The time has come.
Durations are a design space with lots of cool potential, so I felt some good, balanced ones that would do something very different were possible. These contests have already produced some, but I guessed the current big news in Dominion called for more. I allowed complexity and new mechanics to make more space and because some promos do it, but...with that comes a difficulty; not knowing without playtesting if they're balanced. My conclusions and opinions here might prove to be well off in reality.
Commodity (spineflu)
Treasure Duration, $5 cost.
If you have a Commodity in play, increase the Market Demand track one step. Worth $1 +$ equal to the value on the Market Demand track. At the start of your next turn: +$1. When you discard this from play, lower the Market Demand track one step.
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Market Demand mat: put a coin token on the rightmost space. Move it to the left one space when an effect lowers it once, one right when increased once. (2 3s, then 2 2s, 2 1s, then 0.)
As soon as you play a Commodity there's one in play, so the track always goes up 1. Do you mean 'another'? 'A Commodity' maintains a constant $4 on first turn unless 3 are discarded before another play. 'Another' will maintain a constant if 2 or 4 are constantly rotated, but another player with just one can lower the track. I'll assume 'another' is meant as that's the better design. The Demand will gradually be lowered toward 0 as the game progresses, but the interactivity between players affects how. It's decent and mildly fun; is it worthwhile over Gold though? They both like a thin deck, and Gold will be the better money density.
Fishmonger (segura)
Action Duration, $5 cost.
+1 Card
+1 Action
+1 Buy
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At the start of each of your turns, if this is in play, +1 Buy and Action cards cost $1 less for the turn, but not less than $0. When any player (including you) puts a 6th Action into play, set this aside, then discard it during your next Clean-up.
The way to stop the duration effect tries to create a general incentive for everyone to make Action heavy decks to stop others getting it, but the effect encourages you to do that anyway. So generally it's a temporary Canal for Actions, then a Market Square.
There is something going for your premise of a duration with a stop trigger other than time, and to me that's the biggest interest here, but this I don't feel is the most effective execution.
Sacred Fire (grep)
Action Duration, $3 cost.
+$2
'You may trash a card'.
At the start of each of your turns, if this is in play, you may 'trash a card' for +$1. If you don't, discard this from play and gain a Curse.
Where are you trashing from? If you're following Cathedral I'll assume from hand. Cathedral works right away from next turn, but this can help build up instead. You not only get great trashing (especially when opening 2 of these and getting them turns 3 and 4) but can even hit $5 in the process. The exchange is a Curse or two typically after the first runs, which won't go if you try trashing them with more Fire. That's quite neat; but typically you stop playing it and end up with 2 dead cards, or get to trash the Curse on your last turn, which I worry isn't much of a setback for such power.
Bootlegger (mandioca15)
Action Duration, $5 cost.
Now and at the start of your next turn: reveal the top 3 cards of the Bootlegger deck and play one of them, leaving it there. At the end of your turns, move all cards revealed from the Bootlegger deck to the bottom.
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Setup: make a Bootlegger deck out of unused non-Duration Action kingdom cards.
This fusion of mechanics makes for a very different card than Black Market or Captain, being a random yet unique effect each time. Said unique effect can be radically different played now or start of turn. I can see it being heaps of fun, but what kind of deck actually wants it? I think it needs a little bit of consistency added to it to have an established function.
Source (King Leon)
Action Duration, $4 cost.
At the start of each of your turns, you may rotate this 90° for +1 Action, +1 Buy or +$1. If it's upright after rotation, discard it.
Simple and effective consistency aid on a timer, the $ option always being useful. Nothing really bad to say about it, other than it may be better costing $3. It hardly hurts to add it to a deck, and would probably be a promo for its timing mechanic (tokens or rotation, however done).
Settlement (naitchman)
Night Duration, $7 cost.
If this is the first Settlement you've played this turn, and the previous turn wasn't yours, take another turn after this one and don't discard your cards from play this Clean-up.
It is very much like 'discard your hand, +5 cards, return to your Action phase and set number of Actions and Buys to 1' once per turn, though it also triggers start of turn effects. Outside of the latter part, is it actually a Duration? It's not tracking anything that happens later. Still, its biggest function is as 5-Card Scholar, though it can also let freshly gained cards be played. Restricting it to once per turn is probably sensible to keep safe from some pile-out strategies, but removing it might be more interesting overall. I do like it and it has a promo feel, but its loose Duration justification is a setback.
Veto (Fly-Eagles-Fly)
Action Duration, <4> cost.
+2 Cards
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While this is in play, Vetos cost $1 more. When anyone plays a card costing $4 or less, you may discard this, to have them play that card as a different card costing at most the same from the Supply that they choose. It is that card until it leaves play.
A similar question of viability as a Duration card. I think this really wants to be a Reserve costing $4 or less, it would work so much better. It could well be a great card then.
Keyring (Commodore Chuckles)
Treasure Duration, $3 cost.
Choose one of the Locked piles. That pile is in the Supply while this is in play. Now and at the start of your next turn: +1 Buy and +$1.
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Setup: set aside three extra piles as Locked piles.
It's unlocking a benefit to every player; is there enough self-benefit to justify buying it? There can be if you can choose a pile that you want and your opposition doesn't, or make things so only you can buy from it (like unlocking a $5 pile after an Attack). So it's a mildly strategic card, quite nice.
Trade Vessel (Fragasnap)
Action Duration Victory, $4 cost.
+1 Card
+1 Action
+1 Buy
Each player (including you) gets +1 Buy at the start of their next turn. At the start of your next turn, if any other player gained 2 or more cards during their last turn, +$1.
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Worth 2VP if in play at the end of the game (otherwise 0).
The VP is the focal point here, the buys to everybody slightly pointing to emptying. It's rather dependent on opponents playing along; you can try to get lucky with making the last turn happen with several Vessels out, but if it fails, the odds of opponents finishing is lessened by your extra VP, so the game can lengthen. The early economy boost depends on the same kind of thing, hard to rely on. The result seems to be either a mirror game or a counter-the-first-Vessel-buyer one like with Gardens rush, if the VP is strong enough.
Certainly has the promo feel, but the interest as a player interaction card seems mediocre.
Reward (Gubump)
Treasure Duration, $4 cost.
$1
+1 Buy
At the start of your next turn, +1 Buy and discard any number of cards for +$1 each.
You get Secret Chamber with a starting hand, so there's no handsize reduction from playing it. I can't find much else to say; I don't really like how the SC effect doesn't stack yet it's on a non-terminal, and it also seems weak for $4 (worse Ducat now, something between Artificer and Market Square next turn). I think my favourite of all your entries was the first one.
Charlatan (faust)
Action Attack Duration, $3 cost.
+1 Buy
Until your next turn, when another player buys a card, they choose a card they have in play and exchange it for a card costing at most the same as it with 'a different' type. If they didn't, they return the bought card to the Supply.
At the start of your next turn, gain a Silver to your hand.
'A different type' - does that mean no matching type or have at least one that the card to exchange doesn't have? So could a Marauder be exchanged for an Enchantress? Either way, generally speaking, Coppers will become Curses or engines will be damaged as with Swindler, kingdom depending; although Charlatans can always be swapped with Silvers and back again. So that Silver to hand kinda blocks an opposing Charlatan, as well as makes your deck less of an engine.
I quite like it as a 'fix to Swindler', being much softer and less annoying. It can make everyone, even if just one player buys a Charlatan, play a good-stuff kind of deck, and long term the Attack can become either not very significant or a tedious decision with lots of stuff in play. Will it be fun? I'm not too sure.
Customs (pubby)
Night Attack Duration, $4 cost.
Gain a Spoils from the Spoils pile. Each other player with 5 or more cards in hand reveals their hand and sets aside a card that you choose. At the start of your next turn, they put their set aside cards into their hand.
I made a very similar Attack for an earlier contest. It's a terminal Action, draws 3 cards next turn and no Spoils, and costs $5. I had to further nerf it after playtesting and discussion by looking at hands of exactly 5 cards (the 3 cards are a factor here though). Choosing their card to set aside is fun with thinking ahead to their next turn and quite new to the game, so I would like this, but decimating their immediate turn is so strong sometimes that I feel it needs more setback. Non-terminal and more stackable at $4 looks scary.
Man in Black (NoMoreFun)
Action Duration, $3 cost.
+1 Action
Gain a Curse; set it aside under this. While any cards are under this, at the start of each of your turns, put one of them into your hand, then discard this if none remain.
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While this is in play, when you gain an Action, you may set it aside under this.
It wants to be permanent Cargo Ship for Actions for what will often be -1VP as the curse stays out of deck during its buildup. Replays gain more Curses, so get very early and keep it out right through the building stage. It'll be hard to get going with no initial economy boost, you'll likely have to immediately buy a cheap Action to get it going, but this seems like a neat balancing aid to the power you can get with it later on. A fun Cultist counter too. It is nice, though a very narrow and defined way of use can be frustrating when it doesn't work out.
Mine Worker (grrgrrgrr)
Action Duration Reaction, $5 cost.
Now and at the start of your next turn, you may choose one: trash a Victory from your hand and gain a card costing up to $3 more than it; or discard your hand for +5 Cards.
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At the start of your turns, if you would get an effect from a Duration card, you may reveal this from your hand to instead get that effect next turn.
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In games using this, when you start a turn with 3 or more Durations in play, you may gain a Duchy or 3 Estates.
This looks to be a crazy opening $5. In fact let's just isolate the top part; it can Expand two Estates in one play, later be a kind of Rebuild, with Guide option to line things up. Is that not $6+ worth? The Reaction is neat, I'll give you that, but on a toned down card I think it'll stand out more and be more open to interactions. And the global effect shouldn't be there to avoid making other Durations even stronger; attach it just to Mine Worker somehow. The overall pure Mine Worker strategy would need playtesting to check for speed, with and without a Village.
This is a promo loud and clear, but probably too centralising. 'Speed benchmark cards' like Governor and Rebuild add to the game if they're often beatable, take away from it if they aren't. I don't know this area well enough to give a good estimation here.
Wonder (Kudasai)
Night Duration, <8> cost.
At the start of each of your turns, if this is in play, add 2VP to this. The next time you shuffle, trash this and take the VP.
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This is gained to your hand.
It opens up a new strategy, executed sensibly with debt and gain to hand so timing is easy and avoiding the debt-VP design clash by being a one-shot, and it has simplicity in its favour. KC-KC-Scheme-Scheme-payload-payload (just that in the deck) seems a much more likely infinite deck than those suggested that can get a wonder or two every turn, but hopefully KC and said payload in the game makes a Province deck more viable (and in a mirror the first player to set it up is bound to stay ahead). Really need to see playtesting to be sure of balance, but I'd love this to work.
Gift (majiponi)
Action Duration, $4 cost.
Set aside a card from your hand. At the start of your next turn, if it's an…
Action, gain and play a copy of it;
Treasure, gain a Gold;
Victory. +1VP.
Discard the set aside card.
The balance here looks good, the infinite VP potential is very slow as is the Gold gain rate for saving Coppers. Saving an Action now should be enough sacrifice to gain and play a copy. Simple and convincing with a bit of excitement, I like it.
Prisoner (4est)
Action Attack Duration, $5 cost.
Set aside an Action or Treasure (on this). Until your next turn, when another player plays a copy of it, they first discard a card. At the start of your next turn, play the set aside card.
Setting something aside to play next turn is weak, more so on a terminal, so it's mostly a consideration of whether or not the Attack will be worth it. Coppers will likely hit, but the Action phase will have passed so the potential damage is limited. Actions will need to be in a dud hand to be worth saving, which fair enough Prisoner will likely make happen as it gives nothing immediately.
In conclusion, it may work but at $4 or lower cost.
Armour (artless)
Treasure Duration Victory, $4 cost.
$2
1VP
When another player plays an Attack cards, 'you may call this' to be unaffected by it.
It isn't a Duration, so doesn't qualify. It reads and plays like a Reserve (but even then not correctly).
Council Chamber (anordinaryman)
Action Duration, $5 cost.
Set aside a card other than Copper from your hand (on this). When a card from its pile is played while this is in play: if it's your turn, trash a card you have in play; if not, +1 Card.
(This stays in play.)
This scales awkwardly with player number, similarly to Road Network, so games can go faster with more Chambers out and more draw going on. Possibly the effect could be minor here though. The trash effect on your turns could either be one ability too many, or because it's forced be a balancing aid. I imagine setting aside a Silver will be very handy for possible cards and Copper trashing; this could narrow its most optimal uses down somewhat, and take interest away. Getting the right card in hand can be a fair bit of work and down to chance, yet if you increase the chance with draw and trashing you have less need for this.
It might be a nice card, but there are design risks holding it back a bit for me.
Future Sight (polot38)
Action Duration, $4 cost.
Put a +1 Card counter, a +1 Action counter and a +$1 counter on this. At the start of each of your turns, if any counters remain, remove up to 2 of them and get their bonuses.
The action and coin counters are worse than a Villager and Coffers respectively, less flexible, and the times you want to save a +Card token and not use it right away are few. Ghost Town and Fishing Village are comparisons worth $3 for the two-token starts you can do. So really weak, and Source is better.
Cultivate (alion8me)
Action Duration, $3 cost.
+1 Card
+1 Action
At the start of your next turn, you may discard a Victory card. If you do, +1 Card and +$1.
It is quite narrow; if you somehow prepare your next hand with Victories in it, then you're getting not much more than Caravan Guard as what you draw would likely be in your hand in place of the Victory anyway. So it's better as an unprepared chance at a Fugitive+, not too fun strategically. I just think doing the discard now and next turn would be better, to define its role a bit more and let it be planned for this turn, even if it would be more expensive.
Shortlist: Source, Settlement, Keyring, Man in Black, Wonder, Gift.
Runner-up: Gift by majiponi
Winner: Wonder by KudasaiThere's potential in a lot of your designs, and they could all be made into something great. Wonder is exactly the kind of card I was hoping to see and at first glance appears balanced, so well done Kudasai!
Author
Topic: Weekly Design Contests #1 - #100 (Read 1559837 times)