My Submission: |
Amphitheater • $5 • Action +3 Cards Discard a card. If it was an... Action card, +1 Action Treasure card, +1 Buy Curse, discard a card Gold, +$1 |
My submission is
Amphitheater a drawer/sifter that is conditionally non-terminal, and which both makes you consider whether you want to sift what you normally would (e.g. Victory cards) and somewhat lessens the sting when you can't (e.g. when you only have Treasures and Action cards). I've played with this concept
before, with just the first two conditional effects (and, last time I submitted it, a fan mechanic effect). Adding the two additional effects for the base cards makes it a little more interesting. Getting $1 back from Gold makes discarding it no worse than discarding a Silver (and fits with the lessening the sting theme). Making you discard another card for discarding a Curse (effectively not letting a Curse be the card you sift) fits with the sift-something-different theme.
1One of the things I like about this is how its conditionally non-terminal. The reason Laboratory is so much better than Moat (and, therefore, costs way more despite Moat's useful Reaction) is that you can play the Action cards you draw after playing a Lab, but not (without a village) the ones you draw after playing a Moat. But, on any given play of one card or the other, the distinction only matters if you have Action cards in your hand afterwards. If you end up with no Action cards, Lab is no better than Moat. With Amphitheater, in order for it to be meaningfully non-terminal, you need to have at least 2 Action cards in your hand after you draw (you also need to give up the use of one of them unless it has an on-discard Reaction).
FAQ:
If you discard a Gold, you get both the +1 Buy (for discarding a Treasure card) and the +$1.
If you discard a Curse, the second card you discard does not give you any of the bonus effects. So, if you discard a Curse, then discard a Copper, you don't get +1 Buy.
1 There is at least one circumstance where this could be a benefit. If your opponent played a Haunted Woods and you've drawn both a Curse and a Victory card, you can discard the Curse to also rid yourself of the Victory card (and not have it go back on your deck when you buy a card during your Buy phase).