This year, over 200 players entered to compete in the Dominion 2019 Online Championship. Only 8 players remain. This interview features Mercury444F, who will be playing Quarter Finals against JNails this Thursday, October 24 at 15UTC.

Special Thanks To Seesaw (SSLY) for helping me with this interview as well.

Congratulations again on making it this far in the Championship! 

xtruffles: Can you tell me a bit about yourself? (Ie. where are you from? What do you do?)

Mercury444F: I’m from Japan. Employee.
日本人です。社畜です。

xtruffles: How long have you been playing Dominion and how did you discover the board game?

Mercury444: I started after Guilds was released. I was introduced to a friend and started this game.
私がこのゲームを始めたのはギルドが発売した頃と聞きました。

xtruffles: What is your favorite and least favorite card?

Mercury444F: My favorite card is Remodel. Remodel has a great balance between trashing and gaining cards when building decks. The card I hate the most is Sea Hag .This card is very powerful and dominates the field, making it the first candidate. Sea Hag denies the act of player “choice”, which is the main idea of ​​Dominion, and widens the gap between the first and second player, favouring the first player.
REMODELはデッキを組むにあたって圧縮と獲得のバランスが素晴らしい。
とりあえずSEA HAGを選んでおけばよく、ドミニオンの主旨である“choice”という行為を否定し、また先手と後手の格差も生み出しやすい。

xtruffles: Are you happy about being able to add it to your ban list?

Mercury444F: Sure, I chose it first.

xtruffles: What card do you think requires the most skill to play in Dominion? Why?

Mercury444F: Generally speaking, there are cards that have good compatibility with “dull” cards, and the strategy of a board depends on the combination of cards on the board. Even the “dullest” cards are good with the right cards. Challenging does not mean difficulty of handling the card alone, but figuring out the route of building a deck centred around it on the board.
I want to insist on the difficulty of choosing to build a castle deck, so I don’t want to give each card a rating of difficulty. If I choose, it will be Humble Castle.
一般的にピーキーなカードには良い相性を持つカードがあり、その答えはサプライの組み合わせによって変わるでしょう。その観点で言えば、扱うことの難しさよりも、そのカードを使うルートを選ぶことの難しさという評価をする。私は城デッキを組むことを選ぶことの難しさを主張したいので、各種カードに難易度の評価を付けたいわけではありませんが、強いて言うなら粗末な城でしょうか。

xtrufffles: What are your impressions on the new promos? Church and Captain.

Mercury444F: Church has so interesting an ability that I want to play with cards which take advantage from reducing hand size, but I think the power alone is low. Captain has the ability worth its cost of 6. In addition to the versatility you can choose for any card, you can get the effect you need on the next turn depending on your hand. However, the strength of this card depends on the cards with a supply cost of 4 or less, and many special combos have disappeared due to revised rules. I wouldn’t say it’s a perfect card. I conquered the game using Church in R4 and Captain in R5.
CHURCHは面白いテキストで手札を無くすことがメリットになるカード群と合わせたいが、単体でのパワーは低い方だと思う。船長はコスト6に見合う能力をしている。任意のカードに選べる汎用性はもちろん、次のターンも手札に応じて必要な効果を得られます。しかし、このカードの強さはサプライのコスト4以下カード群に依存し、特殊なコンボはルールの改定によって多く消えました。ただ強いだけのカードとは言えないでしょう。私はラウンド4でCHURCHを、ラウンド5で船長を使用しゲームに勝っている。どちらも思い入れの深いカードです。

xtruffles: What has been the most memorable Dominion game you have played? (Doesn’t necessarily have to be from the championship)

Mercury444F: I will never forget the seventh round of the final year. I was immature in that match. I want to have no regrets this year.
私は一昨年の決勝7戦目が忘れられません。あの時私は未熟でした。今年は後悔のないようにしたい。

xtruffles: You have made it very far already! Best of luck moving forward into Quarterfinals

Mercury444F: Thanks!

xtruffles: Other than yourself, who do you think will win the championship? Why?

Mercury444F: I support Cha-shu, who is also Japanese. He won the Dominion Japan Championship this year and is a player with far superior skills than me. It’s a shame that I don’t usually play online so I don’t appear on the leaderboard. Also, RTT will be powerful among the winning players. I have played against him many times, but the win rate is not good. He also uses means that I can’t think of.
私は同じ日本人プレイヤーのチャーシューさんを推します。彼は今年のドミニオン日本選手権で優勝した、私よりも遥かに卓越した技術を持つプレイヤーです。また勝ち上がっている選手の中ではRTTは強力でしょう。私は彼と何度も対戦をしていますが、勝率は芳しくありません。また彼は私に思いつかないような手段を使ってきます。

xtruffles: Oh cool! There is a Dominion Japan Championship? And do you play a lot of Dominion with physical cards?

Mercury444F: That’s right. In Japan, the national team will be selected to participate in the World Championship held in Indianapolis every year.
Yes. However, in Japan, when playing with physical cards, the battle with four people is the mainstream. The reason is that the Japanese Championship is played by four players.
はい。しかし日本では実物で遊ぶ際は四人での対戦が主流です。それはドミニオン日本選手権が四人での対戦で行われることが理由です。日本では年に一度インディアナポリスで行われる世界選手権の代表選抜試合があり、日本では他に公式大会がないため、そこで優勝することだけがドミニオンの強さを証明する手段であるためです。

xtruffles: Oh cool. That’s awesome. What do you enjoy doing in your spare time outside of Dominion?

Mercury444F: Play with other games and read books, like mobile games and video games like Smash Bros.
主にゲームか読書 グラブルやスマブラ等

xtruffles: Dominion seems to have a lot of great Japanese players. Will you be playing in the Dominion World Cup next year?

Mercury444F: Unfortunately, fighting between two people is not popular in Japan. That version of the game is very difficult. For this reason, it seems that Japanese people are not interested in the two-player competition. However, this year’s championship may have more Japanese participants than the previous year, so it may be possible to form members. There is also a reason why it is difficult to schedule due to the time difference.
残念ながら日本人は二人戦にあまり関心がありません。それは日本では四人戦が主流であり、日本選手権が四人戦であることが原因しています。しかし、今年の選手権には日本人の参加者が前年よりも多く見えるのでメンバーを結成出来るかもしれません。

xtruffles: What advice do you have for Dominion players looking to improve at the game?

Mercury444F: Just read GOSICK.
GOSICKを読みましょう。それだけです。

xtruffles: What is that?

Mercury444F: This is my favorite novel. It’s my selling phrase.

xtruffles: 🙂 Thank you so much. Best of luck for your match!

Mercury444F: You’re welcome:) Thank you for your support!