Thoughts:
Amulet:
Okay, I'm going to go a bit soap-box-y here first. Mic often talks about how people don't realize that lots of Dominion cards are swingy, it's the nature of the game. He is absolutely right. How many of you saw this card and though "Wow, that's really swingy". It IS incredibly swingy. Let's assume I opened with this card, intending to get some fast trashing (which I believe you very often will). If I draw it on turn 3 (5/12 chance), then by my second reshuffle (between turns 4 and 5), I will have trashed two cards, and this will be waiting for me to play again in the next shuffle. Getting it turn 5 (2/12 chance) sucks, I haven't gotten to play it at all - this is true of all cards. Getting it turn 4(5/12 chance) is probably a bit better than turn 5, but not tons - and it is WAY worse than turn 3. When I get tot he shuffle in this case, I have trashed 1 card rather than 2, plus this card itself is missing the shuffle. That means that by the time I get to my NEXT shuffle, I may have trashed only 2 cards rather than 4. Or maybe it's 3. In any case, getting it turn 3 is a big advantage. I don't think people will think about or realize this, and just find themselves in a midgame way ahead or way behind, and not realize why. Well, this makes a big difference. I don't know how feel-bad it is - people seem to feel this a lot more on attacks - but in terms of winning the game, it's real. That doesn't mean I think this card is bad design, by any stretch - I think I like it, at least at first blush - but it is something to be aware of.
Okay, how good is it though? Seems pretty good, not amazing. Splitting up the money over two turns is usually worse than silver, even neglecting that it's a terminal action. Gaining a couple silvers might be a thing for slogs, but in general isn't great. Trashing two, now that is the real strength (usually). You get to do it while still having a bit of a hand, too, so this can be especially good if there are 3s and 4s you want to pick up. Generally has to be worse than Steward for engines, I guess, though.
Flexibility on the card definitely helps it. And the silver-gaining probably makes it decent for BM (even a little trashing can be good there, this will be tricky to play) and probably rather good in slogs, come to think of it. So overall, pretty strong, but not gamebreaking.
Swamp Hag
Attack is obviously pretty strong, at least potentially. I mean, they don't have to buy anything though. Well, not letting them buy would be really strong. But being able to pick their spots, that is some real downside. Sometimes, you just take the darn thing. Obviously this will be at its best against engines which want to buy lots of things but lack trashing - it can kind of lock those down, or at least stop some of their turns. But in general, the card seems pretty weak. Biggest reason is, $3 once in two turns is just a quite weak effect for you, trashing can obsolete this, just playing around it isn't the hardest thing ever, there are defensive cards, and most other cursers seem as though they will just be better.
Hireling
Card is just a lab you're guaranteed to have every turn. A little better than that vs discard attacks. Costs 6. What deck wants this? Big Money? Maaaybe, but probably not by a lot. Engine? You don't want to use this as your main source of draw (or if you do, only really rarely) as it's very slow to set up. Costing 6 is real. But if I am drawing my deck every turn, I would play Lab anyway. Lab isn't the greatest card anyway. This is better than lab once you've played it of course, as it gives you reliability, but it's harder to get, and you have to play it as a terminal do-nothing first. That is a real cost that I don't think people will realize enough. I'm sure you will pick the card up sometimes, probably mostly in engines for that extra reliability. But it actually looks fairly weak (despite the obviously good effect). Pretty mediocre, never truly bad.
PPE: 17 replies while I was typing....
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Topic: Previews #3 - Amulet, Swamp Hag, Hireling (Read 74587 times)