How many Estates can you possibly get in one turn playing only one action? Curses? What if you had two actions? What would change then? Please note that the Estate and Curse pile are infinite. If you can gain 100 estates, then it's possible.
LIMITS:
Your hand must only have 5 cards in it at the start of the turn. No turn shenanigans like Possession or Caravan or Outpost.
You can set your draw deck to be anything you want, and the discard pile is empty.
Playing KC and TR counts as one action.
Playing Golem counts as one action, and any actions played via Golem count as well, making Golem (as far as I can tell) moot.
Standard rules apply here, meaning that if you use a Terminal first, you're out of actions.
You do not start with any coin tokens, pirate coins, etc. Think of this turn like it is your first turn.
Embargo tokens are not applicable except if you have an Embargo card in hand and apply it before buying.
For Estates (one action), I have conceived of this scenario:
HAND: Hunting Grounds, Hunting Grounds, Hunting Grounds, Hunting Grounds, Chapel
Total: 12 Estates
For Estates (two actions), I have conceived of this scenario:
HAND: Hunting Grounds, Hunting Grounds, Hunting Grounds, Hunting Grounds, Chapel
Total: 12 Estates
I do not think that 12 Estates can be improved upon with this scenario, so the first question is this: Will the answer change with 3 actions played? Did I miss something with 2 actions that gives more than 12 possible Estates? Remember that Talisman and Stonemason do not work as they gain non-victory cards (or at least for Stonemason, action cards).
As for curses...
Curses (one action):
HAND: Talisman, Talisman, Talisman, Talisman, Sir Martin/Squire
Play Sir Martin/Squire with 2 buys. With each buy, you gain an extra 4 curses with every curse buy.
Total: 10 Curses
Can you top that? Note that since Talisman only forbids Victory cards, and Curses are NOT Victory cards, it stands to reason that Talisman can work in this instance.
Curses (with 2 actions):
HAND: King's Court, Sir Martin/Squire, Talisman, Talisman, Talisman
You King's Court a Sir Martin/Squire with 2 buys, and the Talisman count is at 3 curses per 6 buys.
Total: 24 curses
The second question here follows the first question in scope. Is there a better possible Curse gaining function for 1 or 2 actions? If not, there remains some interesting follow-ups with 3 actions. Obviously King's Court comes into play, and you would likely King's Court a Squire (which is the better buy at this point over Sir Martin for it's Action giving ability) to gain +4 buys and +2 Actions, leading into the next card in your hand (with Talisman, Talisman, and Hunting Grounds), to play Hunting Grounds for 4 Talismans, leading to a 6 Talisman count per 4 buys, meaning a count total of 28 Curses. So my second question here is thus: Is it possible to gain more curses than a standard KC/Squire/Talisman/Hunting Grounds deck with every subsequent action increase?
In conclusion, the questions posed here are:
1. Can you gain more Estates in a 1-2 action setting than I proposed?
2. Can you change the total of Estates gained with 3 actions? With 4?
3. Can you gain more curses in a 1-2 action setting than I proposed?
4. Can you gain more Curses than a simple KC/Squire/Talisman/Hunting Grounds deck (using at least one different action) as you increase the number of Actions allowed? Remember that Using Golem uses 1 action by itself, and any actions it uses count as actions as well.
I bet this could all be solved with Math and Logic. :p
