Glossary
From DominionStrategy Wiki
Revision as of 00:10, 27 September 2016 by 45.49.170.85 (Talk)
This page contains a list of common terms and abbreviations used in discussion of the game Dominion.
Contents |
Common terms and phrases
B
- Base: The original Dominion, with no expansions. For example, “In Base, Chapel is the best early-game trasher.”
- Big Money: Strictly speaking, a strategy where no Actions are bought at all, only Treasure and Victory cards. In practice, it is often used to refer to a strategy emphasizing Treasure and Victory cards that is merely supplemented with one or two Action cards. Compare with engine.
- Board (or set, table, or tableau): The set of cards that make up the game of interest.
C
- Cantrip: Any card that gives at least +1 Card, +1 Action; it costs no action to spend it and it replaces itself in the hand. Can technically refer to villages, but in practice usually refers to cards like Spy.
- Chain: A deck in which the same card(s) are played either multiple times per turn or simply every turn for some powerful cards. For example, “Lab chain”.
- City Trap: Purchasing multiple Cities in a game in which no piles (other than Province or Colony) are likely to be emptied; the Cities are very expensive villages in this case.
- Clog (or bloat, gum up, etc.): Add cards to a deck (preferably an opponent’s) that interfere with the engine being used. Often happens voluntarily in the endgame.
- Colony Game: Any game in which Colony and Platinum (from Prosperity) are available for purchase.
- Counter: A card that acts to neutralize another card (usually an Attack), whether directly (like Moat) or indirectly (like Library vs. Militia/Goons).
- Cycling: To move quickly through your deck. Chancellor provides an extreme example of cycling, but Warehouse and Laboratory also cycle your deck effectively.
D
- DoubleJack: A strategy involving buying only two copies of Jack of all Trades, and otherwise exclusively Treasure and Victory cards.
- Draw Dead: Generally refers to drawing an Action card when you have no more actions entitling you to play it. In context, it may refer to drawing an Action card that cannot be effectively used (like Baron without Estate or Moneylender without Copper).
- Duchy Dancing: A situation toward the end of a game when both players buy Duchies and neither is willing or able to take the final Province(s).
E
- Early Game: Most purchases are low-cost cards; players are defining their overall strategy.
- Endgame (or Late Game): Players are purchasing almost exclusively Victory cards. Often accompanied by jockeying with lower-value Victory cards, like with PPR (below).
- End on piles: Force the game to end by emptying three or more Supply piles (four or more with five or more players).
- Engine: Loosely defined, the Action cards that “drive” one’s deck. An “engine-based” strategy refers to a strategy emphasizing Actions. Compare with Big Money.
- Envoy/Big Money: Similar strategy to Smithy/Big Money, but with Envoy in place of Smithy (see below)
- Estate tennis: The first phase of an Ambassador game, in which players pass back and forth their starting Estates. This can be said to "sit on" the game, delaying its actual start by several turns.
G
- Greening / “Go Green”: Begin purchasing Victory cards.
I
- Isotropic (or Iso): http://dominion.isotropic.org — an exceedingly popular online implementation of Dominion, often linked to from these forums. Defunct since March 2013.
L
- Level X City: A shorthand for referencing the power level of a City. Typically follows either a 1/2/3 or 0/1/2 (which references the number of empty piles) formatting.
M
- Midgame: Most purchases are Action or Treasure cards of value or higher, but rarely with hands above (in Province games) or (in Colony games); players are refining their strategies and attempting to tune their engines.
- Mirror Match: When both players pursue identical or near-identical strategies.
N
- Non-Terminal (or Non-Terminal Action, sometimes NT): Any Action card that gives at least one additional action (+1 Action).
O
- Opening: Purchases made on the first two turns. Usually clarified as a 4/3 or 5/2 opening.
P
- Piles: see end on piles.
- Province Game (rarely, Non-Colony Game): A standard game in which Colony and Platinum are not available.
- Pseudo-Trash: Remove cards from your deck without trashing them, for example with Island.
S
- Sift: Filter through your cards by removing unwanted cards. Similar to cycling, but with more finesses. See, for example, Warehouse.
- Smithy / Big Money: A strategy involving one purchase of a Smithy and otherwise exclusively Treasure and Victory cards. Reaches four Provinces in approximately 14 turns.
- Split: Coin values of the first two hands (5/2 or 4/3). Tournament and league play often gives players the same split. Can also refer to the split in gaining a key card in the game, such as Minion or Grand Market.
T
- Terminal (or Terminal Action): Any Action card that does not provide actions when played.
- Terminal clash: Drawing multiple terminal cards together, such that you can only play one of them.
- Terminal Silver: Any terminal action that produces .
- Top-Deck: Place a card on top of your deck that would normally go elsewhere (like with Alchemist or Royal Seal).
- Trasher (or Deck-thinner): Any card that allows one to remove cards from one’s deck.
- Trash for Benefit: Any card that gives a benefit at the cost of trashing a card. For example, Apprentice draws additional cards and Salvager produces coins.
V
- Village: Besides the card of the same name, it can refer to any card which gives +2 Actions; most (but not all) such cards have “Village” in their names.
- Village Idiot: Village seems like a great card to an inexperienced player, and it is good–but taking Villages without any terminals makes the Villages worthless. Hence, Village Idiot. More loosely, this refers to any poor strategy that buys too many Action cards.
- Virtual +Buy: Cards which allow you to gain an additional card on your turn along with your ordinary Buy, like Ironworks and Workshop.
- Virtual coin or Virtual money: Action cards which produce coins to spend during the Buy phase (not cards which gain basic Treasure cards).
Abbreviations
- C, S, G, E, D, P: Sometimes used in game analyses for the basic Treasure cards and basic Victory cards in a Province game.
- Amb: Ambassador.
- BM: Big Money (rarely, Black Market, in context).
- BMU: A particular algorithm for playing Big Money that intelligently buys Duchies.
- FV: Fishing Village (rarely, Farming Village, in context).
- GM: Grand Market.
- Hag: Sea Hag (rarely, Swamp Hag, in context}.
- HoP: Horn of Plenty.
- HP: Hunting Party
- HT: Horse Traders.
- IGG: Ill-Gotten Gains.
- JoAT: Jack of all Trades.
- KC: King's Court.
- Lab: Laboratory.
- Masq: Masquerade.
- MV: Mining Village.
- NV: Native Village.
- Plat: Platinum.
- PPR: Penultimate Province Rule.
- TFB / T4B: Trash for benefit.
- TM: Treasure Map.
- TR: Throne Room (rarely, Trade Route, in context).
- UAS: Unstoppable Alchemist Stack.
- UCS: Unstoppable City Stack.