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| − | == [[Chapel]] ==
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| − | === Strategy Article ===
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| − | Chapel is the card most often misunderstood by new players. It may appear weak if you do not understand the value of trashing, but in reality is the strongest card in the Base set and has always been in the top 10 strongest cards in all of Dominion.
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| − | Trashing cards is usually very powerful. The {{Card|Copper}}s and {{Card|Estate}}s you start with are very weak, and get in the way of drawing much more powerful cards that you will be gaining during the course of the game. By removing these weak cards as soon as possible:
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| − | * You start drawing hands with a higher proportion of powerful cards, enabling much stronger turns.
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| − | * You are more likely to pair up cards that want to be drawn together, such as {{Card|Village}} and {{Card|Smithy}}.
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| − | * By having a small deck of few cards, you do not need to purchase as many draw cards, making drawing and playing all of the cards you own each turn much easier and cheaper achieve.
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| − | * You can focus on playing the powerful cards you really want to be using, such as {{Card|Witch}} and {{Card|Artisan}} much sooner and more often.
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| − | Chapel does one thing, trashing cards, but does it extremely quickly and effectively. Very few other cards can remove as many cards from your deck as quickly as Chapel can. You almost always want to buy Chapel on turn 1 or 2, whichever has the least money, so you can start trashing as soon as possible. It is important to begin as soon as possible, but in Chapel's case it's extra important because the early turns are when you are most likely to draw Chapel alongside 4 {{Card|Copper}}s and {{Card|Estate}}s.
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| − | Take care not to bankrupt yourself. While [[Copper]] is weak, you are reliant on them in the early game for money. Keep track of how many {{Card|Copper}}s you have trashed, and ensure you buy something else that generates money before you can't afford it. It is common to open alongside a card that produces coins, including {{Card|Silver}}, but action cards such as {{Card|Militia}} are fine too. While you might try to avoid opening with two action cards that do not have any +Actions, if you draw them together on turn 3 and 4, you simply play the Chapel, trashing the three starting cards. Had the {{Card|Militia}} instead been a {{Card|Silver}}, you may not have been buying any card for {{Cost|2}} anyway. Cards like {{Card|Poacher}} that provide +1 Card and +1 Action are also nice with Chapel, as if you draw them together, you still get to trash 4 starting cards, and it makes Chapel less likely to miss the shuffle if it was the 11th card in your deck.
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| − | It is especially important to trash early when junking attacks like {{Card|Witch}} are present. While Chapel is very good at trashing {{Card|Curse}}s, even more important is its ability to quickly prepare you deck for the incoming {{Card|Curse}}s, as a thin deck can more easily draw Chapel and {{Card|Curse}} in the same hand so it can be trashed. Even better, when your deck is thin you can play your own {{Card|Witch}}es more often, hopefully giving more {{Card|Curse}}s to your opponent first.
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| − | === Synergies ===
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| − | * Events that let you play Chapel on turn 2 (e.g. {{Event|Summon}}, {{Event|Travelling Fair}}, {{Event|Demand}})
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| − | * {{Event|Alms}}
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| − | * {{Event|Advance}}
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| − | == [[Moneylender]] ==
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| − | === Strategy Article ===
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| − | Moneylender provides a compromise between economy and trashing. Many cards that trash from your hand can leave you generating little money on that turn, but Moneylender gives you a money boost when it trashes. Moneylender allows you to remove the {{Card|Copper}}s from your deck while still allowing you to purchase the more expensive and powerful cards on turns where you do.
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| − | Don't be fooled by the +{{Cost|3}} on Moneylender, as you have to trash a {{Card|Copper}} before getting to play it, so the actual economy you get on your turn is similar to drawing a {{Card|Silver}}. To demonstrate, a hand composed of {{Card|Silver}}, 3 {{Card|Copper}}s and an {{Card|Estate}} will produce {{Cost|5}}, and a hand of Moneylender, 3 {{Card|Copper}}s and an {{Card|Estate}} will also produce {{Cost|5}}.
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| − | Moneylender trashes only one card at a time, and not {{Card|Estate}}s, which are ideally the higher priority starting card to trash. As such, Moneylender tends to compare unfavorably to more powerful trashers that can trash multiple cards at once, such as {{Card|Chapel}} or {{Card|Steward}}, or cards that can also trash {{Card|Estate}}s, such as {{Card|Forager}}. In addition, Moneylender is weaker than many other similar cards that appear in newer expansions, such as {{Card|Priest}}, {{Card|Bounty Hunter}} and {{Card|Treasurer}}.
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| − | As Moneylender needs to be drawn with a {{Card|Copper}} in the same hand, it is best in decks that draw well, else it may be difficult to prune the last {{Card|Copper}}s. But if you can reliably draw your entire deck, once the {{Card|Copper}}s have all been trashed, you can consider purchasing an extra {{Card|Copper}} each turn with a spare +Buy to continue to make use of Moneylender. In this case, it really does produce +{{Cost|3}} as there is no opportunity cost of playing a {{Card|Copper}} you already owned.
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| − | == [[Moat]] ==
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| − | === Strategy Article ===
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| − | +2 Cards is significantly worse than the +3 Cards that you tend to find on other terminal draw cards such as {{Card|Smithy}}, requiring many more [[Village (card category)|villages]] in order to draw a similar number of cards, which comes at a sizeable opportunity cost. When used in conjunction with villages that do not draw, such as {{Card|Festival}}, drawing with Moat does not increase your handsize and is very unreliable, being very susceptible to cards being drawn in an unfavourable order.
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| − | Moat only provides defense from attacks if it is in your hand between turns. Once your deck reaches a reasonable size, it can become very inconsistent in its ability to defend, unless you were to obtain lots of them, with the aforementioned sizeable opportunity cost. It is significantly weaker than the other defense cards: {{Card|Lighthouse}}, {{Card|Champion}} and {{Card|Guardian}}.
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| − | Against many attacks, it can be better to simply accept getting attacked than it is to add Moats to your deck in the chance it might occasionally block the attack. In the case of junking attacks such as {{Card|Witch}}, it is often more effective to focus on giving all the {{Card|Curse|Curses}} to your opponent first, instead of spending time to obtain Moats.
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| − | Some cards can provide ways to guarantee Moat appears in your starting hand every turn, allowing you to get full defense coverage with only one copy of Moat. Cards such as {{Card|Artisan}} allow you to topdeck it at the end of your turn. Even better are cards such as {{Event|Save}} which set aside cards and add them as an extra card to your hand after Clean-up, removing the problem of Moat being one of your 5 starting cards, as you would typically prefer something stronger in your starting hand.
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| − | As you add more players to the game, Moat starts to get better, as the more opponents you have, the more often you tend to be attacked. Junking attacks in 4 player games can add junk to your deck very quickly and you can easily receive many copies of junk between turns, making Moat more valuable when it does appear in your starting hand.
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| − | === Synergies ===
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| − | * {{Card|Black Cat}} - Moat is much better at defending from Black Cat than other attacks as Black Cat is played during your turn, after you have had the chance to draw Moat into your hand.
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