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[unlinked]

So I was glancing at a list of the cards and began wondering how easy it would be to get the Philosopher's Stone worth anything consistently and played consistently.

Thought to myself, "Hebalist will set it back for my next hand and it comes with an extra Buy to inflate my deck. Cool, now how do I play the Herbalist consistently. . . Scheme! Awesome no how can I play both every turn. . . Golem."

So I sat down to play a few Solitaire games. Here are a few things I learned.
1. Only buy one of each card, it won't work otherwise.
2. It really takes a few turns to get the Philosoper's Stone worth anything. (Got it worth 6 at the very end of the game)
3. Some of the boards I play had some really good cards that may have had better strategies.
4. Once the combo is working it works like a gem!

In my solitaire game I bought 8 Povinces in 18, 20 and 25 28 turns the three games I play like this. So a two player game would have been a few turns shorter. I can post the logs tomorrow if any one is interested (They are on my computer and I am on my phone).

Is there anything that might make this better?

[Powerman]

Herbalist-PStone is probably as strong or stronger than diverting your resources. 

http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/index.php/Combo:_Philosopher%27s_Stone_and_Herbalist

[ftl]

Nah, its seems reasonable. When you have golem/scheme/herbalist/Pstone, go for it. Herbalist-Pstone is good as it is, and then you might as well add in schemes instead of herbalists, and since you have potions anyway there's little opportunity cost to a golem.

No, I expect the golem/scheme combo to improve pstone/herbalist reasonably.

[TWoos]

So I sat down to play a few Solitaire games. Here are a few things I learned.
1. Only buy one of each card, it won't work otherwise.

You can purchase multiple Golem.  It ignores itself, so you'll always find Scheme and Herbalist.

EDIT: Which is useful to note for other Golem-using decks.  This one only needs one.

 

[SirPeebles]

You would also only want a single Herbalist and single Scheme.  Having a single Herbalist could slow you down a little before your Golem gets going.  There is also the fear of drawing your Herbalist in your hand alongside Golem.  But given that 2 of the 5 slots are filled with Golem and Potion/Pstone, and furthermore that your deck is bloated, it is probably a rather rare occurrence.  Neat.

Fast cycling Pstone deck ever?

[Jimmmmm]

There is also the fear of drawing your Herbalist in your hand alongside Golem.

As long as you don't have the Scheme in hand as well, you're fine. I think a potential problem with this is that once you're Goleming every turn it could take ages for the Stone to turn up in your hand since you're discarding it every turn. Maybe because of that it's best not too buy too many Coppers and stuff until you've got everything lined up? Another question, do you buy more Stones/Golds with spare non-$8 buys to try to build up to $13 or $16 or do you just go straight for the Duchies and Estates?

[ipofanes]

You would also only want a single Herbalist and single Scheme.  Having a single Herbalist could slow you down a little before your Golem gets going.  There is also the fear of drawing your Herbalist in your hand alongside Golem.  But given that 2 of the 5 slots are filled with Golem and Potion/Pstone, and furthermore that your deck is bloated, it is probably a rather rare occurrence.  Neat.

Fast cycling Pstone deck ever?

Also, as you have in hand what you need rather consistently, you need not fear that the extra coppers you buy dilute your deck.

[unlinked]

There is also the fear of drawing your Herbalist in your hand alongside Golem.

As long as you don't have the Scheme in hand as well, you're fine. I think a potential problem with this is that once you're Goleming every turn it could take ages for the Stone to turn up in your hand since you're discarding it every turn. Maybe because of that it's best not too buy too many Coppers and stuff until you've got everything lined up? Another question, do you buy more Stones/Golds with spare non-$8 buys to try to build up to $13 or $16 or do you just go straight for the Duchies and Estates?

I thought the same thing and what if the Scheme showed up in my hand or the Herbalist for that matter. Well if it is Scheme play that first then the Golem, you'll still be able to top deck the Golem. If it was the Herbalist in my hand then play the Golem first it finds the Scheme and gives you the action to play the Herbalist. The longest of the games I played were when I bought Duchies/Estates. You want Gold and other PStones, because the PStone takes its time to be worth anything buy (if using both Herbalist buys every turn it increases its value $1 every 2.5 turns).

[Qvist]

I played around with this and I'm not convinced. Normally you buy a lot of Herbalists because you don't want care that much about terminal collision.
Scheme is a nice replacement because this guarantees better a Herbalist in each hand.

But the Golem, when do you want to buy it? You still want a lot of PStones. I'm not sure if it is a wise choice to prefer Golem over PS. I'm pretty sure that gainers are even preferable at the start because you want to want to be the Stones worth a lot. So Horn of Plenty is a nice addition if you get to $5 early and so is Ironworks. I couldn't play it fast enough with a Golem in my deck. Maybe anyone can provide me a log?

[ipofanes]

I played around with this and I'm not convinced. Normally you buy a lot of Herbalists because you don't want care that much about terminal collision.
Scheme is a nice replacement because this guarantees better a Herbalist in each hand.

But the Golem, when do you want to buy it? You still want a lot of PStones. I'm not sure if it is a wise choice to prefer Golem over PS. I'm pretty sure that gainers are even preferable at the start because you want to want to be the Stones worth a lot. So Horn of Plenty is a nice addition if you get to $5 early and so is Ironworks. I couldn't play it fast enough with a Golem in my deck. Maybe anyone can provide me a log?

Horn of Plenty doesn't disturb your Golem pickups. If you rush towards as many cards as possible with HoP and Contraband (granted, that would be the fifth card in the combo), one PhilStone should be plenty.

[unlinked]

Here are the first three games I played.

http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201302/06/game-20130206-084343-a58eb111.html

http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201302/06/game-20130206-091201-3219c3f7.html

http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201302/06/game-20130206-091726-58ee0a7c.html

[Qvist]

How do you get Double Province turns with one PStone? I mean it sounds great.
Golem to find Scheme Herbalist and then play Scheme and Herbalist from hand and 2 Phil Stones for 3 buys and hopefully a lot of money.
But I couldn't get it work. It was way too slow.

Edit: Ok, I got it now. But you have be really lucky with your draws and I was once $1 short for Double Province.
http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201302/07/game-20130207-063403-73cbe4a9.html

[unlinked]

Yeah I wasn't able to Double Province. Province/Gold was my best buy.