-
- Dominion: Alchemy
-
- Dominion
Generally, Library is nothing more than a slightly glorified Smithy that can conveniently toss aside unwanted Actions. But its true power, the one that justifies its placement in the elite $5 tier of Actions, is its ability to draw additional cards for each fewer card in your hand. This might happen when your opponent Militias or Goons you, but it can also happen if you have useful non-terminal, non-self-replacing Actions like Minion. With Universities and Festivals, though, the Library can become part of an +Action/+Card engine that draws 7 cards at a time — not to mention the benefits you got from the Universities and Festivals themselves!
Watchtower can substitute for Library. Shanty Towns, Native Villages, Fishing Village, and Festivals can also substitute for the University, but University/Library is one of the rare instances where Dominion makes thematic sense.
Although Festivals are generally easier to get and give +2 Coin, Universities have a nice benefit of grabbing you additional Libraries. In this game, theory also uses Universities to go for a 3-pile ending. He chooses to grab Woodcutters, which both scores for Vineyards and also helps get them (since Vineyards have such an inconvenient cost).
Dominion Strategy 
I like University/Watchtower better. You gain a card, put it on your deck, draw to it, and then you have an action to use it immediately. That can snowball greatly if you have enough Universities…
You forgot to mention something very important about this strategy. Namely, you need to use as many of your buys as possible to grab Vineyards. With the massive amounts of action cards you can pile on with this strategy, you can easily get +13 to +18 victory per card, have 10 vineyards and you can have 150 points easily at the end of the game.
A side note, this combo is also possible with Torturer instead, with the downside of the draws being more luck based but the upside of destroying your opponents with curses and premature discards.
I like University/Watchtower better. You gain a card, put it on your deck, draw to it, and then you have an action to use it immediately. That can snowball greatly if you have enough Universities…
—How is it possible to put the “gained” card in your deck? The rules say specifically unless the card states put it on top of your deck or hand, all gained cards go into your discard pile. Further, there is nothing on watchtower or university that states “put this card on top of your deck”
Hmm.. maybe you should reread the Watchtower card text?
http://dominion.diehrstraits.com/?card=watchtower
“When you gain a card, you may reveal this from your hand. If you do, either trash that card, or put it on top of your deck”
I don’t see your point. Where you think is the problem with DB’s statement?
Step 1: Play University, gain an Action card.
Step 2: Reveal a Watchtower which is also in your hand.
Step 3: Elect to place the newly-gained card on your deck, as permitted by Watchtower’s Reaction ability.
Step 4: Repeat if you have more Universities in hand.
Step 5: Play the Watchtower as an Action, drawing some cards including the newly-gained Actions. This is of course possible since you don’t have to remove Watchtower from your hand in Step 2; just reveal its presence.
Step 6: Play the new Actions (using the extra Actions that University gave you).
The problem with DB’s statement is that some part of this process was not clicking with him. Probably he didn’t understand Watchtower’s Reaction ability, or else maybe the idea of using Watchtower for both purposes in the same turn didn’t occur to him, or something else.
Ah, thanks. I didn’t see that DB could have meant that he can put the Watchtower back on his deck.
I thin the best card with library is Hamlet !