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Messages - Mahowrath

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1
Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #162: You Can Trip at $5
« on: September 06, 2022, 07:53:14 am »
A dubious cantrip entry:



Quote
Proselytist - $5
Action - Reserve

+1 Card
You may trash a card from your hand for +1 Villager

Put this on your Tavern mat
-
When you trash a card, you may call this for +1% per $2 it costs (round down)

2
Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Destroy my really bad fan card
« on: February 28, 2022, 01:29:39 pm »
Quote
Cellar
Draw any number of cards, then discard 1.
+that many Action

I think the restriction to being perfect Dominionese will make this much harder.

3
Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Fan Card Mechanics Week 29: Gone Pair-Shaped
« on: February 22, 2022, 10:23:11 am »
My entry, Retreat & Regroup:



I resisted the temptation to make an oven-ready combo; but these cards hint at a start-of-turn dtx synergy.
Regroup should quite often be a strong gainer opener. I contemplated gaining one of regroup's cards to hand, but I suspect this melts piles too often.

4
JUDGEMENT

Honestly I'm glad there weren't too many entries, judging a winner was tricky; a lot of good entries:

jakav's Field/Farm/Town
Field, Farm and Town is a cool, understated application of the mechanic. Fields are skippable Coppers, but by colliding two with $3 other cash we can get through Farm (a light discard attack) to Town, once per turn, for some nice gains. It takes some effort to set field up as payload, but then roughly 4 fields = $4, 2 gains, a mild discard attack, 1 VP, and a village per turn for 2 stopcards; so the cost potentially ends up justified in the mid/late game. This isn't really what I was expecting when I set this contest, and defining Farm as an attack because it 'sells people food' is a bit of a stretch, but I appreciate this is a nice cohesive set of cards.

spineflu's Savings/Panic
Great flavour: we're dipping into our savings until they're gone, and then panicking - just like in real life. Balance-wise, I would say that Savings feels overpriced as it is; +2 coffers total on a duration for $5 feels simply worse than Villain. Even if we put in the work to uncover Panic, its discard attack doesn't seem very effective, and stacks poorly. With some rebalancing, I think this combo could be a lot of fun to play.

Erick648's Warlord/Enforcer
Great self-synergy, good flavour. Enforcer handsize attacks our opponents, so Warlord can gain nice cards from our opponents' hands. Furthermore, Enforcer lets us "exile" cards we've discarded to handsize attacks, or set up attacks to use with our extra warlord plays; albeit Enforcer can often suffer from the harbinger problem if our opponents don't buy into Warlords. Warlord's effectiveness also depends a lot on the kingdom; Supplies for example is a hard counter to the reveal gain, and horse/spirit gainers in general are problematic, though there's little to be done about it from a design point of view.

exfret's Sniper/Cover
In this instance, Cover is a hireling-esque action, that gives a one-time pseudotrash option, and a novel continuing attack to sift away our opponents' good cards. Cover is probably worth opening for the pseudotrash alone; but as exfret points out, the repeating sniper attack could get tedious. I think perhaps the non-permanent duration implementation of Cover had better interaction/flavour with Sniper, and there's definitely a lot of potential here.

mxdata's Demagogue/Knave/Embezzler/Dunce
This is a cute mechanic; Demagogue sets asides actions from the trash to play next turn; the Outcast "zombies" for this trash themselves at cleanup, preventing a player from monopolising any given Outcast. My main concern is that Knave is very mean; not dissimilar to the War hex, but far less random to trigger. Embezzler on the other hand will typically be a very weak option for the payload of a $5 cost duration, and maybe less so than Dunce, can vary in effectiveness depending on what you end up drawing for your next hand. Knave can set up other <$4 options to gain; a lot of effort for playing a terminal duration $5, but it could be necessary to replenish villages in the wake of the attacks.

mathdude's Preparation/Burning Arrows/Trebuchet/Smoke/Trojan Horse
These cards look like a lot of fun to play with. I enjoy the flavour of having an arsenal of siege options, and the interactions between the Plan attacks create neat combos to justify acquiring multiple Preparations. Preparation does feel underpriced at $5 mind; it isn't far off Captain, where Smoke alone is close to being a Ghost Ship, and perhaps isn't even the strongest option while curses remain to be trebucheted. Maybe call it $6, and consider renaming Preparation (could be a military equivalent of "Captain"?), and this looks great.






WINNER:
mathdude's Preparation/Burning Arrows/Trebuchet/Smoke/Trojan Horse

Chosen because it just looks like a lot of fun to play with. Congrats mathdude, and thanks everyone for your submissions!

5
Closing the contest to new entries

Entries I have are:

jakav   Field/Farm/Town
spineflu   Savings/Panic
Erick648   Warlord/Enforcer
exfret   Sniper/Cover
mxdata   Demagogue/Knave/Embezzler/Dunce
mathdude   Preparation/Burning Arrows/Trebuchet/Smoke/Trojan Horse


@Exfret, I've seen various versions of your entry on #variants. If you let me know quickly which one you want judged, I can accommodate it. Otherwise, I'll judge the entry in this thread.

so I figured maybe I could do an Event as well
In hindsight, attacking events is another completely reasonable way to use this mechanic; apologies for not including that option.

6
24ish hour warning!

Get your entries and any modifications in to avoid disappointment

7
I'm a little confused. What is the difference between this and simply adding Dragon's text to Dragon Hoard?  I mean, other than saving space on the card?

The difference is, that Dragon Hoard would become an attack. So if a player has moat in hand when DH is played, or a lighthouse in play; then any time the attack option is chosen, it never affects that player for the rest of the game.

8
Variants and Fan Cards / Re: ⭐Holiday Fan Card Contest: Round Robin⭐
« on: January 07, 2022, 09:39:04 pm »
Thanks Spineflu for running this, and to emtzalex for the idea, and congrats Spineflu, emtzalex and Timinou on the result!

Next Fan Card Mechanics contest: Enter the Dragon (Duration Attacks)

9
Another one of my fancard ideas, trying to do a duration attack, was to have a singular attack card on the table that gets played, leaving it there:


Dragon hoard could probably have a type or something that implies the existence of the Dragon?

The idea being that by keeping the attack on the non-duration card, the attack remains moat-able at the time of execution.

This week's contest: Design a duration card pile (or Project) and an attack card to go with it, that gets played leaving it there.
- The attack should have a reason for not being a part of the card/project text; likely for being called on a future turn.
- Having multiple associated attacks is permitted, but let's not go crazy: I'm not looking for a hexes pile.
- You may play with the mechanic - for instance, the attack card could start in the trash or the supply. I'm happy so long as a durationy something plays a non-durationy something For Reasons.

I won't have much time to judge next weekend, so contest will end around 10am UTC Jan 17th

10
Variants and Fan Cards / Re: ⭐Holiday Fan Card Contest: Round Robin⭐
« on: December 29, 2021, 08:34:24 pm »
My present, was Expansionist, by emtzalex:


Quote
Pioneers, Action, $3:
+1 Card
+1 Action
Play any number of Treasures from your hand

Choose one: Buy a card from the Supply, or take Expansionist.

Blarket-esque mid-turn buyer; playing treasures and buying cards mid-turn gives non-terminal access to the usual blarket gain-and-play/dtx shenanigans, while expansionist lets you squeeze more value out of your vp buys once you're entering the greening phase.

Expansionist was a challenge to incorporate; multiple plays of an Action taking Expansionist would still only be able to take Expansionist into the buy phase once, but the effect isn't groundbreaking enough to make Expansionist a challenge to acquire like Treasure Chest.
After playing around with some other ideas, mid-turn buys felt like the natural mechanic to mitigate these issues - you can take expansionist, buy a victory card, and repeat. Usually I would avoid this mechanic, as it's easy to end up just making a "less fun black market", but I think here the emphasis on taking victory cards saves the day. The bonus for taking victory cards mid-turn is a nice way to keep the mid-turn gain-and-plays relevant even in the late game, and creates a minigame with when you play these during your turn, along with adding synergies with desirable Action-Victory cards.

11
Variants and Fan Cards / Re: ⭐Holiday Fan Card Contest: Round Robin⭐
« on: December 18, 2021, 09:02:59 pm »
Quote
Amulet of Protection
Artifact
You are unaffected by hexes

12
Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Fan Card Mechanics Week 24: Heritage Cards
« on: December 16, 2021, 03:27:22 pm »
Thanks emtzalex, and agreed on the analysis - I couldn't quite get Unmarked Graves to where I wanted it.

Regarding the next contest; I'm out of ideas, and pretty busy with interviews and the run up to Christmas. I'm happy to pass the reins over to Timinou as 2nd place, to do with as they please; or if everyone's in the same boat, could postpone until the new year.

Update: Happy to go with spineflu's suggestion below. (referencing this post)

13
Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Fan Card Mechanics Week 24: Heritage Cards
« on: November 28, 2021, 02:25:06 pm »
Paranormal Investigator

Unmarked Graves


Quote
Paranormal Investigator - $3
Action

+1 Action
Trash a card from your hand.
You may gain a cheaper card, for +1 Card per $1 less it costs.
-
Heritage: Unmarked Graves

Quote
Unmarked Graves - $4
Victory - Heritage

0VP
-
When you trash this, do this any number of times:
Discard a card with a type not yet discarded for this, to gain a Will-o'-Wisp from its pile onto your deck.

(will remove "from its pile" in the next UG version)

14
Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #135: Go Big or Go Home!
« on: November 22, 2021, 04:58:36 pm »
Quote
Process
$8 - Action
+1 Action
Trash a non-duration card you have in play. Gain a card with the same cost.
---
On your turns, this costs $1 less per Action you have in play


15
My entry:
Necromantic Law:
Setup: Put the 3 Zombies and Zombie Summoner into the trash

Quote
Policy: Apprenticeship
When you take this, play the Zombie Apprentice from the trash, leaving it there
When you return this, discard down to 4 cards in hand

Quote
Policy: Construction
When you take this, play the Zombie Mason from the trash, leaving it there
When you return this with 4 or more cards in hand, put a card from your hand onto your deck

Quote
Policy: Surveillance
When you take this, play the Zombie Spy from the trash, leaving it there
When you return this, take your -1 Coin token

Quote
Policy: Summoning
When you take this, play the Zombie Summoner from the trash, leaving it there
When you return this, take your -1 Card token

Zombie Summoner:


Quote
Zombie Summoner - $3
Action - Zombie

+$1
Turn your Journey token over (it starts face up). Then if it's face up, gain an Imp.

Necromantic law; a set of policies that play zombies from the trash at the start of your turn, with handicaps to avoid overly accelerating the game.
Omitted Necromancer's face-down clause because explicit zombies shouldn't loop. Taking a new policy and returning your old one at the start of your turn is still mandatory.

16
Question: if I made a set of laws concerning the playing of zombies, would I be able to include a 4th zombie from wdc 109, or would that count as reusing an entry?

17
Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Fan Card Mechanics Week 22: Travellers cheques
« on: November 07, 2021, 07:42:40 pm »
Judgement:

Aquila: Labourer Traveller Line
Neat traveller line; labourer is a gainer, that trashes such a gained card to become Entrepreneur; a strong non-terminal drawer/sifter for money. Finally Magnate is an unabashedly powerful payload card. This works, and seems like it would frequently be a strong choice for payload.
Xen3k: Bait Shop Enterprise Line
I like the flavour here, an enterprising fishery growing with the application of real estate. Bait shop is close to being $2 oasis, and Pier's the silver equivalent, if you're happy topdecking an estate/oge to get it. Dockyard Pub is the trashing equivalent, with gain-and-play silver or night flexibility. If you can topdeck a Duchy or similar, fishery is a sifting, +buy, discard for benefit village. This is a nice application of the idea, without the end result being game-breaking.
mxdata: Lead Treasure - Investment Line
The trash from play upgrade mechanic here is pretty novel. Lead is a copper for $2, but upgrades to blackmailer, a relic variant. Embezzler is a nice gold / treasure pseudotrasher, but upgrades pretty easily to feudal lord, a big source of coffers if gained early enough. The upgrade mechanic here rewards early collisions, and lead especially punishes non-collisions; which could be unfortunate when rushing feudal lord looks like it could often be the winning strategy.
Spineflu: Connive Supplier - Traveller Line
Cool to see suppliers. Connive is a nifty, albeit weak opener for smoothing/courtyarding actions; which upgrades into concoct, an interesting royal seal variant. Beyond this though, arrange and plot look to be pretty situational for the price; the +buy can be valuable if hard to acquire elsewhere, and the scheming valuable if trashing is difficult, or the draw is otherwise unreliable.
emtzalex: Apostate Traveller Line
This line has a great premise: it's a sifter line, that junks you as you progress along it, concluding with a trashing triple lab. At 5 per player, the limited availability of poxes looks pretty relevant here; infidel is the perfect enabler for this line, and there are only enough poxes for each player to advance to one blasphemer and one additional infidel. The first player to blasphemer will likely be able to leave less than 2 poxes in the pile, so might need to adjust the number of poxes to reduce FPA on boards where this is the main trasher.
Timinou: Squirrels Critter Line
This is a fun line. Squirrels are great opening draw, that can be non-terminal in a critter deck by instead sifting treasures. Trash Coppers to advance some Boars, to end squirrel chains non-terminally and add some payload. This allows us to reach stag, a smithy-variant requiring outside village/gold assistance to get rolling and gaining, but pushing through to lions gives a critter deck serious draw and payload. I like the synergies in this line, that rushing it isn't at all a given, and that stag's deficiencies prevent monolithic critters from being overpowered.

3rd Place: emtzalex's Apostate Traveller Line
2nd Place: Xen3k's Bait Shop Enterprise Line

Winner: Congrats to Timinou's Squirrels Critter Line

Honorable mentions to every other entry; they each did a great job of innovating traveller lines with additional costs, and it was clear that a lot of thought and effort went into every one.
It was tricky picking a winner, but in the end Timinou's line felt like it would lead to the most interesting games. Congrats Timinou!

18
Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Fan Card Mechanics Week 22: Travellers cheques
« on: November 04, 2021, 11:15:05 am »
Okay, calling it there! The entries I have are:

Aquila: Labourer Traveller Line
Xen3k: Bait Shop Enterprise Line
mxdata: Lead Treasure - Investment Line
Spineflu: Connive Supplier - Traveller Line
emtzalex: Apostate Traveller Line
Timinou: Squirrels Critter Line

If you want to make a new entry or change, send me a PM. I'll aim to return Judgement in the next day or so.

19
Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #133: A Time to Feast
« on: November 03, 2021, 09:08:39 am »

Quote
Hostage Taker
Action - $4

Put this on your Tavern mat
-
When you shuffle your deck, you may call this, to gain a card costing up to $6, to the bottom of your deck

Delayed gainer, with Pearl Diver/Subdeck fan-mech interactions

20
Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Fan Card Mechanics Week 22: Travellers cheques
« on: November 03, 2021, 08:42:58 am »
24 Hour Warning!!!

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So, when I think of a 2 card design with the exchange mechanic, I immediately think Vampire / Bat. Would a cyclical design (e.g. one in which the cards go back and forth to different uses rather than upward to better versions) count?

If the answer to that is yes, then arguably, Vampire/Bat itself could qualify, as Bat has a "cost" (requiring you to trash at least one card) to go back to Vampire (the better card, albeit the one the player gets first). Would you consider that to qualify? Or would it not because the first exchange does not have an added cost (or because the first exchange is not optional)?

The Vampire/Bat is reversible, whereas the Boats (and Travelers in general) are not. A 2-card design could be more similar to Hermit/Madman or Urchin/Mercenary, I'd guess?

I'm happy to accept cyclic chains, and potentially conditions as a form of cost. Entries do not need to be travellers or boats.

Suffice to say this mechanic is much less rigidly defined than those of previous competitions, and there are official cards that border on using it - hope that's okay!


Is it intentional that you can't pay off the debt until your next turn since, unlike with Capital, there's no clause allowing you to pay off debt at Clean-Up?
Not intentional, and you're right that is a slightly feel-bad use of debt. I'll be interested to see if there's a way to incorporate the capital mechanic without losing too much brevity.

22
Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Fan Card Mechanics Week 21: Curse you!
« on: October 25, 2021, 08:04:55 pm »
Thanks, The Alchemist; glad you enjoyed.

Next contest up: Travellers cheques

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Variants and Fan Cards / Fan Card Mechanics Week 22: Travellers cheques
« on: October 25, 2021, 08:01:44 pm »
Week 22, following on from The Alchemist's Week 21: Curse you! contest

Fan Card Mechanics Contest Week 22: Travellers cheques

I never got around to finishing the second half of my Dominion Oceans fan-expansion, but it was going to include a sort-of traveller line with paid upgrades. Work in Progress; current draft:

The idea with this particular line is to lure players in with Skiff's cheap payload, and escalate an arms race with increasingly dubiously expensive debt-costing upgrades.

For this contest, what I'm looking for, are lines of 2-5 "travellers" with a cost to moving along the line. The cost can be of any sort, beyond just having to exchange the original card.

They do not need to explicitly have the "traveller" or "boat" type or theme. Having an interesting theme is of course always appreciated.
You are free to create terms/keywords to save text on the paid upgrade clause.
As I'm a reluctant judge at the best of times, I would advise against long, varied lines of complex cards.

I'll give until 10:00am UTC Thursday 4th Nov for entries. Let me know if you have any questions (here, or discord)

24
Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Fan Card Mechanics Week 21: Curse you!
« on: October 07, 2021, 10:35:33 pm »
Last minute / late entry




Quote
Midas Curse - Landmark
When you are the first player to gain a Gold, after that turn, each player bids once, up to 40 Coffers, ending with you. The lowest bidder gets 8§ and takes the Coffers they bid.

Parallel to Mountain Pass; coffers for VP once Gold is acquired.
Edit: reskin

25
Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #130: Sidekicks
« on: October 05, 2021, 07:45:31 pm »
Entry to split pile with Outpost



Quote
Outriders
Action - Duration: $3

+1 Card
+1 Action
At the start of your next turn, if this is still in play, +2 Cards
-
Discard this from play when another player buys a card with at least $2 unspent.

Menagerie-esque non-terminal draw that fails when opponents "Basilica". Technically leaves room for politicking in multiplayer (arguably less than invest!), but this is unlikely to matter as the game progresses as 1) this should naturally start to fail between turns for everyone, unless 2) you uncover and use Outpost for synergy.

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