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The Top 20 Best Designed Cards

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kieranmillar:
I love Dominion. It's my favourite board game by a significant margin, so I've spent some time ooh-ing and aah-ing over its design and that of particular cards. So I figured, why not write about what I think is so brilliant about the design of some of the cards. At first this was gonna be the top 5, but then when looking through the list of cards I simply had to include more, and found it hard to pare the list of best designed cards down below 20. Even leaving it at 20, there are still more cards I could gush about but I have to stop somewhere. I am sure you will be outraged that the list ends up not containing a card that you were certain I would include.

Note that this is not a power ranking, although obviously the power of the card factors into its design. It is also not a list of my favourite cards. This list is merely my opinion on what I believe constitutes a well-designed Dominion card and how these cards achieve this.

I'll be posting them in batches of 5 cards whenever I find the time. I have already compiled the list but the write-ups are kinda the whole point and it takes time.

#20 - Baker

While Baker itself is a fairly basic and average card, it's setup bonus is a really good idea. Baker manipulates the kingdom in a very profound way, and doesn't even need to be bought or played in order to have an impact! Dominion lives and dies on its variety, it is a game that benefits from as many cards as possible providing interesting ways to deal with the kingdom when they are present, and this rather simple-seeming effect on Baker really makes itself a big deal without getting in the way of other cards being able to do their own thing. I also think it was absolutely the correct card to put this concept on, Baker already uses coffers and is otherwise a very forgettable card, but the bonus helps elevate it to being a memorable standout of its expansion. It also has the side bonus of being an excellent way to introduce Coffers to players new to the concept.

#19 - Lackeys

I think Lackeys' particular combination of effects is absolutely pitch-perfect. It is just two very simple concepts on their own, but this particular combination has some really interesting implications that I find a lot of fun. The on-gain villagers are quite strong so it is very tempting to gain the card just for them but then Lackeys is in your deck just begging you to spend the villagers on it for that sweet little bit of extra draw. This then throws you into a quandary. Do you keep buying Lackeys, just so you can keep playing your Lackeys? It can be hard to assess where the right sweet spot is for getting more Lackeys, which for such a cheap card with a simple combination of basic effects is really pulling its weight.

#18 - Guide

It was Guide that got me sitting up and thinking "hot damn, Dominion has really got its act together" when I first got to play Adventures. How many times has Dominion tried and failed to get the concept of avoiding bad end-of-turn draws to work? Navigator is just bad, Cartographer feels lacklustre in practice, and all of these cards get worse in the fun engine decks where you're drawing everything. Not so with Guide, that just so beautifully sidesteps the issue by sitting around waiting until you actually get the bad hand and then throws it away. Guide is the sort of card that's really easy to get wrong. But the way that the card itself goes out of your deck until you use it, then has a natural cool-down period until you find and play it again, and stacks so wonderfully and sensibly with multiple copies of itself just works so well. Guide makes you feel like it was your smart preparation and forward planning that helped you avoid a bad hand rather than luck, and that feels great.

#17 - Tomb

When Adventures reintroduced Duration cards and people were musing about a "Prosperity sequel" the one thing I knew I wanted to see a comeback more than anything else was VP tokens. Bishop and Monument were always a crowd-pleaser and it was such a shame that so little was done with them in Prosperity. It was like Donald X read my mind because along came Empires and not only gave me everything I ever wanted, but massively exceeded all of my expectations. I think Tomb is the best representation of this. Dominion sticks out from many other deckbuilders because of its love of trashing, and Tomb just sits there and forces you to re-evaluate the trashing cards, encouraging you to go all in and make decks whose contents vary wildly in the course of the game. The only reason why this is not rated more highly is because it has the chance to be completely useless, and that's always sad, but the fun this card brings more than makes up for it.

#16 - Cathedral

Never has a card simultaneously provided such feelings of hope and dread. Cathedral is equal parts amazing and horrifying. It offers such tantalising power, but at what cost? I love the way Cathedral sets you on a path that feels very different to decks without it, with some incredible burst of power early in the game followed by that moment of doubt later when it starts cannibalizing all of your engine pieces as the game drags on to extended Duchy dancing. If Dominion were differently themed, this project would probably be some terrifying dark force that tempts you into great power with the risk of corrupting your soul, but instead in Dominion it's .... organised religion? Huh. I guess this card also provides scathing social commentary.

Awaclus:

--- Quote from: kieranmillar on December 28, 2018, 04:07:44 pm ---#16 - Cathedral
Never has a card simultaneously provided such feelings of hope and dread. Cathedral is equal parts amazing and horrifying. It offers such tantalising power, but at what cost? I love the way Cathedral sets you on a path that feels very different to decks without it, with some incredible burst of power early in the game followed by that moment of doubt later when it starts cannibalizing all of your engine pieces as the game drags on to extended Duchy dancing. If Dominion were differently themed, this project would probably be some terrifying dark force that tempts you into great power with the risk of corrupting your soul, but instead in Dominion it's .... organised religion? Huh. I guess this card also provides scathing social commentary.

--- End quote ---

"Cathedral" and "as the game drags on" in the same context is an oxymoron. With Cathedral in the kingdom, the game is probably over roughly when you're still trashing some of your last remaining starting junk.

samath:

--- Quote from: Awaclus on December 28, 2018, 05:09:48 pm ---
--- Quote from: kieranmillar on December 28, 2018, 04:07:44 pm ---#16 - Cathedral
Never has a card simultaneously provided such feelings of hope and dread. Cathedral is equal parts amazing and horrifying. It offers such tantalising power, but at what cost? I love the way Cathedral sets you on a path that feels very different to decks without it, with some incredible burst of power early in the game followed by that moment of doubt later when it starts cannibalizing all of your engine pieces as the game drags on to extended Duchy dancing. If Dominion were differently themed, this project would probably be some terrifying dark force that tempts you into great power with the risk of corrupting your soul, but instead in Dominion it's .... organised religion? Huh. I guess this card also provides scathing social commentary.

--- End quote ---

"Cathedral" and "as the game drags on" in the same context is an oxymoron. With Cathedral in the kingdom, the game is probably over roughly when you're still trashing some of your last remaining starting junk.

--- End quote ---

You've clearly never played a Cathedral Nightmare game then. It certainly doesn't happen every time if you build carefully, but it can, especially if your opponent leaves Provinces alone longer than you expected. And then there are the games where you get unlucky and have to trash engine pieces despite still having a few starting cards around...

Awaclus:

--- Quote from: samath on December 30, 2018, 03:01:33 am ---
--- Quote from: Awaclus on December 28, 2018, 05:09:48 pm ---
--- Quote from: kieranmillar on December 28, 2018, 04:07:44 pm ---#16 - Cathedral
Never has a card simultaneously provided such feelings of hope and dread. Cathedral is equal parts amazing and horrifying. It offers such tantalising power, but at what cost? I love the way Cathedral sets you on a path that feels very different to decks without it, with some incredible burst of power early in the game followed by that moment of doubt later when it starts cannibalizing all of your engine pieces as the game drags on to extended Duchy dancing. If Dominion were differently themed, this project would probably be some terrifying dark force that tempts you into great power with the risk of corrupting your soul, but instead in Dominion it's .... organised religion? Huh. I guess this card also provides scathing social commentary.

--- End quote ---

"Cathedral" and "as the game drags on" in the same context is an oxymoron. With Cathedral in the kingdom, the game is probably over roughly when you're still trashing some of your last remaining starting junk.

--- End quote ---

You've clearly never played a Cathedral Nightmare game then. It certainly doesn't happen every time if you build carefully, but it can, especially if your opponent leaves Provinces alone longer than you expected. And then there are the games where you get unlucky and have to trash engine pieces despite still having a few starting cards around...

--- End quote ---

I mean, I have had to trash engine pieces with Cathedral, but I have certainly never had a game "drag on".

AJD:

--- Quote from: Awaclus on December 30, 2018, 03:09:26 am ---
--- Quote from: samath on December 30, 2018, 03:01:33 am ---
--- Quote from: Awaclus on December 28, 2018, 05:09:48 pm ---
--- Quote from: kieranmillar on December 28, 2018, 04:07:44 pm ---#16 - Cathedral
Never has a card simultaneously provided such feelings of hope and dread. Cathedral is equal parts amazing and horrifying. It offers such tantalising power, but at what cost? I love the way Cathedral sets you on a path that feels very different to decks without it, with some incredible burst of power early in the game followed by that moment of doubt later when it starts cannibalizing all of your engine pieces as the game drags on to extended Duchy dancing. If Dominion were differently themed, this project would probably be some terrifying dark force that tempts you into great power with the risk of corrupting your soul, but instead in Dominion it's .... organised religion? Huh. I guess this card also provides scathing social commentary.

--- End quote ---

"Cathedral" and "as the game drags on" in the same context is an oxymoron. With Cathedral in the kingdom, the game is probably over roughly when you're still trashing some of your last remaining starting junk.

--- End quote ---

You've clearly never played a Cathedral Nightmare game then. It certainly doesn't happen every time if you build carefully, but it can, especially if your opponent leaves Provinces alone longer than you expected. And then there are the games where you get unlucky and have to trash engine pieces despite still having a few starting cards around...

--- End quote ---

I mean, I have had to trash engine pieces with Cathedral, but I have certainly never had a game "drag on".

--- End quote ---

Game Dragon
Action–Attack–Duration
For the rest of the game, each opponent trashes a card from their hand at the start of each of their turns.

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