Sorry for the delay in posting the detailed results. My comments are below. There were a lot of cool submissions last week, and the honorable mentions list could easily have been longer - it was hard to pick which ones to shortlist!
Gubump's Arcade *WINNER*Arcade draws cards based on the number of “things” you have gained +1 of (could be +Cards, +Actions, +Buys, +$, +VP, +Coffers, or +Villagers) during your turn. Arcade loves cards like Markets and Peddlers and villages like Bazaar and Worker’s Village. At a cost of $3, it looks like a great bargain in Kingdoms with these cards. It wouldn't take much for it to draw as many cards as a Smithy, but unlike Smithy if you draw it in your starting hand without any non-terminal Action card, it will do nothing for you. It’s definitely not a card you want to add to your deck too early in the game. I’m not entirely sure if it’s balanced at $3, but it looks like a lot of fun to build a deck with this.
JW's Impoverished VillageImpoverished Village is a glorified Necropolis that lets you take up to 3 debt to draw as many cards. Playing multiple Impoverished Villages in a turn will give you lots of +Actions, but you will only be able to draw cards with one of them due to debt mechanic. You need to be mindful of Kingdoms that have both Impoverished Village and cards like Upgrade, since you don’t necessarily want to Upgrade too many of your Coppers into Impoverished Villages. Nevertheless, it’s tempting to have at least one Impoverished Village in your deck (taking 3 debt during your turn for +3 cards and +3 Actions seems like it would pay off in most cases).
mandioca15's InnkeeperInnkeeper is a Spy variant that draws as many cards as the number of types that the revealed card has. On its own, Innkeeper looks fairly weak. Being able to decide whether or not you want to draw the revealed card makes it better than something like Zombie Spy, but Innkeeper only really shines in a Kingdom with multiple-type cards (and ideally deck inspectors to avoid whiffing). There's a good synergy with Village Green, because you could non-terminally draw 4 cards if Innkeeper reveals a Village Green. Innkeeper is a neat idea, but I feel like it needs a slight buff to make it more relevant in Kingdoms without cards that synergize with it.
AJL828's IllusionistIllusionist draws cards based the number of different card types in your hand. Like Innkeeper, Illusionist looks strong in a Kingdom with multiple-type cards. In a Kingdom with just the basic card types (Action, Treasure, Victory), Illusionist is less reliable than Smithy. It's obviously better in Kingdoms with more card types. With at least 22 different official card types (and hopefully more to come), it does seem like it could potentially get a bit crazy, but I'm more concerned about the reliability of Innkeeper as a draw card even when you are able to build a deck that has lots of multiple-type cards. I also feel like counting all the card types you have in hand each time you play Illusionist could occasionally get a bit tedious (it's not the same as when checking for the number of types a single card has), but that's just a nitpick. Overall, a solid design - just not in my wheelhouse.
Xtra's Commander *RUNNER-UP*Commander makes you discard down to 1 card in hand and then draw up to as many cards per $1 the card you keep costs. I like that if you have it in your starting hand, the decision of when to play it won’t always be obvious especially if you have other strong cards in hand. The card does encourage you to green earlier, since revealing a Province will let you draw 8 new cards (and keeping the Province in hand is helpful if you draw more Commanders). There is the self-synergy, which which will probably incentivizes going for a stack of these. I feel like the +$1 might not be necessary, since it perhaps makes this too monolithic. I think the card would be strong enough at $5 without the +$1. Nonetheless, looks like a fun design overall that would be interesting to play with.
NoMoreFun's Farm CellarFarm Cellar will dig through your deck until it finds an Action or a Treasure; in addition you draw the cards (most often Victory cards or Curses, but occasionally useful Night cards) that were revealed before you found that Action or Treasure, and then you get to sift like with regular Cellar. Even in clean decks, being able to sift through cards without reducing your hand size is really good. In junky decks or during the greening phase, playing a bunch of Farm Cellars is probably going to increase your hand size, which makes it even better than Forum in my view.
Aquila's Repository *RUNNER-UP*Repository is a Reserve card that can be immediately called or at the start of your turn and lets you discard any number of Treasures for +2 Cards each. Repository is a useful card for both money strategies and engines, and looks essential in Kingdoms without Copper trashing. I like the fact that just as you could reasonably hold on to your Estates in Shepherd games, even the presence of good Copper trashing will make you think twice about your strategy if Repository is available. I think a version that cannot be called immediately when played would be interesting, since I think the downside of it not doing anything when played would make the decision of how many to add to your deck more meaningful.
emtzalex's Rework *HONORABLE MENTION*Rework is like a delayed Apprentice combined with Remodel. It reminds me of a card I submitted for a previous contest, but I think I like this version better in terms of simplicity and power level. Rework is useful early in the game for trashing your starting cards, especially if there are some decent $2-cost cards available. Even if you’re forced to settle for remodeling your Coppers into Estates, you still get to keep the Estate out of your deck for one turn and get some decent duration draw. Being able to remodel some of your cards into your green cards on your penultimate turn also looks great for this reason. On the other hand, it also keeps useful stuff out of your deck for an extra turn compared to other remodelers. This eclectic combination of remodeler and duration draw looks interesting to try out.
Xen3k's Flower Garden *HONORABLE MENTION*Flower Garden draws cards based on the cost of a card you have in play and then makes you topdeck 2 cards. It also has an interesting feature whereby it is non-terminal if you draw 3 or fewer cards, but terminal if you draw more than 3 cards with it. If you choose the Flower Garden you just played, you draw 3 cards and topdeck 2 cards from your hand. I like the uniqueness of the card, but Flower Garden looks like it could be a bit awkward early in the game when you are less likely to have good stuff to topdeck. Nevertheless, once your deck is more developed the draw that it provides and ability to set up your next turn (or power up cards like Heralds and Chariot Races) look quite useful.
The Alchemist's SerfsSerfs is a fairly unique sifter. It makes you draw cards in between your turns each time the player to your right draws a card and has more cards in hand than you do, but at the start of your turn you discard down to 5 cards. The sifting that this provides could potentially be far better than any of the official sifters, even when your opponent isn’t drawing their entire deck. I don’t know that having a Serfs in play will necessarily make your opponent think twice about whether they should continue to draw cards during their turn, but I could definitely see you ending up with your entire deck in hand at the start of your turn especially if there are no discard attacks in the Kingdom. I don’t like that, and I could also see this being a bit cumbersome IRL as need to track your opponent’s handsize and your own each time they draw cards.
4est's Trophy Room/TrophyTrophy Room is part of a split pile and lets you draw cards per differently named Treasure in your hand. Trophy, which sits at the bottom of the pile synergizes with Trophy Room and also topdeck a card (other than a Trophy) during Clean-up. Even though it is cheap, I think Trophy Room looks fairly weak in games without other Kingdom Treasures or Heirlooms, and there probably isn’t enough incentive for players to buy enough Trophy Rooms to unveil a Trophy. I think there’s an interesting concept here, but I think Trophy Room would need to come with a sweetener.
faust's DivinerDiviner sets aside a Boon on your Diviner mat when you gain it, and when played lets you receive the Boons on your mat in any order. The card also comes with Goat, to mitigate the potential swinginess that could arise if one player happens to get Flame’s Gift on their Diviner Mat and there is no other trashing in the Kingdom. I’m quite enamored by the concept of a card that you can power up over the course of the game, but I’m not a big fan of the randomness and hoping that you end up with a decent boon rather than one of the weaker ones when you buy Diviner.
xyz123's CollectorCollector Exiles a card from your hand and then draws +1 Card per differently named Victory card on your Exile mat. In games without alt-VP, this will cap at +3 cards. The optimal time of when to add this to your deck is not clear. It looks like a poor card to open with relative to something like Bounty Hunter. Adding Collector to your deck in the greening phase seems to make more sense, although there is the risk of adding a stop card to your deck. I like the overall concept, but I feel like it needs to be tweaked somehow (perhaps if it would allow you to Exile a card from hand on gain).
stechafle's Spiral Staircase *HONORABLE MENTION*Spiral Staircase reveals the top card of your deck and then continues to reveal cards until you reveal one that does not cost more (in other words, costs the same or is cheaper) than the previously revealed card. Unless you have certain cards in the Kingdom that combo well with it, Spiral Staircase will most often draw +2 cards, making it weaker than Smithy at the same cost. I’m unsure of how to go about building a deck that will maximize your chances of getting maximal draw out of Spiral Staircase (you don’t want too many cards with the same cost, but even in a deck with several cards with varied costs, having them in ascending order in your deck is quite luck dependent in the absence of deck inspectors or top-decking). It’s definitely a novel and intriguing concept and one that would definitely stand out in the right kingdom , but it’s otherwise a bit too random for my liking.
DunnoItAll's Interest/Savings *HONORABLE MENTION*Interest is part of a split pile with Savings and will draw cards depending on the difference between the number of Interest and Savings in their pile. If only one Interest has been bought, it will draw 1 card and if all 5 are bought, they will draw a whopping 5 cards if all the Savings are still in the supply. Like Xen3k’s Flower Garden, the card is conditionally non-terminal – in this case, if you only happen to draw 1 card, making it a Market Square when played. Savings has a variable cost between $1 and $6 (assuming no cost reduction in the Kingdom) and gives you $4 and +1 Buy but is then returned to the Supply; this makes the power level of Interest quite dynamic. Playing more Interest cards in a turn will make Savings cheaper, but buying Savings will weaken your Interests on your next turn (conversely, playing your Savings will make your Interest stronger). There are definitely some interesting ideas here including the counterbalance of the draw of Interest and payload of Savings. However, I’m not sure about how well balanced the cards are.
grep's DikeDike draws cards equal to every 2VP on its supply pile (rounded up) and forces you to either trash itself or a card from your hand. Gaining a Dike adds 1VP to the supply pile (thereby powering up the card), whereas trashing it lets you take 1VP from the supply pile and weakens everyone's Dikes. If all the Dikes in the supply pile are bought and none are trashed, each one will give +5 cards. While a powered up Dike that can draw and trash looks quite appealing, the card has a similar drawback as Trade Route in terms of being quite weak early in the game, which may leave the pile untouched if there are other draw cards in the Kingdom.
alion8me's FarmerFarmer draws cards based on each differently named card in play. Although it could definitely be powerful in the right Kingdom, the card looks weaker on average than Smithy. More often than not, I feel like Farmer will feel too awkward in your deck to incentivize you to build around it (I think cards like Horn of Plenty and Magic Lamp have enough of a payoff to shape your strategy).
spineflu's KnaveKnave in a Action card that gives you the choice of gaining Coffers or converting Coffers into draw. Knave also lets you gain +1 Coffers if you skip to your Clean Up phase. I really like the idea of converting Coffers into draw. I'm not sure how often you would take up the option to skip to your clean-up phase for +1 Coffers, especially since it sounds like you wouldn't be able to stack these. While Knave does synergize well with other cards that give you Coffers, on its own it seems a bit slow to get going. Playing two Knaves in a turn for the first time (one for the Coffers and the other for the draw) is sort of like playing one as a cantrip and another for +1 Card.
mxdata's Wrangler/DiscoveryWrangler lets you trash a card from your hand to gain as many Horses per $1 it costs. Wrangler shares a pile with Discovery, a Night card that lets you set aside a card from the top of your deck per card that you've gained this turn. If you are drawing your deck (as you are wont to do with all those Horses in your deck) Discovery essentially lets you set aside the cards you have gained in your buy phase and add them to your hand at the start of your next turn. Wrangler looks fun, although it potentially lets you gain a bunch of Horses too easily (you could always trash a Horse to gain 3 Horses). Discovery looks powerful, provided that there is +Buy in the Kingdom, otherwise it will have limited utility for a $6-cost card if you are drawing your deck.
majiponi's AgencyAgency is analogous to Storeroom, providing a source of +Actions and +Buys instead of $ when discarding cards, so this could be a village. While not strictly better than Cellar, it does look quite good compared to it at the same cost. For that reason, the balance seems a bit off to me, but otherwise it's a neat idea.
Chris is me's ProfessorProfessor is similar to AJL828's Illusionist but is non-terminal and provides +Cards based on the number of types a single revealed card has rather than the number of types in your hand. Professor will always at least a cantrip, but in a deck with lots of dual-type cards, it can easily be a Lab (and quite strong when paired with Werewolves). Whereas you could make Illusionist work in Kingdoms without dual type cards, unfortunately you are likely to skip Professor in certain Kingdoms.
fika monster's Mobile LibraryMobile Library is a card that rewards you for having variety in your deck. When played, you reveal cards from your deck until you have revealed 4 that you have a copy of in your hand, or have revealed 10 cards in total. You then discard the copies, and draw the rest into your hand. The earlier version of this card was definitely overpowered, but the revised version also seems a bit crazy. Imagine playing this from a hand of Mobile Library and 4 Coppers - unless you gained any Coppers in addition to your starting ones, you will be able to draw 10 cards (and even if 3 are Coppers, you will still be left with 7 cards after discarding them). This seems like it could be quite swingy and is not really my cup of tea.
spheremonk's Lucre/BurglarBurglar is a Night card buried under Lucres that lets you return to your Action phase and gives you +Cards, +Coffers, and +Villagers for each card you gained this turn. It essentially lets you play the cards that you just gained during your Buy phase. While it's nice to see more cards that return to your Action phase, I think this potentially gives out too much stuff for my liking. It's not cheap at $7, but you're fairly likely to be able to hit that price point once it is revealed. Too many coffers could be an issue, especially if you consider how many cards you can gain in a turn in a deck with Liveries or Hagglers.
lompeluiten's Gold ProspectorGold Prospector makes you reveal the top 4 cards of your deck, take all the Treasures and discard the rest. It's not really a card that lends itself to engines (although you may want to open with one if you want something spiky to hit a certain price point), but looks potentially quite strong in a money strategy. It's cheaper than Smithy, and so certainly looks better than it if you're playing a money strategy. Aside from some certain interactions (e.g. Village Green or Tunnel), this seems fairly one-dimensional.
Gardoomalion's Clock Tower *HONORABLE MENTION*Clock Tower is an intriguing card. It gets set aside when played, and playing future Clock Towers will make you rotate other Clock Towers that you have set aside. When a Clock Tower has been rotated twice, you can return it to the supply to gain a card costing up to $6 and draw cards equal to 8 minus the cost of the gained card. It is perhaps not the most elegant card, but I like the uniqueness of this submission. The mechanic of setting aside the card and rotating them sort of reminds me of
Gazbag's Ice Tokens, except here you need to play Clock Towers to "unfreeze" the Clock Towers that you have set aside. I'm not sure about the balance - it does seem a bit slow since for every Clock Tower you set aside, you would need to gain and then play two more Clock Towers before it activates.
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Topic: Weekly Design Contest #125: What's the Draw? (Read 11279 times)