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51

Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #211: Not Your Ordinary Village

« on: February 14, 2024, 03:49:19 pm »

My entry: Ballroom

A simple Throne Room variant. Nevertheless, I think this is sufficiently different from Crown, Throne Room, etc to be interesting for this contest. I tried to make something that would play well even when there are no other Night cards in the Kingdom. I think the extra gain plus the fact that you can play this at Night if you want to makes up for the high cost and makes it still play well even with no other Night cards, while still being different enough from Throne Room.



Ballroom
$6 Night - Action
You may play a Night or Action card from your hand twice.
---
When you gain this, gain a cheaper Night or Action card.

There are too few Nights to make the NightThrone thingy matter much in total random, although it is of course situationally (most Action do nothing useful at Night) nice to be able to play a non-terminal Throne with an Action if both have been drawn dead. So basically this is just Border Village but with TR+ instead of Village and thus likely a bit better than Border Village.

52

Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #211: Not Your Ordinary Village

« on: February 14, 2024, 02:33:27 pm »

A first submission, but probably not my final entry. Thoughts?

Helper
$6 Action
+1 Action
Reveal cards from your deck until you reveal 2 Action cards other than Golems or Helpers. Set one of the Actions aside and discard the other cards. Play the set aside card.

Village with a small buff is a $4.

Carnival • $5 • Action
+1 Card
For the rest of this turn, when you play an Action card, you may play another action card costing up to $2 less than it.

This alternative village would help play terminals so long as they don't cost too much.

This needs to be a cantrip to work without the support of another splitter. Then it is a $3 or $4 (it is not clear at all whether this is on average better than Village).

53

Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #211: Not Your Ordinary Village

« on: February 13, 2024, 05:00:54 am »

Just throwing in an idea for now, mockup, flavor, and probably rebalancing will come in the morning when I'm at my pc and more awake:

Name
Action $5
Look at the top 3 cards of your deck, plus an additional card for each empty supply pile. You may set aside any number of them, and put the rest back in any order. You may play any number of Actions and/or Treasures set aside this way, then discard the rest.

This is obviously too good. Green density is usually low so you draw 3 most of the time. Once you have an Action density of 1/3 it is a DoubleLab and thus broken.

54

Non-Mafia Game Threads / Re: The Necro Wars

« on: February 09, 2024, 01:43:53 pm »

Yeah, I mean, the set of people that I would be comfortable making a dictator is pretty small for that reason, but it's not empty, and it does include myself

Have you never taken a look at how people change when they get significantly more power? No mass murdering dictator started the whole thing believing that he would slaughter millions. They all set out with good intentions which, paired with egomania and ignorance of human nature, let to utter horrors.

Everybody is capable to do horrible things under the right circumstances and pretending that one is not susceptible to evil is a necessary condition for ending up on the road to hell.

Externalizing evil, pretending that it is only the others who can become evil, is on a political level the very basis of fascism. Fascist ideology needs some other upon whom it can project all social antagonism, (which is why in fascist ideology Jews were capitalists and Bolsheviks at the same time) to establish the dream of an organic, harmonic society that can be established once the other is excluded/banned/killed.

55

Non-Mafia Game Threads / Re: The Necro Wars

« on: February 07, 2024, 03:12:01 pm »

The fundamentals of political ideology are really pretty simple.

People on the right care more about natural order and hierarchies, so whoever has a position of power due to tradition (conservative), supposed superior skills (liberal), gender or race (facist) deserves to have more power. Inequality is naturalized.

People on the left are for a more egalitarian, democratic society. As Faust has pointed out, this include non-government spheres like workplace democracy. I am no Marxist but I respect Richard Wolff, a Marxist economist, for always pointing out how crazy it is that we accept authoritarian workplaces. We don’t even consider the alternative to our Western system of representatives who are not bound by the will of the represented, namely council delegates who are bound.
I life in a country where proclaiming that Öcalan (the guy who founded a political ideology that led to the currently arguably most democratic political entity in the world, Rojava) is a decent guy is considered to be an act of terrorism.

In other words, anarcho-capitalism wears the veil of formal democracy, considers this to be end of history, ignores the actual increase of inequality of wealth and power and clouds the actual paths towards a more democratic life.

56

Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #210: Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot

« on: February 03, 2024, 05:45:33 am »

Looks significantly weaker than the original. The marginal benefit of extra Buys decreases and this can easily draw nothing.

57

Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #210: Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot

« on: February 02, 2024, 04:39:11 pm »

My Submission:

Mayday Festival • $3 • Action +1 Action +$1 Choose a different thing per Mayday Festival you have in play (counting this): +1 Action; +1 Buy; +$1.

FAQ:
If you have 3 or more Mayday Festivals in play, you just get all 3 bonuses.

As this is strictly better than an ActionSilver, it is a $4.

Why? A Disappearing Silver is not strictly better than Silver; if you draw this with a Smithy (not an unreasonable possibility for a source of +Actions) it's worse than Silver.  The other two options on the first play (if played as solo cards) are strictly worse than $2 cards (Squire and Candlestick Maker).

I'm not trying to be a jerk/argumentative. I know conventional wisdom is that anything strictly better than Disappearing Sliver has to cost more than $3, but I'm not completely sure that's correct (and I'd appreciate hearing why people think it is).

There has been a lengthy discussion about Candlestick Maker and Ducat. Coin yielding non-terminal Actions are on average better than their Treasure equivalent as Thrones, Herald, Golem, Scrying Pool and all other cards that want you to have Actions are on average far more relevant than drawing an Action dead.

The argument about the other options being weak is misleading. Flexibility has to be priced in and if the baseline is already stronger than a $3 you need a price of $4.

58

Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #210: Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot

« on: February 02, 2024, 11:48:46 am »

My Submission:

Mayday Festival • $3 • Action +1 Action +$1 Choose a different thing per Mayday Festival you have in play (counting this): +1 Action; +1 Buy; +$1.

FAQ:
If you have 3 or more Mayday Festivals in play, you just get all 3 bonuses.

As this is strictly better than an ActionSilver, it is a $4.

59

Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #210: Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot

« on: February 02, 2024, 01:52:20 am »

I don’t think that the lower card will see the light of day often. Also, it seems dubious to use a split pile for two cards that do the same job.

60

Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #210: Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot

« on: February 01, 2024, 06:07:43 pm »

Drawbridge is weaker than Bridge and thus perfectly fine.

61

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Marchland

« on: February 01, 2024, 02:48:32 pm »

Nothing fancy but a decent Silk Road fix with a nice on-gain effect that supports the very green-heavy strategy.

62

Dominion General Discussion / Re: How is Vassal (with suitable support) not overpowered/undercosted?

« on: January 30, 2024, 02:24:49 am »

Vassal is far less reliable than Conspirator. You also seriously misevaluate terminal Silver, no way you would ever pay $3 for such junk.

I would say that Vassal is differently unreliable than the Conspirator.  Conspirator is basically all-or-nothing; once you've got it going, it goes indefinitely, but if you don't you've got a dead turn.  Vassal is easier to get up to a 5 or 10% chance of hitting than Conspirator is, harder to get up to an 80-90% chance, easier to get up to 100% but that won't last unless you have a way to turn $ into VP without adding greens to your deck, and can take the occasional miss more easily.

No, no way I would pay $3 for a terminal silver, that's true.  (Well, unless I had a lot of VP-on-buy effects).  I could get a regular silver for that value, of course I wouldn't pay $3 for a terminal silver, and I never said I would.

But if I had it in my deck for some reason and hit it with a sentry?  It would be a very non-obvious call whether to trash it or not.  And if I only had $2 and it was that or nothing...again, a non-obvious call.
And that means that it may very well be viable as the low end of a $3 card.

I constantly overvalue Vassal, I want it to always work.But terminal space is limited and Vassal gambles with that valuable resource.
So I totally disagree, Vassal is virtually always inferior to Conspirator.

63

Dominion General Discussion / Re: How is Vassal (with suitable support) not overpowered/undercosted?

« on: January 29, 2024, 06:00:23 pm »

Vassal is far less reliable than Conspirator. You also seriously misevaluate terminal Silver, no way you would ever pay $3 for such junk.

64

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Fan Card Mechanics Week 83: Contractors

« on: January 27, 2024, 12:39:34 pm »

That has little impact upon play. Play will be fairly symmetric and you will go for whatever Action has the Trait. All skill that is required is timing the gaining moment for the next copy well.

65

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Fan Card Mechanics Week 83: Contractors

« on: January 27, 2024, 08:03:02 am »

This is too automatic. Unless you are in the endgame, every Disposable becomes a Distant Lands plus whatever the card does normally. You would buy Bureaucrat or Pearl Diver or whatever superweak card if it got the Trait.

66

Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #209: Next Time, Last Time

« on: January 25, 2024, 02:36:01 pm »

Looks pretty weak. When you gain an Action with a Workshop, the card has the very same vanillas as Worker’s Village. But unlike that splitter, once you stop building and start greening, Collector is dead.

67

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Fan Card Mechanics Week 83: Contractors

« on: January 24, 2024, 01:55:51 pm »

I think that this is clearly too strong. The Action does not even stay out and the Contractor provides the benefit of a $5-$6 Duration Action.

68

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Fan Card Mechanics Week 83: Contractors

« on: January 22, 2024, 03:25:34 pm »

I suggest to use a wording like "play a Contractor". That is more in line with the official rules and it does not lead to funky interactions with on-gain triggers.
Did I understand the rules correctly, namely that Master Mason and Orthon only trigger twice?

69

Dominion General Discussion / Re: First thing(s) you look for in a new kingdom

« on: January 22, 2024, 03:15:53 pm »

You gotta look at everything, otherwise you misevaluate the Kingdom. Rough categories help like, is there trashing/junking/gaining/drawing/sifting. But it is not multiplayer solitaire so next you think about potential strategies and how that influences the dominant strategy. If there is e.g. Marauder but it is not clear that Marauder is all that good, you can put less emphasis on trashing than you would have to if it were more likely that a junker gets bought.

Also, flexibility is a concept that is often ignored early on. Like, is your opening fairly committal or is it flexible enough to react well and quickly to your opponents choices.

70

Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #209: Next Time, Last Time

« on: January 22, 2024, 03:06:37 pm »

Bricks ➁ Treasure - Duration ① +1 Buy The next time anyone gains a Victory card, trash this for +1 VP.

Bricklayer ➑ Action +3 Cards Choose one: Play a Treasure from the trash; or +① per Bricks you have in play.

Split pile, for Empires.
Yeah, those Bricks are great for business. They're not really that great on their own though. This is why Split piles are a pain to design...

Bricks is not priced correctly — it’s a disappearing 1vp, like mill, which costs 3. Except it gives an additional $ and +1 buy which arguably makes it way stronger than mill.

Mill did get replaced, but this is too strong for $2. Compare it to estate, as well.

I’d say make bricks stronger, price it for $4 and allow it to gain Bricks so you can run the pile more quickly.
Maybe something like “+$2, you may gain a Bricks. The next time …”

I like this general concept and idea .

I guess you meant Great Hall, not Mill and I fail to see how you could compare a card that draws with a card that does not draw.
Jeweled Egg established that Pouch with a bonus is fine for $2 and it is anything but clear whether Bricks is really better than Pouch. Extra Buys are something that you want consistently so a one-shot is kinda meh.

I'd worry much more about Bricklayer never seeing the light of day than Bricks being too strong.

71

Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #209: Next Time, Last Time

« on: January 21, 2024, 05:06:35 pm »

Moneylender is the best comparison imo. Jeweler without +card is exactly 1$ weaker than Moneylender  in the early game but scales well instead of becoming completely useless, thus making it similarly strong, neatly demonstrating that it shouldn't have the +card; I rest my case.

$4 for a trasher that is weaker (even with the extra card I’d rather pick something that can also trash Estates) than literally every other $4 trasher? Nah.

The notion that weak thrashing is somehow compensated for for by the terminal Treasure Throning in the endgame (ain’t gonna happen earlier) is ridiculous. Even if you consistently hit a Gold, a terminal Gold is nothing to write home about. Nobody wants Fortune Hunter, you don’t got the terminal space for such nonsense.

The card as it stands is fine for a Copper trasher. Spice Merchant ain’t broken and this terminal is significantly below the power level of Spice Merchant.

And in the meantime, however got a decent trasher easily outpaced you.

72

Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #209: Next Time, Last Time

« on: January 21, 2024, 02:57:29 am »

^ This card is auto-buy at 4$ every time, I believe. Every card that trashes without hand-size reduction ...  and this card has no risk and scales amazingly.

I'd remove the +1 card outright. I think it's completely playable without it.

There is the problem that more than one of them don't scale, but that doesn't change that you'll ~always want one.

Nope. Without the draw it is weaker than Moneylender and totally unplayable for trashing purposes. As Treasure Throne it would also be strictly inferior to Tiara without the draw.

73

Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #209: Next Time, Last Time

« on: January 20, 2024, 03:25:14 am »

I like this but it is obviously fairly Kingdom-sensitive. The baseline (strongest effect, ignoring the flexibility for the sake of simplicity) is always a kind of hyperdelayed DoubleLab whereas with something like Way of the Pig you get a Lab in the same turn and a Lab effect later when you draw the Horse.

74

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Fan Card Mechanics Week 82: Pupil

« on: January 19, 2024, 03:10:16 pm »

OK, so the implicit assumption is that the post-Action-play window in which you can play a Pupil is closed after you do something else in-between Action card play, namely trigger an Activation card.

I don’t think that is very intuitive, I assumed wrongly that the second window does not close the first one just like any other inter-Action-play-intermission like e.g. using a Villager would not have done so.

75

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Fan Card Mechanics Week 82: Pupil

« on: January 17, 2024, 06:32:11 pm »

OK dude, then you gotta explain the timing. The way I understand it is, the baseline is: you play the card, spend an Action to trigger the below the line stuff, get the Pupil and draw a card. Same net effect as Village.