Combo of the Day #7: Spy/Thief

Posted on November 13, 2010 by theory

Thief is usually a pretty bad attack.  Early game, you do nothing but help your opponents by trashing their Coppers.  Mid game, it’s just not reliable enough to justify spending the terminal Action.  Late game, you mostly end up discarding Victory cards, and even when you do hit a Gold or Silver, it’s too little too late.

Thief becomes much more effective when you have an army of Spies able to hunt through your opponents’ decks until they find Treasure worth stealing.  You should depart from typical Spy norms when you have a Thief in hand—be willing to discard your opponent’s Victory cards and Coppers until you find Silver or Gold.

(Do note that a devious counter to this strategy is willfully refraining from revealing Reaction cards until the Thief is played.  Then all you’ve done is top-deck good Treasure for your opponent, while discarding junk he doesn’t want.)

It’s conceivable that Scrying Pool could replace the Spy, but it’s much less convenient to buy and therefore hard to achieve the critical mass necessary to use the Thieves effectively.

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Combo of the Day #6: Alchemist/Herbalist

Posted on November 12, 2010 by theory

An Alchemist chain needs Potions to keep going.  Herbalist keeps the Potions on the deck, thus saving the Alchemist from having to bog down their deck with Potions.  In addition, the +1 Buy is a nice bonus; big-draw decks often suffer from the too-much-money syndrome, where they have $20 but only one buy.

Herbalist does have the drawback of being a terminal action, which means that reliance on it forecloses the possibility of finishing with other useful terminal actions (Mint, Remodel, attack cards) without some +Action cards mixed in.

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Combo of the Day #5: Ambassador/Curse

Posted on November 12, 2010 by theory

There are maybe two reasons in Dominion to buy Curses: either you want to 3-pile end the game, and you have a sufficiently large lead to buy the remaining Curses and still win, or you’re a mean-spirited player who loves attacking other players so much you’re willing to buy Curses just for the opportunity to give them to your opponents.  This combo is for the latter type of player (assuming they can stay away from Pirate Ship games long enough to notice).

This is a risky strategy unless you can reliably draw your Ambassador with the Curse.  Accordingly, it works best when you have a deck slim enough to consistently draw your whole deck.  Note that you don’t actually have to return the Curse to the Supply in order to give one to your opponents, which saves you from having to buy up a bunch of Curses.  It also lets you double or triple the attack with a Throned or Kinged Ambassador.

Masquerade can sort of substitute for Ambassador, but its biggest drawback is that your opponent will simply start passing the Curses back to you, thus negating the attack altogether.

Sample Game – Both players play Ambassadors, but fiasco goes for Gold instead of Laboratories, and while temporarily richer, the inability to consistently draw his Ambassador costs him in the long run as rrenaud’s consistent two Ambassadors per turn bury his opponent’s deck.

Sample Game – The Tactician allows both Ambassadors to be drawn and played, while the Haven at several points ensures the Curse is in the upcoming Tactician hand.

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Combo of the Day #4: Militia/Masquerade

Posted on November 12, 2010 by theory

As both Militia and Masquerade are terminal Actions, you will need a +Actions card to play both of them together (e.g., Village, Festival, Shanty Town).

This is an especially cruel combo that baits your opponent into discarding his bad cards before forcing him to pass one of his remaining cards to you.  While it doesn’t have quite the sting of a Possessed Ambassador (since your opponent will usually discard Victory cards rather than holding onto them), it can turn Masquerade into a much stronger attack than usual.

Naturally, Goons can be substituted for the Militia.  Torturer can as well, but beware of playing Masquerade when your opponent chooses to take the Curse instead of discarding!

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Counter of the Day #3: Possession v. Ambassador

Posted on November 12, 2010 by theory

This isn’t strictly a “counter”, but it’s absolutely something to watch out for.  Had enough of your opponent’s smug Ambassadors, showing up at your door with unwanted Estates and Coppers?  Simply Possess him, then watch him howl with fury as you Ambassador away two of his Colonies and hand one out to everyone else in the game.  In a two-player game, this can result in a 30VP swing!  In multiplayer games, it is the only way to permanently remove cards from an opponent’s deck with Possession (since it doesn’t count as “trashing”) to directly benefit yourself, and it is a vicious counter to one of the most effective early-game attacks.

In a two-player game, Masquerade is a good substitute, though slightly less effective (since you can only cost the player one card instead of two).  In a multiplayer game, the Possessed Masquerader will be passing cards to someone other than yourself, so you can hurt the Possessed but not help yourself.

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Counter of the Day #2: Secret Chamber v. Pirate Ship

Posted on November 12, 2010 by theory

Secret Chamber is an unusual counter; it doesn’t stop the attack, like Moat does, and Watchtower sometimes does.  But it can render an attack useless (or even helpful), and nowhere is this more evident than Pirate Ship, possibly the most reviled attack in the game.  Simply reveal the Secret Chamber, then replace the top two cards of your deck with non-Treasures (ideally, Victory cards).  A Pirate foolish enough to continue with the attack will only help you, by discarding cards you don’t want.

Secret Chamber works even better against Thief (because the attacker does not have the option not to go through with the attack, and is thus forced to discard your Victory cards), but Thieves are weak enough that you can usually just shrug them off. By contrast, Pirate Ship is one of the strongest attacks in the game. Secret Chamber stands out as one of the few effective defenses against Pirate Ships that doesn’t involve clearing your deck of all your money (which leaves you desperately poor) or surrounding yourself with Moats (which leaves you clogged with terminal +Cards Actions).

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Counter of the Day #1: Library v. Militia

Posted on November 12, 2010 by theory

This is a classic base-game “soft counter” that just about everyone discovers at some point or another.  It’s beautifully simple and powerfully effective — Militia cuts your hand size, but Library draws it right back.  (Added bonus: Libraries can discard unwanted actions, thus eliminating the danger of playing a terminal +Cards only to draw dead Actions.)

Of course, the counter applies equally to Goons and Torturer, and possibly best against Ghost Ship.  And Watchtower can be substituted for Library — you draw one fewer card, but Watchtower also has other uses, especially if you have your own Goons …

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Combo of the Day #3: University/Library

Posted on November 12, 2010 by theory

Generally, Library is nothing more than a slightly glorified Smithy that can conveniently toss aside unwanted Actions.  But its true power, the one that justifies its placement in the elite $5 tier of Actions, is its ability to draw additional cards for each fewer card in your hand.  This might happen when your opponent Militias or Goons you, but it can also happen if you have useful non-terminal, non-self-replacing Actions like Minion.  With Universities and Festivals, though, the Library can become part of an +Action/+Card engine that draws 7 cards at a time — not to mention the benefits you got from the Universities and Festivals themselves!

Watchtower can substitute for Library.  Shanty Towns, Native Villages, Fishing Village, and Festivals can also substitute for the University, but University/Library is one of the rare instances where Dominion makes thematic sense.

Sample game

Although Festivals are generally easier to get and give +2 Coin, Universities have a nice benefit of grabbing you additional Libraries.  In this game, theory also uses Universities to go for a 3-pile ending.  He chooses to grab Woodcutters, which both scores for Vineyards and also helps get them (since Vineyards have such an inconvenient cost).

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Combo of the Day #2: Goons/Watchtower

Posted on November 12, 2010 by theory

Usually playing Goons leaves you with a dilemma: should you weigh down your deck with Coppers to get extra VP chips?  Watchtower solves this problem neatly by trashing the Coppers as they come into your deck, even while you still collect VP chips for them.

Watchtower is also useful when Goons is played against you, since it lets you draw back up to 6 cards.

Sample game

By killing off the Coppers, my Watchtower leaves me with a much more streamlined deck than my opponent.  This, in turn, means I play my Goons more often and earn more VP chips, so I can stall the game as long as I like.  My opponent is forced to rush an ending before my Goons VP chips get out of control, but it’s already too late.

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Combo of the Day #1: Quarry/Talisman

Posted on November 12, 2010 by theory

This combo works especially well with $5 cards that stack together, e.g., Market, City, Laboratory, and to a lesser extent Upgrade. Market is especially well-suited for this role because it provides additional buys, and Cities are incredibly powerful if you empty out another pile of stackable actions, e.g., Spy, Caravan, Conspirator, Market, or Cities themselves.

The Talisman can be replaced (less effectively) by anything else that gives +Buy; the Quarry can be replaced by anything else that reduces the cost of cards (e.g. Bridge, or cheap Peddlers).

Sample game

This game does not feature Talisman per se, but does illustrate the power of Quarries if you can get +Buy.  Yaron uses Quarries and an early Market to stack up Markets, which then rolls into an unstoppable City stack.

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