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I know the most obvious combos with Scout - use it with Action-Victory and Treasure-Victory cards, perhaps use it with cards like Wishing Well where knowing the top card of your deck helps - but outside of cases like those where it happens to come up alongside a card with which it obviously works very well, is there any real use for it? The cost is $4, which seems rather high to me, yet it compares unfavourably to Silver in almost every game.
Is there some strong use for it, besides the really obvious combos, that justifies buying it when Great Hall and friends aren't available? Or is it really nigh-useless except in those cases? (Yes, I do know that it gets Victory cards out of your next hand and lets you decide what cards like Village will draw next, but those effects never seemed strong enough to justify the $4 cost and deck slot.)
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Paul W
United States
Eugene
Oregon
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The way I've always looked at it is that it's a wash if it pulls one victory card, a net gain if it pulls at least two, and a waste if it pulls none. I also find it a very lackluster card. I suppose you might be able to use it with tournaments to line provinces more frequently, but tat strikes me as pretty questionable.
Looking over my own play, it's one of my 10 least commonly purchased cards...so in short, I agree with your assessment.
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fizzmore wrote: The way I've always looked at it is that it's a wash if it pulls one victory card, a net gain if it pulls at least two, and a waste if it pulls none.
I actually see it as worse than that - even if it only pulls one Estate, it can make me reshuffle my deck sooner (even if I'm not drawing anything new, so it just means my new purchase won't be shuffled in), and it makes it more likely that I'll get a dead card more quickly.
And that's just comparing it to having nothing at all in the deck, when it should really be compared to having Silver or a decent 4-buy.
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Slightly underrated IMO. If you have, say two of these in your deck you can start buying VP's a little earlier. Also, whenever you have +card after this, it can really make a huge difference.
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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
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So far, we've seen:
- Draw multi-type Victory cards, which can then be played.
- Stack the deck for cards like Wishing Well.
- Fish for Victory cards (such as Provinces for Tournament or Estates for Baron).
- Allow you to shift to the Victory card end-game sooner.
To which I would add:
- Defend against cards like Bureaucrat and Rabble.
- Support an early-and-often Victory card strategy like Gardens and Dukes.
It's not utterly awesome in every game, but few cards are. It's worth getting often enough to make it worthwhile, I think.
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Jeremy Volk
United States
Eagan
Minnesota
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In other words, at it's price, it is not ALWAYS worth buying, but in certain cases it can help form your strategy. I will say that I don't buy it often, but when it's appropriate, it's a lot of fun.
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Bryan Maxwell
United States
Burtchville
Michigan
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Put it between the spokes of your bike.
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Edward Montgomery
United States
Moraga
California
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It combos well with Cellar. Not sure if that was on your "obvious" list or not. Gives you more stuff to throw away and/or allows you to select what you will draw.
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John Hodge
United States
North Carolina
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It's especially useful with Islands, as it draws the Island and the other Victory cards to hide away with it, and gives the extra action to play the Island.
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Nevin Steindam
United States
Lakewood
Ohio
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I like the card. It's certainly not worth buying in every set, but the fact that it is so dependent on combos makes it more interesting than a brute-force card like Witch or Chapel.
Everyone knows that it works wonderfully with the Victory cards that have some other benefit, and it's somewhat helpful if you have a strategy that involves buying lots of straight victory cards (such as Gardens or Duke).
As Edge pointed out, it's good for cards that reward you simply for having cards in your hand.
It's a defense against attacks like Ghost Ship or Bureaucrat, since it removes the Victory cards you end up putting on top of the deck.
The ability to reorder upcoming cards can be great if you're using Wishing Well, Loan, or other cards that will deal with the top of your deck. Depending on the attacks out there, it may be great to use Secret Chamber during your opponents' turns, stashing away Victory cards that you'll then get out of the way on your turn with Scout. Or use it with Horse Traders, to ensure that you DO have Victory cards in your hand before searching for a differently-named card.
Sometimes there are other reasons to want Victory cards in your hand. Consider Tournament, as well. You'd need to be careful NOT to play your Scout if the Tournament is still lower in your draw pile, but I suspect that it would speed up the race to the Prize cards overall.
In short, it's a card that only does a little on its own, but can do a lot of different things with other cards. That's exactly the sort of thing that makes Dominion a more interesting game than Thunderstone and the others.
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Moises Del Mar
Costa Rica
Quepos
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works very, very well with a bunch of harems, nobles, islands, great halls, etc, etc
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Ron Laufer
United States
Millington
New Jersey
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Edge wrote: It combos well with Cellar. Not sure if that was on your "obvious" list or not. Gives you more stuff to throw away and/or allows you to select what you will draw. And similarly well (if not better) with Secret Chamber or Vault.
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John H
United States
Reston
Virginia
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Cellar + Scout is conditional, but powerful.
Navigator + Scout as well.
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Mark Judd
United States
Mapleton
Utah
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gonzoron wrote: Edge wrote: It combos well with Cellar. Not sure if that was on your "obvious" list or not. Gives you more stuff to throw away and/or allows you to select what you will draw. And similarly well (if not better) with Secret Chamber or Vault.
Yes! I was a bit behind on this thread, but while reading this Vault was one of the first things that came to mind. Use Scout to pick up any extra victory cards for +$1 fodder for the Vault and place whatever other two cards you want to draw on top of your deck - less desirable actions that you might not want to draw in your next hand for additional +$1 each or whatever treasure you want/need to buy a specific card.
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V L
United States
Virginia
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Scout + Hunting Party = incredibly strong.
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Jeremy Volk
United States
Eagan
Minnesota
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Neo42 wrote: Scout + Hunting Party = incredibly strong. I don't see it.
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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
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BaconSnake wrote: Neo42 wrote: Scout + Hunting Party = incredibly strong. I don't see it.
If you draw Victory cards into your hand with Scout, Hunting Party will bypass additional copies of them. If you have an undesirable non-Victory card in your hand (such as Copper or Curse), you can front-load any copies that you encounter with Scout, so they will be bypassed and discarded. In general, you have limited control over what Hunting Party puts into your hand.
Edit to add disclaimer: This should not be taken as evidence that I agree the combination is "incredibly" strong.
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Jeremy Volk
United States
Eagan
Minnesota
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I saw that much, but I assumed there was more, since that barely increases the usefulness of either card. You're still faced with the problem of Scout not doing anything most of the time. Hunting party x2 is a much better combo.
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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
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BaconSnake wrote: I saw that much, but I assumed there was more, since that barely increases the usefulness of either card. You're still faced with the problem of Scout not doing anything most of the time. Hunting party x2 is a much better combo.
Unless all four cards are the same non-Victory card, Scout always has something it could do. Getting to reorder the cards you put back may not be the primary ability of Scout, but it's far from useless. In combination with Hunting Party, it's actually pretty good. Not killer, but not useless, either.
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