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Author Topic: Weekly Design Contest #113: Power Up!  (Read 16382 times)

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Shael

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Re: Weekly Design Contest #113: Power Up!
« Reply #100 on: May 04, 2021, 01:59:20 am »
0

Shouldn't there be a "non-Victory card" limit on Voyager? Rebuild is (more than) all the non-terminal Province trashing I need.
Voyager also refers to "Old Saphir" in its text instead of Old Sapphire.
Yes; I think I've posted the wrong version of the card.
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mxdata

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Re: Weekly Design Contest #113: Power Up!
« Reply #101 on: May 04, 2021, 02:41:22 am »
0


Shouldn't there be a "non-Victory card" limit on Voyager? Rebuild is (more than) all the non-terminal Province trashing I need.

Voyager also refers to "Old Saphir" in its text instead of Old Sapphire.

Now someone just needs to design a card called Old Saphir.  You thought pairs like Mine/Mint were bad?
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segura

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Re: Weekly Design Contest #113: Power Up!
« Reply #102 on: May 04, 2021, 06:58:40 am »
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I think that this card is too automatic. Sure, at first it is worse than Candlestick Maker and costs more but worse case is that you gotta play it 4 times before you get at a MonsterTreasure. If somebody competes, you only gotta play it once or twice.
Gold gainers aren't brilliant, but a MonsterTreasure gainer at $3 is pretty sweet. And then in the endgame you even get some moderate pile control on top.

The Old Sapphire pile will burn out quickly anyway, so I'd simply leave it at +2 Coffers. That is already $5-$6 level strong, no need to make the card universal (Buys, Coffers, any deck wants 2 or 3 of those).
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silverspawn

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Re: Weekly Design Contest #113: Power Up!
« Reply #103 on: May 04, 2021, 02:13:09 pm »
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This is now the second time that I've come up with an exciting idea only to realize that it contradicts one of the contest rules :(

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Re: Weekly Design Contest #113: Power Up!
« Reply #104 on: May 04, 2021, 02:15:26 pm »
+4

« Last Edit: May 05, 2021, 04:33:50 am by silverspawn »
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Timinou

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Re: Weekly Design Contest #113: Power Up!
« Reply #105 on: May 04, 2021, 07:50:22 pm »
+1

24 hour warning

Please check the list of entries in the OP and let me know if I missed yours.
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faust

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Re: Weekly Design Contest #113: Power Up!
« Reply #106 on: May 05, 2021, 02:33:32 am »
0

Card-I-am-about-to-update-with-name-and-image-probably-tomorrow - Night - Duration - 5$

At the start of your next turn, +1 Card per Supply pile with at most five cards in it.
I've thought about doing something with a condition like that. I find it hard to determine whether this would actually be interesting.

Also, there is no reason for this to be a Night card, right? It could just be a Treasure or nonterminal Action.
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silverspawn

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Re: Weekly Design Contest #113: Power Up!
« Reply #107 on: May 05, 2021, 03:12:35 am »
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Yes though I strongly dislike Treasures that only do non-treasure-y things. It could be an Action, but is that preferable?

faust

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Re: Weekly Design Contest #113: Power Up!
« Reply #108 on: May 05, 2021, 03:14:53 am »
+1

Yes though I strongly dislike Treasures that only do non-treasure-y things. It could be an Action, but is that preferable?
I feel like it is preferable to use as few extra mechanics as reasonably possible.
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silverspawn

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Re: Weekly Design Contest #113: Power Up!
« Reply #109 on: May 05, 2021, 03:20:02 am »
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I agree with that statement, but the card with night type no longer is an Action card and has the same number of types, so is it more mechanics or just different ones?

faust

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Re: Weekly Design Contest #113: Power Up!
« Reply #110 on: May 05, 2021, 03:31:41 am »
+2

I agree with that statement, but the card with night type no longer is an Action card and has the same number of types, so is it more mechanics or just different ones?
The Night phase only appears in one expansion, this is why it counts as an extra mechanic in my head (as opposed to, say, Durations or Events). I can see how one might argue differently though.
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mandioca15

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Re: Weekly Design Contest #113: Power Up!
« Reply #111 on: May 05, 2021, 11:05:12 am »
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Bond (Treasure, $5*)

+$1
+1 Buy

When you play this, +$1 per Coffer token on the Bond pile.

This turn, when you buy a Card costing $6 or more, add a Coffer token to the Bond pile.
---
This costs $1 more per Coffer token on the Bond pile.


This all feels a bit wordy - not sure if there's a nicer way of phrasing all of this.
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mathdude

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Re: Weekly Design Contest #113: Power Up!
« Reply #112 on: May 05, 2021, 12:20:52 pm »
0



Quote
Pirate Fleet
$3 - Action-Attack
Each other player trashes a Silver from their hand (or reveals a hand with none).
Choose one: +1 Action and add a token to the Fleet Mat; or +$ equal to the number of tokens on the Fleet Mat divided by the number of players (rounded down).

The type of token you use doesn't matter - it's just a tracking mechanism.  This card also requires a communal Fleet Mat.

But a Pirate Ship variant for $3?  And you can even build up its value and use the coins in a single turn without a Village!  It always has the option to increase value (rather than being dependent on trashing a Treasure from an opponent), and it can also trash Treasure from an opponent's hand.  That seems too good - what's the catch?

You're not just helping yourself - you're building up the Fleet Mat for everyone (similar to Trade Route).  And you can't trash an opponent's Gold, Platinum, or Kingdom Treasures - only Silver.  But using the coin option is terminal and you don't get +Buy, so you don't want to fill your deck with too many of them (but you also don't want your opponents getting too many of them).

So especially in 3+ player games, you will mostly want to skip Silver and find other ways to get up to $5 and $6 cards.  But you can't ignore the Pirate Fleet, or your opponents will be able to cash in.  Can you let them build it up, but then buy a few of the cards and cash in yourself later in the game when it's more valuable?  Timing is important.
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grep

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Re: Weekly Design Contest #113: Power Up!
« Reply #113 on: May 05, 2021, 12:25:21 pm »
0

Bond (Treasure, $5*)

+$1
+1 Buy

When you play this, +$1 per Coffer token on the Bond pile.

This turn, when you buy a Card costing $6 or more, add a Coffer token to the Bond pile.
---
This costs $1 more per Coffer token on the Bond pile.


This all feels a bit wordy - not sure if there's a nicer way of phrasing all of this.

The enabling condition looks too tough - Bond itself without power-ups is not expensive enough to enable a power-up, and useful cards costing $6+ are not that common (Bond looks like a replacement for Gold, so buying Gold with Bond looks like shooting your own leg).
Might be fine if Bond costed $3, and the enabler was "buy a card more expensive than this".
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mathdude

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Re: Weekly Design Contest #113: Power Up!
« Reply #114 on: May 05, 2021, 12:30:47 pm »
0

Bond (Treasure, $5*)

+$1
+1 Buy

When you play this, +$1 per Coffer token on the Bond pile.

This turn, when you buy a Card costing $6 or more, add a Coffer token to the Bond pile.
---
This costs $1 more per Coffer token on the Bond pile.


This all feels a bit wordy - not sure if there's a nicer way of phrasing all of this.

A couple suggestions for wording, to improve phrasing:
- you don't need to say "when you play this".
- you don't say "Coffers token", but when they are used for tracking, they are called "Coin token".
- instead of "this turn", generally cards use "While this is in play," even though it actually uses more words (and then goes below a line)

Also, this doesn't seem like a very desirable card.  Paying $5 for +$1, +Buy is a lot.  And it also gets hard to buy a $6 card with effectively a Copper.  Even after 2 tokens are added, it's +$3, +Buy (which is similar to a Gold), but now costs $8.  It doesn't "break even" until 4 tokens are on it (then it's Platinum with +Buy, i.e. costing $9 and worth $5).  I think you could probably have the card cost $3 or $4 instead of $5.  Or if you want to leave it at $5, then it has to give +$2, +Buy.
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segura

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Re: Weekly Design Contest #113: Power Up!
« Reply #115 on: May 05, 2021, 01:20:07 pm »
0



Quote
Pirate Fleet
$3 - Action-Attack
Each other player trashes a Silver from their hand (or reveals a hand with none).
Choose one: +1 Action and add a token to the Fleet Mat; or +$ equal to the number of tokens on the Fleet Mat divided by the number of players (rounded down).

The type of token you use doesn't matter - it's just a tracking mechanism.  This card also requires a communal Fleet Mat.

But a Pirate Ship variant for $3?  And you can even build up its value and use the coins in a single turn without a Village!  It always has the option to increase value (rather than being dependent on trashing a Treasure from an opponent), and it can also trash Treasure from an opponent's hand.  That seems too good - what's the catch?

You're not just helping yourself - you're building up the Fleet Mat for everyone (similar to Trade Route).  And you can't trash an opponent's Gold, Platinum, or Kingdom Treasures - only Silver.  But using the coin option is terminal and you don't get +Buy, so you don't want to fill your deck with too many of them (but you also don't want your opponents getting too many of them).

So especially in 3+ player games, you will mostly want to skip Silver and find other ways to get up to $5 and $6 cards.  But you can't ignore the Pirate Fleet, or your opponents will be able to cash in.  Can you let them build it up, but then buy a few of the cards and cash in yourself later in the game when it's more valuable?  Timing is important.
This looks weaker than Pirate Ship due to the scaling:
Alice and Bob buy Silvers, Charlie buy Pirate Fleet. He trashes some Silvers, so Alice and Bob might have to rebuy (although Silver is most of the times just an early stepping stone for better stuff, so they might not care or even appreciate it). After he had trashed NINE Silvers, the card actually becomes worthwhile as a terminal Gold ... but then everybody can buy it!

This needs to get rid of either the scaling or the communal mat aspect to become worthwhile.
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mandioca15

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Re: Weekly Design Contest #113: Power Up!
« Reply #116 on: May 05, 2021, 01:39:53 pm »
0

Bond (Treasure, $5*)

+$1
+1 Buy

When you play this, +$1 per Coffer token on the Bond pile.

This turn, when you buy a Card costing $6 or more, add a Coffer token to the Bond pile.
---
This costs $1 more per Coffer token on the Bond pile.


This all feels a bit wordy - not sure if there's a nicer way of phrasing all of this.

A couple suggestions for wording, to improve phrasing:
- you don't need to say "when you play this".
- you don't say "Coffers token", but when they are used for tracking, they are called "Coin token".
- instead of "this turn", generally cards use "While this is in play," even though it actually uses more words (and then goes below a line)

Also, this doesn't seem like a very desirable card.  Paying $5 for +$1, +Buy is a lot.  And it also gets hard to buy a $6 card with effectively a Copper.  Even after 2 tokens are added, it's +$3, +Buy (which is similar to a Gold), but now costs $8.  It doesn't "break even" until 4 tokens are on it (then it's Platinum with +Buy, i.e. costing $9 and worth $5).  I think you could probably have the card cost $3 or $4 instead of $5.  Or if you want to leave it at $5, then it has to give +$2, +Buy.

Thanks for the suggestions. Will modify it to:

Bond (Treasure, $4*)

+$1
+1 Buy

+$1 per Coin token on the Bond pile.
---
While this is in play, when you buy a card that costs more than this, add a Coin token to the Bond pile.
---
This costs $1 more per Coin token on the Bond pile.
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mathdude

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Re: Weekly Design Contest #113: Power Up!
« Reply #117 on: May 05, 2021, 02:31:29 pm »
0



Quote
Pirate Fleet
$3 - Action-Attack
Each other player trashes a Silver from their hand (or reveals a hand with none).
Choose one: +1 Action and add a token to the Fleet Mat; or +$ equal to the number of tokens on the Fleet Mat divided by the number of players (rounded down).

The type of token you use doesn't matter - it's just a tracking mechanism.  This card also requires a communal Fleet Mat.

But a Pirate Ship variant for $3?  And you can even build up its value and use the coins in a single turn without a Village!  It always has the option to increase value (rather than being dependent on trashing a Treasure from an opponent), and it can also trash Treasure from an opponent's hand.  That seems too good - what's the catch?

You're not just helping yourself - you're building up the Fleet Mat for everyone (similar to Trade Route).  And you can't trash an opponent's Gold, Platinum, or Kingdom Treasures - only Silver.  But using the coin option is terminal and you don't get +Buy, so you don't want to fill your deck with too many of them (but you also don't want your opponents getting too many of them).

So especially in 3+ player games, you will mostly want to skip Silver and find other ways to get up to $5 and $6 cards.  But you can't ignore the Pirate Fleet, or your opponents will be able to cash in.  Can you let them build it up, but then buy a few of the cards and cash in yourself later in the game when it's more valuable?  Timing is important.
This looks weaker than Pirate Ship due to the scaling:
Alice and Bob buy Silvers, Charlie buy Pirate Fleet. He trashes some Silvers, so Alice and Bob might have to rebuy (although Silver is most of the times just an early stepping stone for better stuff, so they might not care or even appreciate it). After he had trashed NINE Silvers, the card actually becomes worthwhile as a terminal Gold ... but then everybody can buy it!

This needs to get rid of either the scaling or the communal mat aspect to become worthwhile.

It is weaker than Pirate Ship.  That's why the Ship costs $4 and the Fleet costs $3.  And yes, in larger games, when a single player buys it, it starts out quite weak.  And later in the game, trashing of Silvers isn't as big of a deal.  But if your opening Silvers get trashed (from your hand!) then you are set back quite a bit.  But I don't think just a single player buys it.  Consider below...

Alice, Bob, and Charlie all draw $3/$4.  Alice buys Silver.  Bob buys Pirate Fleet.  Charlie was going to buy double-Silver (there aren't that great of opening cards on the board), but realizes if Alice now buys the Pirate Fleet, he could lose both his Silvers on turn 3 or 4 and effectively lose his first two buys, so instead he buys Pirate Fleet.  Alice was also planning to buy double-Silver, but under the same logic, now feels compelled to either buy a weaker $3 or $4 Action card or to match-play and buy Pirate Fleet (knowing she draws turn 3 first, and has a better chance of being able to use it).  It's now a Pirate Fleet war, and most Silvers purchased will be trashed, and the Pirate Fleet mat will grow very quickly.  Knowing that it will grow from a potential Copper up to terminal Gold and maybe higher, at least one or two of them buy a second, which lets it grow even quicker.
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Re: Weekly Design Contest #113: Power Up!
« Reply #118 on: May 05, 2021, 03:04:40 pm »
0

What war? The situation you describe is not an equilibrium because all those Pirate Fleets make the players stop buying Silvers which makes the Pirate Ships glorified Ruined Villages.

All that Pirate Ship does is potentially hurt other players early on. Now this can be nasty, the attack is harsh as it trashes from your hand and yes, it can screw up your T4/T5 $5 purchase. But so what, you just buy another Silver!Those Pirate Ships achieve nothing for the active player. You are building up a common resource, once the mat is full of Silvers everybody can profit from it and buy cheap terminal Golds. And it takes forever until you pass the „terminal Gold“ threshold.

That is why I pointed out that you gotta think twice about the player scaling and/or the communal mat. The card is salvageable if you get rid of one or both (hard to say) elements.
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silverspawn

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Re: Weekly Design Contest #113: Power Up!
« Reply #119 on: May 05, 2021, 04:20:35 pm »
+1

Pirate Ship's attack helps your opponent in the median case. This attack hurts them significantly. For some reason, no-one has seemed to notice that yet.

Timinou

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Re: Weekly Design Contest #113: Power Up!
« Reply #120 on: May 05, 2021, 08:18:50 pm »
+4

Submissions Closed.

I will try to have the judging wrapped up in the next couple of days.
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Re: Weekly Design Contest #113: Power Up!
« Reply #121 on: May 07, 2021, 07:08:35 pm »
+4

Sorry for the delay; it's been a busy end of the week with work.  I should have the results up tomorrow.
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Re: Weekly Design Contest #113: Power Up!
« Reply #122 on: May 08, 2021, 07:23:33 am »
0

Sorry for the delay; it's been a busy end of the week with work.  I should have the results up tomorrow.
np. thnx for the update
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Timinou

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Re: Weekly Design Contest #113: Power Up!
« Reply #123 on: May 09, 2021, 12:18:14 am »
+6

Judgment

I'm sorry it's taken a few days to complete this, but there were a lot of great entries and it took me a bit longer than expected to evaluate them all.

As always, please keep in mind that my assessment is highly subjective, influenced by my personal preferences, and I haven't playtested any of the cards, so your mileage may vary.

Anyway, I'm grateful for all the time and effort all the participants took to submit entries for this contest.  Judging is never easy, and especially this time I found it hard to pick a winner!

Infrastructure starts off as a cantrip but can evolve into a Market once half of the six Works are completed. If all Works are completed, it becomes a Market that will also be a gold-gainer and a Workshop that can gain copies of itself.  Achieving the conditions required to mark certain Works is quite straightforward and will often be unplanned, so players will need to keep track carefully.  The card itself ensures that it will be almost always be possible to mark all 6 Works (the exception would be a 5-player game where the Infrastructures are evenly divided amongst players).  While it’s nice to see a card that cares about something other than empty supply piles, I don’t think it will take much effort to activate Infrastructure.  I like off-the-wall cards, but in this case, I think the card could do with fewer activation steps and/or a different set of more strategic Works.       

Young Hero is an interesting Workshop variant.  I like that the card’s ability will make it easier to activate itself, but I’m not sure about the balance.  While an unactivated Young Hero will not provide any benefits over Workshop like some other $4-cost Workshop variants do, once it is activated, the strength of the card can ramp up quite quickly to point where it can gain Provinces with two empty supply piles.  While it’s possible to gain Provinces with other Workshop variants, that usually takes a lot more work to set up (e.g. having a sufficient number of cost-reduction cards in play).  I wonder if the optimal strategy with Young Hero would almost always be a rush, or if you try to build towards a mega-turn.  I think there’s a danger that it could be too monolithic, but it still looks like a fun card.

Infiltrator cares about how many copies of itself are left in the Supply, and starts off weak but gets stronger as it morphs from giving +1 Buy to becoming a Village, then a Peddler, and finally a Lab.  Since the bonuses are not additive, you may find yourself missing the +Buy or +Action that the card provided early in the game, so it would not be prudent to construct a deck around Infiltrator being your source of +Buy or your only village.  I think the bonuses and thresholds could do with some tweaking, as I’m not sure the initial opportunity cost of spending $4 on Infiltrators will be worth it unless there is no other source of draw in the Kingdom.   

I love the concept of using tokens on the card’s supply pile to track when it will be activated.  Revolution starts off by providing +3 Villagers and then becomes a Smithy once the Villagers run out.  Unlike other entries that care about empty piles, you don’t necessarily want to have as many of these in your deck as possible or try to win the split, especially if there other draw cards available.  It’s perhaps more important to be able to play it more times than your opponent early in the game before the Villagers run out.  It’s an elegant design overall, but I think my main reservation with the card is that I would have liked for it to do more than a regular Smithy once activated.

Basing the activation on when a certain card type is played is a neat idea and it’s a design space that I think is worth exploring.  Veteran cares about the first time each Attack card in the Kingdom is played, and could potentially become a strong trasher in Kingdoms with multiple Attack cards.  The trashing ability makes sense with the prospect of junking attacks, while the draw-to-X ability is helpful against handsize attacks.  If there are no Attack cards in the Kingdom, Veteran can still be useful a Peddler if played from a hand of five cards, and the draw-to-X ability could make it better than a Peddler if played from a hand of four cards or fewer.  By the way, I am assuming that the intent is that you can choose to trash up to as many cards from your hand as there are tokens on the Wounded mat (rather than having to choose to trash either three cards or none if there are 3 tokens on the mat).

Iron Throne is an interesting Throne Room variant with similarities to Herald.  I like that it can play both Actions and Treasures as that increases the chances that it will do something when played and could lead to some interesting interactions with Kingdom Treasures.  It gets stronger as supply piles run out and can be quite explosive especially if paired with deck inspectors or cards that let you top-deck other cards.  It also allows you to potentially play a card you’ve gained twice if you’ve drawn your deck.  Without deck inspection or top-decking, Iron Throne could have the same kind of awkwardness that you get with Golem. The card won’t do anything if you happen to draw it when your deck and discard pile are empty, or it can whiff if you reveal a non-Action or non-Treasure.  And then there’s also the drawback of revealing a card that you don’t really want to play twice.  It’s not an easy card to price, but I think $5 seems fine. I don’t think it would be an automatic buy in every Kingdom, which is perfectly fine and actually makes it more interesting.     

Boundary Marker is similar to Bridge except it is non-terminal, which makes it quite strong.  It also comes with an on-gain ability whereby you can choose to keep it on your Tavern mat to score extra VP when you start greening.  The more empty supply piles there are, the more you can score.  The card stays in either your deck or your Tavern mat, so it creates a dilemma when you gain it of whether you want to have a strong cost-reduction card in your deck or you want something that eventually scores you points without clogging up your deck like most green cards.  If you play a Boundary Marker, any Boundary Markers on your Tavern mat will not score points if you buy a Duchy, so you need to be mindful of that as well.  Without play-testing, it’s hard to say if both modes are balanced, but I like the overall concept and there are some interesting ideas here. 

Community is an alt-VP card that cares about empty piles.  I like the overall balance and simplicity here. The card has a variable cost based on the number of empty piles, which is a good design choice.  If you’re reasonably certain that the game will end on piles rather than Provinces, gaining them early will allow you to have a card worth at least 6VP at the end of the game at a discount. However, the timing of when to gain it is not always obvious as you also have to deal with having green in your deck.  Community also provides a preferable alternative to Duchy-dancing, which will provide a different endgame experience. 

Brewery is a very unique and interesting Event that provides Copper-thinning and payload.  The more players use it, the higher the payload.  It may be fun to try and construct a deck that uses Brewery for payload; ideally, if you’re able to draw your deck, then you want no more than 5 Coppers in it.  However, I don’t know how reliable such a deck would be on most boards and it also could be slow to get going especially at low player counts.  The main utility here seems to be as payload, but I wonder if buffing the Copper-thinning ability could add an extra dimension.  For example, if players weren’t restricted to putting just one Copper they have in play onto Brewery but could put as many as they wanted from play, they could thin their deck faster at the expense of making the Event stronger for their opponents.     

Ram is an interesting twist on Forager that gains copies of itself.  Unlike Forager, it only produces coin if there are Rams in the trash, and so early in the game it is unlikely to provide any economy.  In theory, a Ram could produce up to $9 when played; however, that requires having 9 Rams in the trash and having the last one in hand. Trashing a Ram provides you with immediate payload and let’s you draw a card, at the expense of removing a payload card from your deck and activating your opponents’ Rams. I love the interesting micro-decisions that this creates in terms of when to buy them and when to trash one if they collide.  It's a great design overall.

Study is a Lab+ when activated that cares about whether its Supply pile is empty.  The first time you play a Study during a turn, you get +1 Buy which could help you gain more Studies.  It’s almost an inverse of Lackeys; spamming Studies is likely to clog your deck with terminal Actions early in the game, but will dramatically improve your deck once activated.  In a 2-player game, the decision to go for these may be a gamble if your opponent doesn’t mirror you, so I think it does present an interesting strategic choice.  At higher player counts, I believe the decision may be more straightforward as they are more likely to get activated.


Centurion is a weak trasher and emulator that cares about how many differently named cards there are in the trash.  As mxdata points out, in most Kingdoms, it is likely to become as strong as Band of Misfits.  In Kingdoms with Shelters or Ruins, it is likely to become as strong as an Overlord.  The card looks fun, but there would be a potential issue in Kingdoms with no other trashers, as in such cases Centurion would be far too expensive and slow to set up.

Tribulation is a Project that cares about empty supply piles.  At a cost of $6, it will allow you to emulate 1-2 (or potentially more, in games with Fleet) cards from the supply at the start of your turn.  It’s not a Project you are likely to invest in early in the game because of the opportunity cost since by design, it is likely to be activated later in the game.  This presents an interesting decision of whether or not to buy it once there is at least one empty supply.  Playing a pseudo-Captain at the start of each turn is great, but it won’t always be an obvious choice depending on the state of the game.

Laser Army is a cool Attack card that starts off as a regular Smithy, but is permanently upgraded into a Curser if a player reveals a Gold from their hand after playing Laser Army.  The downside of the card is that it does take a bit of work to set up (requires purchasing both Laser Army and a Gold and then colliding them), after which the card becomes activated for opponents as well.  This isn’t too different in principle from other cards of this nature, but in this case, I don’t know if there is sufficient incentive to buy unactivated Laser Armies unless it is the only source of draw.   

Refurbish is an interesting Remodel variant that cares about how many copies of itself are in the trash.  The card starts off worse than Remodel, as it will only allow you to gain a card costing $1 more than the trashed card.  You could theoretically trash a Copper or Curse to gain a Province if there are sufficient Refurbishes in the trash, but that would take a lot of work to set up.  It could be frustrating if you are unable to get your Refurbishes to collide for the first time, so you may only want to add more of them to your deck once it is under control.  Like with Laser Army, I’m not sure if this gets the balance right between the investment required to activate them and the eventual payoff. 

Hunter is an interesting draw card that can also trash itself to gain a more expensive card.  Hunter cares about empty supply piles and not only draws more if there are more empty supply piles, but it has a variable cost which means it can be trashed to gain even better cards.  When there are two empty supply piles, I think more often than not, you will be at the stage of the game where it would make sense to trash your Hunters into Duchies.  I think the choice of trashing Hunters early in the game in order to gain an engine piece, or to keep them in your deck in the hope that they will get more powerful is an interesting one.  I like the versatility of the card, and you may still want to buy them in games where you don’t expect any supply pile other than Provinces to run out.

Like pubby’s Revolution, Forest Witch is activated once the Villagers placed on its pile during set-up are emptied.  Prior to activation, Forest Witch provides +$2, +1 Buy, and +1 Villager, which is not too shabby at a cost of $5.  Once the Villagers on its pile run out, it becomes a strictly better version of Coven.  I think the activation occurs too soon (in a 2-player game, it will take 4 plays of Forest Witch to activate them), so perhaps it may need to be tweaked to make it less centralizing.

Barter Town is a unique take on trashing & sifting.  It lets you trash a card from your hand then draw a card per card in the trash that shares the same card type as you have trashed.  The card is more likely to benefit from trashing Treasures or Ruins than Estates, as the former are likely to have more differently named cards of the same type in the trash.  The card trashes before it sifts, so like Junk Dealer it can be awkward to play with if you run out of junk in your deck.  It would be more attractive if it let you sift before trashing, but I don’t know if that would make it overpowered.

Theatre is a great antidote for weak Kingdoms.  The card seems quite balanced due to its variable cost.  If there are no draw cards in the Kingdom, it will become a Lab.  In Kingdoms without a village or source of +Buy, Theatre will double as a Worker’s Village.  In rare Kingdoms that lack a village, draw cards, and a source of +Buy, Theatre will be a Lost City that also provides +Buy at a fair price of $6.  Theatre can also be upgraded when certain piles run out; for instance, Theatre will gain +Action once all the villages run out in the supply.  In Kingdoms where there are villages, cards that give +2 cards, and +Buy, Theatre will just be a cantrip at the start, so in those cases you may want to pick them up before they are activated if you think the cards that provide draw will run out.  I feel like the activation due to empty supply piles will be more relevant at higher player counts than at two players.  I also don’t know that it necessarily makes the game more interesting to have Theatre as "insurance" in case certain cards run out.  Nevertheless, I like the versatility of the card and still think it’s a good design.

Reconstruction is a nice, versatile card that is activated as soon as the Ruins pile runs out, at which point it can play up to two Ruins from your Exile mat.  There may be some randomness that may not be everyone’s cup of tea.  For instance, if only one player ends up with 2 Ruined Libraries on their Exile mat, their Reconstructions will likely be much stronger than their opponents’.  Likewise, a player that ends up with a wider variety of Ruins will likely have an advantage over a player that only ends up with Survivors and Ruined Villages on their Exile mat.  A version that puts the Ruins on a communal mat or in the trash would mitigate the randomness, but I think it’s still quite intriguing in its current form. 

Beginner is a Remodel variant that cares about empty supply piles.  If there are no empty supply piles, it will be a regular Remodel.  But with each empty supply pile, you get to gain a copy of the card you remodeled into.  It’s a neat idea, but I wonder if some restrictions are warranted.  With one empty supply pile, for instance, you could trash a Province or a $6-cost card to gain 2 Provinces.  With two empty supply piles, you could do the same to gain 3 Provinces without much effort.

Borough is part of a split pile cares about whether there are copies of itself in the supply and if its supply pile is empty.  Borough combines draw-to-X and +Cards in an interesting fashion.  It transitions from Necropolis+ when there are still copies of itself in the supply, to a Village+ when it runs out but there are still Town Halls in the supply, to a Lost City+ when the supply pile runs out.  While Borough provides +Actions and draw, Town Hall provides payload.  I think the revised version is a lot more balanced than the original one; even though Town Hall still has the potential to provide a crazy amount of coin for how cheap it is.  I like the overall concept, and it looks fun to play with, but I think the cost of Town Hall may need to be tweaked. 

Voyager/Old Sapphire is the second split pile submission in this week’s contest.  At a cost of $3, Voyager provides +1 Villager and +1 Coffers, and gives you the option to trash a non-Victory card from the supply.  Once copies of itself run out, you can also use it to gain an Old Sapphire.  Old Sapphire itself will give you +2 Coffers, and once the supply pile runs out it will also provide +1 Buy and +$1, which makes it strictly better than Gold at this point.  The main issue I have is how quickly this pile can run out and for the cards to be activated.  Voyager is cheap (you could buy two of them before your first shuffle if they are still available), there are only 5 of them in the supply, and they can trash other Voyagers from the supply; therefore, it won’t take long for Old Sapphires to be uncovered.  And once they are, players don’t need to buy them; they can just gain them using Voyagers. 

Thieves Guild is a Night-Duration card that cares about Supply piles with 5 or fewer cards left.  The obvious comparison is Den of Sin, but Thieves Guild starts out extremely weak (essentially providing no duration-draw at all if you gain it prematurely) but could potentially provide plenty of duration-draw in games with lots of gains.  Keeping track of Supply piles with 5 or fewer cards is a bit more cumbersome than keeping track of empty supply piles, but could be done using tokens IRL.  Given how weak it is at the start of the game, it makes sense to power it up each time any supply pile has five or fewer cards rather than when they are completely empty, but I can’t tell how balanced it will end up being or how well it scales at different player counts.  There will be some Kingdoms where this card could be an absolute beast and I would find the prospect of playing with it quite exciting, but there may be some where it takes time for it to start being worthwhile (and as a Duration card, it will not do anything for you in the turn that you play it so you may not want to buy this late in the game).  It’s fine for a card not to be strong in every kingdom, but I think the base version of this needs to be buffed somehow.     

Bond is a Kingdom treasure that becomes activated when it is in play, and the active player buys a card costing more than Bond.  You could potentially have more than one in play and upgrade them more than once with a single buy, which I think is cool.  It’s an interesting and novel concept, but I think even the revised version may still be a bit too weak.  Given that it starts off providing only +$1, it’s quite possible that the first few times players have this in play that they are unable to hit $5.  I think the concept is innovative and has potential, but I would consider pricing it at $3. 

Pirate Fleet is an Attack card that makes your opponents trash a Silver from their hand.  Then, you can choose to either add a token to a communal Fleet Mat or gain $ based on the number of tokens per player on the Fleet Mat.  The Attack can significantly disrupt your opponent’s upcoming turn, but one can play around Pirate Fleet by choosing not to buy Silvers.  This may not be ideal in certain Kingdoms, but there are others where you would not be buying them anyway.  Even in games where you open with a Silver and your opponent opens with a Pirate Fleet, I think your odds are slightly better than 50% that your opponent’s Pirate Fleet misses on T3 or T4, so I don’t know that opening with Pirate Fleet is better than opening with Silver.  Increasing the amount of payload that Pirate Fleet provides can be slow, and once it is sufficiently powered up, any player can buy it.     


Honourable Mentions (in no particular order): Gubump's Young Hero, pubby's Revolution, segura's Iron Throne, gambit05's Hunter, DunnoItAll's Reconstruction, and grep's Borough/Town Hall

Runner-up: scolapasta's Community

WINNER: 4est's Ram

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DunnoItAll

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Re: Weekly Design Contest #113: Power Up!
« Reply #124 on: May 09, 2021, 09:04:12 am »
+3

Great contest, and the winner is the one I would've picked, too.  Very interesting card.  Definitely going to play with it.
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