obviously organ, concert, opera are out; possibly jack too but that's a stretch. Other than that I don't see anything we can exclude? Mostly I'm very confused by a starting 0-clue, idk how can we guess anything at all unless just semirandomly
Without looking at the previous spoiler, here are my thoughts:
Spoiler: Black keys are the assassin's tools ...
First layer: finding things that match with Piano, then avoiding them.
CONCERT: a place one would expect to find a piano. Confidence in avoiding this: high.
ORGAN: a keyboard instrument, much like a piano. Confidence in avoiding this: high.
OPERA: at least an indirect connection here - both connected to musical performances. Confidence in avoiding this: medium.
DANCE: starting to stretch things out here, but similar to OPERA. Confidence in avoiding this: low.
So I'd say we don't guess any of the above, and probably
never
guessing Concert or Organ.
Second layer: why did we get a zero clue here? Best guess: there's an advanced technique where you try to knock out a word that's preventing you from giving a super-awesome huge clue - and then we have to puzzle out what that super-awesome clue is.
Knocking out ORGAN opens up body parts ... but the board really doesn't have any? Closest thing it has are clothes / accessories - RING, PANTS, and there's no reason to use a fancy zero clue to take out ORGAN when you can just clue WEAR, 2.
Knocking out CONCERT ... looks a little more promising. STADIUM? RING (like a boxing ring)? ROW (think seating)? Maybe even COMIC? (like a comedian, not like comic book). Something like VENUE, 4, except that CONCERT looks really tasty with a VENUE clue.
Tentative thoughts: open with a guess of STADIUM and see what happens, since we have to guess something.
All right, so we agreed on at least three of the "don't guess" words, and the one we didn't was my low confidence word.
biancospino, if you see this before looking at my spoiler, try this first:
Do you see anything that looks like a big group of words that would be easy to clue if one or more of the don't guess words were missing?
Example:
Say that you want to clue HORSE, DOG, DUCK, and PANDA, but CAT is the assassin. ANIMALS, 4 would be a gimme, except that guessing CAT is death.
So instead, you clue FELINE, 0. That tells your partners: don't guess CAT, but also tells them - CAT is a huge obstacle, and the prize that it's blocking is something that's worth two clues. So we look for things that would be easy to pick off - and a big enough payoff - if it weren't for the CAT.
See if anything looks like it would follow that pattern, then check my spoiler for my thoughts on what does.
Oh. That is actually clever, is it a standard thing players generally do? Now that you've explained seems obvious but I doubt I would ever get it on my own.
Anyway, problem is I had read your spoiler before 8702. Other than that grouping, I can also see something like ENTERTAINMENT (Stadium/Comic/Dance/
Opera
/
Concert
)
Agreed that Organ doesn't seem like it relates to anything. I don't really agree that Dance should be excluded, but I guess maybe
My confidence in DANCE is low, so I wouldn't put too much stock in it. Especially since typically, use of a 0 clue in this fashion is supposed to be pretty focused.
As far as the tactic goes: the rulebooks in Duet mention it. I don't think I've actually seen anyone try to do it, though. So this is a first, and it's entirely possible that it means something completely different.
So the question here is, where do we want to start - and assuming we get a hit, how much risk do we want to take after?
