Dominion: Intrigue - Tips & Strategies

Minion was the card I never played when started with Intrigue. Afterwards, observing how powerful card it is in opponents hand I started using it game after game and became more successful.

Benefits:
1. Play all your actions before Minion, invoke it and enjoy 4 new cards.
2. You have bad hand – use Minion to gain new.
3. Your opponent is shining with smile, use Minion and his new hand will bring depressing rain to his face. Is it not a perfect move 😉

I find any purchase that provides both + cards and + actions is a win. It may seem common knowledge but is something newer players often overlook.
Each card with both +action and +card helps you cycle through your deck faster. Any card with more than one plus action or card (or a bonus like great hall which also gives a VP)is especially good. You should always buy High valued VP cards (province) and gold when possible but these cards are a good choice when they are not available or with extra buys).

Saboteur is one of the most vilified cards, really eating at those who dislike direct conflict and those watching their hard earned Provinces blow up.

While the best defense is usually just to ignore the Saboteur and push through to the end, the Secret Chamber seems tailor-made for this type of attack. If both cards are in play, stock up on silvers. If Secret Chamber comes up when Saboteur attacks, use it to hopefully sacrifice up a Silver. He will be happy to leave you alone for as little as 2 coins. Placement on top of the deck is also important as you can place it on the top and only have damage done there, or place it second and allow the first card to be discarded (a good way to clear an Estate).

The other pitfall to avoid with Saboteur, is replacing a high valued Province with a Gold. Our tendency is to maximize cost and so we see the 8 coin – 2 as 6 coin, so grab the gold. You just lost 6 VP so minimize that loss by grabbing a Duchy instead.

Bridge changes up the buy phase quite a bit for people that are not familiar with it. It gives +1 buy, +1 coin, and reduces the cost of all cards by one.

Many people focus on the reduced cost feature of the card and forget about the +buy. Since Bridge reduces the cost of all cards, it becomes more valuable the more cards you buy.

If you have $4 and play bridge, you gain +$1 and all cards are reduced in cost by one. If you bought a single cards, say a gold, your total purchase value for the turn is $6.

However in the same situation if you make use of the + buy and instead bought a $4 and a $3, perhaps another Bridge and a Silver, you total purchase value for the turn is $7.

If Steward is available, buying one on your first or second turn can be a great investment. You can use it to trash estates and coppers out of your deck early on, and when those are gone it changes roles to be your choice of a silver or +2 cards.

I see Jeremey Byrne allready wrote a tip about this card, but it needs to be said again, the saboteur will change the game in a fundamental way, and if you ask me it’s not to the better.

Since it targets any cards with a cost of 3 or greater it quickly turns into a shootout where the ultimate goal is to destroy your opponents saboteurs and/or their gold and provinces. Whoever manage to get rid of the other saboteurs first will win. And it will end in a long painful suffering, because in the end you will not even be able to keep your silver.

So, a BIG warning about the fun-factor going down if you include this card.

Since two people have already written tips complaining about the Saboteur dominating their games, I think it’s worth pointing out that it’s actually a rather weak card, and there is no necessity to buy it even if your opponents are doing so. It can only ruin your game if you let it.

Look at it this way: Saboteur forces each opponent to trash a card, and lets them replace it with a card that costs 2 less (or less). So it gives you a relative economic advantage of +2 coins; each other player loses 2 from the value of one card while you don’t.

But you can get the same relative advantage simply by playing a Silver, allowing you to buy yourself a card that costs 2 more than would otherwise be possible that turn; if that card is hit by a Saboteur, it simply turns into the card you would have bought in the first place if YOU had played a Saboteur instead of a Silver. And Silver costs 2 less than Saboteur, and doesn’t require an action to play.

Plus, players hit by a Saboteur can gain no card at all, at their option; for example, if you sabotage a Silver, they’re not forced to take a Copper. So you’re not even getting that full +2 relative advantage in all cases. Saboteur also lets your opponents cycle their decks faster, which is generally to their advantage. And inevitably, it will sometimes trash a card that your opponent is happy to get rid of, such as a deck-cleaning card they no longer need, or an action card they’re happy to turn into a victory card near the end of the game.

Or, if you prefer empirical evidence, the stats recorded at councilroom.com also indicate that Saboteur has the lowest win rate of any card in Intrigue.

The one place where Saboteur really shines is that it destroys “brittle” strategies, where your opponent needs to have exactly the right cards to make their engine work. But if you use a flexible strategy, then you can beat someone using Saboteurs simply by outpacing them economically, using virtually any other cards you like.

If I were to ban Saboteur, it would be because no one wants to use it, not because everyone feels like they have to.

The Swindler is far too powerful in the early game, as it allows you to switch other people’s copper for curses, since they cost the same. I’d either use the house rule that you can’t use swindler, or the rule that you can’t switch copper for curses.