The Dominion Midgame: Money, Engines, and Tempo

By turn 5 or so, everyone has shuffled twice and the decks start to look different. One player has three Silvers and a Smithy. Another has two Villages and a Market. The midgame is where those plans either come together or fall apart, and it is where most games are won.

Money density: the number behind every hand

Here is a quick way to judge a deck: total money divided by number of cards.

• Your starting deck has $7 in 10 cards. That is $0.70 a card, or about $3.50 for an average five-card hand.
• Add two Silvers and you have $11 in 12 cards, about $4.60 a hand.
• A Province costs $8. In five cards, that takes $1.60 a card.

That gap is why the game is hard, and why there are only two ways to close it. Raise the money per card with Silver and Gold, or draw more than five cards. A Smithy turn sees 7 cards, so $8 needs only about $1.15 a card. Most good decks do some of both.

Victory cards and Curses lower your density: each one is a card with no money. That is why buying them early hurts.

The money deck

The simplest midgame plan is money plus one or two strong terminals. In the First Game kingdom, that usually means Smithy or Militia with Silver and Gold, and maybe a Market for its extra Buy.

The rules for a money deck are short:

• Buy Gold at $6 and $7.
• Buy Silver at $3 to $5 unless a card in the kingdom does more.
• Keep your terminals to about one per 8 to 10 cards, so they rarely collide.

It is not fancy. It also wins a lot of games, because it starts buying Provinces early.

The engine

An engine is a deck that draws most of itself every turn and then does something big. It needs three parts:

1. Villages for +Actions, so you can play many Action cards in one turn.
2. Draw for +Cards, such as Smithy, so you see more of your deck.
3. A payoff, such as +Buy and money to buy two Provinces at once, or an attack played every turn.

In the First Game set, Village and Smithy are the core pair, Market adds +Buy and money, and Militia makes a good payoff. Lay them out in order: Village, then Smithy, then Village, then Smithy. Count your Actions out loud as you go.

When an engine beats money

Engines take longer to build. They win only when the kingdom gives them enough to catch up. Look for all of these:

• Trashing, so the deck is small enough to draw. Chapel is the strongest trasher in the base set.
• Enough Villages and draw that the chain does not stall.
• +Buy, so a $16 turn can buy two Provinces instead of one.

The First Game set has no strong trasher. Remodel can turn an Estate into a $4 card, and Mine can turn a Copper into a Silver, but both are slow. In that kingdom, a well-played money deck with Smithy or Militia often beats a Village and Smithy engine.

Ask one question before you commit: when my deck draws itself, what does it do? If the answer is “buy one Province,” play money instead.

Tempo: why late buys matter less

Every card you buy waits in your discard pile until the next shuffle. In a 20-card deck that draws 5 a turn, a shuffle takes about 4 turns. A card bought with 6 turns left might show up once or twice before the game ends.

So build early and score late. A Smithy on turn 4 will be played many times. A Smithy on turn 16 might never be played.

Reading the table

Other players’ choices are public, so use them.

• Watch what they buy. Bought cards go face up on the discard pile, and the top card is public.
• Watch the piles. Count the Provinces left. Notice which Kingdom piles are getting low, since any three empty piles end the game.
• Answer the attacks. If two opponents have Militia, Moat gets much better. When you discard to Militia, keep your draw cards and your best Treasures.
• Spot a rush. In kingdoms with Workshop and Gardens, a player buying Workshop after Workshop may be planning to empty piles fast and end the game early.

A midgame checklist

Before each buy, ask:

1. Am I playing money or an engine?
2. Does this card raise my money per card, or help my deck draw itself?
3. How many shuffles are left before the game ends?

Our piece on engine building games explains why that build-then-score curve feels so good, in Dominion and beyond.