Smithy
Smithy | |
---|---|
Cost | 4 |
Type | [[Action]] |
Set/Expansion | Base |
Illustrator | Matthias Catrein |
+3 Cards |
Contents |
FAQ
Official FAQ
- Draw three cards.
Other Rules clarifications
Strategy Article
There is no strategy article specifically for Smithy.
Smithy can be used in building an engine, as described at http://dominionstrategy.com/2012/07/30/building-the-first-game-engine/ . Smithy-Big Money is also one of the first powerful Big Money strategies that people encounter in the Base Set, and it remains a useful baseline for comparing other strategies. Big Money strategies are discussed at http://dominionstrategy.com/2012/06/13/terminal-draw-big-money/ by HiveMindEmulator based on a forum discussion at http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=2822.0 , and relevant sections have been reproduced here.
One of simplest basic strategies you learn which is surprisingly effective in the base set is “Smithy Big Money”. The idea of this strategy is to open Smithy/Silver, add a second Smithy sometime after a couple shuffles, and other than that, buy just money and Victory cards. You can add in some card to help with the late game, like Market or Remodel, but for the most part, it’s just a couple Smithies and money. The idea is that the Smithy is going to draw you up to 7 cards, and with 7 cards, you can very often buy Gold. And when you have enough Silver/Gold, you can often buy Provinces.
When you add in some expansions with more trashing and other engine-friendly cards, as well as cards that are better than Smithy with “Big Money” strategies, Smithy BM becomes pretty weak. But there are some variants of it that you may at times go for, particularly when there is no way to quickly build a strong engine. The "canonical" 2-player Smithy-money strategy is algorithmic and works with the following buy rules:
- Buy Province anytime you have $8, unless you are following the Penultimate Province Rule.
- Buy Duchies when there are 4 or fewer Provinces in the supply.
- Buy Estates when there are 2 or fewer Provinces in the supply.
- Otherwise, buy Gold whenever you get $6-$7.
- Buy one Smithy as soon as you can, and then a second when you have at least 14 cards in your deck.
- Buy Silvers otherwise. Never buy Copper even if you only have $2 to spend.
This strategy will typically get 4-5 Provinces and a few Duchies in 14-16 turns; this is often good enough to beat a mediocre or poorly constructed engine. It's especially useful as a comparison - whenever you come up with a cute strategy, you should check that it really does do better than Smithy+Big Money.
While you want to take it easy on the actions, you’re more than happy to grab kingdom treasure cards like Fool's Gold, Venture, Stash, Cache, Royal Seal, Bank, Hoard, or Harem (not Loan, Contraband, Quarry, Talisman or Horn of Plenty, which are primarily for engines, and not Philosopher's Stone, whose Potion cost makes it too slow for a fast BM strat). Kingdom treasures tend to make terminal draw BM stronger, so the presence of one of these cards may steer you be more likely to play terminal draw BM. Terminal draw BM decks are really set back by drawing $5 (which is a little too much for a Silver but not enough for a Gold), so being able to buy Venture is a real benefit.
On the flip side, strong engine parts and Colonies are real drawbacks to running a terminal draw big money strategy. Your slow-but-steady “tortoise” strategy is more likely to be hammered down by a game-ending mega-turn “hare” strategy.
A couple of tactics also show up in terminal draw BM games. If playing your draw card will trigger a reshuffle, you have to weigh the benefits. Usually it’s worth it, since skipping this play of the card is usually just as bad as having it miss the shuffle, but if it’s not going to improve your buying power, you should skip it.
When it comes down to Duchy dancing, you want to keep track of your oppnent's key cards: their terminal drawers and their Golds. For Smithy BM, for example, once you’re well into greening, Province turns typically require Smithy+Gold or 2xGold. So if you can tell from previous turns that your opponent can’t have one of these hands, you may want to break the Penultimate Province Rule.
Synergies/Combos
- Village/Smithy is the first draw engine that many people encounter.
Antisynergies
- Better terminal draw cards.
Trivia
Secret History