villa

[Marcory]

Treasure Map
Fool's Gold
Port
King's Castle
Avanto
Magpie
Cultist
Transmute
Peddler
Villa

Don't forget Duke, Farmland, Silk Road, Mint, Gladiator, and Rocks.

[LittleFish]

Treasure Map
Fool's Gold
Port
King's Castle
Avanto
Magpie
Cultist
Transmute
Peddler
Villa

Fools gold in the black market piule would make it useless, and Avanto withut sauna, Fools gold, Avanto, Kings castle, Cultist, port, and Gladiator are all useless without another card from their pile.

[ConMan]

Treasure Map
Fool's Gold
Port
King's Castle
Avanto
Magpie
Cultist
Transmute
Peddler
Villa

Fools gold in the black market piule would make it useless, and Avanto withut sauna, Fools gold, Avanto, Kings castle, Cultist, port, and Gladiator are all useless without another card from their pile.

ThatsTheJoke.jpg

[LittleFish]

Treasure Map
Fool's Gold
Port
King's Castle
Avanto
Magpie
Cultist
Transmute
Peddler
Villa

Fools gold in the black market piule would make it useless, and Avanto withut sauna, Fools gold, Avanto, Kings castle, Cultist, port, and Gladiator are all useless without another card from their pile.

ThatsTheJoke.jpg

then why peddler?

[ThetaSigma12]

then why peddler?

Peddler is only reduced during the Buy phase, so (generally) it will cost during your Action phase, a steep price to pay for a Peddler.

[GendoIkari]

Treasure Map
Fool's Gold
Port
King's Castle
Avanto
Magpie
Cultist
Transmute
Peddler
Villa

Don't forget Duke, Farmland, Silk Road, Mint, Gladiator, and Rocks.

I don't really get most of these. Sure you aren't likely to want to buy a victory card from the Black Market, but they don't behave differently than they do if you buy it normally. Mint is exactly the same. Gladiator does have an ability that does nothing when bought from the Black Market, but that ability is a minor part of what the card does. Rocks I get, as it's really bad in a deck without Catapult.

[Marcory]

Treasure Map
Fool's Gold
Port
King's Castle
Avanto
Magpie
Cultist
Transmute
Peddler
Villa

Don't forget Duke, Farmland, Silk Road, Mint, Gladiator, and Rocks.

I don't really get most of these. Sure you aren't likely to want to buy a victory card from the Black Market, but they don't behave differently than they do if you buy it normally. Mint is exactly the same. Gladiator does have an ability that does nothing when bought from the Black Market, but that ability is a minor part of what the card does. Rocks I get, as it's really bad in a deck without Catapult.

That could be said for some of your suggestions as well. Absent their special abilities, Port and Avanto are just a $4 Village and $5 Smithy--but sometimes you'll pay $4 for a Village and $5 for a Smithy. Similary, Villa is just a cheaper, less helpful Festival. Transmute is still terrible but it's actually better when it can trash Coppers instead of turning them into Transmutes.

Duke in the kingdom gives you the interesting option of trying to win the game without Provinces. But in the Black Market deck, you won't buy Duke unless you already have 4 Duchies--because otherwise you could just buy the Duchy straight-up. Similarly, Silk Road can be a strategy of itself but only if you're planning to buy most of the Silk Roads yourself. There will be rare occasions when Farmland's on-buy ability will make it worth buying out of the Black Market deck, but mostly you'll just want a Duchy for your $6. The main value of Farmland is in being able to upgrade other Farmlands into Provinces. Gladiator's main value is that it puts Fortune in the Kingdom; on its own, how often would you want it over Silver?

I get your point on Mint; I was sleepy and somehow neglected to consider that your Coppers will also be in play when you buy Mint from the Black Market.

[Marcory]

To the OP: the serious answer to your question is that there isn't an ideal Black Market deck, because the strength of a given Black Market deck depends on what's in the rest of the Kingdom.

This is because the value of Black Market is that it lets you buy pieces for your engine that aren't available in the Kingdom.

Thus, it's awesome to buy Chapel from the Black Market if there's no trashing in the main kingdom; but you'll probably ignore BM Chapel if you already have strong trashers like Remake or Donate or Junk Dealer in your deck. The same can be said for BM being the only source of +Buy, or Villages, or Cursers.

Yes, there are some cards that are terrible in the Black Market, as noted above; others, like Prince, or Outpost, or Goons, or even a more modest cards like Trade Route and Candlestick Maker can give your deck an ability that other players don't have, which can be great.

[LittleFish]

To the OP: the serious answer to your question is that there isn't an ideal Black Market deck, because the strength of a given Black Market deck depends on what's in the rest of the Kingdom.

This is because the value of Black Market is that it lets you buy pieces for your engine that aren't available in the Kingdom.

Thus, it's awesome to buy Chapel from the Black Market if there's no trashing in the main kingdom; but you'll probably ignore BM Chapel if you already have strong trashers like Remake or Donate or Junk Dealer in your deck. The same can be said for BM being the only source of +Buy, or Villages, or Cursers.

Yes, there are some cards that are terrible in the Black Market, as noted above; others, like Prince, or Outpost, or Goons, or even a more modest cards like Trade Route and Candlestick Maker can give your deck an ability that other players don't have, which can be great.

so skip the ones above in your black market.

[King Leon]

Treasure Map
Fool's Gold
Port
King's Castle
Avanto
Magpie
Cultist
Transmute
Peddler
Villa

Don't forget Duke, Farmland, Silk Road, Mint, Gladiator, and Rocks.

And Duchess, of course. By the way: I am not sure, whether Avanto and King's Castle are allowed in the Black Market deck.

[GendoIkari]

Treasure Map
Fool's Gold
Port
King's Castle
Avanto
Magpie
Cultist
Transmute
Peddler
Villa

Don't forget Duke, Farmland, Silk Road, Mint, Gladiator, and Rocks.

And Duchess, of course. By the way: I am not sure, whether Avanto and King's Castle are allowed in the Black Market deck.

I considered Duchess, and probably should have included it. I didn't because it's just as good (bad) in your deck whether you got it from the Black Market or not. This contradicts my logic for including Transmute, which was that you would normally never have a Potion to spend on it (I was assuming there were no Potion-cost cards in the Kingdom).

Quote from Donald X regarding split piles in the Black Market:

The official rule is that you can do what you want with the Black Market deck.