Conscription is now an interesting mixture of Workshop and Moneylender. You'd have to test it to see how it works in practice.
Actually, I will say that I have a limit capability to test my own cards, embarrassingly enough. I only own the base set, and my real life compatriots who play Dominion with me are limited. I say this not as an excuse, merely a confession. Outside of asking someone else to test my cards for me (which seems exceptionally jerkface-y), is there a place/way I could test my cards online, or at least digitally?
Unskilled labor is a decent idea, but as written it allows you to gain a free Colony, free Familiar, free Possession--you name it. You need to tone it down.
This is what I get for designing cards late at night. Could limit it to just actions, though that still lets you double up on good actions. I was hoping to open up some unforeseen strats by making it on gain, instead of on buy, but doesn’t really work with my solution. Maybe:
Unskilled Labor
Action
$3
+1 Card
If an action has already been played this turn, +2 Actions.
If you gain an Action card that costs less than this, you may return this to the Supply and gain another copy of that card.
If you buy an Action card with this in play, you may overpay for it. If you do, you may return this to the Supply and gain another copy of that card.
One clause or the other could go (probably should be only one), but the idea of “re-training” unskilled labor should stay. Also, come to think of it, can’t get Harems with this card. Dunno if you should be able to, just struck me funny.
Skilled Labor is too strong. It's basically a Trusty Steed when you have strong $3 cards like Ambassador or Masquerade. Plus, you can do something like Great Hall-Oracle for 3 cards and one action, in addition to the 2 cards you already drew. Plus, it doesn't account for Prizes, Mercenary, and Madman. Finally, it needs to specify 'Action cards', to avoid the Black Market problem of putting Treasures into play during your action phase. But it would be fun to try a Poor House-Skilled Labor deck, so this card does have some promise.
There’s the kicker, now, isn’t it? I make it cost too much, it’s effectively +2 Actions. Make it too cheap, it sucks. If I knock it down to $3, I have the problem I originally had with Conscription: it stinks if there’s no value $2 card. Of course, it stinks now if there’s no value $3 card, but that’s much less likely, I figure. I try to limit to, say, non-Attacks, still plenty of great $3 non-Attack cards, plus the clause is meaningless if there’s no attacks in the Supply anyway. I fix the limit so that I can fiddle with the price, and now Bridge and Highway let you play more expensive actions with it (which may not be worse). I can cut it down to +1 conditional Action or +1 Card, but then it’s just a worse Lab or Village, respectively, and as interesting those ideas are, that’s not really what I was going for. Gonna have to mull this one over some more.
I'm not sure when I would buy Mass Production. It's basically a $6 Bridge without the +$1. If you have 4 buys and $15 and play Mass Production, sure, you can spend that $15 to buy 5 Labs instead of 3. But you're not going to get to $15 and 4 buys unless you already have lots of Labs (or other strong engine pieces), so at that point, you'd probably rather have a $6 Gold so that you can buy two Provinces or Platinums. Even if you cut Mass Production down to $4, I'm pretty sure I'd rather have Bridge. If you gave it more buys, it would work better, but that would make 3-piling too easy.
The goal of Mass Production is to basically be a more card-efficient Bridge. Currently, one Mass Production starts saving more money than one Bridge at four copies bought in one turn. I could bring it to around three copies by making the discount $2 per copy, but that’s not the most important point. The problem, as you pointed out, is that you won’t have any +Buys unless you have decent engine already. But what if you had the choice?
Mass Production
Action
$6
+1 Buy
For each subsequent buy of the same card this turn, either reduce the cost by $2, but never below $1; or +1 Buy.
You’ll probably still need an engine to get enough money to fund getting three or more copies, but hopefully just a decent one, not a super-strong one. Obviously, can’t let the cost drop to zero, or you just keep getting copies after that if you want. Could make it scale by $1 again if you’re really worried about too-easy three-piling.
The new General is much better, but I think I'd still prefer any $5 Village (except maybe unimproved City) over General. Villages enable Attacks just as well as General does, and are more flexible. You might change it so that General can chain itself, like Cultist--but that might be way too powerful (you'd have to test it).
Accursed non-conditional Actions! On a more serious note, I suppose I could have General play the attack multiple times, or something like that, but that’s still rather mediocre compared to +1 Action. That said, I’d think General wouldn’t really be competing for the “Village” slot so much as the “Smithy” slot of an engine. In an Attack-focused deck, though, which is really where you should be using General, I can see comparison.
If I have $5 and want a Smithy, then sure, I'll pick up Ambush instead. But I'm pretty sure I'd buy Catacombs over Ambush, and Catacombs is the worst of the $5 Smithies.
The problem with Ambush' reaction is that 1) you usually don't have two Attack cards in your hand, so you'd have gotten to play the Attack anyway and 2) most of the time, you would rather have a second $5 attack than Ambush.
I’ll have you know that if your opponent plays an Attack into your Ambush and four Militia, that’s a Province right there! Ambush suffers from “Needs-Many-Attack-Cards” Syndrome (NMACS) even more than General does. I was considering turning it into a duration – reaction (your opponent would still have a reason to attack; your next hand might not have an attack card), but it seemed too convoluted.
Ambush
Action – Reaction – Duration
$5
+3 Cards
+1 Buy
While this card is in play, you may trigger its reaction as if it was from your hand. On your next turn following the attack, +3 Cards, +1 Buy.
If an attack is played and you do not (or cannot) trigger the reaction, discard this card.
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When another player plays an Attack card, you may reveal this from your hand. If you do, set aside any number of Attack cards from your hand. At the start of your next turn, play those cards.
It’s a super-smithy that can trigger twice! Of course, it never does if there’s no attacks in the game. Actually, now that I think about it, it probably actively discourages attacks from being played, even with the discard clause. Just seems like a bad idea, making it a duration.
No more commentary on Exploitation? Don’t force anything, just noticed is all.
More cards for the slaughter!
Mercenary (Yes, I know there’s an official card with that name. Work with me here.)
Action
$3
When you play this card, select any Action card in the Supply not named Mercenary. You may treat this card as the card you choose. During the Buy phase, you may set aside $3 worth or more of Treasure cards. If you do not, during the Clean Up phase, return this to the Supply instead of discarding it.
Maybe the needs of your engine change. Maybe you only need that Moneylender or Black Market this turn. This card is a better any card because it can be that card or a different card. Except you only get to use it once, unless you pay them again.Deep Spy
Action – Attack – Duration
$3
Every other player gains two Action cards of their choice. After three or more turns, during the start of your turn, every other player reveals cards from their deck until they reveal two Action cards. Trash those cards.
Help them build their decks up, then take them down when they least expect it. Hopefully it doesn’t hurt as much, since they it coming and you gave them those cards in the first place.Supervisor
$3
Action – Reaction
+1 Card
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Whenever you play an Action card, you may reveal this card from your hand and set it aside. If you do, you may increment one of the numerical values by one on the last card you played.
Seemed like a curious card. This does let you do things like turn Throne Room into King’s Court, discard up to five cards with Chapel, or pass two cards with Masquerade. The original wording limited it only to +Cards, +Buys, +$, and +Actions, then I loosened it to allow Workshop to gain up to $5, and then I decided to just let it all out, as it were. No Supervisor chains, though.