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Author Topic: Weekly Design Contest #136: ‘Tis the Season  (Read 6704 times)

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Snes

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Re: Weekly Design Contest #136: ‘Tis the Season
« Reply #25 on: December 03, 2021, 02:59:41 pm »
+1



Quote
Looking Glass
$4 - Treasure - Command
Play a non-Command Treasure from the Supply, leaving it there.
Each other player may gain a copy of it.

In basic Kingdoms, Looking Glass offers you the flexibility of playing it as a Copper, Silver, or Gold, with the caveat that your opponents may choose to gain a copy of the emulated card.  I think it will probably get played most often as a Silver, with players only needing to play it as a Gold to hit certain price points.

Looking Glass will be more interesting when there are Kingdom Treasures available e.g. Scepters and even Loan.  There is a strong combo with Capital, but if opponents choose to gain Capitals, the pile will eventually empty and so players will no longer be able to exploit the interaction between Looking Glass and Capital.  However, if it turns out to be broken, I suppose the card could be revised to have similar wording to the original Overlord in order to avoid that.

There is no cost restriction, so Looking Glass can be played as Platinum or Fortune; players would just need to assess whether they will benefit more than their opponents.

There is a danger of piles running low quickly in games with more than one Kingdom Treasure (or Capitalism games), but those situations should be rare.

I'm not really seeing a point where this card is a fun addition to a kingdom.  Action - Commands make sense because of the versatility they provide; different actions are useful in different situations.  With treasures, most of the differences between them are in how much $ they produce.  A few have other utilities, but if they cost less than this you're just buying an expensive copy of the same card with a downside, and if they cost more you're giving your opponents a huge advantage, saving them a lot of $ and a buy to get a potentially powerful card.

You'd pretty much never want to copy a basic Treasure unless you're in the final turns of the game and you want to snatch the final few Victory cards before your opponents can use the big treasures you just handed them.  There are a few obvious synergies in cards like Capital and Cache, but there are just as many anti-synergies with cards like Hoard, Quarry, Stash, and Ill-Gotten Gains.  I think this would only be interesting with a very specific kingdom setup with at least two other Treasure piles from a very short list, and how often will that situation come up?
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4est

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Re: Weekly Design Contest #136: ‘Tis the Season
« Reply #26 on: December 03, 2021, 03:34:52 pm »
+3



Quote
Grand Wharf
Action - Duration
$6
Now and at the start of your next turn: +3 Cards and +1 Buy
-
While this is in play, +1 Card at the start of each other player's turn

An upgraded version of Wharf, it gives you one extra card compared to standard Wharf on both the current and next turn. However, your opponents also benefit, as they get a +1 Card bonus, similar to Council Room, except that the bonus card is at the start of their turn, and thus, is not affected by any discard attacks. In addition, if your opponent gets a second turn, such as with Outpost, the +1 Card applies to both turns. I initially had it as "at the start of each player's turn", which would mean that the person who played it would get a total of +4 Cards for the duration effect, but that seemed too strong, so I reduced it to "each other player's turn"

The bottom should be "While this is in play, each other player gets +1 Card at the start of their turn." As currently worded, it appears that the person who played Grand Wharf gets the +Cards during other players turns.
« Last Edit: December 03, 2021, 06:19:30 pm by 4est »
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Timinou

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Re: Weekly Design Contest #136: ‘Tis the Season
« Reply #27 on: December 03, 2021, 03:44:18 pm »
+1



Quote
Looking Glass
$4 - Treasure - Command
Play a non-Command Treasure from the Supply, leaving it there.
Each other player may gain a copy of it.

In basic Kingdoms, Looking Glass offers you the flexibility of playing it as a Copper, Silver, or Gold, with the caveat that your opponents may choose to gain a copy of the emulated card.  I think it will probably get played most often as a Silver, with players only needing to play it as a Gold to hit certain price points.

Looking Glass will be more interesting when there are Kingdom Treasures available e.g. Scepters and even Loan.  There is a strong combo with Capital, but if opponents choose to gain Capitals, the pile will eventually empty and so players will no longer be able to exploit the interaction between Looking Glass and Capital.  However, if it turns out to be broken, I suppose the card could be revised to have similar wording to the original Overlord in order to avoid that.

There is no cost restriction, so Looking Glass can be played as Platinum or Fortune; players would just need to assess whether they will benefit more than their opponents.

There is a danger of piles running low quickly in games with more than one Kingdom Treasure (or Capitalism games), but those situations should be rare.

I'm not really seeing a point where this card is a fun addition to a kingdom.  Action - Commands make sense because of the versatility they provide; different actions are useful in different situations.  With treasures, most of the differences between them are in how much $ they produce.  A few have other utilities, but if they cost less than this you're just buying an expensive copy of the same card with a downside, and if they cost more you're giving your opponents a huge advantage, saving them a lot of $ and a buy to get a potentially powerful card.

You'd pretty much never want to copy a basic Treasure unless you're in the final turns of the game and you want to snatch the final few Victory cards before your opponents can use the big treasures you just handed them.  There are a few obvious synergies in cards like Capital and Cache, but there are just as many anti-synergies with cards like Hoard, Quarry, Stash, and Ill-Gotten Gains.  I think this would only be interesting with a very specific kingdom setup with at least two other Treasure piles from a very short list, and how often will that situation come up?

You're right that this won't have the same degree of flexibility as an Action command card, but I think it can still be useful even without Kingdom Treasures and I don't agree that you would never want to copy a basic Treasure except during the greening phase.  For instance, in Kingdoms where you want to try and spike a certain price point after the first shuffle you may consider opening with Looking Glass, since being able to emulate Gold could be useful.  Of course, there is the downside of potentially giving your opponent a Gold, but if they don't see it until after the second shuffle and aren't able to buy Inheritance or whatever, then it'll be a net benefit for you. 

I don't think Looking Glass will be too bad early in the game.  Your opponents' desire to gain Silvers will wane quickly if they are looking for consistency with their deck (and even gaining a bunch of Golds can sometimes be a trap), and I think being able to hit certain price points can be important for your tempo and outweigh the downside of gifting Treasures to your opponents.

Even if it's just cheap payload that you're trying to gain and play on your final turn, I don't see the problem with that.  A card isn't only fun if it's useful in the early game or mid-game. 
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Xen3k

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Re: Weekly Design Contest #136: ‘Tis the Season
« Reply #28 on: December 03, 2021, 07:01:54 pm »
+2



Quote
Yule Festival - $4
Action
+1 Buy
Choose 3 different things: +1 Card, +1 Villager, +1 Coffers, +1 Worshipper.
Each other player gets the remaining thing.

This does use one custom mechanic, Worshippers, which was designed by scolapasta.

A build your own Market. I wanted 4 options, and I couldn't think of a good 4th option, so I dipped into the fan mechanics. The Worshipper tokens give a good way to thin down your deck, so I don't think it is the easiest option to give all other players. Feedback is appreciated.
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mxdata

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Re: Weekly Design Contest #136: ‘Tis the Season
« Reply #29 on: December 03, 2021, 07:40:40 pm »
0



Quote
Grand Wharf
Action - Duration
$6
Now and at the start of your next turn: +3 Cards and +1 Buy
-
While this is in play, +1 Card at the start of each other player's turn

An upgraded version of Wharf, it gives you one extra card compared to standard Wharf on both the current and next turn. However, your opponents also benefit, as they get a +1 Card bonus, similar to Council Room, except that the bonus card is at the start of their turn, and thus, is not affected by any discard attacks. In addition, if your opponent gets a second turn, such as with Outpost, the +1 Card applies to both turns. I initially had it as "at the start of each player's turn", which would mean that the person who played it would get a total of +4 Cards for the duration effect, but that seemed too strong, so I reduced it to "each other player's turn"

The bottom should be "While this is in play, each other player gets +1 Card at the start of their turn." As currently worded, it appears that the person who played Grand Wharf gets the +Cards during other players turns.

Oh, good catch! I'll update that wording. Thanks!
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mxdata

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Re: Weekly Design Contest #136: ‘Tis the Season
« Reply #30 on: December 03, 2021, 09:14:21 pm »
+3

I might have gotten a bit carried away with this pile but here is a full ballad of gifts for you and your loved ones this season



Quote
A Pear Tree
$1
Victory - Carol
1%
-
When you gain this, each player (including you) gets +1 Coffers.
Quote
Two Turtle Doves
$2
Victory - Carol
2%
-
When you gain this, each player (including you) gains 2 Silvers
Quote
Three French Hens
$3
Victory - Carol
3%
-
When you gain this, each player (including you) gets +3 Villagers.
Quote
Four Calling Birds
$4
Victory - Carol
4%
-
When you gain this, each player (including you) trashes up to 4 cards from their hand.
Quote
Five Gold Rings
$5
Victory - Carol
5%
-
When you gain this, each player (including you) gains 5 Spoils.
Quote
Six Geese A-Laying
$6
Victory - Carol
6%
-
When you gain this, each player (including you) gains a card costing up to $6 onto their deck.
Quote
Seven Swans A-Swimming
$7
Victory - Carol
7%
-
When you gain this, each player (including you) looks at the top 7 cards of their deck, discards any number, and puts the rest back in any order.
Quote
Eight Maids A-Milking
$8
Victory - Carol
8%
-
When you gain this, each player (including you) gains 8 Horses.
Quote
Nine Ladies Dancing
$9
Victory - Carol
9%
-
When you gain this, each player (including you) reveals the top 9 cards of their deck and may Exile any number of them, and discards the rest.
Quote
Ten Lords A-Leaping
$10
Victory - Carol
10%
-
When you gain this, each player (including you) gets +10 Villagers.
Quote
Eleven Pipers Piping
$11
Victory - Carol
11%
-
When you gain this, each player (including you) gets +11 Coffers.
Quote
Twelve Drummers Drumming
$12
Victory - Carol
12%
-
When you gain this, each player (including you) reveals their hand and the top 12 cards of their deck. Each player gets +1% per Victory card they revealed this way.

It's a cool idea and very thematic, but I'm not sure it would work well.  The first few Carols are little more than junk, and most of  the bonuses give your opponent(s) exactly the same bonus as yourself.  Four Calling Birds would often benefit yourself more than your opponents - as it's at the end of your turn, you're more likely to have junk that you want to trash in your hand (unless you had no draw at all), and Five Golden Rings and Eight Maids A-Milking could easily run out those respective piles before the last player in multiplayer - indeed, even if there's no other cards that gain Spoils, in games with 4 players, one will gain nothing from Five Golden Rings (since there are exactly 15 Spoils) and even with no other Horse gaining, player 4 would only get 6 Horses from Eight Maids A-Milking - and if there are other cards that can gain Spoils or Horses, then you may well run out even before that. I'd suggest changing their on-gain bonuses to ensure that the one who gains the cards gets a bigger bonus, and perhaps making it so that one or two of the Carols have a value that depends on how many other Carols you have, similar to Humble Castle and King's Castle counting Castles
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kru5h

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Re: Weekly Design Contest #136: ‘Tis the Season
« Reply #31 on: December 03, 2021, 10:18:08 pm »
+4

Tailor

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Re: Weekly Design Contest #136: ‘Tis the Season
« Reply #32 on: December 04, 2021, 06:04:00 am »
+2

Iron 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 mix of Remodel and Ironworks where all players get the type based benefit, not just the player who played the card. I think it can be priced at $4 as it isn't strictly better than or strictly worse than Remodel or Ironworks.
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Timinou

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Re: Weekly Design Contest #136: ‘Tis the Season
« Reply #33 on: December 04, 2021, 06:58:14 am »
0

Charlatan (Action, $5)

+3 Cards
+1 Action
———
When you gain this, each other player may play an Action card from their hand.

Non-terminal big draw, but your opponents get to play a card for free, possibly improving their hand and/or attacking everyone. For clarity, cards are played in clockwise order.
This is obviously too good. It is two Labs vs something that is weaker than a Village (Coins and Buys evaporate when it is not your turn, Draw can be hurt by Militias).

There are edge cases where your opponents could actually do quite a lot on a Charlatan turn (e.g. if they have two King's Courts and a draw card in hand to kick off and they have gainers or Remodelers in their deck).  But in general, yes, a lot of Action cards don't provide much value if played outside your turn.

Would it work better if it just gave +4 Cards instead, rather than the nonterminal card draw?

Possibly, although I’m not really sure how this would balance out.  On the one hand, you might be reticent to buy Charlatans if you think your opponents might have one in hand (and there’s probably a first player advantage here); on the other, you probably want them in your deck if there aren’t other good draw cards in the Kingdom especially if you think your opponents will buy them.
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arowdok

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Re: Weekly Design Contest #136: ‘Tis the Season
« Reply #34 on: December 04, 2021, 02:56:43 pm »
0




It's a cool idea and very thematic, but I'm not sure it would work well.  The first few Carols are little more than junk, and most of  the bonuses give your opponent(s) exactly the same bonus as yourself.  Four Calling Birds would often benefit yourself more than your opponents - as it's at the end of your turn, you're more likely to have junk that you want to trash in your hand (unless you had no draw at all), and Five Golden Rings and Eight Maids A-Milking could easily run out those respective piles before the last player in multiplayer - indeed, even if there's no other cards that gain Spoils, in games with 4 players, one will gain nothing from Five Golden Rings (since there are exactly 15 Spoils) and even with no other Horse gaining, player 4 would only get 6 Horses from Eight Maids A-Milking - and if there are other cards that can gain Spoils or Horses, then you may well run out even before that. I'd suggest changing their on-gain bonuses to ensure that the one who gains the cards gets a bigger bonus, and perhaps making it so that one or two of the Carols have a value that depends on how many other Carols you have, similar to Humble Castle and King's Castle counting Castles

I totally forgot Spoils was a 15 card supply since I used it for a custom set awhile back and upped it to 30 to match Horse pile, that is totally just my mistake. I am unsure how to word this effect to deal out uneven gains. What I want is in a four player game: the Spoils lets say has 14 Spoils and a gain 5 trigger is created by player 2(p2). I want p2 to get 4 spoils, p3 to get 4 spoils, p4 to get 3 spoils, then p1 to get 3 spoils. Any suggestions on how to make that happen?

I thought about doing the VP not static like "Two Turtle Doves gives Worth 2% per Carol you have worth more than this." But thought it added a lot complexity to an already wordy pile.

Also as far are these worth buying they are hyper efficient green cards like 5VP for $5 is much better then Duchy and to compensated how broken these are I add the gifts which probably help others more then you, on purpose, since others get to use them before you. Also it is a present, you are not supposed to be the one who enjoys it the most.
« Last Edit: December 05, 2021, 02:54:13 pm by arowdok »
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NoMoreFun

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Re: Weekly Design Contest #136: ‘Tis the Season
« Reply #35 on: December 04, 2021, 04:38:46 pm »
+3

Way of the Reindeer
Way
+1 Action
Each other player gains a Horse. If they all did, +2 cards.
« Last Edit: December 05, 2021, 12:31:54 pm by NoMoreFun »
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Re: Weekly Design Contest #136: ‘Tis the Season
« Reply #36 on: December 06, 2021, 09:29:12 am »
+1




It's a cool idea and very thematic, but I'm not sure it would work well.  The first few Carols are little more than junk, and most of  the bonuses give your opponent(s) exactly the same bonus as yourself.  Four Calling Birds would often benefit yourself more than your opponents - as it's at the end of your turn, you're more likely to have junk that you want to trash in your hand (unless you had no draw at all), and Five Golden Rings and Eight Maids A-Milking could easily run out those respective piles before the last player in multiplayer - indeed, even if there's no other cards that gain Spoils, in games with 4 players, one will gain nothing from Five Golden Rings (since there are exactly 15 Spoils) and even with no other Horse gaining, player 4 would only get 6 Horses from Eight Maids A-Milking - and if there are other cards that can gain Spoils or Horses, then you may well run out even before that. I'd suggest changing their on-gain bonuses to ensure that the one who gains the cards gets a bigger bonus, and perhaps making it so that one or two of the Carols have a value that depends on how many other Carols you have, similar to Humble Castle and King's Castle counting Castles

I totally forgot Spoils was a 15 card supply since I used it for a custom set awhile back and upped it to 30 to match Horse pile, that is totally just my mistake. I am unsure how to word this effect to deal out uneven gains. What I want is in a four player game: the Spoils lets say has 14 Spoils and a gain 5 trigger is created by player 2(p2). I want p2 to get 4 spoils, p3 to get 4 spoils, p4 to get 3 spoils, then p1 to get 3 spoils. Any suggestions on how to make that happen?

I thought about doing the VP not static like "Two Turtle Doves gives Worth 2% per Carol you have worth more than this." But thought it added a lot complexity to an already wordy pile.

Also as far are these worth buying they are hyper efficient green cards like 5VP for $5 is much better then Duchy and to compensated how broken these are I add the gifts which probably help others more then you, on purpose, since others get to use them before you. Also it is a present, you are not supposed to be the one who enjoys it the most.

with the upcoming change on coffers rules, you may want to rethink the pipers reward also - it'll just about guarantee that if someone can hit twelve dollarydoos, they empty the pile. that's a single turn 23pt swing, which normally takes $32 (4 provinces) and a self-curse.
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arowdok

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Re: Weekly Design Contest #136: ‘Tis the Season
« Reply #37 on: December 06, 2021, 12:31:16 pm »
+1




It's a cool idea and very thematic, but I'm not sure it would work well.  The first few Carols are little more than junk, and most of  the bonuses give your opponent(s) exactly the same bonus as yourself.  Four Calling Birds would often benefit yourself more than your opponents - as it's at the end of your turn, you're more likely to have junk that you want to trash in your hand (unless you had no draw at all), and Five Golden Rings and Eight Maids A-Milking could easily run out those respective piles before the last player in multiplayer - indeed, even if there's no other cards that gain Spoils, in games with 4 players, one will gain nothing from Five Golden Rings (since there are exactly 15 Spoils) and even with no other Horse gaining, player 4 would only get 6 Horses from Eight Maids A-Milking - and if there are other cards that can gain Spoils or Horses, then you may well run out even before that. I'd suggest changing their on-gain bonuses to ensure that the one who gains the cards gets a bigger bonus, and perhaps making it so that one or two of the Carols have a value that depends on how many other Carols you have, similar to Humble Castle and King's Castle counting Castles

I totally forgot Spoils was a 15 card supply since I used it for a custom set awhile back and upped it to 30 to match Horse pile, that is totally just my mistake. I am unsure how to word this effect to deal out uneven gains. What I want is in a four player game: the Spoils lets say has 14 Spoils and a gain 5 trigger is created by player 2(p2). I want p2 to get 4 spoils, p3 to get 4 spoils, p4 to get 3 spoils, then p1 to get 3 spoils. Any suggestions on how to make that happen?

I thought about doing the VP not static like "Two Turtle Doves gives Worth 2% per Carol you have worth more than this." But thought it added a lot complexity to an already wordy pile.

Also as far are these worth buying they are hyper efficient green cards like 5VP for $5 is much better then Duchy and to compensated how broken these are I add the gifts which probably help others more then you, on purpose, since others get to use them before you. Also it is a present, you are not supposed to be the one who enjoys it the most.

with the upcoming change on coffers rules, you may want to rethink the pipers reward also - it'll just about guarantee that if someone can hit twelve dollarydoos, they empty the pile. that's a single turn 23pt swing, which normally takes $32 (4 provinces) and a self-curse.

Good point I will update with a delayed trigger for Coffers at the end of the turn then.
« Last Edit: December 06, 2021, 01:02:06 pm by arowdok »
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Re: Weekly Design Contest #136: ‘Tis the Season
« Reply #38 on: December 06, 2021, 02:37:57 pm »
+1

the primary problem with carols is that the early ones aren't good and buying them to invest doesn't make sense because your opponent can buy the later ones as well. Compare that to castles where the first card breaks the symmetry and makes castles better for you

arowdok

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Re: Weekly Design Contest #136: ‘Tis the Season
« Reply #39 on: December 06, 2021, 07:44:23 pm »
+1

the primary problem with carols is that the early ones aren't good and buying them to invest doesn't make sense because your opponent can buy the later ones as well. Compare that to castles where the first card breaks the symmetry and makes castles better for you

So here is my fix to that issue and an overall buff to them


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jakav

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Re: Weekly Design Contest #136: ‘Tis the Season
« Reply #40 on: December 08, 2021, 06:31:36 pm »
+1

Quote
Scary Deal
Way
+2 Cards
+1 Action

Each other player draws a card and gains a horse.
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AJL828

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Re: Weekly Design Contest #136: ‘Tis the Season
« Reply #41 on: December 08, 2021, 08:00:01 pm »
+2

Submissions are closed!
Results will be posted in about 1-2 hours. Check back soon!
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Re: Weekly Design Contest #136: ‘Tis the Season
« Reply #42 on: December 08, 2021, 10:09:14 pm »
+9

Here are my thoughts on your entries!

JW
Quote
Desolate 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.

Erick648
Quote
Santa'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.

Spineflu
Quote
Haunt • $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.

4est
Quote
Royal 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.

Snes
Quote
Choir
+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).

mxdata
Quote
Grand 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.

Timinou
Quote
Looking 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!

mandioca15
Quote
Charlatan (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.

majiponi
Quote
Redevelopment
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.

arowdok
Quote
Carols - 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.

Xen3k
Quote
Yule 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!

kru5h
Quote
Tailor - 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.

xyz123
Quote
Iron 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.

NoMoreFun
Quote
Way 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!

jakav
Quote
Scary 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!
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Timinou

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Re: Weekly Design Contest #136: ‘Tis the Season
« Reply #43 on: December 09, 2021, 09:11:49 am »
+3

Thanks for the judging and the win, AJL828!  You had some great feedback on the entries.

I'll try to have the next contest up shortly.
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BryGuy

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Re: Weekly Design Contest #136: ‘Tis the Season
« Reply #44 on: September 19, 2022, 11:27:58 am »
0

Concerning Carols
Instead of stating "While this is in play. Carol cards cost 1 less" could it be "Carols cost 1 less this turn" to take less space on the card?

I'm thinking i might remake these for myself but change the gifts on some:
1: Gold
2: Spoil
3: Silver
5: Coffer
11: Coppers (but not to you)
12: Reveal top 12 for +1 V-token for each Carol

guess i need to get some Horses

arowdok

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Re: Weekly Design Contest #136: ‘Tis the Season
« Reply #45 on: September 19, 2022, 12:49:22 pm »
+1

Concerning Carols
Instead of stating "While this is in play. Carol cards cost 1 less" could it be "Carols cost 1 less this turn" to take less space on the card?

I'm thinking i might remake these for myself but change the gifts on some:
1: Gold
2: Spoil
3: Silver
5: Coffer
11: Coppers (but not to you)
12: Reveal top 12 for +1 V-token for each Carol

guess i need to get some Horses

I have recently removed the Carols cost reduction text and added "+1 Favor" to help make them better as Treasures the do something. They are likely still quite weak but hopefully more relevant on more boards then a narrow cost reduction. I suspect the Carols cost less effect may overly reward players who go solo Carols, which is not the best design. The addition of them becoming Treasures at all was added to help reward players who go Carol cards and specially Carol cards early, as a flat 1 VP or 2 VP victory only card is basically dead weight which discourages players to try the pile out at all. Overall, I do like your shifts they seem decent ideas to try, I have yet to get a chance to play any of the Carol card ideas at all, so please report back any feedback appreciated.
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