Dominion Strategy Forum
Dominion => Variants and Fan Cards => Weekly Design Contest => Topic started by: Timinou on December 09, 2021, 09:54:16 am
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WDC #137: From Whence It Came
Rules:
- Design a card that contains the text "return this"
- If your card is a non-supply card, State, or Artifact, please also submit a Supply card that interacts with it
- Examples of official cards that qualify include Experiment, Horse Traders, Madman, Wish, Horse, Way of the Butterfly, Way of the Horse, Deluded, Envious
- I can bend the first rule if you want the card to say "return it" rather than "return this" as long as it would have the same meaning if the phrases were substituted (see Spoils and Encampment)
- This is similar to Contest #93, but your submission doesn't need to return itself to its pile (see Horse Trader)
The deadline will be Thursday, December 16th at 11:59PM ET or 24 hours after I post the 24-hour notice (whichever comes later).
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This is the same as contest #121.
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Oh rats! I looked through #1-100 and didn't see it, but I did have a feeling it was done before. I'll delete and come up with new one
EDIT: The new one is up
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Equine Village
$4
Action
+1 Card and +1 Action.
Choose one: +1 Action; or return this to the Supply for +2 Cards.
Edit: Updated wording per LastFootnote’s suggestion.
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Equine Village
$4
Action
+1 Card and +1 Action.
Choose one: return this to the Supply for +2 Cards; or +1 Action.
I would reverse the order of those two options. First time I read it, I thought you also had to return it to the Supply for +1 Action.
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Equine Village
$4
Action
+1 Card and +1 Action.
Choose one: return this to the Supply for +2 Cards; or +1 Action.
I would reverse the order of those two options. First time I read it, I thought you also had to return it to the Supply for +1 Action.
Or even just "you may return this to the Supply for +2 Cards. If you don't, +1 Action."
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(https://trello.com/1/cards/61b3bd8b3047ba868636e4e9/attachments/61b3bd95c273855914895a7f/previews/61b3bd97c273855914895ab3/download/image.png)
Leyline • $4 • Action - Victory
If it's your first time playing a Leyline this turn, +4 Cards and return this to the Supply. Otherwise, +1 Card.
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If any other player has the same number of Leylines as you, worth 0%. Otherwise worth 2%.
What if Crossroads rewarded card counting harder?
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(https://trello.com/1/cards/61b3bd8b3047ba868636e4e9/attachments/61b3bd95c273855914895a7f/previews/61b3bd97c273855914895ab3/download/image.png)
Leyline • $4 • Action - Victory
If it's your first time playing a Leyline this turn, +4 Cards and return this to the Supply. Otherwise, +1 Card.
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If any other player has the same number of Leylines as you, worth 0%. Otherwise worth 2%.
What if Crossroads rewarded card counting harder?
This is funny in that if you and the other player in a 2-player game have the same number of Leylines, then it doesn't really matter whether they're worth VP or not. They'd cancel each other out anyway. So the bottom only matters in a game with more players, or maybe with specific other card interactions.
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(https://trello.com/1/cards/61b3bd8b3047ba868636e4e9/attachments/61b3bd95c273855914895a7f/previews/61b3bd97c273855914895ab3/download/image.png)
Leyline • $4 • Action - Victory
If it's your first time playing a Leyline this turn, +4 Cards and return this to the Supply. Otherwise, +1 Card.
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If any other player has the same number of Leylines as you, worth 0%. Otherwise worth 2%.
What if Crossroads rewarded card counting harder?
This is funny in that if you and the other player in a 2-player game have the same number of Leylines, then it doesn't really matter whether they're worth VP or not. They'd cancel each other out anyway. So the bottom only matters in a game with more players, or maybe with specific other card interactions.
Yeah it's a fun little interaction that adds to the multiplayer experience, i think.
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Hunter's Village
Action $4
Choose one: +1 Card and +2 Actions; or return this to the supply and gain a Duchy or 3 Estates.
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(https://i.imgur.com/5B6XkfJ.png)
Here's my entry this week. Corridor is a sifter you can play as many times as you want! Well, until you run out of cards at least, it reduces your hand size by one on each play. It draws 2 and then puts itself back into your hand and discards 3, giving you the option to keep it and potentially play it again, or discard it. I believe it can safely cost $3 like Warehouse since it draws one card fewer, but can be played multiple times. You can decide how long the Corridor goes.
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Student
Action
$4
You may play an Action card from your hand twice. Return this to the supply to gain a copy of that Action
This is a one-shot Disciple. Returning to the Supply is mandatory, so if you use it on a non-Supply card (or a card whose pile is empty), you still get to play it twice, but you lose the Student with no gain, basically turning it into just a one-shot Throne Room
If you Student a Student, then, as with Throning a Throne Room, you get to play two different Action cards twice, however, you only gain a copy of the first Action card played, since you can't return the same Student to the Supply twice. Technically, both Students get returned to the Supply, however, the first Student you played gains a copy of the second Student, so the net result is that you're only returning one Student to the Supply. And the same principle would apply if you chained multiple Students, although you could still gain copies of multiple Actions if you're willing to return more than one Student to the supply, depending on how you order the plays. E.g., with three Students:
Student 1 plays Student 2 twice
Student 2's first play is Hunting Grounds. Play it twice, gain a copy of Hunting Grounds, return Student 2 to the Supply
Return Student 1 to the Supply, gain a copy of Student 2
Student 2's second play plays Student 3 twice
Student 3's first play is Smithy. Play it twice, gain a copy of Smithy, return Student 3 to the Supply
Student 3's second play is, say, another Smithy. Play it twice
So, you returned all three Students to the supply, and gained one Student, one Smithy, and one Hunting Grounds, for a net result of returning two Students for two other Actions
Since it's returned to the Supply and not trashed, you can continue to buy new Students indefinitely. If there are any +buy in the kingdom, it becomes especially easy to replace them - as long as you net at least an extra +buy and +$4 with its replaying, you can just buy a Student to replace the one you returned to the Supply. However, unlike conventional gainers, you can only gain an Action card if you're able to line it up with Student
I'm not sure of the cost - is $4 too low? The fact that you gain a copy of the replayed card (most of the time anyways) is an advantage over Throne Room, but the fact that it's a one-shot is a disadvantage. Is it enough of a disadvantage to justify the $4 cost, or should I make it $5?
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Corruption
Action - $4
+1 Buy
+$1 per Corruption token you have
You may return this to the supply.
________________
When you gain this, take a Corruption token, then each other player gains a Corruption without taking a Corruption token.
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(https://i.imgur.com/cwVb5pxh.jpg)
Smelter
$3 - Action
+2 Cards
You may return this or an Action card from your hand to the Supply for +2 Actions.
A one-shot Lost City that can also be used just as terminal draw or to dispose of Action cards you don't want or need anymore.
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So I made a Cycle of 12 Zodiac themed cards that all had out states and I thought this one was the best for the return theme this week.
(https://i.imgur.com/xdsCcMO.png) (https://i.imgur.com/9LiBgcC.png)
Year of the Horse
$2
Action
Gain 2 Horses.
If you don't have Healthy, take Healthy.
Healthy
State
When you gain a card, you may return this, to exchange the card for a Horse.
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My submission for this week's contest is Collector. Collector is a reserve card that will help you smooth your money. It likes Silver and can be a good opening buy. It should provide some more options for spiking higher price points.
Here it is:
Collector
$3
Action - Reserve
+1 Card
+1 Action
At the start of your buy phase, you may
return this to your Tavern mat for +$2.
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After you buy a treasure costing 3 or less
you may call this for +$1 and +1 Buy.
This is gained to your Tavern mat.
Edit: Changed how it works slightly because of Snes' suggestion.
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My submission for this week's contest is Collector. Collector is a reserve card that will help you smooth your money. It likes Silver and can be a good opening buy. It should provide some more options for spiking higher price points.
Here it is:
Collector
$4
Action - Reserve
+1 Card
+1 Action
At the start of your buy phase, you may
put this on your Tavern mat for +$2.
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After you buy a treasure costing 3 or less
you may return this to your discard pile for +$1.
That's not the way reserve cards are worded. Reserve cards that you can remove from the tavern mat for a benefit say "you may call this" (Ratcatcher, et al), and the one reserve card that goes directly from the tavern mat to your discard simply says "discard this" (Wine Merchant). You can't have a card say "return this to your discard pile" unless it was already in your discard pile to start with.
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(https://i.imgur.com/St34mK5.png)
Barmaid
+1 Action
Put this on your tavern mat.
When you buy a card, you may call this, to put that card onto your deck. If that was the second card you bought this turn, return this to your tavern mat.
$2 - Action - Reserve
Inspired by jakav's Collector, I decided to make a Reserve card that returned itself to the tavern mat so you could call it again without needing to replay it. I spent a lot of time hemming and hawing over whether or not she should give you +1 Card as well. I think it might be better if she doesn't, since that means there's more of a cost to playing her (and, as a result, more of a cost to calling her).
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(https://i.imgur.com/plXdfrf.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/o5GKISy.png)
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(https://i.imgur.com/plXdfrf.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/o5GKISy.png)
Interesting! This would be a very useful opening, letting you spike high price points early on as a one-shot
It's also interesting in that, since it works at Clean-Up, and not at the end of your Buy phase (unlike Wine Merchant, for example), you could actually use coins earned during your Night phase, e.g., Night trashing with a Priest in play
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Here is a card from my Arcadia expansion: (http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=20961.0)
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/874734496803618826/896840700300238928/Travelling_Merchant.png)
A $5 smithy but with a way out of terminal collisions. The card itself is buy neutral so it has the added benefit of being +Buy in a kingdom without it in your final turns, or if you are forced to trigger it early you can buy it back up without fearing losing out on a buy.
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(https://i.imgur.com/dXPUIiA.png)
Redistrict: Action, $2
Return this to its pile.
Trash a card from your hand; gain a card costing exactly $1 more than it, then gain a card costing exactly $2 more than it.
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(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51754323494_65a7263ee7_b.jpg) (https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51754323554_d8c79eddd7_b.jpg)
Yule Cat - $4
Action - Attack
+$2
If a Yule Cat is in the supply, +1 Action. Otherwise, each other player may reveal a New Sock card from their hand; if they don't, they gain a New Sock and discard down to 3 cards in hand.
New Sock - $2
Treasure
$1
You may put your -1 Card token on your deck for +$1.
Return this to the supply.
The Yule Cat, known as Jólakötturinn, in Icelandic folklore was a giant vicious cat that mauled anyone who did not have new clothes for Christmas. I made a Militia variant to try and emulate that spirit. Yule Cat is a split pile with 5 Yule Cats on top of 2 New Sock cards for each player. So, in a 3 player game it is actually 5 Yule Cats on top of 6 New Sock cards. Until the Yule Cats are gone, they only act as a Silver. Afterwards, they Militia anyone who does not have New Socks, but is kind enough to give them out to everyone afterwards. New Sock is an optional Silver, so it is not the worst kind of junk to be left with. Feedback is appreciated.
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24 Hour Warning
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Submissions Closed
I’ll try to have the results up later today.
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Apologies - judging got delayed due to some work commitments.
Thank you all for your submissions - there were some really cool designs! My comments and the results are below:
JW’s Equine Village *Shortlist*
Equine Village functions either as a village or returns itself to the supply to give a double-Lab effect. Being able to draw a card before deciding whether you need the Actions or the draw is quite nice. Unlike Mining Village which requires trashing itself, in Kingdoms with +Buy you would have the option to buy back your Equine Village if you decide to return it. So unless this is the only village and terminal space in your deck is a concern, I can see this being used for draw fairly often. You still need to add enough economy to your deck so this will by no means be a monolithic strategy. Overall, a solid design.
spineflu's Leyline
The first Leyline you play in a turn will give you +4 cards (but returns itself to the Supply), whereas each subsequent play will only give you +1 card and you get to keep it. Each Leyline also scores 2VP at the end of the game if no other player has the same number of Leylines as you. As far as alt-VP goes, I don’t think a strategy of rushing Leylines gives you enough VP for it to payoff. Having one or two Leylines in your deck at any given time seems fine since you do get some good one-shot terminal draw out of the first play, but I think your deck is likely to fall apart if you have too many Leylines. I think the card needs a buff, preferably to the on-play effects (I’m not a big fan of all-or-nothing scoring, so I would rather not see an increase in the amount of VP that Leyline gives you). The card would probably still be balanced at $4 if each subsequent play gave +2 Cards instead of +1 Card, and will make it more attractive, even without cards like Ironmonger or Sacrifice that will like the dual Action-Victory type.
xyz123's Hunter's Village
Hunter's Village gives you the choice of playing it as a vanilla village or returning it to the supply and gaining a Duchy or 3 Estates. I'm not sure if it was intentional that gaining the Victory cards is not contingent on returning Hunter's Village to the supply and so playing King's Court on it would let you empty the Estates in a 2-player game. You're usually not going to want to pop it until you're ready to green (except in certain situations like Inheritance boards), but the precise moment of when to convert them to points could be interesting albeit probably more straightforward in comparison to deciding whether or not to pop your Mining Villages.
4est’s Corridor *Shortlist*
Corridor is an interesting sifter that can be returned to your hand and played multiple times until you run out of cards in your hand. There are synergies with discard-for-benefit cards as well as draw-to-X cards. In Kingdoms without discard-for-benefit or draw-to-X, I’d be curious how often this would get played more than once per turn due to the hand size reduction. I think it’s a clever design overall, and the return to hand mechanic works well here due to the hand size reduction with each play. It might be overpowered in games where its possible to stick a +1 Card token on it, but those instances should be rare.
mxdata's Student *Shortlist*
Disciple is one of my favourite cards, so it’s nice to see a one-shot version of it. I think the fact that the gaining ability is contingent on returning Student to the supply is a wise design choice, as it prevents broken combos with Command cards and doesn’t make it overly explosive. I think the card will work fine at $4 due to the one-shot nature. This looks fun and I’d be eager to try it out.
NoMoreFun’s Corruption
Corruption is a unique payload card and junker which gives you +$1 for each Corruption token you have. When you gain it, you take a Corruption token, whereas each other player gains a Corruption without taking a Corruption token (since Corruption doesn’t have the Attack type, other players cannot block it with Moat although they can still defend against it with Watchtower). This could be interesting with Talismans, Stonemasons or Duplicates, since you power up your own Corruptions while junking your opponents. The interaction with Messenger could be a bit funky especially in a multiplayer game, where you could empty the Corruption pile quite quickly. In theory, there is no limit on the number of Corruption tokens you can gain, since Corruption gives you the option of returning it to the supply. This does make me slightly uncomfortable even though most games will end before you rack up an absurd amount of Corruption tokens. I could see certain situations where you could power up your Corruption cards almost exponentially each turn.
AJL828’s Smelter
Smelter is a terminal draw card that gives you the option of returning itself or an Action card from your hand to the supply for +2 Actions. It can be a helpful way of cleaning out Ruins from your deck and cards like trashers or cursers that have outlived their usefulness, but in many cases returning Action cards to the supply for what basically amounts to a Necropolis effect will be an act of desperation. I’m not sure it’s a card you really want to build your deck around unless you recognize that it is a terminal draw card with insurance against terminal collisions. I think I would have liked this better at $2, although I don’t think it can cost that much given that you can “buy” Horses for $2 with Ride.
arowdok's Year of the Horse / Healthy *Shortlist*
Year of the Horse lets you gain 2 Horses and gives you Healthy, a State which allows you to exchange a card you gain for a Horse. As such, Healthy can provide some protection against junkers and in Kingdoms with +Buy, it will essentially let you convert an extra Buy into a Horse for free since you can buy a Copper or Curse and exchange it for a Horse. I think the utility of Healthy will be more limited in Kingdoms without +Buy or junking attacks. Nevertheless, it’s a neat concept and I’m curious to see your other Zodiac-themed cards.
jakav's Collector
Collector is a cantrip that can be placed on the Tavern mat for +$2, which is quite a nice effect. However, the card is gained onto your Tavern mat and getting it off your Tavern mat requires you to buy a Treasure costing $3 or less, which in most cases will be a Silver. This looks interesting on a $3/$4 open especially if there are good $2-cost cards available, since you could buy Collector on Turn 1 and then a Silver on Turn 2 to call Collector for +$1 and +1 Buy and buy the $2-cost card. Collector will be useful for spiking price points after the first shuffle. Because of the way the card is gained and called, you could conceivably try to stockpile them on your Tavern mat and call multiple Collectors with a single Treasure buy in order to minimize the number of Silvers or other cheap Treasures in your deck. I’m not sure the card needs to say “return this to your Tavern mat” rather than “put this on your Tavern mat” like the official Reserve cards do, and in fact creates unnecessary ambiguity.
Snes’ Barmaid
Barmaid is a cheap Reserve card that can be called when you buy a card to let you topdeck it. If it happens to be the second card you have bought in a turn, you can return Barmaid to your Tavern mat. This ability lets you keep Barmaid out of your deck or to call it again to let you topdeck the third card that you buy. I think the card is pretty weak even for $2, since most other cards that give you a topdecking ability (e.g. Tracker, Royal Seal, Way of the Seal) aren’t limited to a single card, and Tracker and Way of the Seal allow you to topdeck cards you gain during your Action phase as well. In Kingdoms without +Buy, Barmaid becomes even weaker.
Gubump’s Wine *Shortlist*
Wine is an interesting $4-cost Silver variant. The on-play effect gives you +$4, but in order to keep it in your deck you would need to pay $2 when discarding it from play. It is helpful in the opening to for spiking price points and synergizes well with certain other cards e.g. Mandarin, Herbalist, Crown, and Counterfeit. As mxdata pointed out, there is also an interesting interaction whereby you can use coins generated in the Night phase to retain Wine.
The Alchemist’s Travelling Merchant *Shortlist*
Travelling Merchant is a Smithy variant that can be returned to the Supply for +1 Action and +1 Buy. Like AJL828’s Smelter, this is a draw card with insurance against terminal collisions, but I think Travelling Merchant looks more appealing since it gives you the opportunity to buy it back if you decide to pop it and have sufficient economy in your deck. This is a simple yet solid design.
LastFootNote’s Redistrict
Redistrict returns itself to its pile then let’s you trash a card from you hand and then gain a card costing exactly $1 more than it and then a card costing exactly $2 more than it. The Remodeling effect is not contingent on returning itself to its pile and so Redistrict can be throned or activated via Command cards. You would hope to collide it with one of your Estates or Shelters, but even if you can’t, you can at least trash a Copper and gain another Redistrict, so I like the price point for that reason.
Xen3k’s Yule Cat and New Sock
Yule Cat sits on top of New Sock in a split pile and if there are still copies of Yule Cat in the supply, it gives you $2 and +1 Action. If there are no copies of Yule Cat, the card becomes a terminal card that gives $2 and each other player must reveal a New Sock from their hand and if they don’t, they gain a New Sock and discard down to 3 cards in hand. New Sock is a temporary junk card that is returned to the Supply when played. It normally gives you $1, but you can also choose to take your -1 Card token for +$1. I’m not sure that there is sufficient incentive for players to buy up enough Yule Cats to reveal New Sock, especially in a 2-player game. Sure, if you have King’s Court around and need some Action-based economy I can see it happening, but having more than one Yule Cat in your deck will likely take up precious terminal space once New Sock gets revealed and even if you have the +Actions, the attacks don’t stack anyway.
RESULTS
Runners up:
4est's Corridor
The Alchemist's Travelling Merchant
Winner:
mxdata's Student
Congratulations, mxdata!
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Apologies - judging got delayed due to some work commitments.
Thank you all for your submissions - there were some really cool designs! My comments and the results are below:
JW’s Equine Village *Shortlist*
Equine Village functions either as a village or returns itself to the supply to give a double-Lab effect. Being able to draw a card before deciding whether you need the Actions or the draw is quite nice. Unlike Mining Village which requires trashing itself, in Kingdoms with +Buy you would have the option to buy back your Equine Village if you decide to return it. So unless this is the only village and terminal space in your deck is a concern, I can see this being used for draw fairly often. You still need to add enough economy to your deck so this will by no means be a monolithic strategy. Overall, a solid design.
spineflu's Leyline
The first Leyline you play in a turn will give you +4 cards (but returns itself to the Supply), whereas each subsequent play will only give you +1 card and you get to keep it. Each Leyline also scores 2VP at the end of the game if no other player has the same number of Leylines as you. As far as alt-VP goes, I don’t think a strategy of rushing Leylines gives you enough VP for it to payoff. Having one or two Leylines in your deck at any given time seems fine since you do get some good one-shot terminal draw out of the first play, but I think your deck is likely to fall apart if you have too many Leylines. I think the card needs a buff, preferably to the on-play effects (I’m not a big fan of all-or-nothing scoring, so I would rather not see an increase in the amount of VP that Leyline gives you). The card would probably still be balanced at $4 if each subsequent play gave +2 Cards instead of +1 Card, and will make it more attractive, even without cards like Ironmonger or Sacrifice that will like the dual Action-Victory type.
xyz123's Hunter's Village
Hunter's Village gives you the choice of playing it as a vanilla village or returning it to the supply and gaining a Duchy or 3 Estates. I'm not sure if it was intentional that gaining the Victory cards is not contingent on returning Hunter's Village to the supply and so playing King's Court on it would let you empty the Estates in a 2-player game. You're usually not going to want to pop it until you're ready to green (except in certain situations like Inheritance boards), but the precise moment of when to convert them to points could be interesting albeit probably more straightforward in comparison to deciding whether or not to pop your Mining Villages.
4est’s Corridor *Shortlist*
Corridor is an interesting sifter that can be returned to your hand and played multiple times until you run out of cards in your hand. There are synergies with discard-for-benefit cards as well as draw-to-X cards. In Kingdoms without discard-for-benefit or draw-to-X, I’d be curious how often this would get played more than once per turn due to the hand size reduction. I think it’s a clever design overall, and the return to hand mechanic works well here due to the hand size reduction with each play. It might be overpowered in games where its possible to stick a +1 Card token on it, but those instances should be rare.
mxdata's Student *Shortlist*
Disciple is one of my favourite cards, so it’s nice to see a one-shot version of it. I think the fact that the gaining ability is contingent on returning Student to the supply is a wise design choice, as it prevents broken combos with Command cards and doesn’t make it overly explosive. I think the card will work fine at $4 due to the one-shot nature. This looks fun and I’d be eager to try it out.
NoMoreFun’s Corruption
Corruption is a unique payload card and junker which gives you +$1 for each Corruption token you have. When you gain it, you take a Corruption token, whereas each other player gains a Corruption without taking a Corruption token (since Corruption doesn’t have the Attack type, other players cannot block it with Moat although they can still defend against it with Watchtower). This could be interesting with Talismans, Stonemasons or Duplicates, since you power up your own Corruptions while junking your opponents. The interaction with Messenger could be a bit funky especially in a multiplayer game, where you could empty the Corruption pile quite quickly. In theory, there is no limit on the number of Corruption tokens you can gain, since Corruption gives you the option of returning it to the supply. This does make me slightly uncomfortable even though most games will end before you rack up an absurd amount of Corruption tokens. I could see certain situations where you could power up your Corruption cards almost exponentially each turn.
AJL828’s Smelter
Smelter is a terminal draw card that gives you the option of returning itself or an Action card from your hand to the supply for +2 Actions. It can be a helpful way of cleaning out Ruins from your deck and cards like trashers or cursers that have outlived their usefulness, but in many cases returning Action cards to the supply for what basically amounts to a Necropolis effect will be an act of desperation. I’m not sure it’s a card you really want to build your deck around unless you recognize that it is a terminal draw card with insurance against terminal collisions. I think I would have liked this better at $2, although I don’t think it can cost that much given that you can “buy” Horses for $2 with Ride.
arowdok's Year of the Horse / Healthy *Shortlist*
Year of the Horse lets you gain 2 Horses and gives you Healthy, a State which allows you to exchange a card you gain for a Horse. As such, Healthy can provide some protection against junkers and in Kingdoms with +Buy, it will essentially let you convert an extra Buy into a Horse for free since you can buy a Copper or Curse and exchange it for a Horse. I think the utility of Healthy will be more limited in Kingdoms without +Buy or junking attacks. Nevertheless, it’s a neat concept and I’m curious to see your other Zodiac-themed cards.
jakav's Collector
Collector is a cantrip that can be placed on the Tavern mat for +$2, which is quite a nice effect. However, the card is gained onto your Tavern mat and getting it off your Tavern mat requires you to buy a Treasure costing $3 or less, which in most cases will be a Silver. This looks interesting on a $3/$4 open especially if there are good $2-cost cards available, since you could buy Collector on Turn 1 and then a Silver on Turn 2 to call Collector for +$1 and +1 Buy and buy the $2-cost card. Collector will be useful for spiking price points after the first shuffle. Because of the way the card is gained and called, you could conceivably try to stockpile them on your Tavern mat and call multiple Collectors with a single Treasure buy in order to minimize the number of Silvers or other cheap Treasures in your deck. I’m not sure the card needs to say “return this to your Tavern mat” rather than “put this on your Tavern mat” like the official Reserve cards do, and in fact creates unnecessary ambiguity.
Snes’ Barmaid
Barmaid is a cheap Reserve card that can be called when you buy a card to let you topdeck it. If it happens to be the second card you have bought in a turn, you can return Barmaid to your Tavern mat. This ability lets you keep Barmaid out of your deck or to call it again to let you topdeck the third card that you buy. I think the card is pretty weak even for $2, since most other cards that give you a topdecking ability (e.g. Tracker, Royal Seal, Way of the Seal) aren’t limited to a single card, and Tracker and Way of the Seal allow you to topdeck cards you gain during your Action phase as well. In Kingdoms without +Buy, Barmaid becomes even weaker.
Gubump’s Wine *Shortlist*
Wine is an interesting $4-cost Silver variant. The on-play effect gives you +$4, but in order to keep it in your deck you would need to pay $2 when discarding it from play. It is helpful in the opening to for spiking price points and synergizes well with certain other cards e.g. Mandarin, Herbalist, Crown, and Counterfeit. As mxdata pointed out, there is also an interesting interaction whereby you can use coins generated in the Night phase to retain Wine.
The Alchemist’s Travelling Merchant *Shortlist*
Travelling Merchant is a Smithy variant that can be returned to the Supply for +1 Action and +1 Buy. Like AJL828’s Smelter, this is a draw card with insurance against terminal collisions, but I think Travelling Merchant looks more appealing since it gives you the opportunity to buy it back if you decide to pop it and have sufficient economy in your deck. This is a simple yet solid design.
LastFootNote’s Redistrict
Redistrict returns itself to its pile then let’s you trash a card from you hand and then gain a card costing exactly $1 more than it and then a card costing exactly $2 more than it. The Remodeling effect is not contingent on returning itself to its pile and so Redistrict can be throned or activated via Command cards. You would hope to collide it with one of your Estates or Shelters, but even if you can’t, you can at least trash a Copper and gain another Redistrict, so I like the price point for that reason.
Xen3k’s Yule Cat and New Sock
Yule Cat sits on top of New Sock in a split pile and if there are still copies of Yule Cat in the supply, it gives you $2 and +1 Action. If there are no copies of Yule Cat, the card becomes a terminal card that gives $2 and each other player must reveal a New Sock from their hand and if they don’t, they gain a New Sock and discard down to 3 cards in hand. New Sock is a temporary junk card that is returned to the Supply when played. It normally gives you $1, but you can also choose to take your -1 Card token for +$1. I’m not sure that there is sufficient incentive for players to buy up enough Yule Cats to reveal New Sock, especially in a 2-player game. Sure, if you have King’s Court around and need some Action-based economy I can see it happening, but having more than one Yule Cat in your deck will likely take up precious terminal space once New Sock gets revealed and even if you have the +Actions, the attacks don’t stack anyway.
RESULTS
Runners up:
4est's Corridor
The Alchemist's Travelling Merchant
Winner:
mxdata's Student
Congratulations, mxdata!
Thank you! I'll hopefully have my contest up later today! I already have an idea of what I want, I just need to check to make sure it hasn't been used