Golden Deck: Difference between revisions
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===Beyond VP chips=== | ===Beyond VP chips=== | ||
There are a few strategies which score points buy gaining | There are a few strategies which score points buy gaining [[Victory card]]s as usual but can still maintain the same 5-card hand each turn. | ||
* The [[Combo: Chancellor and Stash|Scavenger-Stash combo]] can guarantee a hand of 4 Stashes and a Scavenger each turn and buy Provinces without ever seeing them in hand. | * The [[Combo: Chancellor and Stash|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 {{card|King's Court}} and {{card|Scheme}} can guarantee the same hand of [[Action]] cards will be drawn each turn; some such decks can gain Provinces. | * Some decks involving {{card|King's Court}} and {{card|Scheme}} can guarantee the same hand of [[Action]] cards will be drawn each turn; some such decks can gain Provinces. |
Revision as of 19:47, 11 November 2012
A Golden Deck is any deck that, every turn, gives the player the same hand and nets him + . Usually a Golden Deck consists of the five-card deck Bishop-Gold-Silver(x2)-Province, allowing the player to Bishop a Province for 5 and buy another Province.
The Standard Golden Deck
The single deck commonly referred to as a Golden Deck is a five-card deck with
Every turn, this deck can play Bishop to trash a Province for 5 , and then use 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 without adding any new cards to your deck.
Setting it up
- The standard setup for a Golden Deck requires opening with Bishop/Chapel. Opening Steward/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 total in your whole deck.
- You should not need to buy more than two Silvers. Buying one Gold 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 4 per turn instead of 5 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 Spy-type Attacks, because your entire deck is in your hand; there's no deck for the Attacks to target.
- The Golden Deck is weak against engines that don't stall. 5 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 Duchy 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.
- Colony games do not favor a Golden Deck, since you only get one more 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.
- Decks which gain Gold cards with Tunnel and then trash them for
- Colony Golden Decks such as Platinum, Platinum, Bishop, Colony, Colony
- Combo: Bishop and Fortress
- 5-card decks with Monuments, potentially with Throne Room or King's Court to maximize points.
- 5-card decks with Goons and Watchtower score points by buying cheap cards, and maintain the 5-card deck by trashing the incoming buys.
Beyond VP chips
There are a few strategies which score points buy 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 Court and Scheme can guarantee the same hand of Action cards will be drawn each turn; some such decks can gain Provinces.