Here are my thoughts on your entries!
JWDesolate Village
$4 - Action
+1 Card and +2 Actions.
You may trash a card from your hand.
When you gain this, each other player may trash a card from their hand.
A village with an optional trash is very strong for $4, but this card balances that out by providing your opponents the ability to make use of a trash before you do. I think it's definitely stronger than Hideout, but the two cards each manage to retain certain advantages. Overall a decent card, simple design, strong but not overpowering.
Erick648Santa's Workshop - Night ($4)
Gain a card costing up to $4. If it is an...
Action card, take the Dolly;
Treasure card, take the Drum;
Victory card, take the Toy Train;
Night card, take the List.
Dolly - Artifact
At the start of each other player's Action phase, they get +1 Action. When you take this and at the start of your Action phase, +1 Villager.
Drum - Artifact
At the start of each other player's Buy phase, they get +$1. When you take this and at the start of your Buy phase, +1 Coffers.
Toy Train - Artifact
At the end of each player's Clean-up (including yours), they get +1 Card. At the start of your Clean-up, you may put a card from your hand onto your deck.
List - Artifact
At the start of each player's turn (including yours), they return all of the following that they have: the Dolly, the Drum, the Toy Train, and the List.
Thematically, this card is super cool, especially the part about getting on the naughty list and losing all your toys if you're too greedy. I've never seen an Artifact that removes other Artifacts before, it seems like an interesting design space. The Toy Train looks a bit weak in comparison to the others, but since you likely wouldn't be gaining Victory cards til late game, the extra topdecking may prove to help you stay reliable when greening. All in all, I do really like this card.
SpinefluHaunt • $5 • Project
Gain a Ghost of Christmas Past
-
At the end of the game, -6VP
Ghost of Christmas Past • $0* • Night - Duration - Traveller
Choose a Treasure from your discard pile and set it aside with this. At the start of your next turn, play it twice.
-
When you discard this from play, you may exchange it for a Ghost of Christmas Present.
(This is not in the Supply)
Ghost of Christmas Present • $0* • Night - Duration - Traveller
Reveal cards from your deck until you reveal an Action card and set it aside with this (discard the rest). At the start of your next turn, play it twice.
-
When you discard this from play, you may exchange it for a Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come
(This is not in the Supply)
Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come • $0* • Night - Duration - Traveller
Gain an Action costing up to $4 from the Supply and set it aside with this. At the start of your next turn, play it twice, then +9VP, each player (including you) gets +2 Coffers, and trash this.
(This is not in the Supply)
A Project gaining non-Supply cards is another idea I haven't seen before. However, I do have some problems with each of the Travellers. Ghost of Christmas Past, while thematic, can run into the same problem that Harbinger does (that being your discard pile is empty and it has no backup effect). I dislike the fact that Ghost of Christmas Present is the same on-play effect as regular Ghost. And Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come seems a bit underwhelming for a final Traveller (also I don't think it should have the Traveller type, but I'm not gonna worry about that), gaining and double playing a $4 Action doesn't seem much better than its previous form, and the VP and Coffers feel tacked-on to me.
4estRoyal Mines - Action ($5)
+1 Buy
You may trash a Copper from your hand to gain a Gold to your hand.
Each other player may trash a Copper from their hand to gain a Silver to their hand.
A Woodcutter variant (sorta?) that greatly rewards trash for benefit cards like Apprentice and Remodel. I like the use of +Buy for extra Copper as well. I do think the benefit to other players is a little bit light though, as I don't see this being bought early very often, so then other players won't be able to make use of the extra economy for their turns all that much.
SnesChoir
+1 Action
Reveal cards from your deck until you reveal a Treasure card and an Action card. Put those cards into your hand and discard the rest. Each opponent does the same, except they choose one and put it on top and discard the rest.
$5 - Action
I quite like the benefit this provides you, being able to draw past Victory cards and Curses is very useful, and having to take a Treasure with your Action card prevents this from being insanely strong. The one thing I worry about however is the time spent on the opponents' end. Since this is a non-terminal draw card, its likely you will often be playing 4 or more of them in a turn, and every time you do your opponents will have to cycle through their decks and make a new choice about what they want to topdeck. Scrying Pool and Oracle have similar time consumption issues to this. I honestly think this card would be completely fine without the benefit to your opponents (obviously it wouldn't qualify for this contest, but something to think about if you modify your cards from feedback at all).
mxdataGrand Wharf
Action - Duration
$6
Now and at the start of your next turn: +3 Cards and +1 Buy
-
While this is in play, each other player gets +1 Card at the start of their turn
This is a pretty interesting spin on regular Wharf, I think instead of getting several of these for ultra consistent turns you'd be better off having only 1 pair of them to prevent your opponents from getting too much benefit. The fact that their card draw happens after you potentially discard attack them means you'll want to use this card conservatively. For $6 I think this is fairly priced, and is a solid entry for this contest.
TiminouLooking Glass
$4 - Treasure - Command
Play a non-Command Treasure from the Supply, leaving it there.
Each other player may gain a copy of it.
I love cards that allow you spike purchases early, and this one presents you with a very unique dilemma, does the value of you getting something expensive early outweigh the value of your opponent getting a high valued Treasure for free? It's a very interesting question and I think the answer will change considerably depending on what else is available (maybe they could trash that expensive Treasure with some TFB card, or maybe they could copy it with a Mint). I really wish there were more Command cards in the game, the three we have all feel somewhat similar in function to me and this certainly stands out from them. Well done!
mandioca15Charlatan (Action, $5)
+3 Cards
+1 Action
———
When you gain this, each other player may play an Action card from their hand.
I agree with the earlier comments of this being way too strong. A double lab for $5 is insane value and only letting other players play 1 Action from their hand when you gain it, most things aside from draw and gains won't be doing much for you if it isn't your turn. Additionally this has the problem of potentially letting other players play out large portions of their turn in the middle of yours via Throne Room variants, which is something that would be very awkward in my opinion.
majiponiRedevelopment
cost $4 - Action
Trash a card from your hand.
Gain a card costing up to $3 more than it.
Each other player may trash a card from their hand.
If they do, they gain a card costing exactly $1 more than it.
I also think this is too strong for its price. Being able to open with something that can turn your estates into $5s in exchange for providing a minor benefit to your opponents feels too automatic to me. I agree that at $5 this idea would be much more balanced, but then you'd have the possible "Swingy 5/2 opening" problem that cards like Sentry do. I'm not sure what else you could do to avoid both of these issues at the same time.
arowdokCarols - Cost $1-12 - Treasure - Victory - Carol
Apologies for not copying over the cards on this one, I figured it'd be easier to just mention my critiques without all 12 effects coming first. This is another pile that is really cool thematically, but has a couple of functional problems. Having extra Spoils and the different gaining rule for Horses feels unnatural with how the rest of the game plays, but those changes are easy enough to understand and don't negatively impact this pile too much for me. My bigger concern is how similar these cards all are, 2 pairs of them have nearly identical on-gain effects, they're all Treasures, and they're all worth VP directly correlating to their cost. Compared to Castles (which I should mention I quite enjoy), these cards don't have enough variety. I would rework some of them to be Actions with benefits for opponents, some to be pure Victory - Carols, and adjust the VP of some to scale with something.
Xen3kYule Festival - $4
Action
+1 Buy
Choose 3 different things: +1 Card, +1 Villager, +1 Coffers, +1 Worshipper.
Each other player gets the remaining thing.
A Pawn-ish card that gives your opponent the option you didn't want for yourself. Worshippers seem like a pretty good mechanic, being able to store trashes for the end of a turn seems quite strong. I do think there would be a lot of thought of about what option to give your opponent, as they're all very effective. This card balances that out nicely by only costing $4. Great submission!
kru5hTailor - Action ($4)
+1 Action
Choose two: +1 Card;
trash a card from your hand;
or gain a Silver.
The choices must be different. Each other player may do the one you didn't.
Another card providing you with several choices while passing the remaining one on to your opponent. Unfortunately I don't think I like this one nearly as much as Yule Festival, I see this being played frequently as a cantrip trasher and your opponents not choosing to gain many Silvers, or being played as a cantrip Silver gainer when its unlikely your opponent will have much they want to trash.
xyz123Iron Smelter
Action $4
Trash a card from your hand. Gain a card costing up to $2 more than it.
If the gained card is an...
Action card, all players +1 Villager
Treasure card, all players +1 Coffer
Victory card, all players gain a Horse.
A friendly version of Replace! This card seems much better at greening than early game remodeling, as the Horses will not be any benefit to your opponent if you can end the game before they get to use them. I think it's probably a little weaker than remodel, but it does feel very appropriate at $4. It also pairs interesting (maybe not a "synergy" per say?) with cards that have multiple types.
NoMoreFunWay of the Reindeer
Way
+1 Action
Each other player gains a Horse. If they all did, +2 cards.
This feels very on-par with the existing Ways in terms of power level. I also really appreciate the fact that you went back and edited this to include a clause about the other players actually gaining Horses, otherwise things could get very out of hand with Livery, other Horse gainers, or even simply playing Horses as WOT Reindeer to keep the pile empty while still getting the same benefit. A very good submission, and a very nice holiday theme as well!
jakavScary Deal
Way
+2 Cards
+1 Action
Each other player draws a card and gains a horse.
Coincidentally very similar to NoMoreFun's entry posted right before, and unfortunately I must say I prefer their take on this concept. Scary Deal allows your opponent to net more draw than you, which feels very weak for a Way.
Now that I've gone through everybody's entries, let's announce the results!
Semi-Finalists: Yule Festival by Xen3k, Way of the Reindeer by NoMoreFun
Runner Up: Santa's Workshop by Erick648
Winner: Looking Glass by Timinou!Congratulations Timinou, and thank you all for submitting! I hope you all have a great holiday season!