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[Jack Rudd]

It's all four vanilla bonuses at once!

How does this rate, overall, as a source of +Buy for an engine?
How likely is this pile to run out these days?
Does it have any particular combos apart from Peddler?

[LastFootnote]

I like Market. It's rare that I don't pick up a Market or two on any given board, assuming I'm building some sort of engine-ish deck. I like that it's expensive so that, when I want to pick one mid-game as a first +Buy, I'm not wasting as much $ as I would be buying e.g. Woodcutter.

[LastFootnote]

I would also like to take this opportunity to once again thank werothegreat for uploading current, high-quality scans of all the cards. I appreciate them being available, even though lots of folks don't bother to use them for some reason.

[werothegreat]

I would also like to take this opportunity to once again thank werothegreat for uploading current, high-quality scans of all the cards. I appreciate them being available, even though lots of folks don't bother to use them for some reason.

I was just about to say something. 

Re: Market: It's a solid card.  Great source of +Buy, and beyond Peddler, it also works well with Highway and other cost reducers.  It's a great card to just have in any deck, other than BM.  Engine, Slog, Combo, you usually have room for a Market or five.  It's also one of those cards that makes it easier to get more of itself.  Good target for Throning, too.

[Marcory]

It's really good for Treasure-less decks, like any Peddler variant, especially with the likes of Minion, Double Tactician, or Throne Room variants. It also is a hard counter to Thief variants, and is awesome with Travellers--both because it cycles and as a counter to Page and Treasure Hunter.

[schadd]

fun when there's a board with altar and not a lot of other things and so you just have a lot of markets

[J Reggie]

So to add to the questions: at what point in the game do you want to get a Market? I know this depends on the kingdom but how much does it generally help your scoop in the early game vs in the mid to late game? I often feel like I'm picking up Markets too early when I can't use the buy and it's just a Peddler. Any insights?

[SirSlugma]

I just remember that feeling when playing my first game of Dominion ever, and looking at all the cards and seeing the one that gave you +1 of everything, and thinking, "Man, that card is AMAZING."

Then I bought like 2 of them along with other random terminals and got crushed.  Welcome to Dominion.

With what we know now, Market is very okay.  It's a great source of +Buy, and on the right boards, can be a pretty impressive card, or at least an important component in a strong strategy.  But there are so many boards where it seems like it might be good, and there are just more important things to get with your $5.

It's fun with stuff like University and Altar where you are gaining $5 cards left and right anyway, and hey, Market is a $5 card, let's have one of those.  This works especially well against bots.

[Doom_Shark]

I've been posting in these a lot, but honestly, I don't have any strong feelings about this one. It's a good card, but it doesn't strike me as, "Wow! Look at this card!" like a lot of the other $5. I don't know wether I've been desensitized to the base set after all this conversation about it or what, but other than being the only card that's one of everything, it just isn't very interesting. It isn't really ever something I would skip, but it isn't exciting.

[Burning Skull]

I've just realised there is a horse in the Market!

[ced]

I just remember that feeling when playing my first game of Dominion ever, and looking at all the cards and seeing the one that gave you +1 of everything, and thinking, "Man, that card is AMAZING."

Yeh, this was my first impression too. In reality, it plays more like "Peddler with +buy as its gimmick". The +buy aspect isn't as spammable as the rest of the card. It's useful to pick up a couple for engine decks, where it provides nonterminal +buy that improves your economy, but it reaches a point where you have sufficient +buy and Market becomes a 5-cost Peddler, not really the greatest thing for that cost.

Of course, sometimes the buy aspect is spammable. The OP mentioned the Peddler combo to easily pile those out. There's also other cost reducers eg Highway, Quarry, Bridge and its terminal variants. With any of these out, winning the Market split can be very important for pile control - though the cost reducer is often a higher priority.

[Davio]

Market is a fantastic card in that it's not overpowered, but almost always useful.

+Buy on a non-terminal card is pretty useful otherwise you have to use something like Woodcutter, ugh.

[Marcory]

Market is a fantastic card in that it's not overpowered, but almost always useful.

+Buy on a non-terminal card is pretty useful otherwise you have to use something like Woodcutter, ugh.

Agreed, although pretty much every set has at least one nonterminal +Buy:

Market, Festival (Base)
Pawn (Intrigue)
Duration effects of Tactician and Wharf (Seaside)
Worker's Village, Contraband, Grand Market, Level 2 City (Prosperity)
Hamlet (Cornucopia)
Forager, Market Square, Counterfeit [and, in pairs, Squire] (Dark Ages)
Candlestick Maker (Guilds)
Travelling Fair (Adventures)

The only exception is Hinterlands, but that's partly compensated by all of the on-buy/gain effects.

[luser]

Main problem of market that its a weak card for 5 cost. due to oportunitiy cost.

On buy part you need to pick market when its only source of +buys. When there are more buyers then you will likely get better deck by buying other (with exception of herbalist and trade route) on otherwise nearly useless 3-4 hand and 5 cost card instead market. You may need market later when other buyer is forager/salvager and you run out of coppers.

Buying market as payload isn't usually very good, in engine you spend lot of turns buying market per turn then you need 3 turns buying double markets to climb from 10 to 16.
While once you build you engine you could increase your money density faster by buying treasures.
That makes market too slow when there is strong engine there with trashing and in weaker boards province/turn is better than building.

What makes market good are attacks as they prolong game to make it viable. You could build economy with market while you trash curses and 3 card hands prolong game.

Then there games where market is good and in these it helps you draw. Thats mainly case of scrying pool and secondary with herald.

[Roadrunner7671]

No one has mentioned Market/Highway? Market/Highway is really good!

[jomini]

Market's real power is as a way to build buying power while decreasing the size of your deck. This is immaterial when you have strong trashing (Chap, but also Remake, opening Count, etc.) and any decentish engine - Gold/Village/Moat is 3 buys, $11 and gives 3 coins, three Markets are $2 more expensive. You can add it in regardless of action balance and keep accelerating the rate at which you trash the dross.

The major misplay I see with Market is buying it over Gold or even Silver when you are hyper-thin or when draw is low opportunity cost. Getting to $16 next turn is often far more valuable than saving a draw slot, but delaying your second province a turn.

Another misplay I see is buying too few markets when you are using Tr or variants. By providing a bit of everything (draw, coin, +buy) you can greatly increase reliability of your deck and have far fewer dead hands than if you strictly optimize for draw, cash, and action efficiency separately.

A final note is that Market gets a lot better with cheap Alt-VP. Market often slows down the deck a lot less than other +buys, but still gives you the flexibility to say nab 4 Islands to make up lost points. Gardens and Silk roads are both very Market friendly, with the +buys a province engine has a much better chance of swapping over if they look to lose the province race or just having the Alt-VP become more profitable than Duchies. Markets are also very nice for converting to a slog if your opponent starts to tank their ability to score provinces to contest the Alt-VP.