James Sitz
United States
Illinois
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A Buyer’s Guide to Expanded Dominion
If you’re looking for a review, I already wrote one for Intrigue awhile back. But I realize at this point that I’m horribly biased. I love Dominion.
Instead, this is going to be a survey of the entire buying phase. Playing the cards in this game is pretty straightforward. It’s not quite as simple as War, but it’s a far cry from Magic: The Gathering or even Pinochle. How you manage your buys is really the meat of the game. If you regularly have to decide between playing 2 or 3 action cards in a turn, you’re doing it wrong.
Not only will I discuss all 78 Kingdom cards, but I will discuss the other cards that are always present in the supply. Instead of dividing them up by expansion or alphabet only, I will instead arrange them by price. (My undergraduate degree was in economics, so I tend to think in those terms when the prices are as concrete and visible as they are here). Instead of giving an arbitrary numeric rating to each card, I will describe when a certain card is useful, which cards work well with it, which cards don’t work well with it, which cards it’s useful against, and whether it’s worth taking in massive quantities- [does it combo well with itself?]
A disclaimer: I’m not claiming to be the best 1v1 player ever or anything. I’ve never actually played on BrettSpielWelt. I was playing about 20 games of it a week immediately after Seaside was released, and just love mixing the base game with the expansions. I play 2, 3, and 4 player games about equally, with people ranging greatly in terms of age, game-playing experience, and mathematical aptitude. I tend to win a majority of these games, but I admit that I have not sought high level competition outside my circle of friends and family. This is more a collection of my intuition and understanding of the various kingdom cards after at least 120 plays over the last 8 months. (I don’t keep track exactly, I just play and enjoy it)!
All right, here it goes!
[This will assume that you have all three sets. If you do not, I’ll soon get to color-coding all references to cards based on their set, to make this more useful]. Obviously, cards common to all games will be black.
0 Coins
Copper (Treasure)
A common question among new players is, “Really?! Why does it cost nothing?” Here’s the answer: because that’s how much it’s worth. Coppers are bad. The only thing worse than drawing copper is drawing a curse. At least if you’ve got 5 Duchies and Provinces in your hand you know that you’re probably winning. [Okay, I lied- dead actions are pretty bad too, but coppers still aren’t something to strive toward!]
I think one reason the designers probably made copper free is also to prevent situations where the Thief or Pirate Ship could make it completely impossible to buy anything. It’s sort of a fail-safe mechanism.
When to buy: Fight that urge to use your extra buys on copper. The only time I would suggest buying copper (and buying a lot of it) is when you’re running a Gardens strategy [more on that later]. Coppersmith, maybe?
Curse (Curse)
Curses just kill your deck’s efficiency. The negative victory point each just rubs salt in the wound. Be aware of any cards that hand out curses in the kingdom piles. You usually don’t want to be the last person to jump on the bandwagon.
When to buy: There are only a few scenarios that I can think of where anyone would actually buy a curse. If there’s just one left, and it’ll end the game, you might buy it to kill the last supply pile to win the game. If you’ve got Ambassadors in your deck, and there’s no other cards that give curses out, you might buy one to be cute. I think I’ve only seen it happen once.
How to deal with them: As I said, you often want to be the first one to buy the cards that hand out curses, but once they’re in your deck, look for cards that either trash cards (Steward, Chapel, Remodel, Upgrade, Masquerade, Salvager, Lookout, Trading Post), give them to others (Ambassador, Masquerade), or simply plow through them by discarding chaff (Cellar, Secret Chamber, Warehouse) or by just drawing a ton of cards (Council Room, Smithy, etc...)
1 Coin
There aren’t any. I have a feeling that there won’t ever be any. But I could be wrong.
2 Coins
You should almost never be purchasing many 2-coin cards in a game. Silver is better. Pretty much anything is better. If you’re making your deck properly, you shouldn’t find yourself at 2 coins very often. When you have a + buy and you’re sitting on 7 coins, it can be pretty awesome to get a nice 5-coin card and one of these, but you should also consider just grabbing the Gold and forfeiting your extra buy and coin.
Cellar (Action)
A very popular card among new players, there’s a reason this card is in the “first game” set. It’s just great at fixing terrible draws. Unless you already have around 10 cards in your hand, discard other Cellars if you’ve got more than one. Discard coppers, victory points [curses or positive ones], most of the time as well. I almost always pick up at least one or two Cellars when it’s around- it's one of my favorite 2 cost cards.
Works well with: Other cards that give + Cards and + actions. Drawing more cards gives you more for Cellar to discard and get to what you want. Cellar is cool early game to help cycle through your deck and avoid the Estates, but it’s also nice late game when you’re picking up Provinces.
Doesn’t play particularly well with: Straight card draws played first. If you’ve got a number of Smithies, Council Rooms, Moats, Witches, etc... without +2 Actions cards, you’ll tire of having junk like Cellars in your hand.
Chapel (Action)
Anyone who thinks that Intrigue or Seaside are tougher on new players than the base game are conveniently forgetting the power of Chapel. This is easily the most frequently undervalued card among new players, who think the game is largely about adding tons of cool actions to your deck. “Why would I ever want to just trash a card and get nothing in return?” they say- I made that same mistake when I started out. Much as I began to explain in the copper section, thinning the junk out of your deck and then improving your buying power via other cards is often a strong strategy. Chapel is awesome even if there are no cursers out there (which seems to be the most straightforward and thematically intended use of Chapel).
Countering Chapel: Mess with them! Attack, attack, attack. Masquerade them so they have to pass you their hard-earned Gold or Provinces. Try a strategy that starts out quicker without the initial slowdown phase, like using Baron or Moneylender. Or just copy them. Overall, I find that chapel doesn’t seem nearly as dominant in multiplayer games as it does in heads -up. So just get more friends... who don’t use Chapels.
As great as Chapel is, 1 is enough. 2 is a crowd.
Courtyard (Action)
I have a friend who thinks this is the most underpriced card ever. He thinks it’s almost universally superior to Smithy, which costs 4! I won’t quite go that far, but it’s a very neat little card. Similar to Cellar, I think of this as a great hand-fixer, as the second effect can often help you more than it hurts; if you’ve got 10 coins in your hand and only one buy, stick one of those silvers on top of your deck and draw it next turn; if you’ve got no more actions left, put your big 5-banger on top for next turn, etc...
Cards to avoid combining with it: Throne Room- top-decking the stuff you don’t want gets a little tedious- Smithy is way better here. If you draw a hand full of Treasure, it can also be a little frustrating to have only that to discard. The more often you use Courtyard, the more you realize that’s it’s probably slowing down your ability to cycle through your deck.
Embargo (Action)
Wow, what a cool mechanic! I’m still not entirely sure how powerful or helpful it is to be the person who actually buys them, but in my first several games where this has made an appearance, it turns the game on its head more than any card since Gardens. If you see some cards in there that you know your friends like, stick it to them! Alternatively, you can just buy the first Embargo and put it on Embargo.
Note: Watch out if there are lots of Witches and/or Sea Hags in a longer game. Remember that if there are no curses in the Supply, Embargo has no negative effect. Some players might forget this when they get used to not buying Gold or Provinces for awhile.
Keep in mind that the other way to not gain a curse is to not buy the card. Cards that let you gain cards allow you to slip past customs. There are quite a few cards like this: Workshop, Ironworks, Smugglers, Mine, Upgrade, Remodel, Trading Post, Treasure Map, Bureaucrat and some more that I'm probably forgetting. Embargo is less useful if people have access to these cards.
Estate (Victory)
Yep, I’m still doing this for the base cards. Much like copper, avoid buying these in the early stages of the game. The point tally isn’t until the end of the game.
When to buy:
If you’re running Gardens, buying up Estates with your extra buys is a double whammy, and helps empty an extra supply pile to rush the game before people buy up the provinces.
If Duchies are gone, and you don’t have enough for a Province, I’ve bought several Estates in a turn to squeeze in a few points, most notably with a Baron or two.
How to handle: If you’re going for an early-trashing strategy, get rid of them before you get rid of coppers. Upgrade loves turning them into Silver or other useful cards. Cellar, Secret Chamber, Native Village, Warehouse, Island, and similar cards also help get them out of the way while maintaining their VP.
Haven (Action-Duration)
To be honest, I haven’t used this one very much yet. Keep in mind that +1 card +1 action essentially just replaces the card, so unless you have some cool Conspirator combos to set up, I’d avoid this one. However...
Good with: ZOMG TREASURE MAPHAX. Can be done with a 4/3 or a 5/2 split if they’re both out there...
Lighthouse (Action-Duration)
Kind of like a delayed Moat. Gives a coin and makes itself just as action neutral. Not terrible, but moat might still be better...
Moat (Action-Reaction)
This is frequently an overbought card, I think. I see people buy it for 4 or 3 coins pretty frequently. It’s nice to cancel an attack, sure, but it’s not always worth that slot in your deck or your hand. If you’ve got another action card, it’s worse than a copper or even an estate if you didn’t get attacked. Often, the better play is to think about the effects of the attacks in the pool, and work to counter those. If Moat, Torturer/Militia, and Library are out there, forget moats, grab yourself some books! If people are loading up on thieves, reach for actions that give + coins (Festival, Militia, Woodcutter, etc.) instead of straight Treasure cards, or go for cards that top-deck your money directly, like Bureaucrat. If people have Witch or Sea Hag, grab something to trash those curses.
If I get a 5/2 split and Witch is out there, heck yeah I’m going for a Witch and a Moat, but unless I’ve got an extra buy later on, I won’t waste my turn getting another moat. The one thing I notice is that if Moat is in the pool, people seem to buy much fewer attack cards instinctively, (or buy too many moats if there are some good attacks out there). It’s definitely a game changer in terms of what people buy, but you usually don’t want to be the guy buying them, in my experience.
When it’s worth buying: Strong attacks are out there, and you’re running lots of +2 action cards, like the Village group. It works like a mini-smithy then, while protecting you from attacks.
Native Village (Action)
Such a fun card! If you like setting up ridiculous chains (either this turn or later) this is a great card for you, and I probably don’t need to explain why. If you’re the type to bitch about your luck, “oh no, I just made my Witch go Native,” cry me a river and buy more Native Villages. This is a very flexible little card that I think I’ve only begun to scratch the surface of.
Works well with: Other Native Villages! Get at least 3 if you get 1. I might avoid it entirely if there aren’t some good 5 cost actions to use with it, or +buy cards to make having a huge combo actually worth doing (and pick up more Native Villages along the way). Card draws help too, since it doesn’t draw any on its own.
Pawn (Action)
IT’S A TRAP!
I don’t get why people like this card. It’s a waste of deck space. It’s kind of like half of a Market, which makes it much worse than half of a Market. If you go +card/+action, it’s as if you never had it at all. If you draw it as a dead action (which people who try to PWN U by buying 5 often will) it’s worse than a copper. Its only saving grace is that it’s the cheapest way to get a +buy in the entire game. This makes it useful if it’s the only + buy in the pool, yet I won’t ever buy one unless I have an extra buy floating around (fun paradox!), or I had a 5/2 split. Even if I have a 5/2 split there are half a dozen other 2-pointers I’d rather get.
Better than Estate, but only by a little.
When it can be useful: If you have some way of knowing what’s on top of your deck, like if you combo it with Wishing Well, or are getting hit by Ghost Ships, Bureaucrats, Sea Hags and the like. Then it’s a little easier to know whether you should go with the +Card or not. It also goes well with Conspirator, but just about any +1 card, +1 action card does.
Pearl Diver (Action)
Like Pawn, I generally avoid this one. It’s kind of like a baby Navigator. I can see it being useful with Conspirator, but I see everything being useful with Conspirator.
Secret Chamber (Action-Reaction)
So, funny story. I’ve played probably 60 games with Intrigue, and I just found out this week that I accidentally had my Secret Chamber randomizer card in with the regular 10. So I’ve only played around 4 or 5 games with Secret Chamber. Like a lot of 2-buys, I’ll buy it if I have no other choice. Seems like you can do some real neat stuff with it. Also, I read that if someone plays an Attack which doesn’t affect you (like if you have a lighthouse, 3 cards in hand when a Militia is played, a Bureaucrat with no VP’s, a Witch with no Curses in the Supply left, etc...) you can still do the effect. Pretty rad.
The active use is very similar to Cellar, so the same points apply, minus the ability to keep an action chain going, but since it doesn’t draw cards, that’s not a big deal.
3 Coins
It’s not easy being worth three coins. The best play is usually to buy Silver. Most 3-coins are either a good start with Silver when you’ve got a 4/3 split, or mostly irrelevant in a lot of games. Very few are the types of cards that you’ll stack up in multiples to build a deck around, although some (like the Villages) are nice helper cards for the real meaty actions.
Ambassador (Action-Attack)
I’ve seen some people claim that this card is like the new Chapel- a card that everyone will go for to thin out their decks while simultaneously messing with others. It hasn’t really caught on in my circle, and it seems to do the thinning too slowly while others are buying cool stuff. Definitely has a bit of utility if there’s no other way trash cards, especially if there are curse-givers in the pool (or Torturers)!
I should try it again- it ought to be comparable to or better than Steward, in theory.
Black Market (Action)
I love the theme on this one, but I’ve rarely seen it be of much use. Just kind of a grab bag that is likely to reduce the efficiency of your deck. Can be really neat if you’re the only person to get a nice one-of, like Witch or Chapel when those powers aren’t otherwise in the game.
It’s an okay start with Silver... in the same way that Woodcutter is. *snicker*
Chancellor (Action)
Opinions on Chancellor seem to vary greatly. Many people think it’s the most useless card in the game. Others think it’s the most underrated card in the game.
My opinion? A Chancellor/Silver start is okay if there aren’t many other strong opening choices. Cycling your deck to potentially get to newly purchased gold or strong 5-cost actions like Laboratory the turn after you buy them can be pretty potent. I’d never put more than one in my deck.
Fishing Village (Action-Duration)
Like all “Village” cards, this one’s quite good if you intend to use a lot of actions, especially those that draw you cards. The Fisherman, Minion, and Conspirator go way back. Can also be nice in a money-hostile (read: Pirate ship/thief) environment. If there aren’t any +buys in the pool though, the big combo strategy probably won’t have enough of a payoff.
Great Hall (Action-Victory)
This is a nice setup card for Conspirator, especially if you Upgraded your Estates into them. Otherwise, it’s not terribly exciting. In a game where it’s more likely that the 3 stacks will drain before the Provinces do, start grabbing these, because everyone will.
Kind of fun with Ironworks or Scout, but I’ve rarely done exceedingly well with those kinds of decks- they generally seem a little slow.
Lookout (Action)
This card seems like it does a little of everything, but most of the time, it just pisses you off. Don’t be fooled.
Masquerade (Action)
This card just doesn’t do enough of any one thing. It’s a fun group card, but often the card you pass away is the same as the one you get, and then you can trash it. It’s moderately useful if there’s no other way to trash.
When it is useful: It’s a nice card to have in hand if someone plays a Torturer on you. Put the curse in your hand instead of discarding, and then pass it to the left.
My favorite use: If the worst player in the group is sitting to your left, and you think they can keep quiet, just start passing them Provinces. Then, at the end of the game, smile as everyone scratches their heads as they try to figure out how the hell that guy won the game. It can be your little secret, and something fun to laugh about later.
Shanty Town (Action)
What a weird card. It adds even more variance to the already tricky combo-style decks. At first, it seems like it’s the thing to buy when you don’t have the option of one of the other “Village” series cards to pick from, but it actually works kind of well as a one or two-of in those situations.
When it works, you have no other actions in hand, and you draw two cards(one of which is an action which hopefully draws more cards). The other way for it to work is to have a series of + action cards that you play first (like Festival, Minion, or Native Village) and then you play the Shanty Town for maximum benefit.
But sometimes, you get just it and a Conspirator, and you’re wondering why you spent two buys on what essentially amounts to two coppers. The absolute worst situation is when you get it and a terminal action that doesn’t draw cards. So try to include as few terminal actions as possible in a Shanty Town deck.
I’m not sure if I’ve tried it, but it ought to be pretty slick with Library. Shanty Town +Library... draw a ton, discard actions that aren’t the next Shanty Town, play it. Be at 8 cards, and hope one of those last two was another Action.
Silver (Treasure)
A mistake common to many new players is to ignore the value of Silver. Ideally, most decks will only contain one or two terminal actions unless they have tons of Throne Rooms or +2 actions cards. It’s really bad to be stuck with a ton of actions and no way to play them all. After a game or five, players learn that it’s often advantageous to buy Silver when you have 4 or even 5 coins instead of buying an unnecessary action.
This all goes out the window if enough Pirate Ships or Thieves are in play.
Smugglers (Action)
The “Workshop” of this set, Smugglers is highly dependent on what the guy to your right is likely to do. If you know that he’s the type to buy lots of Gold and Duchies, it can be a great way to get free stuff. If he’s the type to buy lots of terrible action cards and never muster more than 3 or 4 coins (or if he’ll be forced into that style of play by heavy attacks being played) you’re probably better off buying Silver. On the other end, if that player is going to rush to Provinces quickly, this will be a dead draw that way too.
Steward (Action)
I love the Steward. Steward/Silver is one of my favorite openers with a 4/3 split.
I’ll often prefer it to just about anything else, except Chapel/Silver or maybe Baron/Silver if I’m in that mood. I think it’s almost a steal for 3 coins, but then again, I never find myself buying more than one. It seems like the 4-costers are often the kinds of cards that you build a deck around, which this clearly is not.
Early on you can trash two cards. Then later on, you can give yourself exactly 2 more coins to get you up to 6 or 8 for a Gold or a Province, or try your luck with 3 cards if those 2 coins won’t put you to one of those thresholds. It’s an extremely potent and flexible starting action.
Swindler (Action-Attack)
This card is brutal early game, and can be funny later on too. It’s one of my favorite starters with Silver, behind Steward and Baron.
Replaces Coppers with Curses. Ouch. Silvers with terrible actions. Torturers with Duchies, and then back again later.
Combo’s well with: Throne Room. Sure, every action does, but for a 3-coster, this one is surprisingly good. I got reamed once where my opponent went almost entirely Throne Room/Swindler, getting +4 coins and messing with my deck constantly!
One thing to watch out for: it replaces a Province with another Province. I’ve seen games end abruptly because of this, so beware.
Village (Action)
The important thing to realize is that the +1 card and one of the + actions granted by this card essentially take the place of the card. So it’s a net gain of just +1 Action.
New players almost universally love this card. There’s even a name for people like that on BSW, I hear: the Village idiot. Typical turn? First turn: 4 coins, “I’ll buy a Village.” Second turn: 3 coins, “I’ll buy a Village.” Then later, they’re super excited when they can play 8 Villages in a row, so that they can get 3 coins and buy... another Village. Watch out man, this guy’s turns are super long!
Then, as you get a bit better, you ignore the Village, eschewing it for Silver and making mad points... but eventually, you’ll probably come back to thinking it’s pretty good. But when?
You really need to have a fair bit of actions in your deck, and they need to be good. Strong 5-ers with a card draw and another useful effect, like Witch, Torturer, Council Room, Ghost Ship, etc. Militia and Smithy can do in a pinch, but they probably aren’t worth going for if they’re all there is. A deck almost made purely out of Villages and Witches is just brutal- draw your whole deck, and dispense curses in the meantime. A turn of Village, Council Room, Village, Ghost Ship/Militia, Torturer, is likely to make everyone else want to quit.
In order to really set up such combo decks, you’ll probably also need a way to trash your early estates and coppers. Upgrade is really cool, if it happens to be there, because it can turn Estates into more Villages, and some of your 4-coiners into Duchies late game.
For much of the rest of this article, I’ll often refer to cards in the “Village group” which includes just about any card that grants +2 actions.
Warehouse (Action)
This card is kind of like a better Cellar, since you choose which cards to discard after the draw. It’s pretty useful if you aren’t going for a deck-thinning strategy, and is almost like a better Smithy in those situations. Like Cellar, the net effect of the card is -1 Card, so you actually have to have a weaker or VP-heavy deck for it to be useful. What this also means is that it’s highly dependent on what kinds of attacks are in play. If people are tossing around Sea Hags, and Witches, which put junk in your deck, it’s good. If people are destroying your hand size with Torturers, Ghost Ships, or Militia, you’ll despise this card.
Wishing Well (Action)
In general, I think this card’s pretty useless most of the time.
If you’re good at card counting or blackjack, or are doing something goofy with Coppersmiths, this might be a good card for you. Then it’s like a budget Laboratory.
Use it before you play a Pawn or Steward, so you can know whether it’s worth doing the +Card on that other action. Sometimes, it’s nice to guess for what you really need to get to an important coin threshold, like 5, 6, or 8: hence Wishing Well. Like many other +1 Card/+1 Actions, it’s a nice filler for Conspirator.
One weird corner case I found is that it’s an OK counter to Ghost Ship; if you’re paying attention to which cards you put down, you’ll know what the next one is. Scout and Secret Chamber’s reaction also play well with Wishing Well, following this line of thinking.
Woodcutter (Action)
Not a whole lot to say about this card. It’s the original “+buy and not much else” card. Get it if you’re running one of those big Village/Card draw decks and need an extra buy to pull off massive turns OR if you’re running Gardens and there are no Workshop type cards in play.
Workshop (Action)
Kind of like Pawn and Village, this card is frequently a newbie trap.
With the exception of some alternative victory scenarios, like using Islands and Gardens, you want to stay the hell away from this card.
New players say, “wow, a free card which costs 4, that’s awesome!” But the problem is that is has no reach. You generally don’t want to improve the quantity of your cards or buys- that dilutes your deck. You want to improve the quality of your buys, so you can buy Gold and then Provinces, because they actually make you win. Even Woodcutter has more reach than this card.
But yeah, if there are Gardens out there, open with two of these suckers and go to town.
4 Coins
Even at 4 coins in hand, the best play is still to often just buy Silver, but there are some exceptions. Onward!
Baron (Action)
This might just be my favorite opening buy. I’ll sometimes be upset if I wind up with a 5/2 split because I like Baron/Silver that much. If you get that Copper, Copper, Silver, Baron, Estate draw, fight the urge to get a 3rd turn Province! A strong 5-cost card + another Silver will usually be pretty nice though. It is a slightly high variance strat though. If you get Baron with 4 coppers, and 3 estates with the others on your 3rd and 4th turns, you’ll probably grumble for awhile.
Uses: Like I said, it’s a strong opener, especially if there are no Trashing cards in the Supply. It also works wonders in a Workshop/Gardens deck. If everyone is running out of money and the Province stack won’t be eliminated, I’ve won a few games by aggressively attacking the Estate pile with a couple Barons, getting as many as 3 Estates in a turn.
Bridge (Action)
This is essentially like a more expensive Woodcutter unless you can get more actions out with + buy in them (like more Bridges). I’ve got a friend who likes to try to go for some crazy turn where he gets 4 of these out and buys 5 Provinces, but I have yet to see it happen. Some day, Kyle...
Until then, I’d recommend avoiding the Bridge unless your strategy is bolstered by the extra buys, like if you’re going Gardens, or it’s the only way to get a + buy for your crazy long draw combo deck.
Bureaucrat (Action-Attack)
I like this one okay. I’ll often open with it + Silver if nothing else is around. Gets your economy going while messing with everyone else’s hands, but not enough that they get really angry with you or buy Moats.
I read a very interesting article recently which pointed out how this card can be very strong against a Chapel strategy.
Caravan (Action-Duration)
It does nothing now, but acts like a really powerful card (Laboratory) next turn. Generically useful-not a whole lot to say here.
Conspirator (Action)
Although my first few games were with basic Dominion, my first purchase was Intrigue. I played a ton of Intrigue-only games, so a number of my strategies here will describe a lot of combos with cards from that set, yet some other cards can fill those roles too. I really became enthralled by this card, and feel like I could write an entire article on “Conspiracy Theory” alone.
Conspirator is a super powerful card... when it works. If it’s the third or later action, it’s essentially an invisible +2 coins (the card/action replaces the Conspirator). Compare that to the net effect of some 5-costers: Market ( +1 buy, +1 coin net), Bazaar (+1 action, +1 coin), Festival (-1 card, +1 action, +2 coins), Laboratory (+1 card), etc... In that light, Conspirator seems like a pretty damn good card for a 4-coster, you just have to build a deck that can make it happen.
So how do you do that?
1) Get as many action/draw neutral cards as you can. Cellar is okay, and can make the strategy viable even if there are no trashing cards available. Yeah, even crud like Spy, Wishing Well and Great Hall, or even Pawn can be good. You might get a big terminal draw in there, such as Council Room, but I’d do no more than one, and I wouldn’t do it at all unless I’ve also got:
2) Some +2 action cards in there. Any of the Village series will do, but Bazaar and Festival work quite well too. Nobles is pretty great, because it gives you points, and it combos well with itself. Village Idiots and Noble Fools work great with the Conspirator.
3) Get rid of your money. Buying one or two Silver early is probably okay. But if you’re looking at a moatless pirate ship or thief Kingdom supply, this deck might just jump into its desired state quickly.
4) Again, find some way to trash. Those estates and early coppers will get in the way unless you can Minion, Cellar, or Scout them away. I’ll often switch to a Conspirator strategy after a relatively open and noncommittal split like Silver/Steward.
5) Upgrade, Upgrade, Upgrade! This card essentially makes the deck, even if there’s no way to trash. Lame 2-coster + Upgrade is often a great way to start working towards a conspirator deck. If Upgrade is in the pool, and at least one other neutral card is out there with Conspirator, I’ll almost assuredly go for it. Upgrade turns Estates into Silvers, Silvers into Conspirators, Coppers into nothing, and Conspirators into Duchies at endgame. It’s delicious. I’ll discuss more when I get to Upgrade.
6) Don’t go too overboard on Conspirators. 3 or 4 in your deck is often enough to help you get that Province, but 3 or 4 in your hand with nothing else is NOT a good thing.
For people who like to play long chains of actions, Conspirator is the coolest thing ever, and they’re probably already excited about it anyway, but I thought I’d give you all some advice based upon my experience with it!
Caution: As much as I do like it, it’s ill-advised to try a Conspirator strategy in the presence of Curse-givers or hand-wreckers. Bureaucrat, Ghost Ship, Witch, Sea Hag, Torturer, etc...
Coppersmith (Action)
With how much I like Baron, you’d think I’d like Coppersmith as well, but for some reason, I just don’t. I avoid it like the plague. It doesn’t get helped by the Gold you add to your deck, and it just doesn’t play well with many other actions.
I heard a cool story about it working well with Tactician.
Cutpurse (Action)
It’s always interesting to me when I see all of the knee-jerk reactions to a card. When Cutpurse was revealed, everyone thought it was terrible. I’m sure many of the people reading this think it’s terrible. They think that there’s no reason to play it when there are better attack cards out there, like Sea Hag, Militia, or Bureaucrat.
But you know what? That’s precisely when it’s good! It piggybacks very well on most attack cards, whether you played them, or the people before you did. If curse-givers have created a low-money situation, people have bad hands anyway and Militia or Torturer won’t hurt that much, but Cutpurse aims right for the pocketbook, often making the difference between a 5-buy and a 4-buy, a Province and the unlucky 7, a Silver and an Estate, etc... Similarly, if played after a Militia or Torturer, it might hit that one Copper that someone has (or, if played before a Torturer, it can guarantee that the Torturer will hit something good).
I’ve been pleasantly surprised by this card, despite the early Theorynion. I won’t buy more than one or two, but it’s not as terrible as people say it is.
Super obvious applications: If people are playing Moneylender or Coppersmith.
Envoy (Action)
Get a Silver and this to start. Don’t get other actions, unless you really like annoying everyone at the table and trying a Village or Festival + Multi-envoy combo. But really, just make sure your whole deck is money and you’ll usually have enough for a Province when you play this.
Feast (Action)
I’m kind of upset that Intrigue lost its “one-shot” theme. I think cards like this are pretty cool. It helps get you over that 4 to 5 cost hump, in a slightly delayed fashion. This is a pretty nice card if there are some potent 5-costers out there like Witch, Laboratory, Torturer, Wharf, etc.
Gardens (Victory)
The original game-changer. This card makes you forget all of your good Dominion habits. Get rid of copper and Estates? NO! Buy them! +buys are mediocre? Nope. Use them to buy more coppers and estates! Workshops are terribad? No, they give you more Gardens, and are absolutely essential to this strategy! Attacks are useful? Not terribly, because with a big fat deck you won’t be seeing your attacks as often. If you’ve ever got enough money for a 5-coster, stick to those that give you extra buys, like Market or Festival, before long though, you’re probably better off with a Duchy. When Estates run out, or you’re just looking for a change, toss in a Cellar or the odd Secret Chamber. Adventurer is kind of cute, but unlikely. Baron is out of this world awesome. Ironworks, Bridge, Island, and Great Hall are all decent here too.
How to beat it: To be honest, I’m usually the Gardens guy, and I almost always win when they’re in the supply. Maybe if you go for a really slick deck designed to get provinces quickly, and use the odd 4-coin turn to buy a Garden to deny it, you might stay ahead. Not sure, really.
Island (Action-Victory)
This is almost always a popular buy. It’s great in those games where just enough attacks are flying around that no one is really getting an engine going and you’re forced into a lot of 4-buys. It adds points to your deck while thinning it slightly. It’s not a card I pick up very often in my opening split, but it’s a solid mid-game card bought in extreme multiples, especially if there are Saboteurs are running around. Protect your provincial investments with offshore accounts!
Works well with: Ironworks, Workshop, Gardens, Dukes, Duchies, etc.
Ironworks (Action)
This is often a deceptively bad card, much like Workshop. The worst part about is that once you start getting one, it totally seems like a good idea to use it to make another Ironworks since it costs 4 as well. It’s often best just not to start down this path in the first place. It won’t get you any points. Unless...
There are alternate victory cards available.
The most obvious is the Garden. Free Garden and an extra card to boot? Nice. Make extra Barons, Gardens, or perhaps some Ironworks. Late game Estates + Card? Sign me up!
Hybrid cards, like Island and Great Hall are also quite good (since they give you +card/+action). I just played a killer game this morning where I was chaining Ironworks to get me Islands, and then moved on to Gardens... slipping a Baron in there too. It was sick.
I’ve also seen it be of some use in a Conspirator strategy, as many of the key actions in a deck like that cost 4 or less. Later on, Upgrade it into another Upgrade, or something else that’s better.
Militia (Action-Victory)
The original and most basic attack card. The only one in the “first game” set, most players are probably familiar with it. A solid opening card, this one gets worse the more people buy it or victory cards. Avoid the temptation to buy more than one or two.
How to counter: Read! Library, or more powerfully, Library + Festival, is a surefire way to make someone regret playing Militia in a moat-free game. The other way is to buy enough VP’s (like duchies) so that you don’t care about discarding.
Combine it with: Council Room and +2 actions cards in a game with no reactions. Kind of a corner case, but it’s bound to come up in some of your vanilla Dominion games. Open with Village or Festival. Play the Council room (or a few, with more +actions cards). Finish off with a Militia. Gets a lot less useful if other people have Moats, as the Council Room increases their chances of drawing it.
Mining Village (Action)
See Village for more discussion on this kind of card. Much of the same rules apply... except that it can be trashed at any time for a bit of extra oomph to help you buy a Province or something in endgame. It’s definitely a “why not?” kind of card if you’re at 4 coins and are unsure of your long term goals.
Moneylender (Action)
In my opinion, this is one of the best cards in the base set. It’s one of my favorite starting cards, up there with Steward, Chapel, and Baron. Early game, you generally want to thin out the Estates and/or Coppers from your deck if possible, and increase your buying power. Moneylender is a two for one. But don’t buy two of them. That’s stupid.
Also, you might avoid it if people are playing Thieves, Cutpurses, or Pirate Ships. [And counter with one of these if someone opens with a Moneylender].
Navigator (Action)
This card is the Chancellor’s cousin, but a bit more targeted. It serves a similar function- cycle your deck quickly, and also has the benefit of avoiding bad hands. It can potentially be good with cards that like to know what’s next, like Minion, Wishing Well, etc. I like to use it as a starting card and then win with it after everyone else says it sucks.
Pirate Ship (Action-Attack)
Ew. This card is frustrating. Destroys the money, and then makes it easy to get your own. If more then one person goes for it, it’ll definitely be a different game than usual. Once you get to 4 or 5 coins on the card, you can get Provinces with ease.
How to beat it: The obvious choice is try to get a bunch of Reaction cards to minimize the damage, or at least dissuade people from going heavy-Pirate. The more powerful counter, if possible, is to get some +coin actions ASAP. The list is huge, but among the best are: Festival, Minion, Market, Militia, Bazaar, Conspirator. These are all good because they give you +actions, allowing you to play more actions like this, and the Militia gives it right back to them. If this isn’t quite possible, look around for low-coin strategies for gaining VP’s and start early, like with Islands, Gardens, Great Halls, etc. Pirate games are often supply stack killers, rather than Province rushes.
If you can’t beat it: Join it. If there are no strong +coin actions out there, no Reaction cards, no Embargoes to put on Pirate Ship, etc... it’s your own fault if you failed to pick up on it.
Remodel (Action)
Turns Silvers into Duchies and Gold into Provinces. Buy it mid to late game to try to win the VP race. Can turn Curses or Coppers into Estates as well, and even Estates into something useful early game. Not much else to say.
Salvager (Action)
Very similar to Remodel, but has potentially more reach. Gold, Gold, Gold, Silver, Salvager nets you Province + Duchy, while with a Remodel you get two pro-wait. Remodel is better! Hah. Maybe Province, Gold, Gold, Silver, Salvager? That nets you two provinces, but one really, but might help you kill the deck at the right time?
I’ll have to think of something.
Scout (Action)
Scout is a card that I love to try to make work, but rarely succeed. It can be pretty handy in Intrigue-only sets where there are some Hybrid Victory cards out there. [Scout/Harem/Nobles for the win]! It’s kind of nice late game when you’re finally buying non-hybrid VPs as well. When combined with Nobles, Great Hall, Conspirator, etc... then you’re really talking, but that’s a pretty specific situation. A lot of the time, it just falls flat. I feel like it really needs another card drawing action in hand to make use of the knowledge that you gain (or Nobles/Great Hall to grab). One or two probably don’t hurt in a Minion deck.
Nice counter for Bureaucrat.
Edit: Some folks have pointed out that it's actually a good early game card too, much like Moneylender which I like so much.
Sea Hag (Action-Attack)
This card is no fun, but as I discussed in the Curse section, you probably don’t want to be the last person to get it. If it’s out there, a Silver/Sea Hag start is a good option. Just be ready for a long fight. This card can cause the game to drag like no other.
Smithy (Action)
Very similar to Envoy. It doesn’t play well with other action cards. Go mostly money, or don’t buy it. Workshop/Smithy is a frequent newbie trap. Free cards! Draw more cards! Buy another Smithy! Whee!
Spy (Action-Attack)
This might just be the king of ‘meh’ cards. Much of the time, you’d rather draw Silver or something, and it so minorly inconveniences other players and mildly helps you that I’m just rarely excited about picking it up. Good with Conspirator or Shanty Town, maybe. In the mean time, it’s lengthening player turns and increasing the number of questions asked. “Discard this?”
Counters? Don’t bother.
Thief (Action-Attack)
I don’t really pick this one very often. Much like the Pirate Ship, it definitely shakes things up by destroying the money in people’s decks, but early on, this can actually help people by destroying their coppers and cycling through their Estates. The benefit to the Thief player is marginal at best, unless people are blithely going forward and buying Gold (or Treasure maps) and you get lucky enough to snatch it. I’ve thought about using it in Gardens games to swing cards to me, but I’ve never seen it work that well, because if you get it early enough to help you enough, you are missing out on potential Gardens purchases, and if you buy it late, you’ll be lucky if you see it twice.
Counters are the same as Pirate Ship- go for actions that give you coins, and buy VP earlier than you otherwise might. Avoid using Moneylender.
Throne Room (Action)
I’ve kind of got a love-hate relationship with this card.
One time, I played Village, which gave me a hand with two Throne Rooms, and a Council room. So, I throned the first Throne Room, which let me play the first Council room twice (drew 8 cards), drew another Council room, and used that for the second TR activation (drawing another 8 cards). Then I finish off with a Village, Militia and a Torturer or something. I’m sitting there with my entire deck in my hand, buying 25 coins worth of VP’s and laughing as everyone else is reduced to 1 card or 3 + a Curse.
But the turn before that, I drew 2 Provinces, 2 coppers, and a Throne Room, and I wished I could explode my cards like Gambit.
So, it’s pretty killer with any strong 5-coster, like Torturer, Witch, or the oft-neglected Mine, is excellent with +1 action cards (essentially turns them into villages), but turns your deck into a slot machine. If you can thin the chaff out early, and get some solid actions going, it can be pretty awesome.
Treasure Map (Action)
This card is like shooting the moon in Hearts. Awesome when it works. Sucks when it doesn’t.
Cards that can work well with it: Haven, Pearl Diver, Navigator, Tactician, deck thinning methods, or already-made-massive-draw combo decks
Cards that screw it over: curse-givers and stuff like that.
Fun trick: Play an Embargo on Silver or Gold after you pop your Treasure Maps and no one else has yet.
5 Coins
There are a lot of great, powerful actions in the 5-coin slot. Which ones are chosen by the players will often determine what the game will really be like. When I’m up to 6 coins, I’ll very infrequently buy a 5-coster (but I’ll point out which ones in those sections), usually preferring Gold. Don’t underestimate the Duchy.
Bazaar (Action)
Bazaar might mean Market in Arabic, but functionally, this card is much more like a slightly stronger Village: the net effect is +1 coin/+1 action. Use it when you want to play more than one action per turn, like strong card draws or attacks.
Council Room (Action)
Now, I probably sound pretty positive a lot of the time in this card overview, but Council Room is quite possibly my favorite card design in all of Dominion. It just spreads positivity and helps the game go quickly. Combined with a high number of Treasure cards, it can lead to massive points, even with just one, but when combined with Villages and more of itself, you can set up some really ridiculous turns. Toss a lone Militia, Ghost Ship, or some other attack card in there to top it off. Definitely one of my favorite 5-coin cards, whether grabbed in a 5/2 split, or used later if I’ve got Villages or Festivals around.
Duchy (Victory)
I’ve seen a few strategy posts recently (like this one) that discuss duchies, and how the timing of Duchy purchases is one of the key steps to improving beyond the low or intermediate level of Dominion play.
And I totally agree.
If you’ll likely only go through your deck one or zero more times, it’s pretty clear that you should buy a Duchy even if you’ve got 6 or 7 coins in hand. At worst, you’ll draw that Duchy when you’d otherwise have it as shiny new Gold and will have to buy another Duchy instead of a Province (but two duchies = Province, so it’s equal in terms of VP). At best, you’ll never see it again, and you’ll be up 3 points. This is pretty obvious once you stop to think about it, but I don’t know how many times I’ve stupidly bought, or watched someone buy a Gold or another Witch (lol!) when that 3 points might end up deciding the game.
If you’re in a low economy game (due to excessive attacks), or a multiplayer game where emptying 3 stacks will likely be the end condition, and not province buys, you should really start buying Duchies early. I’ve lost a number of 4 player games because I treated them like heads-up, where I focus on just getting to 5 or 6 Provinces, when the guy with half as many provinces, but 6 or 7 Duchies wins over me as my deck peters out, and I keep blindly buying more economy boosters long after it makes sense.
Don’t underestimate Duchies!
Duke (Victory)
I’m glad that these are close in the alphabet. Read above. If it’s a good time for Duchies, it’s a great time for Dukes. Get at least three Duchies, and then alternate. Or something. I haven’t run the numbers, and I honestly rarely pay enough attention to how many I’ve bought exactly. Watch the supply stacks closely. Killing duchies early makes it harder for others to copy your strategy if it turns out to be the good one for that game.
Favorite nonuse: Swindler. Oh man, is it great fun to Swindle someone’s first Wharf, Council Room, Witch or Torturer into a Duke. Get ready for some profanity.
Explorer (Action)
I don’t know what to make of this one. It’s half Mine, half Adventurer... two cards that I rarely use. I don’t think I’ve ever bought one despite seeing it in at least a handful of games. I might go for it if I’ve got a Big Money-esque strategy but don’t want to buy a Duchy yet.
Festival (Action)
Festival is a rather useful and attack-resilient card. Unlike most +2 action cards, it helps when it comes to buying stuff, as well as playing more actions. I often find myself buying at least 3 whenever it’s in the Supply. In some games, you might buy Silver when you’ve got 5 coins. But those games don’t have Festival.
Goes great with just about any drawing action, and superbly with Library.
It’s a great cornerstone of a counter to Thieves and Pirates, and combined with a decent card-draw, doesn’t really care about Militia either.
Ghost Ship (Action-Attack)
This card’s just a beast. Sure, there are times where someone has such a great hand that losing two cards actually just helps them even out their draws, or you help them split a hand with 2 terminal actions... but most of the time, it messes up two hands, while making your life easier at the same time.
It piggybacks very well with other attack cards. Play it after someone’s Sea Hag, or before your own Cutpurse or Torturer. If it’s late game, and you suspect that they put down a Province, tossing a Saboteur afterwards will be sure to please the crowd.
It really messes with people using normally good cards that are card-negative, like Cellar, Festival, and Warehouse.
Played early, this can grind someone’s deck cycling to a halt.
Counters: Aside from Moat/Lighthouse, I gained a unique appreciation for the Wishing Well in a game with the Ghost Ship. Kind of like with Militia, Library is one okay way out.
Laboratory (Action)
Lots of digital ink has already been spilled with regard to this card. It’s awesome. The extra buys and actions granted by other 5-cost actions can be situationally useful, and even coins can too, but the net extra card granted by Laboratory is always good- helping you cycle your deck and get more money or playable actions into your hand. If this is out there, you should pretty much always buy it if you have 5 coins in hand, until it’s Duchy time.
It works great with Chapel, but I almost like combining it with running trashers better, like Steward, Trading Post, Moneylender, and Upgrade- cards that keep on giving.
Library (Action)
Library is a bit of an odd duck. It ranges from being ridiculously useful to being outclassed by most other expensive actions. In a vacuum, it’s essentially just a Smithy which allows you tp discard terminal actions that you don’t want. (After playing the Library, you’re at 4 cards, which requires you to draw 3 to get to 7). Even when it’s good, you’re likely only going to want 1-3 of them.
Like Smithy, it works well enough in a high-treasure deck, but the other actions in the Kingdom Supply largely determine its power.
When it’s good:
When it comes to your own deck, any cards which give bonus actions, but don’t give extra cards are good with Library. Cards such as Festival, Native Village, Fishing Village, Shanty Town, Nobles, Minion, Lookout, Warehouse/Cellar [counterintuitive, but they have a net effect of -1 card], Pawn (potentially) etc. are all nice immediate setup cards for Library. [I also like to think that it’d go great with Outpost, if you could somehow set it up to be one of those three... maybe a Scout or Navigator can help?] Villages and stuff like that are fine too, but cards which give bonus actions and do something else are generally better with Library for their cost.
Following this same logic, attacks which reduce your hand size can actually improve your hand quality with Library! Torturer, Ghost Ship, Militia, Bureaucrat, Cutpurse, etc... Having a Library in hand is better than a Moat against these kinds of attacks (except maybe the Bureaucrat).
When it’s not good:
Throne room does absolutely nothing for it. Council Room (yours or your opponents mess it up... unless you go Festival to Library to Council Room... then you’re really cool). Generally, any card which boosts your hand size, like Laboratory.
Attack cards that don’t decrease your hand size can all be detrimental to getting much use out of your library, either by destroying your Treasures or filling your deck with chaff.
Market (Action)
Market is a somewhat misunderstood card among new players. They see that shotgun spread of cool bonuses, and think that it’s always good. The net effect is just +1 buy, +1 coin. It’s certainly not bad, but it’s best used when you have a high-powered deck that is likely to hit 10+ coins, and really needs an extra buy to make use of them. Get 1-4 of them in the mid-game if you think you’ll need that extra buy.
Merchant (Action)
Net effects- Now: -1 card, -1 action, +2 coins. Next turn: +2 coins. I suppose that’s okay, but Wharf almost always seems better, and so do a lot of other cards. It can help smooth out your draws a little bit, and make sure you’re usually buying something else that’s halfway decent.
Mine (Action)
This card is an investment. It helps improve your deck, but it does it a little more slowly than most similar trashers. When it’s in your hand, it’s like it just says +1 coin, but then its effects persist when you get the boosted card again later. It’s pretty fun with Throne Room to make Copper into Gold immediately. It’s nice to turn Silvers into Harems mid-late game for extra VPs, and will be more useful as more Treasures are added to the game. Perhaps there will be some utility with Potions?
It’s pretty much only worth getting some time in you first 4 turns, and even then, there are often better options.
Minion (Action-Attack)
Much like Chapel, this is a card that isn’t immediately recognized as powerful by new players. It has a lot of text, and neither of the choices seem that exciting. But once you see someone make a deck with 5 or 6 of them, you’ll see what makes it strong. It cycles your deck very quickly, allowing you to quickly assimilate new purchases, and once you have enough of them and other +coin actions (Festival, Conspirator, Market, even Woodcutter), you can quickly set up an engine that will nearly guarantee a Province every turn. I make the bookkeeping easier on myself by keeping the card upright if I used it for coins, and “tapping” it sidewise if I used it to discard my hand. If I’m going for a Minion strategy, I’ll often buy one or two at 6 coins instead of a Gold. It’s that good.
Like many Action-heavy combos, Minion works best with some deck-thinning of some kind. Trading Post, Chapel, and Steward seem like the most obvious choices, but don’t neglect the Upgrade, whose action-neutral nature will make it continue to be of use throughout the game, and can help you cycle up your Estates into Silvers or good actions, Silvers into Conspirators or Mining Villages, etc.
I rarely put more than one terminal action in a Minion deck. Go for a solid 5-cost attack card (that isn’t a Minion), and try to balance that out with at least one+2 action card, like Festival.
Uses- This is pretty much always a strong strategy, but it can ramp up even without any deck-thinning if people are going for pirate ships or Thieves.
Outpost (Action - Duration)
I’m not sure what to make of this Timewalk. On the one hand, I appreciate the design decision to prevent infinite turns, but on the other hand, I’ve yet to find a use for it. Maybe with other Duration cards, or the ability to reorder the top with Scout or Navigator. *shrug*
Saboteur (Action-Attack)
Not my style. I prefer cards like Torturer that screw over everyone else and help me at the same time. I’ll sometimes pick one up if I expect it to be a knock-down-drag-out-3-supply-stacks game, simply because my turns will likely stink too. Works rather poorly in conjunction with Curse-givers though, as it cycles past some of them.
Tactician (Action-Duration)
In theory, this one is awesome, but I have yet to get it at the right time. I have daydreams sometimes of a hand full of 10 conspirators and Minions, but I’ve yet to make it happen. I feel like it’s always in my hand when I’ve got enough money for a Province or a Gold, so I don’t even use it. It’s a lot like Throne Room in that regard.
Cute with Coppersmith.
Torturer (Action-Attack)
As unpopular as Smithy is in my circle, this one always seems to be one of the first 5-costers bought, and once there is a copycat or two, it gets ugly. I especially like to set up a deck with 2 of these in it, complete with some Village-series cards, and an ample supply of money. If there aren’t any cards like that (or Throne room!), try to stick to just one Torturer, and a minimum of other actions.
If everyone gets on the Torturer bandwagon, just start going gonzo on Duchies and Estates. You won’t feel bad about discarding them, and you’ll actually be getting points while everyone else waits in vain to buy Provinces.
Another tactic is to just man up and take the curse. It’s important to note that it goes directly to your hand, which isn’t as bad as the Witch, and not nearly as bad as the Sea Hag. Torturer curses take the longest to muck up your hands, and can be dealt with immediately. If you have a way to trash it (Steward/Trading Post/Chapel) or disperse it to other players (Ambassador/Masquerade), or even Cellar/Warehouse/Secret Chamber to make something of it, Torturer isn’t so gnarly any more.
Trading Post (Action)
I don’t use this card often, but it’s nice for a 5/2 split when there’s no other trashing card in the pool. Fun against Torturers and similar cards. It almost seems a bit underpowered for a 5 cost, and getting two or more just seems idiotic, but if it cost 4, it might even surpass Baron and Steward in my list of 4/3 split starters, so I can appreciate that they erred on the side of caution here. It’s like a Moneylender on coke.
Treasury (Action)
I rarely go for this one, just because it reduces your options. For every one of these you play, it’s a net +1 coin for the turn, so it’s weaker than a number of other 5-costers... if you ignore the fact that you can get it every turn. It helps ramp up your economy, but then doesn’t help when it actually comes to buying the VPs needed to win. I admit that I might need to experiment with it more.
Tribute (Action)
I’m really not a big fan. I might pick up a few if there aren’t many other 5-costers in play, but it’s just a bit too random for my liking when it comes to deck-building. You can maybe pay a bit of attention to the player to your left. If he has an action-heavy deck, expect actions, expect cards if he’s VP-heavy, etc. Goes up in value quite a bit if people are buying hybrid cards, like Nobles or Harem.
Upgrade (Action)
As Intrigue’s “Remodel” a lot of people question its utility... until they try it in the right situations.
It’s action and card neutral, so it allows you to make running changes to your deck without getting in the way. Done with that Chapel? Silver/Great Hall time. Next! Done with that Silver? Mining Village/Conspirator. Done with the Mining Village? Duchy, or another Upgrade. Got too many Upgrades? Golden. The list goes on and on. If you are playing the kind of deck that quickly cycles and has lots of +cards/actions, you’ll get a lot of mileage out of this card, much more than the number of turns or buy phases would normally allow.
At worst, you can use it to get rid of excess copper or curses.
Awesome with Conspirator, Laboratory, Village series, Minion, etc... you get the idea.
Wharf (Action-Duration)
Although many 5-costers are strong first turn picks, this one is definitely lightning in a bottle, and just keeps getting better as you improve your money. It’s kind of like a Council Room that is split over two turns. I’m a fan.
It’s especially cool with Fishing Village and other +action cards like that.
Witch (Action-Attack)
It’s kind of fitting that this is one of the last Kingdom card reviewed, because I think it is one of the biggest game-changers of all, up there with Gardens, Chapel, Torturer, Embargo, and Pirate Ship.
It is one of the most direct ways to harm other player’s score. It gives them curses immediately, without an option for something else.
It gives you +2 cards in the mean time, which helps you cycle your deck faster while this all happens.
Works well with: Any of the Village series. More Actions = More Witches = More Draws and then it loops. Throne Room is also rather potent in a Witch deck. I’ve seen games where everyone at the table is negative, but the player who won is the one who cursed the others the most (and bought no Silver at all)! A rapidly cycling Witch deck is a really frightening thing to be on the wrong end of.
Doesn’t work so well against: People stocking up on Moats/Lighthouses. However, if you get them to alter their strategy so much, your Witch or three have already done their job. Chapels and other strong trashing cards, when proliferated enough can really cut into the effectiveness of this one. Perhaps the worst situation for a Witch to succeed is when people are playing Gardens. Not so much because it’s possible to raise their score by bumping them over a multiple of 10, but moreso because they really don’t care how inefficient and terrible their draws are. Lengthening the game out plays directly into their game plan.
Don’t forget that draining the Curse pile not only reduces the effectiveness of future Witch activations, but it also counts as one of the stacks to drain to end the game.
6 Coins
Very few actions cost 6 coins, because they have to measure up to Gold. Much like Silver, it’s somewhat counterintuitive to new players that Gold is so good. I usually try to explain it like this, “Buying Gold improves the quality of your future buys, like these Provinces here which cost 8. Those make you win.”
People talk a lot about the “Big Money” and the “Grand” strategies which involve buying just money, or perhaps one action. That’s because these strategies work. They’re a good baseline for the strength of a strategy, and you’d hardly know that after reading me wax unpoetic about 80-odd cards. The mantra of “Buy Gold. Buy Province.” will certainly help you win a lot of games. That’s basically the default strategy, which lies in the middle of three economic states in the game- where getting to 8 coins in your hand often is the goal.
But there’s also lower economic situations, which can happen because you’ve either bought too many VP cards already, or there are too many attacks being used to make getting back up to 8 coins again reliably (or you just don’t have enough time to get the card you’re buying right now). In this case, you should often buy Duchies, sometimes even if you are at 6 or 7 coins.
In really expanded markets, where there are opportunities to trash cards, few powerful attacks in people’s decks, and at least one +2 action card, one +3 card card (or sub in both for Laboratory) and one +1 Buy card in the supply, the big combo will often be the name of the game. You want to figure out how to get up to 13 to 16 coins (or more) and 2 buys at once to explode at the end.
The key to doing well is often being able to look at the Kingdom cards out there, understand what kind of players your up against, and be able to recognize what kind of game this is going to be. Is this going to be an ugly-3-stack-Duchy-fest? A straightforward Province race? A crazy combo game? Something in between? Often, the game state might change towards the end too, and you will need to slightly adjust your plan of attack, especially as one of the end conditions draws near.
[I had kind of been thinking this on my own, but the two strategy posts I linked above also corroborate this line of thinking].
Adventurer (Action)
This is often a very difficult card to set up. It requires you to likely thin out your deck. Then get lots of Gold and/or Silver, but then it gets better, or at least handier as you buy VPs in the end game, or if people are Cursing you. Circumventing the Witch or Bureaucrat might just be its best application.
Gold (Treasure)
Gold is really good. Buy it most of the time, even if some of these other actions are in the pool.
Harem (Treasure/Victory)
A decent card. It’s for those mid-game situations where you’re not sure if you want a Duchy or a Gold, so you go for the halfway point. Works well with Scout. Susceptible to Tribute, Pirate Ship, and Thief.
Nobles (Action-Victory)
Unlike a stack of Villages, acquiring a bunch of Nobles actually gives you some victory points in the mean time. Goes well with other actions, or on its own in a treasure-heavy deck. Once you’ve purchased 2-4 Gold, you really can’t go wrong with Nobles.
7 Coins
I doubt there will ever be a card that costs 7. I could be wrong, but after all the games I’ve played, I feel that adding a 7-cost Kingdom card would have to be so powerful that you’d always take it at 7, and it would take out a bit of the bite to getting stuck at 7. I’ll be surprised if this part of the design space is ever used. Like in sculpture, negative space is sometimes more interesting.
8 Coins
Province (Victory)
Buy me. Win.
I was originally going to do some kind of snazzy conclusion bit here, but I kind of already did that in the 6-coin section.
I hope there’s at least one person out there who will manage to make their way through this whole post.
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Nice list - very thorough. Unfortunately, I just played a bridge card in your forum, reducing the cost of every card by one coin. You'll need to adjust your list accordingly.
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Andrew Hardin
United States
Bentonville
Arkansas
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Nice post.
I agree with most, disagree with some (particularly your comments about the Smithy, which really is an amazing card). Good to see more views on the game.
- Lex
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James Welke
Canada
Edmonton
Alberta
At your service!
Yes, I am a wizard.
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Excellent article, sir!
I skipped to the cards I wanted to read your opinions about and I think I generally agree with your sentiments on cards like Moat, all the money cards, Dutchies, and quite a few others.
I don't own any expansions (yet), so I tried not to read them. Just a preference: it'll be nice to get cards I don't know about, I think.
Nevertheless! I enjoyed the article.
Thanks!
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Ted Vessenes
United States
Somerville
Massachusetts
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I liked this article overall, but I think you're missing a major area of Dominion card analysis:
Card Throughput
From the article, I can tell you understand the value of deck thinning-- removing bad cards lets you draw and play your good cards more often. But there's almost no talk on the topic of card throughput. Another way to play your good cards more often is to cycle through your deck faster.
For example, you're a bit hard on the cellar. In my mind, the primary purpose of the cellar is to discard all my coppers and estates in the early game so I can play my 4 and 5 cost actions more often. I will even pitch silver to a cellar in the early game if I have a strong enough 5 cost action, such as Trading Post. The cellar provides half of the Chancellor's decking effect and gives +1 action instead of +2 money. That's arguably better, and I do occasionally spend 3 on a Cellar. At 2 it's an excellent purchase. Similar comments hold for Warehouse. I usually want three Warehouses before even considering buying Silver.
Similarly, you underestimate the value of an early spy. It's not that spy "doesn't cost a card in your deck". It gets you one slot closer to your good cards. I would rather open Chapel + Spy than Chapel + Silver. With Chapel in particular, the Spy guarantees that on turn 3 or 4, you will draw your Chapel along with 4 Estates and Coppers you want to pitch UNLESS both the Spy and the Chapel are cards #11 and #12 in your deck. It prevents the harsh situation of not drawing the Chapel until turn 5, and the Spy provides a nice bonus for the rest of the game.
The Pawn falls under similar logic. Most of the time it cycles for a card and an action. Why buy it then? Because it lets you turn actions into other quantities on rare occasions. The +1 buy can be crucial on a buy starved board, but many times you just come to the end of an action chain and realize you have a few spares. So you Pawn for a card and a coin. It also has great value with Library, Minion, and Tactician, as the Pawn can provide a coin and an action, giving you benefits that aren't lost when you play the next action.
I agree that most of the time, Ironworks is not great-- filling your deck with 4 cost cards is not a path to victory. But when there is an action/victory hybrid card available for the Ironworks, it almost always becomes the dominant strategy. The Great Halls take up no space in your deck, and neither do the Ironworks while supplies last. So in addition to free points every turn, you have a great combo enabler for cards like Conspirator and Scout. With Island, you get to partake in all your normal purchases while using your terminal actions to remove estates and coppers from your deck. And amassing a boatload of points This ironically makes Ironworks a deck thinning card.
On the subject of scout, I have found it to be brutal in any deck where you can acquire great halls *and* effectively thin the rest of your deck. When your scouts hit 2.5 victory cards on average, they're an awful lot better than labs. Again, this is a deck throughput issue.
Similarly, despite your high praise for Ghost Ship, I think you're still underrating it a bit. The harshest part of the card is that your opponents are now 2 cards further from their next reshuffle. Militia might only make them discard estates and coppers, but the Ghost Ship forces them to waste two more draws on those bad cards again. Have you ever played a game where you play Ghost Ship every turn? I have done so twice. The end result in both games was that I scored more points than both of my opponents combined.
Last, this isn't a throughput issue, but I wanted to comment on Fishing Village. This card is flat out undercosted. It gives you carte blanche to buy as many terminal actions as you want and play all of them. Obviously it's best with card drawing for this reason, but it's also just good with terminal actions in general.
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Andrew Hardin
United States
Bentonville
Arkansas
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tedv wrote:
Last, this isn't a throughput issue, but I wanted to comment on Fishing Village. This card is flat out undercosted.
Agreed, this is a 5-cost card hiding at cost 3. It has all the power traditionally associated with a 5-cost card at the cost of a bunch of the junk cards.
This and the Chapel are the two worst offenders in the bunch, and Chapel at least is sometimes only worth 2. The Fishing Village is strong.
- Lex
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David Goldfarb
United States
Houston
Texas
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One point you might make to newbies about Copper and Gold is this: you want to be buying Provinces, but you only have 5 card slots in your hand. So, you want to get your deck to a point where the average buying power of a card is 1.6 money. Copper is below this average, Silver is above it, Gold is well above it.
I play a lot on BSW, so I have experience with Haven: it's pretty similar to Courtyard. It helps prevent you from drawing dead on terminal actions (if you have two terminal actions in hand and no Village-group card, Haven one of them and hope things will be better next turn) or lets you move some otherwise wasted Treasure into next turn. If you have a Baron in your deck, Haven that Estate this turn and hope you get the Baron next round. Courtyard increases your hand size and Haven doesn't, but then Courtyard is a terminal action and Haven isn't; also the card on the Haven is immune to being messed with by Spy, Thief, or Sea Hag. It's a nice little card.
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James Sitz
United States
Illinois
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LexH wrote: tedv wrote:
Last, this isn't a throughput issue, but I wanted to comment on Fishing Village. This card is flat out undercosted.
Agreed, this is a 5-cost card hiding at cost 3. It has all the power traditionally associated with a 5-cost card at the cost of a bunch of the junk cards. This and the Chapel are the two worst offenders in the bunch, and Chapel at least is sometimes only worth 2. The Fishing Village is strong. - Lex
You know, I'm inclined to believe this about Fishing Village. I find myself buying it over Silver pretty frequently, even if I don't have that many actions yet. That must be a red flag.
I had been playing the game a lot back in November, started writing this, and then let it sit for a few months and came back.
You're probably correct about Smithy too. It's a strong card. I've just seen so many games when I've taught new players where they're just mucking their deck up with Workshops and Smithies that I felt it was right to point out that it works best with high volumes of Treasure, even more than Village/Smithy. When I said that friend of mine likes Courtyard better... I meant that too. I thought he was crazy for liking Courtyard better.
Thanks for all of that stuff on Throughput. I hadn't thought about it quite in those terms, but that's definitely one of the reasons why a 4 or 5-Minion deck is so powerful, and why the Scout and Spy (which I'm a bit down on) might be worth giving another try.
I'll try to keep my original post unadulterated in my errors. (Except for a few missed periods. Those annoy me).
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Eric Rampson
United States
Chicago
Illinois
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LexH wrote: tedv wrote:
Last, this isn't a throughput issue, but I wanted to comment on Fishing Village. This card is flat out undercosted.
Agreed, this is a 5-cost card hiding at cost 3. It has all the power traditionally associated with a 5-cost card at the cost of a bunch of the junk cards. This and the Chapel are the two worst offenders in the bunch, and Chapel at least is sometimes only worth 2. The Fishing Village is strong. - Lex
Sometimes, to balance a card, you need to make it MORE accessible, not less. Chapel is the ultimate example of this - it is (almost) universally useful so, at cost 2, every player is gauranteed the ability to buy one starting on turn one.
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Andrew Hardin
United States
Bentonville
Arkansas
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Scud-O wrote: LexH wrote: tedv wrote:
Last, this isn't a throughput issue, but I wanted to comment on Fishing Village. This card is flat out undercosted.
Agreed, this is a 5-cost card hiding at cost 3. It has all the power traditionally associated with a 5-cost card at the cost of a bunch of the junk cards. This and the Chapel are the two worst offenders in the bunch, and Chapel at least is sometimes only worth 2. The Fishing Village is strong. - Lex Sometimes, to balance a card, you need to make it MORE accessible, not less. Chapel is the ultimate example of this - it is (almost) universally useful so, at cost 2, every player is gauranteed the ability to buy one starting on turn one.
I partly buy this argument, but there are some issues with this logic. Giving +2 Coin and +3 Actions (effectively) over 2 turns is not normally something you charge 3 for in other cards. By this logic the Festival, Bazaar or Market should cost 3 to make it more accessible.
- Lex
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Ted Vessenes
United States
Somerville
Massachusetts
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In card games, there are two kinds of undercosted. Normally it means, "this effect should cost Y but it only costs X." Chapel isn't that kind of undercosted.
Once you make the accessibility argument, you're saying that the only way the card can be fair is if everyone has it all the time. It would be bad for the game if Chapel cost 5 or even 6 because only people who got extremely lucky could take advantage of it.
The other kind of undercosted means "unsafe at any cost". These are cards where the mere ability to use them creates a high probability that the effect will dominate the game. A 5 cost Chapel will dominate fewer games than a 2 cost Chapel, but when someone actually gets that Chapel, their deck will be nearly as strong as the 2 cost deck-- and probably much better than the other decks at the table. The higher cost just reduces the odds of an abusive effect entering the game. It doesn't reduce the abusiveness of the effect.
As a Magic: The Gathering example, undercosted would be a card like Ancestral Recall or Mox Sapphire (properly costed as Concentrate and Island). Unsafe at any cost would be Yawgmoth's Bargain or Yawgmoth's Will.
Back on the subject of Fishing Village, I don't quite think it's worth 5 because the duration effect makes it get shuffled in less often than you'd like. And you need other strong terminal actions to back it up, which you are more likely to buy when you have 5 coins on hand. But it's worth every penny at 4 and I can imagine situations where I'd pay 5 for it.
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I'm just popping in to say I read it. Liked most of it, although I think that Bridge, IronWorkShop, Merchant Ship and Treasury are better than that, give them some more chance. Good post.
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Steven Metzger
United States
Pullman
Washington
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Jexik wrote: 7 CoinsI doubt there will ever be a card that costs 7. I could be wrong, but after all the games I’ve played, I feel that adding a 7-cost Kingdom card would have to be so powerful... Really?
I've always thought that a cost-7 card would have to be relatively weak because of the imbalance it incurs on Upgrade, Remodel, Saboteur, etc etc...
IMO the cost-5 cards are the meat of the game, but the cost-4 cards tend to have the greatest remodeling/upgrading impact.
Of course I don't believe that there's ever going to be a cost 1 or cost 7 card, but Alchemy certainly puts a different twist on it...
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Jeff Long
Canada
Saskatoon
Saskatchewan
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Just chiming in to express my appreciation for long articles like this, and of course point out my own pet card that you've "undervalued," although by your own admission this is probably due to limited experience with it.
For me, it's the Salvager. Salvager is VERY strong. Not because it's necessarily stronger in the late game than Remodel, but because it's much more flexible for the ENTIRE game. In fact, I have never seen a player who opens Salvager/something (usually silver) lose to anyone who doesn't also open Salvager/something.
In the early game, Salvager is a Moneylender - FOR YOUR ESTATES! Sure Copper is bad and getting rid of it is good; but getting rid of those crippling early Estates is even better. And unlike Moneylender, the Salvager never loses steam. And he even has +1 Buy over Moneylender!
Salvager is better than early Remodel for the same reason that Workshop is not a good general-purpose card. If you remodel your early Estates, then on your early turns you are adding two mediocre cards to your deck. If you Salvage them instead, you are adding 1 good one. Of course, with the flexibility of the +1 Buy, the Salvager also lets you add 2 cheap cards in the rare instance where it is preferable.
Salvager combos just fine with itself too. Worst case, you draw your 2 Salvagers together and you salvage the Salvager for a big +4 coin. Same goes for any high-cost terminal action. You can buy them together with Salvager without much fear, since if they pair, you salvage the 5-coster and buy a province, and if they don't pair, you get to reap the benefits of your good luck.
In the end game, the Salvager gives you the flexibility to destroy your deck in favor of VP at just the right time. You can salvage Province for Province just like Remodel can to end the game quickly when you are ahead - which you will be, if you took an early Salvager.
This card would be good without the +1 Buy, but with it, it is simply amazing in my view.
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Brandon Richards
United States
Salem
Oregon
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Quote: Merchant (Action)
Net effects- Now: -1 card, -1 action, +2 coins. Next turn: +2 coins. I suppose that’s okay, but Wharf almost always seems better, and so do a lot of other cards. It can help smooth out your draws a little bit, and make sure you’re usually buying something else that’s halfway decent.
I think it's funny that this is the only terminal action card that you specifically called out the -1 card, -1 action. I think this is a card that has recieved some bad publicy here on the Geek. People need to remember that every turn can end with one terminal action, and this one adds to the current turn and sets up the next turn with an increase of 2 coins. I just recently blasted another player on BSW (2er game) with Merchant Ship/Throne Room. Final score was 45 to 9.
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James Sitz
United States
Illinois
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metzgerism wrote: Jexik wrote: 7 CoinsI doubt there will ever be a card that costs 7. I could be wrong, but after all the games I’ve played, I feel that adding a 7-cost Kingdom card would have to be so powerful... Really? I've always thought that a cost-7 card would have to be relatively weak because of the imbalance it incurs on Upgrade, Remodel, Saboteur, etc etc...
But then why not just make it a 6-cost card? It's not like we have too many of those.
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Andrew Hardin
United States
Bentonville
Arkansas
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filovirus wrote: Quote: Merchant (Action)
Net effects- Now: -1 card, -1 action, +2 coins. Next turn: +2 coins. I suppose that’s okay, but Wharf almost always seems better, and so do a lot of other cards. It can help smooth out your draws a little bit, and make sure you’re usually buying something else that’s halfway decent. I think it's funny that this is the only terminal action card that you specifically called out the -1 card, -1 action. I think this is a card that has recieved some bad publicy here on the Geek. People need to remember that every turn can end with one terminal action, and this one adds to the current turn and sets up the next turn with an increase of 2 coins. I just recently blasted another player on BSW (2er game) with Merchant Ship/Throne Room. Final score was 44 to 9.
What gets me is how fond people are of fancy Action Cards that use up terminal Actions but don't appreciate something as simple as +2 Coins twice.
The most important effect in the game is +Coin. Rare cards will give +3 Coins or better and those are just plain awesome. But something as simple as +2 Coins is pretty powerful.
Terminal actions are part of the game.
- Lex
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James Sitz
United States
Illinois
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The_Immortal wrote: For me, it's the Salvager. Salvager is VERY strong. Not because it's necessarily stronger in the late game than Remodel, but because it's much more flexible for the ENTIRE game. In fact, I have never seen a player who opens Salvager/something (usually silver) lose to anyone who doesn't also open Salvager/something.
I'm abridging this, but this was an excellent post.
I'm noticing a common pattern in some of the cards that people disagree with me on...
I think you guys have helped convince me that I should play some pure Seaside games. I think I only did one or two of those, and then jumped right into /random 10 with one or both of the other sets. I don't think it gave me quite the same time to get acclimated to the new cards, and that I habitually stick to reasonably strong cards that I'm used to working with, like Gardens, Lab, Festival, Witch, Torturer, Conspirator, etc.
Like Upgrade, I shouldn't think of Salvager as a worse Remodel, but its own card that is good in different ways.
Thanks for the input, everyone.
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Ted Vessenes
United States
Somerville
Massachusetts
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It hasn't been mentioned previously, but Lookout is in my opinion the most underrated card right now. It's amazingly good.
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Dave Goldthorpe
United Kingdom
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I'll repeat the opinion that you've underestimated cards that help with travel through the deck. At times you could buy a silver, but if a silver just adds average fat to your deck then you're better adding something else that helps you sift your deck and pick out quality.
If you've a 20 card deck and add a silver you've made all your existing cards have 5% less impact as it now takes at least 5% more time until they're drawn again. If your deck is full of bad cards then this is a good improvement but if your deck has good quality then it might be a marginal improvement.
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Joseph Cochran
United States
Costa Mesa
California
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Quick correction on one point regarding the Treasure Map: putting an Embargo token on top of the Gold won't stop people from completing their maps. Embargo tokens only apply curses on BUY, not on GAIN. Since the person completing the map is gaining, they're immune to the Embargo. We had a Swindler in the game recently with Embargo and Estate as the only 2-costs, which meant that we played with a lot of tokens out and had to look these things up. You can't Embargo the curses in order to double the effect of the Witch, either.
As a general note, great job on this. It does feel like the reader can tell which cards you've played with and which you haven't, and I agree with the general opinion that you've underestimated deck travel, but overall this is a good start!
I think enough people have talked about the power of flexibility that comes with the Pawn, another card I'd encourage you to take a look at is the Scout. Yes it shines with hybrid victory cards, but the ability to pull dead-draw victory cards out of your next hand increases the speed and efficiency of your deck (again the throughput), and it's still quite nice with any other action that has +cards (terminal or not), so I'll often open with that on a 4/3 split.
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James Sitz
United States
Illinois
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jsciv wrote: Quick correction on one point regarding the Treasure Map: putting an Embargo token on top of the Gold won't stop people from completing their maps. Embargo tokens only apply curses on BUY, not on GAIN. Since the person completing the map is gaining, they're immune to the Embargo. We had a Swindler in the game recently with Embargo and Estate as the only 2-costs, which meant that we played with a lot of tokens out and had to look these things up. You can't Embargo the curses in order to double the effect of the Witch, either.
I know the rules man. It may have been unclear, but I'm talking about a situation where I pop a map, and then I Embargo Silver or Gold to rub it in everyone else's face, because then their economy will be way behind when they try to buy it. I suppose I also could have mentioned Smuggler/Workshop/Ironworks as a way around Embargo.
Quote: As a general note, great job on this. It does feel like the reader can tell which cards you've played with and which you haven't, and I agree with the general opinion that you've underestimated deck travel, but overall this is a good start!
I'm kind of unsure why people keep bringing this up. I might not focus on it as much, but...
I mention that I'll sometimes open with Chancellor or Navigator (and mention that other people dislike them, but don't say that I do), and that I'll almost always buy at least one or two Cellars, and speak reasonably positively on Warehouse. I call Ghost Ship "a beast" and point out how powerful Minion is. That card is the king of throughput.
I don't know if anyone will easily convince me that I should by more than 2 Pawns. Maybe it's just a question of me liking big draws, and often ending with one.
Lookout, I maybe underestimated, but having to decide once between Province, Province, Duchy was enough for me to be weary of it.
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Brandon Richards
United States
Salem
Oregon
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Jexik wrote: Lookout, I maybe underestimated, but having to decide once between Province, Province, Duchy was enough for me to be weary of it.
Don't keep us in the dark. Which one did you choose to trash?
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Jon
United States
Redmond
Washington
Plaatsvervangende Schaamte
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Jexik wrote: I don't know if anyone will easily convince me that I should by more than 2 Pawns. Maybe it's just a question of me liking big draws, and often ending with one.
Lookout, I maybe underestimated, but having to decide once between Province, Province, Duchy was enough for me to be weary of it.
I think Pawn is very intersting when there is Treasure hate on table or when it is the only +Buy in a Gardens game. Might be ok in a Duke game, too. I have seen the Pawn pile empty very quickly in Gardens games.
I like Lookout a lot. I buy two these days. You have to know when to stop playing it, so I agree that it eventually becomes dead weight.
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Joseph Cochran
United States
Costa Mesa
California
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Jexik wrote: jsciv wrote: Quick correction on one point regarding the Treasure Map: putting an Embargo token on top of the Gold won't stop people from completing their maps. I know the rules man. It may have been unclear, but I'm talking about a situation where I pop a map, and then I Embargo Silver or Gold to rub it in everyone else's face...
Ah, sorry. Misunderstood you there due to the context. It may be worth pointing out in the Embargo section that there are ways around it, and noting the Treasure Map trick (or anything that gives you a leg up on other cards which you can then block other players from) in the Embargo section? Either way, all good.
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Posted Wed Mar 3, 2010 5:46 pm
