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[iguanaiguana]

After playing develop, the net increase in the total value of all cards in your deck is equal to the cost of the card you trashed (trash a , gain a and ; -4 + 8). This means that you get the most value out of develop by trashing the highest possible priced cards that will give you a return on both ends.  However, the more valuable the card you trash with develop, the greater cost the play has to your current turn. That, along with the inflexibility of gaining, is the reason I think that develop is difficult to use.

I ranked it on #29. Looking back, if I re-ranked right now I would probably rank it on #23.

[Awaclus]

Sage: Maybe I don't know the right time to get this card, but I've been disappointed every time I've bought it.  Sure, you can find your other opening buy easier.  So it sounds like it might be good with something like Sea Hag or Young Witch, but you really need economy with those cards.  Maybe it's decent with Militia or Cutpurse?  I dunno.  Later in the game (especially with trashing) it approaches a cantrip.  Once you start greening, the filtering is much worse than Farming Village.  And you don't want multiples of Sage.  It's SO low-impact.  It's the Pearl Diver of three coin cards, in my mind.
Oasis: This is a pretty lackluster card.  Sure, if you have only one or two and haven't trashed heavily, it's as good as a Peddler (and better in unusual circumstances).  But Peddler is a card I want to have a bunch of.  I don't get excited about one or two.  Caravan Guard is bad, but Oasis is worse, IMO.

You need some economy with Sea Hag and Young Witch, but you don't need it immediately if you can get cycling instead. It's also good with Potion. Later in the game, it doesn't do much, but at least it doesn't really hurt your deck either, which sometimes makes it the best $3 card you can buy. And the filtering is worse than Farming Village only if you have the kind of deck that doesn't really even need the filtering in the first place (i.e. no junk); Farming Village is THIS close to literally being just a $4 vanilla Village.

Oasis is pretty good because it helps you hit $5 in the early game and unlike Silver, it won't be a stop card in the late game.

Also, Masterpiece isn't bad, it has its uses and it can be pretty powerful sometimes, but there aren't all that many $3 cards that are worse than it.

[markusin]

Cards gained with Develop go on top of your deck. Just throwing that out there because it's something you might forget until you actually play the card. It's a pretty big bonus and helps you line up cards you need in hand together next turn.

[Davio]

There are many cards that are often meh, but can be quite good given the right circumstances.
Develop is such a card, but I think it's a bit underrated in general.

[XerxesPraelor]

I recently got to develop an Expand into a Fairgrounds and a Province and then survivorsed them away, in a game where I eventually won by one point. Is that the best case use or what?

I feel like I should give it more credit, but I really can't imagine it doing that or anything around the same quality reasonably. (it's also pretty bad at trashing coppers)

[Aleimon Thimble]

I think Chancellor is still in last place at this point out of pure momentum - people put her there as automatically as they put Chapel and King's Court in first place of their respective lists.  Poor Angela here is easily better than both Great Hall and Woodcutter, methinks.

I disagree. Chancellor is just weak, as it has always been. Its benefit is way too incremental and its opportunity cost way too high. I voted neither Chapel nor Kings Court first, by the way.

The only card that may be weaker is Caravan Guard, which is being criminally overrated (I voted it second-to-last). But that may be the novelty factor.

[Qvist]

Part 2

[Beyond Awesome]

Lots of swings.

People are finally realizing that Golds aren't all that great. Glad to see Tunnel drop. Sad to see Oracle drop as it is a solid card. And, Wishing Well finally going up. Also, Workshop going up sounds right. It's gain is pretty solid. So, is Smugglers, but in the non-mirror match it can not be so hot.

[Limetime]

Bonfire is a complete speed thrasher. It is kind of like mine, except it trashes two cards instead of about 5. You can also get rid of early game utilities.

Not sure if intentional...

It was

[Chris is me]

Poor Tunnel. It's not that good, but... worse than Shanty Town? Really? Shanty Town is garbage.

Doctor worse than Lookout??? Doctor is WAY safer than Lookout, and more useful.

Storeroom is better than people give it credit for, particularly in Gardens or Silk Road games (or Tunnel games!), but I see why it's not super popular.

Bonfire is better than all of these cards.

[Beyond Awesome]

Woah...Wait what?

Shanty Town?? Garbage? It's a fantastic card to open with.

[iguanaiguana]

Poor Tunnel. It's not that good, but... worse than Shanty Town? Really? Shanty Town is garbage.

Doctor worse than Lookout??? Doctor is WAY safer than Lookout, and more useful.

Storeroom is better than people give it credit for, particularly in Gardens or Silk Road games (or Tunnel games!), but I see why it's not super popular.

Bonfire is better than all of these cards.

Doctor is worse than lookout when you can track your deck well enough because lookout is nonterminal and will often do a similar thing to doctor. Obviously if you can somehow afford a big overpay and get all your junk into the discard at the same time, doctor is much better in that case. But using terminal space on trashing after the early game sucks.

But they are right next to each other in the rankings, so it doesn't say much about either card's power in relation to each other.

[SCSN]

Poor Tunnel. It's not that good, but... worse than Shanty Town? Really? Shanty Town is garbage.

I have Shanty Town on 23 and Tunnel on 41 out of 43. The aforementioned Develop takes place 21.

[Chris is me]

I guess I just have really poor luck with Shanty Town. I never feel like there's a good time to buy it, other than when heavy draw is available and it's the only Village. It's a Necropolis when you need a Village and sometimes a Lost City, but only when you're not likely to use the 2 Actions anyway. It's the best Village when you don't need a Village and one of the worst when you do. I dunno. I recognize Tunnel's pretty weak in these post-Gold times we live in, especially since Market Square is a lot better.

[aku_chi]

More surprises for me:
Plan, Smugglers, and Doctor so low.
Expedition and Scheme so high.

Plan: This is baffling for me, especially since Bonfire is so much higher.  When building an engine, you often want 5+ copies of at least one card - preferably ASAP.  Getting a trashing effect whenever you buy a copy is great!  You can count on getting rid of all of your starting Estates and 2+ Coppers with an early plan.  Plan is at its best when you can open with it on a 3/4 with a great 4-cost card (like Tournament, Ironmonger, Advisor, Herald, Conspirator, or the Village variants).  It's much better than Bonfire in this case (-2 Coppers vs. -1 Estate with additional trashing just a buy away).  Anti-synergizes with gainers, though.
Smugglers: In an engine mirror, this card is just too good to pass up.  Gaining 5-6 cost cards from Smugglers and purchasing another piece during your buy phase is super powerful.  If your opponent tries to play around it, then it works a little like an attack.  This is one of my favorite gainers; I might take it over (or in addition to) Ironworks.
Doctor: The on-play effect is pretty strong (especially with Spy-effects).  I believe it's the only card that can trash more than 1 card from outside of the hand/play.  The overbuy effect can be very powerful, especially with a 5/2 opening, or an early 6-7 coins on turn 3.

Expedition: Is countered HARD by handsize attacks.  Otherwise, decent lategame if you have an unlucky turn and there are no good 3- cost cards.  Situational and low-impact.
Scheme: A solid card, but low impact.  Scheme rarely contributes substantially to my strategy, it just adds a little bit of reliability at the expense of deck cycling.

Addition: In Tunnel's defense, it is still 2VP for 3 coins.  So, even ignoring the Gold-gaining (which is situationally good), it can be an important element in maximizing VP in the endgame.  11 coins is enough for 8 VP.  6 coins is enough for 4 VP.  With 8 coins and two Provinces in the pile, you can opt for Duchy+Tunnel for 5 VP.

[theright555J]

Scheme adds more than just a little bit of reliability, especially when Throne Room or Kings Court is involved. And it allows for playing an early key action more than once in a row, which is often huge.

[Chris is me]

Scheme adds more than just a little bit of reliability, especially when Throne Room or Kings Court is involved. And it allows for playing an early key action more than once in a row, which is often huge.

Yeah, I think "Scheme is low impact" is the biggest understatement of this thread, really. It can be absolutely critical to getting early attacks off, heavy trashing early, and general reliability of an engine. Some games it does relatively little, but other games it's completely essential.

[ehunt]

There really aren't a lot of terrible 3s. I was surprised to see Chancellor at the bottom, thinking, there has to be some card that's worse, but then I checked my own rankings, and indeed Chancellor was at the bottom (I used duel mode and I guess I didn't check my 3s list by hand afterwards). Chancellor is the only absolute dud 3 and even he's not Transmute/Scout class -- he fits in the Stash combo, he's better than Silver when there's no other terminal action on the board, he has little tricks with Hunting Party, there's the Chancellor/Potion open on a Familiar board, etc.

[aku_chi]

Yeah, I think "Scheme is low impact" is the biggest understatement of this thread, really. It can be absolutely critical to getting early attacks off, heavy trashing early, and general reliability of an engine. Some games it does relatively little, but other games it's completely essential.

Perhaps this is a learning moment for me.  When would you open with Scheme?
Scheme + Militia/Cutpurse/Marauder seems pretty strong.
Scheme + Remake/Spice Merchant should be good.
Scheme + Sea Hag/Young Witch seems to fall into the same trap as Sage + junker.  Maybe it's a good opening if there aren't any great 5+ cost cards.
Would you ever open Scheme + Ambassador/Steward/Swindler/Hermit instead of the double opening?
Should Scheme be opened with a non-terminal?  Scheme + Tournament/Ironmonger, perhaps?

[Roadrunner7671]

I didn't vote Shanty Town first!

[markusin]

Scheme + Sea Hag/Young Witch seems to fall into the same trap as Sage + junker.  Maybe it's a good opening if there aren't any great 5+ cost cards.
non-terminal?  Scheme + Tournament/Ironmonger, perhaps?

I don't think it falls into the same trap as Sage+junker because you can keep topdecking Scheme until you play your junker and unlike Sage it doesn't fizzle if it's in the same hand as the junker. Also Scheme doesn't get worse as the game goes on like Sage does.

[Titandrake]

Lookout should be higher. I've actually been liking Lookout a lot recently. It's not flashy, but the filtering + cycling makes it better than it looks.

[aku_chi]

Scheme + Sea Hag/Young Witch seems to fall into the same trap as Sage + junker.  Maybe it's a good opening if there aren't any great 5+ cost cards.
non-terminal?  Scheme + Tournament/Ironmonger, perhaps?

I don't think it falls into the same trap as Sage+junker because you can keep topdecking Scheme until you play your junker and unlike Sage it doesn't fizzle if it's in the same hand as the junker. Also Scheme doesn't get worse as the game goes on like Sage does.

Right.  Scheme is better than Sage.  But the similarity is, if you open with them + junker, you're giving up on 5+ coin hands in turns 3 and 4.  Which, on most boards, seems unwise.  But I can see it being the best play on some boards.

[funkdoc]

yea, there was a recent game stef played on stream, i think vs. rabid, where both players opened lookout on a pretty generic duchy/duke board.  that really got me thinking about it, and i've started experimenting with it more in non-engine games.  the early cycling & estate trashing is probably a big enough deal to outweigh it being a dead card in the mid-late game.

re: scheme: don't forget about baker openings!  mountebank/scheme is fantastic, soothsayer is another obvious one, and i'd go for it with witch as well (less sure about cultist and the $5 smithy variants).  i think i like ambassador/scheme in a shelters game, not such a big fan of double amb in those.

but the value of scheme goes well beyond openings: it's often a key player in making engines work when there's no trashing.  adam streamed a game vs. ela where he went for smithy-BM and she went for the base game village/smithy engine with no trashing or +buy or attacks (wait, maybe militia?); ela won handily, as workshop & scheme allowed her to build quickly and start every turn with tons of villages & smithies.  without scheme (or workshop, of course), the engine wouldn't have had a hope in hell there.  this tends to apply to a lot of golem games as well, or any board where you can potentially play multiple goons but have to deal with a lot of junk to get there.

[drsteelhammer]

Poor Tunnel. It's not that good, but... worse than Shanty Town? Really? Shanty Town is garbage.

I have Shanty Town on 23 and Tunnel on 41 out of 43. The aforementioned Develop takes place 21.

Lol, I have Tunnel on 41 and Develop at 21,too. Shanty Town at 24, tough