This is just a short piece.
There are two very good articles about Jack.
Here is the basic strategy article:
http://dominionstrategy.com/2011/12/05/hinterlands-jack-of-all-trades/Here is the "Truth" about Jack:
http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=2634.0And this comment on the main article talks about some of the key Jack combos:
http://dominionstrategy.com/2011/12/05/hinterlands-jack-of-all-trades/#comment-8360But I've haven't seen this one mentioned anywhere, but it was obvious when I saw it: Warehouse.
In fact, Warehouse is such a good compliment to Jack, it replaces the need for a full Jack.
Using G's simulator I ran the optimized Jack bot against a bot that replaced a single silver buy with a Warehouse.
The Warehouse-Jack bot wins about 55-39.
There is a lot of leeway. The odds do not change significantly if you do any of the following:
- Buy one warehouse or two
- Buy one Jack or two
Why this works makes a lot of intuitive sense. Jack lets you draw up to 5 cards - so any cards discarded with Warehouse 'don't count' if you can get to a Jack. And Warehouse lets you sift through your deck faster to get the your Jack(s). You end up playing Jack more often - getting more silvers. And warehouse lets you skip by the coppers - so you can pretty easily draw hands of the $8 you need for a province.
Note that playing this takes a little bit of finesse.
You want to control your warehouse plays so that you get to play your Jacks as much as possible, and watching the re-shuffles. You also have the ability to discard the top card or not with Jack - which you can also use to manage your re-shuffles and your $s per hand. I'm betting the bot doesn't do that very well.
At the start of the game you want to not only ensure you get a Jack in your hand, but you also want an Estate (a single Estate) so the Jack can trash it. Later on you want to discard the greens and copper so you are just drawing all those silver.
You likely don't want more than 2 Jacks or 2 Warehouses due to the danger of drawing them after playing Jack (Before doesn't matter as you just keep sifting)
Here is the game I played today that inspired this short write-up:
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201211/03/game-20121103-165342-deace913.htmlEd
