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[A Drowned Kernel]

Getting pinned by Torturer is one of the most painful experiences in Dominion, and one way to counter it is with another good curser. A Witch or Sea Hag will more reliably put curses in your opponent's deck than a Torturer, and the fact that they will get curses in their deck quicker means that the Torturer chains will be harder to pull off. As long as they don't get a multi-Torturer turn off too quickly, you'll quite likely win the curse split.

An interesting question is how this equation changes with Cultist and Marauder. One the one hand, these cards give you better benefits relative to their cost than other cursers, and multiple Cultists can flood an opponents deck with ruins very quickly. In most cases, ruins do as good a job as curses at clogging an engine, so Cultist in particular might actually be better than a conventional curses at stopping a Torturer chain in its tracks. However, you have to deal with the fact that you're not draining the curse pile- if you give your opponent all the ruins and they give you all the curses, unless you've gotten a substantial lead in the process then you've gotten the worse end of the deal. So how often can the two attacking looters give out ruins fast enough to block Torturer (assuming that the board is otherwise good for Torturer- if there's no way to play multi-Torturer turns then the looters are just going to own them).

In this game my opponent focuses heavily on Torturers, while I only buy a couple (but I still buy them), and also pick up some Cultists. By the time he resigned, the ruins pile was empty and only half the curses had been taken (most of them by him). A key issue here, though, was that the only village on this board was Shanty Town, one of the few cards that is hurt more by ruins than by curses.

http://dom.retrobox.eu/?/20130425/log.51102f16e4b0fb53a9f92227.1366921936603.txt#Game Over

Thoughts?

[math]

I think you have the wrong link in your post; it leads to a game that doesn't include Torturer.

I was your opponent in that game.  The ruins definitely slowed down my engine, but the biggest factor (from what I could see) wasn't Cultist; it was Scheme+Moat.  I didn't buy any Moats, while you bought several, and used them quite effectively.  There were two turns where I played 3 or more Torturers in one turn, but you blocked them all with Moat.  You then played Shanty Town, some Schemes, and the Moat and returned the Moat to your next hand.  I didn't see the potential there until you had already bought several Moats and Schemes to add to your engine.  I actually ended up taking more curses than you did, because I didn't have any Moats and you did.

If I am remembering correctly, there was only one turn in that game where you played two Cultists.  I don't know how effective the Cultists would have been without the Scheme-Moat interaction.

[soulnet]

If I am remembering correctly, there was only one turn in that game where you played two Cultists.  I don't know how effective the Cultists would have been without the Scheme-Moat interaction.

I've never experienced that, but Scheme seems like it would be a pretty good addition to a Cultist deck, even without the Moat. Scheme is nice with Sea Hag or Witch to avoid buying the second one and avoiding the collisions. With Cultist is the opposite, Scheme helps you make them collide.