Fairgrounds
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=== Secret History === | === Secret History === | ||
{{Quote | {{Quote | ||
− | |Text=I wanted a victory card in the set, because I always do. My ideas list had two cards that seemed especially promising, and the other one fit the hand theme, but it didn't work out. So I put this one in, with no idea that it would end up defining the set. The first version cost {{Cost|6}} and was worth 1 VP per 3 differently named cards in your deck. Then it cost {{Cost|5}}. Briefly there was, cost {{Cost|6}}, worth 1 {{VP}} for every 2 differently named cards in your deck, other than Copper and Estate. John Vogel suggested the formula it actually has. There was some debate about what formula was perfect (especially with Tom Lehmann and Wei-Hwa Huang), but the important thing was, that you had sufficient incentive to collect everything. | + | |Text=I wanted a victory card in the set, because I always do. My ideas list had two cards that seemed especially promising, and the other one fit the hand theme, but it didn't work out. So I put this one in, with no idea that it would end up defining the set. The first version cost {{Cost|6}} and was worth 1 {{VP}} per 3 differently named cards in your deck. Then it cost {{Cost|5}}. Briefly there was, cost {{Cost|6}}, worth 1 {{VP}} for every 2 differently named cards in your deck, other than Copper and Estate. John Vogel suggested the formula it actually has. There was some debate about what formula was perfect (especially with Tom Lehmann and Wei-Hwa Huang), but the important thing was, that you had sufficient incentive to collect everything. |
|Name=[[Donald X. Vaccarino]] | |Name=[[Donald X. Vaccarino]] | ||
|Source=[http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=120.0 The Secret History of the Cornucopia Cards]. | |Source=[http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=120.0 The Secret History of the Cornucopia Cards]. | ||
}} | }} | ||
+ | {{Navbox Cornucopia}} | ||
{{Navbox Cards}} | {{Navbox Cards}} |
Revision as of 04:17, 15 December 2013
Fairgrounds | |
---|---|
Info | |
Cost | |
Type(s) | Victory |
Kingdom card? | Yes |
Set | Cornucopia |
Illustrator(s) | Jessica Cox |
Card text | |
Worth 2 for every 5 differently named cards in your deck (round down). |
Fairgrounds is a Victory card from Cornucopia. Following Cornucopia's theme of variety, it increases in value as you get more differently named cards in your deck. In a standard game, its maximum possible value is 6, with even 4 being difficult to reach; in some circumstances, however, Fairgrounds can be built up to incredibly high point values.
Contents |
FAQ
Official FAQ
- At the end of the game, this is worth 2 per 5 differently named cards in your deck, rounded down. So if you have 0-4 different cards, it is worth 0 ; if you have 5-9, it is worth 2 ; if you have 10-14, it is worth 4 ; if you have 15-19, it is worth 6 ; and so on.
- By default there are only 17 differently named cards available in a game, but sometimes there may be more cards, such as via Young Witch's setup rule, or due to Tournament.
- Use 8 Fairgrounds in a game with 2 players, and 12 for a game with 3 or more players.
Other Rules clarifications
Differently named Shelters, Ruins, and Knights (from Dark Ages) count as different cards.
Strategy Article
Original article by theory.
Like Gardens, there are two ways to play Fairgrounds: either as consolation prizes because you missed out on a Province, or as a strategy unto itself.
If you treat them as consolation prizes, they are almost certainly going to end up being worth 4VP. It’s rare that you can’t get up to 10 unique cards; if you don’t have 10, you’ll probably know, because you’re running a very thin deck. Copper, Silver, Gold, Estate, Duchy, Province, Fairgrounds - that's already 7 unique cards, and you're surely going to put at least a few different action cards in your deck as well to get to 10.
If you decide to go for them, you should realize that there’s only 17 different cards in an ordinary Province game. So they’ll max out at 6VP each, after 15 unique cards. The way to keep track of your deck (as suggested by Blooki / Triceratops) is to glance over a Province board and pick out two cards you do not want in your deck, then focus on getting a copy of each of the rest by endgame.
Of course, this "17" number can change in a variety of ways.
- Platinum and Colony add two more cards.
- Alchemy adds Potion.
- Young Witch adds the Bane pile.
- Tournament adds up to 5 Prizes, though your opponent will likely get a few.
- Dark Ages games may have
- Black Market (extremely high number of new cards, depends on the setup).
With those helper cards, you can pump Fairgrounds up to higher point values; you'll need to count whether you can reach a total of 20 or even 25 unique cards in your deck, depending on what is available. Here, singleminded pursuit of Fairgrounds is much more viable, as they will end up paying off even greater than Provinces. But it takes much, much longer: a Fairgrounds deck’s critical weakness is how difficult it is to synthesize so many different cards together into a meaningful deck. Throwing in random crap from a Black Market deck is quite unlikely to work unless you are drowned in a surplus of +Actions.
This suggests, moreover, that the key to making Fairgrounds work is a set of non-terminals. In the late game, you don’t want to be passing up the last Fairgrounds because you need to get around to picking up a Moneylender. At the same time, you don’t want to just open with Explorer / Loan / Thief / Counting House, not unless you want a deck that goes nowhere fast. So ideally, you fit as many pieces as you can into a functioning engine (either because they are all non-terminals, or you have a ton of +Actions), and then grab the ill-fitting ones as close to the end as possible, so they don’t interfere with your Fairgrounds-buying engine. +Buy is golden here, since it allows you to get it done in far fewer turns than you’d otherwise need.
Like all Kingdom Victory cards, Fairgrounds does well with Hoard. Although it doesn’t do anything (like Nobles or Harem), its cost makes it a prime candidate for Remodeling, Salvaging, Apprenticing, and other trash-for-benefit Actions.
Fairgrounds synergizes well with Trade Route, a card that is normally not one of the strongest cards. Trade Route provides +Buy, modest deck-thinning for engine building, and gives an additional + once the first Fairgrounds is purchased. The presence of Fairgrounds on the board also makes it more likely that people will purchase Duchies and other VP cards that might not normally be purchased, making it likely that Trade Route's cash bonus will be bumped up further earlier in the game. Trade Route is also a card that most decks only want one of, making it a good addition to Fairgrounds-based engines.
Engines and Mega-turns
Fairgrounds synergizes well with Engines and megaturns, and can make engines strategies more feasible and powerful. With abundant +Buy, the lower cost of Fairgrounds makes it easier to buy them in quantity than Provinces. Relative to Big Money strategies, Engines tend to get a slower start but reach greater buying power in the long-run. Big money also does not have much choice over the pace of buying VP--it generally must buy them whenever possible, or else fall behind. The ability to time when the game ends is thus of key importance in an engine, and the presence of Fairgrounds makes this possible in two ways:
- Because Fairgrounds is cheaper, an engine can empty this pile faster than Provinces, if going for a fast win.
- If behind, and needing to prolong the game, an engine can choose to buy from the VP piles that are less depleted, prolonging the game and giving time to catch up. Fairgrounds also places much more total VP on the board, thus favoring a long-term approach.
Fairgrounds synergizes very well with megaturn strategies like those involving Bridge; it is much easier to reduce Fairgrounds to a very low cost and buy them in large quantity.
The presence of Fairgrounds alone on a board does not guarantee that engines or mega-turn based decks are viable, but it might make these strategies more attractive than they would be without Fairgrounds.
Synergies/Combos
- Engines, especially ones based on mega-turns:
- +Buy,
- Contraband is especially helped by Fairgrounds, since being blocked from buying one card means less when you're trying to collect a diversity of cards.
- Nonterminals, Villages, or cards like Fishing Village that produce a surplus of +Actions
- +Buy,
- Megaturn strategies
- Trade Route
- Combo: Black Market and Fairgrounds
- Harvest, Menagerie, Horn of Plenty because they reward diversity
- Dark Ages, since Shelters give 3 free unique cards, and because Dark Ages includes a variety of ways to go above and beyond the number of Kingdom Cards. (Knights, Ruins, cards not in the Supply).
Antisynergies
Trivia
Secret History