Chancellor is one of the most unloved cards in Dominion. It's bought less than any other Kingdom card on Isotropic, a mere 13 percent of the time, only Diadem is picked up less often and Prizes don't count. It's a terminal silver with an ability that looks like it takes an expert to use well, but even experts don't like it much, as evidenced by its #1 spot in the Worst $3 Cards list. And even as I've tried to defend it from time to time, I have to admit it is in fact one of the weakest cards around, more or less completely silly in the presence of good trashing, and prone to providing not much help.
But surely we can find examples of Chancellor working? Surely there are boards beyond just the Chancellor/Stash combo where going for Chancellor is worth it, where it actually provides that early tempo boost that helps you win? Let's see some examples.
I'll start with a game from a couple days ago:
http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20110919-225154-6ecb98d6.htmlMy thinking was: hey, Mountebank is the key card here, and Cities will be nice since the Curses are probably running out. And there's not much trashing. So hey, pick up a Chancellor for the early tempo boost and try to exploit the variance. My first Chancellor doesn't do much, as it falls on Turn 4. But then it comes up on Turn 5, right after the reshuffle, and I go Mint instead of Gold for the one-shot trashing (important with Mountebank!). Turn 9 is also a good example of Chancellor working out, and I absolutely credit the use of these two normally-substandard cards, Chancellor and Mint, with giving me the tempo advantage necessary to grab most of the Cities, and the game's only Colony.
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So. When have you all used Chancellor to good effect?