|
Andrew Wilkins
United States
Michigan
-
...it's just different.
Dominion: Alchemy brings a new flavor to the Dominion family. First and foremost, it adds Potions as a brand new resource to the game. Potions are used to purchase many of the cards in this set. It is also the only expansion to suggest using 3-5 cards from this set when playing with this expansion because of the new resource and to make Potion took a little more attractive as a buying option. Alchemy focuses on actions and chaining them together which can make for some interesting turns. Here is a card-by-card analysis:
Potion - I've always seen this as "Silver+" based on its cost and a comparison of similar cards to the base game. The easiest example is Alchemist. Alchemist costs $3+p and has the same action (+2 cards, +1 action) as Laboratory (cost $5) but has the bonus of being able to put it back on your deck if you have a Potion in play. However, Potion has a glaring downside in that it is basically a dead card if you aren't using it to purchase a card with it in its cost. You really only need one or two in your deck to have the intended effect in most games.
Alchemist - As I described above, it is basically Laboratory with a bonus. Alchemists are easily spammed and this is one of the situations where it may be useful to have 2 or 3 potions lying around in your deck to make sure your Alchemists return the top of the deck. The consistant card bonus you gain with a chain of Alchemists will be worth it to have an extra potion or two. It combos very well with itself.
Apothecary - This card interacts with your Potions and Coppers by allowing you to put them into your hand. The best use of this card is to use it at the end of an Alchemist chain in order to have a better chance of getting that Potion into your hand. Other than that, this card has limited uses.
Apprentice - One of the slower trashers, but it allows you to draw cards equal to the cost of the card you trashed. Very effective in the late game to start trashing those $5+ action cards for a large hand.
Familiar - A non-terminal Witch. Curses will go fast with these in play. This is probably the biggest go-to card in this set as even if this is the only Alchemy card in play, it is more than worth it to get your hands on some of these. Nothing is more fun than playing 2 or 3 Familiars on a single turn.
Golem - One of the more interesting cards in the set. It searches through your deck for 2 action cards and plays them in the order you choose. You never know what you are going to get (the randomness of this card), but it is a good way to play two terminals on one turn without a "village"-type in play. A fun trick is to have this and two or three other actions in your deck. Those actions will be played at a high frequency with the ability of Golem to search them out and play them. You have to be a little careful with Golem though as you have to play the two cards drawn. Drawing a mandatory trashing card with Golem when you don't want to trash anything can turn out to be disasterous.
Herbalist - Good for the +buy if you really need it... but not much else. Although this is nice when it shows up with a Gold!
Philosopher's Stone - Awesome in bloated decks. Picking up a few of these and watching them reach $5+ in a "bloat deck" game is a fun feeling. Obviously they aren't good in games with trashing (small decks) or big draw games. You need to have a decent amount of cards in your deck/discard when it is played for this to be useful.
Possession - The most hated card in the game. The concensus seems to be that this card combos best with lighter fluid/match. It's something about the "I'm going to use your stuff for my benefit and there's nothing you can do about it" nature of this card that irks a lot of people. Not to mention that it can be very random as I could possess a strong hand while my opponent may possess a weak hand. There are a few ways to combat Possession: Bishops or any card that gives you VP tokens. Attack cards also provide a deterrant to Possession and even Duration cards to an extent since they will benefit the possesed player on their next turn. Obviously, there are cards to be avoided when Possession is in play. Ambassador and Masquerade come to mind... and unless you like your prized VP cards disappearing into your opponent's deck, avoid these cards at all costs. Trash-for-benefit cards such as Salvager and Apprentice should also be bought with caution as your opponent can use these without any reservations when possessing you. Having them will not harm your deck per se but they make it more inviting to possess.
Scrying Pool - A great card to have in action heavy decks as it will pick up as many cards as it can as long as they are actions. It also doubles as a Spy.
Transmute - It's another card that is useful early and late in the game but not as much in the middle. It is useful early on for turning your Estates into Gold and useful late to turn actions into Duchies.
University - In most cardsets, it is another must-buy even if it is the only Alchemy card. The ability to gain $5 action cards should not be underrated. It's very useful for building action chains at an accelerated pace.
Vineyard - A perfect victory card for this set... one that awards VPs based on the number of actions that you have. Great with +buy cards in play, since so often it seems like a waste to buy one of these when a potion shows up with a large amount of coin. It gets better when there are action cards that allow you to gain more action cards in play and better still when these action cards are useful.
Dominion: Alchemy may stand out from the rest of the Dominion family as being a little special or different, but without it Dominion just doesn't feel right and would be missing an important theme (action-based strategies). It is a nice contrast to the feel of the base game which seems to favor Big Money strategies.
-
Werner Bär
Germany
Karlsruhe
Baden
-
andwilk9176 wrote: Golem - You have to be a little careful with Golem though as you have to play the two cards drawn. Drawing Chapel with Golem when you have a strong hand can turn out to be disasterous.
Chapel - no, since you can trash up to 4 cards with chapel - including 0.
But there are other dangerous trashers like upgrade with only gold and provinces in hand.
-
René van Bussel
Netherlands
-
andwilk9176 wrote: Golem - One of the more interesting cards in the set. It searches through your deck for 2 action cards and plays them in the order you choose. You never know what you are going to get (the randomness of this card), but it is a good way to play two terminals on one turn without a "village"-type in play. A fun trick is to have this and two or three other actions in your deck. Those actions will be played at a high frequency with the ability of Golem to search them out and play them. You have to be a little careful with Golem though as you have to play the two cards drawn. Drawing Chapel with Golem when you have a strong hand can turn out to be disasterous.
I agree that carefulness is required with the Golem, however your example Chapel is not disastrous. Trashing zero cards when playing Chapel is perfectly valid. Cards like Remodel or Remake are more dangerous.
Edit:5 minutes late to the party.
-
Patrick Grogan
United States
Renfrew
Pennsylvania
"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals." Agent K. Oh my what he would think of people had he known about what the internet would become.....
-
I liked the comparison... mostly because I love alchemy and love redheads. Always the craziest.
-
Andrew Wilkins
United States
Michigan
-
Werbaer wrote: andwilk9176 wrote: Golem - You have to be a little careful with Golem though as you have to play the two cards drawn. Drawing Chapel with Golem when you have a strong hand can turn out to be disasterous. Chapel - no, since you can trash up to 4 cards with chapel - including 0. But there are other dangerous trashers like upgrade with only gold and provinces in hand.
Yes, you are right (I've edited to correct the mistake). I don't know why I was thinking that Chapel had to trash 4 cards... 
-
David Goldfarb
United States
Houston
Texas
-
One use for Herbalist that you didn't mention is to keep your Alchemist chains going -- if you have played an Herbalist, you can put that Potion back on your deck along with the Alchemists.
-
Mario Alvarez
Mexico
Tlalpan
Mexico City
-
I think we are due for another basic treasure card, maybe one that combines with potion and doesn't need normal coins to buy things. Complicated but might work.
-
David Goldfarb
United States
Houston
Texas
-
Horn of Plenty doesn't need normal coins to buy things, and combines with Potion inasmuch as playing a Potion before it lets you buy a card $1 more expensive than you would otherwise.
-
Mark Judd
United States
Mapleton
Utah
-
David Goldfarb wrote: One use for Herbalist that you didn't mention is to keep your Alchemist chains going -- if you have played an Herbalist, you can put that Potion back on your deck along with the Alchemists.
Herbalist's +Buy and top-decking ability also combos well with Philosopher's Stone.
-
Mark Judd
United States
Mapleton
Utah
-
andwilk9176 wrote:
Possession - The most hated card in the game. The concensus seems to be that this card combos best with lighter fluid/match. It's something about the "I'm going to use your stuff for my benefit and there's nothing you can do about it" nature of this card that irks a lot of people. Not to mention that it can be very random as I could possess a strong hand while my opponent may possess a weak hand. There are a few ways to combat Possession: Bishops or any card that gives you VP tokens. Attack cards also provide a deterrant to Possession and even Duration cards to an extent since they will benefit the possesed player on their next turn. Obviously, there are cards to be avoided when Possession is in play. Ambassador and Masquerade come to mind... and unless you like your prized VP cards disappearing into your opponent's deck, avoid these cards at all costs. Trash-for-benefit cards such as Salvager and Apprentice should also be bought with caution as your opponent can use these without any reservations when possessing you. Having them will not harm your deck per se but they make it more inviting to possess.
Another nice counter to Possessions is to fill your own deck with victory cards, especially once you have a Possession or two of your own. I once played a game where I was able to trash most of my other actions and treasure leaving a handful of victory cards and Possessions in my deck. My opponent continued with their own action chaining/Possessions strategy. They couldn't understand why they kept playing my hands with 4 green cards and a Possession and no buying power. On their possessed turns, I would use their cards to either buy more Possessions or victory cards.
I disagree about duration cards being a deterrent for someone to play Possessions. On the contrary, if you are playing durations, your opponent gets the benefit when they possess you. They can take advantage of the extra cards/actions from Tactician, Wharf, Caravan, etc. on the possessed turn and leave you with a clean slate on your next turn if they wish (no durations in play).
-
Jeff Wolfe
United States
Columbus
Ohio
Zendo fan, Columbus Blue Jackets fan, Dominion Fan. These are 'permanent microbadges' to free up space on my microbadge row
-
David Goldfarb wrote: Horn of Plenty doesn't need normal coins to buy things, and combines with Potion inasmuch as playing a Potion before it lets you buy a card $1 more expensive than you would otherwise.
Horn of Plenty does not buy cards, it gains them. For example, if you use Horn of Plenty to obtain a Mint, you do not trash your Treasure cards in play.
-
-
Chapel may not be the best example, but Golem can be dangerous. My first two games of Alchemy both demonstrated in different ways Golem's potential to backfire with other Alchemy cards.
The first game, someone ran a couple Golems with other Actions, including Transmute. Golem hit Transmute, so they trashed a Copper to get another Transmute. This lead to Golems hitting more Transmutes which lead to more Coppers being turned into more Transmutes... and they lost to a simple Fishing Village + Wharf deck before they could turn them all into Duchies and actually get something useful out of it.
The second game, everyone (it was four-player) went for Golem and everyone went for Possession. We made a full circle around the table of people Possessing someone, having them play Golem, and having it hit Possession, giving the original victim a turn to Possess the next player...
That being said, these are relatively rare cases, especially since most cards that force you to trash something give you something in return of value proportional to what you trashed. Be careful when running Golem with Remake, but Golem with Remodel probably won't lose you the game.
-
|
|
|
Posted Wed Aug 10, 2011 2:16 pm
