Possible spoiler or anti-spoiler: my initial impression agrees with upvotes in that I liked Rejuvenate the best. However, last time I've changed my mind while thinking about cards more. Let's see if that happens again.
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Engine -- mandioca15
Very nice! I love the idea of being able to burn through arbitrary action cards for extra resources, which is of course why I chose the theme. This is exactly the kind of design I was thinking about myself.
If you just use it to trash itself, you have a one-shot lab for 4$, which is quite weak (compares poorly to experiment and even Ride, which is weak), but still strong enough to be bought occasionally. It's great against ruins, which many of these cards are, and has quite a bit of potential in your final turns. Maybe the fact that your last turn could be so powerful is an issue? But it's probably fine; Madmen can also be a one-shot draw your entire deck, and Madman is one of my favorite cards. I think the fact that this has to nuke your potential (i.e., eat all of your action cards) for a mega turn is neat.
Runner-up |  |
Gravedigger -- Carline
I know this one was updated a lot. I think the current version is particularly tricky to evaluate. As a mid-game utility card it seems quite underwhelming; sacrificing a good card to make your next turn better is eh. You can get it back next time, but even if that works and your opponent doesn't steal it from the trash first, you have played to 5$s to trash one card and make one turn better. Compares poorly to vampire.
I think the ways in which it's strong enough are (a) to ignore the bottom and just get good cards from the trash (trash a card from your hand; gain a card costing 5+$ is altar power level, and it's non-terminal as well -- and imagine the combination with trash for benefit/platinum/gravedigger) or as an endgame card. Trash a gold that you don't need because the game ends next turn, get the 5 best cards out of 11 next turn.
Overall, I think it's an interesting design. I'm not sure it needs to cost 5$, and I might like it better if it said 'card costing up to 6$' rather than 'non-victory card'. It would stop some of the strongest combos while enabling it to get back duchies. |  |
Overwork -- LittleFish
An interesting comparison here is Mining Village. If you have regular villlages, you can turn those into mining villages using this card. Or more generally, it gives other cards the 'get +2$ extra but trash this' bonus. Unlike Mining Village, it does nothing without support, and it can also target Action cards you don't want at all. In particular, you can make cards that are effectively cantrips into one-shot conspirators. Another difference is that Mining Village is a card you want to buy anyway just for the top effect, so it's only a question of when to trash it, not if. This one has more decision on buy.
I like it.
Runner-up. |  |
Looters -- Xen3k
It is a mistake to underestimate Villagers. If this card only had the vanilla bonus, it would absolutely be worth buying.
Now, the part below the horizontal line can be negative. However, you get it either way, so it doesn't make the card weaker.
In a BM game, you'll probably want it since the chance to connect with a ruin is high, and in that case it's quite good. In an engine, you'll buy it because the top half is strong and connecting it with the few ruins you do have is a bonus.
A side-effect of this design is that opening silver becomes much worse. This incentivizes double terminal openings. It also incentivizes silver/looters which is quite good if they connect immediately.
In summary, not a bad design, but probably too swingy for my taste. I worry that you'll almost always buy it, and then it'll be mostly luck dependent how well it works out. |  |
Bodysnatcher -- spineflu
My biggest complaint about this one is that the top and bottom half don't feel connected. Why does upgrading a card attack the opponent? And why doesn't it work if you regain the same card? I would also ask the last question in terms of power level.
I also worry that it's a bit strong. The primary reason why upgrading 3$'s into 5$'s isn't good is that it requires you to not play the Action card costing 3$. But upgrading a village into a lab after you've played it quite good, and this can also upgrade it into an Altar, or a Forge. That alone seems almost worth 5$, and the attack on top of it should make it a high priority buy. But it'll be useless if you don't draw it with an Action card.
I do like the 'gain a silver and a curse' effect.
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Plagued Village -- majiponi
This is similar to Engine. I do like it, but not as much. In particular, it's more similar to Mining Village; you'll buy it just for the top half, and then it's just a question of when you use it. It also compares very favorably to Mining Village; the on-trash effect is quite a bit strong and it's a lot more flexible.
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Cook -- anordinaryman
This does the 'upgrade village to lab' effect I've talked about earlier, but it's only 2$ more. This seems quite reasonable.
The interesting aspect for me here is: this feels like something I could have designed, only I would have made it 'non-Duration Action card'. I think your version is better; it allows self-trashing to gain a card costing 6$, which is a nice compensation if it fails to connect with Action cards, and sometimes you may even do it on purpose. It then compares in an ok way to Feast.
I like it. It seems well thought out. Very obscure art btw.
Runner-up.
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Bifurcation -- X-tra
Cards costing 5$ that have a terminal +3$ have the property that the remaining bonus can be something experimental or situational, and that's still fine. (Existing cards include Legionary, Treasurer, Livery, and Mandarin, although that one should probably have +4$). This one is like that, too. I think this is a solid design. I like that gaining two cards is mandatory, and that they have to both be different.
It narrowly misses Runner-up status since I kind of agree with what anordinaryman said. If there are two 5$s, this is bonkers. That wouldn't be terrible since it's not swingy, but still dominate the strategy a bit much, and you can just do it over and over again. I think I would prefer it better if it couldn't trash itself.
(Fun note: imagine playing this on a Prince to gain a Province and a Sprawling Castle.)
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Hostile Village -- Aquila
If the +2 cards for trashing were voluntary, this would be the third card that's similar to Mining Village (and quite busted since it has the strongest vanilla bonus). However, here the trashing is mandatory. This changes the design a lot since you can't just stock up villages and trash them later.
If you use it on itself, it's a one-shot double experiment+village. That is pretty strong. You pay 1$ extra for the +Action; that seems like a good deal. This will make it a very attractive target for workshop variants. Additionally, it can also turn other cards into double experiment+village.
I think it's fine, but bordering on being too powerful. I do agree that the Fortress combination isn't an issue, although the combo is even more bonkers than Apprentice. (Both give you a 3 card advantage and this also gives you a 2 Action advantage.) Still, it's part of the design of Fortress that it enables extremely powerful effects, and I generally don't have an issue with that.
Side Note: if you update an entry, edit the original post. I notice that a fix of this was discussed (though I don't think it's necessary), but it wasn't 'made official'.
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Landmine -- LibraryAdventurer
My big gripe here is that this is political. Even though I never play dominion with more than 2 people, I think the non-political-card taboo is something we should honor.
I get the idea: it returns to your hand, so you can use it on the next player's turn as well. But that doesn't make it non-political. it also just becomes stronger with more people.
And a small penalty for small text.
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Reanimate -- gambit05
If you play this once, it's pretty weak. The vanilla bonus is nothing extraordinary (you often get the same with Conclave) and the penalty is significant. Good as a Ruins/Necropolis trasher, of course.
If you play it several times, the versions after this are Conclaves that trigger. Also, you can do other Trash for Benefit-y stuff and the Actions come back.
I think the idea is good. My complaint is that it seems too weak. Almost all cards in Dominion trash from your hand, so the combo with other trashers is fairly hard to pull off, and the self-combo is too weak to be worth it; the vanilla bonus just isn't impressive. The updated version is certainly better than the original, but I don't think it's going far enough. I think I'd like it a lot more if it were +3 Actions.
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Junkyard -- Doom_Shark
I think this is a pretty solid design. it can non-terminally trash coppers for +1$ (since you play the copper), which is similar to Forager. A bit weaker, which is fine since this is also a Victory Card. Bonus points since it feels very elegant and cohesive. The effect is simple, makes sense, and fits with the name.
However, I have three complaints. #1 is that the wording is ambiguous as to whether it trashes itself or the card played. No-one is likely to think the former since that would make it quite useless, but I still don't think it's good (could just say 'that card' instead of 'it'. #2, also on wording, is that, while I assume you get the effect of the card you play, this doesn't seem clear. (Maybe 'after you played a card'?) Third is that it would be quite annoying to resolve, especially online, since you have to make an extra decision after every card you play.
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Touch of Midas -- grep
Interesting. This is an entirely different take on the Soylent Green effect; instead of converting cards into better Action cards (which is the classical approach) or into Vanilla Boni (which is what I had in mind), it turns them into money.
In practice, I think this commits you to playing a gold-heavy game. If you trash Action cards, it becomes harder to connect it in the future, and it's terrible if you can't connect it. However, I think the powerlevel is on the strong side.
I like it a lot. Props for designing a Big Money card that could actually compete with Engines.
Runner-up.
|  | Overwork -- faust
A Seize the day variant that costs Action cards instead of only being buyable once.
I disagree with the public's take here; I like this a lot. The effect is powerful but also self-restricting since paying it makes your deck weaker. I don't think I particularly buy the first player advantage. These kinds of things have a self-regulating effect: you want to buy it before your opponent but as late as possible. The same thing exists in Prismata and works fine. I imagine this being a very high skill card, but in an elegant way. I also like it thematically; all of your Actions have to work extra hard to give you this turn.
I believe it is possible to buy this several times in the same turn and take several extra turns since the previous turn wasn't yours. Is that broken? Maybe, but I'm going to guess no. You have to pay the cost up front, and if your deck is that good that you can trash at least three action cards and be fine, someone should have probably bought it earlier.
Note that the font is only small because I'm normalizing the card-shaped entries for a fixed width, which makes events look worse than they really are. This looks perfectly fine in normal size.
Runner-up.
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Spellbook -- scott_pilgrim
I usually always like scott's cards. This is an exception -- I think it's way too weak to be playable. Initially, I thought this said 'and' as in, you move all tokens to that pile. That made a lot more sense to me. Buying this, then connecting it with two cards, then trashing both, then keeping the dead spellbook, all for one token; no way that's strong enough.
Did you, by any chance, intend for this to say 'and'?
As an aside: the bonuses should be upper-case ('I.e., 'Card token' not 'card token').
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Rejuvenate -- TheAgileBeast
Another reminder to please edit your original post when you update a card. Don't make the judge search to find the right version.
Anyway, here we are! This card has gotten some serious competition at this point, but I still like a it quite a lot. I think returning to your Action phase is a clever way to implement the Soylent effect.
The way it's designed, the card is extremely strong. The vanilla bonus is like playing a Bazaar (replaces itself, and +1$ and +1 Action on net) in addition to saving your entire turn. Saving your turn is so valuable that you'd often be willing to trash a good Action card for it even without the additional boni. But Villa is also stronger than it needs to be, and I like the way it plays.
Not much else to say here. It's great.
Runner-up.
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Ravage -- Something_Smart
Getting you directly to provinces is certainly another way to do it. I think this is an okay idea, but less interesting than the various indirect ways we've seen so far (particularly thinking of faust's overwork here). It feels a bit too easy; you almost always want to buy Action cards anyway and you almost always want provinces; the only decision here is when to fire.
The Copper/Ruins-trashing aspect is neat, though. Plus points for that.
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silverfish -- chronostrike
I foresee people falling onto their noses pretty hard with this one. If you buy it as an early trasher, it's quite bad. Trashing your Coppers with this will give you more silverfish, which won't do much of anything. This is a big trap. It's kind of like rats in that way, but quite a bit worse since Rats draw a card and this doesn't. It can trash itself, but drawing two 3$s to then turn one of them into a 2$ is not good.
The best usage is probably to turn Gold into Duchies in the late game. Which is fine, but not too exciting.
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Playwright-- D782802859
Please update your original posts!
So this card turns other cards into Feasts. I think that's a perfectly fine idea. I don't think it's stronger than Improve; the vanilla bonus is significant.
I don't like the 'would' phrasing, though. Why not the Improve wording with 'at the start of Clean-up'?
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Chronlicler -- Timinou
So, this copies an Action card you have in play and then turns it into a Duchy. I like it (it narrowly misses Runner-up). You'll almost always buy it, but the timing and quantity could be tricky here. Also some neat interactions with Alt VP.
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King's Tent -- Fragasnap
A one-shot throne room. That's a fine idea.
The reaction is a neat idea, but it may be a bit much. At least, I feel like you should have to trash your King's tent to do this. Otherwise, you just gained a Rabble for free. Still, not a bad design.
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There were a lot of great cards here. It helps that I'm a fan of this design space, but really, there are a bunch that look like contest winners to me.
Final Verdict:
#6: Overwork (LittleFish)
#5: Cook
#4: Engine
#3: Rejuvenate
#2: Touch of Midas
#1: Overwork (faust)
Maybe not the result anyone expected, but if I go by 'how excited would I be to play with this', this card is the winner. |
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Topic: Weekly Design Contests #1 - #100 (Read 1327691 times)