CONTEST 162 RESULTS
24 entries, that’s uh, that’s quite a lot! I never had to judge so many cards at once. As such, it saddens me to say that, don’t expect big in-dept analyses of your cards, since I have many to go through. My reviews will unfortunately have to fall into the “quantity > quality” trope, since we have to move on with this contest. This doesn’t mean I will take the cards for granted though; I still have some integrity!
I will say in advance that I have a slight preference toward cantrips in their purest form. Some tried to stretch the definition a little and that’s super fine. Just, I like seeing the plain ol’ “+1 Card; +1 Action", ya know.
Anyway, on with it!
Barn Hand (Action)
+1 Villager
Discard a card and gain a Horse to your hand.
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The next time you gain a card this turn, you may trash this from play to gain a card besides Barn Hand costing exactly 
more to your hand.
Well, this really does stretch the definition of what a cantrip can be. I’ll be honest, I would’ve preferred sticking closer to the tried and true “+1 Card; +1 Action”. In any case, the top part seems decent, if a little weird. The bottom clause seems needlessly complicated, as a weird “Remodel me later” kind of idea. As such, it’s tough for me to assess the strength of this card. I’m sure it’s fine, if a little too convoluted.
Bookkeeper (Action)
+1 Card
+1 Action
You may play a Treasure from your hand twice.
Hey, this seems like the next logical step after Specialist! Okay so it’s better to throne Action cards, sure, but this right here is, as the contest wants it to be, a cantrip. Thus, it doesn’t hurt you to have a self-replacing card that doubles some payload you have. I think it’s a very elegant idea that could very much exist in Dominion. Maybe one could argue that it’s a little unoriginal, but nay I say. I think it would play quite differently than Crown or Specialist. Good card!
Bootlegger (Action)
+1 Card
+1 Action
Play any number of Treasures from your hand, then you may buy a card. When you gain the bought card, put it into your hand.
The ever-changing Bootlegger! Got disgruntled at the debt, huh
? We’ve tested some different versions of this card before. This has lost its +Buy too, so I understand the nerf. I think that this will be quite a strong card now, seeing as it does exactly what it sought out to do since its inception: Giving you a card that you desperately need right there and then. I see this as a good way to feed your deck some draw when you need it; or a Village should you dud and be overterminalled. It’s very versatile, it invokes some reputable gain and plain and thus, it’s probably pretty swell to have a couple of Bootleggers in your deck!
Buyer (Action)
+1 Card
+1 Action
This turn, when you pay for a card, +1 Buy.
I see the idea behind this card and uh, unfortunately, I don’t think I’m a big fan. Solving the +Buy issue in one easy trick is killing a lot of what makes Dominion appealing: To search for components to build a competent deck. A solution-in-one just nukes that idea and makes everything too easy, too mind-numbing. Even stuff like Travelling Fair and Galleria that can multiply your Buys have some kind of restriction you must work around.
Capitular (Action)
+1 Card
+1 Action
You may discard a card from your hand to gain a copy of it. If you gained a Province or Colony this way, trash this.
You don’t need to say “from your hand”. There you go, I did the thing instead of Gubump, lol
. Anyway, yeah, this is a nice hybrid between Swap and Wheelright, I kind of dig it! I do however advocate for this card to drop the Province/Colony clause altogether and stick to the “non-Victory” formula. Otherwise, you could build toward a feelsbad megaturn and we already have Horn of Plenty to fill that annoying gap. As in, you drew deck, have 4 or more Capitular in hand and one Province.
Cavalcade (Action)
+1 Card
+1 Action
You may trash a card from your hand.
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When you trash this, gain a Gold to your hand and +1 Buy.
Hey, quite the sexy card, there! It’s a cantrip trash akin to Junk Dealer, but it replaces the +
with a nice on-trash effect. It trashing itself seems like a good baseline, but it fares better with stronger trash-for-benefit cards, such as Salvager or Broker. I like the on-trash effect, it’d definitely try to play around it (and have fun doing so).
Countess (Action)
+1 Card
+1 Action
Gain a Duchy.
I can hardly imagine a card being simpler than this one. Not that this is a bad thing! You see Countess in the Supply, and you know exactly what roles it plays. I can see fattening my deck with some Duchies as a thing I’d do. Heck, I already do that with Artisan sometimes, and Countess would do it better. I think this card would tend to empty the Duchies a little too quickly on average though, and so I wonder if associating some kind of condition or minigame to the Duchy gaining could be a healthy addition. Sure, the elegance would tank a little, but then the card could potentially be more fun to use. Just tossing ideas here, I think the simple unconditional Duchy gaining is already a pretty solid baseline.
Fairy Home (Action – Fate)
+1 Card
+1 Action
Choose one: Rotate any Kingdom pile; or put the top card of a Kingdom pile on top of a different Kingdom pile; or receive a Boon.
I think it’s usually a good thing to avoid calling out for the Kingdom specifically. I can see some players being confused by the definition and try to put a Silver or a Curse onto the Province Supply pile, for instance. I know you can’t do that, but Donald X stated before that a good portion of players don’t. Perhaps it would be clearer if you could only rotate or move cards from Action Supply piles instead, I don’t know. Anyway, I think there’s a cool idea there with the whole moving cards thingy. But it being a cantrip means that it’ll happen often in a game where one or more players invest heavily in Fairy Homes. So I wonder if piles won’t get mixed too much, making players lose track of what is where over the course of the game. The Boon option seems a little tacked on, and Donald X. usually warns against cantrip Boon givers (Pixie self-trash to account for that), but it’s not a big offender either. Overall, pretty swell card.
Farrier (Action)
+1 Card
You may play an Action or a Treasure from your hand. Reveal your hand. If you have no copies of it in your hand, you may play it again.
What an excellent idea for a Throne variant! Who says you can’t put a +1 Card on a Throne Room, ha! I think this solves that issue wonderfully, with the whole “revealing your hand”. You’ll have to be cautious about what card you play when. The minigame of hoarding unique cards to make Farrier work is probably not as intense as that of Menagerie, but man. If Cornucopia had a Throne Room, Farrier would be fair game. Even the name and flavour fits within Cornucopia. Anyway, I’d have a good time trying to build a deck around Farrier. You can even Farrier a Farrier if you only have one copy in hand! Very cool card, very cool idea, bravo!
Farrier (Action – Reaction)
+1 Card
+1 Action
Discard a card. If you did, gain a card costing less than this.
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When you discard this other than Clean-up, you may reveal this to discard any number of Victory cards from your hand. Gain a Horse for each card discarded this way.
So, I quite like the top. It’s default use is a cantrip
gainer, except, not really, since you have to decrease your handsize by 1 to gain a card. Cantrip gainers are usually deemed strong, but with a cost of
alongside the aforementioned handsize reduction, I think this bounces back onto the weaker side of things. Luckily, there’s a Reaction attached to Farrier to rebalance the whole. Unfortunately, I find the Reaction a little too complicated. It’s got a lot of words, making this card really wordy as a whole. The condition is a strange one as well. I understand that this card self-synergises, but the Reaction does not really speak to me, sorry.
Hobo (Action – Night)
+1 Card
+1 Action
You may end your Action phase for +
. If it’s your Night phase this turn, you may return to your Action phase.
I think the second part could’ve simply said: “If it’s your Night phase, return to your Action phase”. Very rarely in Dominion will you be forced to play a Night card, so the “you may” can be safely dropped. It doesn’t hurt to go back to the Action phase even if the card you drew is like, a Province or something
. This card is interesting, you’ll want a lot of these in your deck. In fact, I certainly would not mind having all 10 copies of Hobo in my deck. It seems really strong is where I’m getting at.
Land Claim (Action)
+1 Action
You may reveal a hand with no Duchies in it to gain a Duchy to your hand. Either way, afterwards, +1 Cards.
This does what the proposed Countess above does, but puts in a minigame in it. As such, already, my curiosity is piqued. I think the Duchy-gaining condition is a good one. It would slow down mindless Duchy spamming. You’d have to work on your deck a little harder to abuse Land Claim, such as discarding Duchies in hand via Oasis or what have you. The +1 Card being put at the end of the card is a little weird, but I understand why it works like that. Pretty cool card!
Mad Scientist (Action)
+1 Card
+1 Action
You may trash a card from your card costing at least for +2 Cards. If you don’t, gain a Silver.
Forgetting about the main idea of this card, the fallback clause is already a cool idea of its own. Silver gaining cantrip seems like it could exist in just about any Dominion expansion. Unless my mind is rotting, we do not have such a card in Dominion quite yet, it’s sort of stunning, really. The trashing option is a very good way of culling Estates away from your deck. You’d better believe I’d do it in a heartbeat. But it’s not just about Estates either. Sometimes, you need the draw, and I wouldn’t feel bad about blowing a Silver to do so- and look! Mad Scientist gives you Silvers to do so too! You knew what you were doing when you made this, hehehe! The only small thing to be scarred about here is how much Silver flooding this would allow.
Master Craftsman (Action)
+1 Card
+1 Action
Discard 2 cards. Gain a non-Victory card to your hand costing exactly as much as the difference between the 2 cards.
A pretty basic gainer, but you gotta do maths like with Forge. Usually, I tend not to like these sorts of math-y cards all too much, but I think Master Craftsman does it in a basic enough way that it’s acceptable for it to exist. It just seems a little weak is all. Even if you gain a
, reducing your handsize by 2 is a tough deal when cards like Wheelwright exists.
Medium (Action)
+1 Card
+1 Action
You may discard a Victory card from your hand to gain a cheaper Spirit from one of the Spirit piles, or to gain a cheaper Treasure.
Hey, cool idea! Early on, this’ll act a bit like Exorcist, leeching off Estates to add some Will-O’-Wisps to your deck. Except, there are differences. This can gain and play Will-O’-Wisps, this is handsize neutral, it doesn’t cull the stop card away from your deck and it’s more expensive. This already strikes me as balanced, but this goes beyond. A Duchy or a Province for an Imp/Ghost seems pretty appealing. Perhaps this would push you toward greening early? Not to mention that this is a pretty damn good friend with alt-
cards, such as Nobles or Mill. All in all, being encouraged to keep your green and pushing you toward early greening makes you plan differently than your typical Dominion game, and for that, I really love this card. I didn’t even mention a thing about the Treasure part of Medium, but do I need to? I’m already sold!
Minister (Action – Liaison)
+1 Card
+1 Action
Gain or lose Favors until you have exactly 5. Each other player gets +2 Favors.
Oof, this really dispatches a whole bunch of Favors at once! A bit too much for my taste, sorry...! This is like Underling on crack, except, Underling already exists. Like, imagine Minister with Island Folk. This becomes a cantrip extra turn giver. Or with Circle of Witches, a Familiar sans Potion. How about getting 5 Ratcatcher tokens at once with Peaceful Cult? No really, I think this is way too much. You ought to work for your Favors. Here, everyone gets a bunch, there’s no struggle.
Monk (Action)
+1 Card
+1 Action
Move your +1 Card, +1 Action, +1 Buy or + token to an Action Supply pile you have no tokens on (when you play a card from that pile, you first get that bonus). At the start of Clean-up, remove all your tokens from their Action Supply piles.
Holy text Batman! Granted, most of it comes from the Adventures token instruction, so it suffers from the same faith as Teacher. If there was a way to reduce the number of words on this card, I’d be up for it. Because I do like the idea of temporary tokens to boost your cards on a turn basis. Perhaps Monk could do without the “you have no tokens on” condition? It’d be easier to answer via testing.
Pearl Diver/Pearl (Action)
This pile starts with 5 copies of Pearl Diver on top of 5 copies of Pearl. Only the top card of the pile can be gained or bought.
Pearl (Action)
+1 Card
+1 Action
Reveal the bottom card of your deck. If it isn’t a Gold, gain a Gold to the bottom of your deck.
Hey, pretty cool buff to Pearl Diver! I like this edit of Pearl, the first version indeed seemed a tad too much on the strong side (luckily, a stack of Pearl Divers was still atop of it). I do like the whole fishing for a Gold minigame. But I feel like in practice, there could be situations where you draw deck, and then nothing stops you from flooding your deck with some Golds with your leftover Pearls, Windfall style. Something to perhaps keep in mind, I suppose.
Proselytist (Action – Reserve)
+1 Card
You may trash a card from your hand for +1 Villager. Put this on your Tavern mat.
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When you trash a card, you may call this for +1 per it costs (round down).
A loose definition of a cantrip, hmmm. We here have the infamous “it” in the call clause. Are we referring to the trashed card, or to the Proselytist itself? It’s quite obvious to me that it’s the former, but still. Reserve cards are annoying to word because of that, lol. As for the card itself, it seems like a fairly powerful way of scoring. As a whole, however, I feel like it tries to do so much, perhaps too much. You need your Tavern mat, your Villagers/Coffers mat and
tokens for a single card only!
Receipt (Action – Duration)
+1 Card
+1 Action
You may set aside a Treasure from your hand to play it at the start of your next turn.
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When you gain this, gain a Silver and you may set it aside to play it at the start of your next turn.
The bottom part could’ve tried to mimic Reap; I’m not so sure it needs a “you may there”, primarily. As for the top part, it sure seems weak to me at
. In a Treasure-less engine, which happens often enough, this is essentially an overpriced “do nothing” card (and in those games, you do not want the on-gain Silver). Same when you draw it at the wrong time. I feel like this is the sort of card that would’ve liked being a Treasure, perhaps at
or something. I’ll say though, I really do like the on-gain effect. Wish we had an actual official card that did something like this.
Savant (Action)
+1 Action
Gain a card to your hand costing up to per differently named card you have in play minus the number of Savants you have in play.
Oof, this calls for way too much maths for me to properly plan ahead with this card. I feel like this could bring some moments of analysis paralysis, as you carefully try to plan your turn order to maximise Savant’s reward, especially if you have many in your deck. If drawn early in your turn, this is effectively a self-junking card, so you’d rather not play it, and then it’s just a dead card. It can totally work if you have a good deck to support it though, just, I’m worried about the “shot myself in the foot” of it. Definitely a card I’d have to play with first to truly assess the power level to avoid sounding completely off.
Sewing Circle (Action)
+1 Card
+1 Action
Choose one: Gain a card costing up to ; or set aside a Sewing Circle from the Supply; or discard a set-aside Sewing Circle.
So if I’m understanding this correctly, the set-aside Sewing Circles can be grabbed by any player? Like everyone’s contributing to one single set aside pile of Sewing Circles? If so, then this definitely has some Lurker feels to it. I kind of like it, mostly, because it’s a cantrip gainer, but I could see myself trying the set aside minigame if I have a couple of Sewing Circles in my deck. Then you become the master of 3-piling, and players should be scared of you!
Used Goods Store (Action)
+1 Card
+1 Action
Trash and/or discard any number of cards from your hand. + per card discarded this way.
I think the non-cantrip effect could’ve benefited from being separated in two different sentences. “Trash any number of cards from your hand. Discard any number of cards for +
each”. Because right now, I feel like one could mistakenly think that the and/or means that both operations can be mixed and matched at will. “I trash this card. Okay, now I discard this Village Green. Sweet, I drew a card, I’ll trash it! Now I discard […]”, y’know what I mean. The effect is cool. We have a Count/Vault hybrid attached to a cantrip, I think it can work. Though, uh, it’s probably pretty strong. A couple of play testing games would highlight if that’s truly the case.
Wishmonger (Action)
+1 Card
+1 Action
Reveal the top card of your deck; you may discard it. Either way, if it costs...
or less, trash it.
or , gain a card costing up to .
or more, gain a Wish.
Mucho texto on the cardo. So this is some kind of Ironmonger which checks for the card’s cost instead of its type. Pretty novel idea, I could see that working. The problem is the Wish part of it, to me. It seems like in a fair number of games with Wishmonger, players will get a bunch of them, putting Leprechaun to shame. It doesn’t seem too hard to make it work: Not unlike Ironmonger, get a bunch of Wishmonger and simply build a good deck. Wishmongers tripping on each other makes this even better, it’s a positive feedback loop. If Wishmonger cost
or less, it would still be strong, but it would cull that positive loop a little, I would assume.
Semifinialists: Bootlegger; Cavalcade; Countess; Mad Scientist; Pearl Diver/Pearl; Sewing Circle
Finalists: Bookkeeper; Land Claim; Medium
Winner: Farrier (binbag420)
Well picking a winner was a living nightmare. There are too many good entries here, how am I supposed to pick a single card to take the win, hahaha! Still, I had to pick, that’s the whole point of them contests, and so I chose binbag420’s Farrier. It is living proof that a Throne Room with a +1 Card
can be a thing. Not only that, but it’s a Throne that’s not as mindless as other Thrones; it creates a cool and tactical minigame, of which you need to plan your deck for. And for that, I pass on the next contest to binbag420.
Thank you everyone for participating; I must simply reiterate that your wonderful entries made it extremely difficult for me, hehe!
Oh, by the way... Sorry IlstrawberrySeed, I still could not see your images loading! I did see them when you first posted them, but then it seems like the link broke, or something.
, which is one point short of a Province for the same cost. The advantage being that you didn’t carry a dead weight Silver in your deck prior to that.
tokens!
