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Author Topic: Fan Card Mechanics Week 20: Season 2 Finale (One plus One)  (Read 4437 times)

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emtzalex

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Fan Card Mechanics Week 20: Season 2 Finale (One plus One)
« on: September 09, 2021, 09:47:16 pm »
+2

(Note: after feedback from Timinou and segura I have rearranged this to hopefully be more clear; nothing has substantively changed.)

For the Season 2 Finale, you need to submit two designs, each with at least one mechanic. One design needs to be based around a Kingdom card pile and the other a landscape.

For the Kingdom card pile design, the only requirement is that it must incorporate at least one of the mechanics from Season 2 (Weeks 11-19) that is not used in the landscape design. Feel free to submit a regular, 10 (or 8/12) card plie, or to use any official (or unofficial) mechanics that jigger with pile size and makeup: split piles, extra cards (like Port or Rats), or even mixed piles (like Castles or Knights--but be warned, with these there is a serious risk of losing points in the simplicity category).

Your landscape design also needs to incorporate a Season 2 Mechanic not used in your Kingdom pile design. If your landscape is an Act or an Edict, you have already met this requirement. But you could also make an Event that Queues or a Project that is affected by the Seasons mat.

As a reminder, here are the Fan Mechanics featured in Season 2:

Season 2

Week 11: Acting Sideways

Week 12: High on your own Supplier

Week 13: Et Factum Est Ita

Week 14: 'Tis the Season

Week 15: Level Up

Week 16: We Only Take Card, No Cash

Week 17: Idle Hands

Week 18: From A to B

Week 19: Join the Queue

Feel free to support either of your designs (or both) with additional cards (non-Supply piles, Heirlooms, etc.) or landscapes (Artifact, States, etc.); your submission will still qualify if the Mechanic is used in the supporting card/landscape. For example, you could submit an Action card which gains an Artifact that Queues cards or an Event which gains a non-Supply card with the Season type. I'm not putting any limit on the number of these, but simplicity is one of the factors on which I am judging, and if I have to learn what a dozen cards/landscapes do to understand how your card works, it will hurt you in that department.

Also, while you can use these to support your design, they can't be the core of the design itself. In the first example given above, the Artifact-gaining-Action-card could count just as your Kingdom card design, but the Artifact could not count as your landscape. I would count it (and judge it) as part of the design of your Kingdom card.


Judging
I will judge each of the designs based on my usual criteria, which include Balance, Playability, Simplicity, as well as use of the mechanic and staying within Dominion's theme. I have previously summarized these as asking whether I would be excited to see the card as part of a Kingdom. Since I am asking for 2 designs, I will also be judging on how those designs work together. I would like to see some kind of synergy between the two designs, but more importantly, I would like to see them work together in a fun, balanced way.

Since this all will make scoring a lot more complex, I am actually going to score the submissions based on a specific criteria, and award points for each. I will not post the scores, but will be happy to message them to you privately as requested. I will give up to 40 points each for the individual designs, and 20 points for the interaction between the two designs (laid out in more detail below). The winner will be the highest overall score.


Deadline
Because I am asking for two designs, I am going to expand the notion of a "week" for the contest, to include the next work week, along with the weekend before and after it. Therefore, the deadline for submissions will be the end of next weekend, Sunday, September 19, 2021 at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time (a.k.a. forum time). (That is Monday, September 20 at 03:45 UTC.)

I hope this is not too complicated, and that you all enjoy designing these. Let me know if you have any questions.


TL;DR
Design a Kingdom card pile and an landscape, each using at least one Season 2 mechanic not used by the other. The deadline is Sunday, September 19, 2021 at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time (a.k.a. forum time).



Backstory
This contest is based on an idea I had, which is this: while there is interesting self-synergy in some official cards (Minion comes immediately to mind) or other designs (split piles, Heirlooms, etc.), the most interesting interactions in Dominion are between different cards/piles/landscapes/etc.

Around Week 15, I started thinking about a Season 2 Finale, and I got a bit worried. We already had two mechanics (Acts and Edicts) which, by definition, had to be landscapes, and two more (Suppliers and Level cards) which, by their nature, had to be implement via cards (Supplier because they only work when in play, and Level because you need to put something on their pile). This meant that the only mechanic that (at the time) could pair with each other was Seasons. By contrast, in Season 1, every mechanic except one (Wonders), could interact in a single design with every other mechanic. That's 28 different potential pairs (plus a few of them--Worshippers, Conditions, Ice tokens, and maybe even Kin--could have worked with a Wonder). This problem has been mitigated significantly in Weeks 16 through 19, with mechanics that are much more flexible. Idle Hands or Route tokens can be dished out just as easily by Acts and Edicts as by Kingdom cards, and (as I will express when I get the chance to post all the cards I designed over the past week), I think Queuing may have the most design potential of all, and can easily combine with any other.

Nevertheless, an idea I had earlier in the season has stuck with me, and I am going to go with it. As I said above, the most interesting interactions in Dominion are not within a design (Minion's disappearing money helping its dtx; Patricians allowing for lots of Actions to be in play when you buy a Forum, then drawing it once its in your deck; Secret Cave staying in play 2 turns to help your chances of triggering Magic Lamp), they are between designs (Rats + Ritual; Tactician + Baths; Skulk + Cathedral; Treasure Map + Way of the Turtle).



Detailed Scoring Criteria

Individual designs (40 points each)
Relevance (10 points) -- Did you make good, interesting use the mechanic (or mechanics)?
Balance (10 points) -- Is design useful, but not overpowering (both in general and in a variety of Kingdoms)? Put another way, in what percentage of Kingdoms would both using it and not using it be part of a viable strategy?
Playability (10 points) -- Is the design fun to play and does it work in more than one type of deck in a variety of different Kingdoms?
Simplicity (5 points) -- Is the design easy to understand, and is it easy to play the card (and remember how it is played (this doesn't always mean fewer words; a card with lots of text that, once you understand it, can be easily and intuitively be played is better than one with four lines of text that is hard to resolve)?
Theme and creativity (5 points) -- Does the design's name/concept fit into the general theme of Dominion historically and have some connection to what the design actually does (including what the mechanic does)? (You may want to give an explanation here if you think there might be some ambiguity.) The last couple of points are available for particularly clever or creative titles, references, etc.

Interaction between the designs
Synergies (5 points) -- Does the presence of one design enhances the play of the other (and how broadly does that work)?
General compatibility (15 points) -- Do the two designs, when considered as a unit meet the tests (especially Balance and Playability) from above? If they combine to substantially limit a common strategy or the use of a broad class of cards (e.g. Attacks, Durations), they will score very low. On the other hand, if the ways in which they work together are useful (but not too powerful) across a range of common strategies, all 15 points might be on the table.
« Last Edit: September 20, 2021, 12:02:47 am by emtzalex »
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emtzalex

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Re: Fan Card Mechanics Week 20: Season 2 Finale (One plus One)
« Reply #1 on: September 10, 2021, 06:12:52 pm »
+1

Please don't worry too much about the scoring details. That is mainly for me, but I wanted to be transparent about how I was doing it (I'm now having second thoughts because I worry it seems too much like homework/an exam).

Judging these is always subjective (and it will continue to be). My worry with judging more than one design per entrant was how to compare (1) a person who submitted one amazing design and one meh design with (2) a person who submitted two solid designs, neither of which were as good as 1's better design.
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spineflu

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Re: Fan Card Mechanics Week 20: Season 2 Finale (One plus One)
« Reply #2 on: September 11, 2021, 10:04:20 am »
+2



Quote
Survey • Act
If you don't already have it, take Surveying.
Quote
Surveying • State
When you next shuffle, first gain an Idle Hands, then +1 Route and return this.
Quote
Course • $5* • Action
+1 Card
+1 Buy
+1 Card per level.
Queue a card from your hand per level.
-
When you buy this, reveal your hand. It costs $1 less per Action card revealed.

Used mechanics: Route, Idle Hands, Act, Level, Queue.
Survey can let you stock up on Idle Hands to buy Courses on the cheap (requires a village enabler). Course lets you queue up your Idle Hands for junk management. Output from the combo of the two pieces is Routes and extra Buys, which are both generally handy.

revisions: abstracted out the bonus from Survey onto a State that procs on shuffle (general rules reminder that you can shuffle one card, but not zero) to make that route token not mess with the opening so hard.
« Last Edit: September 12, 2021, 03:04:51 pm by spineflu »
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Jonatan Djurachkovitch

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Re: Fan Card Mechanics Week 20: Season 2 Finale (One plus One)
« Reply #3 on: September 11, 2021, 06:27:55 pm »
+2

Here's my submission. It uses Suppliers and Edicts from this season and Dawn cards from the first one.


Quote
Beneficiary
$3 - Supplier-Duration
+1 Buy
+$1
$2: Reveal cards from your deck until you reveal an Action  card. Set it aside under this and discard the rest. Play it at the start of your next turn.

Quote
Living Grounds
Edict
Whenever you gain a Victory card, you may gain a Mustang.

Quote
Mustang
$3* - Dawn-Reaction
+2 Cards
Return this to its pile.
-
When you discard this, you may reveal it to put it on top of your deck
(This is not in the supply)


The thought is this: Beneficiary lets you for example pay to play cards you bought this turn at the start of your next turn, alternatively just accelerating your deck with a Ghost-like effect. Living Grounds lets you slightly mitigate the tempo loss of gaining a Victory card by gaining a Dawn horse, but it might backfire if you draw it dead. The interaction between Beneficiary and Mustang is twofold: playing actions at the start of your turn minimize the risk of drawing Mustang dead, and if it flips Mustang, you can topdeck it and be guaranteed to be able to play it during your next turn.
« Last Edit: September 13, 2021, 02:09:11 am by Jonatan Djurachkovitch »
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NoMoreFun

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Re: Fan Card Mechanics Week 20: Season 2 Finale (One plus One)
« Reply #4 on: September 11, 2021, 07:32:37 pm »
+2

Relax
Act
+1 Action if you have no cards in Queue
Queue an Idle Hands from its pile

Tourist Village
Action/Season - $3
+1 Card
If it's Summer +3 Actions,
If it's Winter, +1 Action,
Otherwise, +2 Actions
« Last Edit: September 15, 2021, 04:48:07 am by NoMoreFun »
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Aquila

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Re: Fan Card Mechanics Week 20: Season 2 Finale (One plus One)
« Reply #5 on: September 12, 2021, 03:47:29 am »
+1


Quote
Audience - Action, $5 cost.
Choose one: play an Action card from your Queue; or play an Action card from your hand twice, Queuing it when it's discarded from play.
Quote
Prepare - Act
At Clean-up, put one of your Actions onto your deck when you discard it from play.
Prepare an Audience to keep meeting its target when it returns from the Queue each turn.
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Aquila

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Re: Fan Card Mechanics Week 20: Season 2 Finale (One plus One)
« Reply #6 on: September 12, 2021, 04:17:17 am »
0


Quote
Survey • Act
Gain an Idle Hands. +1 Route.
I thought of an Act with +1 Route by itself, but was put off by the radical openings that could occur. Like with a $5/$2 split, playing a $5 on turn 2 or a Night $5 immediately. The Idle Hands might soften this a bit, but not much with said Night cards.



Quote
Mustang
$3* - Dawn
+2 Cards
Return this to its pile.
-
When you discard this, you may reveal it to put it on top of your deck
(This is not in the supply)

The thought is this: Beneficiary lets you for example pay to play cards you bought this turn at the start of your next turn, alternatively just accelerating your deck with a Ghost-like effect. Living Grounds lets you slightly mitigate the tempo loss of gaining a Victory card by gaining a Dawn horse, but it might backfire on you. The interaction between Beneficiary and Mustang is twofold: playing actions at the start of your turn minimize the risk of drawing Mustang dead, and if it flips Mustang, you can topdeck it and be guaranteed to be able to play it during your next turn.
So is Mustang like Tunnel, a Reaction that triggers when it's discarded 'other than during Clean-up'? Do you also want it to react when discarded from hand at Clean-up? Either way it needs the Reaction type.
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spineflu

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Re: Fan Card Mechanics Week 20: Season 2 Finale (One plus One)
« Reply #7 on: September 12, 2021, 03:02:09 pm »
0


Quote
Survey • Act
Gain an Idle Hands. +1 Route.
I thought of an Act with +1 Route by itself, but was put off by the radical openings that could occur. Like with a $5/$2 split, playing a $5 on turn 2 or a Night $5 immediately. The Idle Hands might soften this a bit, but not much with said Night cards.

Ah, that's a good point. But fixable with a state (and a bonus of making it less abuseable for infinity routes.)
« Last Edit: September 12, 2021, 03:09:08 pm by spineflu »
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Xen3k

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Re: Fan Card Mechanics Week 20: Season 2 Finale (One plus One)
« Reply #8 on: September 12, 2021, 03:22:30 pm »
+2



Quote
Spear Fisher - $3
Dawn - Action - Level
+1 Card
+1 Action
+$1
+1 Action per level.
Gain an Idle Hands.

Quote
Way of the Salmon
Way
+1 Route
+$1

Spear Fisher is a quasi Village/Peddler that gains you an Idle Hands. If you level it up once or play it during your Dawn phase it acts as a Village. Further Leveling makes it a super Village. If you have a Route available (or an Idle Hands in hand already) it acts as a Peddler by gaining the Idle Hands to your hand and revealing it for +1 Card. To get you some Route tokens, I made a simple Way; Way of the Salmon. Salmon always manage to make it back up stream for spawning, so I figured that would be appropriate. Not sure if Spear Fisher is priced properly as it has the potential to be really powerful with a bit of work, but it is comparable to a bad Oasis out of the box. Feedback is appreciated.

This uses the single Dawn card per turn rule, but it would only be slightly stronger with infinite. Just a little concerned about a "Golden Dawn" Spear Fisher deck.

(P.S. Not sure why the coin font is funky with the card generator, but I will update it when/if that clears up.) Fixed

Edit: Quick alter of the last line of Spear Fisher to be less of a "more +Actions" effect.

Edit 2: Per recommendation from segura, buffed Spear Fisher by changing the +1 Card to no longer be conditional. It is more directly comparable to Oasis now, and the bells and whistles of Leveling and the Dawn type should be balanced by Idle Hands gain junking your deck. I am not sure if it changes to being too good now, but this is a simpler design that I like more.

Old Versions
« Last Edit: September 13, 2021, 06:52:13 pm by Xen3k »
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Jonatan Djurachkovitch

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Re: Fan Card Mechanics Week 20: Season 2 Finale (One plus One)
« Reply #9 on: September 13, 2021, 02:06:24 am »
0

Quote
Mustang
$3* - Dawn
+2 Cards
Return this to its pile.
-
When you discard this, you may reveal it to put it on top of your deck
(This is not in the supply)

The thought is this: Beneficiary lets you for example pay to play cards you bought this turn at the start of your next turn, alternatively just accelerating your deck with a Ghost-like effect. Living Grounds lets you slightly mitigate the tempo loss of gaining a Victory card by gaining a Dawn horse, but it might backfire on you. The interaction between Beneficiary and Mustang is twofold: playing actions at the start of your turn minimize the risk of drawing Mustang dead, and if it flips Mustang, you can topdeck it and be guaranteed to be able to play it during your next turn.
So is Mustang like Tunnel, a Reaction that triggers when it's discarded 'other than during Clean-up'? Do you also want it to react when discarded from hand at Clean-up? Either way it needs the Reaction type.
It is supposed to work at clean-up, but that might be a bit too confusing. You're right in that it needs the reaction type. I'll fix that now.
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Re: Fan Card Mechanics Week 20: Season 2 Finale (One plus One)
« Reply #10 on: September 15, 2021, 10:38:50 am »
+2

Mechanics used by Kingdom card: Queue, Level, Routes
Mechanics used by Landscape: Edict, Queue



I liked Aquila's Commissioner from last week's contest, so this is my twist on that.  Instead of Queuing cards on gain, you do so from your hand during Clean-up.  The Route tokens that you gain from Conscript would allow you to put cards that you gain in your buy phase into your hand.

In games with good trashing and Displacement, you should be able to get some good draw (albeit temporary) out of Conscript if you level it up sufficiently.
« Last Edit: September 15, 2021, 10:48:56 am by Timinou »
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Re: Fan Card Mechanics Week 20: Season 2 Finale (One plus One)
« Reply #11 on: September 15, 2021, 12:31:33 pm »
+1

Hey all. We are now at approximately 12 hours past the halfway point for the contest. I wanted to give a quick note. A few of the Mechanics went through some modifications during the contest (and in one case, after) and/or were varied in some of the submissions. I plan to judge based on the "official" version as designated by the person running that contest, unless I hear otherwise. Feel free to use the different/modified versions of the mechanics in your design, but if you do, please very clearly specify in your post that you are doing so.

During Week 11 the rules for Acts were changed to allow them to be played as many times each turn as a player has spare Actions, unless they specify others (i.e. by using "Once per turn"). I consider this new version of the rule "official."

Some of the submissions to Week 12 modified the rules for Suppliers. Some did not require spending a Buy on a purchase. Others limited the purchases to once per turn. Also, after the contest was over I changed the rules so that the purchases on a Supplier could only be used while it is in play. Unless you specify otherwise, buying a purchase costs a Buy; can be done as many times as the player can afford (both in $ and Buys); and can only be done while the Supplier is in play.

In their OP for Week 14, mxdata modified Asper's original 20-turn "year" for Season cards to a 12 turn year (i.e. 3 turns per season). I will be judging based on the 12-turn year, unless you specify otherwise.

I believe that the rest of the mechanics remained unchanged from their original version during the course of the contests (although I changed the original name of Violet CLM's "Project" cards to "Level" cards to avoid duplication of the later-created official landscapes). If I missed some, please correct me.
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Re: Fan Card Mechanics Week 20: Season 2 Finale (One plus One)
« Reply #12 on: September 15, 2021, 02:29:38 pm »
0

In my opinion, this contest is far too restrictive. I stopped reading when you began to single out particular sideway cards.

How so? You can submit any kind of sideways card (official WELPs, or fan ones like Acts, Edicts, or Wonders) as your design, as long as it uses one of the mechanics from this season.

When you say you stopped reading, I think you referring to my requirement that the submission be what I called an "independent" landscape (and not one that is only used with another card like Artifacts and States). To me this is the same as requiring the card to be in a Kingdom card pile. A State or Artifact itself is not a stand-alone design that can be judged (just like it would be impossible to judge Horse or Idle Hands because you would have to know how players gain them).

I made the distinction with something like this in mind:




This would be a perfectly acceptable submission for the Kingdom card part of the contest, but the Baton couldn't count as the landscape. The Artifact is part of the Kingdom card's design, not a separate design to be separately judged. Also, this submission would still work if Grand Marshall was an Action card that gave Baton on-gain (like Flag Bearer). It is fine if the mechanic executed through the supporting card (spineflu's submission already does this; the IH and Route token are given by the State, which is taken by the Act).

I don't think the requirements are restrictive. You are free to use Artifacts or States, they just can't stand alone as one of the two submission. I am sorry if this was unclear in my OP.

I am also sorry if you just got frustrated reading the rules (including the second full paragraph and half of the third, which are just about the backstory and don't have any contest rules). I know my OPs are often super long (I do try to cut them down, but I always have a bunch more that I want to say). If it helps, here are just the parts of the OP that actually say the requirements (I left out the deadline and detailed scoring criteria, which are easy to find in the OP):

for this Season's Finale, I am requesting that you submit two designs, each with at least one mechanic. One design needs to be a Kingdom card pile and the other a landscape.

For the Kingdom card pile...The design must incorporate at least one of the mechanics from Season 2 (Weeks 11-19) that is not used in the landscape.

Your landscape submission needs to be . . . an "independent" . . . landscape [e.g. its inclusion in a game is not dependent on one or more other cards, so] WELPs, Acts, Edicts, and Wonders (but not Artifacts, States, Boons/Hexes, or Conditions). Your landscape also needs to incorporate a Season 2 Mechanic not used in your Kingdom pile.

Feel free to support either of your designs (or both) with additional cards (non-Supply piles, Heirlooms, etc.) or . . . landscapes (the above mentioned Artifact, States, and so forth). [You may use these supporting cards/landscapes to implement the fan mechanic (e.g. by submitting an Action or Event that allows you to take an Artifact that Queues cards).]

I will judge each of the designs based on my usual criteria, which include Balance, Playability, Simplicity, as well as use of the mechanic and staying within Dominion's theme. I have previously summarized these as asking whether I would be excited to see the card as part of a Kingdom. Since I am asking for 2 designs, I will also be judging on how those designs work together. I would like to see some kind of synergy between the two designs, but more importantly, I would like to see them work together in a fun, balanced way.

I am actually going to score the submissions based on a specific criteria...(laid out in more detail below). The winner will be the highest overall score.
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Re: Fan Card Mechanics Week 20: Season 2 Finale (One plus One)
« Reply #13 on: September 15, 2021, 03:06:48 pm »
+1

It might be helpful to list the Season 2 mechanics in the OP or link to the Hall of Fame that you've done a really good job of curating.

I think there haven't been a lot of submissions so far because it's hard enough to make one card that combines one or more fan mechanics, but here we have to design two independent ones that also work well together.  It's a pretty large design space, but there's a lot more to think about when designing them!
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Re: Fan Card Mechanics Week 20: Season 2 Finale (One plus One)
« Reply #14 on: September 15, 2021, 03:55:07 pm »
+2

It might be helpful to list the Season 2 mechanics in the OP or link to the Hall of Fame that you've done a really good job of curating.

I think there haven't been a lot of submissions so far because it's hard enough to make one card that combines one or more fan mechanics, but here we have to design two independent ones that also work well together.  It's a pretty large design space, but there's a lot more to think about when designing them!

Thanks for the suggestion. I have reworked the OP to (hopefully) be clearer and added the list of Season 2 mechanics.

Hopefully the extra time (and having it go over two weekends, which seems to be when many people have the most time to design) will allow for more people to come up with submissions.
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Re: Fan Card Mechanics Week 20: Season 2 Finale (One plus One)
« Reply #15 on: September 15, 2021, 05:54:49 pm »
+1

In my opinion, this contest is far too restrictive. I stopped reading when you began to single out particular sideway cards.

How so? You can submit any kind of sideways card (official WELPs, or fan ones like Acts, Edicts, or Wonders) as your design, as long as it uses one of the mechanics from this season.

When you say you stopped reading, I think you referring to my requirement that the submission be what I called an "independent" landscape (and not one that is only used with another card like Artifacts and States). To me this is the same as requiring the card to be in a Kingdom card pile. A State or Artifact itself is not a stand-alone design that can be judged (just like it would be impossible to judge Horse or Idle Hands because you would have to know how players gain them).
Well, if I read the first paragraph you tell me that I can use ANY sideway card. Yippie, I got a cool Artefact!
But, silly me, I forgot to read the second paragraph which tells me why the first paragraph is actually wrong.

Dude, it is your contest so you can run it however you want to. I just wanna tell you that this kind of hyper-restrictive setup will rather, well, restrict creativity than set reasonable parameters in which it can flourish.

You can 100% use that Artifact. But there has to be some card/landscape that allows a player to take it.

If what your saying is that what allows a player to take the Artifact is the other part of your submission (the Kingdom card that uses some other mechanic), I'd consider the Artifact to be part of that Kingdom card pile's design. Similarly, if you designed an Event or Act that gave players an Idle Hands and a one-shot village called Elephant (i.e. "+1 Card, +2 Action, Return this to its pile. (This is not in the Supply.)"), Elephant could not be the Kingdom card pile submission.

If what you have is a Kingdom card pile that uses one mechanic and can take an Artifact that uses another mechanic, you would still need to design a separate landscape. Alternatively, you could design a landscape that lets players take the Artifact (instead of the Kingdom card doing it). Again, look at spineflu's design. Most of what is going on happens on the State (although using an Act to get it does implicate that mechanic), which is fine. Or you could do both. Submit your design as is (presuming it is as described), and also design an Act or Edict (or WELP or whatever) that can also take the same Artifact. While there are no official cards that do this, I don't see a good reason why it shouldn't be done, especially if you really like the Artifact you designed.

While part of the contest is evaluating the entries together, another part is evaluating them separately, and it's impossible to judge an Artifact, State, or non-Supply card in a vacuum. So I'm not doing this to add an arbitrary restriction; it would be impossible to judge an Artifact, State, or non-Supply card on its own the way I'll be judging the other submissions.
« Last Edit: September 15, 2021, 06:10:14 pm by emtzalex »
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Re: Fan Card Mechanics Week 20: Season 2 Finale (One plus One)
« Reply #16 on: September 18, 2021, 11:59:33 pm »
+2

24 Hour Warning!!!


Here are the submissions so far (please let me know if I missed yours)

spineflu's Survey and Course (with a State called "Surveying" supporting Survey)
Jonatan Djurachkovitch's Beneficiary and Living Ground (with "Mustang" supporting Living Ground)
NoMoreFun's Relax and Tourist Village
Aquila's Audience and Prepare
Xen3k's Spear Fisher and Way of the Salmon
Timinou's Conscript and Displacement
(Added since this post):
The Alchemist's Crowded Village and Relocate
« Last Edit: September 19, 2021, 10:42:22 pm by emtzalex »
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Re: Fan Card Mechanics Week 20: Season 2 Finale (One plus One)
« Reply #17 on: September 19, 2021, 08:29:04 pm »
+1

Conscript/Displacement is missing from the list.  :)
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Re: Fan Card Mechanics Week 20: Season 2 Finale (One plus One)
« Reply #18 on: September 19, 2021, 10:15:28 pm »
+4



Crowded Village and Relocate:

Settlements in your kingdom suffering from overcrowding? Unemployment rates are through the roof in the biggest and bustlingest villages, leading to abundance of idle hands, and not even the devil's workshop is hiring! Sometimes the only solution is to pack up your things and hope for a better life in the next town over...

I am going with this implementation of Idle hands, with a non-supply pile of 30 cards to match that of horses:

As well as a version of the rules for Acts that limits them to once per turn, but its possible with playtesting an unlimited version may turn out acceptable. As for crowded village, I considered a version that was up to 3 Idle hands, but +5 actions seemed a bit much, and a version that was simply "You may gain an Idle hand for +1 Action" was a bit too weak, especially compared with port or bustling village. And so up to 2 was the compromise.
« Last Edit: September 20, 2021, 08:13:06 am by The Alchemist »
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Re: Fan Card Mechanics Week 20: Season 2 Finale (One plus One)
« Reply #19 on: September 19, 2021, 10:42:36 pm »
0

Conscript/Displacement is missing from the list.  :)

Thanks! Added.
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Re: Fan Card Mechanics Week 20: Season 2 Finale (One plus One)
« Reply #20 on: September 19, 2021, 11:59:58 pm »
+1

Submissions closed!

(Post with submissions list here. Please let me know if I have missed anything.)



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Re: Fan Card Mechanics Week 20: Season 2 Finale (One plus One)
« Reply #21 on: September 20, 2021, 05:16:30 pm »
+3

Just a quick update, stuff has gotten pretty busy at work, so I probably will not be able to finish the judging until sometime mid-week. Will get to it as soon as I am able. Sorry for the delay.
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Re: Fan Card Mechanics Week 20: Season 2 Finale (One plus One)
« Reply #22 on: September 26, 2021, 02:39:33 am »
0

Just a quick update, stuff has gotten pretty busy at work, so I probably will not be able to finish the judging until sometime mid-week. Will get to it as soon as I am able. Sorry for the delay.

Any update on the judging?
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Re: Fan Card Mechanics Week 20: Season 2 Finale (One plus One)
« Reply #23 on: September 27, 2021, 01:37:21 am »
0

Just a quick update, stuff has gotten pretty busy at work, so I probably will not be able to finish the judging until sometime mid-week. Will get to it as soon as I am able. Sorry for the delay.

Any update on the judging?

Sorry. I hadn't judged a season finale before (which it turns out is harder because you have to think about all these different mechanics), but I now realize asking for 2 designs was a huge mistake. I am going to try and post the judging and winners tonight (or early tomorrow morning), and then do a wrap-up post later.
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Re: Fan Card Mechanics Week 20: Season 2 Finale (One plus One)
« Reply #24 on: September 27, 2021, 02:15:45 pm »
+3

Sorry it took so long to get though all of this judging. Requesting two designs made judging exponentially more complicated, and I would not recommend anyone ever doing it again.


Fan Card Mechanics Week 20: Season 2 Finale (One plus One)





Quote from: Survey
Survey
Act
If you don't already have it, take Surveying.


Quote from: Surveying
Surveying
State
When you next shuffle, first gain an Idle Hands, then +1 Route and return this.


Survey

If Idle Hands is effectively -1 Action, this -1 Action now, -1 Action in the future, in exchange for a Route token. The question then becomes how much the Route tokens help (and how badly the IH hurt). The strongest case for Routes is as a Defense against junkers, particularly Cursers. Unlike Reactions, which need to be in your hand when the Attack is played, once you have the Route token (unless you use it for something else), it is guaranteed to block one piece of junk. Thus, Survey will tend to be pretty useful in games with junkers (although there is a risk of creating a stand-off, where players don't buy junkers because they will be blocked by the Route, so players don't get the Routes either, and neither ends up being used). The second strongest use of Routes (imo) would be to set up combos, either by gaining and topdecking two cards that work well together (village/Smithy, 2x Treasure Map, etc.), or by putting a card gained during your Action phase (e.g. with Bandit) into your hand for use that turn. You might be able to build (or improve) a strategy around this, but it could be a hard sell, especially if you have to take 2 IHs into a deck without good access to spare Actions. The final, non-edge use of Route (as far as I can think of) is as a general accelerator, acting as a token version of Royal Seal to put the better cards you buy onto your deck. It seems to me that this will rarely be worth the cost of an IH. Of course, that can change if you have a way to mitigate IH's sting. That does make this design somewhat venerable to the presence of a Way (W.o.t. Horse is particularly good here), Advance, or Academy. Once a player buys Academy, the IHs become one-shot cantrips (with a chance of netting a Villager if you get lucky with your timing). This would make using Survey all but automatic (once per shuffle).

Having the Act gain a State then having the State carry out the effect on shuffle both delays it, and limits it pretty substantially. While I understand using the State to prevent it messing with openings, I think this delay makes the card significantly less playable. You lose a lot of interesting strategic possibilities around timing and using it multiple times (and somewhat lose the point of it being an Act instead of an Event).

Overall it is an interesting idea combining three different mechanics. The fact that its usefulness is fairly conditional on what is around is less of an issue for a landscape, as those cards are frequently so limited (e.g. Tomb).



Quote from: Course
Course -- $5
Action - Level
+1 Card
+1 Buy
+1 Card per level.
Queue a card from your hand per level.

When you buy this, reveal your hand. It costs $1 less per Action card revealed.

Course

A scaling (with Level) terminal sifter (with a bonus +Buy), that Queues instead of discarding. Queuing instead of discarding is a powerful effect, and I do really like the concept and the pairing of the two mechanics. However, increasing the Level of a $5 card is an expensive prospect, and I don't know how frequently the discounting will be useful. Having an Action card in your hand during your Buy phase pretty consistently represents a failure, and a $1 discount is very little consolation (compare that to Arena, which offers 2VP). That said, if you did manage to Level it up a few times (this would be especially possible with some discounting outside of the card's effect), it would become a strong card. In engines, you could combine it with a village (frequently necessary in engines) to find the cards you need to keep the engine moving, while Queuing dead cards to keep them out of the way (using the Queue's "leaky Exile mat" feature) or setting aside spare engine parts (e.g. extra villages) to have available on future turns (or both). It could also be pretty useful in a big money deck which (absent a nice Kingdom Treasure) can be pretty sad at $5, often having to settle for a Silver after it has as many terminal draw cards (Torturer, Patrol, etc.) as it can fit. By contrast, a player can keep buying Courses (even without any discount), either to add more to the deck (since collisions aren't as painful with the Queuing) or adding Level tokens.



While each of the designs individually put somewhat of a strain on your need for +Actions, combined that strain grows substantially. Having the alternative use for IH to get the discount on Course is strictly worse than Copper (although they have their own use), as they take up a space in your hand and are $1 you can only use to buy Course. Using Course to Queue IHs can also help mitigate the effect, but absent +Actions, those will be dead cards in your hand (or, at best, Coppers to buy/level up Course). While there is certainly some synergy, the effect of using both of these will be to make the need for villages substantially (and make the absence of such villages majorly limiting on the strategy).







Quote from: Beneficiary
Beneficiary -- $3
Supplier-Duration
+1 Buy
+$1
$2: Reveal cards from your deck until you reveal an Action  card. Set it aside under this and discard the rest. Play it at the start of your next turn.


Beneficiary

This is a fun card, and I like the use of the Supplier mechanic. It has hints of Ghost, Golem, and Summon, all of which are fun cards (if not always the easiest to use effectively. And it can be used in different circumstances: if you've drawn your deck, it can play the Action card you bought for $1 less than you have (similar to Summon); in a deck with just a few terminal Action cards, it can ensure that you get to play at least one of them, and function as a virtual village (allowing you to play it and still have an Action left over).

However, it is very strong. As you note, the effect is similar to Ghost (albeit playing the card once, instead of twice). Ghost is a powerful card, which you can only get by either trashing a Haunted Mirror then discarding and Action card (which is generally limited to 1 per game) or by trashing a card costing $5+ (a set of cards which are almost always worth having and which--absent Swindler--you are never junked). By contrast, this card is in the Supply, and costs only $3. And, unlike Ghost (which is useless if you draw your entire deck and don't buy an Action card), it has an alternative function, giving +$1 and +1 Buy. The other way it is weaker than Ghost is the fact that you have to Buy the effect. However, the first time you play and use it it only has a net cost of $1, with the option of spending another $2 and a Buy add a second Action card. This provides the not-unrealistic possibility of setting up 2 different Action cards to be played back-to-back by a single card, something that is generally only enabled by a Golem, and which allows for some crazy combos (like Tactician + dtx). Also, because it is a Supplier - Duration, you can buy the Action in subsequent turns. This sets up the potential to put 2-3 copies of a single terminal draw card (Margrave is a particularly stong option) into your deck; as long as you have a good source of +Buy, you can buy Beneficiary's purchase every turn and keep getting the card no matter how full your deck gets.



Quote from: Living Grounds
Living Grounds
Edict
Whenever you gain a Victory card, you may gain a Mustang.


Quote from: Mustang
Mustang -- $3*
Dawn-Reaction
Whenever you gain a Victory card, you may gain a Mustang.
+2 Cards
Return this to its pile.

When you discard this, you may reveal it to put it on top of your deck
(This is not in the supply)

Living Grounds (with Mustang)

Living Grounds accompanies each Victory card you gain with Mustang, a one-shot Dawn that nets +1 Card and has a reaction to topdeck it. I'm not sure that there is enough of a difference between Mustang and Horse to justify inventing a new (and more complicated) version of a very similar card. And while the ability to topdeck when discarding during Clean-up hypothetically mitigates the risk that you draw Mustang at the start of your turn, the fact that you have a dead card one turn for a net-effect of +1 Card the following turn means that the two effects basically cancel one another out (and it is probably even worse than that, as getting the extra card later is generally worse than having it sooner for a variety of reasons).

Generally speaking, LG makes buying Victory cards more desirable, but not nearly enough to suggest buying regular dead cards early in the game. It does makes slogs more practical, and improves the prospect of buying dual-type Victory cards (like Mill or Harem). However, I think Mustang is too weak to make any strategic impact in most games. There may be some narrow exceptions (e.g. in a game with Quest and no other source of +Cards, it might be worth having a Mustang to try to have 6 cards and get a Gold), but I think this will generally just give an unreliably little boost somewhat randomly at the end of the game.



As you pointed out, card played at the beginning of your turn won't draw the Mustang dead, and if you discard the Mustang while looking for the Action card, it will go onto your deck. Also, Beneficiary could potentially mitigate the effect of buying more Victory cards early, as it would sift through them looking for Action cards. (Alternatively, it can help you get to the Action/Victory card). However, because Mustang is not an Action card, it cannot be played using Beneficiary, and I don't see any of the synergies really being strong enough to make the presence of one increase the likelihood of using the other.







Quote from: Relax
Relax
Act
+1 Action if you have no cards in Queue
Queue an Idle Hands from its pile


Relax

A very interesting and innovative use of 3 of this Seasons mechanics: Acts, Idle Hands, and Queue. By Queuing the IH, you avoid one of the means of breaking the card (Academy).

When playing this with an empty Queue, it is effectively, +1 Card, -1 Action at the start of your next turn (with the potential option of forgoing that effect and getting junked with IH). It is sort of to one-per-turn, (although if you have a ton of Actions on one turn and fairly consistent access to 2 Actions every turn, you could Queue more than one to get +1 Card, -1 Action on multiple future turns). To me, this appears to be useable in 3 contexts -- (1) you are drowning in spare Actions, (2) you know you are going to start the next turn with an extra Action (with, e.g. Fishing Village, Ghost Town, Barracks, Prince, or WotTurtle) or (3) you are strictly playing a Big Money strategy (or some other strategy that involves buying no Action cards). You could also use it in a deck with only non-terminal Action cards, but you would risk drawing them dead (although if you had a relatively low number of them, that might be worth the risk; that could also be mitigated if you had access to villagers).

Upon further consideration, (3) might be a non-frivolous possibility. If you used Relax every turn (and had no Action cards in your deck), it would effectively function as a Hireling, giving you an extra card in your hand every turn (each turn you would put the IH from your Queue into your hand, then play Relax to put an IH onto your empty Queue, then play the IH, using your 1 Action and drawing a 6th card from your deck). If you could supplement that with some solid alt-Treasure and/or Night cards, that might very well make a strong strategy. This could be made even stronger with the presence of Donate or Goat, giving you access to trashing without any Action cards (Monastery works as well).

Ultimately, the fact that this is most useful either in the presence of a ton of Actions or in the total absence of other Action cards makes it a bit of an odd duck, but certainly an interesting one.



Quote from: Tourist Village
Tourist Village -- $3
Action/Season
+1 Card
If it's Summer +3 Actions,
If it's Winter, +1 Action,
Otherwise, +2 Actions

Tourist Village

Designing a village that costs less than $4 is itself an accomplishment, and this is definitely a fun use of the Season mechanic. The way this will actually work with the Seasons is interesting. While a player could easily buy the card during Spring (turns 1-3) to use in time for Summer (turns 4-6), it seems unlikely they would be in a position to make use of +3 Actions (that is, to have 3 additional Action cards, at least 2 of which are terminal) by then. However, the point of having villages in your deck is to be able to play your terminal cards consistently. To have that go away for 3 turns in Winter is a pretty hard price to pay. Even if you make it back to Summer (turns 16-18) with an engine, it could useful, but you still could not build a deck around that sudden influx of Actions. Ultimately I think this is actually substantially worse than a regular Village, perhaps enough to make it cost $2 (although probably not, as it is still usually stronger than Hamlet). If it was the only village in the game (or if the only other cost $5 or $6 and you needed one sooner), it would still certainly be worth buying (as even with a regular village there is a risk of getting stuck using a terminal card terminally if they don't collide).




Together, Tourist Village creates a new circumstance for using Relax: in summer, when you are likely to have access to a lot more +Actions. Conversely, Relax provides a use for those spare +Actions that isn't built into your deck (and, therefore, won't leave your deck unbalanced when you move into another season).







Quote from: Audience
Audience -- $5
Action
Choose one: play an Action card from your Queue; or play an Action card from your hand twice, Queuing it when it's discarded from play.


Audience

A throne variant that makes a fun and interesting use of the Queue mechanic. However, I think it might skew to the overly strong side. An Action that you would want to throne is probably an Action you would want to play again next turn, so the fact that you're Queuing it is a pretty strong added feature. The main only potential downside would be if you Queued to many Actions, but this solves that problem as well, by allowing you to play those Actions from the Queue. This also potentially fixes the biggest problem with throne variants, when you draw them without another Action card. It is interesting, but I think it might be a little too strong.



Quote from: Prepare
Prepare
Act
At Clean-up, put one of your Actions onto your deck when you discard it from play.

Prepare

There are (broadly) two limitations which Action cards have that Acts don't, which I would call (1) Acquisition and (2) Presence. Acquisition means that before you can use an Action card, you need to buy it. This almost always has an opportunity cost (arguably buying $2 Actions generally does not, as you are not foregoing any other buy), which isn't present with an Act. It also means you can't have an Action and the start of the game (except with Necropolis - Way of the Mouse). Presence is the requirement that the card be in your hand in order to use it (or, with Durations / Way of the Turtle, have been in your hand on a previous turn). This means that (absent a killer engine which draws your deck every turn or Prince) you will not always have access to the card. It also means you are limited on the number of times you can play the card on a given turn (to the number of copies you have, potentially increased by throne variants).

Prepare is not overly strong when used on an opening, but the ability to use it as many times as you have spare Actions (and Action cards leaving play to use it on) is extremely powerful. One comparison to an official card is Walled Village. The point of a village is to allow you to play extra Action cards (either an extra terminal Action, or non-terminal Actions following a terminal draw). Sometimes, when WV fails to fulfill its purpose (because you played 0-1 other Action), it goes back onto your deck to try again on your next turn. By contrast, EVERY village that does not get fully used (e.g. for which there is an Action left over) can go back onto your deck (plus, there is a large amount of additional flexibility). Looked at another way, this gives every village the option of being played as a Scheme. Given the usefulness of both cards in engines, this is a really strong additional option. Both of these things mitigate considerably the downside of investing more heavily in villages.

This also leads to some genuinely insane synergies. On a Prepare - Bandit Camp board, you could play every BC you have every turn, flooding your deck with Spoils (until the pile starts to run thin). Or, with 2 Fishing Villages an a Smithy (which you can have in your deck by turn 3 in the vast majority of games, and potentially get going a couple of turns after), you could play FV and Smithy every turn, then use Prepare to topdeck the previous turn's FV and the Smithy. This has the net effect of +1 Card, +$2 every turn. (And, because after you play FV at the start of your turn you have 4 cards in hand, can combo further with cards like Diplomat or Cursed Village).

This could be a lot of fun, and very useful with engines, but in my opinion it is too strong. I think this probably needs to be limited to once per turn (or have some other nerf put on it).



As you pointed out, together these allow you to throne any non-terminal Action every turn, Queuing the card and top-decking the Audience with Prepare. That turns Audience, a $5 card, into a super Prince, throning cards (instead of playing them once), having no price restriction (meaning Lab is on the table), and being able to change which card you use. And since you're Queuing Audience, you start from 4 cards you don't need for the play.







Quote from: Spear Fisher
Spear Fisher -- $3
Dawn - Action - Level
+1 Card
+1 Action
+$1
+1 Action per level.
Gain an Idle Hands.


Spear Fisher

This starts as a peddler variant (or, at Dawn, a Bazaar) that gives an Idle Hands. A peddler is a pretty strong effect for an unleveled Level card (especially at $3), although the Idle Hands is usually a pretty serious disadvantage. Adding a level makes it into a village (or double-village at Dawn), and each additional Level makes it more village-y. In theory this could further mitigate the effect of gaining an Idle Hands, but the bigger risk is not that you won't have enough +Actions, but that they don't collide (so Leveling it up several times may frequently result in more wasted Actions).

Because this gains so many IHs, it's balance particularly vulnerable to existing cards/landscapes that substantially mitigate the harm of IHs. A number of official cards operate under the presumption that Action cards are generally quite useful things that you want to hold on to, and therefore treats foregoing using them as substantial. Ruins have exactly the same issue. So, for example, in the presence of certain Ways, what is supposed to be the penalty of getting IHs is either mitigated (e.g. Way of the Chameleon, Mule, Ox), all but eliminated (Way of the Pig), or even turned into an benefit (Way of the Horse, Way of the Mouse [especially if a cantrip like Village or Merchant is set aside). In a game with Way of the Horse, even before Leveling up, this is a peddlar variant with "Gain a Horse", a card which, if official, would almost certainly cost $5. Other landscapes mitigate IHs as well, the most obvious being Academy (which turns future IHs into 1 shot cantrips, with a chance to keep a Villager).



Quote from: Way of the Salmon
Way of the Salmon
Way
+1 Route
+$1

Way of the Salmon

Way of the Salmon is a Way that gives a Route token and a coin. I like the idea, and it is a nice fit thematically with both the Ways from Minagery and Route tokens.

Its strength is going to be highly dependent on how useful Route tokens are. The strongest use for Routes is as a defense against junkers, particularly Cursers. Unlike Reactions, which need to be in your hand when the Attack is played, once you have the Route token (unless you use it for something else), it is guaranteed to block one piece of junk. Thus, WotS be extremely useful in games with junkers (although there is a risk of creating a stand-off, where players don't buy junkers because they will be blocked by the Route tokens, so players don't gain more than one Route token either, and neither ends up being used). The second strongest use of Routes (imo) would be to set up combos, by gaining and topdecking two cards that work well together (village/Smithy, 2x Treasure Map, etc.), or or strengthen gainers, by putting a card gained during your Action phase (e.g. with Bandit) into your hand for use that turn (this could also set up a combo, e.g. if you played a cantrip then used Ironworks to gain a Conspirator, which you could then play with +1 Card, +1 Action). There are a number of ways to build (or improve) a strategy around this, although using an Action as a Way twice to set something up once might not often be worth it. The final, non-edge use of Route (as far as I can think of) is as a general accelerator, acting as a token version of Royal Seal to put the better cards you buy onto your deck. This actually makes WotS into a variant of Way of the Seal, with Salmon being stronger since you can topdeck a card not gained that turn, but weaker since you can only topdeck a single card.

Ultimately, I think this skews a little too strong for a Way, but it isn't terribly overpowered, and does have some interesting possibilities.



Way of the Salmon, like almost any Way, can at least somewhat mitigate the effect of having an IH. If you have an IH that doesn't collide with your Spear Fisher (or some other source of +Actions), you can use WotS to get a Route token and $1. Since Spear Fisher is a self-junker, those Tokens are available for their strongest use, and saving you from the IH when you would next use Spear Fisher. A really solid combo that smooths out some of the issues of each card.







Quote from: Conscript
Conscript -- $3
Action - Level
+2 Routes
Choose one: Play an Action card from your Queue per level; or at the start of Clean-up, you may Queue a card from your hand per level.


Conscript

An Action-Level card that gives 2 Route tokens, and (once it is Leveled), either plays Action card(s) from your Queue or Queues card(s) from your hand. As already discussed above (see Survey or Way of the Salmon), Route tokens have a few different uses of varying strengths: defending against junk, setting up combos, or accelerating your deck. This gives the tokens an additional use, putting a card into your hand. This will probably be the most common use: with one Level token, you can Queue the card you buy during your Buy phase and have a Route token left over.

If you manage to Level it up a few more times, it actually becomes a pretty effective use of the Queue mat's storage function. By putting 1 or 2 useful cards that you gained into your hand, then Queuing those along with any dead/useless cards, you can keep those bad cards in your Queue behind the good ones, taking out the useful cards (in the order that works best with the hands you have) and (hopefully) Queuing more beneficial cards before you have to take the dead cards (or at least take out too many of them).

I don't know how often the first choice will be useful, especially if this is the only card with the Queue mechanic. Even if you gain 2 Action cards during your Buy phase, unless you get another Conscript on the following turn, they will probably end up coming off your Queue before you can play them. Even if you level this up a lot, you generally are not going to want to have Action cards in your hand at Clean-up to Queue (although there could be situations where this happens).

Overall this is a nice, balanced design with a few different uses.



Quote from: Displacement
Displacement
Edict
When you trash a card, Queue 2 Idle Hands.

Displacement

Another Edict, which Queues 2 Idle Hands each time you trash a card. As mentioned with Relax, Queuing an Idle Hands has the effect of giving you +1 Card, -1 Action on a future turn. Giving it automatically when you trash a card is a pretty interesting concept, although potentially a huge bummer. Generally, trashing is used to get rid of junk cards, but a card that gives you 2 pieces of junk for every card you trash makes trashing a massively less appealing prospect. Of course, if you play the IH the turn you get it, it doesn't actually end up being junk in your deck. However, most trashers are Action cards, and using an IH always runs the risk of drawing those dead. My big concern is that in a lot of games, this will render trashers unusable, the result of which will be that neither the trasher nor this have any use.

With cards that mitigate or even eliminate the negative impact of IH (see my second paragraph of Spear Fisher, above), this becomes a very different design. In a game with Way of the Horse, each time you trash a card you effectively get +2 Cards at the start of 2 future turns. This makes trashing massively more desirable.



This is the potential exception to the lack of use of the play-from-Queue mechanic. If you level up Conscript 3-4 times, and uses its Queuing ability to keep the Queued IHs on your mat, you can then fire it off as a Smithy or Hunting Grounds. (Even better if you can throne it, as then you can put any dead cards onto your Queue). The Route tokens are even potentially a source of trashing to fill those mats, in games with junkers or +Buys.







Quote from: Crowded Village
Crowded Village -- $4
Action
+1 Card
+2 Actions
Gain up to 2 Idle Hands.
For each, +1 Action.


Crowded Village

An interesting use of the Idle Hands mechanic, which gives an extra Action now in exchange for -1 Action later. While I like the idea a lot, I think it is going to tend to be of pretty limited use. It will be fairly rare to have CV in a hand with 3 terminal Actions, and while having it with 2 terminal draw cards is somewhat more likely, you have to make the choice about whether to use CV before you know what you are going to draw (which might include additional villages).

As discussed previously (see Spear Fisher and Displacement), there are a few existing landscapes (and to a lesser extent, cards) which turn IH from a liability into either something harmless or even a benefit.



Quote from: Relocate
Relocate
Act
If you have an Action card in play, +1 Villager.

Relocate

A simple Act, it allows you to convert spare Actions into villagers (effectively banking them for future turns), but only if you have an Action card in play. That restriction is a cleaver way to limit the card's use, both in the opening (where you would always use it and where, absent a Necropolis, you won't be able to because of a lack of Action cards), and throughout the game (if you have a bunch of terminal Action cards you will end up without an Action to spare each turn, but if you have mostly non-terminal Action cards you won't need all of the spare villagers you will be getting).

However, it is still a powerful effect. Being able to turn any unused Actions from a village into villagers (which you always will the village will be an Action card in play) means fewer villages will go a lot further to ensuring you can play terminal Actions (especially terminal draw cards) repeatedly without getting stuck drawing Action cards dead. And this continues on. If you play a Smithy, draw a cantrip (or, say, a Forager), then use one of your villagers to play the cantrip, you would then get that villager back. This is a massive boost to engines, making them a lot more potent.



The synergy here is obvious (but also fun): you can turn the extra Action you got from gaining the IH into a villager, which you can use to mitigate the IH when it comes up again.

Logged
he/him/his

Thanks to Shard of Honor for his Extended Version of the Dominion Card Image Generator, which I use to mock up my fan cards, and to Violet CLM, who made the original.
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