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[allanfieldhouse]

Gainer + Trail + Way of the Horse

This combination turns all your gainers into Laboratories. I had Workshop in my game, so the play went like this:
Workshop for a Trail, which plays itself as Way of the Horse for +2 Cards, +1 Action.

Some of the other gainers are way better too. Ironworks turns into Lost City. Groom turns into Lab + gain a Horse.

The really nice thing about this combo over other similar Trail setups is that you're returning the Trail back to its pile each time, so this ability doesn't run out after 10 uses.

[Awaclus]

The purpose of this thread is to highlight neat little interactions or synergies between two cards

[allanfieldhouse]

"gainer" is a big enough category of cards that Gainer + Trail + Way of the Horse seems potentially useful.

[Awaclus]

"gainer" is a big enough category of cards that Gainer + Trail + Way of the Horse seems potentially useful.

That probably would have been true years ago, but as far as I'm concerned, it's starting to get a little questionable how useful even specific card + specific card combos are at this point. Not even just because they're rare (which they are), but because there's so many of them that you can't reasonably expect to memorize all of them — in other words, it is very frequently the case that you are playing a game that has a card interaction that nobody has posted about on the forum before, so nowadays you kind of just have to have the ability to spot those on the fly instead of relying on memorization.

In my opinion, memorization still makes sense for 2-card combos that work because of a non-obvious rules interaction (e.g. Trail + Way of the Mole) or because of a highly specific non-obvious way in which the thing just works out conveniently (e.g. Hermit + Market Square), and combos that are extremely strong and it is non-obvious how strong they are (e.g. Beggar + Guildhall). That actually excludes a lot of the stuff that was posted in the early days as exactly the kind of thing that was supposed to go into this thread, including a bunch of stuff I posted myself and basically all the example combos in the OP, but quite frankly I don't think it is an efficient enough usage of your mental resources anymore to see Stonemason in the kingdom and start wondering whether Quarry might also be present. I don't know what kind of a vision Adam has for this thread nowadays, though.

Anyway, the usefulness of specific card + specific card + card category was already officially questionable in 2015 and we've gotten, what, like 200 new cards since then? Seems pretty clear those don't count as useful under Adam's original intent.

Part of my dream was that these combos would appear in actual games of Dominion that were played. This probably means that they require only two cards to pull off. The odds of seeing three particular cards in a kingdom these days are extremely unlikely, and so they are much less useful. How much less useful? About 200 times less useful. Even requiring a village or additional draw or a category of cards to be useful is speculative.

[Honkeyfresh]

King's Cache and Capital.  You get 18 coins & 3 buys but only have to pay back 6.  It's like a triple cash back credit card.

[Nukatha]

Minor, but a fun one:
Cursed card worth 4 or less+Workshop/Hammer, and Commerce.

I bought a cursed card, and lucked out with Hammer as my first loot.
Next turn, Hammer got me another cursed card, and 5 gold bought me 3 gold. Four gold-like cards in one turn is amazing.
Extra bonus points if Curse gets you Dubloons.

[LibraryAdventurer]

Today I realized that Garrison and Livery stack with each other and the horses from Livery count toward Garrison's next turn draw.

If you also have something like Fawning Border Village or pretty much any gainer (but especially Treasure/Night gainers), it gets cwazy fast.

[tim17]

Souk/Gamble is pretty neat. If you have no cards in hand/deck/discard and at least $7, you can gain the entire Souk pile in one turn, and then the Souks are generally at least Golds for your Gamble deck and better if you get any Treasures or disappearing Actions in your hand.

Similarly with Souk/Rush. Though in this case, you don't even need your deck/discard to be empty in order to autopile the Souks, you just need $7 and no cards in hand. Or even if you do have cards in hand but a bit more $, you can use the first Souks you gain to trash the cards in your hand, ensuring that the rest of them all make $7.

[tim17]

Flagship/Bridge. No surprise with this one (essentially the same idea as RC/Bridge), but I've had several games now where my opponent didn't notice it, so I figured it was worth a post. The strategy is to buy only flagships (and maybe silver on 3). Once you get 6 of them, you buy a bridge. If you play the bridge with 6 flagships in play and at least 1 copper in hand, you can buy all the provinces. Just make sure you don't accidentally buy any other actions that will trigger the flagships; I don't think trashing or getting any other engine components is worth the time here.

[Honkeyfresh]

Launch is just crazy strong in a Landing Party game.  as long as you have 3 coins in hand you can activate all of your landing parties topdecked and then go about playing those, along with your other cards in hand.

[Honkeyfresh]

Launch and Cursed Village is amazing.  As long as you have 3 coins in hand, you spend all your coins and then get to launch to an often 2/3 card cursed village hand, which means you basically get a whole new hand to mess with, plus the coins you disappeared to pay for the Launch.

[Honkeyfresh]

I think this one actually now qualifies as a combo since any reshuffle triggers it, so I pulled it from the other thread.

This one was really kind of neat, although an extreme edge case.  If you gain a Siren with a Sheepdog in hand and you are at the end of your draw pile you can gain it without trashing if the Siren ends up triggering a reshuffle.

I was wondering if it mattered whether you actually draw the Siren there, and it's easier than that. I just tested it online, and this works whenever the Sheepdog makes you shuffle the gained Siren into your deck--that's where the Siren loses track of itself. You don't have to draw the Siren from the Sheepdog effect, just shuffle the Siren into your deck with the Sheepdog effect.

[Jeebus]

I think this one actually now qualifies as a combo since any reshuffle triggers it, so I pulled it from the other thread.

This one was really kind of neat, although an extreme edge case.  If you gain a Siren with a Sheepdog in hand and you are at the end of your draw pile you can gain it without trashing if the Siren ends up triggering a reshuffle.

I was wondering if it mattered whether you actually draw the Siren there, and it's easier than that. I just tested it online, and this works whenever the Sheepdog makes you shuffle the gained Siren into your deck--that's where the Siren loses track of itself. You don't have to draw the Siren from the Sheepdog effect, just shuffle the Siren into your deck with the Sheepdog effect.

From my rules document, there's these, that can move the Siren directly:
Bauble, Cargo Ship, City-state, Deliver, Gatekeeper, Hasty, Innovation, Insignia, Royal Seal, Rush, Sailor, Sleigh, Tiara, Tracker, Trappers’ Lodge, Travelling Fair, Watchtower, Way of the Seal

And these, that can cause the Siren to be shuffled in:
Band of Nomads, Sheepdog, Way of the Horse/Mole/Mouse/Otter/Owl/Pig (via Falconer, Sheepdog or Stowaway)

[mxdata]

Souk/Gamble is pretty neat. If you have no cards in hand/deck/discard and at least $7, you can gain the entire Souk pile in one turn, and then the Souks are generally at least Golds for your Gamble deck and better if you get any Treasures or disappearing Actions in your hand.

Similarly with Souk/Rush. Though in this case, you don't even need your deck/discard to be empty in order to autopile the Souks, you just need $7 and no cards in hand. Or even if you do have cards in hand but a bit more $, you can use the first Souks you gain to trash the cards in your hand, ensuring that the rest of them all make $7.

Throw in any cost reduction, and you'll actually end up with more coins than you started with, too!

[Awaclus]

Souk/Gamble is pretty neat. If you have no cards in hand/deck/discard and at least $7, you can gain the entire Souk pile in one turn, and then the Souks are generally at least Golds for your Gamble deck and better if you get any Treasures or disappearing Actions in your hand.

Similarly with Souk/Rush. Though in this case, you don't even need your deck/discard to be empty in order to autopile the Souks, you just need $7 and no cards in hand. Or even if you do have cards in hand but a bit more $, you can use the first Souks you gain to trash the cards in your hand, ensuring that the rest of them all make $7.

Throw in any cost reduction, and you'll actually end up with more coins than you started with, too!

You also end up with more pieces in the card interaction than you started with.

[Nukatha]

I had a rather amusing turn vs. the AI app a few days ago. (August 9, 2023 Daily Dominion).
Kingdom:
Pawn
Secluded Shrine
Swindler
Abundance
"Shy" Secret Passage
Courtier
Duke
Minion
Pendant
Torturer

Scrounge

The AI got quite a bit ahead of me in Province count, but I was able to strike back later with some nice Abundance/Scrounge combos to nab 6 Duchies and 6 Dukes, which brought me a nice victory.

The particular useful card interaction:
I even had a truly silly turn toward the end where had a Secluded Shrine, 3$, and 2 buys thanks to a Pawn, and the trash had no estates. I bought a copper, which allowed me to trash an Estate from my hand with the Secluded Shrine, and immediately got it back alongside the final Duchy with Scrounge.

[Awaclus]

I had a rather amusing turn vs. the AI app a few days ago. (August 9, 2023 Daily Dominion).
Kingdom:
Pawn
Secluded Shrine
Swindler
Abundance
"Shy" Secret Passage
Courtier
Duke
Minion
Pendant
Torturer

Scrounge

The AI got quite a bit ahead of me in Province count, but I was able to strike back later with some nice Abundance/Scrounge combos to nab 6 Duchies and 6 Dukes, which brought me a nice victory.

The particular useful card interaction:
I even had a truly silly turn toward the end where had a Secluded Shrine, 3$, and 2 buys thanks to a Pawn, and the trash had no estates. I bought a copper, which allowed me to trash an Estate from my hand with the Secluded Shrine, and immediately got it back alongside the final Duchy with Scrounge.

This thread is intended for strategy advice. There's a section for game reports called Game Reports where you can share epic moments from your games.

[Honkeyfresh]

Possession and Avoid allows you to essentially pull the best three cards (and any Possessions they may have) out of their deck for a mere 2 coins.

[GendoIkari]

Possession and Avoid allows you to essentially pull the best three cards (and any Possessions they may have) out of their deck for a mere 2 coins.

And with enough Avoids, you just lock them out of the game by giving them a 0 card hand. Similar to the “trash everything” trick you can do with Possession.

[Jonatan Djurachkovitch]

Possession and Avoid allows you to essentially pull the best three cards (and any Possessions they may have) out of their deck for a mere 2 coins.

And with enough Avoids, you just lock them out of the game by giving them a 0 card hand. Similar to the “trash everything” trick you can do with Possession.

Does that really work? - after reshuffling 0 cards, do you not attempt a new reshuffle since you still have cards left to draw?

Edit - Just read the wiki - "You might leave so many cards in your discard pile that you don't have enough to draw; this does not trigger another shuffle, you just draw what you can."

[GendoIkari]

Yeah that statement in the wiki is what made me think of it, actually. So in games with Possession, just make sure your deck can't reliably produce 2/3 as many as you have cards in your deck, while drawing your deck.

[Honkeyfresh]

Treasury and Villa allows you to return all of your treasuries to the top deck when you gain the Villa allowing you to get a VP card after you Villa and still keep all your Treasuries topdecked.

[jomini]

Treasury and Villa allows you to return all of your treasuries to the top deck when you gain the Villa allowing you to get a VP card after you Villa and still keep all your Treasuries topdecked.

I have not tried it, but Treasury/Cavalry looks like it might be very powerful. 5 Treasuries means that you can net $10 and draw a net of 20 cards while emptying a second pile for no loss of buys. If you get a 6:4 split that moves up to enough cash to pile any $2 coin pile and a single additional coin somewhere lets you have enough cash to buy ten $3. Obviously, buys are going to be constraining, but it takes very few turns to get 6 or 7 Treasuries.

In general, I think the bigger use of Villa/Cavalry with Treasury is not so much to keep plodding along with a fat stack of treasuries on top (at best villa eats three of them in purchas costs), but to replay the treasuries during a quick rush. It will need some sort of draw that you retain in hand, but you can get some very nice mutiplication going.

Ultimately the top decking of Treasuries really only has two major use cases: early during the build to increase your odds of hitting a price point every turn (e.g. needing to hit $5 for Bazaar/Rabble) and late to save up Treasuries until you can snag an $8, $11, or $5 turn in a deck that has been tanked. In most cases where you have $3 to burn on a Villa, you already are exceedingly likely to have the ability to draw through deck. And outside of some stuff like Tr or Storyteller, Treasury does little to help you draw through. And boards with Villa are extremely likely to be engine boards regardless; and the mostly likely way to not have a deck drawing engine would be lack of draw cards, but then you, at best have a 5:5 split and need to hit $11 to use the Villa trick which is $7 in 5 cards; or about the exact same as what you get on average if your deck is 25 cards or less.  And lest we forget, unless you have terminals that benefit from +actions or something that can use the price of the villa for benefit (e.g. Way of the Butterfly), Villas are just coppers. Paying $3 for a copper in order to get $5 more next turn can be worth it as a tactical play near game end, but I suspect that building a strat around this just is not going to be much, if any, better than just ignoring the Villa, or using Villa to speed build an engine before greening.