This article is written by Captain_Frisk. He is currently ranked #17 on the Isotropic leaderboard.
Native Village, Watchtower, Quarry, Explorer, Witch,
Warehouse, Envoy, Counting House, Trading Post, Bank
(Click for enlarged version at dominiondeck.com)
This is a 2-player game between me [Captain_Frisk] and Yaron. The log is available here (spoiler alert!).
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Dominion
Library is the most unusual of the +Cards Actions. Because you don’t draw a set number of cards, but rather up to 7, it responds poorly to Throne Room but does quite well with small hands (normally a drawback). Preferably, you get your small hand through disappearing +2 Actions cards (Festival, University); indeed, the synergy between Festival and Library are so strong that when Donald X. moved Festival into the base set, he pulled Library in with it as well to keep them together. It’s theoretically true that Library works well with Outpost, but the chance of drawing a +Actions with it in the 3-card hand is pretty small unless you’re Havening cards between hands.
Alternatively, Library is a fundamental “soft counter” to handsize-decreasing cards like Militia and Torturer. (In fact, its presence is often a strong deterrent to playing Militia, since it’s even better of a counter than Moat.) Library can also be used effectively with discard-for-benefit cards (Vault, Secret Chamber, even Haven), if you have enough +Actions to play it all: discard your cards, then redraw with the Library. And it’s possible — though unlikely — to use Golem for this purpose (ideally by drawing Tactician/Library).
Its benefit of setting Action cards aside is a little less useful than it seems. Obviously it’s of most use when your deck is cluttered with terminal Actions … but then your deck is cluttered with terminal Actions. It’s more often better used as a way to discard the outmoded opening Actions (e.g., Chapel, Moneylender), or as part of an endgame desperate draw, hoping to get up to $8. (Special note: sometimes you’ll want to set aside useless non-terminals like Great Hall; this is because it draws you a card, but without giving you the option of setting it aside or not.) Alternatively, it can be nice when combined with Scrying Pool, since Library can draw all your non-Actions, and Scrying Pool picks up the Actions.
Unsurprisingly, Library is quite terrible when your hand is already quite large. This means that not only does it anti-synergize with Laboratory, it also anti-synergizes with itself unless you are drawing more disappearing +2 Actions. But at least you can set them aside, which can be quite useful if you’re running a rote Smithy/Big Money strategy with Library in place of Smithy.
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Below is a recent 2-player game (not played by me) on Isotropic. I will post the annotated game on Friday, March 4. You’re welcome to comment on the set (how you think players should open, what cards to go for) and try it out for yourself.
Native Village, Watchtower, Quarry, Explorer, Witch,
Warehouse, Envoy, Counting House, Trading Post, Bank
(Click for enlarged version at dominiondeck.com)
If you have interesting sample games that you’d like to submit for annotation, we’d love to hear about them. Criteria for annotating games include:
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The following guest article is written by Jeroen Aga (Geronimoo on Isotropic).
Last time I left you with the conclusion that combining Mountebank with Warehouse is superior to the combination with Caravan (but only by a very slim margin). Judging from the comments my readers are either very smart, very educated or very both, neither of which I am, so I’ll try to avoid drawing any conclusions and let you guys figure it out yourselves from my observations with the simulator. Here’s the second (and final?) part of my analysis of theory’s first annotated game:
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As discussed in this BGG topic, Bishop is one of the most effective counters to a fast Gardens rush strategy. Trashing each Garden nets about 3VP chips, and this accumulation of VP chips discourages the Gardens player from ending the game. Moreover, Bishop’s primary drawback (allowing opponents to trash) is moot against a Gardens opponent. As a result, a Bishop player who consistently buys Gardens to crunch into VPs can keep ahead of the Gardens player, such that the Gardens player is left with an abysmal deck and unable to end the game in light of the Bishop’s VP chips.
The two primary other trash-for-benefit cards, Salvager and Apprentice, also work well as a counter to Gardens, but neither provides the VP chips that discourage the Gardens player from ending the game. Remodel might also work, especially if you can Remodel Gardens into Nobles or Harems. In extreme circumstances, you can simply Chapel the Gardens, but that’s much less of a deterrent to the Gardens player than being able to convert them into 3VP apiece.
Moat, Feast, Mining Village, Tactician, Hoard,
Trade Route, Island, Talisman, Harem, Forge,
Colony, Platinum
(Click for enlarged version at dominiondeck.com)
This is a 2-player game played between me and Dekker. The log is available here (spoiler alert!). Dekker is an excellent player (as of this writing, #2 on the Isotropic leaderboard). Prior to this game, I was 1-3 against him. Continue reading
Below is a recent 2-player game I played on Isotropic, with Colonies and Platinums. I will post the annotated game on Monday, February 21. You’re welcome to comment on the set (how you think players should open, what cards to go for) and try it out for yourself.
Moat, Feast, Mining Village, Tactician, Hoard,
Trade Route, Island, Talisman, Harem, Forge,
Platinum, Colony
(Click for enlarged version at dominiondeck.com)
If you have interesting sample games that you’d like to submit for annotation, please submit them via the Contact Us link. Criteria for annotating games include:
The following guest article is written by Jeroen Aga (Geronimoo on Isotropic).
Caravan/Mountebank v. Warehouse/Mountebank
This is a response to the first annotated game on theory‘s blog. That game raises an interesting question: on a board that seems to revolve around the Mountebank, should you go with yaron‘s Caravan/Silver opening, or theory‘s more aggressive Warehouse/Silver?
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Dominion: Seaside
Part of the reason why I hate multiplayer games. If you’re sitting in 4th position and the preceding players all bought Cutpurse, well, you’re kinda hosed. Even 2-player games suffer from Cutpurse, though it’s not quite as bad as Militia (e.g., if both players draw Militia + 4x Copper, player 1 gets a Gold and player 2 gets a crappy $4).
It’s also a peculiar card, in that it’s the only non-trashing card I can think of that’s only helpful in the opening. Of course, if you have the Action, Cutpurse always provides that +$2, but in the late game Coppers 1) are probably gone, 2) are probably hard to hit even if they aren’t, and 3) probably don’t matter anyway. Sometimes this isn’t true, if your opponents are playing some sort of weird Copper strategy (most commonly, Gardens or Coppersmith; Moneylender doesn’t really count since they’re trashing all their Coppers anyway), or if it’s an attack-heavy game and every Copper matters, but frankly I’m usually happy to send my Cutpurse to the Chapel after a couple reshuffles.
That having been said, it’s definitely a brutal attack in the early game. Compare it to Militia, one of the best opening $4’s: in the early game, Militia is only superior if you draw no Victory cards. But even then, Cutpurse is not really all that worse: this ordinarily means a hand of 5 Copper. Militia drops you down to $3, and Cutpurse down to $4. Either way, the damage is done: it’s cutting you off from the $5 that really hurts. (The rare exception is if you hit a Silver + 4x Copper hand, whereupon Militia gets you down to $4 but Cutpurse only to $5. But even then, going from $6 to $5 is still much worse than going from $5 to $4.) And in multiplayer games, as alluded to before, Cutpurse stacks, but Militia doesn’t.
(One can only imagine how ridiculously brutal Cutpurse used to be, when it read “+$2; name a Treasure card; each other player discards it.”)
In other words, Cutpurse is probably one of the best early game attacks, along with Sea Hag, Militia, and Ambassador. If you’re feeling especially vindictive, an early second copy of Cutpurse can work wonders: for example, in this game, Celicath’s second Cutpurse cripples my deck advancement and gets Apprenticed later to boot.
Finally, when paired with Chapel (or similar early trasher), Cutpurse works similarly to a Militia/Chapel opening, in that it is a good way to boost yourself up while hurting your opponent’s trashing. As if first player didn’t already have enough reasons to celebrate Cutpurse being in the set.
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