Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.

1

Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #215: Getting Engaged

« on: April 09, 2024, 07:45:03 pm »

Architect

$5 Action

Gain a card to your hand costing up to $4. Reveal a card from your hand. The player to your left may reveal a more expensive card from their hand. If they don’t, +1 Action.

Conceptually, I like Chariot Race, but the fact that it only looks at the top card of each player’s deck makes it far more random than strategic and fun. Architect is my attempt to build upon this interaction in a way that is much more controllable by the user. Your opponent may happen to have an expensive card in hand, but as long as you have one that’s at least as expensive, it’ll work out for you. And unlike Chariot Race, this actually works quite well with Potion cards.

2

Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #214: Cornucopia AND Guilds AND Menagerie

« on: March 26, 2024, 06:42:54 pm »

Bounty
Treasure - Victory ($5)

Gain an Action card to your hand costing up to $1 per different card type you have in play. You may play an Action from your hand.
---
Worth 1 VP per 3 different card types you have (round down).

This card:
- Encourages variety in both its on play effect and its scoring condition. It's a bit different from the standard "differently named" of Cornucopia, but will still require gaining quite a few different cards in most cases.
- Plays Action cards at unusual times (in the Buy Phase, like Gamble and Toil)

3

Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #199: Composition in Blue

« on: September 20, 2023, 11:39:53 am »

I think the idea is that Surveyor stays set aside, so you can only react with one 5 times maximum per game (Faust probably used “set aside” instead of “trash” to avoid possible infinite games with stuff that can gain from the trash).

4

Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #198: No Fear When the End is Near

« on: September 13, 2023, 08:14:09 pm »

Valley
$6 - Victory

4 VP
-
Setup: Add an extra Victory Kingdom card pile. In games using this, at the start of Clean-up, you may reveal 5 differently named Victory cards from your hand to immediately end the game.

FAQ: If the extra Victory card selected is Vineyard, include Potions in the Supply (probably obvious, but just for clarification).
A Victory card that can allow you to get the jump on your opponents by ending the game early, as well as adding an extra one to ensure its condition is always possible. Since you can't reveal Victory cards you just bought, your opponents will usually have at least a little bit of warning before you end the game. Much like 3 pile endings, you'll have to carefully track your opponents deck and its gaining capacities, except for the fact that you'll instead consider if they can gain all the necessary Victory cards and be able to draw them.

5

Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #197: One Order of Events, Hold the Gains

« on: September 08, 2023, 04:51:16 pm »

Results:

Expunge by Augie279: This one is pretty interesting, it seems like it would reward getting draw cards early on as you would be very likely to hit $4 while also having multiple Victory cards in hand. I don’t think opening with this is too strong, but you probably wanna do it sometimes. It also makes for a very good counter to Torturer. I can’t of much else to add, I like this one.


Royal Parade by JW: The concept for this one is fun but I think it’s too expensive to be worth it most of the time. Ultimately you’re paying $6 for +1 Card (since you won’t have to draw that Action card) and 1 more action play than your deck would otherwise. Most of the time I see myself preferring to gain some other Action card to boost my deck permanently instead of just for 1 turn. I do think a cheaper version of this idea could work though, it would be especially interesting when this would be the only village.


Offering: I find this to be too similar to Ritual. It is different in that you can actually thin with it, but since your opponents can also thin I don’t think you’ll be using it for that much (like Bishop). It’s also not clear to me how the order of the other players trashing their cards is resolved. Normally, the order of things like this don’t matter, but with you getting an extra VP if anyone else trashes, there is some incentive to “fake out” the other players. It may also just resolve clockwise, but I still think that falls into too political of a design for a Dominion card.


Explosion by Will(ow |iam): I think this is too strong, especially due to it netting you extra buys. Buying this on turn 3 will result in you having both your opening buys, the ability to play both (if they are terminal actions), having the ability to buy several cards at once, and ensuring nothing misses the shuffle. Now there are similarly strong Events in the game (mainly Donate is what I’m thinking of) but with those there is some variance to when/how they’re used (even if you do want it somewhat early 99% of the time). With this Event however, I only picture myself wanting to get it turn 3 (or turn 4 if turn 3’s hand is $2).


Fold by NoMoreFun: Very simple! I can see this being used frequently early on to accelerate cycling back to your opening buys or sometimes as a means of correcting bad shuffles set up by cards like Golem. It rewards deck tracking and encourages you to think about the $1 difference between certain cards you might want, which I think is a great thing. Great work.


Coronation by Ethan: I think this is well balanced, but is again very similar to an existing Event. This is essentially just a Throne version of Toil, and without the +Buy Toil has, I think this is going to be a harder sell on a lot of boards. It also should have some sort of non-Duration clause, as there is nothing paired up beside any Duration cards you play to help you remember using Coronation on them last turn.


Gathering by segura: This seems very useful across all stages of the game. You can use it early to resolve upcoming terminal collision, or in the mid-end game to prevent losing a turn to a dud. Being buy neutral the first time allows you to still get other things done on your current turn as well, without it feeling too spammy (which it might if the +Buy was unconditional). You often overshoot pricepoints in Dominion, so I think this would be bought a fair amount on average, but like Fold it encourages thinking about the small price gaps in what cards you want to buy. Another excellent submission.


Arson by Gubump: I think this is too strong in comparison to Bonfire and also varies significantly depending on your the order of your opening splits. Having 5/2 or 4/3 only allows for 1 use of this and limits the number of Estates that can be trashed, while having 2/5 or 3/4 allows for 2 uses and trashing of 2 or 3 Estates.


Conservation by fika monster: Looks very fun with trash for benefit cards, but I don’t think I would use it without any around. $5 is a lot to pay to downgrade trashing and junking attacks, and I’d rather get an Action card to help my deck permanently (much like Royal Parade). I think this concept would be best utilized in a rotating split pile actually, as that way you could ensure the presence of TFB cards to make it interesting.


Mulligan by kru5h: I think that this is too strong given its ease of access. This effectively (almost) doubles your search space for your starting hand each turn, which seems a little too much anti-dud insurance compared to similar effects (like Guide, which needs a pair to be used once per turn, or Journey, which requires hitting $4). I think some extra cost or restriction on what can be discarded would make this more interesting.


Cast by Aquila: This Event provides a very unique way of teaching players the basics of engine building and the downsides of Silver and Gold, while still also showing them they don’t have to completely ignore them. This event allows you to stay thinner while hitting early price points, and later on spike higher ones. It even provides an interesting decision of whether or not to get some “Silver +” type cards, like Patron or Gondola (as Silver can be stored now and used in a pinch). I really like this one.


Divination by faust: Like Conservation, I think this is a really fun concept that is unfortunately just a bit too narrow as an Event. It seems really exciting with the cards it works well with, like Mystic, Chariot Race, or Ironmonger, but I’m not sure how useful it would be outside of those “top card of deck” synergies (as ideally, you want your engine to be reliable enough to draw everything without needing to see the next card coming up. I think this is also worth revisiting in a different form, like a rotating split pile.


Laurels by spheremonk: I’ll still provide some feedback for this, even though it indirectly can gain cards. First off, I think this has some wording problems, as I think as worded it can re-set aside Prizes you’ve already played this turn, or even Prizes from other player’s areas (can you set aside cards that are set aside elsewhere?). Regardless a simple, “from the Prize pile” can fix this, so I won’t pay much mind to it. I think that this event is problematic still unfortunately, as the Prizes have significant Power variance, and oftentimes being the first one to use this will make other players have a harder time getting it (mainly talking about Followers here). I really only see myself wanting this for Followers, Steed, or maybe Princess sometimes.


Compost Pile by BryGuy: The first option still compares favourably to Bonfire, allowing trashing of Estates/Shelters and being buy neutral. I don’t really get the point of the second option, as all players share the same trash, so putting more cards in there to benefit from this part of the Event also helps your opponents (and without a cap, this can produce ludicrous amount of +$ in combination with trashing attacks).


Visit by X-tra: This is a really cool parallel to Populate, and I really like that this works best with the sorts of Actions that don’t work well with Populate (this benefits from +$, gains, and terminal cards, as you won’t be able to use the extra actions unless there’s Villa or Cavalry or something). Duration tracking seems a little problematic, but like the suggestion made for Conservation, placing a cube on this each turn as a reminder is a good enough solution. Nonetheless, a unique and interesting card.


Lightning by grep: This is another good concept but I feel like it’s missing something, mainly because this is strictly an attack-like effect with no other benefit. Attack-like events can work for sure, but having some benefit besides the attack makes it a lot less upsetting if the attack park doesn’t work out. Perhaps some benefit for the person buying it also based on the types of the card would be interesting.


Honourable Mentions:
Fold by NoMoreFun
Visit by X-tra

Runner Up: Cast by Aquila

Winner: Gathering by segura

6

Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #197: One Order of Events, Hold the Gains

« on: September 08, 2023, 08:52:17 am »

Forgot to post this last night, apologies.

The contest is now closed!


Check back later today for the results!

7

Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #197: One Order of Events, Hold the Gains

« on: September 06, 2023, 08:57:42 pm »

Perhaps this is another gray-ish area, but I believe that this card doesn’t follow the first restriction (as some of the Prizes can gain cards, even if some don’t).

Sorry for not getting to this sooner, I’ve had a busy week moving into my new apartment.

8

Weekly Design Contest / Weekly Design Contest #197: One Order of Events, Hold the Gains

« on: August 31, 2023, 11:28:40 am »

Weekly Design Contest #197: One Order of Events, Hold the Gains

Events are super fun, I don't think there's argument there. There are Events that can significantly shake up the game in all its stages and provide a unique a memorable experience.
But when I look at Events, I split them into 2 further classifications. Those that gain cards and those that do not.
While I find both types fun, I personally think it's more of a challenge to design Events that fall into the second category (I was also impressed to see how even the split is in officially published events, 36 that gain and 33 that don't).

So without further ado your challenge for this week is:

Design an Event that does not gain any cards upon use.

Some extra clarifications:
- Events that do not gain cards every time they're bought, but still can sometimes (ex. Pilgrimage) are not allowed.
- Events that care about/move other cards you've gained (exs. Rush, Deliver) are allowed as long as the Event itself does not gain cards (exs. Triumph and Commerce would not be allowed).
- Exiling cards is perhaps a bit of a grey area, but I'm gonna go ahead and say that such Events (like Transport or Invest) are allowed. I do suggest to include some side effects beyond just exiling cards though, much like these 2 examples.

I will judge based upon how exciting the Event looks to play with, and my approximation of its balance.

The contest will close at 9PM EST on Sep. 7. Feel free to let me know if you have any further questions, and have fun designing!

9

Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #196: If a card is in the kingdom...

« on: August 31, 2023, 08:06:21 am »

<judging>

You judge a bit harshly, and I think have weird/possibly mistaken views on some of these. For instance:
- I think you're greatly underestimating Printing Press.
- Torch is hardly comparable to Rebuild when on its own, it's only a trasher. Rebuild is a complete strong strategy on its own. And I think you're overestimating the difference Torch will have in a game.
- The "in games using this" effect of Fine Art/Art Dealer is definitely more interesting than just "everyone has fair for free" when you have to have three copies of a Treasure in play. (I just now noticed that entry and I like the idea, especially Art Dealer.)
- There's no way Nomad Village has higher highs and lower lows than Herald. It doesn't look that swingy to me.
- You're kindof contradicting yourself about Impoverished Village. You say it won't proc* a lot, but then say you'll probably be gaining a Copper every turn. It isn't like there's very often more than one village on a board. (Unrelated: What is "proc" short for anyway?)

Also, you missed Farmer. (edit: and Snorka's card...)

“Proc” as an acronym stands for “programmed random occurrence,” it’s a gaming term used to describe effects that are designed in game to have some % chance of happening. But from my experience many people also seem to use it as shorthand for the word “activate.”
Thank you for your judging and the win, however I do feel that I should wait for the missing cards to be included before I post the next contest (I do have an idea for one though).

10

Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #196: If a card is in the kingdom...

« on: August 27, 2023, 11:14:50 am »

Goldsmith

Action ($5)

You may discard a Treasure to gain a Gold to your hand.
---
In games using this, the first time you gain a non-Victory card each turn, gain a cheaper card that shares a type with it.

A pretty standard Gold gainer, but the bottom means it might not just be getting you Golds. Pretty great in a kingdom with a desirable $5 Treasure like Spices or Crown, but sometimes all it'll get you is an extra Silver. You might also choose to forgo the card entirely to get better use out of the bottom in the Buy phase. It should also shake up openings, as the effect is not optional.

11

Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #195 Old Dominion Had A Farm

« on: August 11, 2023, 12:55:35 pm »

Golden Retriever

Action - Reaction ($2)

+2 Cards
Discard a card. Look through your discard pile and put a card from it into your hand.
---
When something causes you to reveal this (using the word "reveal"), you may play it.


Golden Retrievers are good at well... retrieving things. This one can fetch stuff from your discard pile, but first you gotta throw something for it to bring back. You're still working on that trick though; sometimes it will bring you back something else instead. They also really like attention, and so will be glad to perform a trick when shown off (revealed) to your friends.

I thought about pricing this at $3, but I think $2 is better for this card as I'm pretty sure cards that reveal are a little scarcer than gainers.

12

Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #193 The Flora of Dominion

« on: July 22, 2023, 07:14:29 pm »

Here is a plant Traveler series:

Small Seed
$4 Action - Traveller
+1 Card
+2 Actions
You may trash a Treasure from your Hand to choose one: gain a Silver to your Hand; or +1 Buy and +$1.
-
When you discard this from play, you may trash this and a Treasure card from your Hand for a Plain Plant.

Plain Plant
$5* Action - Traveller
You may do this up to three times: discard a card to draw a card and +$1.
Then choose one: +1 Action; or +1 Buy.
-
When you discard this from play, you may exchange this and a Victory card from your Hand for a Bold Blossom. (Not in the Supply)

Bold Blossom
$6* Treasure - Duration
+1 Buy
You may set up to four cards under this revealing them for +$1 per differently named card.
At the start of your next turn put the cards into your Hand and +1 Action. (Not in the Supply)

Small Seed is now far too powerful for $4. A mandatory cantrip trasher is already too good for $4 and this has tons of other bonuses. It’s a Village, the trashing is optional, and it provides extra bonuses when a card is trashed. Even at $5 this would compare favourably to Junk Dealer which is a strong $5.

13

Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #191: Awesome Alliteration Affair

« on: June 26, 2023, 11:39:14 am »

Collector
Action - Reaction ($5)

+3 Cards
Look through your discard pile. You may play a Treasure from it or from your hand.
—
When you gain a Treasure, you may play this from your hand.

This is a really hard contest!

It works well with most Gold gainers but is designed to pair especially nicely with Courtier. The dual typing makes Courtier better and its reaction can allow it to both be played freely and grab a recently gained Gold. In the absence of Treasure gainers it can still have use playing Kingdom Treasures in the Action phase. Probably also a decent money card, but not better than Gear.

14

Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #190: Nintendominion

« on: June 20, 2023, 12:02:24 pm »

Edit: tried to update the card so that it can't go infinite on some cards like fortress or the "play when trashed/discarded/gained" card.
The wording feels clumsy, but idk how to write it.
Also changed the prize gain to a wish and loot. May be too strong. But felt like it needed a buff after the edit

Edited card:

+1 Card
+1 Action
Reveal your hand and Trash a card from your hand that isn't in the trash. If it stayed trashed, play this again or gain an estate.

If you have 5 Actions after playing this, then trash this. If you did, gain a loot and wish to your hand.

My card is inspired by the Dungeon RPG series Etrian odyssey. Its a niche type of rpg where you dive into a deep dungeon, and try to get further and further and kill big bosses and enemies to gain loot, to get stronger. Its very easy to get tunnel vision in these games and go too far, only to die and lose a bunch of progress.


Hence, this card:

Etrian Odyssey.
Action, $3

+1 Card
+1 Action
Reveal your hand and trash a card from your hand costing $2 or more. If you did, then play this again or gain an estate.

If you have 5 Actions after playing this, then trash this. If you did, gain a loot or prize to your hand.

My goal with this card was to make a spin on the student card, and any card that you "play again". I dont think we see too many of those. I also wanted a card that makes use of the prizes from tournament, but without being reliant on Luck from drawing a province.

I also wanted to make a +1 Card +1 Action Trasher that isnt overpowered. It might be too similar to rats. I wanted some way to make the card stop so it doesnt massacre your deck, so you can choose to play it again or to gain an estate, which is usually bad.

I think this new version provides way too much of an advantage to whoever happens to draw it first. The first person to play this most of the time will be able to cantrip trash a Copper and Estate for the low price of $3 while the others just… can’t.
This can also autopile itself (in addition to gaining a ton of Loots) whenever the bottom half is triggered. You can spend the wish on another Etrian Odyssey, that can then gain another Wish + Loot, and so on.

15

Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #190: Nintendominion

« on: June 14, 2023, 02:09:09 pm »

Attuned
Trait
After you finish playing an Attuned card, you may discard 2 differently named cards to replay it.

Ever since I discovered it back in early 2018, the Hammerwatch series has been one of my favourites on PC, with the second game, Heroes of Hammerwatch being my most played game on Steam.

In HoH a significant part of character progression is being able to attune items you find blueprints for. When picking up an attuned item in future runs, the item will act as if there are 2 copies of it in your inventory. This is where the idea for my design comes in, Throne effects are one of my favourite things in Dominion and I also loved the introduction of Traits in Plunder. I made it require differently named cards to make receiving the effect on draw cards a little trickier to decide.

16

Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #189: Vanilla Comes Later

« on: June 06, 2023, 09:35:27 am »

Wise Jester • $5 • Action
Choose one: discard a card from play (not this) for +1 Card, +1 Action, and either +$1 or +1 Buy;
or trash this from play for +4 Cards and either +1 Action or +1 Buy.

Choices choices.

This version can once again go infinite if you have 2 of them. Additionally, it being able to discard Duration cards with next turn effects makes tracking them very difficult.

17

Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #189: Vanilla Comes Later

« on: June 03, 2023, 03:58:53 pm »

Craftsman
Action - Liaison ($4)

Gain a card costing up to $4. +1 Favor per $1 less than $4 it costs.

18

Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #187: The Law Falls Silent

« on: May 18, 2023, 03:02:07 pm »

Ravager
Action - Attack - Duration ($5)

At the start of your next turn, + 3 Cards.
Until then, whenever any other player gains an Action or Treasure card, they set it aside and put it into their discard pile at the end of their next Cleanup.

This is a really hard prompt!
Ravager slows down opponents by setting aside their gained cards, causing them to miss shuffles. It can also be used to prevent gain-and-plays. Like Haunted Woods, the attack doesn’t stack, but can be pretty annoying to work around, which is why I feel the start of turn draw is an appropriate secondary effect.
It can be countered by a few things, anything that can move cards from their expected location (like Watchtower, Tiara, or Tracker) or cards that can access your discard pile (like Harbinger, Mountain Village, or Messenger). It also anti-synergizes a bit with Treasure junking attacks like Charlatan.

19

Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #187: The Law Falls Silent

« on: May 18, 2023, 01:49:01 pm »

I also had this idea, but unfortunately, this will lock out people on many boards. You just select a terminal, and their turn is dead.

PPE'd!

How about making it a Duration like Green Village?  It protects you from locking out.

The problem with that fix is that you’re pretty much required to buy your own Marionette to counter an opponent’s Marionette. Attacks shouldn’t be designed as their own counters.
Additionally this attack has problems in more than 2 player games. If player A designates a card for player C to play first, then what happens player B plays a Marionette? You can’t play multiple cards as the first card, and if the most recent Marionette played is the one that takes priority, you start to move into targeted attack territory.

20

Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #186: An Impish Challenge

« on: May 04, 2023, 01:49:45 pm »

Most similar to Way of the Pig, it is essentially a cantrip, but you discard a card from play after drawing, which makes the conditional +1 Action easier to activate. It also allows you to play treasures in your action phase since that seems to be all the rage nowadays.

This can go infinite with itself. With exactly 2 copies of it you can play 1, discard it, then play the other, infinitely. Obviously becomes a bigger problem with stuff like Training around.
I think the idea is cool but should restrict itself (and also durations so you don’t have any invisible next turn effects) 

21

Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #185: It Takes A Village

« on: May 03, 2023, 11:20:48 pm »

The judging is in! You guys sure made this one tough on me, there were so many great ideas this week!


Augie279

Forest Village
Action - $5
+2 Actions
Reveal cards from your deck until you reveal 3 Victory cards. Discard any number of them, then shuffle the revealed cards back into your deck.

It can be useful if you’re careful about triggering shuffles, but without any sifting  for your current hand and a -1 to handsize it seems a little too situational for me.

JW

Granary
$5 - Action
+1 Card and +2 Actions
You may discard up to two cards, revealed. For each Action or Gold discarded, +2 Cards.

Very strong once your deck is action or Gold rich, but of course it usually takes some time to get there. Also has a pleasant interaction with Shelters, which is always fun. I like this one.

BryGuy

Town Crazy
$5 Action
+2 Actions,
Choose one: discard a card for +2 Cards; or discard two same named cards, not costing $0, to gain a Madman.

The handsize neutral sifting option seems fine. Interesting use of Madman, however I feel this will wind up being too strong in many cases as playing multiple Madmen often results in overdraw and trivializes getting more Madmen for your next turn. There’s also the issue of them running out; with only 10 Madmen its very possible to shut opponents out of getting any, especially in 3 or 4 player games.

xyz123

Gentrified Village
Treasure-Duration
$5

$1
+1 Coffer
_______________________________________
At the start of your next turn +2 Actions

A very useful card in getting both $ and Actions when you need them most. I can easily see myself picking up a pair of these to keep my turns reliable. Great work!

majiponi

Poor Village
cost $3 - Action
+2 Actions
Reveal your hand.  If you don't have any Treasures, +2 Cards.

An awesome mishmash of Poor House and Shanty Town. Requiring exactly zero treasures in hand makes it play differently from Poor House, and with good trashing it’ll be much easier to activate than Shanty Town (plus it isn’t slowed down by extra copies of itself). Very thematic and a great $3 Village.

NoMoreFun

Outskirts
Action - $2
+1 Card
+2 Actions
_______
When you gain this, trash it if you have an Outskirts in play

A cheap village with a fun exercise of how to workaround its drawback, especially since many sources of +Buy and extra gains are terminal. You can try to scoop up a bunch at once or gain them early in your turn before you play any. And of course there’s always shenanigans with things like Watchtower or Tiara. Great entry!

czzzz

Thrifty Village
Action - $3
+2 Actions
Discard a card, then put a card from the discard pile into your hand. Reveal your hand. If there were exactly 2 Action cards in your hand, +$2.

Has the Harbinger problem of being somewhat limited in what it can do when your discard pile is empty (not quite as much as Harbinger though). I do really like the minigame of getting exactly 2 Actions in hand for +$2, I think that could work out well with DTX decks.

4est

Action - $5
Restored Village
+1 Card
+2 Actions
---
When you gain this, do this twice: Trash a card from your hand, then gain a card costing exactly $1 more than it other than Restored Village.

I love this on-gain effect, it’s very useful for kick-starting your engine building quickly. The fact that it’s mandatory also means you have to be careful in the lategame (with cards like Haggler for instance). I do agree with the note that this could be problematic if gained outside of your turn, mostly because it can knock your handsize down to 0 without a way for you to stop it. But other than that minor problem, I love this card.

faust

Pirate's Lair - $2
Action

+1 Card
+2 Actions

Gain a non-Victory card costing exactly $1 per card you've gained this turn.

I love cantrip gainers, I wish official Dominion had more of them! It seems a bit to difficult to use without any other gainers around, but I do like how it’ll only be junking you once a turn at worst. Its own low price also helps you get more of them through its effect, but the frequent lack of $1 cards makes sure it isn’t too easy to do so. Great job!

fika monster

Welcoming Village , $3 Action

+1 Card, +2 Villagers
-
When you gain this during your turn, you get +1 Buy, +2 Villagers, and all other players get a copy of Welcoming Village.

I think that even with the changes you made this still provides too much benefit to your opponents, as in many cases they will be able to use their free village before you get to use your free Villagers. The pile will also run far too quick in 3 and 4 player games.

Nyxfulloftricks

Village Well - Action
+2 Actions
+1 Coffer
You may play an Heirloom from your hand to gain +1%.

Lucky Copper - Treasure - Heirloom
$1
Name a card. Reveal the top card of your deck. If it's the named card, put it into your hand.

I love cards that play Treasures during the Action Phase, but limiting it to just the Heirloom is a bit too restricted in my opinion. As for the Heirloom itself, it will often make for some frustrating openings as drawing it T2 will cause you to trigger a shuffle, which can be either very good or bad depending on how much money you had T1. I like things that mix up openings, but the way this Heirloom does it feels too random to me.

anordinaryman

Ransacked Village | Action | $2
+1 Card
+2 Actions
When you gain a Victory card this turn, trash this.
-
When you gain this from the supply, you may gain a non-Victory card from the trash.

Another cheap village with an interesting restriction to work around. I do think making the pile larger was a good call, and the extra gain from the trash seems really fun, although I think it would work a little better with a cost cap of $6 in place. Overall still a solid entry.

LibraryAdventurer

Hotel Pub
$5 - Action
+2 Cards
+2 Actions.
You may discard a treasure. If you didn't, gain a Copper on top of your deck.

This looks too weak for $5. The fact that the Copper is gained onto your deck means both choices of this card will effectively keep your handsize the same in most cases. I think this would be better if the Copper was gained to the discard.

sumrex

Laidback Life $3
Now and at the start of your next 2 turns:
+1 Action
+1$

Maybe very simple, but sometimes simple is all you need.

I think this compares too well to Taskmaster, and without the gaining restriction is also just less interesting. It’s a little too simple for my taste.

D782802859

Distant Village
$5 Action
+1 Card
+1 Buy
Choose one: +1 Card;
or +2 Actions.
-
When you gain this, draw an extra card for your next hand per unused Action you have (Action, not Action card).

Ideally you want to have just enough Actions to supply all your terminal cards, and at least for me this is the case in most engine games. The main exception to this games with Throne Room variants or Champion, in which this effect will be incredibly powerful. The on-play of the card is fine, but weak for $5. Overall I think this will fluctuate too much in strength, mostly being on the weak side.

segura

Action - $2
Country Village

+2 Actions
You may discard a Victory card for +1 VP.
---
When you gain this, you may play it.

A great enabler for DTX decks, and still a passable village otherwise. I appreciate the dilemma it creates, similar to Baron, about it being worthwhile to keep just one Estate around. Playing it on gain also allows for some neat tricks, what if that Workshop was suddenly also a village? Nice work!

emtzalex

Floating Village • $2 • Action - Duration
+1 Card
You may discard a card for +2 Actions. If
you discarded an Action card, then at the
start of your next turn, repeat this ability.

Once this is set up properly it can keep your engine super reliable (as keeping it in play will allow it to be a double village rather than a normal village). Timing when to get it is interesting, as it’s not very strong as a normal village (as you said, strictly worse than Hamlet when not discarding Actions). I don’t think it’s too strong but I also don’t think it would be too weak at $3 either. Either way, I like the card, I hope to see more official “repeat this ability” cards in the future.

Xen3k

Watchful Village - $3
Night - Duration
Now and at the start of your next turn, look at the top 3 cards of your deck. Trash one of them. Discard one of them. Put the last one back onto your deck.
Until then, each player starts their next turn with 2 Actions.

I like the double Lookout effect, it thins you down at a rate better than Amulet (as its non-terminal and sifts as well). However I’m not sure extra Actions is the best boost to give other players to compensate for its strength, as you’re mostly only going to be playing it early on and its quite likely that other players don’t draw colliding terminals at that point in the game (or if they do, it’ll be by pure chance).

silverspawn

Action - $2
Quiet Village

+2 Actions
---
When you gain this, you may discard your hand. If you do, +1 Villager per card discarded.

Another awesome on-gain bonus. This has many potential use cases like setting yourself up with Villagers to resolve upcoming terminal collision or spending a little extra cash to make sure your engine doesn’t dud in the lategame.

X-tra

Action - Reaction - $3
Shortcut

+2 Actions
+1 Buy
---
When you gain an Action card, you may reveal this from your hand, to play the gained card.

It seems you forgot to add a restriction to this to prevent it from autopiling Workshop type cards (personally I think the discard suggestion would be best). But other than that issue, this is a really fun reaction that allows this to act as a village in more than one way. Great work!

Lackar

Exiled Village
$5
Action - Duration
+2 Actions

At the start of your next turn.
+1 Card
You may Exile a card from your hand.

This seems too slow of a thinner for $5, as it can only thin 1 card every other turn at most. And as I had said earlier about Watchful Village, utilizing the extra Actions early on will also be hard to do reliably.

Will(ow | iam)

Crafty Village
$5 Action
+2 Actions
Gain a card costing up to $4

This seems okay for $5 but just doesn’t excite me very much; it’s just a Workshop that’s also a village.

Gubump

Action - Duration - $3
Hidden Village

+1 Card
+1 Action
At the start of your next turn, +1 Villager.

I think this will have the most interesting decisions when also in a board with the standard Village; do you want a more reliable, but smaller Village effect, or a larger, but riskier one? To me they seem pretty much evenly matched which is excellent design.

Violet CLM

Tourist Trap
$3 Action

+5 Actions

I think this is too good for $3, it provides more Actions than Snowy Village without the huge restriction that that card has. I also find this to be too simple for my tastes, it’s just a lot of one vanilla effect and nothing else.

RovingBear

Action - Duration - $6
Vassal City

+1 Card
+2 Actions
Discard 1 card.
At the start of each of your turns for the rest of the game, +1 Action.

Strength wise I think this is fine, but it seems really awkward to have an on play effect for a single turn and then just have the card sit there. It’s also very similar to Barracks for this reason.

grep

Prospector
Action - $3
Look at the top two cards of your deck. Choose one: put them into your hand, or discard them for +2 Actions

Like Forest Village, I think this is going to be too difficult to use in most cases as it doesn’t allow you to sift what’s in your hand. The search space on this card is also quite small, so you might be forced into discarding some good Actions or otherwise draw them dead.

arowdok

Penny Pincher
Action - Liason - $2
+2 Actions
+2 Buys
+2 Favors

From my scanning of all the Allies in the game, I do think this would be very strong with quite a lot of them. I’m not sure if it’s enough to consider it overpowered though. Looking beyond strength, the card just provides vanilla bonuses with the Favors you get, which is again a little too simple for my taste.

infangthief

New Town
$1* Action

+1 Action per $1 this costs.
----
This costs $1 more per Action card in play (anywhere).

With workshops I think this will be too potent of a village and/or TFB card. Peddler is pretty notoriously good as TFB, but its price is high during the Action phase meaning you’ll have to rack up a lot of Buys to get some. And with the unlimited potential of this card’s cost scaling (unlike Peddler) some TFB cards will be able to get far more mileage out of it. I think this concept could work if it was a bit more restricted in how high it can get.


Final Results:

Honourable Mentions: Poor Village by majiponi, Outskirts by NoMoreFun, Country Village by segura, Shortcut by X-tra, Hidden Village by Gubump

Runner Ups: Restored Village by 4est and Pirate's Lair by faust

Winner: Quiet Village by silverspawn

Congrats to silverspawn for winning and thank you all for your participation!

22

Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #185: It Takes A Village

« on: May 02, 2023, 08:00:14 pm »

The contest is officially closed!

I won’t be able to get the judging up tonight, but I’ll try my best to get it up tomorrow.

23

Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #185: It Takes A Village

« on: April 26, 2023, 12:24:25 pm »

Oops, is this a strike against it? In my experience, it's not too difficult to get the village. But if the judge thinks that it's too unorthodox, I will withdraw it and submit something else.

Yeah, needing to collide it with a Silver would count as fulfilling an extra condition in my opinion. Sorry :/

24

Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #184: Spring is in the Air

« on: April 25, 2023, 04:36:14 pm »

Congrats Ethan! I especially loved your Heirloom, it shakes up openings and is a real dilemma about whether you wanna hold onto it sometimes!

I've gone ahead and posted the next contest as well.

25

Weekly Design Contest / Weekly Design Contest #185: It Takes A Village

« on: April 25, 2023, 04:34:12 pm »

Weekly Design Contest #185: It Takes A Village

Dominion has quite a lot of $4 Villages. Why is that anyways?

It mostly boils down to the fact that the original Village is actually a pretty decent card, and that the difference between $3 and $4 isn't a lot in many cases. Villages are essential to make engines run well, so oftentimes you'd be happy paying $4 for one.
This means that $4 Villages fit very comfortably into a mold: take the standard Village and give it a slight extra bonus. Even if that bonus isn't always utilized, the fact that it's a $4 Village will still make it useful quite often.

That brings us to the contest for this week.

Design me a Village that does not cost $4.

A couple other points about exactly what I'm looking for:
- Your card should provide +2 Actions or more without any real difficulty. See the Villages with no restrictions section on the Dominion Strategy Wiki for a list of examples.
- This means no Throne Room variants (as normal Throne Room already costs $4, that would be a bit too easy) or cards that need some condition to be fulfilled (for instance, Ironmonger, Herald, or Conclave).

I'll close this contest at 8 PM EST on May 2, and until then I'll keep an eye on the submissions to let you know if something doesn't qualify (and I'll try to be lenient about that).

Thanks Gubump for putting this suggestion in the suggestions thread.