Given how you refuse to seriously consider the very constructive input everybody has given about your Upgrade variant, I don't know if you'd actually appreciate more feedback.
Discussion 101: just because somebody doesn't agree with you doesn't imply that he did not think about your arguments.
No, but when you say things like this:
Without intending to be rude, the argument brought forth that a mandatory cantrip trasher is an superstrong 4 or even a 5 is utterly ridiculous given that it would be strictly inferior to Junk Dealer and Upgrade which are also priced at 5.
and brush off a thorough comparison and explanation without so much as a quote, it really seems like you don't want to consider any less-than-positive feedback.
For practical reasons, i.e. concerning my card, this theoretical discussiont doesn't matter much as the price will be fixed at 5 anyway and all I'll do is twiddle with the bonus, respectively add a malus if you guys turn out to be right concerning how strong the card is.
Upgrade and Junk Dealer are
mandatory trashing with a bonus, both very strong $5s. Your set-aside card
without the +$ option is already mandatory trashing with a bonus and it would be a very strong $5, just like Junk Dealer and Upgrade. Its ability to eliminate late-game choking might even push it above.
As it is, the +$ option is just needless extra power and complexity. If you drop that, then I think it would be great to start testing at $5. And from there, I would expect that it would either prove excellent at that price or need a cost
increase, given its huge mid-game utility in stashing away Provinces. That, or a drop down in price to $2 a la Chapel.
PM: On a sidenote, do you have a link to the Lab+discard card you mentioned? I went through the Outtakes and did not seem to find it.
It's mentioned in the secret history of
Hinterlands, specifically concerning Inn, and mentioned again in passing in the secret history of
Dark Ages, as an outtake.
I vaguely remember seeing Donald write about it as an example of a card that can't exist at any price point (being too strong for $4 but almost strictly inferior to Lab), but I can't find it now. It may have just been a comment in some regular discussion thread.