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[dondon151]

I'm not sure the "interacting rules" distinction applies as much to Dominion as it does to MtG. Almost all cards that have negative or positive interactions with each other interact with respect to the rules. Like, Market and Platinum interact via their rules because the former gives +1 buy among other bonuses and the latter gives +$5. A selling point of Dominion is that the cards have their own rules printed on them.

Take the case of Gardens where its sole purpose is to change the rules such that the player has a way to get rewarded for having more cards in his deck. Anything that has a positive interaction with Gardens would be a combo under your definition, and therefore there could be no synergies.

[Donald X.]

I'm not sure the "interacting rules" distinction applies as much to Dominion as it does to MtG. Almost all cards that have negative or positive interactions with each other interact with respect to the rules. Like, Market and Platinum interact via their rules because the former gives +1 buy among other bonuses and the latter gives +$5. A selling point of Dominion is that the cards have their own rules printed on them.

Take the case of Gardens where its sole purpose is to change the rules such that the player has a way to get rewarded for having more cards in his deck. Anything that has a positive interaction with Gardens would be a combo under your definition, and therefore there could be no synergies.

All combos are synergies; not all synergies are combos.

[Kirian]

TIL: the English language may have shades of meaning and overlapping meanings among groups of words, and different people may disagree on what those shades of meaning are.

No, wait, I didn't learn that today.  I learned that a couple decades ago.  Why exactly is this argument even a thing?

Also, despite the thread content, not a single person has posted "C-c-c-c-combo breaker!" I'm disappointed.

[eHalcyon]

LF starts off by saying that any 2+ cards with positive synergy should be called a "combo", but now he's giving +1 to posts from Donald which explicitly say synergies and combos are different things.

My +1s do not mean that I fully endorse the arguments in a post; only that the post makes a good point. I think LF is fairly generous with his +1s, too.

Fair point.

I'm totally confused by this thread.  LF starts off by saying that any 2+ cards with positive synergy should be called a "combo", but now he's giving +1 to posts from Donald which explicitly say synergies and combos are different things.

I think any two cards that have synergy can be called a combo. You don't have to use that word. Saying they have synergy is fine, too.

Prior to Donald's post, I hadn't considered the idea that two cards could have synergy but not have interacting rules. I'd like a few examples of that.

Maybe they can be called a combo, but should they be?  Anything can be called anything if you define the words the right way.

I think Oasis+Rebuild is an example of synergy where their rules don't really interact.

Well for the two examples I gave, Scout+Great Hall have positive synergy but they are so weak that I would not call it a combo.  Rebuild+Oasis has positive synergy (Oasis improves cycling, gives some coin so it's a bit easier to hit $5) but not so much that I would call it more than the sum of its parts; it's just a strong card and a decent card doing their usual things.

I think that every synergy in Dominion has its component cards producing more than the sum of its parts. Even with Rebuild + Oasis, Oasis is producing slightly more $ on average compared to a non-Rebuild deck because the Rebuild deck will have a higher Victory card density and therefore it's less likely to discard a Copper to Oasis.

Rebuild+Oasis has positive synergy...but not so much that I would call it more than the sum of its parts

But that's what "synergy" is 

He's right. That is the literally the definition of synergy.

synergy
[sin-er-jee]
noun, plural synergies.
1. the interaction of elements that when combined produce a total effect that is greater than the sum of the individual elements, contributions, etc.; synergism.

I'm saying that the gain is small enough that it falls on the insignificant side of my fuzzy line.

In any case, pure dictionary definitions aren't great for this discussion.  If we do that, we can say any two cards make a combo whether they work together or not, because the definition of "combo" is "any combination".

[markusin]

TIL: the English language may have shades of meaning and overlapping meanings among groups of words, and different people may disagree on what those shades of meaning are.

No, wait, I didn't learn that today.  I learned that a couple decades ago.  Why exactly is this argument even a thing?

Also, despite the thread content, not a single person has posted "C-c-c-c-combo breaker!" I'm disappointed.

I think the purpose of this thread was to see if we could better distinguish the term combo from "Wombo Combo".

[jaketheyak]

In any case, pure dictionary definitions aren't great for this discussion.  If we do that, we can say any two cards make a combo whether they work together or not, because the definition of "combo" is "any combination".

Exactly. Pure dictionary definitions don't work.
Context matters.
Which is why I felt the need to explain what I thought the definition of combo was in the context of Dominion strategy.

Clearly my concept of that contextual definition differs from some other people's, which is fine.
The thing I have difficulty with is advocating the view that synergy should mean "any cards that work well together" and combo should mean "any cards that work well together".
Isn't it useful to the discussion to have different words mean different things?

(Again, in the context of Dominion strategy discussion, obviously it's okay for words to have synonyms generally).

[swedenman]

In any case, pure dictionary definitions aren't great for this discussion.  If we do that, we can say any two cards make a combo whether they work together or not, because the definition of "combo" is "any combination".

Exactly. Pure dictionary definitions don't work.
Context matters.
Which is why I felt the need to explain what I thought the definition of combo was in the context of Dominion strategy.

Clearly my concept of that contextual definition differs from some other people's, which is fine.
The thing I have difficulty with is advocating the view that synergy should mean "any cards that work well together" and combo should mean "any cards that work well together".
Isn't it useful to the discussion to have different words mean different things?

(Again, in the context of Dominion strategy discussion, obviously it's okay for words to have synonyms generally).

I agree that context is important. That's why prescribing specific definitions is pointless; it should be pretty clear from context what somebody means by "synergy" or "combo". If I use the word "combo" when talking about Dominion it's not like the person I'm talking to is going to come to this thread to see what the community consensus is on the meaning of the word; it should be fairly obvious what I mean, and if it's not then the other person will ask me to clarify. We aren't writing legal documents, we're talking about a game.

That being said, I don't think I've ever in my life heard the word "synergy" used to mean anything other than multiple things that are greater than the sum of their parts. The word "combo" is a bit more ambiguous, but what else could "synergy" possibly mean? If two cards work well together then certainly they're greater than the sum of their parts.

[dondon151]

I think the purpose of this thread was to see if we could better distinguish the term combo from "Wombo Combo".

I hereby propose that we shorten this term to "wombo."