Opening
An opening consists of the cards purchased in the first two turns. The starting deck of each player consists of 7 Coppers and 3 Estates or Shelters. Therefore, under ordinary circumstances, if your first hand has 4 Coppers, your second hand will have 3 Coppers, and vice versa. This is called a / or / split, respectively. A / (or /) split means you have a first hand of 5 Coppers and second hand of 2 Coppers (and vice versa).
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Openers
An opener is a card that a player buys on his first or second turn. Some cards are better openers than others. Trashers and cursers tend to be good openers, and opening with a Silver or a terminal Silver is also usually a good idea in order to build up buying power early. Some cards, like Moneylender, Coppersmith, or Baron, are usually either bought as an opener or not at all, due to their interactions with cards in the starting deck. Usually, Villages are poor openers because there are no terminal actions in your deck at first.
Unusual openings
If Baker, from Guilds, is in the supply, players begin the game with an extra Coin token, allowing openings of /, /, or / if the coin token is spent immediately.
Some cards with on-buy or on-gain effects can also alter the usual / or / split when bought on the first turn:
- Noble Brigand: When bought by your opponents on their first turn makes you discard the top two cards from your deck, resulting in various possible unusual openings.
- Nomad Camp: Goes on the top of your deck, which can result in a / or / split.
- Inn: Can be shuffled into your deck and if so will likely be drawn next turn, giving you a / split.
- Mandarin: Puts the five Coppers you played back top of your deck, giving you another turn before you reshuffle, turning a / opening into a // opening.
- Stonemason: Allows you to gain two extra cards if you overpay when you buy it, meaning you can gain more than the usual one card per opening turn.
- Doctor: Allows you to trash or discard cards from the top of your deck on-buy; so buying it on your first turn with or more can change the makeup of your second turn in various ways depending on what is trashed.
- Messenger: Gives each player an effective extra to their opening per player that opens with it, with the caveat that they may not get to choose which card they get, and it may miss their reshuffle.
- Lost City: If another player opens with it, causing you to draw a card, it can completely change your output on your opening turns.
- Borrow: Let's you "steal" a card from your next turn for +, which can lead to / openings, among others.
With Baker, Lost City and Borrow in a game, it's possible to field on an opening turn.
Examples of strong openers
Examples of strong openings
According to CouncilRoom.com, the top 20 openings (pre-Dark Ages) are as follows:[1]
- Mountebank / Chapel
- Tournament / Ambassador
- Governor / Chapel
- Mint / Fool's Gold
- Tournament / Chapel
- Witch / Chapel
- Caravan / Ambassador
- Tournament / Masquerade
- Wharf / Fool's Gold
- Witch / Fool's Gold
- Upgrade / Chapel
- Vault / Chapel
- Hunting Party / Chapel
- Trading Post / Haven
- Minion / Chapel
- Witch / Crossroads
- Mountebank / Hamlet
- Laboratory / Chapel
- Mountebank / Native Village
- Mountebank / Haven
References