Caleb Stanford Blog

Most valuable card(s): Jack of All Trades

Jack/Silver (or Jack/Merchant maybe) open is fairly clear. From there, the right strategy here is probably just money-focused. I tried to do Conclave village with Diplomat, Werewolf, and Council Room (and a few other uniques), but it wasn't fast enough compared to money. Also, we both got nice Mint trashes at some point. Another question is whether you can try to go for a Feodum-based strategy, but probably it's still not fast enough.

Most valuable card(s): Hamlet, Peddler, Triumph. Honorable Mention: Scheme, Bridge Troll.

Interesting board because there's cost reduction and gains, but no draw. So you can only hope to get about 5 gains on a given turn. However, the clear interaction is Peddler/Hamlet: if you can play, say, 4 Hamlets, then you can gain 5 Peddlers. So you want to try to get the entire Peddler stack.

I had some unlucky shuffles and my opponent got Scheme instead of Hamlets, which I didn't like at the time, but now I can see the value in an early Scheme or two; it helps line up actions for Peddler. Inventor on the open is good; one or two Bridge Trolls are good, but the deck can't support too many. Then you just Triumph a turn or two, and the game ends on 3-piles.

Most valuable card(s): Diplomat, Lookout, Squire.

This one I'm less sure of. The question is whether a Jack/Money variant is just better than the engine, as it was in Game 1. I skipped Jack so I could trash more aggressively. I love Lookout here. But I lost because I didn't get Diplomats quickly enough and so my opponent found a way to empty the remaining 4 diplomats in a turn. Squire goes well with Diplomat and becomes Giant when trashed with Lookout. Giant is what tipped the balance for me to want to play the engine.

Most valuable card(s): Recruiter, Storeroom, Library. Maybe Charm.

I mainly want to just play with the first three cards, but you can play with most of the board here. Fishing Village for some actions (not as good as Recruiter for actions though, probably); Bandit for Golds which can be trashed; Charm is reasonable but I kinda disrespected it, and only opponent got them, I went heavily for Storeroom/Library. Mission could be good here; one of us should have gotten it (allows getting villagers, and paying off Royal Blacksmith debt). Apothecary could also be good early on and interacts with Storeroom nicely.

Most valuable card(s): Haunted Woods, Cargo Ship, Throne Room.

My opponent went solely for Haunted Woods basically; I ended up winning playing the more interesting deck, with Throne Room, Lurker, Nomad Camp, and of course lots of Haunted Woods draw. Awkward and inconsistent but when you can get like 3 Haunted Woods plays in, you draw a LOT the next turn. The real challenge is doing this fast enough to catch up on the Battlefield points. Silk Roads end up being enough to outscore in the end.

Most valuable card(s): Trader, Crop Rotation.

Not much else to do here but Trader/Money. It would be Soothsayer, but the problem is once you have a Trader or two, the opponent doesn't want to buy Soothsayer: it basically says "opponent gains a Silver", which actually helps them, and it's kinda slow for you. Crop Rotation is good and I slept on it a bit. There is also a trick you can do with Villa and Trader (that both of us seem to have missed): gain the Villa and then trash it for a lot of silvers.

Most valuable card(s): Encampment, Sentry, Dismantle.

Encampment is the only draw here, so I cared a lot about the split (there are only 5 Encampments to go around) and opened Encampment/Dismantle to get an early Gold. Dismantling Estates into Copper and Gold is usually bad, but I made an exception here in order to try activating Encampments early on. Then I aggressively bought Encampments in the following turns, with 1 Masquerade.

However my opponent had 5/2 and opened Sentry/Encampment, then playing Sentry on turns 3, 4, and 5 to become very well-trashed, which was just too strong. In response to this, I had to make risky Encampment plays, hoping to find Gold, but that didn't work out (after doing this twice, and I think it was necessary to risk, the Encampment split went from 3/2 to 1/4).

Some spectators didn't like the Dismantle opening but I think I still like it; getting the Encampment split 3 to 2 seems really valuable to me as it is the only draw, and if you can activate them early with Golds then they are not just dead cards in your deck. No one got Band of Misfits but with an early 5 (maybe the second 5, after Sentry) it is a very flexible terminal, it can be Masquerade, Amulet, or Dismantle, whichever is most useful at the time.

Most valuable card(s): Recruiter, Tragic Hero, Bank.

You can (almost) ignore everything else here. I think Fishing Village is a trap; Actions look nice but the game doesn't last long enough, Silver is better for hitting price points. With Borrow, you open Recruiter, probably with Silver or Sage. Then you just aggressively buy the Tragic Hero stack. When a Tragic Hero pops, it becomes a Bank, and you buy several more Tragic Heroes until they are gone. Then on your last turn you should have played several Tragic Heroes, put several Banks in play, and had enough money for 5 Provinces. I won this. I was also always considering Junk Dealer but there's no time, and besides, trashing the coppers on a big turn hurts your economy since it reduces the value of Bank.

Most valuable card(s): Highway, Counterfeit, Recruiter, Armory.

Highway is on the board and there's gains (Counterfeit and Armory), so this board is about getting lots of Highways and gaining 8 Provinces. Lots of things help along the way; Recruiter and Counterfeit are good trashing, Pooka helps a lot once you have a couple villagers saved, and Scrying Pool is really efficient draw.

Cursed Gold from Pooka makes the opening more interesting. I opened Recruiter/Armory on 5/4; opponent opened Recruiter/Oasis on 6/3. My Recruiter missed the second shuffle, but the Armory also didn't necessarily work out so well. My plan was to gain Potion with it and go for Scrying Pools, but based on the game I think maybe you wait a few turns to get Armory, once you can use it with Highway to gain 5s.

Most valuable card(s): Cursed Village, Storeroom, University, Recruiter.

So many Recruiter boards. This board also has the Cursed Village/Storeroom combo. Urchin is a trap I think; we both skipped it on the opening. The problem is if your Urchins don't collide you are very sad compared to someone who opens with Storeroom/Potion (for example) to make a smooth second shuffle buying University. And then once they have Cursed Villages, the discard attack doesn't hurt them and might help them. The Mercenary trashing is good for you, but it's not clear there is time for it.

I opened Storeroom/Silver and opponent opened Storeroom/Potion; then we both get 2 Universities, a Recruiter, and Cursed Villages and Storerooms (in some order). Recruiter makes Storeroom really nice because you can play it first if you don't have a Cursed Village in hand. I was ahead but almost lost this; my opponent had a pile-out but misplayed it. Maybe I also had a pile-out on the previous turn, but it was hard to say.

Most valuable card(s): Highway, Forager. Honorable Mention: Lost City and Courtyard.

Another Highway board with +Buy, so the goal is to get Highways and trash down with Forager, then buy 8 Provinces. I don't think I totally misplayed this, but my opponent built more efficiently and was ahead. I opened Forager/Silver because I want to hit 5 early, then bought a second Forager and third later. Opponent opened Jester/Courtyard (you have to buy something on 5/2 and Jester makes some sense). We both got 2 Lost Cities but I think only getting 1 might be OK here, Highway might just be better. Also you get Markets once you are trashed down and need the +Buy in place of Forager, but at that point the game is already basically over due to piles.

Most valuable card(s): Research, Treasure Trove, Counterfeit, Goons.

There are no actions, but Research is technically draw. It needs food to trash and set aside a lot of cards -- Gold is perfect for this, and Treasure Trove gains Golds. So you can combine these to play a deck which draws a lot of cards every turn (half the deck, roughly), and plays Goons hopefully every turn, and uses Counterfeit and Upgrade to trash extra Coppers and such.

The difficulty is that a money strategy should be very fast as well, just buying a lot of money cards with Counterfeit, Goons, Treasure Trove. This is what my opponent did, and also got Marauder to junk me, although it seems the Marauder wasn't too effective in the end (there is not enough time to play terminals other than Goons, I guess).

It was cool to see my more-interesting deck win in the end! I made some misplays but still bought enough points over two turns (3 provinces, 3 duchies, and an estate I believe). It was close, but if I had not misplayed, based on spectator comments, I think my deck strategy is a lot better and it would not have been close.

Most valuable card(s): Donate, Peasant, Artisan, Knights, Torturer.

I was player 1 on a Donate board, so I should be basically guaranteed to win this, but after an early unlucky draw on turn 5, I thought I was behind and some of my plays were quite questionable.

Turn 1 is buy Peasant and turn 2 is donate down to 4 coppers and a Peasant. Except if you have 5/2 you can Donate turn 1, buy Peasant turn 2 which is even better. Then you want Artisan as fast as possible. From here is where I messed up; I got Mystic instead of Artisan to be safe so that my shuffle was guaranteed, which seems reasonable, but then I got more Mystic and Shanty Town, basically as utility cards to line up shuffles when I should have just gone straight for Torturer and Acting Troupe to start drawing and attacking. My opponent got Torturer and Acting Troupe in play faster, with a couple Artisans and Disciple to gain stuff. From there, you get Knights, and once you play a few knights it's completely devastating. My deck was trashed down to 6 cards, and from there it is mainly trying desperate things in hopes of an early pile-out or something.

Most valuable card(s): Chariot Race, Forum, Baker, Recruiter, Magic Lamp.

There is no draw, but Forum and Chariot Race work well together to allow us to set up points every turn if we are careful about it, especially if opponent gets unlucky. Baker is good because there is nothing better to build to, it doesn't reduce hand size and it allows stockpiling coffers for having a double-Province pile out threat. Recruiter and Magic Lamp are good for the usual reasons: excellent in the early game to accelerate Estate trashing and gain a lot of good cards at once when the Lamp pops. Druid is also good to get because it has Flame's Gift for copper trashing and gives +Buy.

I was behind early because my opponent popped Lamp first, but later I was ahead because I had Bakers and opponent didn't, so I had a lot of coffers to win on the last turn. I made a pretty bad endgame misplay that thankfully didn't cost me the game.

Most valuable card(s): Amulet, Menagerie, Pathfinding, Devil's Workshop. Honorable mention: Warehouse.

Initial observations about the board: (1) Limited on gains -- there is no way to double-Colony in a turn, but there are some restricted ways to gain extra cards, like Sculptor, Devil's Workshop, Amulet, Duplicate, and I suppose Contraband. (2) Limited on actions -- the only way to play multiple terminals is by saving up villagers with Sculptor, which looks difficult. (3) Draw is excellent, mainly Pathfinding looks good, and the best Pathfinding target looks like Menagerie (turning it into a better-than-lab). Menagerie/Warehouse also looks like a reasonably strong interaction. (4) Amulet is premium trashing.

Building for something strange like Sculptor villagers or Duplicate gains seems not worth it for two reasons: Wall (means lots of minus points) and Colony/Platinum (means small amounts of points don't matter so much compared to just getting Colonies).

So we elect to play with a very clean deck of 2 Amulets, Menageries with Pathfinding and a couple Warehouses, enough money to get Platinum and then Colony, and Devil's Workshop to gain a Menagerie every turn. I also played with a second Devil's Workshop to get some imps, later trashing it to save Wall points. I got a super lucky early draw with Menagerie triggering for +3 cards twice, allowing me to buy Pathfinding early. This probably decided the game, but my opponent also made some very strange buys like Caravan Guard and didn't go for Pathfinding on Menagerie, which seems like really the thing to do here.

Most valuable card(s): Overlord, Mountebank, Remake.

If you can get an early lead on this board, you can play 2 or 3 mountebanks a turn and completely drown the opponent's deck in junk. So the goal is to trash down as much as possible and play Mountebank every turn.

Remake open is clear; I also bought Ferry on Mountebank which I think was a mistake; I think Overlord is better. Overlord is very flexible; you can trash if you need to do more trashing, play it as Recruiter if it collides with another action, and play it as Mountebank if you want to attack. I think getting about 2 Overlords early is crucial. I lost partly because I didn't get the Overlords, but also because my Remake missed the shuffle, so I ended up behind and being drowned in junk. Commentators seemed less critical of my play than I thought, so maybe it was mainly the Remake missing.

Most valuable card(s): Peddler, Training, Pixie, and Candlestick Maker. Possible honorable mentions: Minion, Talisman?

Peddler looks really good especially with Training, so we want to hit several actions in play with several buys early. That makes an early Candlestick Maker or two good (I even opened Candlestick Maker), and that also makes Pixie could because several of the boons help a lot with this: Swamp's Gift (getting Wisps that can help with having actions in play), and Forest's Gift (landing it on the right turn means two more Peddlers).

Both of us got Plan on Pixie early to help trash more quickly, buying Pixies and Candlestick Makers. I bought Minion, which I think paid off for the attack; a single Shanty Town early on is also quite good (I opened it) because it is guaranteed to draw. However, my opponent got the right boons at the right time, so was very ahead on Peddlers, and had Training on Peddler as well, and it was too hard to catch up from there. Something I'm wondering about is whether early Talisman is good; some Spectators brought it up as a possible option, as it allows draining Pixies or Peddlers very quickly. I bought it only later as a pile-out threat, but I was already behind and had not enough economy, so my opponent just bought Province and I had no effective response to that.

Most valuable card(s): Steward, Patron, Watchtower, and Dominate. Honorable mention: Forum.

This is my favorite board from the set. There is premium trashing (Steward or Amulet). But there are no actions besides Patron villagers, and no consistent way to draw. So the question is, how can you build to Dominate, if at all? (Building to Dominate usually wins, if it is possible, because Dominate is just a ton of points.)

There are basically two ways. One of them is to use Forum and Crypt with several Golds in deck; Forum can sift through and find the Golds, and Crypt can set aside money to give you a six-card hand for the next several turns. The other way is to use Patron and Watchtower: Patron can save up villagers early, then you build to a deck of like, 6 Patrons, a Watchtower or maybe 2, and Steward (leftover from trashing stuff), with everything else trashed.

My opponent went for the Forum/Crypt idea, and I built the Patron/Watchtower deck. Patron/Watchtower in the end was stronger. I also had 2 Forums to help sift through and find the right hand to kick off. But it was a close game: we both hit Dominate on I think 3 consecutive turns, but finally on the 4th turn my opponent missed Dominate.

Most valuable card(s): Sculptor, Magic Lamp. Honorable Mention: Werewolf, Hunting Grounds, Conquest?

This is a messy and difficult board. Again no +actions except Sculptor villages (how does this keep happening?). So the natural deck to build is basically Money, with some good cards for that being Poacher and Sculptor.

Sculptor has some nice interactions however: if it gains Silver you can save up a few villagers, which makes Werewolf or Hunting Grounds pretty good to buy. And if you happen to line up several Sculptors, as well as maybe a Wine Merchant, you can double Conquest for a lot of points. For example, 3 Sculptors + Wine Merchant means 5 + 7 = 12 VP.

The other thing about the board is Orchard points: you want 3 of, at least, Poacher, Secret Cave, and Sculptor, probably Werewolf also. So you end up building this really messy deck with a bunch of treasures and lots of actions. Werewolf is maybe nicer than Hunting Grounds because if you don't have the villagers to waste on it, you can just use it to attack. I lost probably because I went to hard for Orchard points; I bought 3 Wine Merchants, which just clog the deck basically, and I didn't save enough villagers to pull enough good Conquest turns to catch up, while my opponent was just Provincing.

I am curious if playing for a big megaturn here is viable (with Sculptor and Conquest points). You want to have a few Sculptors and Wine Merchants in deck, and several Werewolves and Hunting Grounds. In the game, it was not possible for me to go for this because I didn't save enough villagers; I used a couple villagers in order to pop Magic Lamp.

Most valuable card(s): Lackeys, Sentry, Count, Grand Market, Throne Room, Poor House.

I won this as second player, and this is the kind of board where first player should generally win. We both got Lackeys Silver on the open, and Sentry as first 5, but I got Count as the second 5, which seemed to pay off. Sentry only lets you trash from deck, and Count means you can trash from hand which is very valuable, and then once you are thin you can hit Grand Market very soon after. Lackeys is for early accelerating turns to hit good price points and trashing.

Once you are trashed down you just want to hit Grand Market as soon as possible, and soon after Poor House, Throne Room, etc. I'm not convinced by Bazaar (I don't want it here, would rather have Throne Room on Grand Market for actions, with Lackeys to help).