Hello, as you can see, i am a completely new User.
I have read months now, visiting this forum and the wiki, always just as a bypasser, reading all and every tiny bit about dominion.
I fell in love with this game, i guess like nearly everyone else here, right then in just one game. And the good thing is: my girlfriend as well.
And nowadays, i am reading a lot about bad and very very bad cards, as well.
So i thought by myself, to leave some thoughts about that. As a ambitious casual gamer.
I am starting with a recent game: One of the funniest i had so far, a game with thief. It was hillarious. It was just pure fun. We had just one option for virtual money, and that was pirate ship. So there were two cards, considered to be actually "bad". But as soon, as everyone realised, that we actually needed to rebuy coppers and silver (gold was out of the reach
) it got the pirates coming in again ... and then again there were thiefs, so silver and some gold was being exchanged back and forth until it was destroyed by one one the many ships. BM was no option. The other cards weren't really good for any kind of engine.
I know that there are cards, which are just better than others. But all comparison happens every time in a vacuum where each and every card is compared to 300 (400?) other cards. When we play, you just compare it to the other 9. And nobody thinks about cards, which are not in play. When was the last time, you had 2 villages in one set? Where it "really matters" comparing these two. In the end, you have to stick, to what you get...or not? You want actions: buy that village, with an embargo token on it.
So, the unfun part of some cards is more the set-up than the cards themself.
(We played one game with 40 curses, in a two player game, and the (only) curser was embargo. In the end Provinces had 3 tokens, Duchies 1 or 2 ...)
I am no pro. I havent played like 1000 games. Honestly, i dont want to. We play for fun. We make misplays in buying cards who are suboptimal just for the sake of playing them, trying new tactics (why i love coppersmith f.i.) and because it is fun. As soon as we realised that some combos are way too good, we tried to mix them with other cards, so that the advantage will not be that prominent, or we played some weeks without them (village&smithy - its boring, its more "bad", in my eyes, that getting rid of thief) - playing with cards where you make this "woooohoooo" because you just hit his gold or platinum...
Maybe, you will laugh about this, maybe some will try to lecture me, or so. I don't know.
I freaking love this game, i have 6! expansion. Come on that means something
(and thank you Mr. Vaccarino - my GF kinda "hates" you: ANOTHER EXPANSION???
)
I will stick to the old cards, okay maybe not Spy but hey, you still can go like:
If Spy is the only card with +1 action, and there is throne room - you actually buy that MoFu as part of an engine ...
i think , my point is clear. You may now convince me, that all changes are just for the better (which truly is, for new players - but i was a new player back then, and did not need a better base set - which one the "game of the year" and not the 2nd version ...)
and yes: i am freaking looking forward to the new cards as well :-)