One of my favorite Dominion cards of all time.
Is it worth getting without a trasher?
YES.How good is it as a counter to Looting attacks?
Great!Is trashing a Squire to get it a thing?
YES.There are some games where there's no +buy or payload of any kind, where you would want to stop buying Pools at some point, but those boards are rare. I played a game like this once, where both Scrying Pool and Alchemist was on the board. I went hard for Pools, my opponent went hard for Alchemists. I got crushed. I should have gotten Pools as I did, but I got too many and ignored Alchemist. That is a thing sometimes. So just be careful.
I don't understand why people hate this card, besides having the longer turns. And even then, not liking Scrying Pool because it is slow is like hating The Empire Strikes Back for being the most boring Episode, with the least battles. It's just such a great card to play with.
Scrying Pool is one of those cards that while I'm playing it, I'm very aware that "man, my opponent must hate me right now". Sometimes you're just waiting for the resignation. Then you get those hands where you've already drawn your deck, but you have to play that last pool or two until you've stuck your opponent with a bad card on top. It's right up there with Possession or Torturer in cards where you just feel like saying "it's not personal, it's just Dominion". Scrying Pool is not a card I'd play in a just for fun game.
It's not THAT bad, come on.
This is one of the single most un-fun Dominion cards for me.
My criticisms are:
- it's way too cheap (2P is about 4.5, is this card really worse than a 5? Is it really worse than familiar?);
- it's slow;
- it dominates games;
- the attack.
I don't think it's bad. Think of it this way: If the card cost $3P, it would be just as powerful, and if you missed $3P and your opponent got it, you're screwed. $2P is a perfectly fine cost. Yes, it dominates games. So what? You pick the best strategy, you try and win. It's not boring at all to play a Scrying Pool game. Scrying Pool is not a monolithic strategy by any means. It's just a way to accelerate engines by a huge amount. It's much more boring to play Rebuild because it's monolthic.
Scrying Pool is insanely strong, but it won't win games on its own. It still needs a payload. It just makes Action cards stronger by its presence.