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[Morgrim7]

We should have two more lists stickied:

1- combos
2- general strategy articles grouped somehow

Bold=Dominionstrategy.com

Combos

2-Card Combos
Alchemist/Herbalist
Altar/Highway
Ambassador/Curse
Ambassador/Fool's Gold
Ambassador/Pirate Ship
Apothecary/Stables
Apothecary Native Village Apothecary/Native Village 2
Apothecary/Vault
Apprentice/Hoard
Apprentice/Envoy
Black Market/Tactician
Caravan/Vault
Cartographer/Tunnel
Cartographer/Wishing Well
Courtyard/Tournament
Chancellor/Stash
Chapel/Stash
Council Room/Goons
Counting House/Coppersmith
Fishing Village/Torturer
Fortune Teller/Jester
Ghost Ship/Fortune Teller
Golem/Counting House
Golem/Scheme
Golem/Tunnel
Goons/Apothecary
Goons/Watchtower
Governor/Warehouse
Graverobber/Pillage
Hamlet/Menagerie
Hoard/Salvager
Horn of Plenty/Native Village
Horn of Plenty/Peddler
Horse Traders/Duke
Hunting Party/Saboteur
Hunting Party/X
King's Court/Scheme
Loan/Minion
Masquerade/Margrave
Militia/Masquerade
Minion/Golem
Mine/Potion
Mint/Fool's Gold
Native Village/Bridge Native Village/Bridge
Oasis/Menagerie
Quarry/Talisman
Remake/City
Salvager/Peddler
Salvager/Spice Merchant
Sea Hag/Duchy
Scheme/Conspirator
Scheme/Herbalist
Scheme/Trading Post
Scrying Pool/Secret Chamber
Scrying Pool/Vault
Sea Hag/Jester
Shanty Town/Spice Merchant
Spy/Thief
Steward/Scrying Pool
Tournament/Scheme
Treasure Map/Nomad Camp
University/City
University/Inn
University/Watchtower/X
University/Library
Vault/Library
Vault/Philosopher's Stone
Venture/Bank
Vineyard/Develop
Watchtower/University
Warehouse/Conspirator
Warehouse/Counting House


3-Card Combos
Apothecary/Scheme/Bishop
Apothecary/Warehouse/Cache
Apothecary/Wishing Well/Coppersmith
Baron/Crossroads/Farmland
Border Village/City/Trash4Benefit
Courtyard/Loan/Venture
Embargo/Spice Merchant/Venture
Ironworks/Scout/Great Hall
Hamlet/Talismen/Fool's Gold
Hamlet/Watchtower/Library
Haven/Watchtower/Library
King's Court/Goons/Masquerade
Talisman/Watchtower/Treasure Map


Counters

Bishop vs. Gardens
Counting House vs. Militia
Harvest vs. Fortune Teller/Rabble/Bureaucrat/Ghost Ship
Library vs. Militia
Lookuot vs. Sea Hag
Militia vs. Warehouse
Minion vs. Treasury
Native Village vs. Fortune Teller
Possession vs. Ambassador
Secret Chamber vs. Pirate Ship
Tactician vs. Ghost Ship
Vault vs. Ambassador
Wishing Well vs. Ghost Ship

[Powerman]

I recommend you always place the first card of the combo (alphabetically) first, and then sort alphabetically?  Maybe it'll look good!

[Young Nick]

Just clean up some of the typos...
Vaul (Vault)
Lookou (Lookout)

There may be others.

[ednever]

Nicely done.

Some ideas more than suggestions for grouping them into amore readable structure:

- break into "within set" and "across set" combos
- break out 3-card+ combos into a separate section
- have a standard order of listing the combos. I like (1) alphabetical order, (2) list highest cost card first (lowest cost card first works equally well, just as long as there is a standard)

Great work!

Ed

[Willvon]

Thank you for doing these lists.  This is extremely helpful.

[Young Nick]

The link to three two-card combos should either go in the two card section or have the thread linked three times in the two-card section. There seems to be no reason for it to be in the three-card section.

[Morgrim7]

Editing done. Still up for suggestions.

[Morgrim7]

Treasure Map / Warehouse

That is a card article, not  combo article. It is about Treasure map, not its synergy with Warehouse.

[AJD]

Treasure Map / Warehouse

That is a card article, not  combo article. It is about Treasure map, not its synergy with Warehouse.

Huh?  Sorry, I don't follow...

Sure it's a card article, but the two cards still make a decent combo, no?  I mean, how different is it from Ambassador / Fool's Gold?

It's different because the article you linked to is not about the combo, whereas the article linked to about Ambassador / Fool's Gold is an article about the Ambassador / Fool's Gold combo.

[jotheonah]

You know what awesome, obvious combo doesn't have it's own article yet? Vault/Tunnel. But I'm not sure there's that much to say about Vault/Tunnel.

1) Buy a Vault
2) Buy a lot of Tunnels
3) Profit

[popsofctown]

You know what awesome, obvious combo doesn't have it's own article yet? Vault/Tunnel. But I'm not sure there's that much to say about Vault/Tunnel.

1) Buy a Vault
2) Buy a lot of Tunnels
3) Profit

I counter with "wait for your opponent to buy a Vault, buy a lot of Tunnels.  Profit."

[rrenaud]

I think the wiki should probably become the canonical place for this list.

http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/index.php/Combos_and_Counters_List

[TWoos]

Just noticed there's an important Counter to a Combo missing.

Fortress vs. King's Court/Goons/Masquerade

[greatexpectations]

there are probably a bunch of solid counters missing from the list. the list is only combos and counters which have had articles (or discussion threads) written about them. if something is missing go ahead and add it to the wiki.

[ftl]

I think it's more general than that - Fortress is a counter to trashing attacks in general, and in this case KC/goons/masq is acting like an attack which is trashing your deck.

[TWoos]

I think it's more general than that - Fortress is a counter to trashing attacks in general, and in this case KC/goons/masq is acting like an attack which is trashing your deck.

That's true, and probably the general defensive use should be in the Fortress article, if there is one.

However, given the devastating effectiveness of KC/G/M, knowing a possible counter to it is useful.  At least... for those of us who aren't playing on Isotropic.

[Pikanto]

Treasure Map / Warehouse

Since i'm planning to get seaside next, and that treasure map fascinates me somehow, how about :

Treasure map / native village ?

Has anyone tried this method yet ?

[Edit]

Ah i see the problem now.. you have to set aside the top card of your deck, which obviously you don't know what it will be..

[Morgrim7]

Treasure Map / Warehouse

Since i'm planning to get seaside next, and that treasure map fascinates me somehow, how about :

Treasure map / native village ?

Has anyone tried this method yet ?

Too slow. Watchtower is nice, though.

[eHalcyon]

Treasure Map / Warehouse

Since i'm planning to get seaside next, and that treasure map fascinates me somehow, how about :

Treasure map / native village ?

Has anyone tried this method yet ?

Too slow. Watchtower is nice, though.

Watchtower + Talisman

[Morgrim7]

Treasure Map / Warehouse

Since i'm planning to get seaside next, and that treasure map fascinates me somehow, how about :

Treasure map / native village ?

Has anyone tried this method yet ?

Too slow. Watchtower is nice, though.

Watchtower + Talisman

Theres a ds article for that, correct?

[eHalcyon]

Watchtower + Talisman

Theres a ds article for that, correct?

I'd forgotten about that!

Bam.

[TheMirrorMan]

How about something simple ... Hoard + Gardens ?

[eHalcyon]

How about something simple ... Hoard + Gardens ?

I'd expect that this is mediocre at best.  Hoard is expensive so you can't get it very quickly, and Gardens is cheap so you don't need the Gold gaining from Hoard to buy it.  The main function of Hoard would be as a gainer, but the cost means that you won't be able to buy many of them soon enough to matter.  Many viable Gardens strategies will want to rush a 3-pile ending and thus have no time to pursue Hoard.

I mean, it can probably work on some boards, but I don't think it would be all that amazing.

[dondon151]

Hoard + Gardens isn't really a rush and it isn't really that simple, either.

[shark_bait]

I remember a game against ehunt I think in the DSC where I played Hoard/Gardens/Royal Seal.  It was extremely powerful and to this day the only time that I have achieved the Bominator CR achievement.

[werothegreat]

I remember a game against ehunt I think in the DSC where I played Hoard/Gardens/Royal Seal.  It was extremely powerful and to this day the only time that I have achieved the Bominator CR achievement.

Bominator?

[shark_bait]

Buy Only Money and Victory cards and Win.  Essentially playing BM-Ultimate that allows for Kingdom Treasure cards to be purchased.  It's extremely hard to do and actually win.  Because so often regardless of the Kingdom there will be some action card that will be obtained.  It's rare when there are no action cards worth obtaining over pure Treasure.

[zporiri]

I remember a game against ehunt I think in the DSC where I played Hoard/Gardens/Royal Seal.  It was extremely powerful and to this day the only time that I have achieved the Bominator CR achievement.

Bominator?

I think bombinator was buying only treasure and victory cards, but i might be wrong

[blueblimp]

Buy Only Money and Victory cards and Win.  Essentially playing BM-Ultimate that allows for Kingdom Treasure cards to be purchased.  It's extremely hard to do and actually win.  Because so often regardless of the Kingdom there will be some action card that will be obtained.  It's rare when there are no action cards worth obtaining over pure Treasure.

The only time I remember getting it is when I got nearly ideal shuffle luck, there were no interesting kingdom cards sub-$5, and I never hit exactly $5. Turns out that BMU can be super-fast with ideal shuffle luck.

[redwings1340]

Mint/Stonemason. Seriously, I just played with this opening, and I think it's right up there as one of the best openings in the game. On turn 3/4 you can use your stonemason on your mint, trash 5 coppers before your first reshuffle, while sacrificing none of your economy in the process (worst case scenario you trade those coppers in for 2 silvers).

In the game I recently played with those two cards, there was also a remake, which made it ridiculously easy (trashed my estates and coppers ridiculously quickly after that), but this is a combo I haven't seen discussed anywhere else, and might be one of the top openings in the game in my opinion.

[Graystripe77]

How often is this list updated? Also, what's the strict definition of a 'combo' here? I say that because I believe I wrote something on Nomad Camp/Fool's Gold a long time ago, and if that fits the criteria of a combo, it could be listed.

Also, Baron/Crossroads/Stables is definitely a great combo.

[Mic Qsenoch]

It's a combo if your post gets >5 people complaining about it not being a combo.

[tim17]

Not sure if card+event combos belong here, but Vault+Expedition seems at least decent.  Played in the most boring way possible (Buy a Vault, then province on 8, expedition on anything between 3 and 7), I think it gets 4 provinces in around 12 or 13 turns.  Probably it's not actually good because it never builds any sort of economy and might be easy for opponents to counter (especially with Vault's drawback), but in the absence of anything good on the board maybe it's useful?

[werothegreat]

Not sure if card+event combos belong here, but Vault+Expedition seems at least decent.  Played in the most boring way possible (Buy a Vault, then province on 8, expedition on anything between 3 and 7), I think it gets 4 provinces in around 12 or 13 turns.  Probably it's not actually good because it never builds any sort of economy and might be easy for opponents to counter (especially with Vault's drawback), but in the absence of anything good on the board maybe it's useful?

This gets wrecked by any sort of handsize attack, but it seems to work in the absence of that sort of thing.  4 Provinces in 12 turns, but I did get a 5/2 open.

[Awaclus]

Not sure if card+event combos belong here, but Vault+Expedition seems at least decent.  Played in the most boring way possible (Buy a Vault, then province on 8, expedition on anything between 3 and 7), I think it gets 4 provinces in around 12 or 13 turns.  Probably it's not actually good because it never builds any sort of economy and might be easy for opponents to counter (especially with Vault's drawback), but in the absence of anything good on the board maybe it's useful?

This gets wrecked by any sort of handsize attack, but it seems to work in the absence of that sort of thing.  4 Provinces in 12 turns, but I did get a 5/2 open.

How fast does it win?

[schadd]

Not sure if card+event combos belong here

most of us don't want you to worry about that


welcome to the forum

[faust]

Not sure if card+event combos belong here, but Vault+Expedition seems at least decent.  Played in the most boring way possible (Buy a Vault, then province on 8, expedition on anything between 3 and 7), I think it gets 4 provinces in around 12 or 13 turns.  Probably it's not actually good because it never builds any sort of economy and might be easy for opponents to counter (especially with Vault's drawback), but in the absence of anything good on the board maybe it's useful?

I simulated this, and apparently it is significantly worse than Vault/BM. Adding a second Vault doesn't help much. So I wouldn't consider this a combo.

[iguanaiguana]

Buy Only Money and Victory cards and Win.  Essentially playing BM-Ultimate that allows for Kingdom Treasure cards to be purchased.  It's extremely hard to do and actually win.  Because so often regardless of the Kingdom there will be some action card that will be obtained.  It's rare when there are no action cards worth obtaining over pure Treasure.

Bominator: http://gokosalvager.com/static/logprettifier.html?https://dominion-game-logs.s3.amazonaws.com/game_logs/20160427/log.0.1461769097997.txt 

[tim17]

Not sure if card+event combos belong here, but Vault+Expedition seems at least decent.  Played in the most boring way possible (Buy a Vault, then province on 8, expedition on anything between 3 and 7), I think it gets 4 provinces in around 12 or 13 turns.  Probably it's not actually good because it never builds any sort of economy and might be easy for opponents to counter (especially with Vault's drawback), but in the absence of anything good on the board maybe it's useful?

I simulated this, and apparently it is significantly worse than Vault/BM. Adding a second Vault doesn't help much. So I wouldn't consider this a combo.

Okay, good to know.  This wouldn't have been any fun to play anyway.

[tim17]

Haven't gotten too much chance to try them, but other potential adventures combos/synergies that might be decent:

1. Highway + Seaway: This one's pretty straightforward, get a highway, seaway the highways, then get as many highways as possible.  8 highways and you can buy all the provinces.  With good trashing, this might not need much else.

2. Wine Merchant + Distant Lands: This one admittedly might be dubious at best, but the idea of having a deck drawing engine with a few extra actions, and then alternate turns between playing wine merchants to buy distant lands, and playing distant lands, returning the wine merchants to your deck to repeat seems nice to me.

3. Alms + Duplicate + Gardens/Silk Road: A new version of a gardens rush, if you get duplicate on your first two turns, you're netting about 2 cards per turn on average for the rest of the game, and you don't need to buy treasures to keep your economy going.  You can also manage when you call your duplicates to control what you put in your reshuffles if it helps at all.

To me the first one seems actually quite good, not sure so much about the other two.  They're mostly just the result of me trying to find uses for Wine Merchant and Duplicate.

[werothegreat]

I've tried Highway/Seaway in a solo game, and it's actually a bit slower than you'd think.  For a rush strategy, it doesn't help that every component costs , so you're left opening Silver/Silver.  It might be feasible if you can open with a trasher or at least a cantrip.

[Beyond Awesome]

Highway seaway is good if you win the split. I won two of those games.

[tim17]

I've tried Highway/Seaway in a solo game, and it's actually a bit slower than you'd think.  For a rush strategy, it doesn't help that every component costs , so you're left opening Silver/Silver.  It might be feasible if you can open with a trasher or at least a cantrip.

Yeah, I agree it really only seems good if you have decent trashing.

Same can be said about Wine Merchant/Distant Lands.  On a board with strong trashing, little or no card draw, +actions, and mission, this could net 8 points a turn by getting down to say village x 2, WM x 3, silver, which depending on the components takes roughly 8-9 turns to get there.  Only 6 distinct constraints necessary for this to do moderately better than BM?  Sounds great to me.

[Limetime]

Mission is what distant lands wine merchant really needs.

[tim17]

With regard to duplicate, I think while the gardens rush is viable on some boards occasionally, duplicate + duke actually seems strong.  To illustrate, feast + duke is presumably fairly good, and duplicate seems mostly better than feast for this deck.  When you play a feast, it gives you a duchy/duke that stays in your deck for the rest of the game.  When you play a duplicate, even if you just leave it on your mat for the whole game, it still gives you a duchy/duke on one of your last turns, which is clearly better.  You'd probably also want to use your duplicates early game to get more duplicates or maybe help build your economy.  Not sure exactly how good this is, but I think it at least beats Smithy/BM.

[Beyond Awesome]

Royal Carriage/Bridge

Just played a game with these cards. NV was also there, I wanted to try RC/Bridge.

[Joseph2302]

Playing anything counters Scout.

[gkrieg13]

Playing anything counters Scout.

Except for enchantress on your opponent's scout. Then their scout counters your enchantress

[boardgametheories.com]

Grand Market/Vault is also a nice little combination. Normally Grand Markets are hard to buy due to the no-copper restriction, but you can get around this if you use Vault to discard all your coppers.

I have an article about this on: http://boardgametheories.com/4-dominion-prosperity-combos-every-player-should-know/

[Jack Rudd]

Yeah, those are good combos.

(Your comments about Talisman are a little off, though. There are loads of Dominion cards costing $4 or less that you want lots of in your deck. Many of them have names containing the string "Village".)

[R-man77]

Am I the only person who thinks that lurker/hunting grounds is easily the most broken combo in all of Dominion?

[Awaclus]

Am I the only person who thinks that lurker/hunting grounds is easily the most broken combo in all of Dominion?

It's not that broken, because it enables the Lurker+gaining free Hunting Grounds from the trash combo for your opponent and if it's an engine board, that probably beats the Duchy rush.

[heron]

Am I the only person who thinks that lurker/hunting grounds is easily the most broken combo in all of Dominion?

It's not that broken, because it enables the Lurker+gaining free Hunting Grounds from the trash combo for your opponent and if it's an engine board, that probably beats the Duchy rush.

Actually R-man is right, lurker-hg is quite tough to beat. Idk about most broken combo, but it's pretty high on the list.

[Awaclus]

Am I the only person who thinks that lurker/hunting grounds is easily the most broken combo in all of Dominion?

It's not that broken, because it enables the Lurker+gaining free Hunting Grounds from the trash combo for your opponent and if it's an engine board, that probably beats the Duchy rush.

Actually R-man is right, lurker-hg is quite tough to beat. Idk about most broken combo, but it's pretty high on the list.

Lurker+free HG from the trash is even tougher to beat.

[RTT]

i somehow beat the player who got free Hunting Grounds with their Lurkers every time by just gaining free duchies. But that might be just me.

[Chris is me]

Am I the only person who thinks that lurker/hunting grounds is easily the most broken combo in all of Dominion?

It's not that broken, because it enables the Lurker+gaining free Hunting Grounds from the trash combo for your opponent and if it's an engine board, that probably beats the Duchy rush.

Actually R-man is right, lurker-hg is quite tough to beat. Idk about most broken combo, but it's pretty high on the list.

Lurker+free HG from the trash is even tougher to beat.

Serious question: How many of your engine games score 30 points in 9 turns?

[Awaclus]

Am I the only person who thinks that lurker/hunting grounds is easily the most broken combo in all of Dominion?

It's not that broken, because it enables the Lurker+gaining free Hunting Grounds from the trash combo for your opponent and if it's an engine board, that probably beats the Duchy rush.

Actually R-man is right, lurker-hg is quite tough to beat. Idk about most broken combo, but it's pretty high on the list.

Lurker+free HG from the trash is even tougher to beat.

Serious question: How many of your engine games score 30 points in 9 turns?

Many of them buy at least one Hunting Grounds in 9 turns, which makes the Duchy rush a lot slower than 9 turns.

[RTT]

you need to buy 3 HG to really slow the rush down.

[Titandrake]

you need to buy 3 HG to really slow the rush down.

The Lurker/HG player can also pivot to 3-pile on Estates/Lurker/HG instead of Duchy/Lurker/HG if they recognize they're going to run out of time, so it only slows down when the 3 pile happens. You still need to score enough in time as well.

There was a Lurker/Fortress/Advance/Hunting Grounds board I watched once, with engine vs pure Lurker/HG rush, and the Lurker/Fortress/HG engine got the win, but was only about 1 turn ahead. I am not optimistic about many combos outdoing what you could do there.

[Chris is me]

Am I the only person who thinks that lurker/hunting grounds is easily the most broken combo in all of Dominion?

It's not that broken, because it enables the Lurker+gaining free Hunting Grounds from the trash combo for your opponent and if it's an engine board, that probably beats the Duchy rush.

Actually R-man is right, lurker-hg is quite tough to beat. Idk about most broken combo, but it's pretty high on the list.

Lurker+free HG from the trash is even tougher to beat.

Serious question: How many of your engine games score 30 points in 9 turns?

Many of them buy at least one Hunting Grounds in 9 turns, which makes the Duchy rush a lot slower than 9 turns.

I uh really don't think you have as complete of a grasp of the combo as you think you do, if you feel like buying a single Hunting Grounds stops it from working.

[Awaclus]

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I can beat the rat in 9 turns with the combo but I always got rekt when I tried playing it on ladder, i.e. mostly against people who were lower rated than I was at the time.