This spring I hosted my 18th in-person Dominion tournament near Cincinnati, OH. Twelve people made the journey and we crowned the first three-time champion of my tournaments, Nathan — congrats to Nathan and the other players who cashed, Stephen and Ryan! In addition, the venue (Victory Pints) offered a “bonus prize” for one of the players; the player who won a game in the first four rounds with the lowest VP total was given store credit equivalent to a Dominion expansion. This was claimed by Robert, who won a game with 8VP using a Curse pileout.
Here are the standings for the tournament:
1. Nathan
2. Michael
3. Ryan
4. Charlotte
T5. Jonathan
T5. Behram
T5. Stephen
T5. Robert
T9. Josh
T9. John
T9. Kevin
12. DanThis tournament was the first one with the newest expansion, Rising Sun, and with that came a fresh inspiration for the designed kingdoms. In addition to that, I’ve been looking at previous tournament attendance and it’s seeming unlikely at this point that we’ll have more than 16 players; this gives me the knowledge that there will probably be four players left going into the elimination bracket, meaning that I can design kingdoms with the intent to use them for semi-final games and then finals, and third-place match. As always, here’s a link to the spreadsheet that contains all of the prepared kingdoms for this tournament, including the extra kingdoms that didn’t get used.
And now, I’ll go into some more detail about the designed kingdoms I used, and my thoughts on what would happen…
Semifinal kingdom 1: Exorcist, Cemetery, Fairgrounds, Devil’s Workshop, Rice, Gondola, Collection, Scepter, Crystal Ball, Coin of the Realm; Way of the Mouse (Black Market), Shelters
Black Market Deck: Apprentice, Black Cat, Catacombs, Council Room, Crew, Envoy, Frigate, Guard Dog, Haunted Woods, Highwayman, Journeyman, Library, Magnate, Mapmaker, Margrave, Masquerade, Militia, Monkey, Ninja, Old Witch, Patrol, Pilgrim, Rabble, Rice Broker, Ronin, Scholar, Sea Witch, Sheepdog, Smithy, Stowaway, Torturer, Wharf, Witch’s Hut
The two semifinal kingdoms were based around the idea that I wanted to try some things I said I would never do. Most of the reasons I am against Black Market and Divine Wind in tournament kingdoms is because of the extra setup complications, but I decided to put in the extra work to provide a more “unique” experience and try to make kingdoms that still rewarded good play and good adaptation to the game situation in spite of the chaotic nature of both of those card-shaped objects.
With that said, the trick to this one is that there’s Way of the Mouse as Black Market, but there are no action cards in the supply. You do start the game with a Necropolis, and you can get Imps and Will-o-Wisps from the Night cards in the supply, and of course once you play a Black Market and get an action card from there, you’ll have lots of access to the Black Market deck. The contents of the Black Market deck are mostly homogeneous, in that if you looked at three cards from that deck you’ll pretty much always find a card or two that draws, most of them being terminal draw. With this knowledge, you still get a lot of the “fun” from Black Market but you’re able to pretty reliably plan around what you’re to get and when you want to access that draw.
Personally, I’d open with a $5 hand, using Necropolis as Black Market, and try to get a big draw card to setup a Cemetery turn, then get a Devil’s Workshop to enable it. From there I load up on Coins of the Realm and Black Market cards that I balance between draw and payload (more Black Markets). Things change slightly if I find something from the BM deck that trashes but the overall plan is not super different.
If I had it to do again, I probably wouldn’t include Fairgrounds. It fits with the theme of the kingdom, but the game took a very long time and I think cutting Fairgrounds would have helped with that.
Semifinal kingdom 2: Mountain Shrine, Witch, Acting Troupe, Hunting Grounds, Swashbuckler, Relic, Fool’s Gold, Samurai, Craftsman, Fortune Hunter; Divine Wind, Save
Divine Wind kingdom: Worker’s Village, Village, Mining Village, Bazaar, Fishing Village, Fortress, Wandering Minstrel, Port, Mountain Village, Walled Village; Dominate
The contents of the Divine Wind kingdom were not known to the players, but I figured there would be some speculation on what would or wouldn’t be in there. Importantly, there are no +Buy in the main kingdom and there is in the Divine Wind kingdom, so the fact that the Divine Wind kingdom is ten villages is (in my opinion) a mostly irrelevant way to troll the players a bit. Sure the village effect is welcome, and if you suspect there will be better villages than Acting Troupe in the Divine Wind kingdom, you may prioritize the terminal draw you see in the main kingdom, which both players did to an extent. I also think that grabbing Fool’s Golds on lower-money turns from the main kingdom will have value and I’d like to think I’d be doing that.
But the intent with the Divine Wind kingdom was to try and use the extra effects of the villages there to make turns capable of hitting Dominate once deck control is achieved. It’s meant to put the players in an awkward situation and force them to make the best of it.
Finals kingdom: Tragic Hero, Bank, Lurker, Blockade, Treasure Map, Baron, Bandit, Artisan, Pendant, Cabin Boy; Way of the Turtle, Alliance
The theme for this and the third-place kingdom is a bit more mechanical, in that I think the best strategy for both kingdoms at a certain point is to sacrifice your current turns to save up for a huge turn that effectively wins you the game. In this case, with Way of the Turtle being the only village, from very early on in the game it’s important to make use of your terminal space because it becomes the limiting factor in how long it takes to pop off. Tragic Hero and Bank is a very potent payload and Lurker (along with Way of the Turtle to help) can let you add Tragic Heroes to your deck through gaining them directly or through Artisan plays as well. There are enough tools here to really boost your chances of never wasting an action.
Treasure Map can be fun with Way of the Turtle, but I don’t think it’s particularly good here. There should be plenty of payload for that big turn as long as you have enough draw to draw some of the Banks you gain from trashing Tragic Heroes along the way.
Third-place kingdom: Kitsune, Aristocrat, Bridge, Marauder, Overlord, Sycophant, Bureaucrat, Scavenger, Merchant, Menagerie; Biding Time, Gang of Pickpockets
It’s important to note that the triggers for Gang of Pickpockets and adding cards back to hand with Biding Time are both start-of-turn effects, which means you can choose to have Gang of Pickpockets go first. With a 5/2 opening possible here, a Kitsune/Overlord opening seems pretty clear (with the possible exception of some tactical Overlord-As-Menagerie plays), and I expect the Curses to be handed out pretty quickly. The first few turns are relatively simple, junking quickly and picking up another Overlord or two, but after the Prophecy is triggered, I think that Coppers should very rarely be played — you want Biding Time to act as your deck control, and if you think about paying $1 to “thin a Copper from your deck” it’s very frequently worth it.
The next several turns are likely spent playing only Overlords and Kitsunes, and when the Curses run out I think there is value in Overlord-as-Marauder — Spoils is very efficient payload and the junking, while not debilitating, does slow opponents down. The goal is to wait until most of the deck is in hand through Biding Time and add a single Aristocrat and several Bridges to the deck, you’ll probably want to have a 2-3 Bridge turn to pick up the rest of your payload, then just pass turns until you have enough payload to get 6 or more Provinces in a turn. You can use your Overlords as Aristocrats if you need more actions, or Bridges for payload.
Dominion is a game that’s been out there for a long time, it could almost legally be an adult! I’ve noticed that there are fewer new faces at the tournaments, but as long as people still come, I’ll keep hosting them. I’m sure well get to 20 soon, and hopefully we’ll have many more after that.