Robeson is strictly better than Chaplin, and I like the idea, but I'm having trouble deciding which is fairer for the $4 price point. The weird part that I *didn't* expect is that this is the first time we've had one submission strictly better than another at the same cost (that I've noticed, anyway).
I think there were a few others. In the terminal draw challenge, kennel (cost $5, +6 cards, lose your next turn) was strictly worse than captain (cost $5, +3 cards, You may draw up to three additional cards. For each card drawn this way, discard a card at the end of your clean-up phase. [this was my card, incidentally]). In the peddler variant challenge, there were like half a dozen variants of +1 card, +1 action, +$1, trash a card. Surely some were strictly better than the rest.
Chaplin
$4 - Action
+3 Cards
+1 Action
Put two cards from your hand on top of your deck.
Seems weak when compared to Courtyard. You lose a card in exchange for an action, and the loss of the card (this keeps your hand at 5 cards) probably makes the action less valuable.
...
Robeson
$4 - Action
+4 Cards
+1 Action
Put 3 cards from your hand on top of your deck.
Courtyard variant. I like Courtyard more.
I think you misunderstand both of these cards. Neither would play even slightly like courtyard. Courtyard is really a terminal draw card that lets you set up your next turn a bit. These cards are cantrips designed mainly to be engine support, and I think both have more in common with warehouse (because they let you see a ton of cards and pick what you want. Especially good for things like connecting your village and terminal draw) and cartographer (because they let you see ahead into your deck and order them). Of course, the fact that these cards don't sift like a warehouse or cartographer should change the way they play and feel substantially.
Another way to look at it--Chaplin and Robeson let your retroactively optimize your shuffle luck.
Good points. Fine then, these seem like weaker versions of warehouse or cartographer, and Chaplin seems like a much weaker version of Robeson.
Overall, I would guess warehouse is better overall than either of these cards, but then again, warehouse is a pretty damn good card. Robeson could easily be better overall than cartographer (which is solid, but pretty expensive for a support card). Robeson/Chaplin should be different enough from warehouse and cartographer that you can't just call it a weaker version of either, though.
You're right, Chaplin is definitely strictly worse than Robeson. If I had to guess, I'd say Robeson is a strong $4 and Chaplin would be better priced at $3. These things are hard to judge without playtesting, though, so I could be way off.