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[brokoli]

Chancellor, Scheme, Gardens, Monument, Nomad Camp, Plaza, Cultist, Treasury, Tribute, Goons

So this is an interesting board I think. There is cultist and goons at the same time with a village, but also gardens...
I decided to go for plaza-cultist, then take a goons but it didn't work at all... (I haven't even been able to reach $6). Maybe the best strategy is to go for a slog, with gardens ? I still don't know. I thought a cultist chain with plaza ans scheme would work well for the deck cycling...

Also, it was a 3 player game.

[Awaclus]

I think I would go Cultist/Goons, too, with Monument/Silver opening and get some Plazas and Silvers whenever I can't get a Cultist or a Goons. I would skip Schemes in the early game, though, maybe get them later.

[DG]

I'd written something long and detailed and lost it so the short of it was ... goons based deck keeping options for playing it compact or large based on opponent's play. Schemes, treasuries, and plazas might be good goons enablers but they work badly under the discard attack so you need to focus carefully on what you need from these cards. Copper can be a bad card in 3 card hands. The only sort of cultist deck you want here would be pure cultist and treasures.

[Fragasnap]

Firstly, I don't know what Plaza does except that it's a Village: I want to be surprised when I get Guilds so I only know the general characteristics and costs of the cards. Plaza probably has some cool effect other than being a Village that could possibly change my analysis.

The Ruins from Cultist without trashing makes multi-Goons turns pretty difficult to pull off.

Goons is always good, even more so with Scheme/Gardens since you can get more +Buys and +VPs from Goons by scheming it and more cards for Gardens from that. Also, because Goons is on the table, this game is probably going to end on piles.

I'd grab a Nomad Camp to start with, get Goons if I could later, and would ignore Cultist. I don't think Ruins hurt Gardens enough so much as activates them, and with a source of +Buy in Nomad Camp and Goons I don't think you'd be able to beat it, particularly if both other players go for Cultists.
I wouldn't transition into a Gardens strategy until someone commits with Cultist. Once someone does, the Gardens-split becomes very important if either of your opponents see it. If no one bites on Cultist, you'd probably want to go for as much an engine as you can with Scheme, Plaza, Treasury, and Goons. Managing a Nomad Camp/Treasury opening wouldn't be great for Gardens, but it could help some 3-card hands once the other players start throwing Goons around.
If both players go for Cultists, the Cultist pile will likely empty, so rushing the Gardens pile would be immediately important since that will be the third pile after the Ruins are handed out.

[Powerman]

Definitely depends on what your opponent(s) do.  I don't think multiple people will be able to build any kind of a decent engine.  Assuming your opponent(s) skip the engine, it is pretty easy to build and will win easily.  Buy ~2 silvers only (hopefully) then schemes on 3.  Plazas on 4.  Cultist on 5.  Goons on 6.  Add in an occasional Tribute if you're low on actions.  If neither gets a Goons, adding a single Treasury early will help greatly.

If one of the two goes engine, you won't be able to build a good engine.  I'd go pretty much Cultist-BM, but favor Gardens even pretty early on exactly 4.

If both go for engines, I think you should be able to win by going pretty much Garden rush, maybe a Cultist or two, but even that seems superfluous.

Definitely you have the best odds if you are the only engine player.

[eHalcyon]

I favour Goons but would be wary of using Cultist. If you play it on me, I slog with Goons and Gardens and thank you for feeding me more cards and emptying another pile. Granted, maybe you can pull off a Goons mega turn if I don't loot you back.

[brokoli]

I still don't see how you can play multiple goons without any source of draw, above all in a kingdom with no trashing...

I'd written something long and detailed and lost it

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The only sort of cultist deck you want here would be pure cultist and treasures.

Can you explain more ?

[eHalcyon]

Cultist is draw, brokoli.

[brokoli]

This is not what I meant 
I know cultist is draw, but if you ignore cultist (therefore draw), how can you play a viable goons engine ?

[DG]

Ok lets look at this a bit further. If two players takes cultists then the ruins split is going to look something like 5-5-10. That isn't going to provide a winning foundation. Ruins do less damage than curses anyway, boost gardens, and might get discarded if people play goons a lot. That sort of ruins split will kill off any draw engines entirely and so the cultists are probably going to distract your deck from doing better things.

If just one player takes cultists then the opponents are presumably doing some goons stuff. Two players will get through the gardens stack quickly and there will be a lot of 3 card hands. This will work against converting a cultist deck into a mixed draw deck with expensive components and the +2 cards from the cultist isn't enough for an engine (cultists always seems more likely to make a chain when you've got no actions left, although the maths might not back that up). This leaves the option of just running cultists as labs with treasure to buy provinces while the opponents fight over gardens . The better gardener might score 6x4 for gardens with some duchies, estates, and 10vp chips, so 45 vp maybe? That's achievable with provinces perhaps.

If none of the players take cultists then you might be left with a goons game where you can try make a deck with some quality before letting it slide into an inevitable late garden/duchy rush. The gardens split will not decide the game if it's 5-4-3 so you need good scoring elsewhere.

[soulnet]

Goons/Gardens slog seems pretty good to me, but its defintively a game to adapt to your opponents AND your draws.