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[Davio]

Well, I trust the guy who admitted Chapel is the best card ever to be printed (for its cost) and he would go back in time to change Throne Room if he could.

[LastFootnote]

Wow, people are really excited about that?  What else is he going to say?  "Yeah it's not bad, but to be honest it's not as good as Hinterlands and doesn't hold a candle to Prosperity"

Well, he didn't have to volunteer the opinion at all. Or even if he'd said that his favorite expansion was Seaside, I don't think that anyone would've taken it to mean that he thought Dark Ages wasn't worth playing.

[pingpongsam]

I believe the guy is saving best for last. He's already released the so-so cards to flesh out other expansions and he's said that he's withheld cards for opportunity's sake and  then there has a been a great deal of testbedding to identify where some real game changing stuff can be inserted.

[werothegreat]

That's legit. Now that Donald has said that Dark Ages is his favorite set, I'm even more hyped, if possible.

Ooh, where did he say that? Do you have a link?

Wow, people are really excited about that?  What else is he going to say?  "Yeah it's not bad, but to be honest it's not as good as Hinterlands and doesn't hold a candle to Prosperity"

Nah, he's saving that quote for Guilds.

[werothegreat]

Let's think about what Dark Ages should have:

Villages - given the size, I'd wager at least 4
Draw - at least a couple cards with +3/+4/+5 Cards
Trashers - given the theme, there will probably be a lot of these, most likely even within the above two categories
Reactions - the only sets without one are Seaside (Lighthouse compensates for this) and Alchemy (which introduces the fewest new kingdom cards anyway)
Victory - every other set has one, though Prosperity cheats and does the VP token thing
Attacks - and lots of 'em! - probably some really nasty ones
Treasure - probably not too many - I'm picking up a "being poor" sort of theme here
Curser - every Curser has reflected its set's theme (Witch is pretty simple, Torturer makes you choose, Sea Hag affects your next turn, Familiar gives +Action, Mountebank also gives Treasure, Young Witch adds variety, IGG triggers on gain), so either the Curser upgrades, or Trashes, or deals with the Trash

[shraeye]

Good call on the cursers, werothegreat; I hadn't noticed the thematicness of them before.

[LastFootnote]

Victory - every other set has one, though Prosperity cheats and does the VP token thing

I'd argue that Colony is Prosperity's alternate Victory card.

Treasure - probably not too many - I'm picking up a "being poor" sort of theme here

I think we'll have at least one, though! There was a comment some months ago about Thief's trash-then-gain mechanic being important for at least one Dark Ages card, and I'm guessing it's a Treasure that does something when trashed.

EDIT:

Curser - every Curser has reflected its set's theme (Witch is pretty simple, Torturer makes you choose, Sea Hag affects your next turn, Familiar gives +Action, Mountebank also gives Treasure, Young Witch adds variety, IGG triggers on gain), so either the Curser upgrades, or Trashes, or deals with the Trash

I'm wondering if we might have a card that deals out Curses when trashed. If so, will it trash itself (a one-shot Curse-giver), or will you have to trash it with another card?

[werothegreat]

EDIT:

Curser - every Curser has reflected its set's theme (Witch is pretty simple, Torturer makes you choose, Sea Hag affects your next turn, Familiar gives +Action, Mountebank also gives Treasure, Young Witch adds variety, IGG triggers on gain), so either the Curser upgrades, or Trashes, or deals with the Trash

I'm wondering if we might have a card that deals out Curses when trashed. If so, will it trash itself (a one-shot Curse-giver), or will you have to trash it with another card?

i.e. is it an Action or a Reaction?  Another possibility could be a card that upgrades into a Curser.

[LastFootnote]

I'm wondering if we might have a card that deals out Curses when trashed. If so, will it trash itself (a one-shot Curse-giver), or will you have to trash it with another card?

i.e. is it an Action or a Reaction?  Another possibility could be a card that upgrades into a Curser.

My guess is that on-trash abilities are no more a reaction than on-gain abilities. There could even be a pure Victory card that dealt out Curses upon being trashed.

As far as a card that upgrades into a Curser, that's also possible. I'm guessing we'll have at least two junking attacks, although obviously at least one card will deal out Ruins.

[werothegreat]

Ruins... the name suggests so many possibilities, but most of them are invalidated by the knowledge that this set has no mats nor tokens.

[Donald X.]

Wow, people are really excited about that?  What else is he going to say?  "Yeah it's not bad, but to be honest it's not as good as Hinterlands and doesn't hold a candle to Prosperity"

Man, I said that it was my favorite set, not that it would be everyone's. I don't even know you. You might wish the sets had stayed simpler, and prefer the base set and Intrigue, or you might like the extra build-up to Platinum/Colony enough to put Prosperity first, or whatever.

I pushed good stuff to earlier sets, but you get better as you go along. For me the large sets just strictly get better (and so do the small sets, but it seems unfair to compare them, although that means it's unfair to compare Dark Ages, since it's extra large). Separate from that, I am, in Magic lingo, a Johnny, and Dark Ages is the Johnny set.

It's reasonable to suspect that I wouldn't be badmouthing something I made before it's even out, because, what, how much exactly would the publisher like that, and how would potential future publishers feel about that. And it's unlikely I would ever think I'd utterly blown it on a set, at least not until after seeing how much people liked it, because if I felt that way I would fix that sucker. Still if Prosperity were my favorite I would have said that; I was asked and gave my honest answer. Some people have integrity!

[WanderingWinder]

There's a difference between your favorite, and the best. My favorite Star Wars movie is Jedi; the best is Empire. Of course, you wouldn't expect someone trying to sell you something to say bad things about the product, but Donald doesn't strike me as the kind of guy who will say something just to sell something - he says what he believes, and he believes he comes up with good products.
So I would be surprised if he would come back and say that Guilds is his favourite set before it comes out. But more clearly than that, has he ever said that some previous set (before Dark Ages) is his favourite? I don't think he has. So of course, he is in business, he's not going to say that DA is his favorite before it's on the radar, he's going to say it in the build-up to its release. He will time what he says to favor his interests. This is not really so Nefarious (by Donald X. Vaccarino ). And there's no reason to be upset about it - you should expect it.

[Donald X.]

I believe the guy is saving best for last. He's already released the so-so cards to flesh out other expansions and he's said that he's withheld cards for opportunity's sake and  then there has a been a great deal of testbedding to identify where some real game changing stuff can be inserted.

It's just not like this at all. Every expansion in its day focused on being as good as possible. Stealing cards from later sets was fair game. Generally if the card was a great fit for the later set then it wouldn't be stolen, but I have even moved some of those, with Apprentice being a stand-out example (it was from Hinterlands). Later expansions in turn got cards from earlier sets when they were a much better fit, or, more often, when they needed fixing up.

Here's a chart of card origins. Some of them changed a lot, and I'm not including anything about the Seaside/Hinterlands split. I may have missed something.

main set: Chancellor and Feast from Intrigue; Bureaucrat from Prosperity; Council Room and Spy from Dark Ages; Library, Gardens, and Festival from Alchemy; Adventurer from dissolved small expansion.

Intrigue: Masquerade and Wishing Well from Prosperity; Tribute and Swindler from Dark Ages; Bridge from Alchemy; Shanty Town and Duke from that dissolved set. Trading Post from the main set.

Seaside: Smugglers from Dark Ages; Pearl Diver and Sea Hag from Alchemy; Treasure Map from dissolved set.

Alchemy: Apprentice from Hinterlands; Herbalist and Philosopher's Stone from Prosperity; Vineyard from the main set.

Prosperity: Trade Route from Dark Ages; Bank from Alchemy; Peddler and Grand Market from a 2nd dissolved small set; Quarry from Seaside.

Cornucopia: Horn of Plenty from Intrigue; Horse Traders from Seaside; Menagerie and Followers from Prosperity; Tournament and Hunting Party from Dark Ages; Jester and Diadem from Alchemy; Farming Village from Hinterlands.

Hinterlands: Noble Brigand, Cartographer, the bottom half of Trader, the top half of Inn, and the bottom half of Fool's Gold, from Dark Ages; Embassy from the 1st dissolved set. Edit: Jack of All Trades from Cornucopia.

The main thing you see from the cards that left Dark Ages is, that Dark Ages originally had a "non-attack player interaction" theme, but I had to give every set some of that. As previously reported, nothing to see here.

[Beyond Awesome]

I believe the guy is saving best for last. He's already released the so-so cards to flesh out other expansions and he's said that he's withheld cards for opportunity's sake and  then there has a been a great deal of testbedding to identify where some real game changing stuff can be inserted.

Foreign Traders

Umm...

[Donald X.]

Foreign Traders

Umm...

Oops, I meant Battlements.

[werothegreat]

Did... did... did Donald X just reveal two card names from Dark Ages?

[Donald X.]

Did... did... did Donald X just reveal two card names from Dark Ages?

Battlements was a reaction that drew you a card when you were attacked. It was in Seaside. It died when I changed how reactions worked; it obv. couldn't be that you just drew your deck with it. I brought it back as Foreign Traders in Cornucopia with a more complex wording involving setting it aside. I mucked with the top before settling on the one you know. Then I renamed it Horse Traders.

[werothegreat]

Did... did... did Donald X just reveal two card names from Dark Ages?

Battlements was a reaction that drew you a card when you were attacked. It was in Seaside. It died when I changed how reactions worked; it obv. couldn't be that you just drew your deck with it. I brought it back as Foreign Traders in Cornucopia with a more complex wording involving setting it aside. I mucked with the top before settling on the one you know. Then I renamed it Horse Traders.

You're just full of these tidbits.  I bet the Dark Ages secret history will be massive.

[Thisisnotasmile]

Intrigue: Masquerade ... from Prosperity;

Bullet = dodged.

[Piemaster]

Woah, I think what I said got blown a bit out of proportion there.  I wasn't suggesting that DA would be anything other than great, or that Donald was talking it up to increase sales.  I was just making the point that a developer is always going to be in love with what he is doing at the time and he's certainly not going to turn around and say 'meh I've done better'.  In the same way I don't pay much attention when any/all of the 32 teams in the NFL say they're going to win the Superbowl in August.  They're not lying, they probably believe it to be true, but it's certainly not going to make me any more pumped about their chances.

[Captain_Frisk]

Woah, I think what I said got blown a bit out of proportion there.  I wasn't suggesting that DA would be anything other than great, or that Donald was talking it up to increase sales.  I was just making the point that a developer is always going to be in love with what he is doing at the time and he's certainly not going to turn around and say 'meh I've done better'.  In the same way I don't pay much attention when any/all of the 32 teams in the NFL say they're going to win the Superbowl in August.  They're not lying, they probably believe it to be true, but it's certainly not going to make me any more pumped about their chances.

Are you saying the eagles aren't going to win this year?  Heresy!

[Piemaster]

Separate from that, I am, in Magic lingo, a Johnny, and Dark Ages is the Johnny set.

For those unfamiliar with Magic lingo, Johnnies are players who like to win in 'cool' ways, using interesting combos and building decks around cards that are most-often considered useless.  They tend to think cards with a more blunt form of raw power are boring.

Interesting to see how that will translate into a Dominion expansion.  I guess it could mean that there are a lot of cards that can vary wildly in power depending on the board, or that combo well with cards in this or other sets that are currently considered bad.  Maybe there will even be  new win condition, although the absence of tokens would make this difficult.

[jotheonah]

I'm guessing we'll finally see a use for Mott the Barber.

[Kirian]

Interesting to see how that will translate into a Dominion expansion.  I guess it could mean that there are a lot of cards that can vary wildly in power depending on the board, or that combo well with cards in this or other sets that are currently considered bad.

Blue Dog
$3 - Victory

Worth one point for each copy of Counting House, Chancellor, Thief, or Fortune Teller in your deck.

[werothegreat]

Interesting to see how that will translate into a Dominion expansion.  I guess it could mean that there are a lot of cards that can vary wildly in power depending on the board, or that combo well with cards in this or other sets that are currently considered bad.

Blue Dog
$3 - Victory

Worth one point for each copy of Counting House, Chancellor, Thief, or Fortune Teller in your deck.

Don't forget Develop and Scout!