389 players participated in the Dominion Online Championship, the largest Dominion tournament ever! Now, only 8 remain. Today , we will be posting the last four interviews with the remaining players. To discuss the championship and these interviews, click here.

Interview With SamE: Dominion Online Quarterfinalist

Beyond Awesome: What do you think was your toughest match?

SamE: Coming into the match, I’d have to say my Round 6 match against Burning Skull. However, in middle of the matches, the closest I’ve come to being eliminated was going down 3-2 to jimbo3 way back in Round 3 before I fought back and won games 6 and 7.

Beyond Awesome: Tell us a little about yourself. How old are you, where are you from, what do you do?

SamE: I’m 27 (turning 28 next Tuesday), originally from Fort Collins, Colorado, currently an applied math grad student at MIT.

Beyond Awesome: How did you get into Dominion?

SamE: Funny you should ask, because I wrote a (really long) blog post about it just last week.

Beyond Awesome: Most feared opponent on Dominion Online?

SamE: I’d have to say Mic Qsenoch. He’s been one of the best players for a long time; I remember him from way back in the isotropic days.

Beyond Awesome: What are your favorite and least-favorite Dominion cards, and why?

SamE: Favorite Dominion card: Definitely Menagerie. Its double lab power is super powerful, especially at $3, and I generally enjoy games where you get a lot of different components.

Least-favorite Dominion card: Hard to say, since you learn to love the strong attacks when you get to play them, and the bad cards you just ignore. I’d probably have to say Possession, though I’m not even likely to be the first one to offer to propose we ban it.

Beyond Awesome: What are your initial impressions of Nocturne, the newest Dominion expansion?

SamE: I like it! Obviously it’s fun to have new cards, and interesting new concepts and whole new design spaces to get used to. The lack of predictability of say the Boons and Hexes both frustrates me and excites me; it makes it harder to plan a consistent deck, but might still be worthwhile overall.

Beyond Awesome: What advice do you have for Dominion players looking to get better?

SamE: Try to play against players who are better than you. You’ll get schooled, but that’s a good thing since you’ll learn. Obviously this can’t happen both ways, and for the best players just isn’t possible, but I probably shouldn’t be the one to tell level 60 players what they should do to get better anyways. Also, if you’re a veteran Dominion player like me who just needs to get used to some of the new Events and Landmarks in Adventures/Empires, try setting your games to have a minimum of 2 each game.

Beyond Awesome: Finally, who do you think is going to win the Championship?

SamE: My coldly rational side expects the finals between Sicomatic and Dan Brooks to be epic, with Dan trying to pull off some crazy engine in a game or two that just barely works. My loyal side says that I’ll always be rooting for my own branch of the tournament, so if LazyDog, Sicomatic or Mercury444F eliminate me in the quarter- or semifinals, I’ll be rooting for them. And of course my egotistical side says that with a bit of luck I can beat any of these guys, at least based on what I’ve seen this tournament.