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[Seprix]

That's no hydroxyl ion, that's my wife!

-How does this card compare to Smithy/Village draw?
-Has this card gotten stronger or weaker with all the draw cards?
-Any cool things to be done with Adventures?

Man, I can't wait to exit Base Set.

[Doom_Shark]

Not really sure. Other than gardens, village, and maybe witch, I think this is the only base card that really aged well as more and more expansions came out. Take a look at adviser, for example. That's a laboratory variant, if you look at what it does. And yes, Donald does try to keep the cards that are "strictly better" priced higher and "strictly worse" priced lower, but the price point of adviser still fits really well. I still consider it probably the best non-terminal draw power to date, as it is simple and effective. So there's my thoughts. Let the debate...BEGIN!!!

[Seprix]

Not really sure. Other than gardens, village, and maybe witch, I think this is the only base card that really aged well as more and more expansions came out. Take a look at adviser, for example. That's a laboratory variant, if you look at what it does. And yes, Donald does try to keep the cards that are "strictly better" priced higher and "strictly worse" priced lower, but the price point of adviser still fits really well. I still consider it probably the best non-terminal draw power to date, as it is simple and effective. So there's my thoughts. Let the debate...BEGIN!!!

Lost City is best non-terminal draw.

[Doom_Shark]

Not really sure. Other than gardens, village, and maybe witch, I think this is the only base card that really aged well as more and more expansions came out. Take a look at adviser, for example. That's a laboratory variant, if you look at what it does. And yes, Donald does try to keep the cards that are "strictly better" priced higher and "strictly worse" priced lower, but the price point of adviser still fits really well. I still consider it probably the best non-terminal draw power to date, as it is simple and effective. So there's my thoughts. Let the debate...BEGIN!!!

Lost City is best non-terminal draw.

Forgot about that one. My bad. Although I tend to like City better, as it doesn't give other players a card. I tend to rush cities so that the first empty pile is city, which is easiest when quarry is available. but I'm getting off topic. In it's most basic form, yes, lost city is technically better, but I don't like giving the other player's stuff. The exceptions being council room, because I get so much out of it; and margrave, because it's an attack.

[Beyond Awesome]

Usually, if someone goes for City, I just tend to ignore it.

[ConMan]

The thing about Lab is that it's just so darned good. I would say that on the vast majority of boards it is quite valuable to add a bunch of Labs to your deck, especially if you're going for an engine or combo. Even if your payload is another $5, it's rare that you want more than a handful of copies of that and then you stock up on Labs to make it easier to find them. Hunting Party is a strong competitor, but the two have quite different strengths and can even work together sometimes.

[theJester]

Maybe my favourite card in the game, probably because it evokes several awesome Base/Intrigue or Base/Intrigue/Prosperity games I've played IRL. It's also responsible for my love of non-terminal draw, for Menagerie, Stables and City are also among my favourite cards.

I agree that later expansions have slightly decreased Lab's value, but maybe not by much - I still find it useful quite often. The one thing about Lab games is that Lab is usually either ignorable (and can be skipped) or very important (where you want to get as much as possible). Rarely do I see the game where optimal play consists of buying only 1-2 Labs.

ETA:

The thing about Lab is that it's just so darned good. I would say that on the vast majority of boards it is quite valuable to add a bunch of Labs to your deck, especially if you're going for an engine or combo. Even if your payload is another $5, it's rare that you want more than a handful of copies of that and then you stock up on Labs to make it easier to find them. Hunting Party is a strong competitor, but the two have quite different strengths and can even work together sometimes.

Literally every deck will benefit from mass Labs (ok, with the exception of terminal draw-BM), the only question is is massing Labs really the best play or is there something faster. Combos like Wharf/some village will make me want to skip Lab altogether - not that this deck wouldn't benefit from Labs - it's just that gaining Wharfs in more important.

[Witherweaver]

-How does this card compare to Smithy/Village draw?

Better art.

[papadjango]

Regarding art: I don't see a laboratory but a big brown worm monster with open dark mouth and an upper row of teeth ...

[Seprix]

Regarding art: I don't see a laboratory but a big brown worm monster with open dark mouth and an upper row of teeth ...

Yeah, I don't think there's much discussion to be had on Laboratory at all.

[Burning Skull]

Regarding art: I don't see a laboratory but a big brown worm monster with open dark mouth and an upper row of teeth ...

It was stated somewhere in the secret history that Laboratory was intended to be a part of three cards expansion "Dominion: Vermins", with other two being Rats and Candlestick maker.

[Chris is me]

Laboratory is the benchmark I compare all other 5s to. Flexibility and power with a steep initial cost. What's there really to say about Laboratory? You should buy them if you need draw, particularly if terminal space is scarce. Laboratory is the first card that teaches you it's okay to skip Gold sometimes (a lot of times).

[Max]

Labs also teach you "just because you can draw your deck every turn doesn't mean it'll win". They're nice, they cycle the deck fast. They work in most engines. But they still need some payload.

Advantage: they don't penalise players for buying too many (just opportunity cost)

It has the usual caveats of drawing cards versus discard attacks (and ghost ship by similar argument) of having no idea what you could be drawing. But then, that's the same for any drawer, so.

[schadd]

lab was the card where i started to realize drawing a bunch of cards was good. i was playing with my brother with base only and both of us at that point had a habit of just faffing around (the thing that i liked to buy when i had a lot of money was a bunch of villages and woodcutters) and lab was a thing that it was impossible to go wrong just buying a bunch of them.

the time we concluded that the game is broken was when we figured out, oh man you can just buy a lot of labs before the regularly scheduled faffing and totally win. fortunately this isn't as much of a brick wall as the bm problem and then here we are.