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Author Topic: Weekly Design Contests #1 - #100  (Read 1546467 times)

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segura

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Re: Weekly Design Contest Thread
« Reply #5350 on: April 16, 2020, 01:52:14 pm »
0



Sparrow
Type: Action
Cost: $4

Choose one:
+2 Cards or +1 VP.

You may play a Sparrow from your hand.
-
When you buy this, put all Sparrows from your discard pile on the top of your deck.
Nonterminal unconditional VP tokens have an obvious Golden Deck abuse potential. Sure, it is no cantrip but with some draw power you can get more than 5VPs per turn.
It is easier to buy a Duchy than to play a Sparrow three times.
True that. But it is harder to gain a Duchy and (the equivalent of) a Laboratory than it is to play 3 Sparrows. If you compare green and VP tokens, you have to take into account that the former takes space in your deck whereas the latter does not.

Quote
Plunder / Monument in Capitalism / Groundskeeper are a way more abusable.
I agree that some cards like Groundskeeper or, probably the worst culprit, Goons can be very centralizing. But all cards and landscape cards that produce VP tokens either feature a limited supply of them (many Landmarks, Farmer's Market) or lead the game towards the end, either because they produce Coins (all Prosperity cards) or because they require gaining (directly like Groundskeeper or indirectly because they require stuff to trash like Tomb and Temple).

I don't think that one should violate this very design principle, it is obviously not accidental.

Back to the actual Golden deck potential of Sparrow, while I don't think that the card is centralizing in many Kingdoms, the Golden deck is easy to set up. For example a deck that consists of 9 Sparrows (theoretically obviously not possible, you do at least need a gainer) yields 7VPs per turn (play 2 Sparrows to draw, 7 for the VPs).
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Fragasnap

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Re: Contest #69: Pseudo-terminal
« Reply #5351 on: April 16, 2020, 01:57:30 pm »
+4

With apologies for the delays (writing this up has taken more time than I expected, and even then I haven't edited nearly as much as I'd like to):

Coronation
Types: Action
Cost: $5
If this is the first Coronation you have played this turn, gain a Gold onto your deck. Otherwise, you may play an Action card from your hand three times.
I like this one a fair bit because it introduces a meaningful and unique problem to what is otherwise a very powerful card.  You need to build a bit before you want to start using Coronation to get its King's Court effect, while the Gold-to-deck function is new and passable on $5 and causes you to use its

Stockade
Types: Action
Cost: $4
+2 Cards, +1 Buy. You may trash this, for +1 Action.
+Buy is something you don't really want to throw away, so the trashing effect seems like a get-out-of-jail function to toss it when its draw works poorly otherwise, but that "+2 Cards and +1 Buy" function is rare enough and likely well balanced at $4.  Pretty good.

Fool's Laboratory
Types: Action
Cost: $2
+2 Cards. If you don't have another copy of this in play, +1 Action.
I do not like the esoteric wording here to combo with Throne Room variants and Command cards.
The first is a Laboratory which is a bit silly, while the second is a Moat which is middling to bad (depending on trashing and junking).  So buying the first is trivial, but the question of whether you should buy more than one is virtually identical to every other +2 Cards card. I wouldn't call the card broken, but it's not very interesting.

Courier
Types: Action, Reaction
Cost: $4
+2 Cards. You may play an Action that costs more than this from your hand.
Directly after resolving an Action that costs less than this on your turn, you may play this from your hand.
Getting +2 Actions from it via a $3-cost and $5-cost Action might be difficult enough, but I'm not sure this needs to do both as Laboratory at $4 is already very strong, let alone that it can be even stronger than that.  I mostly get into my head how frustrating this card would be, trying to draw it with such a variety of Action costs: The payout for doing so is so large that you might have to try regardless.  The paradigm shift of whether the more or less expensive card is the on-play and which is the Reaction also isn't very memorable which could lead to misplaying the card: I would much prefer a name that implies the direction, like Climber as you suggested.

Bridle Craftsman
Types: Action
Cost: $4
+2 Cards. If you have played a Horse this turn, +1 Action. Otherwise, gain a Horse.
The trick here is that you want to be able to play at least one of your Bridle Craftsman terminally so that you don't run out of Horses and end up with a deck full of terminal Bridle Craftsman cards.  It seems like trying to find a Horse to turn the other Bridle Craftsman cards into Laboratories will be difficult enough to make over-buying Bridle Craftsman a real concern.  I like it.

Dalmatian
Types: Action, Reaction
Cost: $3
Gain 2 Horses. You may play a Horse from your hand.
When another player plays a Horse, you may discard this to gain a Horse to your hand.
Another 2-Horser along with Cavalry, Paddock, and Sleigh.  The reaction is a tad fiddly because you have to pause the first time you play a Horse and ultimately pointless due to the raw strength of Dalmatian.  By the time you play Dalmatian 3 times, even without significant support, you can probably expect to trigger the Dalmatian→Horse every time which increases the number of Horses you have.  This will drain the Horse pile rapidly, especially in multiplayer, which gives it a dynamic that doesn't seem to be a consideration in other Horsers: Horses being unlimited seems to be the intent of them (regardless of how Livery goes).  I don't hate it, but I'm leery to put it out as I think it will be too game dominating, especially if any Way appears with it.

Commissioner
Types: Action, Command
Cost: $6
Gain a non-Command Action card costing up to $4 and play it.
Unfortunately, having played with cards like this, I can confirm that they don't work well in multiplayer games due to the limitation of the Supply.  There needs to be some strong bounding that prevents this from draining piles to nothing (for example Dominion: Season's Ballroom).  I might recommend gaining "a non-Command Action card costing up to $4 from a pile with at least 4 cards in it."

Beachcomber
Types: Action
Cost: <5>
Reveal the top 3 cards of your deck and put them in your hand. If there were no Treasures, Actions, or Nights revealed, +1 Action.
I'm not sure this giving +1 Action will virtually ever change anything about the way it plays. You typically won't play your Smithy if you have other Actions in hand because those Actions are either non-terminal or payload from which you would expect to gain more benefit than drawing 3 dead cards from your misfiring deck.  I guess maybe it would be better in money-focused deck where drawing 2 Beachcombers together has some ghost of a chance of being played non-terminally which would allow you to play the other Beachcomber.  If that assumption is correct, this will virtually only be different than Smithy by virtue of costing debt.

This entry was erased and replaced with Interchange, but I captured it before and wrote a bit on it before it was removed, so it is maintained for posterity.
Quote
Terrier
Types: Action, Treasure
Cost: $4
When you gain or play this, +2 Cards, and you may put a card from your hand onto your deck.
This one is very technically terminal, because if you use it as an Action it is a Courtyard- being both more expensive and less effective. I imagine the primary use of Terrier is to simply act as a Laboratory in Treasure form, which is probably too strong at a cost of $4.

Outlaw
Types: Action
Cost: $5
+3 Cards. You may discard 3 cards. If you do, +1 Action.
I've played with a card named Alehouse since 2015 that did this for a bit.  It was decent but quite boring and very, very weak whenever you did discard cards.  Doing more than acting as a Warehouse when discarding would make it much more interesting.

Hearth
Types: Action
Cost: $4
Choose one: +2 Cards and add a Villager to the Hearth Supply pile; or take the Villagers from the pile.
When you gain or trash this, add a Villager to the Hearth Supply pile.
This has shades of Wild Hunt, providing a repeating and communal source of Villagers, which sounds much more fun than Wild Hunt's often explosive VP. 

Ironworker
Types: Action
Cost: $5
+2 Cards. Reveal the top three cards of your deck. You may discard any number of them. If you discarded at least two... Action cards, +1 Action; Treasure cards, +1 Buy and +$1, Victory cards, +1 Card.
The ability to sift Treasures is probably alright to make this a source of +Buy.  Discarding Actions for +Actions seems like such a non-starter of a function though.

Sorcerer
Types: Action, Command
Cost: $6
Play a non-Command Action card from the Supply costing up to $4, leaving it there. If the card has no +Cards amount in its text, +1 Action.
So Sorcerer turns the stop-cards it plays either non-terminal or anti-terminal.  This seems like a fairly marginal benefit due to the proliferation of cantrips at $3 and $4.  Spinning up a few Kingdoms, its only change from Band of Misfits is that you can often target terminal Silvers or some tempo-trashers at <$4-cost.  Unless it appear with cards like Watchtower or Envoy that don't "+Cards" but do "Draw" cards (which is a problem Donald X. wrote about under Seize the Day in the Menagerie Secret History), this seems like it will play largely as a weaker version of Band of Misfits.

Angry Mob
Types: Action, Attack
Cost: $5
+$2. Each other player gains a Curse into hand, and if they did, discards a card. If anyone of them discards a Curse, +1 Action
This has political issues in multiplayer games because discards are asynchronous, but they probably don't matter.  Much like Bard, you likely can't play Angry Mob with the assumption that it will be non-terminal, which makes its non-terminal function circumstantial.  I think you want this function on a thing that would be happier to have the +Action.

Prospector
Types: Action, Reaction
Cost: $2
+1 Card, +$1
Whenever any player buys a treasure you may set this aside from your hand. If you do, play it at the start of your next turn.
"+1 Card and +$1" is really bad.  The ability to play it later by buying a Treasure doesn't make it a whole lot better: In the situation that players would buy a lot of Treasures, there won't be enough +actions on the board to justify buying Prospectors.  The only way it really functions is triggering it yourself to get the additional +Cards next turn, but then it needs additional Buys and the ability to weather accumulating many Treasures, which not many decks can do very well.

Cooper
Types: Action
Cost: $4
Gain a card costing up to $4. If it costs $3 or less: +1 Card and +1 Action. If it costs $1 or less, +1 Buy and +$1.
Having played with $4 Workshop variants that can quickly drain $3 cards, the size of the Supply is a rather unpredictable problem in multiplayer games: If there are good Workshop targets a $3, the game ends so fast on piles with such blanket gaining on a cantrip.  I'd recommend shifting the benefits incurred so that it only becomes non-terminal when gaining those super cheap cards.

Sparrow
Types: Action
Cost: $4
Choose one: +2 Cards or +1 VP. You may play a Sparrow from your hand.
When you buy this, put all Sparrows from your discard pile on the top of your deck.
I imagine it is typically correct to assume "+1VP play another of this" will be very slow in the average case, the abuse case of a golden "+4VP to +7VP per turn forever," leaves me wondering why this even has +VP attached to it.  While the +2 Cards chain is a fairly powerful effect on its own, the ability to shift to +VP attached to it doubles-down the incentive to build a deck that is made of nothing but Sparrows, and that doesn't sound very fun.  The top-decking thing is cute though.

Sexton
Types: Action
Cost: $3
You may discard a card from your deck. Look through your discard pile. Choose one: trash exactly 2 cards from your discard pile; or +1 Action and put a card from your discard pile into your hand.
Per the 2019 Errata, you can omit "look through your discard pile."  I like the idea of a blanket discard trasher, but as someone who considers Chapel's turn 3\4 variance a bit much, Sexton's is even worse, varying from "trash a Copper out of hand (or +1 Card and +1 Action if you flip your turn 2 buy)" to "trash 2 Estates out of hand".  The deck-discard effect is a neat improvement, but I'd much rather it buff itself to a $4-cost that can "discard up to 2" and "trash up to 2".

Quote
Friar
Types: Action
Cost: $4
Look at the top 2 cards of your deck. Trash any number of them and put the rest back in any order. If you trashed a card costing $3 or more and you don't have the Tunic: +1 Card, +1 Action and take the Tunic.
Quote
Tunic
Types: Artifact

When you play a Friar: +1 Action and put the cards you don't trash into your hand instead of onto your deck.
Friar begins its life as a terminal Sentry, but can be upgraded into a Laboratory+Sentry.  The cost of taking the Tunic is a sort of counter-point to Flag Bearer: Instead of buying\trashing a terminal Silver, you trash another Silver at minimum.  Because you can take the Tunic from a player, it likely pulls Friar back into a moderately reasonable position: If someone takes the Tunic from you, you can trash one of your otherwise troublesome terminal Friars to make the rest non-terminal.  It is easier to draw your deck with Laboratories, so fast-trashing with Laboratory Friars is probably a bad idea.
This is clever. I like it.

Informer
Types: Action, Command
Cost: $4
The player to your left reveals cards from their deck until they reveal a non-Command, non-Duration Action card, discarding the rest. You may play it, leaving it there. If you didn't, +$2.
The cards that don't specify that the card goes back are all cards that look at or reveal exactly 1 card (even Oracle says how the 2 go back), so this still reads funny.  I won't hold that against the card, though.  So the ideal of Informer is randomly flipping up a powerful $5-cost Action to play, as otherwise you could have bought and played the Action yourself (because Informer costs $4) without garnering a sifting benefit to the player to your left.  I like the player interaction idea, but this just seems terribly weak.

Fixed Horse Race
Types: Action
Cost: $4
Each other player may set aside a card from their hand face down. Reveal a card from your hand. Each other player reveals their set aside card and discards it. If your card costs the most: +3 Coffers, +1 Villager. Otherwise, gain a Curse.
This probably wants to act as a payload to a deck that can already draw itself (or almost draw itself) so you can justify discarding a high-cost card to it or consistently align it with a Province.  Even then, that pass-fail to huge: If anyone else has a Province to discard to it, you gain a Curse while it awkwardly holds down other players' Fixed Horse Races.  I think the cost of having a terminal dead card that consumes another of your cards is already a big cost without making it Curse yourself.

Palm Reader
Types: Action, Command
Cost: $4
Play a non-Command Action card from the Supply costing up to $5 (leaving it there). If it costs $4 or more, discard a card.
The value of Palm Reader contrasted to Band of Misfits is a function of the $4 and $5 cards available: Palm Reader is better at playing cheaper Actions, which vary so wildly from game to game, but is much worse at playing $4 Village-variants (often premier Band of Misfits targets).  The ability to play a $5-card at the cost of discarding a card is mostly reasonable: There are games with Laboratory-variants (like Lost City) where Palm Reader will be a powerhouse, but most games will make it middling.  This is a unique enough Command card.  I like it.

Interchange
Types: Action
Cost: $4
+$2. If you have Actions remaining, +2 Actions
Similarities to Conclave are not to be missed, where Conclave is guaranteed to act as a splitter if there are any other Actions in the game, Interchange can only act as a splitter if there is another splitter.  It's like a finickier Conspirator in that way, where it will act as a terminal Silver unless it is supported.  You will rarely buy more than one (maybe two) Interchanges, and likely early in the game when you need economy, lest its pass-fail paradigm become frustrating.  Seems fine.

Builder
Types: Action
Cost: $4
Gain a card costing up to $4. If it doesn't cost $4, +1 Villager.
As King Leon points out, this seems quite familiar to Sculptor, though it gains the card to your discard pile and non-terminally gains any card costing at most $3.  Playing with $4 Workshop variants that can quickly drain $3 cards, the size of the Supply is a rather unpredictable problem in multiplayer games: If there are good Workshop targets a $3, the game ends so fast on piles with such blanket non-terminal gaining.  It is likely not too much of a problem, but its similarities to Sculptor are ultimately far too close as far as I'm concerned.  Sculptor asks similar questions, but in a more interesting way.

Investigator
Types: Action
Cost: $2
+2 Cards. Put any number of cards from your hand on top of your deck.
When you gain this, put it into your hand and +1 Buy.
Setting aside the admitted problem of +1 Buy on-gain auto-piling them with decent cost reduction (which is a serious problem: multiplayer games that end on Provinces still often have 2 empty Supply piles) (you could fix this with a Messenger-like clause), putting "any number" of cards on top of your deck could be a problem as you can theoretically setup further than your next hand with it: I'd "put up to 4 cards from your hand on top of your deck in any order".  In play, this seems to adjust the on-play problems of Terrier being so similar to Laboratory at $4 because it can only be played non-terminally during your Night phase, when +2 Cards is not wildly useful.  The larger function of the card is likely to save otherwise missed cards, which is a function handled similarly by Save and Delay, but this does it at a theoretical cost of adding a middling card to your deck.  It is a solid variation.


Show: BlueHairedMeerkat's Coronation
Coronation
Types: Action
Cost: $5
If this is the first Coronation you have played this turn, gain a Gold onto your deck. Otherwise, you may play an Action card from your hand three times.
Place: segura's Hearth
Hearth
Types: Action
Cost: $4
Choose one: +2 Cards and add a Villager to the Hearth Supply pile; or take the Villagers from the pile.
When you gain or trash this, add a Villager to the Hearth Supply pile.
Win: Rhodos' Friar and Tunic
Quote
Friar
Types: Action
Cost: $4
Look at the top 2 cards of your deck. Trash any number of them and put the rest back in any order. If you trashed a card costing $3 or more and you don't have the Tunic: +1 Card, +1 Action and take the Tunic.
Quote
Tunic
Types: Artifact

When you play a Friar: +1 Action and put the cards you don't trash into your hand instead of onto your deck.
The interaction of this card and artifact pairing is novel and ties into itself to theoretically hold itself in check, as opposed to being a brainless piledrive.  If it proves to centralizing to have Friar trash Friar, you could always put an awkward on-trash effect (like gaining a Duchy or some such).

You may post the next challenge when you would, Rhodos.
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scolapasta

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Re: Contest #69: Pseudo-terminal
« Reply #5352 on: April 16, 2020, 02:34:25 pm »
+1

Dalmatian
Types: Action, Reaction
Cost: $3
Gain 2 Horses. You may play a Horse from your hand.
When another player plays a Horse, you may discard this to gain a Horse to your hand.
Another 2-Horser along with Cavalry, Paddock, and Sleigh.  The reaction is a tad fiddly because you have to pause the first time you play a Horse and ultimately pointless due to the raw strength of Dalmatian.  By the time you play Dalmatian 3 times, even without significant support, you can probably expect to trigger the Dalmatian→Horse every time which increases the number of Horses you have.  This will drain the Horse pile rapidly, especially in multiplayer, which gives it a dynamic that doesn't seem to be a consideration in other Horsers: Horses being unlimited seems to be the intent of them (regardless of how Livery goes).  I don't hate it, but I'm leery to put it out as I think it will be too game dominating, especially if any Way appears with it.

Thanks, as always for the thorough judging. (and congrats to Rhodos!)

Would you mind explaining a little more about the "draining the Horse pile rapidly"? My intent was that on play, you either gain two horses, or you effectively play a cantrip and gain one horse (since the one you play would return to its pile).

i.e. the same effect would be achieved by "Gain a Horse. Discard a Horse from your hand for +2 Cards, +1 Action." (with a minor difference if the Horse pile only had 1 Horse in it)

The reaction was so, among other things, with two Dalmatians in hand you could discard one to guarantee a Horse in your hand.

(I'm also unsure how a Way would make it particularly dominating)
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Fragasnap

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Re: Contest #69: Pseudo-terminal
« Reply #5353 on: April 16, 2020, 03:01:57 pm »
+1

Dalmatian
Types: Action, Reaction
Cost: $3
Gain 2 Horses. You may play a Horse from your hand.
When another player plays a Horse, you may discard this to gain a Horse to your hand.
Another 2-Horser along with Cavalry, Paddock, and Sleigh.  The reaction is a tad fiddly because you have to pause the first time you play a Horse and ultimately pointless due to the raw strength of Dalmatian.  By the time you play Dalmatian 3 times, even without significant support, you can probably expect to trigger the Dalmatian→Horse every time which increases the number of Horses you have.  This will drain the Horse pile rapidly, especially in multiplayer, which gives it a dynamic that doesn't seem to be a consideration in other Horsers: Horses being unlimited seems to be the intent of them (regardless of how Livery goes).  I don't hate it, but I'm leery to put it out as I think it will be too game dominating, especially if any Way appears with it.
Would you mind explaining a little more about the "draining the Horse pile rapidly"? My intent was that on play, you either gain two horses, or you effectively play a cantrip and gain one horse (since the one you play would return to its pile). i.e. the same effect would be achieved by "Gain a Horse. Discard a Horse from your hand for +2 Cards, +1 Action." (with a minor difference if the Horse pile only had 1 Horse in it)
The reaction was so, among other things, with two Dalmatians in hand you could discard one to guarantee a Horse in your hand.
(I'm also unsure how a Way would make it particularly dominating)
Dalmatian reduces the number of Horses in its pile as a "cantrip" where the other Horsers do so in a much more limited fashion (Supplies is also a Copper, Scrap has to trash stuff, Paddock turns non-terminal only in the late-game, others are terminal).  Most games where I have Horses I find it easy and beneficial to hang on to one or more Horses to get a bigger benefit from the draw later.  I am likely leery of new tech, as I did not dislike either of the Horse entries (Bridle Craftsman and Dalmatian)  (and am probably playing the new tech very poorly as well) but did not include them in my top 3.  Perhaps greater experience would lead me to feel otherwise about it.
I have found Horses to generally be a strong way to improve the consistency of a deck mid construction between cards like Scrap, Sleigh, and Demand (which I have used more than others), so a cantrip that gains a Horse looks pretty crazy at a cost of $3.  A decent Way target makes it easier to hang on to your Horses for big benefits because unplayed Horses don't drag in your deck: You can Way them.  Considering the way Ways affect Horses feels very relevant as they both appear in Menagerie.
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LibraryAdventurer

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Re: Weekly Design Contest Thread
« Reply #5354 on: April 16, 2020, 04:18:20 pm »
+3

My entry for this week:
(which is the other one I was considering entering for last week. I may have entered this one at some point before, but I don't think I have for one of these weekly contests at least.)

Quote
Mysterious Door
- Action
The player to your left discards the bottom card of their deck. If it's an action card, play it, leaving it there. Otherwise if it's... a victory card, +2 Cards; anything else, +$2.

I didn't even make the list. This is the second time this happened.  :(
I even made the text size bigger...

scolapasta

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Re: Contest #69: Pseudo-terminal
« Reply #5355 on: April 16, 2020, 05:36:46 pm »
+1

Dalmatian
Types: Action, Reaction
Cost: $3
Gain 2 Horses. You may play a Horse from your hand.
When another player plays a Horse, you may discard this to gain a Horse to your hand.
Another 2-Horser along with Cavalry, Paddock, and Sleigh.  The reaction is a tad fiddly because you have to pause the first time you play a Horse and ultimately pointless due to the raw strength of Dalmatian.  By the time you play Dalmatian 3 times, even without significant support, you can probably expect to trigger the Dalmatian→Horse every time which increases the number of Horses you have.  This will drain the Horse pile rapidly, especially in multiplayer, which gives it a dynamic that doesn't seem to be a consideration in other Horsers: Horses being unlimited seems to be the intent of them (regardless of how Livery goes).  I don't hate it, but I'm leery to put it out as I think it will be too game dominating, especially if any Way appears with it.
Would you mind explaining a little more about the "draining the Horse pile rapidly"? My intent was that on play, you either gain two horses, or you effectively play a cantrip and gain one horse (since the one you play would return to its pile). i.e. the same effect would be achieved by "Gain a Horse. Discard a Horse from your hand for +2 Cards, +1 Action." (with a minor difference if the Horse pile only had 1 Horse in it)
The reaction was so, among other things, with two Dalmatians in hand you could discard one to guarantee a Horse in your hand.
(I'm also unsure how a Way would make it particularly dominating)
Dalmatian reduces the number of Horses in its pile as a "cantrip" where the other Horsers do so in a much more limited fashion (Supplies is also a Copper, Scrap has to trash stuff, Paddock turns non-terminal only in the late-game, others are terminal).  Most games where I have Horses I find it easy and beneficial to hang on to one or more Horses to get a bigger benefit from the draw later.  I am likely leery of new tech, as I did not dislike either of the Horse entries (Bridle Craftsman and Dalmatian)  (and am probably playing the new tech very poorly as well) but did not include them in my top 3.  Perhaps greater experience would lead me to feel otherwise about it.
I have found Horses to generally be a strong way to improve the consistency of a deck mid construction between cards like Scrap, Sleigh, and Demand (which I have used more than others), so a cantrip that gains a Horse looks pretty crazy at a cost of $3.  A decent Way target makes it easier to hang on to your Horses for big benefits because unplayed Horses don't drag in your deck: You can Way them.  Considering the way Ways affect Horses feels very relevant as they both appear in Menagerie.

OK, all good points. I'll have to play test some to see if it's as crazy as you think and/or if it can be fixed with a straightforward tweak (e.g. cost $4, gain just one Horse, add some penalty for playing the horse, like discarding or trashing).

One thing I'm realizing now is that if it were "Gain a Horse to your Hand. You may play a Horse from your hand", it's pretty much just a Lab* so in its current state, as the odds increase of having that horse in your hand, that'll happen clearly happen more frequently**. Which again points me back to considering it gain just the one Horse.

* maybe even better, since it gets discarded then, and can get redrawn that same turn
** which I guess is what you're saying

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Fragasnap

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Re: Weekly Design Contest Thread
« Reply #5356 on: April 16, 2020, 05:50:53 pm »
+1

My entry for this week:
(which is the other one I was considering entering for last week. I may have entered this one at some point before, but I don't think I have for one of these weekly contests at least.)

Quote
Mysterious Door
- Action
The player to your left discards the bottom card of their deck. If it's an action card, play it, leaving it there. Otherwise if it's... a victory card, +2 Cards; anything else, +$2.

I didn't even make the list. This is the second time this happened.  :(
I even made the text size bigger...
My sincere apologies.  I'm not even sure how I missed it. I noted your post when you posted it and yet it didn't end up in the quote repository I build throughout the week.  I recommend posting an artless mock-up using the Dominion Card Image Generator and uploading the result to Imgur, as my final sweep would certainly not have missed an image.

Regardless,
Mysterious Door
Types: Action
Cost: $2
The player to your left discards the bottom card of their deck. If it's an action card, play it, leaving it there. Otherwise if it's... a victory card, +2 Cards; anything else, +$2.
Mysterious Door discarding is sure to make some players dislike it much as players disliked Tribute.  The effect is a nice fix to X-tra's Informer, as it costs less than the things you want to play with it and even gives better benefits when it cycles a Victory card in the form of +2 Cards.  It is ultimately falling into the same hole as Tribute, where its pseudo-terminal effect is so volatile that you end up playing it like it's terminal.  Ultimately I imagine that it would be better priced at $3, as the current effect is something I wouldn't want shoved so randomly into a game as it would be on an easy-to-buy $2-cost card, but it might end up being too weak for $3 in the average Kingdom.  I like it, though.  It's not on the shortlist, but it's a high 2/3.
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spheremonk

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Re: Contest #69: Pseudo-terminal
« Reply #5357 on: April 16, 2020, 06:27:30 pm »
+1


Fixed Horse Race
Types: Action
Cost: $4
Each other player may set aside a card from their hand face down. Reveal a card from your hand. Each other player reveals their set aside card and discards it. If your card costs the most: +3 Coffers, +1 Villager. Otherwise, gain a Curse.
This probably wants to act as a payload to a deck that can already draw itself (or almost draw itself) so you can justify discarding a high-cost card to it

 

You don't discard a card.
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Rhodos

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Re: Contest #69: Pseudo-terminal
« Reply #5358 on: April 17, 2020, 05:23:04 am »
0

Win: Rhodos' Friar and Tunic
Quote
Friar
Types: Action
Cost: $4
Look at the top 2 cards of your deck. Trash any number of them and put the rest back in any order. If you trashed a card costing $3 or more and you don't have the Tunic: +1 Card, +1 Action and take the Tunic.
Quote
Tunic
Types: Artifact

When you play a Friar: +1 Action and put the cards you don't trash into your hand instead of onto your deck.
The interaction of this card and artifact pairing is novel and ties into itself to theoretically hold itself in check, as opposed to being a brainless piledrive.  If it proves to centralizing to have Friar trash Friar, you could always put an awkward on-trash effect (like gaining a Duchy or some such).

You may post the next challenge when you would, Rhodos.

Thanks a lot, it is an honor for me. And also, thanks for feedback and judging!

I will post the next contest within the next hour.
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Rhodos

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Re: Weekly Design Contest Thread
« Reply #5359 on: April 17, 2020, 06:23:32 am »
+1

Contest 70 Variable Cost
Create a card (available in the supply) or an Event, that has variable cost. This could be
1) a cost that depends on the current state of the game (like Peddler, Wayfarer, Fisherman, Destrier), or
2) an alternative way to pay for it (like Animal Fair)

It should still be a buy and consume one of your buys. It should still have a "base price" and at any point of the game, it should be clear what the cost of the card is. (As for things like Trash for Benefit or Chariot Race.) For consistency, please put a star on the price tag, unless there is a good reason to not do so.

Things that by themself do not qualify for this contest:
- overpay
- debt
- buying restrivtions, i.e. Grand Market or Stampede
- special gaining, that is not a buy, i.e. Duchess or Changeling
(of course this things can still be used on the card/event)

As a last note: The variable cost should matter in some way or at least have the chance to do so. This can also be achieved by a small change of cost, for example 5->4 or 6->5 for a card that you want early on in the game and that you might miss without the cheaper price.
« Last Edit: April 17, 2020, 06:25:14 am by Rhodos »
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[TP] Inferno

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Re: Weekly Design Contest Thread
« Reply #5360 on: April 17, 2020, 08:06:01 am »
+2

Contest 70 Variable Cost
Create a card (available in the supply) or an Event, that has variable cost. This could be
1) a cost that depends on the current state of the game (like Peddler, Wayfarer, Fisherman, Destrier), or
2) an alternative way to pay for it (like Animal Fair)

It should still be a buy and consume one of your buys. It should still have a "base price" and at any point of the game, it should be clear what the cost of the card is. (As for things like Trash for Benefit or Chariot Race.) For consistency, please put a star on the price tag, unless there is a good reason to not do so.

Things that by themself do not qualify for this contest:
- overpay
- debt
- buying restrivtions, i.e. Grand Market or Stampede
- special gaining, that is not a buy, i.e. Duchess or Changeling
(of course this things can still be used on the card/event)

As a last note: The variable cost should matter in some way or at least have the chance to do so. This can also be achieved by a small change of cost, for example 5->4 or 6->5 for a card that you want early on in the game and that you might miss without the cheaper price.

Renovate
$5*
Action
Trash a card from your hand. Gain 2 cards each costing exactly $1 more than it.
-------
This costs $1 more per empty Supply pile.

It's an Upgrade variant that gets 2 cards instead of 1. Later on, as piles empty, it costs $6, then $7, then maybe on the final turn it costs $8. This means that, later on, you can trash one of these to another one for more value. If 1 pile is empty, you can turn one into 2 King's Courts. You get the gist. And the card itself is good for emptying piles, in case that's an issue. Please feel free to give me feedback, as it is much appreciated.
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majiponi

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Re: Weekly Design Contest Thread
« Reply #5361 on: April 17, 2020, 08:28:35 am »
0

Nitori
cost $3* - Event
Put a Nitori token on this.
Gain a Silver per a Nitori token on this.
---
This costs $1 more per a Nitori token on this.
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mandioca15

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Re: Weekly Design Contest Thread
« Reply #5362 on: April 17, 2020, 09:09:18 am »
0

Guild (Action-Command, $3*)

+1 Action
Choose one: put a non-Duration Action card from your hand on your Guild mat; or play one of the Action cards on your Guild mat, leaving it there.
———
During your turns, this has the same cost at the highest costing card on your Guild mat, if any.
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majiponi

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Re: Weekly Design Contest Thread
« Reply #5363 on: April 17, 2020, 11:26:36 am »
0

Guild (Action-Command, $3*)

+1 Action
Choose one: put a non-Duration Action card from your hand on your Guild mat; or play one of the Action cards on your Guild mat, leaving it there.
———
During your turns, this has the same cost at the highest costing card on your Guild mat, if any.
What happens when I put Workshop, Transmute, Engineer?
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mandioca15

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Re: Weekly Design Contest Thread
« Reply #5364 on: April 17, 2020, 12:14:17 pm »
0

Guild (Action-Command, $3*)

+1 Action
Choose one: put a non-Duration Action card from your hand on your Guild mat; or play one of the Action cards on your Guild mat, leaving it there.
———
During your turns, this has the same cost at the highest costing card on your Guild mat, if any.
What happens when I put Workshop, Transmute, Engineer?

Perhaps it should say highest costing card in coins, for clarity. If there are no cards on the mat with a cost in coins, Guild’s price remains at £3.
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scolapasta

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Re: Weekly Design Contest Thread
« Reply #5365 on: April 17, 2020, 12:23:41 pm »
0

I had a card, Student*, that had an earlier iteration with a similar mechanic. One issue that was pointed out is that you could use it to get several cheap Kings Courts.

* if I can't think of anything new, I might post the latest version this week again

In Guild's case, you would get several guilds cheap first (even making it cheaper by putting a $2 cost on it, especially one with a +Buy, e.g. Pawn), then set aside a King's Court after.

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X-tra

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Re: Weekly Design Contest Thread
« Reply #5366 on: April 17, 2020, 01:16:23 pm »
+5



I believe a card posted on this thread not too long ago tried to do something similar to Grand Laboratory. This could be tweaked so that it costs while having a cost reduction of during one's Action phase. Decided to go against that since investing into the first Grand Laboratory would be a pain.
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spheremonk

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Re: Weekly Design Contest Thread
« Reply #5367 on: April 17, 2020, 03:34:40 pm »
0



Should the sentence immediately above the line be replaced with “If you have another Patissier in play, +1 Coffers”? I was choosing between facilitating acquisition of more Patissiers in the short run (the language I didn’t use) or incentivizing acquisition of more Patissiers in the long run (the language I did use). The language I didn’t choose seemed to speed things up too quickly. Thoughts?
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Aquila

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Re: Weekly Design Contest Thread #70: varying cost
« Reply #5368 on: April 17, 2020, 04:03:19 pm »
+2

This is the first repeat contest, if I'm not mistaken. This was done right the way back in contest #4. It's good to have repeats, we have new participants and there are lots of possible ideas for some briefs, so it's nice to see the time has come.

My entry:
Quote
Elite - Action, $5* cost.
+1 Buy
+ $2

When you next buy a card costing $1 or more, double your $ if you haven't yet this turn.
-
This costs $1 more per Treasure you have in play, after cost reductions.
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mad4math

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Re: Weekly Design Contest Thread
« Reply #5369 on: April 17, 2020, 05:09:56 pm »
0

Quote
Workshop of Plenty
Treasure $0*
Gain a card costing less than this.
-
This costs $1 more per card you have in play.

It's a weird Horn of Plenty variant.
It gains provinces, and you don't even have to trash it, but you need 9 cards in play (which admittedly is easier than HoP's 8 distinct). But it has the catch that if you are doing that, it also costs at least $9 to buy another one, so they are quite hard to get. Note that a big difference between this and HoP is that it can't gain itself, since it never costs less than itself.
Early game it is basically a workshop, although you have to draw a lot of coppers with it to gain $4s.
It might be OP; the main fix I would have then is to make it an Action, which nerfs it quite hard I think. If people just think the province gaining is OP, it could have HoP's trashing restriction.
I want a better name if anyone has a suggestion.
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Optimal_Inefficiency

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Re: Weekly Design Contest Thread
« Reply #5370 on: April 17, 2020, 07:30:21 pm »
0



Quote
(?) Signet Ring (?) — ($7*)(Treasure)
When you play this, chose one: +1 Buy and +$2; or +1 Action, and if it’s your Buy phase return to your Action phase.
-
During your turn, if you have no Actions in play, this costs $3 less.

Costing $4 when you play no Actions means everyone will have the opportunity to buy one within the first 2 turns. If you have enough terminals to needs (another) one later in the games, there’s a good chance you’ll have an Action in each hand and have to take the short term loss for a long term gain.
 
[I know I accidentally capitalized the word “phase” on the card, but I don’t feel like redoing it...]
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pubby

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Re: Weekly Design Contest Thread
« Reply #5371 on: April 18, 2020, 12:01:25 am »
+3



A round is whenever the starting player begins his turn (if he takes multiple turns in a row, only count the first). You increase the price at the start of each round.

e.g. on your 4th turn it costs $4.
« Last Edit: April 19, 2020, 10:23:10 am by pubby »
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Optimal_Inefficiency

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Re: Weekly Design Contest Thread
« Reply #5372 on: April 18, 2020, 04:18:08 am »
+3



e.g. on your 4th turn it costs $4.

Might I suggest a counter to help keep track? It could look something like this:
Quote
Boomtown — ($1*) (Victory)
Sum the total cost of your deck. Worth 1 VP per $20 (round down).
-
At the start of each of the first player’s turns, put a token on the Boomtown pile. This costs $1 more per token token on its pile.
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Fragasnap

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Re: Weekly Design Contest Thread
« Reply #5373 on: April 18, 2020, 06:52:55 am »
+1


Quote
Rovers
Types: Action
Cost: $6*
+2 Cards. Turn your Journey token over (it starts face up). Then if it's face up, +3 Actions.
During your turns, if your Journey token is face up, this costs $2 less.
A Lost City variant using the Journey token that costs $6 when it's ready to go and $4 when it isn't. You want to setup your next turn by leaving your Journey token face down, except then Rovers costs $6, so you leave it face up so you can buy a cheap Rovers, but now, whoops, your first Rovers next turn is terminal.  Note that it functionally starts the game costing $4.  +2 Cards is a stronger benefit attached to flipping your token face down than Giant's +$1, Ranger's +1 Buy, and Pilgrimage's nothing-event if Rovers appears with them.
Maybe +3 Actions is too much?
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FlyerBeast

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Re: Weekly Design Contest Thread
« Reply #5374 on: April 18, 2020, 08:57:38 am »
0


Quote
Appraiser
$2* Treasure
-
When you play this, trash this and gain two cards with a combined cost exactly equal to this in $.
-
This costs $1 more per card you have in play.

A far stronger and more versatile Horn of Plenty. Impossible to buy with Coppers, easy to buy with a single Gold, which hopefully makes its rewarding ridiculous engine turns (Play 10 cards+ this for a Colony and a Copper, or 15+ this for two Provinces) balanced!
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