The Three Levels of a Dominion Player
Everyone climbs the same ladder. Find where you are and reach for the next rung.
Big Money
The bedrock strategy: just buy Treasure, then Provinces. Buy Silvers and Golds every turn to climb your average hand value, and start grabbing Provinces once you can afford them. It's simple, it's fast, and it's the benchmark every fancier plan must beat. If your clever engine can't out-score plain Big Money, don't build it.
Big Money + One Card
Big Money with a single strong Action mixed in. The classic is Smithy (+3 Cards): a couple of them supercharge your money-buying without any engine overhead. Learning which one card lifts a money deck — a Smithy, a Militia, a Witch — is the first real strategic skill.
The Engine
The mountaintop. Chain Villages (+Actions) with draw and payload cards so that a single turn draws most of your deck, plays a dozen Actions, and buys multiple Provinces at once. Engines are stronger than money when the Kingdom supports them — the art is recognizing when it does.
The Core Concepts
1. Trashing = Upgrading
Your starting deck is full of dead weight: Coppers worth only 1 and Estates worth nothing while you play. Cards that trash (permanently remove) those — Chapel, Remodel, Steward — thin your deck so the good cards show up more often. A lean 10-card deck full of Gold beats a bloated 25-card deck every time.
2. Terminal Collision
An Action that does not give "+1 Action" is a terminal — after it, your Action phase ends. Draw two terminals in the same hand and one just sits there, wasted. This is the single most common beginner mistake.
- Fix it with Villages: cards that give +2 Actions (or more) let you play terminal after terminal.
- Or stay lean: a Big-Money deck happily runs just one or two terminals total and never collides.
3. Actions, Draw, and Payload
Every engine needs three things working together:
| Ingredient | Job | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Villages | Give you enough +Actions to keep playing | Village, Festival, Bustling Village |
| Draw | Refill your hand so you keep going | Smithy, Laboratory, Hunting Party |
| Payload | Turn the big turn into coins & buys | Gold, Grand Market, Bridge |
Miss any one and the engine sputters: villages with no draw run out of cards; draw with no villages collides; both with no payload draws your whole deck and buys nothing.
4. The +Buy Multiplier
One Buy per turn caps you at one card. +Buy cards (Market, Woodcutter, Festival) let a big-money turn grab a Gold and a Silver, or an engine turn buy two Provinces. +Buy is what turns raw coins into a faster finish — don't overlook it.
5. Attacks & Defense
Many Kingdoms include attack cards. Know the two big families:
- Handsize attacks (Militia) — force opponents to discard, choking their turns.
- Cursers (Witch, Mountebank) — junk opponents' decks with Curses (−1 point each) and Coppers. In a curser game, you usually must buy the curser too or fall hopelessly behind.
Moat and other Reactions defend you. When a strong attack is in the Kingdom, defense and counter-attack often shape the whole game.
Reading the Kingdom
Before your first buy, scan the 10 Kingdom cards and ask:
- Is there strong trashing? (Chapel, Steward) → an engine is probably viable; thin early.
- Is there a curser? (Witch, Mountebank) → the game may revolve around it; plan to buy or defend.
- Are there villages and draw? → an engine can be built. If one is missing, lean toward money.
- Is there +Buy and a payload? → big multi-Province turns are possible.
- Nothing exciting? → Big Money + one good terminal is likely the winner. Don't overthink it.
Timing: The Money Pivot
The hardest skill in Dominion is knowing when to stop building and start scoring. Buy Provinces too early and your deck stays weak; too late and your opponent empties the pile first.
A practical guide to the endgame:
- Early game: buy money and engine parts. No green cards yet.
- Mid game: keep building, but once you can hit 8 most turns, start taking Provinces.
- Late game: green hard. Grab Provinces, then Duchies, and watch the pile count — the game ends when Provinces run out.
- The three-pile ending: if several piles are low, you can end the game abruptly. Sometimes buying out cheap piles while ahead is the winning move.
The Duchy Dance & Three-Pile Endings
When the Province pile is nearly gone and scores are close, the game shifts. Whoever is ahead wants it to end now — grabbing Duchies (3) or even Estates and emptying piles to trigger the three-pile finish. Whoever is behind wants more turns to catch up. Counting points and piles in these final turns wins close games.
Quick Reference: Do's and Don'ts
✅ Do
- Thin your deck early with trashing.
- Beat the "Big Money benchmark" before building an engine.
- Buy +Buy when you have real coins to spend.
- Count Provinces and low piles every turn late-game.
- Buy the curser in a cursing game.
🚫 Don't
- Buy Victory cards before the endgame — they clog you.
- Stack terminals with no Villages.
- Build a fragile engine when plain money would win.
- Ignore an attack that's hurting you.
- Forget the game can end on any three empty piles.