Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[emtzalex]

One idea I had to use the mechanic which was not explored that much in the contest submissions was to combine different types of cards to allow them to be played during different phases of the game. Specifically, cards that exist to combine with a playable card of a different type, to enable them to be played either outside of their regular phase and/or without spending an Action (think Capitalism). So:

Clerk • $2 • Action +1 Action +1 Buy When you gain this, +1 Buy and combine this with a non-Duration Treasure card you have in play.

Clerk turns a Treasure into disappearing money. This is only an advantage in a limited number of circumstances (dtx, Tactician, throne variants), so it is fairly inexpensive (costing just $2 and no Buy), and also throws in a +Buy to make it useable in other contexts. It probably should say non-Action non-Duration Treasure card, to keep players from stacking them, although doing so is of somewhat limited value (unless you really need a village).

Bankers' Village • $5+ • Action +1 Card +2 Actions +1 Buy When you buy this, you may overpay for it. If you do, combine it with up to one Copper you have in play per $1 you overpaid.

Bankers' Village is another Action that combines with Treasures, but in this case it primarily enables the Action card, rather than the Treasures. If you overpay (and have Coppers to combine), BV becomes an Action - Treasure that is playable during either phase. Originally it was $4+ and didn't have the +Buy, but it occurred to me that at that price, buying it for $5 cost the same as Bazaar while being almost strictly better (in that it thinned a Copper and was playable during the Buy phase) with an almost meaningless on-buy restriction (needing at least 1 Copper in play). Thus, this price point, which is generally weaker than Grand Market (although providing an extra +Action) at $6, but ends up being a reverse GM (requiring you to have 2 Coppers in play) at $7.

Now, a village might be the archetypal example of an Action you don't want to play during your Buy phase. The +1 Card it gives you could well be an Action you draw dead, and the +Actions are of little to no use. However, in addition to some synergies with cards like Black Market and Storyteller, there is a more general advantage in that you tend to want villages with terminal cards (especially terminal draw), but if you don't get them in the right order and draw the village terminally, you usually can't do anything with it. Here, you'll at least get the $.

Mask • $3+ • Treasure +1 Buy When you buy this, you may overpay for it. If you do, you may combine it with an Action card in your hand costing the amount you overpaid.

Mask is the reverse of Clerk, turning Action cards into Action-Treasures. Since this is more widely useful (making any card you play it on non-terminal), I wanted it to cost more, and, in fact, to incorporate the cost of the Action card you are looking to add it to. However, this is too expensive, and it should probably be either $1+ or $2+. There's not much concern here over stacking, as the price just keeps getting larger for very little benefit.

Night Shift • $3 • Night Put a card from your hand onto your deck. When you gain this, combine an Action card you would discard from play this turn with this.

Night Shift turns Action cards into Action-Night cards, letting you play them without spending an Action, but only during your night phase. Some effects will fully work during your Night phase: gainers, attacks, getting villagers/coffers, trashing, and Duration effects. This card makes you topdeck a card from your hand, which is both meant to represent the tiredness of working a Night shift (whether played during the day or at night), but also helps if the Action has a +Card(s) effect, allowing the player to put one of the cards back for next turn.

Early Bird • $4 • Dawn You may return this to the Supply for +$3 and +1 Buy. When you gain this, combine it with an Action card you would discard from play this turn.

Early Bird uses Week 3's Dawn mechanic. As I noted in my post-contest post about that one, a Dawn - Action card creates an interesting effect; when played during your Dawn phase it doesn't cost and Action, thus providing 2 versions of the card with 1 set of instructions. Here, Early Bird's on-play ability only works if it didn't combine with anything (because otherwise you can't return it to the Supply), and refunds most of its purchase price so you can try again.

[emtzalex]

I made a handful of other cards.

Little Fish • $2 • Action - Duration You may play a card with "Little Fish" in its name from your hand. If you have more than one Little Fish in play that you didn't play this turn, combine them. At the start of your next turn, +1 Card.

Fish swim in schools, so they seemed like an ideal card to self-combine. Little Fish will chain, but is otherwise a dead card the turn you play it, and on the following turn only gives you +1 Card. But, if you can put more than one into play, and manage to play another one on your next turn, all the ones you played will combine into a single card, which will draw you more cards on following turns. Once combined, they will continue to chain, but will not re-combine.

Pandora's Box • $5 • Treasure Gain a Curse. Reveal cards from the Pandora deck until their total cost, ignoring discounts, in $ is greater than $6. Combine the revealed cards. Setup: Make a Pandora deck out of different unused Action cards costing less than $5.

This is one of my favorites, if a bit out there. Each time you open Pandora's Box, you get a Curse (until they run out; it keeps working like Cursed Gold) and a creature which is a combination of unused, inexpensive Action cards. You get them at random, which prevents intentionally combining them in dangerous ways, but you have the potential for a Moat + Vagrant + Chapel + Smithy.

I had to add the "undiscounted" language because otherwise if you play 2 Quarries and a Pandora's Box, you would combine the entire pile. As with Black Market, there is the potential for discretion / house rules as to what gets included. It's worth noting that if you don't use non-Supply cards, in an IRL game you could make the Pandora deck with randomizers, as they never go into a player's deck (which could make them easier to put away).

Island of Doctor Moreau • $4 • Event If you have more than one Action card in Exile, combine two of them. Otherwise, Exile an Action card costing up to $4 from the Supply.

This one's only half-serious (and doesn't quite fit thematically), but I think the balance is about right. Requiring 3 buys and limiting it to up-to-$4 Actions is fairly balanced, although when there are ideal combos (see above) or other ways to Exile Actions (especially from the Supply), it could get a lot stronger (but probably not Collection - Stampede strong). It also mostly prevents player from re-combining, unless they have a way to Exile cards from their hand.

Coppersmith • $5 • Action - Night If it's your Night phase, trash up to three Coppers you have in play. Otherwise, combine up to 3 Coppers from the trash.

Another thing I like to do is remake cards that were dropped from 1Es. This Coppersmith is completely different from the original. It's an Action - Night card which lets you trash your Coppers from play at Night, or let's you combine them from the trash (effectively gaining you a Gold).


Since the inspiration for the mechanic was faust's upcoming wedding (congratulations again), I made a number of cards that were marriage themed (which also fits the mechanic):

Circle of Matchmakers • Ally After playing a Liaison, you may spend 3 Favors to combine it with a non-Liaison Action card you have in play.

By limiting it to combining the Liaison, it significantly restricts what can actually get combined, while still (in some cases), allowing for the potential for a very strong combo (e.g. Underling with a terminal draw or Emissary/Guildmaster with non-terminal/cantrip). The non-Liaison restriction prevents re-combining.

Wedding Bands • $5 • Treasure - Duration $2 At the start of your next turn, you may trash this to combine two Action cards from your hand.

Wedding Bands is a rare example of a card that lets you combine any 2 Actions (and even to recombine them). But there are still some important restrictions: they have to be in your hand at the start of the turn after you play WB, and you have to give up a $5 Treasure.

Wedding Chapel • $2 • Action - Reaction Trash up to 2 cards from your hand. When you trash more than one card, you may discard this from your hand to combine two of them.

Wedding Chapel is a simple trasher which also has a reaction allowing you to combine 2 trashed cards, but not if they are trashed by that copy. Originally it combined all of the trashed cards, but that would be quite ridiculous with Donate (and create a mandatory WC+Donate opening, which would leave each player with at Duchy that gives +$7).

FAQ/note: the cards have to be trashed as part of 1 effect. So even if you (for example) play Kings Court on a Forager (and thus trash 3 cards while resolving KC), each was trashed by a separate effect. Remake also does not work (since each time through you trash a single card).

Family Matchmaker • $4 • Action - Kin Combine an Action - Kin card (other than Family Matchmaker) and a non-Kin Action card from your hand.

Family Matchmaker uses the Kin mechanic from Week 7. By limiting it to combining a Kin and a non-Kin, there are fewer combining options--only 2 for the Kin, and fewer if one is not an Action (although I would probably suggest a version of the rule that required Kin cards to be Actions)--and you also can't recombine. Thus, a $4 card can permit combining 2 Actions on-play.

Elopement • $4 • Action - Night If it's your Night phase, Queue any number of differently-named Action cards you have in play other than Elopement. Otherwise, combine two Action cards in your Queue.

Another Action - Night card, this one using Week 19's Queue mechanic, and "set-up at Night, combine during the day" effect. This might be on the strong side, but the need to play it twice (and to have at least one card come off before you play Elopement again) does offer at least some balance.


One last angle, which is that the recently-used Equipment mechanic from Week 34 offers another interesting use for the combine mechanic. With the combine mechanic, the "Equipment" can be equipped to other cards:

Young Swordsman • $2 • Action Trash a card from your hand. If it was a Sword, combine it with a Young Swordsman you have in play. Equipment: Sword

Sword • $4 • Action - Equipment +3 Cards When you trash a card costing $3 or more, you may Equip this.

Young Swordsman is basically Student without the Recursion, Liaison, or pile-rotating. However, if you trash a Silver (or something costing as much or more), you can discard Sword, which is just a Smithy, but if you trash Sword, it can combine with YS to form a double-Lab trasher (but you can only get one copy).

Wandering Soul • $4 • Action Reveal the top 4 Cards in your deck. If you reveal a Locket, combine it with this. Put the Action cards back in any order and discard the rest. +2 Cards. Equipment: Locket

Locket • $0 • Treasure - Equipment If it's your Action phase, +1 Action; otherwise, +$1. When you reveal a Victory card (using the word "reveal"), you may Equip this.

Wandering Soul is a painfully terminal drawer, which makes sure you have Action cards when you get the +2 Cards. If you have plenty of +Actions that is not a problem, but will otherwise be terminal more often than most drawers. Locket lets you turn one copy of WS into a non-terminal version of itself.

[Joxeft]

Wedding Bands and Family Matchmakers Quotes are messed up.

[emtzalex]

Wedding Bands and Family Matchmakers Quotes are messed up.

Thanks. Fixed it.

[Joxeft]

Clerk is already an official card.

[infangthief]

One big question I had about this mechanic, in terms of design for it, is how strong is the capacity to combine cards (and, in particular, to combine Action cards). My first impression is that combining Action cards is incredibly strong. It is not hard to think of 2 card combinations that are extremely powerful.

It does seem powerful, yes. Even if the 2 Action cards you combine don't have any special synergy, just the act of combining them is like gaining a Lost City (without benefitting your opponents). Then if they do have synergy it's even better. I like your Tactician + Watchtower example!

[emtzalex]

Clerk is already an official card.

Good point. It wasn't when I created it (Prosperity 2E dropped after the contest started), but that would also have to change about the card.