301
2011 / Final Entry List: 2011 DominionStrategy.com Championships
« on: November 23, 2011, 04:20:41 pm »
This is the final entry list for the 2011 DominionStrategy.com Championships.
Show Posts
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.
302
2011 / [POLL] Tournament schedule
« on: November 22, 2011, 10:35:30 am »
It looks like we'll need about 8 rounds to decide a champion.
Here are the possible schedules:
Schedule 1
Schedule 2
Schedule 3
Here are the possible schedules:
Schedule 1
Code: [Select]
28-Nov 5-Dec Round 1
5-Dec 12-Dec Round 2
12-Dec 19-Dec Round 3
19-Dec 26-Dec Round 4
26-Dec 2-Jan Round of 16
2-Jan 9-Jan Quarterfinal
9-Jan 16-Jan Semifinal
16-Jan 23-Jan FinalSchedule 2
Code: [Select]
28-Nov 5-Dec Round 1
5-Dec 12-Dec Round 2
12-Dec 19-Dec Round 3
19-Dec 26-Dec Round 4
26-Dec 2-Jan Round of 16
2-Jan 9-Jan Round of 16
9-Jan 16-Jan Quarterfinal
16-Jan 23-Jan Semifinal
23-Jan 30-Jan FinalSchedule 3
Code: [Select]
28-Nov 5-Dec Round 1
5-Dec 12-Dec Round 2
12-Dec 19-Dec Round 3
19-Dec 26-Dec Round 4
26-Dec 2-Jan Round 4
2-Jan 9-Jan Round 4
9-Jan 16-Jan Round of 16
16-Jan 23-Jan Quarterfinal
23-Jan 30-Jan Semifinal
30-Jan 6-Feb Final
303
2011 / Schedule and Results: 2011 DominionStrategy.com Championships
« on: November 20, 2011, 10:23:12 am »
This topic is now closed. Please post all new match results in this topic. The current bracket is here.
The current round is Round 4. The current round ends on December 25, 2011, 11:59:59PM EST.
Overall schedule:
The current round is Round 4. The current round ends on December 25, 2011, 11:59:59PM EST.
Overall schedule:
Code: [Select]
28-Nov 4-Dec Round 1
5-Dec 11-Dec Round 2
12-Dec 18-Dec Round 3
19-Dec 25-Dec Round 4
26-Dec 1-Jan Round of 16
2-Jan 8-Jan Round of 16
9-Jan 15-Jan Quarterfinal
16-Jan 22-Jan Semifinal
23-Jan 29-Jan Final
304
2011 / 2011 DominionStrategy.com Championships Registration
« on: November 20, 2011, 09:34:03 am »
Register for the 2011 DominionStrategy.com Championships in this topic by posting:
1) Your Isotropic username
2) Your timezone
UPDATE
Registration is now CLOSED unless you have an Isotropic rank of 35 or higher. If you do, post in this topic and you may qualify for a wildcard entry in one of the last ten slots.
1) Your Isotropic username
2) Your timezone
UPDATE
Registration is now CLOSED unless you have an Isotropic rank of 35 or higher. If you do, post in this topic and you may qualify for a wildcard entry in one of the last ten slots.
305
2011 / 2011 DominionStrategy.com Kingdom Design Challenge Rules
« on: November 20, 2011, 09:29:48 am »2011 DominionStrategy.com Kingdom Design Challenge Rules
1. Starting today, we will accept Kingdom submissions. You may submit any number of Kingdoms for consideration. Submissions close the day before the Grand Final is scheduled.
2. Kingdom is defined as a set of 10 Dominion cards to be used in a game of the Grand Final. If your setup includes Young Witch, please also include a Bane card. If your setup includes Black Market, the Black Market deck will be randomly generated. Please also specify whether Colonies and Platinum are included. The Kingdom is under no other constraint (i.e., you may have Colonies and Platinums in the game even without any Prosperity cards, and you may have just a single Alchemy card).
3. Kingdoms may include any published Dominion card (including promotional cards). Submissions with fan-made cards will automatically be rejected.
4. Kingdoms should be submitted by <a href="mailto:dominionstrategy@gmail.com">email</a> or <a href="http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?action=pm;sa=send;u=1">Private Message to theory</a> on the DominionStrategy Forum.
5. We will select at least seven Kingdoms to be used for the Grand Final (more than seven in case the match requires more than seven games). We will <b>not</b> announce the Kingdoms until the final begins.
6. After the final, voters will be able to vote for their favorite of the seven (or more) Kingdoms. That poll will close one week from the end of the Grand Final; at that point, whoever submitted the winning Kingdom will also receive a copy of <b>Dominion: Hinterlands</b>.
7. You may submit Kingdoms with any intent, and the voters can select whichever Kingdom they like for any reason. That being said, in selecting the final Kingdoms, we will look for Kingdoms that can promote future discussion. The ideal Kingdom will encourage diverse strategies, have no clear dominant approach, and emphasizes skill over luck.
306
2011 / 2011 DominionStrategy.com Championships Rules
« on: November 20, 2011, 09:29:15 am »The Ten Official Rules
1. Registration will close in one week, on Sunday, November 27 at 11:59:59PM EST.
2. Dominion Strategy ("We", "us", "our") will make every effort to accommodate all registrations. But we reserve the right to cut off registration after a certain number if necessary, and to deregister any player suspected of registering under multiple names. People associated with Dominion Strategy (namely, theory and rrenaud) are not permitted to enter.
3. To register, you must post in <a href="http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=1017.0">this forum topic</a>, stating both your time zone and Isotropic username.
4. Players will be seeded into a single-elimination bracket. Seeds will be determined by <a href="http://dominion.isotropic.org/leaderboard">Isotropic rankings</a> on a date of our choice. Any player who does not appear on the Isotropic leaderboard will receive either an appropriate seed based on past Isotropic leaderboard rankings, or be unseeded.
5. Every game will be a 2-player game and must be played on <a href="http://dominion.isotropic.org">Isotropic</a>. Each round will last for one week. The first round begins on Monday, November 28 and ends on Sunday, December 4.
6. Each match will be first to four wins (ties do not count). Players may, upon mutual consent, agree to play under any constraints they wish (e.g., with/without veto mode, sets limited to a particular expansion, with/without point counter). If the players are unable to reach an agreement, they shall play with randomly selected cards (excluding any fan-made cards), no veto mode, identical starting hands, and the official point counter. (Although we understand the objections to point counters, we have no choice but to permit their use because we simply cannot effectively enforce otherwise.)
7. The most recent losing player should go first in the next game; Isotropic should automatically give starting position to the person who most recently lost. If the match has already been completed, however, failure to alternate starting positions is not grounds to dispute the match result. First player in the first game of the match is randomly determined.
8. Players are expected to arrange convenient times to play with their opponents. In the event of a dispute, players can provide evidence of their presence on Isotropic at the agreed-upon time by linking to an Isotropic or <a href="http://councilroom.com">CouncilRoom</a> log of themselves playing a solitaire game at that time. If neither player submits such evidence, both will forfeit.
9. Results must be posted in <a href="http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=1018.0">this forum topic</a> with links to Isotropic or <a href="http://councilroom.com">CouncilRoom</a> logs. We greatly encourage players to review their games and discuss the match in the topic.
10. The winner of the tournament will receive a copy of Dominion: Hinterlands.
307
Dominion Articles / MOVED: Article subforum usage
« on: November 14, 2011, 09:49:11 pm »
This topic has been moved to Dominion Strategy Feedback.
http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=976.0
http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=976.0
308
Puzzles and Challenges / When would you not take all your Coppers into hand with Counting House?
« on: November 14, 2011, 12:15:36 pm »
Aside from concealing how many Coppers you have, I can think of one semi-realistic situation and one pretty unlikely situation.
EDIT: OK, you guys are way more creative than I am.
EDIT: OK, you guys are way more creative than I am.
309
Dominion Isotropic / Veto strategy
« on: November 11, 2011, 02:01:23 pm »
How do you use the veto mode on Isotropic?
310
Dominion Articles / Three-sentence overview of each card in Hinterlands
« on: November 08, 2011, 04:20:45 pm »
Border Village
$6 Action
+1 Card +2 Actions
When you gain this, gain a card costing less than this.
Its extreme cost is like a reminder of how you need a plan to win late if you're building such an engine. You need either a repeated strong attack (e.g., Rabble pin), some other source of VPs, or some way to get a mega-turn. In such decks, however, probably the best Village since Fishing Village.
Cache
$5 Treasure
$3
When you gain this, gain two Coppers.
The new Contraband. Is good with ways to get rid of the Coppers, naturally, but by that time you'll rarely draw $5 instead of $6. If you want this, you should actually have a plan for the Coppers, or have absolutely no other $5 worth buying.
Cartographer
$5 Action
+1 Card +1 Action
Look at the top 4 cards of your deck. Discard any number of them. Put the rest back on top in any order.
The card that Navigator and Scout wishes they were. Like Warehouse, a great sifter in the late game after you've gone green; like Warehouse, needs a certain amount of junk in your deck to be worth buying. Can be devastating if you get Possessed.
Crossroads
$2 Action
Reveal your hand. +1 Card per Victory card revealed. If this is the first time you played a Crossroads this turn, +3 Actions.
A variant on Cellar, with potential to draw stupid amounts of cards, but there's nothing more depressing than a hand with 1 Copper and 4 Crossroads. Fits great in a +Actions/+Cards engine. Covered nicely in an article by rinkworks.
Develop
$3 Action
Trash a card from your hand. Gain a card costing exactly $1 more than it and a card costing exactly $1 less than it, in either order, putting them on top of your deck.
Basically the worst early-game trasher if you're looking to thin your deck. Helpful to set up certain combos, but a very niche card. One of the weaker $3's in Dominion.
Duchess
$2 Action
+$2
Each player (including you) looks at the top card of his deck, and discards it or puts it back.
In games using this, when you gain a Duchy, you may gain a Duchess.
+$2 for $2 is great and matched only by Embargo, which is a one-time use. You don't want terminal Silvers in general, though, no matter how cheap, so this will mostly be gained either as a free gift with Duchy or as part of a 5/2 opening. The Spy effect is not very important.
Embassy
$5 Action
+5 Cards
Discard 3 cards.
When you gain this, each other player gains a Silver.
The granddaddy (thus far) of the Big Money + One Drawing Card engines. Embassy/Big Money beats Envoy/Big Money hands down, and greatly accelerates the game. Quite similar to Vault, especially since the benefit to your opponents is not always a benefit.
Farmland
$6 Victory
2 VP
When you buy this, trash a card from your hand. Gain a card costing exactly $2 more than the trashed card.
An on-buy Remodel that can often net you a free 2VP in the late game. You'd probably rather some other trash-for-benefit card, like Salvager, but Farmland can Farmland other Farmlands into Provinces. Interestingly, it synergizes well with its competition, since Farmlands are such great Salvager/Bishop/Apprentice/etc. fodder.
Fool's Gold
$2 Treasure - Reaction
If this is the first time you played a Fool's Gold this turn, this is worth $1. Otherwise it's worth $4.
When another player gains a Province, you may trash this from your hand. If you do, gain a Gold, putting it on your deck.
Quite fun, but you definitely need more than 2 FG's to make it worthwhile. Obviously works great with trashing and sifting, and big draw like Tactician. Needs some +Buy, otherwise it’s too slow to buy them all and not enough benefit when you play them.
Haggler
$5 Action
+$2
While this is in play, when you buy a card, gain a card costing less than it that is not a Victory card.
A nice fake +Buy on boards without it and leads to interesting interactions (including unexpected 3-pile endings) with Border Village. Similar to Hoard, in that it can help you go green much earlier because you can do things like Province/Gold. Otherwise, depends on good $4's and $2's.
Highway
$5 Action
+1 Card +1 Action
While this is in play, cards cost $1 less, but not less than $0.
Basically a Market; needs +Buy to be any better. Harder to do megaturns like with Bridge (because it can't get Throned or Kinged), but easier to play multiples of. Lets you do all those tricks (e.g., with Remodel/Swindler/etc.) that you wanted to do with Bridge but couldn't actually pull off.
Ill-Gotten Gains
$5 Treasure
$1
When you play this, you may gain a Copper, putting it into your hand.
When you gain this, each other player gains a Curse.
Brutal curser. Great with trash-for-benefit cards, obviously, considering its expense. Conducive to a Duchy / alternative VP rush.
Inn
$5 Action
+2 Cards +2 Actions
Discard 2 cards.
When you gain this, look through your discard pile (including this), reveal any number of Action cards from it, and shuffle them into your deck.
You need a good combo in your discard ready to go in order to play this. Works well with Chancellor, so you don't have to worry about buying it at the end of your draw pile. Otherwise unremarkable.
Jack Of All Trades
$4 Action
Gain a Silver. Look at the top card of your deck; discard it or put it back. Draw until you have 5 cards in hand. You may trash a card from your hand that is not a Treasure.
Fuels a great Big Money engine like Smithy/Envoy/Embassy, but unlike them, can actually beat attacks. TwoJackBigMoney bots are dominant on many boards. One of the strongest cards in the set.
Mandarin
$5 Action
+$3
Put a card from your hand on top of your deck.
When you gain this, put all Treasures you have in play on top of your deck in any order.
The +$3 at the cost of a card is decent, though the main interest is in its on-gain ability. Can be useful to buy in the late game if you fall short of a Province and want to try again. Also good with +Buy, to buy the Province and then get ready to buy another one.
Margrave
$5 Action - Attack
+3 Cards +1 Buy
Each other player draws a card, then discards down to 3 cards in hand.
The opposite of Torturer: gets worse and worse as you play multiples. The +Buy is what really sells it, though, making it one of the best +Cards for a +Actions/+Cards engine. Is basically Council Room / Militia rolled into one card.
Noble Brigand
$4 Action - Attack
+$1
When you buy this or play it, each other player reveals the top 2 cards of his deck, trashes a revealed Silver or Gold you choose, and discards the rest. If he didn't reveal a Treasure, he gains a Copper. You gain the trashed cards.
A tacit admission that Thief should have been better, but this didn’t belong in the base set. Still not that great, but can be a good desperation buy in the late game, hoping to snipe a crucial Gold. Especially interesting in multiplayer games and when people open with it.
Nomad Camp
$4 Action
+1 Buy +$2
When you gain this, put it on top of your deck.
Like a mom trying to get you to eat spinach: Woodcutter and its +Buy is good for you, and here’s a nice little on-gain bonus to try to make you realize this! Can lead to a $4/$5 opening. Still nowhere as good a source of +Buy as a Market.
Oasis
$3 Action
+1 Card +1 Action +$1
Discard a card.
Good with decks that want discarding: Tunnel, Minion, Library, etc. Also great with Peddler (assuming +Buy) and Conspirator. Otherwise, a quasi-sifter, sort of like Warehouse, and somewhat dependent on bad cards in your deck.
Oracle
$3 Action - Attack
Each player (including you) reveals the top 2 cards of his deck, and you choose one: either he discards them, or he puts them back on top in any order he chooses.
+2 Cards
Pretty unimportant. +2 Cards never excites anyone, and neither does Spy. Offers some limited combo potential (e.g., with Tunnel and opponent's Sea Hag/Rabble).
Scheme
$3 Action
+1 Card +1 Action
At the start of Clean-up this turn, you may choose an Action card you have in play. If you discard it from play this turn, put it on your deck.
Great with Conspirator engines. Also helps set up megaturn engines, especially when using Throne Room or King’s Court, and especially nice if you have an engine you intend to play indefinitely without greening up (e.g., Goons or Possession). The ultimate Bane card.
Silk Road
$4 Victory
Worth 1 VP for every 4 Victory cards in your deck (round down).
Great with Kingdom Victory cards. Otherwise, usually a decent consolation prize, if you miss out on Duchies, and occasionally worth more than a Duchy. Often needs some kind of sifter (Warehouse, Cartographer) or cards that do things with green cards (Vault, Crossroads) to be worthwhile.
Spice Merchant
$4 Action
You may trash a Treasure from your hand. If you do, choose one:
+2 Cards and +1 Action, or +$2 and +1 Buy
Moneylender is a solid opener, and this is like Moneylender, but slightly worse (though the +Buy can come in handy). You aren't guaranteed enough money, and it’s easier to accidentally trash everything and play yourself into a corner. Dies off eventually, and so benefits from trash-for-benefit cards.
Stables
$5 Action
You may discard a Treasure. If you do, +3 Cards and +1 Action.
Pretty awesome non-terminal drawer, probably equal to Hunting Party / Lab. Less reliable, though, and does very poorly when your Coppers are trashed. Does nicely with fuel from cards like Ill-Gotten Gains, Cache, and Trader.
Trader
$4 Action - Reaction
Trash a card from your hand. Gain a number of Silvers equal to its cost in coins.
When you would gain a card, you may reveal this from your hand. If you do, instead, gain a Silver.
A strong reaction, but you know, reactions are not so great in 2p ever. A good addition to a Big Money/draw deck, which ordinarily suffers hard from cursing attacks. Led to a huge rules discussion involving blue dogs.
Tunnel
$3 Victory - Reaction
2 VP
When you discard this other than during a Clean-up phase, you may reveal it. If you do, gain a Gold.
Combos with everything on this big list. Especially nice with Venture, and as a response to handsize attacks. In late game, worth it, usually, for the 2VP alone.
$6 Action
+1 Card +2 Actions
When you gain this, gain a card costing less than this.
Its extreme cost is like a reminder of how you need a plan to win late if you're building such an engine. You need either a repeated strong attack (e.g., Rabble pin), some other source of VPs, or some way to get a mega-turn. In such decks, however, probably the best Village since Fishing Village.
Cache
$5 Treasure
$3
When you gain this, gain two Coppers.
The new Contraband. Is good with ways to get rid of the Coppers, naturally, but by that time you'll rarely draw $5 instead of $6. If you want this, you should actually have a plan for the Coppers, or have absolutely no other $5 worth buying.
Cartographer
$5 Action
+1 Card +1 Action
Look at the top 4 cards of your deck. Discard any number of them. Put the rest back on top in any order.
The card that Navigator and Scout wishes they were. Like Warehouse, a great sifter in the late game after you've gone green; like Warehouse, needs a certain amount of junk in your deck to be worth buying. Can be devastating if you get Possessed.
Crossroads
$2 Action
Reveal your hand. +1 Card per Victory card revealed. If this is the first time you played a Crossroads this turn, +3 Actions.
A variant on Cellar, with potential to draw stupid amounts of cards, but there's nothing more depressing than a hand with 1 Copper and 4 Crossroads. Fits great in a +Actions/+Cards engine. Covered nicely in an article by rinkworks.
Develop
$3 Action
Trash a card from your hand. Gain a card costing exactly $1 more than it and a card costing exactly $1 less than it, in either order, putting them on top of your deck.
Basically the worst early-game trasher if you're looking to thin your deck. Helpful to set up certain combos, but a very niche card. One of the weaker $3's in Dominion.
Duchess
$2 Action
+$2
Each player (including you) looks at the top card of his deck, and discards it or puts it back.
In games using this, when you gain a Duchy, you may gain a Duchess.
+$2 for $2 is great and matched only by Embargo, which is a one-time use. You don't want terminal Silvers in general, though, no matter how cheap, so this will mostly be gained either as a free gift with Duchy or as part of a 5/2 opening. The Spy effect is not very important.
Embassy
$5 Action
+5 Cards
Discard 3 cards.
When you gain this, each other player gains a Silver.
The granddaddy (thus far) of the Big Money + One Drawing Card engines. Embassy/Big Money beats Envoy/Big Money hands down, and greatly accelerates the game. Quite similar to Vault, especially since the benefit to your opponents is not always a benefit.
Farmland
$6 Victory
2 VP
When you buy this, trash a card from your hand. Gain a card costing exactly $2 more than the trashed card.
An on-buy Remodel that can often net you a free 2VP in the late game. You'd probably rather some other trash-for-benefit card, like Salvager, but Farmland can Farmland other Farmlands into Provinces. Interestingly, it synergizes well with its competition, since Farmlands are such great Salvager/Bishop/Apprentice/etc. fodder.
Fool's Gold
$2 Treasure - Reaction
If this is the first time you played a Fool's Gold this turn, this is worth $1. Otherwise it's worth $4.
When another player gains a Province, you may trash this from your hand. If you do, gain a Gold, putting it on your deck.
Quite fun, but you definitely need more than 2 FG's to make it worthwhile. Obviously works great with trashing and sifting, and big draw like Tactician. Needs some +Buy, otherwise it’s too slow to buy them all and not enough benefit when you play them.
Haggler
$5 Action
+$2
While this is in play, when you buy a card, gain a card costing less than it that is not a Victory card.
A nice fake +Buy on boards without it and leads to interesting interactions (including unexpected 3-pile endings) with Border Village. Similar to Hoard, in that it can help you go green much earlier because you can do things like Province/Gold. Otherwise, depends on good $4's and $2's.
Highway
$5 Action
+1 Card +1 Action
While this is in play, cards cost $1 less, but not less than $0.
Basically a Market; needs +Buy to be any better. Harder to do megaturns like with Bridge (because it can't get Throned or Kinged), but easier to play multiples of. Lets you do all those tricks (e.g., with Remodel/Swindler/etc.) that you wanted to do with Bridge but couldn't actually pull off.
Ill-Gotten Gains
$5 Treasure
$1
When you play this, you may gain a Copper, putting it into your hand.
When you gain this, each other player gains a Curse.
Brutal curser. Great with trash-for-benefit cards, obviously, considering its expense. Conducive to a Duchy / alternative VP rush.
Inn
$5 Action
+2 Cards +2 Actions
Discard 2 cards.
When you gain this, look through your discard pile (including this), reveal any number of Action cards from it, and shuffle them into your deck.
You need a good combo in your discard ready to go in order to play this. Works well with Chancellor, so you don't have to worry about buying it at the end of your draw pile. Otherwise unremarkable.
Jack Of All Trades
$4 Action
Gain a Silver. Look at the top card of your deck; discard it or put it back. Draw until you have 5 cards in hand. You may trash a card from your hand that is not a Treasure.
Fuels a great Big Money engine like Smithy/Envoy/Embassy, but unlike them, can actually beat attacks. TwoJackBigMoney bots are dominant on many boards. One of the strongest cards in the set.
Mandarin
$5 Action
+$3
Put a card from your hand on top of your deck.
When you gain this, put all Treasures you have in play on top of your deck in any order.
The +$3 at the cost of a card is decent, though the main interest is in its on-gain ability. Can be useful to buy in the late game if you fall short of a Province and want to try again. Also good with +Buy, to buy the Province and then get ready to buy another one.
Margrave
$5 Action - Attack
+3 Cards +1 Buy
Each other player draws a card, then discards down to 3 cards in hand.
The opposite of Torturer: gets worse and worse as you play multiples. The +Buy is what really sells it, though, making it one of the best +Cards for a +Actions/+Cards engine. Is basically Council Room / Militia rolled into one card.
Noble Brigand
$4 Action - Attack
+$1
When you buy this or play it, each other player reveals the top 2 cards of his deck, trashes a revealed Silver or Gold you choose, and discards the rest. If he didn't reveal a Treasure, he gains a Copper. You gain the trashed cards.
A tacit admission that Thief should have been better, but this didn’t belong in the base set. Still not that great, but can be a good desperation buy in the late game, hoping to snipe a crucial Gold. Especially interesting in multiplayer games and when people open with it.
Nomad Camp
$4 Action
+1 Buy +$2
When you gain this, put it on top of your deck.
Like a mom trying to get you to eat spinach: Woodcutter and its +Buy is good for you, and here’s a nice little on-gain bonus to try to make you realize this! Can lead to a $4/$5 opening. Still nowhere as good a source of +Buy as a Market.
Oasis
$3 Action
+1 Card +1 Action +$1
Discard a card.
Good with decks that want discarding: Tunnel, Minion, Library, etc. Also great with Peddler (assuming +Buy) and Conspirator. Otherwise, a quasi-sifter, sort of like Warehouse, and somewhat dependent on bad cards in your deck.
Oracle
$3 Action - Attack
Each player (including you) reveals the top 2 cards of his deck, and you choose one: either he discards them, or he puts them back on top in any order he chooses.
+2 Cards
Pretty unimportant. +2 Cards never excites anyone, and neither does Spy. Offers some limited combo potential (e.g., with Tunnel and opponent's Sea Hag/Rabble).
Scheme
$3 Action
+1 Card +1 Action
At the start of Clean-up this turn, you may choose an Action card you have in play. If you discard it from play this turn, put it on your deck.
Great with Conspirator engines. Also helps set up megaturn engines, especially when using Throne Room or King’s Court, and especially nice if you have an engine you intend to play indefinitely without greening up (e.g., Goons or Possession). The ultimate Bane card.
Silk Road
$4 Victory
Worth 1 VP for every 4 Victory cards in your deck (round down).
Great with Kingdom Victory cards. Otherwise, usually a decent consolation prize, if you miss out on Duchies, and occasionally worth more than a Duchy. Often needs some kind of sifter (Warehouse, Cartographer) or cards that do things with green cards (Vault, Crossroads) to be worthwhile.
Spice Merchant
$4 Action
You may trash a Treasure from your hand. If you do, choose one:
+2 Cards and +1 Action, or +$2 and +1 Buy
Moneylender is a solid opener, and this is like Moneylender, but slightly worse (though the +Buy can come in handy). You aren't guaranteed enough money, and it’s easier to accidentally trash everything and play yourself into a corner. Dies off eventually, and so benefits from trash-for-benefit cards.
Stables
$5 Action
You may discard a Treasure. If you do, +3 Cards and +1 Action.
Pretty awesome non-terminal drawer, probably equal to Hunting Party / Lab. Less reliable, though, and does very poorly when your Coppers are trashed. Does nicely with fuel from cards like Ill-Gotten Gains, Cache, and Trader.
Trader
$4 Action - Reaction
Trash a card from your hand. Gain a number of Silvers equal to its cost in coins.
When you would gain a card, you may reveal this from your hand. If you do, instead, gain a Silver.
A strong reaction, but you know, reactions are not so great in 2p ever. A good addition to a Big Money/draw deck, which ordinarily suffers hard from cursing attacks. Led to a huge rules discussion involving blue dogs.
Tunnel
$3 Victory - Reaction
2 VP
When you discard this other than during a Clean-up phase, you may reveal it. If you do, gain a Gold.
Combos with everything on this big list. Especially nice with Venture, and as a response to handsize attacks. In late game, worth it, usually, for the 2VP alone.
311
Dominion Articles / Highway cost interactions
« on: November 04, 2011, 04:20:27 pm »
In the words of Donald X., Highway is the way to do all those cute tricks you imagined with Bridge but were never able to actually pull off.
Let's try to imagine some of them:
1) Highways can help you Swindle your opponent's high-value cards into Curses.
2) Highways can help you Upgrade your Coppers into something valuable, but if played before your Governor, can hurt you by letting your opponent upgrade his Coppers into high-value cards.
Let's try to imagine some of them:
1) Highways can help you Swindle your opponent's high-value cards into Curses.
2) Highways can help you Upgrade your Coppers into something valuable, but if played before your Governor, can hurt you by letting your opponent upgrade his Coppers into high-value cards.
312
Dominion General Discussion / The Secret History of the Hinterlands Cards [discussion]
« on: November 02, 2011, 04:42:26 pm »
Here's the link.
I like to keep the Donald X. posts in their own forum to make it clean and easy to read, but I thought I should open up a discussion on this since it's new and exciting.
I like to keep the Donald X. posts in their own forum to make it clean and easy to read, but I thought I should open up a discussion on this since it's new and exciting.
313
News and Announcements / Good post / Bad post mod installed
« on: November 01, 2011, 09:24:36 pm »
The feature I (and most of you) have wanted the most has finally been installed. You can now see how popular posts are, and how much "respect" people have. Let me know about any bugs here.
314
Dominion General Discussion / MOVED: Simulating Challenge - Harem
« on: September 13, 2011, 06:45:55 pm »315
Dominion General Discussion / MOVED: Yet another Simulator release
« on: September 13, 2011, 06:45:30 pm »316
Dominion General Discussion / MOVED: BMU + Smithy vs. BMU + Chapel
« on: September 13, 2011, 06:45:00 pm »317
Dominion General Discussion / MOVED: Crazy Idea: Genetic Algorithm for Dominion Simulator?
« on: September 13, 2011, 06:44:55 pm »318
Dominion General Discussion / MOVED: Dominion Simulator available for download!
« on: September 13, 2011, 06:44:29 pm »319
Dominion General Discussion / MOVED: Dominiate: a Dominion simulator that runs on the Web
« on: September 13, 2011, 06:44:24 pm »320
Dominion General Discussion / MOVED: Project: Optimizing Big Money X
« on: September 13, 2011, 06:43:56 pm »321
Feedback / MOVED: Places with Dominion card names
« on: June 28, 2011, 09:54:56 am »
This topic has been moved to Puzzles and Challenges.
http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=196.0
http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=196.0
322
Dominion General Discussion / MOVED: Decline of civility on isotropic?
« on: June 26, 2011, 10:05:52 am »
This topic has been moved to Isotropic Discussion.
http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=64.0
http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=64.0
323
Dominion General Discussion / New Dominion promo card: Walled Village
« on: June 21, 2011, 10:22:33 pm »
+1 Card
+2 Actions
---
At the start of Clean-up, if you have this and no more than one other Action card in play, you may put this on top of your deck.
324
The Bible of Donald X. / Choosing a random set
« on: June 21, 2011, 12:49:57 pm »
Source
Quote from: Donald X.
Obv. the mix of card costs in the game is supposed to make dealing out a random ten work reasonably well most of the time. If you are worried about it and want extra insurance that a particular set of ten will be fun, then my advice is, make sure there are two or more cards that cost $5. That's the cost that really matters.
325
The Bible of Donald X. / The Secret History of the Cornucopia Cards
« on: June 20, 2011, 03:44:28 pm »
Alchemy was originally a large set, which when I made it meant it was 20 cards. I didn't count Potion. When Dominion itself was finalized, it stole whatever cards it wanted from future sets, including Gardens and Library and Festival from Alchemy. And some cards got stolen for other sets too, as I worked on them, turning former 20-card sets into 25-card sets and getting rid of dud cards. Whatever; Alchemy was last, I would get around to fixing it up eventually. It still had the Potions stuff, and I penciled in a "hand" theme for what the rest of the set would do. Cards that involved your hand. This fit with some cards that had been pushed back to be fixed up and some other homeless cards that I liked.
Around the time Prosperity was wrapping up and Seaside was getting printed, it turned out the publishers wanted small sets, could I make one please, and also, could it come out next (pushing Prosperity back). The way to get something fastest was to have it already done. Alchemy was ideal, as it had a hunk of the right size to break off of it, and it was in tatters anyway from me never getting around to working on it. I took the Potions stuff and tweaked it into a small expansion. So now there was a list of existing cards, plus untested ideas, waiting to turn into a hand-themed small set for a year after Alchemy.
When I got around to working on Cornucopia, I went with the hand theme, adding more cards that fit it, polishing up what I had, and adding cards that didn't fit it too, because what, they can't all be on-theme. And we started playtesting it.
It turned out that the "hand" theme was invisible. It made the cards play well together, but no-one recognized that it was the theme of the set. It was just not distinct enough.
The set at the time had Fairgrounds and Menagerie in it, and people would incorrectly guess that that was the theme, and that there just wasn't much of it. "Variety" sounded like a good theme, so I ran with it. Some of the hand stuff that wasn't also variety-related left, and I added more variety stuff. This theme was recognizable and worked out and well there it is.
In the end the set has only two cards that are mutated versions of cards originally in the large Alchemy set - Jester and Diadem. Some of the other cards started in other sets, and some are original to Cornucopia.
Those publishers that wanted small expansions presumably wanted them so that people who didn't want to pay the same for an expansion as for the main game could get them. And if such people exist then they don't have the large expansions. Well Alchemy is not ideal as the only expansion you have. I mean it's just so exotic. I felt like these publishers would have preferred something less exotic. Alchemy was all they could have in the time frame it was wanted, but I had plenty of time here, so this expansion tries to be more reasonable as an expansion for someone who doesn't have many expansions.
On to the cards!
Fairgrounds: I wanted a victory card in the set, because I always do. My ideas list had two cards that seemed especially promising, and the other one fit the hand theme, but it didn't work out. So I put this one in, with no idea that it would end up defining the set. The first version cost $6 and was worth 1 VP per 3 differently named cards in your deck. Then it cost $5. Briefly there was, cost $6, worth $1 for every 2 differently named cards in your deck, other than Copper and Estate. John Vogel suggested the formula it actually has. There was some debate about what formula was perfect (especially with Tom Lehmann and Wei-Hwa Huang), but the important thing was, that you had sufficient incentive to collect everything.
Farming Village: I had previously tried a card that drew you an action or treasure but did nothing else (just +1 Action), for $2 in another set. It was fine but there was no room for it there in the end. I moved it here as a Village.
Fortune Teller: The first version also dug for an action for the top of your own deck. That was too strong. Also it had a dash in the title. And it didn't stop on Curses, but obv. a Fortune Teller should be able to predict that you'll be Cursed.
Hamlet: A simple card from the hand theme days that survived unchanged.
Harvest: Once I had the variety theme, I had to make some cards that really highlighted it. I tried drawing cards until you hit a duplicate, and then I tried getting all the non-duplicates from your top 5 cards. Giving you $ instead of the cards was what worked out.
Horn of Plenty: Long ago, Intrigue had a card that read, "+$1 per Action card you've played this turn." It cost $4. This was popular with a certain kind of player. But many games it was useless - you needed a bunch of pieces to put together this puzzle - and then some games it was unbeatable. You would get staggering amounts of coins out of it, with +buys from something to make them count. Some people defended it, but I killed it. I could always try to fix it up later; there was no reason to give Intrigue a broken/useless card. Intrigue got Conspirator instead, which has a hint of the original premise.
I tried a new version in a later set: "+2 Actions +1 Buy. While this is in play, when you play another Action card, +$1." For $5. The idea was to provide some of what you needed with the original card, so that it was playable in more games, while weakening it in the games where it was good. You've got extra actions and a +buy up front... but it doesn't count Actions already played, only ones played after it. You can't draw your whole deck and finally draw it and play it and yeeha. Anyway this too was broken. I tried several things, including a version that only counted differently named cards. Eventually I gave up on it.
The solution in the end was to make it a Workshop variant. You don't get to combine the money with your other money. It doesn't use up your buy though. To be good enough and not fluctuate too much, it had to count your treasures too. At first it was an action with an effect delayed until the end of your buy phase, but I turned it into a treasure worth $0. Some people just liked that there was a treasure worth $0, I don't know what to tell you. So it doesn't use an action, and works with treasures naturally. This version was still sometimes too strong, so it got the "trash it if gained VP" clause.
I had called the treasure version Produce, which was a cute pun which would be lost in foreign versions. Cornucopia seemed like a good name for it, so I took that name off of a Prosperity card (Royal Seal). Then Jay preferred that name for the expansion, which I'd been calling Harvest Festival, so I had to rename this again. I called it Horn of Plenty, which is not only a synonym for Cornucopia, it's a literal translation of it. Once again creating trouble for translators.
Horse Traders: Seaside originally had a reaction that drew you a card when attacked. It died because it needed a messy phrasing to stop you from drawing your deck with it on one attack, after reactions changed to staying in your hand. But I had big plans to one day revive it with that messy phrasing.
I first tried it out in this set on a Village. I changed it to the money/discard thing in order to better fit the expansion theme. When I changed the theme I still liked the card so I kept it.
Prior to making $3, it made $1 per 2 cards in your hand (no discarding), fitting the dead theme even better. That was too scary with card-drawing combos and lackluster without them.
There was significant debate over whether or not it should be cumulative - should it work against multiple attacks per round. For me there was no question. Originally it was cumulative. There would be games where somebody just randomly bought lots of attacks anyway, and the person with the most Horse Traders won. It's plenty of bonus without being cumulative.
Hunting Party: I stole this from a later set once I had the variety theme. The first version drew you two cards you didn't have in your hand; that of course changed to drawing one random card, plus one card not in your hand. This makes it faster to resolve and fairer.
Jester: Back when, there were cards like "trash the top card of each other player's deck." They died due to 1) being weak (hitting Copper all the time), 2) being swingy (hitting your Copper and someone else's Province), and 3) possibly reducing everyone's deck to 5 cards with no escape. In those days, Alchemy had the opposite card - "Each other player reveals the top card of his deck. Gain a copy of one of those cards." This was also weak and swingy, and died around the same time.
I always had plans to fix it up though, and with Cornucopia got around to doing it. Jester lets you give them the card, so you don't mind hitting Copper as much, and it gives out Curses for VP cards, so as not to be so swingy. Of course you can gain multiple cards, which makes it swingy again. Jester gets crazy with five players and well if a card's going to get crazy with five players, it might as well be a fun one.
Menagerie: This came from Prosperity. The first version gave you $1 per differently named card in your hand. I tried a few versions of that, but it needed to be a threshold instead to work out. It ended up like the printed card, only with +2 cards instead of +3 cards. Then it got squeezed out of Prosperity due to Prosperity's particular requirements for cheap cards. I slotted it right into Cornucopia, and fixed it up by making it twice as good. It helped create the variety theme despite being in the set to support the hand theme.
Remake: This never changed. It was just a cute Remodel variant, but ended up supporting the variety theme, by helping you get that variety.
Tournament: Long ago, when working on what at the time was going to be the 4th expansion, with a player interaction theme, I hit on the idea of caring about whether or not people had bought Provinces. I made two cards with this concept. The first turned into Trade Route, and migrated into Prosperity when I split up the player interaction cards (every set needed those cards). The second soon became $4, "Each player may reveal a Province from his hand. If you do, +3 Cards. If no-one else does, +3 Cards." So you got 0, 3, or 6 cards, depending. I moved it into Alchemy, then moved it from there to Prosperity, where revealing a Province was an extra-cute condition.
It had a certain charm, but was a dud for some people. The problem was, a lot of the time, it was Smithy. It just didn't play differently enough from Smithy to be interesting. So it left Prosperity and was consigned to the limbo of promising ideas to work on later.
When I started working on Cornucopia, I tried it again, as something that fit the hand theme. The dull part was the card-drawing, so I had to replace that. The version I tried cost $5, and was, "Each player may reveal a Province card from his hand. If you do, gain a Treasure. If no-one else does, gain an Action card." It's fun to just say "gain an Action card," no qualifiers, but it doesn't work. We played one game with this and Possession. I got six Possessions and lost. Possession was typically not as good as Workshop, as everyone crammed their decks full of VP cards. Another insane thing was using it to gain copies of itself and Golems, then using the Golems to dig it up and do this more. You would have turns where you gained a pile of cards and then played them all. Anyway these games are fun once, but that's that. I killed the card again.
So a while later, I was working on the set, and realized I could push variety by actually adding more cards to the game. I had cards that cared if you had variety, and some cards helped you get that variety, but nothing increased the total amount of variety possible.
The first thing to try was a Black Market variant. Black Market came up a lot as a card that was cool with this expansion. Why not make a new one? And I could fix all of the problems Black Market had. Instead of buying a card in your Action phase, it would gain you a card directly. Instead of having to build a Black Market Deck, it would just come with one pre-built. Then that deck could be new cards, which was nice too, especially for a small expansion, although it could only be five cards, because that's how much space there was.
Tournament's province-revealing mechanic was perfect for this. And so it came to pass. I made a Black Market variant, that came with the cards you gained from it, that gained you the cards directly, via revealing a Province. There were still some things to work out though.
You got your Prize for revealing Province yourself, so that it wouldn't happen right away, and it went on your deck, so you'd draw it before the game was over. What did you get if they didn't stop you? At first it was a Silver, which was obviously bad. Steve Wampler suggested that it be something involving drawing a card, so that you'd get your Prize that turn if you had Province and no-one else did. I went with Peddler - +1 Action +1 Card +$1. That had the problem though of, if someone revealed Province, you didn't get +1 Action, and couldn't play another card. You'd have turns where you stared at your hand, deciding whether or not to risk playing Tournament. That was no fun, so, you always get the +1 Action.
Another thing was the booby prize. Originally it was Silver. That was unimpressive, but was there for a bit before turning into Duchy.
Originally you didn't discard the Province you revealed, but winning multiple Tournaments in a turn was too much. It's still possible of course, just harder.
And finally there are the Prizes themselves. There were always five; that's just how much space was left, and was a fine number anyway. I was not going to take out a card so I could have sixteen Prizes. They always cost $0. They need a cost because some cards care about card costs. There are various arguments for why they should have what cost, but I think a crucial one in favor of $0* is, that it makes it extra clear that you cannot actually buy them. I also like that you don't think, "oh man the correct play is to Remodel my prize."
The Prizes wanted to be cards that I wasn't "wasting" as Prizes. Cards that I couldn't do normally, because they were too hard to price well, or were too powerful in multiples, or too narrow. You don't always have extra actions for Diadem, but you can just take another Prize instead; it's not a whole unused pile.
The first set of Prizes was less exciting, and people complained and I excitified them. Bag of Gold originally did not give +1 Action. Princess only made VP cards cheaper. Trusty Steed gave you +2 Cards and +$2, no choice. Diadem went unchanged, look at that. And in place of Followers I had a VP-Action card. It didn't work out because, you know, you buy VP cards later in the game, for the points they're worth. I just couldn't make a VP prize exciting enough without making it too good. It couldn't be something you built your deck around, because you might not get it and at most got one. Something like Harem or Nobles just wasn't going to look pretty next to the other Prizes, because part of what you "paid for" was the 2 VP. Anyway Followers, who doesn't like Followers.
Diadem started in the large version of Alchemy long ago, as an Action: "+$2. Return this to your hand." It was a cute combo with Villages, but useless without them. I then tried some "choose one" versions, which solved the problem of it sometimes being dead, but didn't make the actions-to-money part any better. I eventually gave up on it, and well here it is at last.
Followers meanwhile started out as a Goons in Prosperity. I tried a bunch of "choose one" cards in that slot, and then tried this attack-two-ways, profit-the-opposite-ways thing. It was the same except it cost $6 and gave you a VP token instead of an Estate. It was too strong. An Estate is obv. a lot worse than a VP token, and being a Prize means it doesn't get to hit you that often or early either.
At one point Trusty Steed also gave you +2 Buys when you picked +2 Actions, and at one point Princess gave you +1 Action too.
Young Witch: When I decided to do a Black Market, I also decided to make a card that added a pile. I had also been wanting to have a card that you could Moat with a particular random pile, and the easiest way to specify it was to combine the concepts. At first the extra pile had to cost $3 exactly; it can also cost $2 because that adds some variety there, especially when not playing with lots of sets. That change was jeffwolfe's suggestion. At first the Young Witch "grew up" - she got better once there was an empty pile. That was cute, and some people were sad to see it go, but that version wasn't good enough, and there's only so much space on these cards. She is just always young. Not as good at drawing cards as an adult Witch, and also scared of something - maybe Cellars, or Menageries. *shiver*
There was some debate as to how to indicate what the Bane pile was - did we need a mat or what. It was Jay who suggested using the randomizer card turned sideways.
[continued in next post]
Around the time Prosperity was wrapping up and Seaside was getting printed, it turned out the publishers wanted small sets, could I make one please, and also, could it come out next (pushing Prosperity back). The way to get something fastest was to have it already done. Alchemy was ideal, as it had a hunk of the right size to break off of it, and it was in tatters anyway from me never getting around to working on it. I took the Potions stuff and tweaked it into a small expansion. So now there was a list of existing cards, plus untested ideas, waiting to turn into a hand-themed small set for a year after Alchemy.
When I got around to working on Cornucopia, I went with the hand theme, adding more cards that fit it, polishing up what I had, and adding cards that didn't fit it too, because what, they can't all be on-theme. And we started playtesting it.
It turned out that the "hand" theme was invisible. It made the cards play well together, but no-one recognized that it was the theme of the set. It was just not distinct enough.
The set at the time had Fairgrounds and Menagerie in it, and people would incorrectly guess that that was the theme, and that there just wasn't much of it. "Variety" sounded like a good theme, so I ran with it. Some of the hand stuff that wasn't also variety-related left, and I added more variety stuff. This theme was recognizable and worked out and well there it is.
In the end the set has only two cards that are mutated versions of cards originally in the large Alchemy set - Jester and Diadem. Some of the other cards started in other sets, and some are original to Cornucopia.
Those publishers that wanted small expansions presumably wanted them so that people who didn't want to pay the same for an expansion as for the main game could get them. And if such people exist then they don't have the large expansions. Well Alchemy is not ideal as the only expansion you have. I mean it's just so exotic. I felt like these publishers would have preferred something less exotic. Alchemy was all they could have in the time frame it was wanted, but I had plenty of time here, so this expansion tries to be more reasonable as an expansion for someone who doesn't have many expansions.
On to the cards!
Fairgrounds: I wanted a victory card in the set, because I always do. My ideas list had two cards that seemed especially promising, and the other one fit the hand theme, but it didn't work out. So I put this one in, with no idea that it would end up defining the set. The first version cost $6 and was worth 1 VP per 3 differently named cards in your deck. Then it cost $5. Briefly there was, cost $6, worth $1 for every 2 differently named cards in your deck, other than Copper and Estate. John Vogel suggested the formula it actually has. There was some debate about what formula was perfect (especially with Tom Lehmann and Wei-Hwa Huang), but the important thing was, that you had sufficient incentive to collect everything.
Farming Village: I had previously tried a card that drew you an action or treasure but did nothing else (just +1 Action), for $2 in another set. It was fine but there was no room for it there in the end. I moved it here as a Village.
Fortune Teller: The first version also dug for an action for the top of your own deck. That was too strong. Also it had a dash in the title. And it didn't stop on Curses, but obv. a Fortune Teller should be able to predict that you'll be Cursed.
Hamlet: A simple card from the hand theme days that survived unchanged.
Harvest: Once I had the variety theme, I had to make some cards that really highlighted it. I tried drawing cards until you hit a duplicate, and then I tried getting all the non-duplicates from your top 5 cards. Giving you $ instead of the cards was what worked out.
Horn of Plenty: Long ago, Intrigue had a card that read, "+$1 per Action card you've played this turn." It cost $4. This was popular with a certain kind of player. But many games it was useless - you needed a bunch of pieces to put together this puzzle - and then some games it was unbeatable. You would get staggering amounts of coins out of it, with +buys from something to make them count. Some people defended it, but I killed it. I could always try to fix it up later; there was no reason to give Intrigue a broken/useless card. Intrigue got Conspirator instead, which has a hint of the original premise.
I tried a new version in a later set: "+2 Actions +1 Buy. While this is in play, when you play another Action card, +$1." For $5. The idea was to provide some of what you needed with the original card, so that it was playable in more games, while weakening it in the games where it was good. You've got extra actions and a +buy up front... but it doesn't count Actions already played, only ones played after it. You can't draw your whole deck and finally draw it and play it and yeeha. Anyway this too was broken. I tried several things, including a version that only counted differently named cards. Eventually I gave up on it.
The solution in the end was to make it a Workshop variant. You don't get to combine the money with your other money. It doesn't use up your buy though. To be good enough and not fluctuate too much, it had to count your treasures too. At first it was an action with an effect delayed until the end of your buy phase, but I turned it into a treasure worth $0. Some people just liked that there was a treasure worth $0, I don't know what to tell you. So it doesn't use an action, and works with treasures naturally. This version was still sometimes too strong, so it got the "trash it if gained VP" clause.
I had called the treasure version Produce, which was a cute pun which would be lost in foreign versions. Cornucopia seemed like a good name for it, so I took that name off of a Prosperity card (Royal Seal). Then Jay preferred that name for the expansion, which I'd been calling Harvest Festival, so I had to rename this again. I called it Horn of Plenty, which is not only a synonym for Cornucopia, it's a literal translation of it. Once again creating trouble for translators.
Horse Traders: Seaside originally had a reaction that drew you a card when attacked. It died because it needed a messy phrasing to stop you from drawing your deck with it on one attack, after reactions changed to staying in your hand. But I had big plans to one day revive it with that messy phrasing.
I first tried it out in this set on a Village. I changed it to the money/discard thing in order to better fit the expansion theme. When I changed the theme I still liked the card so I kept it.
Prior to making $3, it made $1 per 2 cards in your hand (no discarding), fitting the dead theme even better. That was too scary with card-drawing combos and lackluster without them.
There was significant debate over whether or not it should be cumulative - should it work against multiple attacks per round. For me there was no question. Originally it was cumulative. There would be games where somebody just randomly bought lots of attacks anyway, and the person with the most Horse Traders won. It's plenty of bonus without being cumulative.
Hunting Party: I stole this from a later set once I had the variety theme. The first version drew you two cards you didn't have in your hand; that of course changed to drawing one random card, plus one card not in your hand. This makes it faster to resolve and fairer.
Jester: Back when, there were cards like "trash the top card of each other player's deck." They died due to 1) being weak (hitting Copper all the time), 2) being swingy (hitting your Copper and someone else's Province), and 3) possibly reducing everyone's deck to 5 cards with no escape. In those days, Alchemy had the opposite card - "Each other player reveals the top card of his deck. Gain a copy of one of those cards." This was also weak and swingy, and died around the same time.
I always had plans to fix it up though, and with Cornucopia got around to doing it. Jester lets you give them the card, so you don't mind hitting Copper as much, and it gives out Curses for VP cards, so as not to be so swingy. Of course you can gain multiple cards, which makes it swingy again. Jester gets crazy with five players and well if a card's going to get crazy with five players, it might as well be a fun one.
Menagerie: This came from Prosperity. The first version gave you $1 per differently named card in your hand. I tried a few versions of that, but it needed to be a threshold instead to work out. It ended up like the printed card, only with +2 cards instead of +3 cards. Then it got squeezed out of Prosperity due to Prosperity's particular requirements for cheap cards. I slotted it right into Cornucopia, and fixed it up by making it twice as good. It helped create the variety theme despite being in the set to support the hand theme.
Remake: This never changed. It was just a cute Remodel variant, but ended up supporting the variety theme, by helping you get that variety.
Tournament: Long ago, when working on what at the time was going to be the 4th expansion, with a player interaction theme, I hit on the idea of caring about whether or not people had bought Provinces. I made two cards with this concept. The first turned into Trade Route, and migrated into Prosperity when I split up the player interaction cards (every set needed those cards). The second soon became $4, "Each player may reveal a Province from his hand. If you do, +3 Cards. If no-one else does, +3 Cards." So you got 0, 3, or 6 cards, depending. I moved it into Alchemy, then moved it from there to Prosperity, where revealing a Province was an extra-cute condition.
It had a certain charm, but was a dud for some people. The problem was, a lot of the time, it was Smithy. It just didn't play differently enough from Smithy to be interesting. So it left Prosperity and was consigned to the limbo of promising ideas to work on later.
When I started working on Cornucopia, I tried it again, as something that fit the hand theme. The dull part was the card-drawing, so I had to replace that. The version I tried cost $5, and was, "Each player may reveal a Province card from his hand. If you do, gain a Treasure. If no-one else does, gain an Action card." It's fun to just say "gain an Action card," no qualifiers, but it doesn't work. We played one game with this and Possession. I got six Possessions and lost. Possession was typically not as good as Workshop, as everyone crammed their decks full of VP cards. Another insane thing was using it to gain copies of itself and Golems, then using the Golems to dig it up and do this more. You would have turns where you gained a pile of cards and then played them all. Anyway these games are fun once, but that's that. I killed the card again.
So a while later, I was working on the set, and realized I could push variety by actually adding more cards to the game. I had cards that cared if you had variety, and some cards helped you get that variety, but nothing increased the total amount of variety possible.
The first thing to try was a Black Market variant. Black Market came up a lot as a card that was cool with this expansion. Why not make a new one? And I could fix all of the problems Black Market had. Instead of buying a card in your Action phase, it would gain you a card directly. Instead of having to build a Black Market Deck, it would just come with one pre-built. Then that deck could be new cards, which was nice too, especially for a small expansion, although it could only be five cards, because that's how much space there was.
Tournament's province-revealing mechanic was perfect for this. And so it came to pass. I made a Black Market variant, that came with the cards you gained from it, that gained you the cards directly, via revealing a Province. There were still some things to work out though.
You got your Prize for revealing Province yourself, so that it wouldn't happen right away, and it went on your deck, so you'd draw it before the game was over. What did you get if they didn't stop you? At first it was a Silver, which was obviously bad. Steve Wampler suggested that it be something involving drawing a card, so that you'd get your Prize that turn if you had Province and no-one else did. I went with Peddler - +1 Action +1 Card +$1. That had the problem though of, if someone revealed Province, you didn't get +1 Action, and couldn't play another card. You'd have turns where you stared at your hand, deciding whether or not to risk playing Tournament. That was no fun, so, you always get the +1 Action.
Another thing was the booby prize. Originally it was Silver. That was unimpressive, but was there for a bit before turning into Duchy.
Originally you didn't discard the Province you revealed, but winning multiple Tournaments in a turn was too much. It's still possible of course, just harder.
And finally there are the Prizes themselves. There were always five; that's just how much space was left, and was a fine number anyway. I was not going to take out a card so I could have sixteen Prizes. They always cost $0. They need a cost because some cards care about card costs. There are various arguments for why they should have what cost, but I think a crucial one in favor of $0* is, that it makes it extra clear that you cannot actually buy them. I also like that you don't think, "oh man the correct play is to Remodel my prize."
The Prizes wanted to be cards that I wasn't "wasting" as Prizes. Cards that I couldn't do normally, because they were too hard to price well, or were too powerful in multiples, or too narrow. You don't always have extra actions for Diadem, but you can just take another Prize instead; it's not a whole unused pile.
The first set of Prizes was less exciting, and people complained and I excitified them. Bag of Gold originally did not give +1 Action. Princess only made VP cards cheaper. Trusty Steed gave you +2 Cards and +$2, no choice. Diadem went unchanged, look at that. And in place of Followers I had a VP-Action card. It didn't work out because, you know, you buy VP cards later in the game, for the points they're worth. I just couldn't make a VP prize exciting enough without making it too good. It couldn't be something you built your deck around, because you might not get it and at most got one. Something like Harem or Nobles just wasn't going to look pretty next to the other Prizes, because part of what you "paid for" was the 2 VP. Anyway Followers, who doesn't like Followers.
Diadem started in the large version of Alchemy long ago, as an Action: "+$2. Return this to your hand." It was a cute combo with Villages, but useless without them. I then tried some "choose one" versions, which solved the problem of it sometimes being dead, but didn't make the actions-to-money part any better. I eventually gave up on it, and well here it is at last.
Followers meanwhile started out as a Goons in Prosperity. I tried a bunch of "choose one" cards in that slot, and then tried this attack-two-ways, profit-the-opposite-ways thing. It was the same except it cost $6 and gave you a VP token instead of an Estate. It was too strong. An Estate is obv. a lot worse than a VP token, and being a Prize means it doesn't get to hit you that often or early either.
At one point Trusty Steed also gave you +2 Buys when you picked +2 Actions, and at one point Princess gave you +1 Action too.
Young Witch: When I decided to do a Black Market, I also decided to make a card that added a pile. I had also been wanting to have a card that you could Moat with a particular random pile, and the easiest way to specify it was to combine the concepts. At first the extra pile had to cost $3 exactly; it can also cost $2 because that adds some variety there, especially when not playing with lots of sets. That change was jeffwolfe's suggestion. At first the Young Witch "grew up" - she got better once there was an empty pile. That was cute, and some people were sad to see it go, but that version wasn't good enough, and there's only so much space on these cards. She is just always young. Not as good at drawing cards as an adult Witch, and also scared of something - maybe Cellars, or Menageries. *shiver*
There was some debate as to how to indicate what the Bane pile was - did we need a mat or what. It was Jay who suggested using the randomizer card turned sideways.
[continued in next post]