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[Markov Chain]

The Golden Deck (Bishop, Gold, Gold, Copper, Province, trash a province and buy a province each turn) always seemed like an interesting idea that would not be practical to build.  When would you actually go for it?

I played a game with several enablers, getting Bishop, Gold, Gold, Silver, Mint on the eighth turn.

Multi-player (we had five).  This means lots of Bishops around, so you can clean out your estates and coppers on other players' Bishops and shrink your deck quickly.

Bishop was the only reasonable $4 (the only $4 in our game; one player started Silver/Silver and everyone else started Bishop/Silver).  This also added to the number of Bishops.

Mint, to clear away a bunch of coppers and then trash the Mint itself for 3 VP once it is no longer needed to build more gold.

[Morgrim7]

If Bishop and a heavy trasher (ideally Chapel) were on the board, and there were no hand-size reducers or cursers, then I would probably go for the golden deck. Unless there was amazing engine potential. It would have to be pretty amazing, though.
Wasn't there a game recently where Obi wan bonogi beat the golden deck?

[Rhombus]

http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20120527-225110-56039dc1.html

In this game I open Spice Merchant/Silver and transition into dual bishops for a while, with the help of opponent's bishops I end up buying my first province into the golden deck on turn 11.  This is slower than average (chapel/bishop is turn 8/9), but I won.

The golden deck can also work with steward(s).

[Axxle]

When there isn't a Masquerade... 

[jomini]

I find golden-ish decks to be greatly helped by non-terminals. Lab, menage, market, etc. can all be safely added to a golden deck with only minimal concern for top deck attacks like swindler and saboteur. There just aren't all that many attacks that care about cards in deck if I'm drawing all of them anyways. So if your game lacks swindler, sab, tribute; there is very little advantage in having a solely 5 card deck and good effect to be had from incorporating non-terminals.

Market, for instance, means that you can go with gold/silver/market/copper/bishop - saving you a turn on setup if you don't get lucky getting your second gold (or both the silvers needed for g/s/s/b). The right non-terminals, like lab/bazaar/market, can allow you to double bishop; if you can swing +action and +buy, the same golden deck can hit 8 points a turn 5 with no increase in buying power over a province - even if the only 4 out is potion.

This becomes a particularly good option with only bishop for trashing - you can run multiple bishops in a village setup with ease or using something other than chapel like remake to trash (e.g. estates -> silver + menage + village can let you trash 3 copper a turn pretty quick).

[Grujah]

I recently had an interesting Golden Deck:

Tactician, Tactician, Tunnel, Tunnel, Gold, Gold, Throne Room, Bishop.

8VP per turn! Hand Reducing doesn't affect it! Yeah Baby!

Edit:
Also,
Tactician, Tactician, King's Court, King's Court, Jack, Bishop, Silver, Silver, Silver
Hand Reducing doesn't affect it either, but its only 6VP per turn, and I barely squeezed a victory with this one.

[Morgrim7]

I recently had an interesting Golden Deck:

Tactician, Tactician, Tunnel, Tunnel, Gold, Gold, Throne Room, Bishop.

8VP per turn! Hand Reducing doesn't affect it! Yeah Baby!

Cool! That reminded me of the thread "A Better Golden Deck".
(sorry I could not link, you cant do that on a kindle)

[qmech]

Market, for instance, means that you can go with gold/silver/market/copper/bishop

Bear in mind that there's a risk here that you might not draw the Market once you have a Province in your deck.

[Morgrim7]

Market, for instance, means that you can go with gold/silver/market/copper/bishop

Bear in mind that there's a risk here that you might not draw the Market once you have a Province in your deck.

That's why Market draws a card and gives +1 Action.

[bozzball]

The +1 card and +1 action are not much use if you draw gold/silver/copper/bishop/province.

[Morgrim7]

The +1 card and +1 action are not much use if you draw gold/silver/copper/bishop/province.

So you play it next turn.

[Grujah]

But if you don't draw same hand each turn  its not a golden deck.

[jomini]

The +1 card and +1 action are not much use if you draw gold/silver/copper/bishop/province.

Ehh, worst case scenario is that you hit that about 1/6th of the time. In which case, you bishop your province in hand and buy a gold. Next turn, play the market and bishop a gold, buy province. You've just lost a point. However if the market let you get to province setup a turn or two sooner you'd need the game to last another 24 turns before you'd be behind. Yes it also pushes back game end on provinces, but again if you set it up earlier, then it is still a wash. You can even bishop the market after that and transfer to a canonical golden deck if you want.

Grujah: So? The point is that while getting a canonical golden deck is likely stronger, getting a golden-ish deck with cantrips is easier and faster. Sometimes the cantrips are just there so you can get to the canonical deck faster. For instance dumping menage into the setup may allow you to chapel crud and buy a bishop in one turn - and it is not like you have much else to spend a three on. If you hit the golden deck quick enough without the cantrips - good - go for it. If the cantrips get you to a reasonable setup - great go for that. The opportunity cost of trying for a golden deck is lower with cantrips because if you miss early golds, you have other viable options.

[Captain_Frisk]

I can't say for sure when to go for it, but here was an interesting variant:

http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201205/31/game-20120531-070044-d0a8864a.html

KC x2 - Scheme x2 - Bishop - Outpost

[Vaivraza]

http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201210/30/game-20121030-191049-d0008c9c.html

Here is a game with Golden Deck, with Chapel, Bishop, and no relevant attacks.