Dominion Tournament ConFusion 2010
You know that suspenseful feeling you get when you have a strategy for your current game, and you think it will probably work, but you're not sure? I love that feeling. That was the culmination of the Dominion tournament. Since there was no prize, I let myself compete in order to round out the number of players for even games. I made it to the championship game with Jordan Malokofsky, Scott Colcord, and Eric S. Raymond.
It was intense. We randomly drew a set of cards that we dubbed The Pain Set because we all agreed it was the worst we had ever seen. There was no ability to chain actions. It included the worst attack cards in the game, so powerful that we would be able to utterly cripple each other's decks. And the only card that allowed one to react to attacks did not stop attacks, just aimed them to strategically minimize damage.
I would not normally force anyone to play with this set. But the tournament rules called for random sets, and I was not going to start breaking the rules at the end, for the best players. I looked at the bright side. I consider a cruel, vindictive, weak, painful, encumbering set ideal for a tournament ending. Everybody can play with easy, powerful sets. In my opinion, when the game suddenly takes all the strategies you have learned and throws them into a cocked hat, those circumstances require the pinnacle of skill.
I devised a strategy to buy out all the cards costing 2, so that when we Sabotaged each others' cards, I would quickly run out of vulnerable cards. Whereas others, with many valuable and vulnerable cards, would not be able to demote to twos, and would have to demote to the really crappy Coppers and Curses. Then I would be left holding all the tiniest victory point cards (Estates), and the reaction cards, which were immune to Saboteur because they are not expensive enough.
Eric's strategy was to go for the middle-priced victory point cards (Duchys). I thought he would lose them to Saboteurs. Eric recognized what I had misjudged: without any cards that allow us to play multiple actions per turn, Saboteur would not be played often enough to destroy many of his Duchys. And thus Eric won the tournament.
VP: Victory Points TP: Tournament Points (4 for 1st place, 1 for last place)
Game 1
Game 2
Game 3
Game 4
Game 5
Totals
FINAL Game
Name
VP
TP
VP
TP
VP
TP
VP
TP
VP
TP
TP
VP
Jordan Malokofsky
5
3.5
5
4
7.5
14
Eric S. Raymond
40
3
32
4
7
17
Matt Arnold
5
3.5
24
3
6.5
7
Scott Colcord
32
2
2
2
4
4
Mitchell from Aegis*
42
4
4
Michael M.*
37
4
4
Becky Herber
-1
2
-1
1
3
David
29
1
21
2
3
Cathy Raymond*
32
3
3
Michael Marcus*
3
3
3
Seth Blumberg*
30
2
2
Chris
-3
1
9
1
2
Steve*
27
1
1
*Not present for all rounds
Comments
none
Leave a Comment