I think we can figure most of the deleted cards out from the Dominion time machine thread. There's 6 cards in each of Dominion and Intrigue. Let's see what Donald said about what he would fix given the chance:
I'm there for you guys with the tough answers.
Main set:
The big thing is to add more replayability. There are six vanilla cards and probably five would have been fine; the obvious one to replace is Woodcutter. Woodcutter is a fine card for the main set but the other vanilla cards are all better. That means all of the +buy cards would cost $5 but I can live with that. After that, Feast adds very little. Chancellor doesn't add much and would have been better in Intrigue (where it came from); the fact that it's a puzzler is way better in an expansion than in the main set. And finally there's Spy. Spy is slow to resolve, that's the big thing. Over the years I have learned that ideally Spy-type attacks don't have +1 action, or don't involve a decision, or both. Rabble is exactly what I want. Spy has +1 action and involves a decision, so you potentially make tons of decisions per turn. I like decisions but man Spy is not where to get them. It initially got to interact with two attacks that trashed cards from the top of your deck, and that's cool, but now it only interacts with Thief (in the main set that is), and that combo just isn't worth the slot.
The way to think of these things is, imagine the replacement cards. Let's say I just take out Woodcutter and Feast and put in Wishing Well and Coppersmith. Those are not top-of-the-line adored-by-all go-in-every-deck cards. But they still give you more to do than Woodcutter and Feast do.
It would be nice if Thief were stronger, but it already scares new players, and once everyone was new. There are some wording tweaks; Throne Room and Moneylender should of course say "you may." I would try coloring the coins on the treasures. The Trash card should be a mat instead.
There are people who complain about various other cards, but I am happy with those, so there.
I think this means the following:
- Woodcutter is clearly gone and replaced with a non-vanilla card.
- Feast is gone.
- Chancellor is gone, and maybe some fixed version of it will move to Intrigue. Although I'm not 100% sure, now that Scavenger and Messenger exist Donald might find it unnecessary.
- Spy is replaced with a different card that requires fewer decisions.
- Thief might be removed entirely or it might get a buff, but doing so is of course hard without turning it into Noble Brigand.
I think it's safe to say these 5 cards will get the banhammer (or a serious overhaul). Which card will be the sixth one? Adventurer seems to be most obvious based on our experience as players, but I don't think there's anything more we can say based on the information we have.
Throne Room and Moneylender get the fixes Donald has wanted for a long time. What we didn't know is that he'd also fix Mine, but I guess it makes sense. And the trash card is now a mat, as predicted. Moving on.
Intrigue:
Saboteur is the biggest mistake here. Some people hate it because it can trash Provinces, some because it's an attack that doesn't make resources (which was a surprise but there it is), some just don't like it because it's weak. Some people like it, but the kind of person who wants an attack like this deserves one that has fewer strikes against it - like, Swindler, there you go.
Moats have to be on the weak side, but I would probably still try to improve Secret Chamber. It also has the issue of making reactions confusing - the whole business of, reveal Secret Chamber, resolve it, reveal a Moat I drew off of it. It would be better to avoid that issue, even if it meant just not doing Secret Chamber's reaction.
I would look at ways to buff Scout. I would consider changing Mining Village to avoid invoking the enigmatic "lose track" rule. I would consider whether I like Bridge and Coppersmith as is, in their Throne-able glory, or if I would rather phrase them the way I think such stuff in general should be phrased, like Highway etc. Masquerade originally triggered gain/trash things; I would look at that again, but honestly I would be unlikely to just reword it to address the King's Court / Masquerade / Goons combo. Masquerade has a clear simple wording and I would rather kill the card than make the wording awful, an awful that you dear reader may be mystified as to the awfulness of, I have come to terms with that. But I'm not sure I need to kill the combo and Masquerade is a pretty cool card.
- Saboteur is gone, and maybe replaced with a trashing attack that has 'fewer strikes against it', but maybe it's just deleted altogether because there's already Swindler, and a completely different card takes its place. Also, apparently Swindler is staying, great!
- Secret Chamber is replaced by a different Reaction card.
- Scout gets a buff or it might turn into a different card entirely.
- Mining Village gets changed to avoid the lose track rule.
The other 2 cards are still unclear. Masquerade is fixed, even though Donald said earlier that he didn't want to kill the KC/Masq/Goons combo (sadness), but it doesn't count because it's a fairly minor change. Bridge has been confirmed to stay as it is, but Coppersmith has not, which makes me think that Coppersmith is leaving (much sadness). And the sixth card... again, no clue whatsoever, but many people in this thread have said Harem due to flavor and artwork issues. I guess that would make sense.
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Therefore, my predictions would be:
Base: Woodcutter, Feast, Chancellor, Spy, Thief, Adventurer(?)
Intrigue: Saboteur, Secret Chamber, Scout, Mining Village, Coppersmith, Harem(?)
