Editing Strictly better

A card in Dominion is informally referred to as '''strictly better''' than another if, in some sense, having or using the former confers all the same advantages as the latter as well as some added benefit, with no potential additional disadvantages. A typical reason this might happen is if one card provides more +{{Cost|}}, +Buy, +Action, or {{VP}} than another but otherwise has the same effect, since under ordinary circumstances there is no way those additional effects can harm the player. For example, {{Card|Bazaar}} is strictly better than {{Card|Village}} because the effect of Bazaar is the same as that of Village plus {{Cost|1}}. Another way one card might be strictly better than another is if it offers the effect of the other as one of two or more options. For instance, once in your deck, {{Card|Count}} is better than {{Card|Mandarin}} since Mandarin's effect is one of the nine choices Count makes available: thus all the benefits of Mandarin are present, but in cases where the effect of Mandarin would be disadvantageous, Count makes other options available and Mandarin doesn't. {{Card|Alchemist}} is strictly better than {{Card|Laboratory}} because it has exactly the same effect when played, and also may give you the ''option'' of top-decking it instead of discarding it. {{Card|Counterfeit}} is strictly better than {{Card|Moneylender}} because both can trash a copper for +{{Cost|3}}, but Counterfeit can also trash other treasures for additional {{Cost}} (Counterfeit also gives +1 Buy and does not spend an action).

There are numerous cases where a card has an additional effect that is ''usually'' beneficial, but in some cases may turn out to be harmful; whether such cards are considered "strictly better" may depend on context. For example, although [[draw|drawing]] an additional card is usually desirable, it can also cause a terminal [[collision]] or a [[reshuffle]] at an inopportune time, so a card like {{Card|Village}} may not be considered "strictly" better than a card like {{Card|Necropolis}} for this reason in some analyses. More complicated situations also exist: for example, {{Card|Harem}} has the same effect as {{Card|Silver}} when played and is worth 2{{VP}} more, so it might be considered strictly better than Silver; but possessing a Harem in your deck may allow you to be given a {{Card|Curse}} by an opponent's {{Card|Jester}}, which Silver would not. Similarly, {{Card|Goons}} differs from {{Card|Woodcutter}} by providing both +{{VP}} and a [[discard attack]] and would in most contexts be considered strictly better, but the discard attack could help an opponent by enabling their {{Card|Tunnel}} or {{Card|Menagerie}}. {{Card|Great Hall}} is usually strictly better than {{Card|Estate}} since Great Hall may be played as a [[cantrip]], but in a deck with {{Card|Baron}}, Estate may be more beneficial.

As the range of effects possible on Dominion cards increases, the ways those effects can fail to be uniformly "strictly" better than each other also increases. {{Card|Storyteller}} allows you to convert +{{cost}} into +Cards, so if an increase in card draw isn't a strict improvement then in the presence of Storyteller neither is an increase in +{{Cost|}}. {{Card|Diadem}} converts +Actions into +{{cost}}, so in the presence of Diadem ''and'' Storyteller, an increase in +Actions isn't a strict improvement either. This emphasizes that the "strictly better" concept is itself an informal rough heuristic for comparing cards to each other, not a well-defined description.

Since there are cards that reward deck diversity, it can be argued that there is no card that is in ''all'' cases strictly better than another: for example, even though Bazaar provides all the effects Village does plus extra {{Cost|}}, there can still be cases when gaining a Village will increase the value of your {{Card|Fairgrounds}} and gaining a Bazaar won't.  

Similarly, cards that care about card cost may make cards that are usually worse better in specific cases: for example, {{Card|Village}} may be more useful than {{Card|Worker's  Village}} if you have {{Card|Forge}} with a disposable $5 card.  Therefore, when people say that one card is '''strictly better''' than another, they often mean that it has a strictly better effect.  

== Implications for card design ==

[[Donald X. Vaccarino]] has written that a basic principle of Dominion card design is that no Kingdom card may have a strictly better effect than another with the same or higher cost. This is because, in a game with both such cards in the supply, players will buy only the better card and ignore the worse one, making the worse card's presence in the supply seemingly pointless. However, if a strictly worse card costs ''less'' than a better one, you might still buy it on turns when you don't have enough money to buy the better one. This sometimes restricts the possible design space of cards: the fact that {{Card|Throne Room}} costs {{Cost|4}} means that it is not possible to create a card that's strictly better than Throne Room unless it's strong enough to cost {{Cost|5}} or more.

Indeed, even though Silver costs only {{Cost|3}}, Donald X. is unwilling to give a card strictly better than Silver a cost of even {{Cost|4}}.

There are a few cases of Kingdom cards that are sometimes referred to as ''almost'' strictly better at the same price:
* {{Card|Count}} is strictly better than {{Card|Mandarin}} once in your deck; however, Mandarin has an on-gain effect that is sometimes desirable.
* {{Card|Hunting Party}} is better than {{Card|Laboratory}} in most decks that don't have very many copies of strong [[Treasure|Treasures]] or [[terminal]] Actions.
* {{Card|Noble Brigand}} is better than {{Card|Thief}} except when gaining {{Card|Copper}} is desirable or special Treasure cards abound.
* Buying {{event|Delve}} is strictly better than {{card|Silver}}, except that Delve is an [[Event]] and in a few cases buying cards is preferable to buying Events, and Events cannot have their [[cost reduction|cost reduced]].
* {{card|Ducat}} is strictly better than {{card|Candlestick Maker}} in terms of its abilities; but the fact that Ducat is a Treasure and Candlestick Maker is an Action can make Candlestick Maker more desirable in some circumstances.

{{card|Lighthouse}} is usually better than {{card|Guardian}} after the first time gained; however Guardian is still better if Lighthouse is drawn dead by [[terminal draw]].

Copper is in general strictly better than {{Card|Abandoned Mine}}. However, there are some edge cases like Festival+Library engines or the unfortunate case of drawing a Throne Room without any other action card, where Abandoned Mine can be better than Copper. Also Copper and all [[Ruins]] are in general strictly better than {{Card|Curse}}; but these are a special case since they cost {{Cost|0}} and are so rarely likely to be bought anyway.

It is possible, however, for a card to be strictly better than one of the same cost ''in a particular Kingdom''. For example, in games with no [[non-terminal]] Action cards, {{Card|Conspirator}} is strictly worse than many [[terminal silver|terminal silvers]] costing {{Cost|3}} and {{Cost|4}}; in games in which {{ally|Desert Guides}} is the selected [[Ally]], {{card|Underling}} is strictly better than {{card|Guide}}. 

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[[Category:Strategic concepts]]