-
- Dominion
-
- Dominion: Alchemy
Not a combo, strictly speaking, but Mine addresses the biggest problem with Potion: its inflexibility. The Potion costs roughly the same as a Silver, but its non-fungibility imposes an additional premium. Drawing $7◉ is useless for getting a Province, while drawing $5, though ordinarily a good thing, can really set you back if you need to get in on the Familiars or Alchemists.
Mine helps alleviate this problem (provided Potions or Silvers are in hand) by allowing you to seamlessly transition between the two. Caught in an Alchemist race, but drew 3 Coppers + Silver + Mine? Mine your Silver into a Potion to get the Alchemist this turn. Played all five of your Alchemists, but your damn Potion is stuck at the bottom of your deck? Mine a Silver into a Potion so you can keep your chain going next turn. Late game, when your Potions are useless and you need all the buying power you can muster, you can Mine them into Golds (or better yet, Harems) for a significant money boost.
The biggest drawback to this is that there are other $5’s that may prove more important even in Alchemy games. (Mountebank, for instance, if Familiar is not present.) Mine is usually one of the weaker $5’s, but it is significantly bolstered by the presence of non-traditional Treasures. With Potion, it gets an added bonus of introducing flexibility into an otherwise risky investment. It’s worth picking up as part of a $5/$2, or if there’s no top-tier $5 otherwise.
Dominion Strategy 
I’m a big fan of Mine, and it pains me to see it referred to as one of the weaker $5s. I have to admit, though, that it topped my list of “cards I like more than I probably should.”
You only mention in passing that its usefulness is increased when other special treasures are in play. This doesn’t apply to Venture, but it can be really nice with cards like Talisman, Loan, even Quarry. Those treasures can be handy early on and turn into handicaps later.
I felt the same way hearing that Mine is one of the weaker $5 cards (I can see both arguments, though). I think it’s a lot better than people would give it credit for, especially with platinums available.
Mine was one of the big winners when Prosperity was released. Not only because of Platinum, but also because Quarry and Loan could be adapted to the phase of the game, mostly by turning into Gold (and later Plats) like with the Potion example above
I destroyed someone with a Mine+Potion+Alchemist engine. 6 Provinces by turn 16, 4 Provinces a bit sooner than that. With just a little bit of trashing (I had Island in that game too), it’s easy to get to the point where you draw the whole deck every turn.