I am going to offer a newb's perspective on this. I thought it might be interesting to read how a neophyte digests an article like this (on the other hand it might not be, if you aren't interested in a completely uneducated opinion, skip this post).
The reason I think it might be interesting is you guys are all writing to an audience. That audience, often includes newbs like me, and so it might be worthwhile to read their reaction to it. I am not here to debate, you're all far more educated than me with this game, I am here merely to reflect what the uneducated can mine from an article such as this.
ARTICLE STRUCTURE There was some commentary about the article's structure, particularly the use of "tiers". As a newb, I like articles like this. Newbies are craving analysis of cards, and not just one card, but an examination of a collection of cards and comparing them and contrasting them is precisely the type of reading we seek. In many ways its the "basics" we seek, the more elite strategies and the discussion of simulators or refining a particular strategy are still largely over our head.
A more general comparison of Ambassador vs. Chapel however is something we understand. We find ourselves in games with a 4/3 split with Ambassador and Chapel on the board and unsure which one is better. I know that answer can often be contextual, but still, a basic read of a group of cards over another is really useful to us.
ChapelEveryone knows about chapel. It kind of transcends all lists of anything.
It's my favorite card of the game. In games where you can "draft" the board, I always pick Chapel first. I love density, I obsess over it too much, because it pleases me to count cards and density enables that.
I have never seen a situation in which more than one Chapel was needed though and I always grab a silver on the second turn when I buy Chapel, and a second silver after the second shuffle (on the hand that does not produce a Chapel of course).
It works for me, I'd say in games against another new players on Isotropic or BoardGameArena, I win most often with Chapel on the board. I think because newer players think trashing is counter-intuitive. In fact, I've learned to hate copper and obsess a lot about trashing it or upgrading it (I love Mine), probably to my detriment.
Ambassador -If you glance through the rest of this list, you’ll see that practically all of the cards either attack or trash. Ambassador does both!
I have now had two games using Ambassador based on this article. I won one, lost the other. The one I lost was because I gravitated to Ambassador INSTEAD of Chapel on turn 1. Chapel was just faster at trashing, slimming and enabling a dense deck with lots of money in it.
In the other game, I did really well. It was one of those games where my use of Ambassador was so effective, the opponent wound up buying the card later on to counter it. By then it was too late. This article got me a win on Isotropic in other words, so I am very grateful for it.
Masquerade Masquerade offers a slightly different approach to opening than ambassador. While ambassador is for slow games, masquerade is astoundingly fast. Drawing 2 cards and trashing 1 gives a lot of cycling power
I've tried Masquerade a few times. Against good players, they seem to see I've picked it early and it never bothers them. It seems to slow (and a little random) to really hurt them. Against weaker opponents, I've had some success with Masquerade, my beef with the card is it is a rather slow trasher, I often wind up with two cards in my hand (after passing one) that I'd like to trash, but can only trash one.
My terribly uninformed opinion, believes this card is ranked too high.
Sea HagWhen you first start playing dominion, the cards that excite you are the ones that do cool things for your deck. But then you run into sea hag. Sea hag does absolutely nothing for your deck, yet is still one of the strongest opening terminals in the game.
I hate this card and veto it when I get the chance. I am not that found of curse attacks, but I of course play them when they are on the board, because I find curse cards are an arms race. Sea Hag infuriates me, because its an arms rate with no other real benefit.
I find games with Sea Hag in them are slooooooooooow and since I love density, I have to abandon my favorite way to play and embrace a "game of junk" that takes over 20 turns to finish. I can see its a great card, but I still hate it. Do other players have emotional reaction to cards like I do? Has it adversely affected their game (as it does with mine)?
Young Witch
Yet to play a game with this card, no comment.
SalvagerSalvager is one of my favorite opening terminals, because it is one of the few that retains its usefulness into late game.
I love this card. I would rank it as one of the best in the game. I never hesitate to buy it as soon as I can. Am I wrong?
Remake - There are some strategies that involve heavy remaking all game, but even outside of those, remake is a very strong opener.
Meh. I like trashers but its the "exactly +1" constraint that puts me off. I like how I just get a trash when there is no "exactly +1, but so often there's some crappy card that is "exactly +1" that stops the trashing in the later game. If its the only trasher in the game, I'll grab it, but otherwise I do not like this card much.
Militia
Militia is the standard hand-size reduction attack. Hand-size reduction is a nice kind of attack, because it scales well as the game goes on.
I don't sweat Militia much. I really don't. I never buy it. It's a good card, but I don't like it at as an opening buy (there's usually something better) and while sometimes Militia slows me down, I rarely find the attack utterly devastating.
Cutpurse
Never played with this card, no comment.
Swindler Swindler is a kind of swingy card, as its attack can range from actually helping your opponent (discard an estate from the top of their deck) to completely killing them (turn their witch into a duchy).
This is a stupid card, that I never buy. The thing is though, its burned me more than a few times. So maybe it isn't that stupid? To me, its just too random to be effective, but when luck strikes I curse this damn card. I swear I'll never buy it though, just out of spite.
BishopBishop is kind of a hard card to rate. It can net you a healthy pile of VP chips, but it doesn’t offer much in the way of purchasing power, and it helps your opponents slim their decks.
I like this card the late middle rounds, when the game is close. I've noticed a lot of games can come down to +/- two victory points and this situation is evident as the rounds progress. In those "tight" games, I might buy it in hopes it can help me get past a tie-break. I often try to focus on getting 7 points ahead, so the opponent must do more than buy the last province to win. Sometimes they can do that of course, but I continually try to get to that position as the mid-game progresses to the end-game and this card might get me there?
How awful is my reaction to this card I wonder? Because I have to confess, its not a good card, it just seems like a compelling way to try and bust out of a very close game.
Monument
Monument is the only card on this list that neither trashes nor attacks, and it may not come to mind immediately when you think of strong openings, but it’s a pretty good choice for an opening terminal even if you’re not going for some sort of mass monument strategy.
Meh. I have no use for this card. What am I missing?
Steward
Actually, this is a bit low for steward -- it probably belongs above bishop and monument, and is potentially competitive with the attacks, depending on how crucial trashing is to your strategy. But thematically it falls down here.
LOVE this card! I use it to trash early and use it to gain an extra card later on, if its really late (and the victory cards are ruining my money density), then I just use the +2 (mid-game though +2 card is almost always worth more than 2 gold).
Great versatile card to my eyes, especially early in the game.
Moneylender
Moneylender is a nice trasher because, like masquerade or salvager, it allows you to trash without cannibalizing your turn. However, it’s trashing ability is pretty lackluster.
Here's what I'll say about Moneylender. In neophyte games, money is most-often your avenue to victory. Newer players tend to focus on +card +action cards, focus on developing an engine. It takes them (usually) at least 7 or 8 turns to really get their engine going and THEN they focus on money.
This card often lets me race ahead with a tighter, denser deck full of cash. I like getting two provinces under my belt...while my opponent is still drawing 5$ a turn. I get into this position a lot and it serves me well. I'll agree there's lots of other cards better than it, but I'll tell you, this card is always appealing to me in turn 1, almost always. If there is no Mine, no Chapel or other good trasher, I'm probably buying it.
Island
Technically it’s not a trasher (hence the quotes in the tier name), but Island does remove a card from your deck. You can (kind of) think of an early island as a one-shot bishop that gives one more VP, one less coin and no benefit to your opponent.
My reaction to Island is "meh".
Sorry my comments are so clearly uninformed...but to the author and others I thought you might get a kick out of how the "rabble" out there react to an article like this.