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Hello! I playtested Cornucopia/Guilds 2E, and it seemed fun and potentially interesting to talk about what I contributed to the set. So here’s the secret history from my perspective. First, from the very beginning.

The backstory of getting invited

December 25th, 2022: Plunder had recently come out. On f.ds, I asked a question about Flagship + Band of Misfits + duration. Ingix said that they asked Donald X. this in the past, and the answer was that there’s a new ruling for playing cards: if a Throne Room replayed a card that isn’t in play, the Throne Room now adopts Band of Misfits rules. AJD immediately pointed out that that would change interactions with Throne Room-Caravan-Way of the Horse. Donald X. confirmed that yes it would change those interactions, and I thought this new ruling was hilarious.

(You’re probably wondering, why is this guy talking about this and why is any of this relevant to their invitation, but just bear with me for a little bit.)

February 7th: Later in 2023, Donald X. reversed the ruling. Well it was fun while it lasted. The ruling changing is the part that mattered.

March 2nd: Somehow, Jeff (from Temple Gates Games) learned about the initial ruling, but missed the new ruling, because they asked about the old ruling. I told them that there was a new ruling, and they thanked me for answering so many of their rules questions by offering me all the expansions on the TGG client for free. It was very generous of them, thx Jeff.

March 4th: JNails decided to commentate an A League match: kazumaru0828 vs yurikamome (this was season 56). During that match, this happened in chat (JNails didn’t record the commentary, so I have no physical evidence that this happened and this probably wasn’t the exact wording of what people said, curse you JNails):

DZ: Jeff recently gave me all the expansions on TGG for free, because I answered so many of their rules questions
Donald X.: Oh sweet. Do you play board games?
DZ: if I had a game to play, yes. hang on why does this sound like a job interview
Donald X.: What do you mean by that. No you're right, I have some games that need external playtesters.
JNails: DZ can you tell me what your biggest weaknesses are
mrguy888: DZ how's your rap album coming along

At the time I thought, well that was funny, but there’s no way Donald X. asked me that because they were considering me as a playtester. All I had going for me was that Donald X. friended me back on dominion.games (later they told me that was because I was a “master spectator”). I asked “why does this sound like a job interview” just so Donald X. could shoot me down. Somehow it didn’t happen. And no I don’t have a rap album.

March 7th: While I was eating pizza, Donald X. DM’d me out of the blue. They told me “do not leak stuff, ok?”, sent me a server invite, and well I’m a man of my word.

The current game that Donald X. was working on was Moon Colony Bloodbath. I guess I can take a paragraph to talk about that game here. A few hours after getting invited, Donald X. emailed me (it was put in my spam folder, curse you Gmail) all the cards and rules for MCB. After only 2 days, I already played and reported my first game. The reason why I was so quick was because:
1) Donald X. is cool.
2) the game looked awesome.
3) I have a friend who lives in the same building as me, so it was easy to find someone to play with.
4) I had card sleeves laying around, so all I had to do was print the cards (and I could use pen/paper/phone for everything else).
5) it’d look bad if the new guy just...never did anything.

So that’s the story from my perspective. Only Donald X. knows why they asked me if I “played board games” (and/or if they even remember asking me that in spec chat).

First Encounter with the 2E

I think Cornucopia/Guilds 2E started at a similar time as Seaside/Prosperity/Hinterlands 2E, maybe a bit later. However, the next time it would be reprinted was sometime in 2024, and it was 2023, so it was on pause. Still, Donald X. asked for my thoughts on Cornucopia/Guilds 2E, and here’s what it looked like on March 7th.

Doctor, Fortune Teller, Masterpiece, Horse Traders, Taxman, Harvest, Bag of Gold: All of these had already been removed. I was happy with all those choices, especially Doctor. Farming Village, Tournament, Diadem, and Followers will die shortly.

Carnival, Demesne, Infirmary, Ferryman, Shop: All as-is. Except Shop was called Farm, except that name was unavailable because of the Harem retheme. If they had different versions in the past, I am unaware of them. In my self interview, when I said there were "cards I had no voice in," these were the ones. Also yes originally only 6 cards were getting removed; it was going to be a smaller update pack, which nowadays seems like nonsense.

“Farrier”: This one was much different. The top of the card looked weak to me, but since Donald X. liked it, there’s a chance it’ll be resurrected in the future, so I’ll keep it secret. The overpay was Masterpiece! Donald X. immediately mentioned to me that they were starting to hate the overpay part, and I agreed it looked awful.

“Tithe Collector”: The top was a +2 Coffers Militia that only attacked if you had enough Coffers. The bottom line was “in games using this, draw an extra card in Clean-up.” Every turn this game, you have a 6 card hand. As I’ll explain later, this had problems.

Exit Farming Village and Diadem

Hey remember when I said that Cornucopia/Guilds 2E was scheduled for 2024? Yeah that was a lie. On March 22, Donald X. told us that art was going to start in late April/May. And now we could replace a 7th kingdom card, a 2nd Prize, and add a new Prize (replacing a blank).

Diadem: The 2nd Prize to die was always going to be Diadem. JNails said they’d rather see the overpowered Prizes cut instead of the dud ones, but still. Diadem was getting removed, no question.

Housecarl: The 6th Prize. It never changed.

Coronet: This started as a Treasure as giving Coffers and +1 of a token you have. An ability that was tried out a bunch of times and has continued to fail. Also any payload Prize is competing against Princess, and this was not remotely competitive. Then it became, Throne an Action and a Treasure; the concern now was, Coronet Princess is a built in combo, and if you get both of them you win.

Farming Village: The 7th kingdom card was up to a vote. Donald X. immediately nominated Farming Village and Journeyman for being uninteresting. JNails and I voted for Young Witch and Tournament for being frustrating. In the end Farming Village got the most votes. I said “well if the new village is awesome I’ll probably back down,” to which Donald X. said “I'll do what I can! And I mean I should hop to it.”

Farmhands: This started as a $2-cost, +2 Action +1 Coffers. And the bottom started as an overpay effect! We talked about what combination of March/Delay/Toil would be good. Herald was in the same set, which sort of overlapped with March. I said that when-gain Toil already exists with Gondola and Villa, but when-gain Delay doesn’t exist anywhere, so having only Delay would be more special (and easier to fit in the text box). It initially only set aside Actions, but JNails suggested that it could set aside any card (including Copper and Estate).

Farrier: I’m sure some of you would’ve wanted Masterpiece’s overpay to return. Donald X. said: “On TGG I'm playing the new sets, when it's not the Daily, and you know Tournament has not been sinking games at all for me. Farrier, that one is pissing me off.” You know a card is going to change if that’s what Donald X. thinks of it. So it was time for a new card. The current version of Farrier never changed. Donald X. also tried a different Farrier that was a cantrip that gave +1 Coffers if you had enough differently named cards in play. It wasn’t exciting and the overpay Farrier was more exciting, so that card died after like one game.

Evolutions of the new cards

Farmhands: I was unimpressed with Farmhands. Having to spend one of your buys to overpay for the Delay ability makes it much less useful. JNails and I also tried to get a megaturn where you use Farmhands to set aside Province, and then use Tools to gain Province. We pulled it off 0 times. To quote myself again: “it’s a Horn of Plenty megaturn but on Nightmare Mode.” (And I can’t even imagine trying to do the megaturn with Changelings.) Donald X. then wanted to try when-gain Delay instead of overpay Delay, because let’s be honest: overpay isn't actually that good of a mechanic. We tried the when-gain (at $2, with the same top) and it was better, but +2 Actions +1 Coffers is still awful. In the end Donald X. realized that every time they were buying a Farmhands, they were basically paying $4 for it, so Farmhands turned into a normal village at $4. Everyone was happy (and it's my favorite of the new cards). Very late in the going, Donald X. thought about setting aside the card face down, which I did not understand at all (plus it didn’t fit in the text box).

Footpad: LastFootnote said that Tithe Collector was too strong and annoying. Some nerfs were tried, but at this point I asked, was the bottom part (“draw an extra card in Clean-up”) really that great? It causes a bunch of shuffling, the 6-card hand you get is a lie because there’s always a Militia, it can cause a strong 5/2 to run away with the game, and if an engine can’t get the attack going, some money strategies become unbeatable. The backup idea that Donald X. had was “when you gain a card in your Action phase, +1 Card.” To quote Donald X.: “Overall the games were fun; they were ‘yes you brilliant and also handsome man, pursue this,’ rather than ‘oh look how broken all these boards were, you lose again you big loser.’”

Exit Tournament and Followers

Tournament: April 18th was an exciting day. LastFootnote and kieranmillar played with the new cards, and had 2 games in a row where one player got 6 Prizes and crushed everything. That’s what happens when you replace the bad Prizes with good ones: this very snowball-y card gets more snowball-y. LastFootnote said “I never thought I'd say this, but I think I'm finally coming around on replacing Tournament” and that was the deciding factor. Thx LastFootnote! To fill up the space in the 100-card pack, LastFootnote suggested having 2 of each Prize for multiplayer.

Joust: So now, a replacement. Several ideas were thrown around for Joust, with the concerns being: the card can’t be terminal or else the village Prizes are too good; you automatically have a bunch of copies of it if it’s a cantrip $4 and that’s stupid; the card wants to try to be less snowball-y. The first version of Joust that I got to try was: $5 Peddler, may discard Province to gain a Prize to hand. I played 2 games with it against JNails and those games still sucked.

Followers: The culprit was that Followers sucks the life out of the game and the player who gets it obviously wins but their deck is filled with Estates and their deck sucks but they have Followers so they win but very slowly and obviously. At around the same time, there was a Reddit thread about Tournament, and it turns out a bunch of comments were hating on Followers. So if you posted in that thread you affected the course of the future. Some of us had been trying to kill Followers for a while, and hooray justice has triumphed.

Renown: In that same thread, someone mentioned that they felt uncomfortable with the idea of winning a Princess in a Tournament. That’s been a complaint for a while, and if Harem could get renamed, why not Princess? Its original name was Royal Favor, but Renown is clearly a better name.

Courser: To keep the old Prizes and new Prizes separate (for the madmen who insist on playing with Tournament and Joust at the same time), the new Prizes got renamed to Rewards. Trusty Steed was fine, but the Chancellor part was unnecessary so it got dropped. The name Courser was a suggestion by Cave-o-sapien, the inventor of DomBot.

Huge Turnip: Oh yeah a Followers replacement. Having an attack did not seem like an option (especially if the goal was to make Tournament haters tolerate Joust). Donald X. came up with the card as-is, and its objectively the best card name ever.

Coronet: So all of those were great improvements. The main complaint I had now was with Coronet. Firstly, you can use Coronet on Renown and Huge Turnip at once, what a crazy built in combo. Also you can draw your deck and use Coronet on Joust to win 2 Rewards at once, that’s crazy snowbally. The first problem was solved by adding non-Reward to both parts of Coronet; the second problem was solved by setting aside the Province (it could have played the Province but that would've been confusing and trick people into doing a Tools megaturn that doesn't win). It’s more niche, but a lot more tolerable.

Final comments

Ok this has gone on way too long so I'll try to wrap this up:
-I would like to thank Donald X. for inviting me. I had/am having a lot of fun playtesting for you, and I hope that my ramblings and (often negative) first impressions on new cards were at least somewhat useful to read.
-Tuesday and Wednesday (and occasionally Monday) nights are highlights of the week for me, because that’s when Donald X. does their own playtesting and writes their own reports. I always look forward to reading them.
-So what do I think of the new Cornucopia/Guilds. Well done Donald X. you improved these 2 expansions that were horrible and way overrated. It still has some cards that I don’t really care for (both old and new), but it removed 2 cards that I’ve banned (Doctor and Tournament), so I can’t ask for much more.
-Both Cornucopia/Guilds 2E and Moon Colony Bloodbath were sent to Jay around May 2023. Despite that, this only just came out. And now you know how long we’ve been waiting for this.
-I’m allowed to suggest things to Donald X, although I rarely ever try to pitch new card ideas (and I know DXV wants to be the one who makes the cards). Overall my success rate for suggestions is uh low (for example, I suggested a Joust that was never tried) but that’s fine; if I can hate on Donald X.’s cards, they can do the same to me.
-I didn’t keep track of the exact number of games I played against JNails, but it was a lot. Online games are fast like that.
-After Mic Qsenoch wasn’t impressed by the overpay version of Farmhands, Donald X. went brainstorming and came up with 8 new villages. I commented on those ideas, and to keep it short: 1 was boring (remember that Farmhands was replacing Farming Village, an unexciting card); 2 looked too strong; 3 of them didn’t want to be a village and the concepts may or may not get rescued in the future; 1 had looping and tracking issues and it would’ve required way too many words to solve; 1 was basically Town. Look at me killing 5 cards at once.
-I wanted one of the cards to be called Cheesemaker. I tried to get it on Ferryman (the extra card it gains is the Cheese), but was unsuccessful. I still think it’s the better name.
-It feels egotistical to add things that I wrote here onto the wiki, so someone else will have to do that, thx.

2
Dominion General Discussion / Re: Interview with Donald X.
« on: February 15, 2024, 11:26:51 am »
Are you prepared to deal with all the "dude that card did NOT deserve to get removed" comments for Cornucopia/Guilds 2E?

How do you feel when a playtester suggests something, you try it, and immediately realize it’s no good? (Spoilers for the Rising Sun secret history: this happened all the time.)

What’s the secret history of inviting DZ as a playtester? I know the story from my perspective but what’s the story from your perspective?

What’s it like creating card mixes for the mix tournaments? Do you get initial feedback on the mix from playtesters/whoever wants to moderate the mix?

What’s your favorite Dominion emoji on the discord?

3
Dominion General Discussion / Re: Cornucopia & Guilds 2E
« on: February 11, 2024, 02:28:05 pm »
Hi everyone. I was a playtester for Guilds/Cornucopia 2E, and I’m going to interview myself about it.

“How do you feel about Guilds/Cornucopia getting a 2E?"
I've endlessly analyzed and reconsidered Guilds/Cornucopia over the years, and I think they’re pretty bad. You can say “you only think that because everything else in Dominion has gotten better” but no I never cared for those expansions. And combining them into one box doesn’t solve any of their main problems: that they contain a bunch of duds and some of the most frustrating cards in the game. So it’s great that Donald X. wanted to update it.

"Are those 2 sets permanently glued together now?"
They have been for a while! If a foreign publisher or online implementation still wants to sell them separately, you should ask them: when has a small Dominion expansion ever sold better than a large one? If they want to sell products, well I don’t see it.

"Why was there a gap between this and the other 2E’s?"
Unlike new expansions, 2E's and card errata heavily depend on when sets get reprinted, and this was the next time Guilds/Cornucopia got a reprint.
But also, Donald X. wanted to work on other games! While playtesting for Guilds/Cornucopia 2E, I was also playtesting Moon Colony Bloodbath (one of Donald X.’s upcoming games), and it’s definitely my 2nd favorite board game of all time. Whenever it comes out, go and buy it pls.

“I can’t even think of that many cards that deserve to get removed."
I saw people/playtesters saying this for previous 2E’s, and my (most polite) response is: huh??? All the removed cards deserved to die, I don’t miss them at all. But also, those 2E’s could’ve (and should’ve) replaced more cards (and Guilds/Cornucopia is included in that statement).

“How much impact did you have on this 2E?”
I don’t know when this 2E started, but I can tell you that Donald X. invited me in March 2023, and the last change was in May 2023. Since I was only there for the last couple months, there are several cards (removed and new) that I had no voice in. But there were many changes in those last couple months, so yes I did impact this 2E.

“What about Rising Sun?”
I was there for Rising Sun since the very beginning. And I know it’s dangerous to say things like “Rising Sun is my favorite expansion” because people will respond with “you only like it because it’s the newest one” or “you only like it because you playtested it” or “if you like it that means it’s going to be hell” but Rising Sun is my favorite expansion.

“Will you answer rules questions about the new cards?”
Sure thing. You’ll have to discover those rules questions by yourself though.

4
Dominion General Discussion / Marchland
« on: February 01, 2024, 09:05:08 am »
Marchland is out on dominion.games (and it'll also be on TGG when it releases later today).

Marchland ($5, Victory)
Worth 1VP per 3 Victory cards you have (round down)
----
When you gain this, +1 Buy, and discard any number of cards for +$1 each.

As the name, suspiciously familiar VP ability, and when-gain ability may suggest, this was going to be in Hinterlands 2E. It couldn't fit in the update pack though, so now it's a promo.

5
Dominion General Discussion / Re: Interview with Donald X.
« on: January 30, 2024, 12:27:07 am »
Have you ever answered a rules question wrong on purpose, just to see how many people would believe you? Or is that too evil for someone in your shoes to try and pull?

Were there any new playtesters for Rising Sun? If so, do you know them online or in-person? (You don't have to name them if you or them don't want it revealed.)

What's more boring: picking cards for recommended sets, or naming them?

Do you still read Mark Rosewater’s Blogatog, and have you ever asked questions and/or sent him your thoughts on MTG that way? Do you have plans of starting your own version of Blogatog?

After finishing a new board game / expansion, do you take some time off, or immediately try to get a new project going?

When you run out of cards / sleeves to use for a prototype, where do you get more? Do you resort to unsleeving your other prototypes?

6
Dominion General Discussion / Re: Interview with Donald X.
« on: December 16, 2023, 08:36:42 pm »
How have you managed to avoid jsh giving you the on notice role in discord? Last I checked...
* you created Chariot Race
* jsh hates Chariot Race

What's it like having playtesters that love to argue with you and each other? This could range from things like your commas, or card errata, or if a new card is unfun and/or too strong.

What kind of Dominion rules questions do you find fun to answer, and which ones are the least fun?

For Band of Misfits/Garrison, why did you decide that it's required that the Garrison be in play for it get any tokens?

Has creating new games gotten harder or easier over time?

7
Dominion General Discussion / Re: Interview with Donald X.
« on: November 15, 2023, 07:51:12 pm »
Do you have plans of updating cbtest14? Is this a reference that anyone else will understand?

When you need new playtesters, how do you decide who to invite? Do you narrow down a list of potential candidates and then interview them?

What do you think of Exploration post-errata? It and Bonfire have been the 2 cards that people are the most sad about.

You've called Souk a "problem card" (along with Fortress). In what situations does it break the game? Is the +$7 the problem?

How do you feel when people hate on Allies for leading to “slow games” when (let's be honest) their complaints are actually about pre-errata Voyage and Warlord?

What tips do you have for brainstorming new cards (Dominion or otherwise)?

8
Rules Questions / Innovating a Duration during Donate
« on: November 04, 2023, 09:25:00 am »
If you Donate a Catacombs, gain a Cabin Boy and play it with Innovation, does that Cabin Boy's start-of-next-turn effect happen immediately?

Technically speaking, that start-of-next-turn effect was set up before start-of-next-turn effects are actually resolved. But also it feels weird because it's still the same turn. If you Delayed a Wharf, that doesn't mean you get +4 Cards and +2 Buys.

9
Dominion General Discussion / Re: Interview with Donald X.
« on: October 21, 2023, 07:16:22 pm »
What can you tell us about Rising Sun (the board game, not the Dominion expansion)?

Do you meet with IRL playtesters at a game store, or do they come to your house?

What are the chances that you do something like this or that again?

What card avatar do you use on TGG?

Nowadays, do you prefer to use "each time" instead of "when"? (Frigate and Deliver both use “each time.”)

What do you think of those Quartermaster games where they gain a bunch of cards, but the cards just sit on them forever and you never put them in your hand?

What do you think of Falconer, aka my favorite Dominion card?

10
Rules Questions / Errata to extra turns
« on: September 26, 2023, 03:34:37 pm »
There's more errata coming up, it'll go up online uh soon.

List of cards:
Outpost, Possession, Mission, Voyage, Island Folk, Journey

Not getting changed:
Fleet, Seize the Day

New texts:
I'll compare the Old Outpost with the New Outpost, and then just post the new texts for the other extra turns.

Old Outpost (yuck):
If this is the first time you played an Outpost this turn, and the previous turn wasn't yours, then take an extra turn after this one, and you only draw 3 cards for your next hand.

New Outpost (wow it's so much shorter):
You only draw 3 cards for your next hand. Take an extra turn after this one (but not a 3rd turn in a row).

Possession:
The player to your left takes an extra turn after this one (but not a 2nd extra turn in a row), in which you can see all cards they can and make all decisions for them. Any cards or debt they would gain on that turn, you gain instead; any cards of theirs that are trashed are set aside and put in their discard pile at end of turn.

Mission:
Take an extra turn after this one (but not a 3rd turn in a row), during which you can't buy cards.

Voyage:
+1 Action
Take an extra turn after this one (but not a 3rd turn in a row), during which you can only play 3 cards from your hand.

Island Folk:
At the end of your turn, you may spend 5 Favors to take an extra turn after this one (but not a 3rd turn in a row).

Journey:
You don't discard cards from play in Clean-up this turn, and you take an extra turn after this one (but not a 3rd turn in a row).

What's the goal?
DXV has gotten sick of being able to take 3+ turns in a row, every single turn, for the whole game. Fleet and Seize the Day are only once a game, which is why they're safe.

How does this affect interactions?
Let's run through some examples:
* You buy 2 Journeys at once. you take 1 Journey turn, but now you've hit the "but not a 3rd turn" limit, so the 2nd Journey turn fails.
* You buy Mission on a Mission turn. you've hit the "but not a 3rd turn" limit, so the 2nd Mission turn fails.
* You play an Outpost and buy Mission. you draw a 3-card hand and then choose which extra turn to take (let's say Mission). now you've hit the limit, so the Outpost turn fails
* You play a Voyage, a Lich, and take Island Folk. you choose which extra turn to take (let's say Voyage). Lich skips the Voyage turn, then you take the Island Folk turn
* You Throne a Possession. you Possess the player to your left once, and then you hit the "not a 2nd extra turn in a row" limit, so they don't get Possessed again
* You take a Mission turn, and during it, you buy Seize the Day. Seize the Day doesn't have a restriction, so you get a 3rd turn in a row
* You play Possession. On their turn, you make them buy Journey. Their cards are stuck in play, and they take a Journey turn that's out of your control

Why is Donald X. ok with nerfing Voyage so hard?
The thing is: no one on this Earth thought Voyages were cumulative. and Odysseys has a banrate of 8.5%, I bet most of that is because people hate how Voyage chains can take forever. the errata fixes both those problems, hooray

Why was Voyage allowed to be cumulative in the first place?
no clue

11
It's not a bug. When you gained that Mercenary, you haven't begun Skirmisher's instructions yet, so it doesn't see the Mercenary.

Similarly if you play Kiln and then Skirmisher, you don't attack.

12
Dominion General Discussion / "New" Promo: Rethemed Harem
« on: March 20, 2023, 09:01:18 am »
Earlier this month, Donald X. said this on reddit:

Quote from: Donald X.
This isn't a secret, but isn't widely known: Altenburger did a poll, which cards would players like to see with new art, and Harem won. They didn't ask us (me and Jay) first, and we said, okay, but we'll be renaming it too. So at some point a promo will come out that's Harem but with new art and a new name (still depicting Valerie). And then probably eventually it will find its way into Intrigue.

And earlier today, Donald X. revealed the promo's name on discord:

Quote from: Donald X.
Altenburger is doing an alternate art version of Harem, renamed to Farm, only whatever that is in their German translation. We will have it in English too, at some point. And someday it may replace Harem in Intrigue, but man that won't be labelled 3E.

Besides that, at some random point there might be a promo; I don't have any information there currently, but I have a promo waiting for if it's needed.

So uh, fingers crossed that the art is better.

13
Dominion General Discussion / Re: Interview with Donald X.
« on: February 22, 2023, 10:01:36 am »
Under what circumstances do you kill a combo?

Let's run through some combos (no way I'm doing all of them lol):

Combos in the same set:
-Spell Scroll / Shaman (and/or Scrounge): both in the same set; reusing Spell Scroll forever sounds problematic, so it got killed
-Gamble / Stockpile: both in the same set; I you could argue that this combo is less likely to be relevant in multiplayer, but the problem here is Stockpile already being too strong
-Gamble / Village Green: both in the same set; this changed more because of rules, not power level
-Student / Fellowship of Scribes: both in the same set; not really problematic though

Combos across sets:
-Masterpiece / Guildhall: in different sets; not a concern
-Throne / Tactician: the thing here is, it's not just Tactician / one other specific card; it's Tactician / an entire archetype of cards, so it got changed
-Pursue / Patron: in different sets, but it trivially infinite loops; got errata'd
-Siren / a bunch of cards: if these combos ever get errata'd out, it'll be because they confuse people, not because of power level

14
Dominion General Discussion / Re: Interview with Donald X.
« on: February 09, 2023, 10:27:06 am »
What are your thoughts on Ruins? My hot take is that it's the least successful mechanic in Dominion history. Even for other mechanics that could be considered a "failed experiment" (artifacts, hexes, overpay etc.), there's at least 1-2 cards that I like; I can't say the same thing for Ruins. Also yikes, it eats up 50 cards in an expansion.

What are your thoughts on Silver Mine? It's been mocked a lot as a bad Sculptor.

Now that some time has passed, what are your thoughts on the Loot pile in general? I think at this point, it's the least liked mechanic in Plunder?

Innovation has some tricky rules around it, and yet there have been a lot of those effects recently (especially in 2022). Is this a mix of "we're already a bunch of expansions in" and "it's fun and popular"?

What other wordings of Reckless were tried? I'd be most curious about finding a Flagship-like wording (with some parenthetical that stops infinite loops).

You've said that Rich is your least favorite thing in Plunder. When you were making the set, did you worry that the gameplay may resemble what you dislike about Lucky Coin?

In your opinion, what expansion is the closest to "perfect"? (if this question is too hard to answer, just say Prosperity 2E)

15
Rules Questions / Re: Lantern, Elder, Harbor Village, Moat
« on: February 08, 2023, 11:58:48 pm »
Chameleon + Enchantress: Yes, Reckless and Enchantress both look for FTI happening due to playing a card. If one sees the Chameleon FTI then they both do. I'm with you on this one. The Menagerie rulebook says that you can use a Way to dodge Enchantress. So the temptation is to reverse the Reckless ruling to match the rulebook there. Possibly though I reverse the rulebook ruling instead. The question then is which seems like it will make more sense to people.

So to double check, the reversed-rulebook ruling would go like this?

Your Chapel is Enchanted:
-use Chameleon: get +$1 +1 Action
-don't use Chameleon: get +1 Card +1 Action

If so, I give my thumbs up to that.
No. Enchantress's +1 Card +1 Action doesn't become the card's instructions. It's not a thing Chameleon looks at. Enchantress gives cantrip instead of FTI; Chameleon changes FTI.

what fingers can I get for this

You can have a 2nd thumbs up. You'll have to look elsewhere for more thumbs though. I would guess that a lot of players would get upset when they find out Chameleon loses to Enchantress; but I think even more players would get upset if Reckless Chameleon doesn't work twice, so these seem like the best rulings to me.

Also does this mean that Chameleon loses to Highwayman? I'd guess that Highwayman's wording is secretly a shorter version of Enchantress. The longer wording would be something like:

"Each turn, the first time each other player plays a Treasure card, they get +$0 instead of following its instructions"

Oh man how did my post spawn this discussion.

Anyways, Donald X. just confirmed on discord (and edited their list): if Chameleon loses to Enchantress, it also loses to Highwayman.

16
Rules Questions / Re: Lantern, Elder, Harbor Village, Moat
« on: February 03, 2023, 07:41:34 pm »
Chameleon + Enchantress: Yes, Reckless and Enchantress both look for FTI happening due to playing a card. If one sees the Chameleon FTI then they both do. I'm with you on this one. The Menagerie rulebook says that you can use a Way to dodge Enchantress. So the temptation is to reverse the Reckless ruling to match the rulebook there. Possibly though I reverse the rulebook ruling instead. The question then is which seems like it will make more sense to people.

So to double check, the reversed-rulebook ruling would go like this?

Your Chapel is Enchanted:
-use Chameleon: get +$1 +1 Action
-don't use Chameleon: get +1 Card +1 Action

If so, I give my thumbs up to that.
No. Enchantress's +1 Card +1 Action doesn't become the card's instructions. It's not a thing Chameleon looks at. Enchantress gives cantrip instead of FTI; Chameleon changes FTI.

what fingers can I get for this

You can have a 2nd thumbs up. You'll have to look elsewhere for more thumbs though. I would guess that a lot of players would get upset when they find out Chameleon loses to Enchantress; but I think even more players would get upset if Reckless Chameleon doesn't work twice, so these seem like the best rulings to me.

Also does this mean that Chameleon loses to Highwayman? I'd guess that Highwayman's wording is secretly a shorter version of Enchantress. The longer wording would be something like:

"Each turn, the first time each other player plays a Treasure card, they get +$0 instead of following its instructions"

17
Rules Questions / Re: Lantern, Elder, Harbor Village, Moat
« on: February 02, 2023, 03:59:47 pm »
Chameleon + Enchantress: Yes, Reckless and Enchantress both look for FTI happening due to playing a card. If one sees the Chameleon FTI then they both do. I'm with you on this one. The Menagerie rulebook says that you can use a Way to dodge Enchantress. So the temptation is to reverse the Reckless ruling to match the rulebook there. Possibly though I reverse the rulebook ruling instead. The question then is which seems like it will make more sense to people.

So to double check, the reversed-rulebook ruling would go like this?

Your Chapel is Enchanted:
-use Chameleon: get +$1 +1 Action
-don't use Chameleon: get +1 Card +1 Action

If so, I give my thumbs up to that.

18
Dominion General Discussion / Re: Interview with Donald X.
« on: January 11, 2023, 02:38:48 am »
Why does Search trash itself? The ability seems hard to abuse, when supply piles only empty a few times per game (and usually at the very end).
It's actually for power level reasons. Specific games where it seemed like, this is too generous.

Was this with the Lost City version of Search? I can see that being broken, but I don't see how the current terminal-silver version can be "too generous."

Nowadays, would you do Chameleon as a Trait? As a Way, it needs "follow this card's instructions," and I'm sure that rules thread is enough evidence about how the wording is a can of worms.

Since there were concerns about First Mate tracking, were there also concerns about Siren and the stop moving rule? I'm sure casual players will never even think about Siren tricks, but "what cards let you dodge Siren and why" has come up a lot on the internet.

I'm sure you've seen me hate on Dark Ages all the time in discord/spec chat/this thread, so uh what are your thoughts on it today?

Would you say that some cards are more designed for irl-bring-a-few-expansions-to-game-night instead of online-ladder-full-random? For example, I can see Elder being more interesting in heavy-Allies games, but I haven't really been excited by it when playing online.

You've said on discord that you "blew it" on Lackeys's cost (specifically: "No amount of having blown it on Lackeys makes it good to blow it on Sea Chart, that's how I see it"). Can you elaborate on that?

19
Dominion General Discussion / Re: Interview with Donald X.
« on: January 06, 2023, 05:55:41 pm »
Was it intentional for recent expansions/2E's to have multiple Cursing attacks in them? Or is it just a side effect of Witches being "easier" to design (compared to Militias/Knights/Spies/etc.)?

What have been your favorite card arts for the 2022 cards?

Were there concerns about First Mate chains being difficult to follow irl?

Why does Search trash itself? The ability seems hard to abuse, when supply piles only empty a few times per game (and usually at the very end).

Why did Insignia not get +Buy? I'm fine with the other no-plus-buy loots, but Insignia is the strangest one to me.

Why does Deliver not have "once a turn," if it's only useful to buy once?

20
Rules Questions / Re: Lantern, Elder, Harbor Village, Moat
« on: December 31, 2022, 05:10:34 pm »
So how does Reckless work with Ways/Enchantress/Highwayman then? The rulebook says:

"If you skip following the instructions of the card - for example by using a Way (from Menagerie) instead - then you don't follow them an extra time, but still return the card when discarding it from play."

Is that still correct?

I would guess the following is the most consistent:
-Reckless card is Enchanted: you get +1 Card +1 Action (once)
-Reckless card is Highwaymanned: you get nothing
-Reckless card is Way of the Sheep'd: you get +$2 (once)
-Reckless card is Way of the Chameleon'd: you get 2 iterations

It may be Reckless to think this, but let's all hope this is the end of the Reckless saga.

21
Rules Questions / Re: Lantern, Elder, Harbor Village, Moat
« on: December 29, 2022, 03:07:50 pm »
I think the Moat question Jeebus is asking is:
-what happens if you Moat a Reckless attack? I'm still voting for: you can only reveal Moat once, at the start of the attack, and that single reveal blocks both iterations.
-how can Moat block a Chameleon'd Witch if you aren't following the Witch's instructions?

Actually while we're asking questions about Harbor Village: if you play Harbor Village, then Steward for +cards, then you Royal Carriage the Steward for +coins, does Harbor Village give +$1? I think not, as the Royal Carriage is a separate play. Meanwhile if you did the same thing with Reckless Steward, then I think Harbor Village should work.

22
Rules Questions / Re: Reckless
« on: December 26, 2022, 06:07:19 pm »
Thx DXV, Chameleon not working with Reckless makes more sense. (In case anyone wondered, yes m_knox actually did DM me on discord a week ago, and they told me Chameleon worked with Reckless. And well I had no reason to believe they were lying/mistaken.)

My interpretation otherwise is that:
-Ways/Highwayman/Enchantress make you ignore a card's instructions and make you do something else (or nothing)
-Lantern/Envious directly modify a card's instructions.

This is why Ways override Lantern, because Lantern is trying to modify instructions that you're not even following. And yes that includes Chameleon.

And now that we know Reckless doesn't work with Chameleon, I'm more confident that Reckless is more like a Lantern than an Enchantress, and it certainly doesn't sound like a Royal Carriage.

23
Rules Questions / Re: Replaying Durations that aren't in play
« on: December 26, 2022, 03:29:14 pm »
Wait, doesn't "anything playing a card that isn't in play or isn't moving it into play" include Throne Rooms in the Throne–Caravan–Way of the Horse situation? The second time the Caravan gets played by that Throne Room, it's not in play and not moving into play. Does that mean the Throne Room in that scenario stays in play as long as the Caravan would? I think that contradicts previous rulings.
I'm not looking up if this actually contradicts a ruling, or if it contradicts a ruling but only because that ruling predated this one. But, you're correct otherwise; if Throne Room plays a Caravan that's not in play due to Way of the Horse, Throne should stay out as long as the Caravan would have, just like with Band of Misfits etc.

So if I Throne Caravan, first return it to its pile, then replay it, the Throne stays in play. But if I Throne Caravan, first normally, and then I return it to its pile, Throne won't stay in play? Oh man that's hilarious.

But I heard that there are plans to errata Way of the Horse, so hooray for that.

24
Rules Questions / Replaying Durations that aren't in play
« on: December 24, 2022, 09:06:11 pm »
Flagship cares if a card is non-Command, but doesn't care if the card is in play. So if I play Flagship and then Band of Misfits, the Flagship ignores BoM, and then when the BoM plays a duration (let's say Caravan), the Flagship replays the Caravan from the supply. Clearly BoM stays in play, but will Flagship stay in play?

Since Scepter replaying a Caravan will stay in play, that leads me to think that Flagship also should stay in play (it also uses replay). But if you Throne a Caravan and then remove it from play (e.g. Way of the Horse), the Throne doesn't stay in play, so maybe Flagship shouldn't stay in play? It's new territory from a rules perspective, so I dunno.

(On D.G., Flagship doesn't stay in play.)

25
Dominion General Discussion / Re: Interview with Donald X.
« on: December 23, 2022, 01:59:25 pm »
How do you feel when someone takes something you've said about a Dominion card, and then puts it onto the wiki, where it will stay forever? I'd personally be creeped out.

What are the best and worst parts of writing secret histories?

So far it seems like the most controversial Plunder cards are Shaman and Frigate. What are your thoughts on them?

Some Plunder Durations seem like better fits for Allies (specifically Crew and Taskmaster, which are both recursive). If you had a magic wand and could move cards into previous sets, would you put them in Allies?

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