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 Sicomatic: Dominion Online Quarterfinalist

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

Sicomatic: My toughest match so far was definitely against markus. After being 2-3 behind I ended up winning 4-3. In the deciding game I was lucky enough to be starting player, which certainly helped. I think we both played reasonably well and it could have gone either way.

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

Sicomatic: My Name is Till, I am 29 years old and live with my girlfriend in Germany, close to Stuttgart. I study Control Theory at the University of Stuttgart and will finish at the end of this year. Currently I am writing my Master Thesis so I should be covered up in work rather than playing Dominion :D.

Beyond Awesome: How did you get into Dominion?

Sicomatic: It was my brother who first showed me Dominion. I remember that we first played it when we visited our parents on a Sunday. After two games or so I realized that it might not be such a good idea to buy Copper all the time. My brother got Seaside later which I also really enjoyed. I saw that there are even more expansion and that this game has great depth. I only later found out that you can play Dominion online. I think it’s safe to say that I would have discovered Dominion sooner or later even without the help of my brother because I love board and card games of all kinds, especially strategically focused ones. I used to play Magic: The Gathering (not competitively though) and I play chess quite a bit.

Beyond Awesome: Most feared opponent on Dominion Online?

Sicomatic: I really don’t know because I don’t have a big history against the top players. I can’t single out a player I do particularly well or bad against. Apart from that I would say that I don’t “fear” any of the players. I like to play against strong opposition, no matter what the result is. You can learn something from them and share your views.

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

Sicomatic: I think my favorite card is Groundskeeper. It’s such a simple card if you first look at it but it’s never easy to decide if you want to get it and if so, when and how many.
Groundskeeper does nothing for your deck until you green. You might load up on them but it might be too late before you can benefit enough from the gained Victory points.
I also always had a soft spot for Caravan, I don’t know why really. Maybe it’s the feeling you get for setting up a potentially good next turn. I think it is also the first Duration card I ever played when I first played Seaside with my brother. Other than that, I think it’s just a good card and adds reliability to your deck. Another card I like a lot is Horn of Plenty. It’s always nice to go for a mega-turn, isn’t it?

My least-favorite card is probably Possession (big surprise, right?). Possession flips a lot of what you know about the game upside down. Suddenly you need to worry about getting good cards into your deck because your opponent might use them. But that’s not the reason I don’t like it. I actually think Possession is fun in some Kingdoms. What I don’t like about it is that you can play it multiple times per turn and get to play consecutive turns for your opponent. Beyond that Possession can lead to stalemate situations (for example in games with Donate) where neither player is willing to do anything constructive. Another card I don’t like is Urchin. Often the players will open with double Urchin and then it’s down to luck whether they connect on turn 3 or 4 or not. There are also some other that I am not a big fan of: Cultist, Rebuild, Swindler, the usual suspect. But I am more or less fine with them.

Beyond Awesome: What are your initial impressions of Nocturne, the newest Dominion expansion?
Sicomatic: All in all I like it. Heirlooms are great and I am looking forward to seeing what the others will do. I am not really sure yet what to make of Boons and Hexes. I think Boons are fine, they do little good things for you. Hexes on the other hand can be Devastating one time and do nothing the next time. Locusts can trash your City Quarter without a replacement or to add insult to injury you might get a Ruin for it. Others are harmless: Most of the time you don’t care discarding an Action or Treasure and you even care less doing so in your buy phase.

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

Sicomatic: 1) Carefully analyze the Kingdom. Is there Trashing, +Buy, Draw, Attacks?
How does the availability of these components or the lack thereof influence how I want my deck to look like?

2) Learn from your mistakes: When you experience a crushing loss, don’t blame it all on luck. Rather, try to figure out what you did wrong.

3) Learn from the best: There are lots of good players discussing Dominion either here on http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/ or on Discord or on Reddit. If you prefer to watch: Go on Youtube or Twitch and check out the very best players giving their thoughts while playing.

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

Sicomatic: Dan Brooks is the favorite to win the tournament, but all the remaining players are very good, so anything can happen!