|
|
Line 1: |
Line 1: |
− | {{Improve}}
| |
− |
| |
| {{Infobox Card | | {{Infobox Card |
| |name = Witch | | |name = Witch |
Line 11: |
Line 9: |
| }} | | }} |
| | | |
− | '''Witch''' is an [[Action]]-[[Attack]] card from the [[Base]] set. It is a [[curser]] that provides a small amount of [[terminal draw]]. Witch, like most other cursers, is a very powerful card and can rarely be ignored. | + | '''Witch''' is an [[Action]]-[[Attack]] card from the [[Base]] set. It is a [[curser]] that provides a small amount of [[terminal draw]]. |
| | | |
| == FAQ == | | == FAQ == |
Line 20: |
Line 18: |
| | | |
| === Other Rules clarifications === | | === Other Rules clarifications === |
− | == Strategy Article == | + | == Strategy == |
− | ''Original article by schadd''
| + | Witch is a [[curser]] and [[terminal draw]] card from the [[Base]] set. It can be centralizing in many [[Kingdom|Kingdoms]], especially if trashing {{Card|curse|Curses}} is difficult. |
− | ===Background===
| + | |
− | If you ask your grandma who played Dominion a lot, way back when, to tell you about Witch, she'll say, ah, Witch. The greatest [[Big Money|money]] card to ever do it. Absolutely dominates any game without chapel, and dominates most games with it, too. And you'll be like, grandma? I think you might need a bit of strategy help and/or medication. But no—she's just from a different time, and I would say her description is pretty accurate for first edition [[Dominion (Base Set) |base]]: {{Card|curse}}s were so horridly sticky and annoying back then. And one might be tempted to say, well, it's not first edition base anymore, get with the times; however, your grandma's experiences still illuminate an important point about Witch that is surprisingly easy to let oneself forget: in a board with weak [[trasher |trashing]] and weak [[engine]] stuff (or weak engine players, perhaps—I don't mean to speak ill of your grandma but pretty much nobody was a ''good'' engine player back then), Witch-BM will kinda crush anything, really hard. {{Card|Cultist}}-BM, even.
| + | |
− | | + | |
− | Witch teaches one of the ugliest lessons to the early dominion player: {{Card|curse}}s and {{Card|Ruined Village|other}} {{Card|Estate|types}} of {{Card|Gold|junk}} are way worse for your deck than you would think, and once you have even ''5'' curses the game starts to feel like trying to operate a loom in the middle of a swamp while getting attacked by mosquitoes that keep saying the word "moist" in the voice of a celebrity you don't like. Let's think of it this way—{{Card|Laboratory}} is a card that essentially means, when you draw this card, draw 2 cards instead. Note the price tag on that card: 5 big ones. That's pretty expensive if I do say so. {{Card|Curse}} has essentially the opposite effect as {{Card|Laboratory}}: every time you hit in your deck, you draw, uh, 0-ish cards instead of 1. That means that every time your opponent plays a Witch, you have to buy an entire Laboratory to counteract it, sorta kinda. And lastly, it gives -1 victory point, which adds up. Adds up to 10 that is, eventually. Which is a lot.
| + | |
− | | + | |
− | ===Engine Vs. BM===
| + | |
− | | + | |
− | So why does Witch turn boards into money boards instead of engines, absent trashing? Shouldn't curses hurt both of them the same, costing one card whenever you draw it? Well, it turns out that engine and BM have different detriments from losing one card, illustrated by the following graph, comparing engine and BM towards the end of the game.
| + | |
− | | + | |
− | [[File:Witchgraph.png]] | + | |
− | | + | |
− | BM is orange, engine is green.
| + | |
− | | + | |
− | The only thing, really, that matters in BM is how much money you get in each hand. Curses hurt, sure, but they only hurt ''linearly''—that is, if you only have 4/5 or 3/5 as many cards as you usually would, it only hurts your expected money by about 1/5 or 2/5, which often means you can still buy something that will help you. However, in engine, you will typically need to have a specific arrangement of cards in order for your turn to work out the way you want it to. If you're building your deck right, usually your deck will be (approximately usually more or less) 50% devoted to drawing itself and the rest is [[payload]]; if your starting hand has a sufficient amount of the 50% that draws then you'll typically be able to draw your whole deck, but if it doesn't, you oftentimes can't do anything of use. Because of how probability works, having 4 or 5 goods cards gives you a ''way'' better chance of getting an ideal arrangement than 2 or 3, so a curse will hurt your chances of buying a bunch of stuff more than it does in big money.
| + | |
− | | + | |
− | So, Witch tends to bring about a non-[[engine]] environment more than most cards do, and Witch-BM will beat pretty much any single-card non-engine strategy, even {{Card|Rebuild}}. However, here's a bombshell: most games with Witch on the board nowadays are engines. What!? There are two key reasons for this:
| + | |
− | | + | |
− | *[[trasher|trashing]] is good, and
| + | |
− | *engines are really, really good.
| + | |
− | | + | |
− | First, trashing. One of the least ugly (and in fact, very pleasant and clean) lessons that is taught to the early Dominion player is that trashing is really strong. You have probably encountered that notion at some point yourself, dear reader. Receiving curses will always hurt you (using the Dominion definition of "always", which means "about 99% of the time"), but it also increases the potential value of your [[trasher]] since it has more stuff it can trash. That's a weird way of putting it, I suppose, but that's what the benefit is. If you trash a curse, the -VP and (future) damage to your draw are totally neutralized. Do note, however, that this is very much not the same as never having received the curse.
| + | |
− | | + | |
− | Secondly, engines. I dunno if you noticed, but in the graph I claimed that engine will at some point be able to end the game if you draw 5 good cards. And before that point, you can like double the output of your deck if you can't end the game. At present, there are so many good [[action]] cards that trying to play those a bunch of times instead of [[treasure]] cards is very often the right thing, Witch included.
| + | |
− | | + | |
− | ===In Closing===
| + | |
| | | |
− | I think the most important takeaway is that Witch is a very strong card <s>witch</s> which has withstood the test of time. I would very much hesitate to say that trashing counters it—note that if you played a Witch, and your opponent played something like {{Card|Trade Route}} that trashed the curse and did close to nothing else, you net drew one card and they're down two cards. That's still really good for you. Unless your opponent would rather have an extra curse to trash (e.g. in the cases of {{Card|Forager}} and {{Card|Altar}}), you are attacking them pretty meaningfully in addition to drawing cards for yourself. While Witch-BM, where Witch is most dominant (it's pretty much the best BM card), is fading away, Witch is still super powerful in an engine environment. I feel that it's somewhat easy to confuse Witch's elegance and simplicity with being boring and outclassed by other cursers, and I feel that it's also somewhat easy to forget or miss the benefit it still has even if you don't ''drown'' your opponent in junk like other cards sometimes can. Witch is probably my favorite attack and there's a reason this configuration is what appeared in the first set.
| + | {{Card|Curse|Curses}} in your opponents’ decks serve two primary purposes: |
| + | # {{Card|Curse|Curses}} are [[stop card|stop cards]] that reduce the average value of the cards in their deck. Adding more {{Card|curse|curses}} to your opponent’s deck makes it harder for them to draw through their deck. Lining up cards that benefit from being drawn together (e.g. {{Card|Village}}/{{Card|Smithy}}) becomes less likely. |
| + | # {{Card|Curse|Curses}} give negative {{VP}} if they are not trashed by the end of the game. |
| + | Because of this, Witch often leads to longer games. |
| | | |
| + | In the absence of [[Trasher|trashing]], an initial priority should be to deal out more {{Card|Curse|Curses}} than your opponents before the pile is empty. Purchasing an early Witch, ideally as your first {{Cost|5}} card, is a good way to ensure that you “win the {{Card|Curse}} split”: dealing out more {{Card|Curse|Curses}} than your opponents. A second Witch may help you distribute {{Card|Curse|Curses}} even faster. Games with Witch and no trashing are likely to be [[slog|slogs]]. |
| | | |
− | In a [[Dominion League]] match between myself, a mediocre and okay Dominion player, and Mic Qsenoch, the best or almost best Dominion player, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2kauL57rhQ| where we both agreed to include Witch] in every board, Witch was somewhere between a strong ancillary card to a central part of the game throughout. Mic notes at the end that "this match didn't have Witch skipped at all...Witch is a good card, we found out here, today, for the first time."
| + | Even when trashing is available, Witch can still be an efficient way to slow down your opponents’ decks, unless the trashing is very strong (e.g. kingdoms with {{Card|Chapel}}). Getting control of your deck becomes more difficult if you need to trash {{Card|Curse|Curses}} as well as your starting cards. Many trashers, such as {{Card|Remodel}}, are bad at trashing {{Card|Curse|Curses}} and are better at trashing your {{Card|Estate|Estates}}. These trashers may be too slow to overcome an influx of {{Card|Curse|Curses}}. |
| | | |
− | === Synergies/Combos ===
| + | As a terminal draw card, Witch’s +2 Cards can be useful, but it is rarely used primarily for its draw. Early on, the drawing effect can help you afford more expensive cards and draw faster through your shuffle. |
− | *{{Card|Silver}}
| + | |
− | *Middling, weak or no [[Trasher|trashing]]
| + | |
− | *cheap villages such as {{Card|Fishing Village}} and {{Card|Village}}
| + | |
− | *[[Trash-for-benefit]] once the {{Card|curse}}s are empty
| + | |
− | *{{Landmark|Wall}}
| + | |
− | *a 5/2 [[opening split]]
| + | |
− | === Antisynergies ===
| + | |
− | *absurdly good [[Trasher|trashing]] such as {{Card|Chapel}} , {{Event|Donate}} or {{Card|Cemetery}} will make Witch ignorable in the presence of powerful {{Cost|5}} cards
| + | |
− | *{{Card|Gardens}}, {{Landmark|Tower}} and other things that make curses not as bad (or beneficial)
| + | |
| | | |
| == Versions == | | == Versions == |
Because of this, Witch often leads to longer games.
Even when trashing is available, Witch can still be an efficient way to slow down your opponents’ decks, unless the trashing is very strong (e.g. kingdoms with ). Getting control of your deck becomes more difficult if you need to trash as well as your starting cards. Many trashers, such as , are bad at trashing and are better at trashing your . These trashers may be too slow to overcome an influx of .
As a terminal draw card, Witch’s +2 Cards can be useful, but it is rarely used primarily for its draw. Early on, the drawing effect can help you afford more expensive cards and draw faster through your shuffle.