This is a set of cards I've been working on for a while. These ideas are in, I guess, the alpha stage - I'm still creating new ideas and testing them, although me and a friend have started playing with many of these cards. In that way, there's been a little playtesting, but nowhere near enough to have a really good feel for the cards.
Also, because I'm still in the early design stage, I haven't started making images yet. If I do that, it'll be close to when I'm happy to try and make the cards.
The theme of the set, as the name implies, is of a wedding: There's all kinds of celebrations going on, and lots of people are busy with the marriage ceremony itself. And as it's such an important wedding, all kinds of new people have come to the palace, hoping to enjoy the fun, or perhaps make a profit from the experience. But there's also a few shady characters who've turned up...
Mechanically, it's slightly vaguely about being able to do clever and/or sneaky things. Part of that ended up being cards that do something when you buy or gain them (I had that theme before Hinterlands came out...). Other parts are cards that are more powerful under certain conditions, and cards with choices.
What I'm looking for mainly is feedback. Have I missed something about a card that makes it too good? Or too weak? Could a card break the game? Perhaps there's a combo that does. Is the wording bad? I intend to eventually make these cards for use, although that might be a way off yet.
Sect
Action - $1
+1 action
Trash a card from your hand
When you buy this card, gain a curse then return to the action step of your turn, and +1 card, +1 action, +1 buy.
Alright, the cards are in cost order, so we get the craziest card first. I wanted something that could help balance out bad draw luck, but with a cost. Returning to the action step is a pretty funky way of doing that. The card itself is pretty weak: It CAN possibly trash that curse it came with, and maybe trash some Estates, but in general, the card is just going to slow you down. This card has had some testing, and it felt okay to us - it's interesting to try and take advantage of, and better in games which already have a lot of cursing. It has a cost of $1 because, well, spending $1 to try and take advantage of your hand is sometimes worth it. Spending $2 rarely is. It does change how certain trash for benefits cards work which ask for exact costs, but, well, that's just a new thing sometimes.
Merchants
Action - $2
+1 Card
+1 Action
+1 Buy
And then we get to a nice, slightly boring card. Probably the simplest way of getting an extra buy yet, and yet because of it's cheap cost, it can really change things. You're never hurt by having this card, but then again, by the time it could really help, maybe you don't want to buy it? In testing, this felt the right power.
Ceremony
Action - $3
Reveal the top card of your deck and put it into your hand.
If it is an:
Action card: +2 actions
Treasure card: +$2
Victory card: +2 cards
Curse card: Trash a card from your hand.
It's like a Tribute that hits yourself! In fact, there's a certain positive synergy about this card. Building a big actions deck? Well, you're more likely to hit action cards and get more actions. Big money? You're probably going to get more money from it. Greening early? Uh... well, have some more cards? I guess that one doesn't really work... but either way, this is a nice, slightly risky, cheap card. My friend who I've been playtesting with seems to really like it (as in he buys it a lot)... I've bought it a bit less, I think.
Monopoly
Action-Reaction - $3
$2
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When another player gains or plays the card your monopoly token is on, you may reveal and set aside this card. At the start of your next turn, discard this card and +$3
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When you gain this card you may place or move your monopoly token onto any kingdom supply pile.
A card relying on other people’s strategies. If this card fails to hit, it’s a terminal silver. If it succeeds, it’s essentially a Gold. How do you make it hit? choose a pile your opponent is likely to play a lot. Most significantly, this will deter others from focusing on a single card, lest you play the game with essentially cheap Golds the entire way. Might be too powerful in multiplayer, especially when there’s a real dominant card in the setup.
Statue
Action - $3
+2 Cards
You may reveal a statue builder from your hand. If you do, +1 action.
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You may only buy or gain this card if you have a statue builder in play or reveal a statue builder from your hand.
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Setup: Choose another kingdom pile in the supply costing at most $4 (if possible). Cards from that pile are the statue builder cards.
The full rules for choosing the other kingdom pile are: Choose one costing at most $4 if possible by any means (random recommended). If that can’t be done, choose the cheapest pile. So... just what is this card? It’s a cheap lab, if it works. If not, it’s pretty poor. It might actually be a bit weak at $3, but it’s a very nice card, especially when it comes up in a strange place. Navigators are Statue Builders? Hm, okay, do I get a Navigator to power my Statues or just avoid them? (this one has come up - I managed to build a very slick deck around them). It can really encourage the use of unusual cards, far more than Young Witch might. But it could also make a dominant card even more dominant...
Street Performer
Action - $3
+$2
At the start of your cleanup phase, choose two of your cards other than Street Performers in play and shuffle them into your deck.
This started life as a Chancellor variant (something like, when you discard this, set your deck aside, shuffle your discard pile and place it as your deck, then discard the set aside cards). That was insane, just, totally ridiculous. This is amusing now something of an anti-chancellor - it slows down your next shuffle! But in exchange, you hopefully get two of you better cards twice this shuffle. It’s a bit weak early on, when you’re probably returning coppers and maybe a Silver, but later on, you can really notice the benefit of shuffling a Gold back into your deck. Might want to bump this one’s cost up... so far, it’s seemed okay, a little on the strong side, but we’ll see.
Celebration
Action - $4
+1 Action
+$1
You may put a Celebration from your hand onto this card. If you do, +2 cards, +1 action, +1 buy, +$2
I like to think of this as being a mini-festival. If you can get Celebrations together, your net benefit is essentially +1 action, +1 buy, +$3, compared to Festival’s +1 action, +1 buy, +$2, -1 card. So that’s a card and coin better than a Festival. If you can’t, it’s a copper. This one’s had a bit of testing, but it needs more to work out exactly what benefit(s) it gives. Fortunately since it’s just lots of basic bonuses, it should be easy enough to adjust around.
Cobbler
Action - $4
+3 Cards, +1 Action
Put two cards from your hand on top of your deck.
It lets you organise part of your current and next hand. It’s a bit like Secret Chamber’s reaction, in that way. Sound bad? It’s surprisingly powerful. You might also compare it to Warehouse, but... that’s not a hugely fair comparison, discarding and returning to your deck are hugely different after all. This does give you 1 more card in hand compared to warehouse, so I guess it’s essentially a Cantrip. Like Sect, this one helps avoid some shuffle luck, letting you balance part of your hands out. I’d say the most similar comparison this has is with Courtyard, but, this is non-terminal, and you return two cards.
Con Artist
Action-Attack - $4
+1 Action
Each player (including you) may discard a card. If they do, they draw a card.
Each other player reveals their hand. They discard a card you choose and then draw a card.
The first (but not the last) attack, and it’s an interesting one. This started without the second line (with you revealing in the second part), and while that was
generally fine, I could see it would very often be totally brutal, completely ruining someone’s hand, especially in multiplayer. So to compensate, it gets a benefit to other players first. First, so the card will still usually hurt. Because of that, it’s easy to damage someone’s hand, but very hard to completely wreck it. In playtesting, this managed to really hurt me one game as it hit my Mystic (coming later!) three times in a row - but I think that was before I added the weakening clause.
Illusionist
Action* - $4
Reveal three cards from your hand. If you reveal exactly one treasure, action and victory card, +1 Card, +1 Action, +1 coin. Return the revealed cards to your hand.
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When this card is visible, you may choose what type this card has.
Firstly I need to define what makes a card 'visible'. In short it's when someone else can see the card. A card is visible if it is revealed, in play, in the supply or is about to be put into play. This means it can be played during your buy phase, if you want (which could be useful if you draw it dead... and have another action in hand). It's also (supposed to be) visible in any corner case I might have missed that other people could see it (like... on your island mat). Now what does choosing what type it has mean? It means say, if you gained one with an Ironworks, you can choose for it to be an Action-Victory-Treasure card. If you play an illusionist and reveal a Great Hall, a copper, and an illusionist, choose for it to have no type (or be a curse, or whatever). Also as a rules point: You can choose Illusionist to have any type of a card currently in the game. So it can be an attack (if you wanted) only if there's an attack in the game, or a prize only if Tournament is in the game (but that DOES mean you can gain one from winning Tournaments... if you really wanted).
Well that's a lot of rule clarification, but hopefully you can imagine situations this card can do interesting things for you. And if there aren't any... well, it interacts with itself.
Wedding
Action - $4
Choose one: Trash two cards. If you do, gain a Duchy, putting it on your deck. OR Trash two victory cards. If you do, gain a Gold.
I’ve already mentioned this card elsewhere (in a thread with a worrying similar name to this one, I think). And I’ve already mentioned it’s very swingy, which I think I’m going to fix. A possible change is making the trash two victory cards gain something slightly weaker... maybe a card costing $5 or less? I’m not sure.
Mystic
Action-Attack, $5
+3 cards
Choose one: each other player gains a curse, placing it on his Mystic Mat. or each other player puts a curse from his Mystic Mat onto his discard pile.
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At the end of the game, return all cards on your Mystic Mat to your deck.
Yay, cursing attack
. And in terms of actually being an attack, it’s by far the tamest curser so far, splitting the damage of curses into two parts, the -vp, and the actual card. I suspect this will often alternate between the two options, at least until near the endgame. It originally had +1 buy but slightly weaker wording, that didn’t really feel overpowered, but I liked this version more and have enough +buy cards in the set.
Dowry
Action - $5
+2 Cards
+$2
The only other basic card, but still an interesting one. This can be interesting in both an engine (where the +$2 makes up for the small drawing), or as a single card BM deck (I suspect it’d comfortably beat single/double Smithy... with a 5/2 opening). Despite being possibly the 2nd oldest card (behind Cobber IIRC) in the set, it still needs more testing for me to get truly comfortable with it’s effect.
Redecorate
Action - $5
Trash this card. Put your deck into your discard pile. Search your discard pile for up to two cards costing up to $6, reveal and trash them. For each trashed card, gain a card costing at most $1 more than the trashed card.
How do you describe this card succinctly? A one shot trash-for-benefit, I guess? Unlike most TfB cards, it’s very open in what you can do (trash any cards in your deck, gain any cards costing up to $1 more), but it IS a $5 one shot. This card can really lead to some interesting strategies - in particular, you can essentially change strategy on the fly, which can cause all kinds of interesting things. You can also use it to gain 6 VPs in the endgame from Duchies, if you time it right... It used to have a no victory card condition. I might change that to an action or treasure card clause, and remove the up to $6 clause. But in playtesting it didn’t seem too bad.
Smelt
Action - $5
+3 Cards
Reveal your hand and trash two Copper cards. If you do, gain a Silver, putting it into your hand. Each other player may trash a Copper from their hand or gain a copper, putting it into their hand.
This started life as a one shot Smithy - +3 cards, trash this card and any number of coppers. It was okay, but you either bought it turns 1 or 2 or never at all (it also cost $4, then $3). Now it’s a smithy with trashing benefits. Unsurprisingly, that was too powerful, and so it got a benefit to other players. So far I managed to have my opponent buy one of these, making me decide I’d use it to trash my coppers, and throne room it, when I had no coppers in hand (7 of about 16 cards in my deck), and then proceed to Redecorate it into a Gold. I was not amused. Still, it won him the game.
Developing Village
Action - $5
+2 Cards
+2 Actions
Discard a card.
I had such a sad when I first saw Inn, as it was this but more interesting. Oh well. I’d say it’s different enough to still exist... just about. The net benefit is just village, but choosing the best 5 of 6 cards (usually) is a lot better than just drawing a card.
Palace
Victory - $6
2 VP
When you gain this card, gain a Duchy.
I had all kinds of visions of this card doing interesting things when I first imagined it. Then... nothing really happened. It just sits there, until the endgame, when it gets bought if you have $6. On top of that, Farmland kinda did what it was trying to do, only a lot better. Darn you Donald and your good card design. I need to find something to replace this, ideally that’s something similar, but a bit different.
Unnamed card
Action - $3
+2 Actions
+1 coin for every two actions in play, including this.
Yeah I haven’t thought of a name for this one. Perhaps unsurprisingly it also hasn’t been tested yet. It’s kinda like a village combined with bank. You might need this in order to play lots of actions this turn, but then it probably won’t give you much (or any) money. And you really need to play a lot of actions for it to provide much money, but if you do, it can provide a lot. The whole idea might just break down in big action chain decks, if this can quickly start giving like $4 or more easily... but I’ll have to see.
So that’s what I have so far. 18 cards, including 2 attacks, 1 reaction, 1 victory card. I’m intending to get up to roughly full Dominion size (~25 kingdom cards), but if I don’t make it, oh well. Still, some feedback and ideas for polish might be nice. Thanks.