Dominion: Renaissance Review - with Tom Vasel

[@FrostyCosmic]

I couldn't agree more, they have struggled with expansions for the past few years. It's so nice that they seem to have finally came back to doing it right. After Nocturne I was really worried for future expansions, but I'm glad to be proven wrong.

[@TheParadox3000]

They have struggled with expansions for the last years? Seems a bit blown out of proportion considering how well received Adventures and Empires were, the two before Nocturne. Nocturne itself was problematic, yes, but the expansions before it were not.

[@Loxen86]

Nocturne seemed like a one-off. The others are fair and good.

[@Some_Guy_In_Ohio]

Hey Tom et al - I'd be interested in seeing a revision to your 10 Favorite Dominion Cards list. Maybe give it 2-3 months so the newness of this set can be corrected for. I'd also be interested in seeing which cards you've "kept", as it looks like I'm going to be doing something similar (in my case creating a "Go To"box and an "Archive" box). My own personal expansion ranking would go (descending) Seaside, Prosperity (a few more clunkers than Seaside), Adventures, Guilds, Dark Age, Intrigue, Alchemy, and then all the sets I haven't bought\played yet.

[@borreholic7238]

Great to see Tom raving about Dominion (again). Interested to hear about those top 10 Dominion cards of all time.. :) Recently got Dark Ages as our 6th expansion, and I was baffled the inlay spaces were still (issue printed in 2016) to short to fit sleeved cards, when there's clearly room in the box to make them wider. Guess it's time to consider custom card storage..

[@saiyanroyalty229]

Projects are by far the greatest part of the new expansion

[@brittanymorgan7411]

Agreed. Those combined with the Landmarks from Empires are my favorite additions.

[@TheFilipFonky]

Villagers are the best feature imo

[@patharty7507]

I'm now expecting a Renaissance sized box under the Christmas tree.

[@erikak4244]

Sounds like Dominion had a renaissance. ;) (I'll see myself out.)

[@davidkovacs5614]

LMAO

[@Loxen86]

Nocturne was weird, but I've warmed up to some of the night cards. Watchman, changeling, guardian.

[@tubefrog213]

Research draws off the top of your deck.

[@alicemoore2036]

This seems to put everything that is good about Seaside and Intrigue into one set.

[@rockxhero]

I know you really like Adventures & Empires as well! How does this rank along with them after Prosperity & Seaside?

[@benjaminfreemyer7596]

I also love dominion! You said you don’t keep the box. How do you keep/store your dominion games?

[@argentum746]

wait "Scholar is like a redo card, i dont know how useful that is". Are you kidding me? You can basically play a card that gives you plus actions, play several more and even if you just happen to have one or two cards left (probably money or victory points) you just discard them and get an additional 7 cards from the scholar. Thats insane. I know how my girlfriend would construct her deck, just trash it with action and virtual money cards and then "finish" her first hand with scholar probably not even with a card left on the hand to discard at all, then grab another 7(!), play those and amass more actions and money (and purchases) to then finish off again with scholar and repeat that until she has pretty much no cards left to play anymore. 7 cards is insanely strong in my opinion and the downside is not really severe.

[@shaunjcwgaming]

As someone who loves Dominion and alsways looking for more insight I wanted to ask; why is Prosperity your favourite set? I think Colonies and Paltinums were the best thing ever added to the game but if the expansion didn't have those it would be very middling because there are so many awful cards. (Some amazing ones but you could say that about almost any set) So far I have removed 10 of the cards from that expansion from my randomizer pile because I never want to play with them again. That's the most I've ever removed for a single set and I still play with cards I kinda want to remove (Bank for example) I think you could buy a set of base cards (which give you Colonies and Platinums) and add the most interesting thing about Prosperity without spending extra money on to get what I find to be a mostly underwhelming bunch of cards. With that thought in mind do you still stand by that Prosperity is your favourite set?

[@Wessel603]

I can't find that live play, that Tom is mentioning at 9:30. Has anyone a link?

[@julesmartin6972]

Recruiter and acting troupe seems very strong? My first game with my playgroup that usually plays magic were very good in coming up with strong decks with the base set and cards like this scare me haha . Especially with the villagers it seems like you can just save it up and go for these massive turns where you buy 3 provinces in a turn

[@williamwilting]

The Old Witch seems way to expensive compared to the card's power, especially compared to the power of the regular Witch from the base game, which you must pay the same amount for to get. It would be interesting to implement something based on (bad) luck for the expansion coming after this, since it will be the 13th. A couple of cards with a little push your luck style mechanism perhaps. For example: "+1 Action Draw cards from the top of your deck and set them aside until you either decide to stop drawing another card and put all cards set aside into your hand, or draw and set aside a card that is identical to another card already set aside. In case of the latter, discard the set aside cards and -1 Action."

[@poesiforankor6349]

+3 cards is way better than +2. Also, curses is bad because they bloat your deck, not so much for the minus point. If the opponent get rids of the curses in the late game doesn't matter too much. Old witch is often stronger than regular witch..

[@jschildress1]

Sounds great, bought it already for my wife. But do people really struggle with Nocturne? The night phase is super simple, yes, some things are fiddly but I don't know why people act like it's hard to understand or deal with.

[@eatingsleeping]

I don't think it's that they don't 'get' it, more that one of Dominion's big strengths is it's simplicity and therefore it weakens it. Like when you go to a restaurant and they try and make something simple like Mac and cheese more sophisticated, and ruin it in process :)

[@saiyanroyalty229]

I understand it the only thing I dislike about nocturne is that every card feels like it has extra set up

[@Some_Guy_In_Ohio]

What I'm hearing (I don't own it yet) is that it's more a matter of unnecessary and uninteresting complications than difficult ones.

[@jonaskoelker]

My experience playing Nocturne mirrors that of Dominique and Some Guy In Ohio: setup is much more laborious and much of the added complexity has a low awesomeness-per-effort ratio. It's not difficult, it's just too much work for too little benefit.

[@VanDeutscheHammer]

Still waiting for more debt token cards

[@juliusgronlund8151]

Are the artifacts and the project cards bigger in size than the standard cards?

[@gregsaldi1292]

I've had the base game for a long time but have no expansions. What should be my first expansion to get?

[@Some_Guy_In_Ohio]

I would recommend either Prosperity or Seaside. Whichever of those two you didn't buy should be your 2nd expansion. It's a bit of cliched advice, but like my 9th grade literature teacher was fond ofsaying, sometimes clichés exist for a reason. Prosperity adds the Colony\Platinum pair to the game, which allows the game to play a bit longer. It also has some of the highest-cost non-Victory cards in the game - most of which are actually disappointing, IMO (exception: Peddler). It adds a lot for both Big Money and Engine style of play. Prosperity also added the victory token mechanic that I wish the game had done more with (I understand it was finally done in Empires, which I haven't gotten yet). Seaside adds Duration cards, and has fewer "clunker" cards than Prosperity. Don't overplay this statement but it's the best I've come up with to explain it - it's the old quanityt (Prosperity) versus quality (Seaside) balance. Seaside has a few of the "power" cards in the game and a smoother power curve. Seaside's alt-victory card (Island) is a bit of a disappointment but not exactly bad either. While I like Adventures and feel it is the most polished set I've gotten to play, it's built with the assumption the person playing it already understands certain functions, mechanics, and "conventional wisdom" and therefore wouldn't make a good 1st or 2nd expansion. If I'd been able to play Empires or Nocturne, I'd be comfortable saying Adventures should be the 3rd expansion.

[@LookAtTheBacon]

Seaside. This one here seems great too.

[@alicemoore2036]

Greg Saldi Renaissance looks excellent.

[@vwilliams9365]

My favorite is Prosperity, then Cornucopia, a small set that is now only available combined with another small set, Guilds. Though small, Cornucopia had several of the higher valued cards in the game. Next is Adventures, then Seaside. Renaissance is still new to me, but could easily slip in there somewhere. It brings back the coffers that first were used in Guilds. You should be very happy with any of them, but for a newer player, I agree that Adventures might be a little too much to be your first expansion.

[@AndrewHelgeCox]

You should redo this video to go through the cool new mechanics first instead of presenting a beastiary of ordinary cards in the middle. So, coffers and villagers, plans, cards with artifacts, then all the rest of the cards. (IMHO)

[@dovshore1976]

Does Dice Tower have a top 10 Dominion cards?

[@dovshore1976]

Ok. I got off my butt and searched for it and found it. Its 5 years old. Time for an update!!

[@DroidsofDestruction]

👍👍

[@CDolph296]

So Priest is a strict upgrade from moneylender at the same price?

[@whitesoxMLB]

It can trash Estates but makes less money when trashing Coppers.

[@TheDeathOfLucifer]

Alchemy is my favorite thing so alchemy sucking is so sad

[@liebekenntkeineligafurimme6668]

Why does it suck?

[@scyldscefing3913]

Dominion seems like such a juggernaut. It feels virtually unapproachable for the new gamer such as myself.

[@nerzenjaeger]

Buy the base game. Where's the problem?

[@mystemo1980]

Don't be scared it;s an awesome game. Start with the base and add expansions in slowly

[@scyldscefing3913]

I read somewhere that each base game comes with a 'roid-raged retired weight lifter that bends your arm until you buy all the expansions. Was I misinformed?

[@mystemo1980]

Nah u can mix them in whatever combo u want. Just start with the base and you'll get the feel of it

[@HelloImToast]

@@scyldscefing3913 Yeah. Base game isn't a beast at all. It is one of the best deckbuilders out there. Base game will give you so much enjoyment. So many combinations. Recommend it.