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Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #116: Make me *less* special
« on: May 27, 2021, 03:26:22 pm »
Unique like Jester, in that it can junk your opponents with varying cards depending on what they already have in their deck and discard to it. (At least it was the only officical card that can do it. If I am wrong, please tell me.)
I hope this makes for interesting decisions, especially for your opponent(s).
PS: If you play with more than 2 players and think it matters, the order is as follows: The players discard in play order starting with the player to your left, and then you choose whether they gain copies or not.
I am not sure whether the decisions of the opponents will be interesting. Early on I guess, opponents discard Estates or Coppers instead of their precious Action cards. Late in a game they discard Duchies and Provinces. In between depends largely on the trashing abilities provided by the Kingdom. Without trashing, I would try to green early to have something to discard. With good trashing, I would likely precede as usual and discard junk.
What would this make more interesting is when the opponents can draw a card after they discard one. This would encourage them to discard a mediocre card by having the prospective to draw a better one. Victory card with a high VP value would be still an issue I guess, but that could be addressed as well (e.g. they gain a Curse akin to Jester). The - discard then draw a card - mechanic could also mean that a restriction of 5 or more cards in hand is not necessary. One has to evaluate whether it would be too harsh when a second Raven is played or with other hand-size attacks like Militia on board.
I am not exactly sure what makes this card unique with Jester, i.e. Swindler works in a similar way.
Sorry for the late reply. I did not think about Swindler, but I'd say it is different in that Swindler typically downgrades your opponents cards. Turning a strong 5$ Action into a Duchy can be game winning. Of course, I leave it to scolapasta to judge whether Raven satisfies the conditions for this contest.
I'd say choosing whether to discard Copper or Estate is already not a trivial one (although surely not the deepest one). Also, the turns where you have a valuable VP card in hand are usually only the very last ones. And when you think about buying green earlier, just to discard it to Raven, I'd say that this is an interesting decision as well. Of course, you have the time in between, in which you actually have to decide whether to discard a Peddler (as an example) or get junked.
At least, that are my thoughts. Thanks for your comments, I always appreciate a different perspective on my cards
