Golden Deck

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A Golden Deck is any deck that, every turn, gives the player the same hand and nets him +VP. Usually a Golden Deck consists of the five-card deck BishopBishop.jpg-GoldGold.jpg-SilverSilver.jpg(x2)-ProvinceProvince.jpg, allowing the player to Bishop a Province for 5VP and buy another Province.

Contents

The Standard Golden Deck

The single deck commonly referred to as a Golden Deck is a five-card deck with

  • Three treasures which, combined, are worth $7 or $8
  • One BishopBishop.jpg
  • One ProvinceProvince.jpg

Every turn, this deck can play Bishop to trash a Province for 5VP, and then use $8 to buy a new Province, earning VP without changing the state of your hand or deck. More generally, "a Golden Deck" is used to refer to any deck that shares that property - you are guaranteed the same draws every turn, and you earn VP without adding any new cards to your deck.

Setting it up

  • The standard setup for a Golden Deck requires opening with BishopBishop.jpg/ChapelChapel.jpg. Opening StewardSteward.jpg/Steward is also possible, though significantly slower.
  • Your aim is to trash your starting cards as fast as possible; almost always err on the side of trashing faster rather than buying, unless you would go below $3 total in your whole deck.
  • You should not need to buy more than two SilversSilver.jpg. Buying one GoldGold.jpg will be easy once your deck gets down to 5 cards.
  • Drawing your Chapel on turn 5 will seriously mess you up. There's not much you can do about that.
  • Once the deck is set up, trash Province every turn and buy Province, until the game is over. If you can, on the last turn, buy a Province without trashing one.
  • If you are behind, you can instead switch to buying and trashing Gold for 4VP per turn instead of 5VP for trashing Provinces.

Strategy

  • The Golden Deck is weak against many Attacks.
    • Cursers and other junking attacks can cause you to have a 6-card deck instead of a 5-card deck, thus breaking your combo; you will be forced to spend turns trashing incoming junk and not buying/trashing Provinces.
    • Discard attacks will leave you with a 3-card hand.
    • However, once the Golden Deck gets going, it is immune to trashing attacks and SpySpy.jpg-type Attacks, because your entire deck is in your hand; there's no deck for the Attacks to target.
    • If there is LighthouseLighthouse.jpg in the supply you can exchange Silver for Lighthouses for an Attack resilient Golden Deck. Keep in mind that Ill-Gotten GainsIll-Gotten Gains.jpg and MasqueradeMasquerade.jpg still hurt you.
  • The Golden Deck is weak against engines that don't stall. 5VP per turn isn't actually that many; it will beat strategies that stall after picking up a few Provinces, but engines that can continue to pick up Provinces without stalling and can detour for DuchiesDuchy.jpg will be able to overtake a Golden Deck. This is especially true since the opponent will have the benefit of a lot of Bishop trashing early.
  • ColonyColony.jpg games do not favor a Golden Deck, since you only get one more VP for trashing a Colony, but your opponent gets 4 more Victory points for having it in their deck.

Variants

Though the standard Golden Deck is (Bishop, Gold, Gold, Silver, Province), there are many ways to achieve consistent VP gain.

Beyond VP chips

There are a few strategies which score points by gaining Victory cards as usual but can still maintain the same 5-card hand each turn.

  • The Scavenger-Stash combo can guarantee a hand of 4 Stashes and a Scavenger each turn and buy Provinces without ever seeing them in hand.
  • Some decks involving King's CourtKing's Court.jpg and SchemeScheme.jpg can guarantee the same hand of Action cards will be drawn each turn. For example, a hand of two King's Courts, two Schemes, and a MandarinMandarin.jpg can buy a Province and top-deck itself each turn.
  • With MandarinMandarin.jpg in the supply, a hand of four distinct Treasures adding up to $8 or more plus a Horn of PlentyHorn of Plenty.jpg can buy a Province or Colony, gain a Mandarin, and top-deck itself each turn - see (Combo: Horn of Plenty and Mandarin). Alternatively, you can use four Treasures adding up to at least $12 (i.e. four GoldGold.jpg) and a CounterfeitCounterfeit.jpg, also allowing you to buy a Province and Mandarin every turn.
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