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Messages - Gazbag

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501
Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Dominion: Ice Age
« on: January 05, 2018, 10:05:56 pm »
About Frost Spirit, maybe the cantrip version would be fine if it was just 3 tokens instead of 4? Just in case you prefer a cantrip variant. That seems relatively easy to scale. I take back my suggestion of having it cost 5$ or being mandatory, and I'm glad you didn't go for those.

Spyglass's Coin symbol should be big, like in other Treasures, and should be repeated at the upper borders.

Yeah that seems like another decent option. I like this +2 cards version because it costs $3, which this set is lacking in.

Yep I messed up the Spyglass a bit, it's a miracle it says treasure on the bottom instead of action really.

502
Help! / Re: Battlefield and Distant Lands but no draw
« on: January 05, 2018, 07:02:30 pm »
Why are you listing the engine and Apothecary as different things? You build an Apothecary engine here I'm pretty sure - Apothecary is a great early game accelerator and then it lets you order your deck to make the Shanties work. I'd open Potion+Shanty town or Butcher on a 5/2. You want to get Butcher on the first $5 and then an Upgrade and then a million Royal Carriages. You probably pick up an Ironworks at some point just to gain cards. The endgame is playing a Butcher a bunch with Carriages, I wouldn't go out of my way for Battlefield.

It's a pretty tricky deck to play to be honest, I'd probably mess it up.

503
Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Dominion: Ice Age
« on: January 04, 2018, 06:40:07 pm »
Well the main idea of Tundra was the Silver exchange and the Copper part was just so it doesn't lock people out of the game, but yeah it does make it too close to Hag probably. I too don't know what's so appealing about Copper gains, I just enjoy it and Cache and Mountebank give it a bad reputation.


Here's a different version, it doesn't work if there's no mid-turn gaining but it gives +1 buy now so hopefully that means it has enough utility to still be bought sometimes without that. It also gets around the junking attack interaction - thanks for pointing that out. I feel like this can cost $3 too? Duration-Woodcutter seems very weak so I think it's fine?

Edit because there's no point making another post:

I like Asper's suggestion of removing the +2 cards, topdeck 2 option of Cabin so here's that updated:



A couple of games with Frost Spirit proved that it is in fact, crazy. The combination of non-mandatory cantrip thinning and then setting aside Provinces later is way too much. There are a few things that can be done to reign it in, preventing it from setting aside non-Estate victory cards is one thing to try - but man that's an ugly phrase to have on the card, I'd rather not resort to that. It might be fine at $5, but I'd rather it stay cheaper. Making it mandatory won't be enough on it's own. Cookielord suggested making it +2 cards at $3 which I liked the sound of because I <3 Masquerade. So here's that version:



Finally here's something I thought of about 15 minutes ago.

Spyglass: (Now with proper formatting, thanks to Asper for pointing that out)


So I love getting an early Sun's gift with Bard, it's like a non-terrible Navigator that also does more useful stuff later, absolutely wonderful. I also would like a treasure in the set. So yeah early on this gives you some ever underrated cycling and later in the game when your deck is in order and full of different components the inspection is less useful this gets cashed in for a Gold which I think is neat, also seems fairly thematic. I guess it could be reworded a bit to make the Gold gain optional but I doubt you'll ever be too upset when that happens. I'm not sure whether that pen in the art is appropriate for dominion but I'm not too bothered really, I also actually remembered to credit the artist so there! Also with this and Taiga there's something that turns into a Gold, something that turns into a Silver... I'm smelling a mini-theme that could sneak a little Copper gaining in here...

504
Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Dominion: Ice Age
« on: January 04, 2018, 12:31:32 pm »
Got a few new ones for you.

Tundra:


Partially inspired by Enchantress and also trying to sneak a way to get Copper gaining into the set, because I love Copper gaining for some reason. Instead of blanking the first played action it blanks the first gained card, it gives the Copper option as to not ruin single gain games, it's kind of ended up as a mini Swamp Hag. I don't think Copper pile size variation with more players is a concern because it's limited to 1 per turn, although thinking about it would multiples make people gain multiple Coppers if they don't want to exchange? Well the on play bonus is pretty weak so hopefully that doesn't matter. Also with multiple buys this could let your opponents pick up cheap Silvers and then there's interactions with on-gain effects too, hopefully that makes for fun experiences. Could this get away with costing $3? I'm a bit short on $3s at the moment.

Taiga:


TAIGA UPPERCUT!!! Everybody likes Peddlers! An Ice token from play was an obvious thing to try, but this stemmed from the idea of a reverse traveller at first. The way I was going to do that was to have a vanilla cantrip that you can optionally set aside for an additional bonus (+$2 +1buy or +1 card +1 action, stuff like that) because making the exchange mandatory was bad if you forgot to do it - Vampire/Bat gets around the mandatory exchange because you do it when you play the card but actions can't do that obviously. Setting the card aside wasn't great, especially with Ice tokens doing that in the same set and you just always exchanged the first 2 or so times and then left it and never got the weaker ones. It had too many issues and didn't seem worth all the extra cards. So now you do it once and then it's a Silver, but if the game lasts long enough you get it back! That might be a bit too much to be honest but we'll have to see, the type of decks that can abuse a Grand Market don't appreciate the Silvers so much and I don't mind cards being strong in sloggier games. Flavour justification is that you cut down the forest for some cash and then it grows back. "Coppice" would be a good name too.

Reindeer:


+2 Cards Take a Coin token is probably too good for $3, but I'm pretty sure the other part makes this much weaker if you want multiples. I'm also pretty sure this won't stay in the set for long but maybe something can be salvaged from it...

Finally here's an updated Mountain Outpost:


It seems like a nice extra bonus, a bit different from boring old +1 Buy.

505
Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Crazy Night/Victory card idea
« on: January 04, 2018, 11:31:50 am »
Make Astrologer an Action card to avoid the "freshly bought cards" problem.
Have Clear Skies let the player discard Victory cards for coins to make it clearer and avoid the unnecessary trouble of playing Estates.

I think the idea of Clear Skies is that it lets you get more victories into play for Astrologer, whether that's worth the confusion is a question though. It also seems kinda broken with Changeling if you can get a Province into play.

506
Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Crazy Night/Victory card idea
« on: January 03, 2018, 10:53:08 am »
At first I read this as 1vp per token on your mat and I still thought it was very weak. At 1vp per 2 tokens? Yeah this can be much more generous. To make this worth 2vp is already a lot of work and then it's just $4 for 2vp, Tunnel gives 2vp and has a decent reaction and only costs $3!

Clear Skies is very difficult to get and it isn't even very good either; Abandoned Mines aren't much better than Estates. Also a couple of rules questions, is Clear Skies shared like Lost in the Woods? I assume not, and how does Clear skies interact with Inheritance? I assume you can choose to play Estate as the Inherited card or as +$1?

The tweaks that could be made are: Let this give more than 1 token per turn, make it worth 1vp per token, make clear skies easier to get and/or make Clear Skies stronger.

507
Game Reports / Re: Did Pooka Really Help? Game 10179054
« on: January 02, 2018, 03:10:39 pm »
You want to avoid playing the Cursed Gold at all costs here and open double Ambassador - using the Cursed Gold and Ball if you have to. If you win the Ambassador war here then you just win because the Bridge Troll/Cursed Village deck is so explosive. You can also then start playing the Cursed Gold to Ambassador away the Curses, but if you're in that situation you've already won. After picking up a couple of Fishing Villages a Pooka is amazing. Pooka is a really good card, it's the Cursed Gold that should be dreaded.

Ball is ridiculous with Bridge Troll, the -$1 token doesn't do anything because your opponent was probably going to give you one anyway and the cost reduction makes it crazy. So that should be what your aiming for until you start playing multiple Bridge Trolls. This game should 3 pile very quickly after the Ambassador nonsense has petered out.

508
Dominion General Discussion / Re: More reliable: Hexes or Boons?
« on: January 02, 2018, 02:43:54 pm »
An observation I've had with the Boons is that their power varies with which card is giving you the Boon quite a bit. E.g. Sea's gift is usually bad to get with Sacred Grove or Bard because terminal +1 Card isn't good (Sacred Grove is especially bad because your opponent gets non-terminal +1 card), but it's one of the better ones to get with Blessed Village or Pixie.

The Hexes seem less card dependant than the Boons, with the exception of Cursed Village anyway.


509
Dominion General Discussion / Re: Margrave vs Tragic Hero
« on: January 01, 2018, 09:47:38 pm »
I'd say about 99% of dominion cards are way worse than Margrave.

510
Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Revised versions of published cards
« on: January 01, 2018, 08:22:02 pm »
It just becomes "If the Boon/Hex is good, this card is good and if they aren't then they aren't." Which to me is much less interesting than the printed cards.

Which of the Boons would be bad on a Smithy? Will-o-wisps do risk being drawn dead, but can be very powerful when they aren't "bonus" cards, and you can use it to help activate the self trashing.

The thing with Tragic Hero is that the +buy is really important because it lets you buy back Heroes after they're trashed. So most of the Boons will be worse than that. Flame and Sky's gift are probably broken on this though. - especially Flame, that's like a super Masquerade that turns into a Gold when you're done trashing... Sea's gift also messes it up too.
 
Quote

Tragic Hero- I don't think Tragic hero needs a buff, +3 cards and a buy isn't bad for 5.

It's a slight buff, but that's not what it's about. It's about being more interesting/varied. The current version seems like Margrave except it attacks you instead of your opponents.

Ah yes, I think this is the problem in your thinking. If you don't want treasures you don't buy a Tragic Hero if it's likely to trash itself! If it isn't likely to trash itself it's basically just a Library with +buy that you can Mining Village style blow up on the last turn. The fact that people are thinking that Tragic Hero is weak is a telling sign that it's actually just interesting, it's fairly situational sure, but it has a very powerful effect in the right deck.

This version of Bard is also clearly too good, Sea's gift turns it into Poacher+, Field's Gift turns it into Conclave+, Forests's gift is non-terminal Woodcutter, Wind's gift is like a double Oasis thing. These are all too good on their own, and this Bard gives you an option of 2 Boons! No single Boon makes Druid stronger than an existing $2 card by itself and this should follow the same principle.

Tormentor is probably my least favourite card in Nocturne anyway, I'd rather it just stay simpler and unobtrusive like it is now or be replaced with something completely different.

511
Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Revised versions of published cards
« on: December 31, 2017, 10:08:17 pm »
Actually, Swamp's Gift doesn't have a "may" for the Wisp gain either. How come no one complains about that?

Silver is bad for engines but cantrips that sometimes become Laboratories are pretty much always good.

Buying Silver is often bad, but free Silver? Woohoo! Like seriously if you're building an engine that's shaky enough that adding 1 Silver is bad then you should just not buy any Fate cards or build a better deck. Like Sea/Windy gift triggering bad shuffles is so much worse and bad so much more often than Mountain Silver. The way people talk you'd think Embassy is the strongest attack in the game or something.

512
Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Dominion: Ice Age
« on: December 30, 2017, 06:11:40 pm »
I don't think you should actively try to "line up" cards to trigger Outcast. But if you trash down and go for many different cards, it should pay nicely to have these over quite a few other 2$s.

Oh yeah, this is how I've been playing it. Can't hurt to test these things though!

513
Dominion General Discussion / Re: The Fool is a pity
« on: December 30, 2017, 04:53:41 pm »
So I've just played some drunk games of Nocturne with my Dad - they were his first games with Nocturne cards. We played the first recommended set of Nocturne a couple of times and when I asked his thoughts on Fool he said "Taking 3 Boons is weird and slows down the game."  So there we go, it's decided.

514
Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Revised versions of published cards
« on: December 30, 2017, 04:33:19 pm »
Many of the Hexes cannot work as Attack cards, so this version of Tormentor doesn’t work. Imagine having Deluded every turn. Enjoy that game!

It does say instead of Deluded or Misery, but I do agree with you. Druid is cool and all, but we don't 3 different Druid variants or a Hex-Druid. It just becomes "If the Boon/Hex is good, this card is good and if they aren't then they aren't." Which to me is much less interesting than the printed cards.

Because of the "vanilla" nature of +Cards?

Werewolf plays much closer to a "Vanilla Smithy" than Tragic Hero.

515
Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Revised versions of published cards
« on: December 30, 2017, 07:32:26 am »
Since Druid had such exceptional variety, and some cards aren't very interesting

Tragic Hero:
Action/Fate - $5
Receive the set-aside Boon, then +3 Cards
If you have 8 or more cards in hand, trash this and gain a Treasure.
---
Setup: Set aside a Boon that doesn't give +$1, face up

Tormentor:
Action/Attack/Doom - $5
+$2
If you have an Imp in play, each other player receives the set-aside Hex. Otherwise, gain an Imp from its pile.
---
Setup: Set aside a Hex other than Delusion or Misery

Bard:
Action/Fate - $4
+1 Action
+$1
Receive one of the set aside Boons
---
Setup: Set aside 2 Boons face up

I can understand Bard and Tormentor, but how is Tragic Hero not very interesting? It's one of the most interesting cards in Nocturne!

516
Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Dominion: Ice Age
« on: December 29, 2017, 11:13:13 am »

I'm glad you like it  :) By really good do you mean it's too strong? Or good as in $2 is a good cost?

Oh sorry, I guess I wasn't clear.  I mean that it looks quite strong.   Kinda like a chariot race effect, but it only costs $2 to buy. I definitely could be way off, but it seems like it would be pretty easy to make it a lab.  I'll try to use it next time I play irl and see what I think.

No worries! The difference between $2 and $3 isn't all that much really and this is very unreliable as draw because you have to line up the 2nd card of your deck and the contents of your hand. Chariot Race is weird one because it would be weaker if it cost $2. I'll admit I haven't really tried to go too far out of my way in any games to trigger Outcasts so maybe it's actually really good, I'll have to try that out. It would be awesome if you tried it yourself!

What do people think about an on-gain Chancellor effect for Mountain Outpost? I opened Cursed Village the other day on a 5/2 and got War and it just Chancellored me because I didn't have any 3/4s yet, which gave me the idea. It also has the interaction with Ice tokens that it makes you shuffle more so the tokens matter more. Or do you think that could lead to too much shuffling? Can't be any worse than Inn for that though, right?

517
Okay this is getting a bit ridiculous... I never said that pure Highway/University was a thing. In fact I said that was the thing that I agreed with you on multiple times. All I said was that saying it is a nombo is going too far. Nothing that you have said has really addressed that. Like you're obviously aiming these posts at me because I'm the one who keeps disagreeing with you, but the content of your posts seems to be aimed at someone who is saying that pure Uni/Highway is a combo or something (which nobody ever said - not even the original poster). Here is the relevant quote.

Right, I am an idiot. University specifies 'action'. I was looking for a non-terminal anything gainer to combo with Highway for gaining several Provinces each turn. Artificer requires either a lot of Highways or a lot of discards, Vampire works, but Bat doesn't gain, Devil's Workshop only lets you do it once each turn, Cobbler is played at start-of-turn, Wish is hard to get.

Obviously he made a mistake, but that has been cleared up now.

Quote
Right, but nobody said that University is good at gaining Highways quickly

The original poster listed "University + Highway" as a NaPUCI. There can be no other possible interpretation. Highway doesn't need the +actions.

Well I just proved that wrong. I interpreted it as "Highway reduces costs so it lets Uni gain actions that cost more than $5." Because that is actually a neat and potentially useful interaction! I'd love to see how you approach boards with Grand Market or Kings Court along with the two cards in question.

Quote
this isn't an interaction between University and Highway specifically, it's just how Uni works. Repeat this simulation with other $5's and you'll see what I mean.

Done. And you're only sometimes right. University + Groundskeeper gains 5 Groundskeepers faster. Double-silver opening takes 11.1 turns to do so on average. So University is only slower when gaining cards that don't give economy. That's part of the redundancy: Highways already help you get more highways.

Ah so how about Treasury, Baker or Market? The ones which I've already compared Highway to in this scenario. I should have been more clear that that's what I was talking about, sorry. Also I think you mean University is only faster when gaining cards that don't give economy.

Quote
in a real game there will be a possibility that University will be the fastest way gain Highways.

A possibility. But a probability? In a real game, there is likely to be +buy or you might skip Highway altogether, and with +buy and cost reduction, you could be getting $5s by the handful. University is still likely to slow you down.

In fact, I'll offer that as a challenge: Show me a simulation where University is, in fact, the fastest way to gain Highways in a kingdom. Can you do it without making University the only source of +Actions?

I'm pretty confident that any trashing, strong cycling or attacks that make it hard to hit $5 will make Uni way better than Silvers. I don't much care for simulations myself, I've always found that they are very misleading - this is an example of such a situation.

Quote
It is also ignoring the other utility that University provides.

Correct. The original post was not "Highway + University + other cool stuff." It listed only Highway + University as a NaPUCI. I am saying that it is not. It is...let's see...an anti-synergy?

Oh yeah because it's not like there's at least 8 other cool things that are guaranteed to be in every game with with Highway+University.  I find your tone very patronising and not particularly pleasant here, which I'm a bit surprised about because this seemed like a friendly enough discussion so far...

Quote
Like I could post a simulation showing that Mandarin/Capital beats Travelling Fair/Counting House 90% (made up number) of the time but that doesn't make Travelling Fair/Counting House a "potentially harmful" interaction.

I said nothing about which simulation wins. I never simulated getting points. I only simulated getting Highways in order to demonstrate that University + Highway isn't a thing. Sure, you might gain a Highway with a University that you have in your deck for other reasons, on your way to a big engine. That doesn't make it a thing.

I just proxied the Highways for Provinces - it's exactly the same principle (fastest to get Highways in your case, fastest to get Provinces in mine) and ultimately they're both pretty meaningless. You contrived an unrealistic situation to try and prove something that nobody even disagreed with in the first place, so I contrived an unrealistic situation to do the same thing, to make a point.

I agree with you about this not being a particularly "neat" interaction.

This isn't reason enough to go for University on it's own, but it's certainly not a nombo and might be enough to tip you in the direction of University if it's a close call.

I never said it was a thing! Even the guy who said it was a thing has now said that he made a mistake! I suggest you actually read the thread before you post. (My turn to be patronising  :P)

Anyway I'd be happy to play some games with you featuring both University and Highway so we can how differently we approach those boards and potentially both learn something, rather than continuing to argue in circles.

518
Ok, maybe "nombo" is a bit strong. However, I just ran a simulation, and it is, in fact, "potentially harmful."

Opening Potion/Silver, buying one University, then gaining and buying Highways as fast as you can, vs. opening Silver/Silver and buying Highways as fast as you can has clear results:

University method: 10.1 average turns to 5 Highways
Silver method: 9.5 average turns to 5 Highways

(Buying more Universities only gets it down to 10.0)

Mathematically, then, University, on its own, makes getting Highways slower, not faster.

Maybe that doesn't rise to the level of nombo, but it gets pretty close to "potentially harmful interaction."

I'm sure this surprises very few experienced players, but given that the original poster was probably a relative beginner to have posted the suggestion in the first place, learning that potion-cost cards really do slow down your deckbuilding that much might be a useful bit of knowledge to apply moving forward. If you're going to buy a poison potion, have a solid plan to make up for doing so.

Right, but nobody said that University is good at gaining Highways quickly and again, this isn't an interaction between University and Highway specifically, it's just how Uni works. Repeat this simulation with other $5's and you'll see what I mean.

This is ignoring the fact that the 2 strategies featured in your simulation are close to never going to be optimal ever in a real game as they ignore the 8 other cards in the kingdom, so in a real game there will be a possibility that University will be the fastest way gain Highways. It is also ignoring the other utility that University provides.

Like I could post a simulation showing that Mandarin/Capital beats Travelling Fair/Counting House 90% (made up number) of the time but that doesn't make Travelling Fair/Counting House a "potentially harmful" interaction.

519
Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Dominion: Ice Age
« on: December 28, 2017, 08:03:48 am »
Gee, I really need to step up my game ;D
These new ones all look pretty great!

Thanks a lot! That's high praise indeed coming from you!

I do think that Cabin has too may options, though. Removing just the +2 Card one would probably make it much better. I mean, I like how this option interacts with the chancellor option, but it's the most complex one and also has the most words. I don't find anything negative to say about the other three, they all look cute.

This is probably the fix, the chancellor option only really makes the cards one +2 Cards Discard too cards so it's not like it's a great loss that that interaction goes. The text on the card does look much nicer without that option. I also doubt it makes it much weaker, Secret Chamber reaction was never really that useful.

My first reaction to Outcast was to assume it would need a little extra, but by now I think it's certainly strong enough.

Yep seems pretty Patritiany to me so far, Maybe a bit weaker on average.

Mountain Outpost seems fine, and the idea of "good now, bad later" is better executed than I have seen anywhere before. I appreciate how clean the design is. However, if you are worried about strength already, I'm sure adding a buy would work wonders.

I did think about that but then I remembered Wharf and Margrave and thought, maybe terminal draw with +buy is too good? Even Tragic Hero is much better than most people seem to be giving it credit for. I also want this to be a functioning set, so I have to be careful of how many +buy cards there are.

I'm not exactly sure what to say about Cauldron, because I feel you'd have to play with it to see. At worst, it's a Trader, at best it gains 5$s thanks to cost reduction. If you wanted to avoid that, you could say "costing less than this", but I guess it's more fun this way. One last thing: The name "Cauldron" kinda sounds like something that should cost a Potion.

Yes, Cauldron is quite board dependant for sure. Gaining 2 Silvers? Usually not the best. Gaining 2 Ironmongers? Wow! It can get crazy with cost reduction, Highway in particular, but I think that's cost reduction being broken rather than Cauldron so I don't mind it myself. Yeah Cauldron probably could fit right into Alchemy, but Loan has nothing to do with debt so there!

I agree with Asper that one of the Cabin choices should probably disappear. 

I think I agree too.

I also think that mountain outpost could definitely use a buff. I like that you can't stack it like crazy without ruining your next turn, but being a duration you won't get it in your hand as often.  I'd much rather buy hunting grounds at $6 than this at $5.  Then again, it is good to have some stronger and some weaker cards as long as the deviation isn't too much.

It's not the best card ever in it's current form, If you play 1 every turn then it's "Discard a card. +4 Cards"  which is probably an okay $5 so yeah this could do with a small buff. +1 buy is the easiest and probably the simplest, but I'll try to thin of something more unique that doesn't ruin the simplicity of the card.

I think Cauldron is super cool and it looks like fun.  I think Outcast looks really good for a $2 actually

I'm glad you like it  :) By really good do you mean it's too strong? Or good as in $2 is a good cost?

520
Let's Discuss ... / Re: Let's Discuss Nocturne Cards: Cursed Village
« on: December 27, 2017, 10:49:47 pm »
I think this is one of the more overrated Nocturne cards.

Cursed Village is highly underrated.

lol

521
Let's Discuss ... / Re: Let's Discuss Nocturne Cards: Cursed Village
« on: December 27, 2017, 10:31:38 pm »
I think this is one of the more overrated Nocturne cards. It's just really bad as the only village in a traditional "village+smithy" style engine - quickly becoming a $5 Necropolis that hexes you. A lot of durations mess it up, it's expensive, deluded occasionally makes you lose the game. Even a lot of the time when it has support I find it more effective to just use a cheaper village and traditional draw for the engine and laugh at my opponent floundering around with this thing. It does have it's moments for sure and obviously providing both a village effect and draw potential means it's often still a must buy card, but it's nowhere near as good as Lost City. In my somewhat limited experience at least.

Art is great though, this is defo the village where Tragic Hero lives, what with the crow infestation.

Also does anybody else find it strange that Cursed Village and Leprechaun are worded "recieve a Hex" where as all the attacks say "receives the next Hex"?

522
Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Dragon Traveller Line
« on: December 27, 2017, 10:16:00 pm »
Burn tokens are kinda like Gazbag's ice tokens.  They sit on a card that has been removed from your deck until you pay a coin per token to remove them in your buy phase.  Once a card has no more burn tokens it goes to your discard.

You're going to have to pay me in +1's if you want to use this I'm afraid. :P

I actually welcome a weaker traveller line, Peasant and Page are absolutely ridiculous cards! Like nobody complains when fan-made durations aren't as strong as Wharf. I think the fact that these have some conditions upon being exchanged makes me want them to be weaker too, otherwise games are just going to be decided on who gets the exchange quickest. We don't need another Urchin, but I'd be fine with another Treasure Map. Anyway, onto the cards themselves.

Dragon Egg: First I have to say, I'm not the biggest fan of travellers in general so sorry if I come across too harsh, I'll try not too. The swing here is real, I'm not sure whether this should give you +$2 and get to exchange if you have a Silver. If you exchange this earlier than your opponent then the faster travellers will give you a huge advantage, the extra $2 will just compound this.

Hatchling: It's a little strange that this works on any non-Copper treasure but Egg only works on Silvers, so that might be a good change for the Egg to tie the cards together more. I like that this gives you a way to clean up the excess Silvers you might pick up and that also is ore of a drawback becasue Silvers are a nice fodder for the Wild Dragon attack. Seems like a decent powerlevel to me, it's probably in between Moneylender and Spice Merchant. I do worry about the Snowballyness of this though, if it's the only thinner available then you're probably forced into an Egg/Silver opening and then once you get your first Hatchling it becomes easier to get more as you're trashing Coppers and then when you're done you cash them in for dragons.

Wild Dragon: The $4+ travellers are stronger than your average card for sure. Donald X. is on record to have said that Fugitive was too good as a regular $4, Warrior is hated enough to be too good for $4, Hero is pretty much a better Explorer and Disciple would be better than Kings Court as a regular supply pile (It's already close but if Discipling Disciples gained more Disciples it'd be insane!!!). Anyway Sacred Grove shows us that +$3 +1 buy with a symmetrical effect is a $5. So this would be an okay regular $5 I suppose? I like your proposed change, it makes it more enticing to keep some Wild Dragons if they don't attack you as well - although I guess if you're drawing your deck then you can get around that anyway.

Trained Dragon: Gaining treasure is nice because hoarding treasure is a thing dragons are famous for. I don't like that this is basically just a powered up Wild Dragon - seems a bit boring? Maybe you should focus on the Hoarding aspect more as Wild Dragon already shows the destructiveness of dragons? Like a permanent duration hoard effect or something? Although you're only using burn tokens on the one card then.

Well there are some things about these that I'm probably never going to like - just the shuffle dependence of travellers in general and how adding stipulations to exchanging makes that worse. I do like a lot of the ideas here though, the line up until Trained Dragon seems pretty well thought through. Trained Dragon is the only real disappointment for me just from a how cool the cards are from reading them point of view, if that makes any sense.

523
they do mitigate each other's downsides!

In some cases, you want to go for Highway without University. When that happens, it's a nombo the same way Scout + Nobles is a nombo; it would be better to buy Nobles without Scout.

Using this logic every single card in dominion is a nombo with every other card: there are going to be games where it would be better to buy one card and not another. E.g. Ironmonger isn't a nombo with Fortune Teller because it would be better to not get a Fortune Teller.

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Well, what's unique about University's relationship to Highway is that cost reduction is only useful for greening if you have plus buys or gainers.

Without + buy or gainers Highway is still effectively giving +$1 - it's basically a Peddler, which certainly will help you hit $8 more easily. This isn't reason enough to go for University on it's own, but it's certainly not a nombo and might be enough to tip you in the direction of University if it's a close call. I doubt you would say that Treasury for example is a nombo with University and it's the same with Highway. Remember that I never said that Highway was an amazing combo with University (apart from with certain $6+ actions).

If there's no +buy, Highway could still be worth it even with a gainer as boring as Workshop if you can play four Highways and then gain a Province/buy a Province. The fact that University ONLY gains actions does, specifically, nombo with Highway for that very reason.

Maybe we have a different definition of nombo? Highway isn't making Uni any worse for this reason or vice versa. Probably shouldn't go down that rabbit hole though.

On the flip side, Highway just by itself is often skippable if there's no +buys or gainers, because then you're paying $5 for a good Poacher.

This is true. But University is a gainer and a good Poacher is a nice card to gain, you just don't particularly to pay $5 for it.

In summary, University has some potential downsides that you have to factor in, and Highway has some potential downsides that you have to factor in, and they do absolutely nothing to mitigate each other's downsides!

This is the other thing that I disagree with, they do mitigate each other's downsides! Just not quite as much as you might think at first glace. In the context of a game with no +buy or other gainers Highway is basically a Peddler, not a bad card in that it's never really going to make your deck worse (yes yes dead terminal draw) but bad in that spending a $5 buy on it isn't particularly efficient. University mitigates this downside because it can gain those Highways at a much lower cost. Highway mitigates Universities downside that eventually you stop adding terminal actions to your deck and it essentially becomes a Necropolis by being a cantrip card you can pick up that will allow Universities to continue to improve your deck. Okay so this isn't a very strong interaction, but it is an interaction, and far from potentially harmful. It's more just a "not as useful as you'd like" interaction or something...

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Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Dominion: Ice Age
« on: December 27, 2017, 12:39:18 pm »
4 New cards of varying complexity.

Cabin:

This comes from wanting a Governor type thing that isn't broken like Governor. I figured making it terminal was the first thing to do and now it's this Count-like thing that is a mess of words. The idea is that you get 2 of the options and your opponent gets 1 of the 2 options that you chose. Taking a Coin token is obviously the strongest option here and is never bad, but that means it'll always be good for your opponent where as the other options are more situational, so you might be able to leverage them to get more out of them than your opponent, making taking the token as one of the options not always the best thing to do (hopefully). I think this is on the weaker side, as terminal money usually is. Does Sacred Grove make this redundant? No particular reason why this is a cabin other than that I had art for a cabin.

Outcast:

I feel like every set should have at least 1 $2 cantrip these days. This one is a little Menagerie type thing, but seem much weaker than Menagerie so it's $2. Seems similar to Patritian so far in terms of powerlevel. It's an Outcast because it finds things that are on their own, also because the name seemed to fit the art that I had well.

Cauldron:

This has about as much to with the Ice theme as Faithful Hound has to with Nocturne. I actually really like this, even though nobody would have batted an eyelid if it were in the Base 2nd edition. It's an old one from before Empires that started out as very similar to Engineer and then when Empires came out I shelved it for being similar to Engineer until recently I was thinking about an Altar that gained $4's and how it would be too bad at $5 but too good at $4 and then remembered Cauldron and here it is now as an Alter double-Workshop hybrid thing. It's good on similar board to when Workshop is good, but costing $5 means it plays quite differently. Flavour justification: you're putting something in the Cauldron (trashing it) and getting some new stuff out of it.

Mountain Outpost:

We have many durations that are good now and good later (Fishing Village, Merchant Ship etc) and many that are bad now and good later (Tactician, Haunted Woods etc) but none that are good now and bad later. Here's one that is good now and bad later to fill that gap. It's pretty simple, which is good, although maybe +4 cards might not be quite generous enough given that this stacks quite badly and Hunting Grounds gives that with an extra on-trash thing for $6. It reduces your next turn's handsize, like Outpost and I managed to find art that is similar to Outpost's art so I'm happy with that.

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