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[mameluke]

I'd like to get the community's opinion on this truly strange card (I might try to write more about it later). As a mix between Envoy and Lab, it first seems pretty strong, but then pretty weak. It either works with a deck where having a lot of junk in your hand is good (rare?), or when your deck is pretty homogeneous, or at least doesn't have very many weak cards. In either case, you need a bunch of them, but at $4, it's not that hard to do. It's a support card, for sure: you can't draw your whole deck with them, and you don't want your $5s and $6s sitting in the discard pile the whole game, so make sure there's some other source of +cards.

For sure, the card is a lot stronger when you have certain cards in your hand at the beginning of your turn. If you're hoping to play an Advisor chain and then discard everything for money, you'd better hope you have your Secret Chamber already in hand. At the very least, Advisor decks make things.. interesting.

With a big nod to Nobles and Ironworks, this game provided an interesting combo with Minion: if your opponent makes you draw your weak cards, just play Minion for discard and (provided you don't reshuffle), your next four cards should be good. If not, well, continue as usual. Even if I wasn't attacking, Minion's +$2 and Advisor grabbing at least a copper made it easy to hit $8 every time. (* Maybe just going after only Minion is a better strategy, but I fell behind early and had an Ironworks, so..)

Works with:
-Cards where it is easy to gain $4: Ironworks, Talisman, Armory, Workshop
-Having a big hand is an advantage, even if it's a lot of junk: Secret Chamber, Vault, Cellar, Warehouse, Crossroads, Stables, Baron, Forge, Mercenary...
-Early trashers, to get rid of the junk in the first place
-Dense deck of solid action cards (although if you have nothing but Silvers in your deck, that will work too, but you might as well play Smithy if it's available)
-Other source of +cards

Doesn't work with:
-Any strategy that revolves around a few expensive cards: unless you are lucky enough to have it in hand at the beginning of your turn, your opponent will just discard it for you. Goons, Grand Market, Platinum, etc. are hard to amass when you've first picked them up, and playing Advisor will make sure you never see them.

Works awesome with:
Play 3 Mandarins, putting 3 Tunnels on top of your deck. Then play this.

What do you think? Thoughts of combos with this card? Any good games with Advisor?

[DG]

The advisor cycles your deck quickly. This is good on the way up and bad on the way down. Make the most of the good times.

VP chips are better friends to the advisor than VP cards.

You can sort out the advisor's problems by trashing your junk, adding masses of average cards, or drawing through your whole deck and then the discard pile again. This all needs some work and needs to be part of a cohesive strategy rather than just a solution to advisor's problems. You can still find your solution cards are discarded by your opponent so, similarly to contraband, advisor undermines the solutions to its own problems. If you can put cheap solutions together with expensive power cards however it makes the decisions more difficult for your opponent - whether to discard a cellar or gold perhaps.

Theoretically advisors create a good discard pile so you could shuffle it up to form a good draw deck for next turn. I bet that's more theoretical than practical.

[jsh357]

I have found Advisor to be very powerful as support with other nonterminal draw.  Thin down the remaining deck, draw the good stuff with your better draw cards.  It's certainly not a terrible card, just bad if it's your only source of draw and you need specific cards in hand.

[BMan]

Advisor = strictly inferior lab. But easier to get.
It clashes horribly with untrimmed decks and Cornucopia.
Advisor + chapel = love at first sight.

[scott_pilgrim]

Works awesome with:
Play 3 Mandarins, putting 3 Tunnels on top of your deck. Then play this.

That's a lot of set-up just to gain one gold.

[HiveMindEmulator]

I doubt there is a Minion synergy since Minion doesn't really care about hand-size increasing.

I think Advisor is good in most well-trashed decks, since you don't really have to take "junk" into your hand. If all your cards are at least a little good, drawing 2 of them is usually a pretty good effect for a $4 card.

[blueblimp]

Other than trashing, Advisor loves spammable cantrips most of all. If you draw three Pearl Divers, it doesn't matter which one your opponent chooses to discard.

[Davio]

A silverflooded deck with Advisor/Trader is probably decent, lacking any other good drawer.
Look at it this way, if Advisor gets you $2 worth of treasures, it's a cycling Silver.
Having too many bad cards just turns it into Scout.

[mameluke]

Works awesome with:
Play 3 Mandarins, putting 3 Tunnels on top of your deck. Then play this.

That's a lot of set-up just to gain one gold.

My comment was definitely a silly joke, but I love the image.

I guess, like Envoy, this is one to be careful with when Possession is on the board (with 2-player only).

Re: Minion--no, Minion probably prefers small handsizes, but Minion DOES like discarding junk to get to a better hand.

[Warfreak2]

Minion doesn't have any synergy at all with Advisor; if you don't shuffle, then Advisor isn't removing junk from the part of your deck you are drawing from. If you do shuffle, Minion discards your hand before drawing anyway, none of that junk misses a reshuffle. Minion doesn't particularly "like" discarding a big hand full of junk; it likes playing a bunch of actions for virtual money, and then discarding the remaining junk, preferably nothing.

[mameluke]

Minion doesn't have any synergy at all with Advisor; if you don't shuffle, then Advisor isn't removing junk from the part of your deck you are drawing from. If you do shuffle, Minion discards your hand before drawing anyway, none of that junk misses a reshuffle. Minion doesn't particularly "like" discarding a big hand full of junk; it likes playing a bunch of actions for virtual money, and then discarding the remaining junk, preferably nothing.

I agree with this. I already made the reshuffling point above. Your ideal Minion deck is a bunch of Fishing Villages and Conspirators and whatnot, but if those cards aren't around and there's no trashing, and you lose the Minion split, Advisor makes a good addition to some Minions. Too often we make too much around here about the perfect kingdom for whatever card when in reality it comes around a lot less than we'd like. I think there are a number of cards that help when you are flailing around, trying to make a comeback because you're playing in less than ideal conditions.

[Robz888]

So, I'm finding that Advisor is best in situations where your opponent doesn't know what you are trying to do this turn, AND there are a couple different things you COULD be trying to do. What do I mean? Well, let's say you reveal Estate/Curse/Silver. Normally, your opponent would deny you Silver, and how great, Advisor just drew you crap. But hey, maybe you have a Trade Route in hand and you are just trying to get rid of your junk. Or maybe you have Crossroad, and you would really rather draw the Estate than the Silver. So, I think Advisor is best when it's an open question to your opponent what you are trying to do. If you draw like Estate/Silver/Laboratory, and your opponent knows what you are doing really and just blocks Lab, then okay, Advisor isn't so great (though still not bad) just a non-terminal Silver with a bit of deck filtering.

So I'm finding it to be a nice card in those situations, but much less good if your strategy is straightforward.

[Warfreak2]

just a non-terminal Silver with a bit of deck filtering

Not quite; you skipped over that Laboratory.

[Just a Rube]

From a less strategic level, it can be great to mess with your opponent's head. That's the most fun part of most of these opponent chooses cards (envoy, contaband and now advisor).

"I know what you're thinking. 'Did he have five money or only four?' Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement I kind of lost track myself. But being as this is a Contraband, the most powerful card in Dominion*, and would buy that last province, you've got to ask yourself one question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?"

*slight exaggeration

[A Drowned Kernel]

One thought I've had is whether Advisor might work to get a pseudo-sifter, Inn type effect. Play a bunch of advisors, your opponent makes you discard all your good cards, trigger a mid-turn reshuffle, now all your good cards are in your deck and your junk is in your discard. Probably not strong enough to base a whole strategy around but might be a nice perk if you're getting advisor anyway.

In my experience Advisor seems to work well with moderate strength engines, where you have light to no trashing and the ability to pick up a lot of mid-power engine cards, and where your opponent doesn't always know what to make you discard. I've definitely had people deny me a terminal I wouldn't have been able to play anyway and let me keep a much-needed Necropolis.

EDIT: There's also the interesting point when you don't know whether to let your opponent keep another advisor vs. a power card. Will that next advisor draw crap or will their engine snowball because of it?

[Awaclus]

just a non-terminal Silver with a bit of deck filtering

Not quite; you skipped over that Laboratory.

That's deck filtering.

[Warfreak2]

In that case, you can also get some filtering from your opponent's Spies and Oracles.

[Davio]

In my experience Advisor seems to work well with moderate strength engines, where you have light to no trashing and the ability to pick up a lot of mid-power engine cards, and where your opponent doesn't always know what to make you discard. I've definitely had people deny me a terminal I wouldn't have been able to play anyway and let me keep a much-needed Necropolis.

Well, you could always play that terminal, but I guess you had a terminal already in hand you wanted to play.

[GeronimoRex]

Advisor deck works great with Herald... if your opponent discards all your best cards, you overpay Herald to set up your next turn, since you've just seen all your good stuff go in the discard pile.