| #24 ▲10 Merchant Ship (Seaside) Weighted Average: 23.73 ▲5.56 / Median: 25 ▲7 / Mode: 26 ▲11 / Standard Deviation: 7.5 ▲1.2 Highest Rank(s): #6 (1x), #8 (1x), #12 (1x) / Lowest Rank(s): #38 (1x), #39 (1x), #42 (1x)
Merchant Ship is one of the big winners. 10 ranks and about 5.5 points better is a big change. Its unweighted average is on #23, new players seem to rate it a little bit higher.
Merchant Ship is a very simple card. Still it is ranked very differently. While Harvest is a not guaranteed $4, this now is a guaranteed $4, just split over two turns. It's good for Big Money games as it increases the probability to have $8 early as you only need $6 in hand in the following turn. And if you manage to play one each turn, this is basically $4 every turn. The probability of colliding Merchant Ships is also lower because of the Duration effect. In comparism to many other $5s, wher you either don't get guaranteed $4 or guaranteed $3, this card is really strong, many realised it (and may explain the change in rank). But there are still many (especially terminal) $5s that are superior.
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| #23 ▼5 Upgrade (Intrigue) Weighted Average: 23.70 ▼3.19 / Median: 26 ▼5 / Mode: 26 ▲2 / Standard Deviation: 8.7 ▼0.2 Highest Rank(s): #7 (1x), #9 (1x), #10 (1x) / Lowest Rank(s): #40 (1x), #41 (2x)
Your opinions really differ about Upgrade. This time it's 5 ranks and over 3 points worse. But the deviation is still very high as it has e.g. 3 votes in the Top 10. It was very close against Merchant Ship. Upgrade was 0.03 points better, but in the unweighted ranking it is on #24.
Non-terminal trashers or trash-for-benefit-cards are really strong. No surprise that Upgrade costs $5 so you can't open with it most of the times. With Upgrade you can trash your Coppers and Curses or turning your Estates into Silver without spending an action and keep playing all your other valuable action cards. This may also its best use. Spamming Upgrades and upgrading all other cards slowly to better cards seems nice, but is very slow. But Upgrading an Upgrade into an early Grand Market can be very strong. I like to add, that Upgrade is indeed a cantrip, that doesn't hurt your deck early on. But like Lookout, if you have a deck with a high quality density later on, this may be a dead card in your hand, when you don't want to trash a card from your hand. It's still no surprise Upgrade has some very high ranked openings, the best being Upgrade/Chapel on #16 ▲2 or Upgrade/Courtyard on #48.
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| #22 ▼3 Jester (Cornucopia) Weighted Average: 23.23 ▼1.63 / Median: 22 ▲0.5 / Mode: 18 ▲8 / Standard Deviation: 8.7 ▼0.4 Highest Rank(s): #7 (1x), #8 (1x), #11 (2x) / Lowest Rank(s): #41 (1x), #44 (2x)
Jester is the third worst attack of all $5 cards. It has a very high deviation with some really low ranks (it was 5th last twice).
Jester is a very swingy attack. You can deal out Curses, you can spam Coppers. If your opponent and you are going for the same strategy, you can get very good cards from your Jester. If not, you have a really hard decision if you want that action card in your deck or give your opponent another free card. If you have a good running engine with any spying attack (like Scrying Pool), Jester is very good. In 3+ player games Jester is even stronger, because you can gain multiple good cards per turn. The main reason this attack is ranked that low, may be that you all take 2 player games into account where it's very swingy. Jester/Chapel is the #49 best opening.
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| #21 ▼1 Bazaar (Seaside) Weighted Average: 22.98 ▼1.14 / Median: 23 ▼1.5 / Mode: 20 ▼1 / Standard Deviation: 6.4 ▲1.3 Highest Rank(s): #5 (1x), #12 (2x) / Lowest Rank(s): #34 (3x), #36 (2x)
Bazaar has a very high rank with being #5 once. But still the consensus is really high for a middle ranked card with no big outliers in the low region.
You buy Bazar if you are building an engine, where you need additional money and +2 Actions. Not much more to say for me here, as it is a fearly simple card. Uncommon for a Village, Bazaar has a very high opening with Bazaar/Chapel on #31 ▼6.
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| #20 ▲5 Highway (Hinterlands) Weighted Average: 22.94 ▲1.40 / Median: 22 ▲1 / Mode: 20 ▲8 / Standard Deviation: 6.5 ▲1.9 Highest Rank(s): #4 (1x), #6 (1x), #12 (1x) / Lowest Rank(s): #35 (3x)
Highway has two outliers in the upper regions, but none in the lower regions, making it the card with the "best worst rank" so far. It went only up 1.4 points, but still that means a rise of 5 ranks. Also the consensus is much higher on this card. It was very close between Highway and Bazaar, but Highway was by 0.04 points better.
Highway is highly dependant for supporter cards to make it useful. One vanilla Highway is really bad and even worse than Market or Treasury, it's just a Peddler, so basically only worth $4. It seems similar to Bridge, but in fact it isn't. You can use it as a cantrip Bridge, but most of the times this isn't worth it, because you need +Buy and either need a small deck to play multiples or big drawing power what also means you need villages. So that is really slow. The only real combo is Highway/Market in a small deck. But you can do things with Highway what would be very difficult with Bridge. It combos nice with Remodel/Farmland/Expand, so you can replace Coppers with Provinces. It can combo also with other trash-for-benefit cards, but most of the times they "anti-synergize". Its best use may to use it with cards with fixed cost in the card text like Saboteur, Smugglers, Feast, Ironworks, Horn of Plenty, etc to gain (or trash) Provinces with these cards. As Highway is good in small decks, Highway/Chapel is a #38 ▲18 opening.
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| #19 ▲2 Festival (Base) Weighted Average: 21.95 ▲0.03 / Median: 21 ▼1 / Mode: 21 ▲9 / Standard Deviation: 6.9 ▲0.8 Highest Rank(s): #2 (1x), #7 (2x) / Lowest Rank(s): #33 (4x), #34 (1x), #35 (1x)
Festival has a one point lead over Highway and is 2 points better even though its rating nearly didn't change. It has a really big outlier on the second rank.
Festival is a simple card and is like a combined Village and (Grand) Market without the draw. The lack of draw is really the only downside of this card. Still it is good in any engine, giving the money and actions you need and if you have "draw up to ..." cards like Watchtower or Library, it's really great. In any Non-Big-Money game Festival is strictly superior to Silver.
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| #18 ▲14 Duke (Intrigue) Weighted Average: 19.89 ▲9.00 / Median: 21 ▲12 / Mode: 21 ▲17 / Standard Deviation: 9.3 ▲2.1 Highest Rank(s): #3 (3x) / Lowest Rank(s): #37 (2x), #38 (1x)
Victory cards were underrated in the last ranking. No surprise here that Duke did the highest jump of 14! ranks and was exactly 9 points better. But victory cards are still hard to rank. It has the highest deviation of all $5 cards with 9 times in the Top 10 and many low ranks on the other side, but the consensus is still way higher than last time. It has a big lead over Festival with over 2 points.
Duke is similar to Silk Road and Gardens Rushes as you need to get the Duchies and Dukes as fast as you can. So you need similar good supporter cards which help getting $5 even if you're already greening, like Vault, Hoard, Duchess, Horse Traders to name a few. Duke can be very strong as it can easily be worth 6-8 VP if your opponent doesn't deny your strategy and is better than Province in those cases. 3-piling isn't that hard afterwards as there are 2 piles already gone. The problem is to realize when a board is a good Duke board. With good attacks (Curser and Handsize-Reducer) you probably want those attacks instead and ignore Duchies/Dukes and go directly for Provinces.
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| #17 ▼1 Stables (Hinterlands) Weighted Average: 19.56 ▼1.18 / Median: 19 ▼2.5 / Mode: 19 ▼4 / Standard Deviation: 7.7 ▼0.3 Highest Rank(s): #4 (1x), #9 (2x) / Lowest Rank(s): #32 (3x), #44 (1x), #46 (1x)
Stables lost one rank and around one point. It has 2 big outliers, it was even voted third last once.
When you try to evaluate Stables, the comparism to Laboratory is very obvious. Both give you an action and a hand with one card more. In games with no trashing a few Stables can even be stronger, because you get an additional Warehouse-like cycling effect. Just discard your Coppers and you'll see you valuable cards more often. If you buy Stables and don't play Big Money, then your action density increases and the chances that you draw no treasure cards with Stables in hand increases too. Then Stables may be a dead card in hand. Especially in cursing games Stables is weaker. And even if your only treasure card is a Gold it highly depends on your deck if you really want to discard the Gold for 3 new cards. But a few Stables, Silvers and a +Buy card like Horse Traders can make pretty good Hunting-Party-like deck. An early Stables is great and superior to Laboratory on a board with no trashing, but with more Action Cards, Victory Cards or Curses, Stables is getting weaker, so just don't buy too many. Just compare a hand of 5 Laboratories and 5 Stables.
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| #16 ▲7 Haggler (Hinterlands) Weighted Average: 18.73 ▲4.03 / Median: 18 ▲4 / Mode: 18 ▲10 / Standard Deviation: 7.5 ▼0.5 Highest Rank(s): #8 (1x), 9 (2x) / Lowest Rank(s): #35 (1x), #36 (1x), #37 (1x)
Haggler is the next Hinterlands card with a boost. It's 7 ranks higher and more than 4 points better. But the disagreement is a little bit higher than last time.
Haggler is very good for building up engines with multiple components. It adds the Border Village effect to any card you wish and also gives $2, so you can be pretty sure to get two good cards if you play Haggler. And in the middle to end game you can use it as a pseudo Hoard to get a Gold for a Province or even a Platinum on Colony boards. With Haggler you don't necessarily need +Buys early, you even have to beware that you don't use your additional buy for a low-cost card, so you have to get an additional Copper. It is a good starter for any good engine, for example Hunting Party, so you can get one more Hunting Party for every bought Province. Haggler/Chapel is the #84 best opening.
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| #15 ▼5 Laboratory (Base) Weighted Average: 17.62 ▼4.84 / Median: 16 ▼5 / Mode: 13 ▼5 / Standard Deviation: 6.5 ▼0.4 Highest Rank(s): #2 (1x), #4 (2x) / Lowest Rank(s): #29 (2x), #30 (1x), #32 (1x)
Laboratory is the first card that was previously in the Top 10. It dropped 5 ranks and also nearly 5 points. It is 8 times in the Top 10.
Unlike Stables, like mentioned above, Laboratory is a good card in nearly every deck. It increases the hand size by one which is a often underrated benefit. And if you have multiple Laboratories in your deck you have a consistent Village+Smithy engine in your deck where it isn't possible to draw dead. So, it's a engine on its own and you best begin early to build it. Therefore it's no surprise Laboratory/Chapel is on #19 ▲15 in the openings list.
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| #14 ▼2 Vault (Prosperity) Weighted Average: 15.50 ▼1.49 / Median: 14 =0 / Mode: 12 ▲3 / Standard Deviation: 7.9 ▲0.5 Highest Rank(s): #5 (1x), #7 (5x) / Lowest Rank(s): #35 (1x), #38 (1x), #42 (1x)
Vault was 12 times in the Top 10, but that's not enough to reach the Top 10, because it has some very low ranks too. Therefore the deviation is still very high for this card.
The +2 Cards that make the difference between Secret Chamber and Vault are very important to make Vault a good card and Secret Chamber a weak one. With every play of Vault you are guaranteed a Gold or even better a Grand Market. And if you have a Gold in hand or draw one you can buy a Province for sure. This makes Vault a great counter to cursing attacks and is still great after you've gone green. No surprise your opponent has the chance to make his hand better too, because this effect is very strong. This effect makes it also a good card for Duke. Like Secret Chamber it's also good if you can draw your whole deck for example with Scrying Pool, discard all actions for a lot of money, just to draw all actions again with another Scrying Pool. Similar to this, it's great in Double Tactician decks. The downside of this card is that it's very vulnerable to discarding attacks. Although it shines in big decks with a lot of junk the #11 ▲1 opening Vault/Chapel shows its strength if you are able to play it every turn.
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| #13 ▲1 Embassy (Hinterlands) Weighted Average: 14.98 ▲1.93 / Median: 14 ▲2 / Mode: 14 ▼4 / Standard Deviation: 8.7 ▲0.6 Highest Rank(s): #4 (2x), #5 (2x) / Lowest Rank(s): #36 (1x), #41 (1x), #43 (1x)
Embassy has still a really high deviation. It was 15 times in the Top 10, still not enough for a rank in the Top 10 because of the many low ranks, including 2 big outliers below #40.
Embassy is a great Big Money card. An early Embassy is so good that your opponent gets a Silver for free. The mix of a terminal drawer and a Warehouse-like filter makes it that powerful. Yes, basically it's only +2 cards, but every time you play it, you can choose the best 6 cards out of 9 cards. Similiar to Envoy: If you have 5/2 and have the luck to draw it on turn 3, you may draw it in turn 4 and 5 again and will probably have already a huge lead, due to quick cycling. But it is also good in engines if you can guarantee to draw it with an action card. So just like Wharf it combos well with Fishing Village, it only misses the +Buy.
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| #12 ▲1 Margrave (Hinterlands) Weighted Average: 14.30 ▲0.20 / Median: 13 ▲1.5 / Mode: 15 ▲3 / Standard Deviation: 6.3 ▲3.2 Highest Rank(s): #2 (1x), #5 (1x), #7 (1x) / Lowest Rank(s): #31 (1x), #34 (1x), #36 (1x)
Margrave was 17 times in the Top 10 and even voted second once. It has a way better consensus this time. It is on #11 in the unweighted ranking.
Terminal drawers with +Buy are very strong as they tend to let you have many money in hand, more you often need for a Province. Council Room has the drawback of give your opponent another card, but Wharf is still to come in this list. Margrave gives you an additional discard attack. The discard attack itself is not as strong as Militia's or Goons' discard attack because your opponent may draw a card first. But the discard attack is still very strong. It's just like you play Council Room+Militia or Governor+Militia. Margrave is another good Big Money card. With $11 you can buy an additional Silver to your Province. And terminal draw and +Buy is all Fool's Gold needs. No surprise Margrave/Fool's Gold is the best opening on #135 ▲63. It's also a good addition to your engine, but you have to be careful to add not too many Margraves to your engine, because every time you play a Margrave your opponent has another chance to draw a hand like 2 Golds and a Silver to buy a Province himself.
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| #11 =0 Apprentice (Alchemy) Weighted Average: 13.81 ▼0.60 / Median: 14 =0 / Mode: 15 =0 / Standard Deviation: 6.9 ▼0.4 Highest Rank(s): #5 (1x), #6 (3x) / Lowest Rank(s): #27 (1x), #28 (1x), #45 (1x)
Apprentice is the last card before the Top 10 and before a big gap. It stayed on the same rank, but lost a little bit points. It has a really big outlier on fourth last, but beside of that vote there was none below #30. It is on #12 in the unweighted ranking.
Although you can use an early Apprentice to trash your Coppers, Apprentice epitomizes (just like Salvager) Trash-for-Benefit cards; because the benefit is huge. If you don't hesitate to trash e.g. a Gold to get 6! cards and draw at least a card with +Buy or a Gainer you can really fasten the game. With Apprentice+Hoard or Apprentice+Haggler you can buy a Province nearly every turn. It combos also nice with Border Village. And as being one of the strongest Trash-for-Benefit cards, I especially mention the danger in Possession games. Your opponent won't hesitate to trash a Province or even a Colony for drawing nearly your whole deck.
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