Of course I'm not the first to notice, there is a lot of math in Dominion. There's the obvious stuff like the average card value in your deck and probabilities and when to buy a Duke, on down to the little stuff like simply counting VP or the amount of coin in the deck. But it goes beyond this; much of the theoretical discussion amounts to full-fledged proofs of theorems (albeit usually rather informal) and the creativity that goes into them can be very impressive. And it's very obvious from many posters' diction and argument style that they have some training.
So I'm wondering, how many of the strong players here have a significant background in math or a related field (especially involving some proofs)? Do you think this background (or lack thereof) significantly affects your skill level?
If Donald X. is reading this thread I'd be very interested to hear his thoughts. I seem to remember hearing or inferring that he has some math background; if correct was this very influential in the design of Dominion and your other games?
For my part I have BS degrees in math and physics, but my Iso rating topped out somewhere around 27 (and is much lower now, but I'm less active), so I'm probably not the most interesting person to ask. I do feel like it's helpful, but it's easy to get carried away debating theory and forget that sometimes the clear-cut problems with cool pithy solutions are small potatoes.