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« on: September 29, 2018, 05:29:31 am »
So we have finally seen all previews and that was a very exciting week.
In this thread I'm interested to read your opinions about all the previewed cards, and of course, I'll give mine.
This thread is not about discussing power level of the cards (it can be part of the discussion though). It's more about the design.
I think a perfect dominion card (kingdom or card-shaped) has to fulfill three criteria : creativity (new ways to think the game), fun, and depth. Also, simplicity is welcome because a complex card is not necessarily more interesting than a simple card, but adds unnecessary work for memory.
So here are my thoughts :
Moutain village : This makes the player really aware of what is in his discard pile. So you may want to order actions differently to make the best use of the dig-in-discard part. It rewards clever plays. A very interesting village variant ! Excellent.
Priest : With priest you can create degenerated deck that works. A lot of combo potential here : but having to play priest before the trasher is a constraint, so building the perfect priest deck seems not so easy. Excellent.
Seer : Seer also needs a particular deck to work at its best, but it's very versatile and can work even in non-optimized decks. With seer you may focus a little more on the 2-4 range and sometimes you may want to trash coppers before estates. So this is a nice lab variant and we needed more lab variants. Very good.
Scholar : While simple, this is a brillant card design. With experiment, it shows that there is still room for simple cards. Scholar plays differently than the library variants because you have to discard your whole hand first. This is often a benefit but it can hurts when you have other terminals (especially payload) you have to discard. So a deck with Scholar has to be built differently than a classical draw to x : with more action space, or with fewer terminals. So scholar use a known concept (draw to x), but with a different twist. Excellent.
Experiment : This is a very interesting lab variant and the tempo is crucial here. If you get experiments early, you will benefit from its natural deck-cycling and you will get $5+ more easily, but at the cost at losing experiments early. If you get experiments later in the game, losing the experiments hurts less and they are pretty much cheap laboratories. So, the most important about experiment seems to be gaining them at the right moment : very interesting decision. Excellent.
Acting Troupe : I like the villager concept and this is the the most simple way to use villagers. Villagers play differently than usual village, and that's good for the creativity aspect of the game. Very good.
Sculptor : The fact that you get the villager when gaining a treasure and not an action brings a very interesting constraint. This makes sculptor a very tricky gainer. I love the gain-in-hand concept : sculptor pushes it even further than Artisan. Excellent.
Recruiter : I love all tfb, there is no exception. They are all among the deepest cards of the game in my opinion. Recruiter was the obviously missing trash for actions, with villagers it can now exist. Love it. Excellent.
Villain : I love the fact that attacks are getting weaker now, but still strong enough to be useful in the right circumstances. While maybe a little too luck-based, the attack of villain is an interesting variant of the usual hand-reducing attacks. Good.
Ducat : I don't see the point of a candlestick maker treasure, although the discord did a good job at catching their differences. Disappointing.
Silk merchant : I was skeptical at first, but it turns out that the on-gain/on-trash abilities are very useful and leads to very interesting combos and tactical decisions. A very elegant way to use villagers and coffers. Excellent.
Flag bearer : I'm worried that the battle for the flag can turn games into ridiculous slogs, because it seems to me that even if you are getting more flag bearer than your deck can afford, the flag is too powerful to be ignored. The on-trash effect is very useful for that kind of situations. But what if we have no trashers ? Time will say. Anyway flag bearer a nice card that use the artifact mechanic in a very elegant way. Very good.
Swashbuckler : I'm not sure how often treasure chest is really worth it, to me it's not the most important part of the card. The most important seems to gain the coffers, and this is where the card gets interesting... but also a little bit too random for my taste. Good.
Treasurer : It seems to me that with treasurer players have two ways to play : either they fight for the key, or they trash coppers. Gaining from the trash is potentially interesting with tfb. Very versatile. But like flag bearer, the artifact seems strong, maybe too much. Good.
Fair : An interesting thing about projects is that they are limited to once per turn. So a game with fair as the only +buy means maximum 2 buys every turn. I like that kind of game, between no +buy and full +buy. If other +buy in the kingdom, deciding if it is the right move to spend $4 for fair is not so evident. The timing on when to get fair is, in both case, very important. It's a simple project that really adds something to the game. Excellent.
Silos : I like card that makes copper better (rip coppersmith). With silos, you often still prefer to trash your coppers but at least silos almost garantee a good starting hand. This is not the most interesting project to me but I think we needed more ways to play around coppers. Very good.
Citadel : The thing I like the most about citadel is the once-per-turn village potential. A recent game showed me that it can be a vast trap, but I think in the right situations it can work very nicely. Otherwise, citadel still seems to be an auto-buy almost always, it bothers me a little. Also there is the randomness about having the best card to throne in your hand. Good.
Star chart : This project is not so automatic, a well thinned deck usually doesn't need the power of star chart. I don't find star chart very exciting, but it's well balanced for its price. Good.
Sewers : I have to say sewers is very fun, but also too much an auto-buy with soft trashers like moneylender, spice merchant, etc. I find Plan (the event from adventures) more interesting while probably weaker. But anyway, sewers is fun. Very good.
Innocation : I love this new way to play actions during the buy phase and I did so many awesome things in just few games : With estate in hands I bought free barons, with golds in hand I got Governor for the remodel effect, I princed a candlestick maker... This one of the funniest and most creative cards of the new set. Might be too strong but I don't care. Excellent.
So overall I think this is a very promising expansion. I love the fact that cards are simpler than the cards from Nocturne and Empires. The new mechanics are not mind blowing, but very efficient. Of course after playing more, my opinion will probably change a little. But what I've seen so far woke up my love for Dominion. Thanks a lot to Donald X and playtesters for this awesome week of previews !
