I would like to present a couple of recent games where the much-maligned smugglers played a key role.
The first is this:
http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20130104-120617-53af25f4.htmlAnd I include the following link to the video of the game, both because I happen have one, and more because it shows the masquerade passes:
cards in supply: Bazaar, Coppersmith, Duchess, Masquerade, Pawn, Rabble, Sea Hag, Smugglers, Spy, and Warehouse
Okay, what's going on here? Sea hag, but there's a masquerade counter. More than this, the board screams engine - masquerade is good for BM, but really it's even better for engines. And bazaar and rabble are both excellent engine cards, and we have pawn for +buy. Now, given that this is likely to be the match-up, Smugglers is really good here. Why? Well, I should be able to play it most turns once the engine is going, and I can get 2 engine pieces at a time. Bazaar is going to be really important for me - I need all those actions. And though my engine is a little wonky and won't quite gel right, he ahs similar problems, and I more or less get things to go to plan.
The second game is this one:
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201301/03/game-20130103-150452-bf844063.htmlcards in supply: Contraband, Cutpurse, Haven, Market, Merchant Ship, Mining Village, Navigator, Outpost, Smugglers, and Steward
So what's going on HERE? Well, again I see an engine - market gives excellent +buy, mining village will help hold things together, and steward gives me draw in a deck that's mostly going to be cantrips. Haven helps smooth me out. Outpost gives extra engine turns. Again, we're going to get a mirror. So I like smugglers again. If we skip ahead to about turn 13, we both have our engines set up pretty well and are ready to green. We've both been using smugglers to pretty good effect, and our decks are pretty similar, so the game is pretty even. In my turn 13, I come to a realization about this interesting little interaction between outpost and smugglers. So first of all, on your own turn OR a smugglers turn, you can smuggle things off of your opponent, from the same turn of his. So this helps you get extra very good smuggling in off a single smugglers (we're a little strapped for actions). But the realization here is that outpost can defend against smugglers - they can only smuggle stuff off of your outpost turn, not your 'main' turn. The game probably turns in turn 14. Between his main turn and his outpost turn, he cashes out, trading in all of his mining villages to get three provinces and a big lead (5 provinces to 2). However, this really cripples his deck, as he's out of villages. Now, normally such a lead will be too big anyway, but here's where smugglers comes in. He has a VERY hard time getting to 8 now, and so I can wait and get LOTS of duchies. He can get a couple as well, but my smugglers multiply my gains in comparison to his, so by turn 16, I am able to come back, cash out my own mining villages, take the lead and end it. Perhaps he should get estates rather than duchies to limit my smugglers, but it's a very difficult call to make.
This game was also a great one for haven - it lines up villages and such, and most importantly it can put my smugglers into a place where I can really use them most effectively.
