CONTEST #64 RESULTSAnother round of apologies are in order for yet another delay. I’ve suddenly come down with an illness and thought it best to rest last night versus finish this up. But even with the delays I’m still coming in at just under 7 days from the last results posting! Ultimately I didn’t get to write as comprehensive of a review for each entry as I would have liked, but hopefully there is enough here to work off of. If anyone is looking for more feedback please just personal message me!
Spectacle - NoMoreFun (
http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=18987.msg825192#msg825192)
$3 cost Lost City on first play, but with a very sharp power drop-off on all future plays. Generally this will lead to players only grabbing 1 or 2 of these. Clever players who can avoid collisions may try for 3. The rewards may be worth the risk. In general though I believe if a card is going to offer a big pay-off it has to be earned and not given immediately. Crossroads is a good example. The big pay-off is good drawing power, which potentially gets better with each play. The once per turn effect of getting Actions is just there to help with that.
Mountaintop Outpost - [TP] Inferno (
http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=18987.msg825206#msg825206)
Certainly feels like it favors Big Money. Could help accelerate Engine play, but you’d need a decent mix of Treasures to make that work. This could be fun if two things happen: (1) BM isn’t sped up too much and (2) this works with some sort of hybrid Treasure-Action engine. I can only speculate, but I think this will almost only ever work with the former. Maybe if it gave a bit of base coin to spend for your next turn? This might expand the number of ways players can use this.
Barter - mandioca15 (
http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=18987.msg825280#msg825280)
This can occur more than once per turn. Play Barter, gain a card through an Action that comes with a cheaper card from Barter, play another Barter, etc, etc. But barring that this is just a cheaper, weaker Haggler. The cheaper gain happening once per turn could be a buff though. Hagglers forced, cheaper gain on every card gained can be a bit rough.
Craftsman - grep (
http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=18987.msg825291#msg825291)
A cheap cantrip with no immediate benefit, but with potential rewards later on in the game. I think the key to pulling cards like this off is making sure they are only viable at most 50% of the time and I think this achieves that. Players will have to think hard about if the buildup is worth it. Even when this isn’t viable as a gainer, cantrips have a wide range of uses now-a-days. “Ways” being the most recent! Throwing the cantrip portion on the bottom is clever and really accentuates the once per turn aspect.
Samoyed - spineflu (
http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=18987.msg825298#msg825298)
Strong first play and then a big fall-off. Similar issues could arise as with NoMoreFun’s Spectacle. Please see that for more info!
Regent - D782802859 (
http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=18987.msg825303#msg825303)
Clever use of the once per turn effect! Being able to do three good things only once is interesting, but I wish the choice being made had more of an impact. For instance, maybe the first time you play this you get an enhanced version of whatever choice you make. As it stands though, there is certainly incentive to grab 3-5 of these to make sure you’re getting all of the effects. I didn’t factor this into my judgement, but the effects do seem too strong.
Bell Tower - Aquila (
http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=18987.msg825306#msg825306)
Always ahead of the curb. First with Villager tokens and now with converting +Cards into +Coin. You generally want draw power early in your turn and coin later, but the fun part about this is trying to get the timing on that transition correct. Affecting all draw from all cards seems a bit hard to work around, but it does give 4 cards or 4 coins. Knocking it down to 3 each and having it only effect itself might be more manageable.
King - Kru5h (
http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=18987.msg825351#msg825351)
As with a few other cards on here, the main issue with this is that it has limited functionality after it’s first play. You probably only really want 1 for this reason, but being a $6 cost you might only want 1 anyways. The fact that it can gain itself really pushes a player to try and run a deck with more than one. I do enjoy this aspect.
Sycophant - somekindoftony (
http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=18987.msg825373#msg825373)
An interesting twist on a card that wants to avoid collisions with itself. The influx of Golds makes that statistically more viable. Although I have had some issues with cards that have limited functionality after the first play, I do like the Gold gaining aspect of this and that it is contingent on gaining more Sycophants Certainly fancy, but the hope is that it’s also functional.
Hierophant - Gazbag (
http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=18987.msg825409#msg825409)
I think you summed your card up nicely! I really like the power arch of this throughout the game. Starts off mediocre, gets really good, but then weaker than it started. How fast you go through that progression is completely up to you the player as well. Even with no ability to get extra Actions, this is just useful enough that you might get it for $2. What I really enjoy is that no matter how the card is functioning, it will always be deck neutral. A little touch that helps with developing strategies around it.
Lessor/Bogus Lands - X-tra (
http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=18987.msg825412#msg825412)
As you pointed out, this can technically be played more than once, but I’ll judge it as if it could not be.
Bogus Lands is quite brutal. A stop card you can’t trash, although now there are options to get rid of them via Exciling. Even so, players will generally have no answer for dealing with all the Bogus Lands they are getting. They do sort of self defend, but I’m not sure how that will play out. Building anything around Lessor’s Victory card cost reduction seems wonky as you can lose them at any point, so you probably only want 1 or 2 Lessors purely to junk your opponents. I appreciate all the subtle interactions the mechanics of Lessor and Bogus Lands offer, but I don’t really see all the un-trashable junking and emphasis on building a mega-turn with that junk in your deck working out. If you’ve done any playtesting I’d love to hear how it went though!
Cask of Amontillado - Violet CLM (
http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=18987.msg825451#msg825451)
A severely buffed Chapel. Could be some opportunities to build a bit of an engine in an attempt to get more than 4 cards on your Exile mat per turn. Mainly I think you just get this early and play it as often as possible. Where Chapel falls off and can have some collision issues early on this has none of those problems. Probably too good to be fun.
Mad Fairy - majiponi (
http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=18987.msg825925#msg825925)
Powerful, even for a once per use, but ultimately I believe it runs into issues not having any functionality afterwards.
Meadow / Unicorn - scolapasta (
http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=18987.msg825964#msg825964)
There’s a lot of good early game functionality here. Trashing an Estate at the start of your turn gives you a 7 card hand. A nice reward given getting Unicorns can take awhile. I think the most interesting decision comes when your Estates are gone. Do you immediately go for a Unicorn per turn to try and the maximum VP, or do you hold off, keeping your deck clean. Interesting choice!
Thank you all for participating, especially during previews week!
RESULTS:
3: Hierophant - Gazbag (
http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=18987.msg825409#msg825409)
2: Sycophant - somekindoftony (
http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=18987.msg825373#msg825373)
1: Craftsman - grep (
http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=18987.msg825291#msg825291) <-------WINNER!!!