Dominion Strategy Forum

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length

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.

Messages - 4est

Filter to certain boards:

Pages: 1 ... 3 4 [5] 6 7 ... 15
101
WDC #169: I Am Not Throwing Away My [One-]Shot

Hello again, everybody! Here's this week's contest:

Design a card that is (or can be) a one-shot.

As a reminder, a one-shot is a card that can remove itself from your deck after playing it, via trashing itself, setting aside, returning to its pile, etc.

Acceptable submissions include:
  • Mandatory one-shots which are always one-use only, such Island, Treasure Map, Pillage, Distant Lands, Changeling, Acting Troupe, or the now removed Feast or Embargo
  • Conditional one-shots which are optional or only trigger at a certain threshold, such as Mining Village, Investment, Horn of Plenty, Fool's Gold, Death Cart, Hermit, Knights, Urchin, Raze, Engineer, Encampment, Farmer's Market, Small Castle, Pixie, Tragic Hero, or Acolyte.
  • Non-supply one-shots, such as Madman, Spoils, Horses, or Wishes

Other rules and suggestions:
  • While many Travellers are technically optional one-shots, for the sake of this contest (and my judging time), let's stick to a max of two total cards per submission.
  • I prefer submissions where in most instances, the one-shot trigger permanently removes the card, vs. only temporarily (excluding edge cases like from-trash-gainers). So try to avoid Reserve cards like Rat Catcher or Wine Merchant which can bring themselves back into your deck, back and forth exchangers like Vampire and Bat, or things like Stockpile which is often only removed temporarily.
  • Your submission itself must have a way to be a one-shot on its own vs. requiring other cards, so things like Procession, Way of the Horse, or Way of the Butterfly will not be accepted.
  • I know there's a bit of nuance here on what constitutes a one-shot, so to make things easier, if I believe your submission meets all the requirements, I'll give it a +1.
  • Your submission should have a clear and compelling reason to have a one-shot trigger, and especially for conditional one-shots, it should make for interesting decisions of when to use it or not.
  • As mentioned above, I will accept non-Supply cards or split piles as part of your submission, just try to keep things to no more than two cards if you can.
  • Don't make me squint. Eliminate unnecessary words and complexity where possible.

Judgement Details:
  • Entries and revisions must be submitted by 5:00 PM CT (11:00 PM UTC) on Saturday, November 26. I'll have results posted on or before Monday, November 28.
  • Entries will be judged on ingenuity, balance, simplicity, and creative/appropriate use of the one-shot mechanic.

Have fun! While it feels like one-shots have gotten increasingly rare in Dominion these days, it was surprising to see how many there still are, and it feels like there's a lot of design space people can go with both mandatory and conditional options.

I'm excited to see your designs!



Entries:

Schrödinger's Cat by Builder_Roberts
(Untitled) by fika monster
Excavate by Augie279
Ocean Wave by BryGuy
Sieve by majiponi
Stash House by emtzalex
Deer Stalk by Ethan
Hero's Demise by Sumrex
Prospecting Town by JW
Pawnshop by weretheruler
Travelling Book Merchant by lompeluiten
Crusader by czzzz
Bricks by nagdon
Mask Salesman by kru5h
Study by xyz123
Morgue by NoMoreFun
Adorn by anordinaryman
Burnt Offering by Xen3k
Gunpowder by SignError
Pupil by Gubump
Venture Capitalist/Seed Money by spheremonk
Swordsmith by exfret
Recycled Goods by X-tra
Infrastructure by arowdok
Maid by LTaco
Trailblazer by Erick648

102
Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #168: Turkey Time
« on: November 18, 2022, 09:29:05 pm »
Thanks for the win, Chappy7! Fun contest prompt and I enjoyed seeing the many tasty-looking submissions.

I'll get the next contest up in the next day or so.

103
Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #168: Turkey Time
« on: November 10, 2022, 11:41:25 pm »


Cupbearer is a cantrip sifter similar to Border Guard and Miller, letting you pick one card from the top three of your deck and discard the rest. Additionally, you can also turn it into a one-shot to trash the other two cards (your Cupbearer drinks the "poison" out of your deck and sadly perishes).

A nice opener as a sort of one-shot Sentry, but still a handy utility card throughout the game if you decide to keep it around or buy additional copies. Priced at $4 to prevent opening double Cupbearer.

104
Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #167: Monster Mash
« on: October 26, 2022, 03:48:53 pm »


Lots of dual-type Ways so far. Here's another one, an Artifact-Way! Way of the Dead is an Artifact that allows you and only you the ability to play any Action as a Necromancer. The Artifact comes from Mummy, a Salvager variant that Curses. Trashing an Action with it will let you seize Way of the Dead for yourself, and potentially set up some nice things for you (or eventually an opponent) to play with it.

105
Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #167: Monster Mash
« on: October 25, 2022, 04:50:15 pm »
Ah, gotcha, withdrawing then and will come up with something different.

106


Bargainer is a Woodcutter with a Haggler-like reaction that lets you discard it to gain a cheaper card than one you or someone else purchased. Unlike Haggler, this can gain other VP cards, but it usually only works once per turn since you have to discard it. On your own turns, it can sort of function like Charm where you can decide if the the +$2 and Buy is worth more vs. the Haggler reaction. On other people's turns, if it's in your hand, you can sneak in a free gain (they buy Province, you nab a Duchy on the house).

107
Excellent contest and judging by NoMoreFun! With Redoubt, I knew there was probably some autopile interaction out there somewhere but I couldn't think of any at the time. Haha and of course it's Watchtower, one of the cards that inspired Redoubt, sitting right in front of me. I'll may have to workshop this one a bit to prevent things like that, but appreciate the feedback otherwise. Congrats to Udzu!

108


Fortress has always been one of my favorites and was one of the first Dominion cards to really blow my mind when it was first revealed--whoa! A card you can't trash! Ever since, cards with unique on-trash benefits like Hunting Grounds, Rats, Cultist, Lich, and most recently Trail have been exciting additions, for all the fun interactions they add to TfB cards and other trashers.

Redoubt is a non-terminal Watchtower with an on-trash Wish effect. It can do the Fortress thing sorta and gain a copy of itself back to your hand (until they run out), but you can also pop it for a Gold, Duchy, or other key Action cards in a pinch.

109
Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #164: Read the Fine Print
« on: September 27, 2022, 03:14:44 pm »
It will be fine in most games, but I don't like that the penalty will unnecessarily hose other cards that use the Tavern Mat, especially things like Miser, Ratcatcher, Distant Lands, and Wine Merchant which all encourage putting multiples of themselves (or Coppers in Miser's case) on the Tavern Mat. The simplest fix would be to just create a separate mat that's used just for Mad Alchemist. You also could then put the scoring instructions on the mat and eliminate the need for States.

110
Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #164: Read the Fine Print
« on: September 21, 2022, 03:06:34 pm »


City of Gold is a pretty straightforward alt-VP card, like a Feodum that counts Golds instead of Silvers. You get a nice 1:1 ratio vs. Feodum's 3:1, but each one you gain lets your opponents gain a Gold (and making their Cities of Gold worth more).

111
Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #163: Cleaning The Banlist
« on: September 12, 2022, 09:00:05 pm »


I still don't understand how Bureaucrat survived into the 2E Base, but man that card is so bad, even worse than some of the 1E removals like Woodcutter and Feast, which sure were boring, but at least usable on most boards. Bureaucrat usually just means a 9-card Kingdom.

Since Clerk from Prosperity 2E is already basically a "fixed" Bureaucrat, Scrivener is a more exotic variation as a cheap one-shot Attack with a non-terminal Armory on top (letting you gain more than just Silver) and then Clerk's same half-Ghost Ship attack. Opening with Scrivener kind of allows you to open with two $4s (though one will often miss the shuffle), with a mild Attack thrown in.

And hey, if you ever miss Bureaucrat, Scrivener can even do an imitation by topdecking Silver and forcing opponents to topdeck VP cards, except it's way better because afterwards you don't still have a Bureaucrat in your deck.

112
Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #162: You Can Trip at $5
« on: September 02, 2022, 04:05:11 pm »
An empty deck/discard with a Sewing Circle and at least one other cantrip in hand can empty the pile instantly which I'm never a fan of. That said, I still think it's a neat idea. The card it reminds me most of is actually Groom, which can also cantrip gain, can gain and play copies of itself (it loops pretty easily with +Actions, Groom+Horse can gain Groom+Horse, etc.), usually ends games in 3 piles, and it only costs $4. The biggest issue is that it's way easier to multiply these that to multiply Grooms since you don't need the +Actions. I wonder if adding a "(if you haven't gained one this turn)" after the "gain a Sewing Circle" might be enough to mitigate the autopiling issues.

I'm not sure that's correct. Because SC gains after it draws, there has to be one waiting in the discard pile when you play another. Otherwise, you could pay a SC (drawing nothing because your deck/discard is empty) to gain a SC, then play the other cantrip to draw the 2nd SC, but when you played that, it wouldn't draw anything, and the other SC would be stuck in your discard. To autopile, you'd either need 2 SC in your hand or 1 in hand and there other one to be the only card in your discard/deck. (Rats works exactly the same way, but it also trashes cards). There's a fairly big difference between needing 2 of them and needing just 1, but there is still the possibility of autopiling. (You can also simulate having 2 SCs with a throne variant, and you can accomplish the chaining by playing a card that lets you topdeck on-gain [Tracker, WotSeal]).

I hadn't thought of the autopiling issue. I may have to come up with something to deal with that.

Ah yep, that's right, I forgot the gain happens after cantrip, unlike Groom and Hill Fort where it happens before. Yes, you would need two SCs in hand or one each in the hand and in the discard pile to pile out.

113
Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #162: You Can Trip at $5
« on: September 02, 2022, 03:02:45 pm »
An empty deck/discard with a Sewing Circle and at least one other cantrip in hand can empty the pile instantly which I'm never a fan of. That said, I still think it's a neat idea. The card it reminds me most of is actually Groom, which can also cantrip gain, can gain and play copies of itself (it loops pretty easily with +Actions, Groom+Horse can gain Groom+Horse, etc.), usually ends games in 3 piles, and it only costs $4. The biggest issue is that it's way easier to multiply these that to multiply Grooms since you don't need the +Actions. I wonder if adding a "(if you haven't gained one this turn)" after the "gain a Sewing Circle" might be enough to mitigate the autopiling issues.

114


Countess is a simple cantrip Duchy gainer. How many Duchies did you want anyway? Priced at $6 to ensure it's not too easy to rush these and Duchies.

115
Dominion General Discussion / Re: Dominion: Plunder
« on: August 29, 2022, 09:41:08 am »
I'll never say no to more Dominion, and sounds like will be the BIGGEST expansion we've seen so far--40 Kingdom cards! Along with Allies and the 2Es, that's almost 100 brand new Kingdom cards in one year.

I'm guessing Traits will modify piles universally for all players vs. Adventures tokens only modifying the pile for each player. Not sure if they'll be things like Obelisk or Young Witch with Setup instructions where cards from this randomly chosen pile have an additional passive ability for this game, or if they'll turn on and off at different times throughout the game (perhaps through Events or other cards).

We already have Spoils and Horses, so Loot will probably be something different than just another pile of one-shots (and they probably won't be tokens either). My prediction is they'll be unique non-Supply cards like Prizes that can only be gained through other cards. Not sure if they'll be singletons like Prizes or have their own piles like Spirits (perhaps there's different Loot cards that rotate in and out for each game).

With Kingdom cards and randomizers taking up 440-446 cards and Events likely taking up another 14-20, that leaves 30 to 40ish cards for Traits and Loot.

116
Minor update to my submission: I felt like Chateau was a bit weak for $6, so I increased the non-conditional payout from +$1 to +$2. Now it hopefully won't be so sad with no VP cards in hand (see OP here).

117


Here are the Lodges, a multicolored split pile!

Farmhouse can rotate the Lodges and is a now and next turn mini-Shepherd. Chalet is a VP card that rewards you for getting all four Lodges; it also rotates the pile upon gain, making a lot harder to get multiple of these at once. Mountain Hall is a sort of Lab meets Mountain Village, great when you've got things in the discard to choose from, but sad without a discard. Thankfully, it also has a neat reaction that lets you discard it at the start of your turn for a big draw. Finally, Chateau is a Treasure that rewards having lots of Victory cards in hand.

There are some light interactions between them all. For example, Chalet helps Farmhouse and Chateau; Mountain Hall can pick up VP cards for Farmhouse and Chateau.

*Edit: Upped Chateau's non-conditional payout from +$1 to +$2.

118
Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #160: Two Base Cards
« on: August 15, 2022, 04:18:43 pm »
This is good in a Gardens game. This can be good in a Shepherd game. This would potentially be OKish in a Silk Road game if Silk Road were any good.
I don’t see any other situation in which this is any good.

A card doesn't need to be always "good" to be interesting or create interesting decisions. Beggar is not "good" most of the time but it is definitely interesting. Gang of Pickpockets is objectively harmful, but it's still a really fun Ally that makes games more interesting and brings something different to Dominion. This Ally leads to interesting decisions like taking the Copper in the opening to hit $5 (Banquet, Borrow, and Desperation all do a similar thing) or trying to earn Favors for a bunch of free Estates in the late game. Personally, I'm not sold on the "Repeat as desired" clause here as there a few Liaisons that could allow for instapiling the Estates which I don't like, but aside from that, it's definitely an interesting Ally.

If the goal of card design was always to only make cards that were always objectively good in all situations, Dominion would be a very boring game.

119
Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #160: Two Base Cards
« on: August 14, 2022, 03:09:17 pm »


Crook is an Attack card that offers the player a choice of thinning two cards or gaining a Silver to hand, while turning a card in each other player's hand into a Copper. Early on, the attack won't hurt much and may actually help if they trash Estates or Curses, but it will get more painful as the game goes on and players trash their starting cards. Since the Coppers gained to hand can be repeatedly trashed, the attack usually won't stack more than once. Especially brutal if you can hit opponents with a discard attack beforehand.

120
Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #159: Some Nights
« on: August 01, 2022, 08:36:49 pm »


I'm updating my submission (OP updated here) for this week to Wolf. Similar top as Coyote, but now with a simpler and more interactive Reaction that essentially allows you to play this as an Exile Smugglers. When one Wolf howls, the rest can join in! Name/image change for thematic purposes (I don't think Coyotes howl together, right?).

121
Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #159: Some Nights
« on: July 28, 2022, 03:49:09 pm »


For Menagerie, Wolf is a Duplicate and Smugglers variant that can Exile another copy of a card that was already gained this turn. Early on, you can Exile a copy of an Action card you gained to pick up later like with Camel Train. Unlike Camel Train, it can Exile Victory cards from the Supply, so you can gain a Duchy and then Exile another one with your Wolf. The Reaction lets you play it whenever someone else does and gain Exile something they gained on their turn (sort of like Smugglers). When one Wolf starts howling, the rest can join in.

Wolf is a light update to my old submission, Coyote, keeping an almost identical top and making a simpler and more interactive Reaction. Name change for theming of course.

Previous submission:


122
Fantastic contest prompt and great comments, Commodore Chuckles! 
 
One small note on Savings in response to your feedback:

Savings/Benefactor/Ancestral Home by 4est
I feel that Savings sort of negates the purpose of Debt. The whole point of the mechanic is that you have to pay it back later, but Savings says, nope, you kinda don’t!

In most cases, Savings actually only works if you're paying off Debt on subsequent turns. If you have no Debt when you play it, it does nothing, and doesn't help pay for any Debt you incur that turn (e.g. play Savings, buy Overlord, you still get 8 Debt and Savings doesn't help you since you played it before getting Debt). You have to have Debt for next turn and then Savings helps you pay it off (it's a real life lesson in personal finance where uh you shouldn't spend your savings unless you're in Debt.

Anyway, congrats to emtzalex!

123
Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Ways but for Treasures
« on: July 26, 2022, 01:15:46 pm »
Gold-Paved Road is way too automatic, everyone just trashes all their Coppers in the opening and still buys what they want normally. What would be more interesting is if it didn't give the +$1, and you had to decide if you wanted the economy or to trash it. You still can trash all your Coppers, but players will need to think more about when.

124
It's strong, but it's not particularly nasty (you're just getting lots of extra turns for yourself rather than doing damage to your opponent).

I've had Possession/Way of the Horse. Now that one is nasty.

wow that would be nasty. tossing back your opponent's possessions oof

Well that, plus literally all of their other Actions.

125


Looks like xyz123 beat me to the punch for Empires-themed Shelters, but here are mine anyway. I tried to create cards that don't affect the opening most of the time, interact with the two main themes of Empires (VP tokens and Debt), and have some light interactions with each other. We're sticking with the name Shelter since all of these things do in fact Shelter you from stuff kinda.

Savings is a Gold, yeeha, but only if you have Debt. Nice for paying off those expensive Debt cards/events on the turn after you buy them, but not very useful otherwise.

Benefactor is a Reaction that lets you discard it from your hand for +1VP anytime you take VP or Debt tokens. It's tricky to line up, but it might be worth keeping around for the occasional extra VP.

Ancestral Home is my attempt of a sort of Attack Shelter. When you trash it, you get +1 VP, and everyone else takes 1 Debt (which is sort of like taking your -$1 token). To keep from being too oppressive, the Debt attack can't stack on top of other Debt, and Savings and Benefactor may make players actually thankful for the Debt anyway.

Pages: 1 ... 3 4 [5] 6 7 ... 15

Page created in 0.115 seconds with 18 queries.