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[werothegreat]

Prince of Scouts is vaguely useful.

Unlike King's Court, yeah.  I can see that.  But I would probably pick something else...

You may not have a choice.

[ThaddeusB]

If by combo you just mean two cards that make each other better then a lot of things combo with scout - cards that care a lot about deck order ( ww, mystic, herald), all alt co, cards that want vp in hand.  If you mean things that make Scott worth buying, the list is pretty short. At least two of great hall/harem/nobles might be enough. A workshop variant you otherwise want on an alt vp board. Rebuild with no other + action cards and enough silver already bought. Wishing well  + alt vp ( primarily Duke to avoid.cost conflict).

On a weak board with no other +actions, I could definitely see Prince-scout doing something - that's an interesting idea.

[Minotaur]

Prince of Scouts is vaguely useful.

Unlike King's Court, yeah.  I can see that.  But I would probably pick something else...

You may not have a choice.

Because the entire board has only two Action cards in it...?

[liopoil]

Prince of Scouts is vaguely useful.

Unlike King's Court, yeah.  I can see that.  But I would probably pick something else...

You may not have a choice.

Because the entire board has only two Action cards in it...?

Because you got a scout somehow (maybe swindler) and drew prince with scout and no other actions.

[LastFootnote]

Scout + Wishing well is like, worse to have in hand than wishing well + wishing well usually. Same for mystic, unless you have like 1 scout and a bunch of mystics.

Uh, yeah. You get one or two Scouts, and as many Mystics as you can. One Scout and four Mystics is way better than 5 Mystics.

[Minotaur]

Prince of Scouts is vaguely useful.

Unlike King's Court, yeah.  I can see that.  But I would probably pick something else...

You may not have a choice.

Because the entire board has only two Action cards in it...?

Because you got a scout somehow (maybe swindler) and drew prince with scout and no other actions.

You don't have to *play it*.  Even if you draw Golem-Scout, you would play the Scout first just in case.  Really, Masquerade-Possession is about the only way.

The Masquerade-Prince-Scout pin... the stuff of legends.

[liopoil]

Prince of Scouts is vaguely useful.

Unlike King's Court, yeah.  I can see that.  But I would probably pick something else...

You may not have a choice.

Because the entire board has only two Action cards in it...?

Because you got a scout somehow (maybe swindler) and drew prince with scout and no other actions.

You don't have to *play it*.  Even if you draw Golem-Scout, you would play the Scout first just in case.  Really, Masquerade-Possession is about the only way.

The Masquerade-Prince-Scout pin... the stuff of legends.

No. If I have a scout and prince and no other actions in hand, I will almost certainly prince the scout rather than wait another shuffle before I see my prince again.

[Gherald]

I played a Wishing Well/Scout/Goons engine recently...




Log: http://gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?20150130/log.50babbafe4b05a8d74969537.1422639677289.txt

[Minotaur]

I played a Wishing Well/Scout/Goons engine recently...




Log: http://gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?20150130/log.50babbafe4b05a8d74969537.1422639677289.txt

There should be an achievement for this.

[Minotaur]

Fine...

via Imgflip Meme Maker

[Asper]

Fine...
[Image]

That... face...! O__o *shudder*

[qmech]

I'm not sure Scout quite deserved to get a penguin through the eye.

[dondon151]

"Young lad, I used to be a Scout like you, until I took a penguin in the eye."

[Minotaur]

"Young lad, I used to be a Scout like you, until I took a penguin in the eye."

He thought the cosmetic surgery would make him socially awesome...

[ThaddeusB]

Here's a game I played recently where scout was a good acquisition: http://gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?20150202/log.53be12a0e4b00ccce8075fbc.1422946588137.txt

Code: [Select]

Candlestick Maker, Lighthouse, Moat, Herald, Ironworks, Procession, Scout, Baker, Junk Dealer, Mystic

[Minotaur]

Here's a game I played recently where scout was a good acquisition: http://gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?20150202/log.53be12a0e4b00ccce8075fbc.1422946588137.txt

Code: [Select]

Candlestick Maker, Lighthouse, Moat, Herald, Ironworks, Procession, Scout, Baker, Junk Dealer, Mystic

Deep deck inspection with Mystic and Herald... I can see that.  Especially since they're the two strongest deck-guessers in the game.  Pretty remarkable.  I mentioned Mystic, but forgot all about Herald.

[jomini]

Scout is a fine card when you pay effectively $0 for it. It smooths out your green draw and can allow you to better setup engines. Basically playing a scout decreases your hand by 1, but increases your search space for lining up components by 3.

For the price, it is rarely worth it (Mystic and especially Herald can do a lot better with Scout), but when I'm grabbing it for close to free - off an Iw or something - I will grab it for a number of engines if there are no longer useful components.

For instance, say I have something like Village/Iw/Hunting grounds. Village alone allows you to search 5 cards for a live Hunting grounds. Scout lets you search 7. That is a pretty big increase in the odds your engine will hit, pulling green out of deck is just gravy on top. When card draw is cheap, Scout gets better, the problem is that when card draw is cheap you normally want more of the draw instead. But if Scout uses otherwise useless gains (e.g. Iw), then it tends to do a decent job smoothing out engines. It is only when the opportunity cost for Scout falls that you really want to gain it for reliability purposes.

Similarly, Pool/Scout/Gainer is a decent step up from Pool/Gainer. Yeah grab your stack of Conspirators or whatever first, but if you have a Workshop, Pool gets a lot more reliable as Scout pulls out the odd stop card and can position your deck to discard a treasure stop. Given that Scout has a low effective card size with Pool (maybe something like .5 or .75 cards), it isn't a bad gain late-ish game.

The big question is how much extra support you are willing to allow on a combo. Scout/Xroads is borderline at best if the Scouts are free, but it gets a lot better with cards like Tr or Prssn so you can play a lot more Xroads. Likewise, Scout/Tunnel tricks are not too impressive, but if you get a nice constellation like Scout/Cellar/Apprentice/+buy it can be decent at juicing the Cellar (and worst case, you Apprentice the Scout). Most cards have good setups when you start talking 3 & 4 card comboing, but that comes at the price of being really rare in random play.

[Polk5440]

when I'm grabbing it for close to free - off an Iw or something - I will grab it for a number of engines if there are no longer useful components.

Another reason why Scout was fine in Intrigue and suffered with the addition of every other expansion. It sometimes looks almost respectable in Intrigue only games.

[Minotaur]

when I'm grabbing it for close to free - off an Iw or something - I will grab it for a number of engines if there are no longer useful components.

Another reason why Scout was fine in Intrigue and suffered with the addition of every other expansion. It sometimes looks almost respectable in Intrigue only games.

Top-notch word choices boldfaced.  Even Mystic only bumps it up to usually-almost...

[werothegreat]

when I'm grabbing it for close to free - off an Iw or something - I will grab it for a number of engines if there are no longer useful components.

Another reason why Scout was fine in Intrigue and suffered with the addition of every other expansion. It sometimes looks almost respectable in Intrigue only games.

Top-notch word choices boldfaced.  Even Mystic only bumps it up to usually-almost...

The problem is the things that Scout "combos" well with (dual type Victories, naming cards) are:

1) Things that don't have a lot of design space (i.e., there are only so many Action-Victory cards that are still interesting)
2) Combo'd with better by other cards, e.g. Cartographer.

[Minotaur]

when I'm grabbing it for close to free - off an Iw or something - I will grab it for a number of engines if there are no longer useful components.

Another reason why Scout was fine in Intrigue and suffered with the addition of every other expansion. It sometimes looks almost respectable in Intrigue only games.

Top-notch word choices boldfaced.  Even Mystic only bumps it up to usually-almost...

The problem is the things that Scout "combos" well with (dual type Victories, naming cards) are:

1) Things that don't have a lot of design space (i.e., there are only so many Action-Victory cards that are still interesting)
2) Combo'd with better by other cards, e.g. Cartographer.

Scrying Pool/Cellar/Scout might be the only example I can think of otherwise...  Or Cellar/Scout vs Rabble, which isn't that great, but in theory could work out sometimes maybe.

[c4master]

Imho the biggest problem with Scout is its price point. Being a $4 card makes it almost completely useless in slogs (Gardens, Silk Roads) where it would be kind of ok otherwise. It does help some cards but that's so often just marginal and only late-game that I doubt not getting a Scout on your 10th+ turn can be considered a mistake - espacially since your usually getting something else instead.

edit: Getting more $3 or $5 VP cards would be nice for Scout.

[Gherald]

"Well we've made this hammer with a head that's nearly useless, so let's sell it cheap and create some special nails for it"

[Davio]

Is Scout/Crossroads not a thing?

I once tried a Scout/Crossroads/Great Hall engine, it was pretty bad and made me feel like a Village idiot, played 10 cards, oh I guess all I can afford is another Great Hall!

[Minotaur]

"Well we've made this hammer with a head that's nearly useless, so let's sell it cheap and create some special nails for it"

I have to agree.  Sure, it's not mathematically useless all of the time.  But there are so many times you wouldn't even pick it up for free.  It fails the Duchess test a lot worse than Duchess.  Before you can buff by lowering the price, you have to make sure that it's better than not having a card at all...