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[GendoIkari]

So, in general, playing Possession amounts to getting an extra turn. Obviously there are crazy exceptions with Island, Masquerade, Ambassador, and Trash-For-Benefits. But anyway, how different would Possession be if it simply gave you an extra turn instead of giving your opponent an extra turn that may as well be your turn?

Of course, you need a stipulation, similar to Outpost, to prevent infinite turns. Since playing your opponent's Possession on his possessed turn doesn't work (like you want it to!), we can simply word it like this: "If you are not currently taking an extra turn from Possession, take an extra turn after this one."

So, it seems like it would be stronger in some ways; and weaker in some:

Why it's stronger:

-Your opponent can't stop you by messing up his deck.
-You get to earn VP tokens.
-Playing attack cards in your extra turn still hurts your opponent.
-You cycle through your deck faster.
-You can play Durations without helping your opponent.

Why it's weaker:

-No Masquerade/Ambassador/Island tricks.
-No Governor / Vault / Bishop / Council Room / Oracle / Spy tricks (where you can improve your own deck on your opponent's possessed turn).
-Trash for benefit cards aren't as great; you can't just freely trash a Colony for +11 cards without losing points.
-You can't screw with your opponent's next turn via Herbalist, Scheme, Alchemist, etc.
-You have to have a deck with real buying power; you can't build a strategy around just paying multiple Possessions per turn.

What other things would be different? My thought it that as a whole; the own-deck version is stronger.

[eHalcyon]

In this hypothetical version of Possession, how is it functionally any different from Outpost other than starting with a full hand?  Your tfb comment sounds like you're also scrapping the "trashed cards go to discard" part of Possession.

[Davio]

You could KC-Possess yourself, that's a lot more fun than getting KC-Possessed by your opponent.

[Taco Lobster]

Pretty sure that you'll go blind if you possess yourself too much.

[AJD]

...This is the reason Smugglers can gain up to $6, but Workshop can only gain up to $4, right?

[GendoIkari]

In this hypothetical version of Possession, how is it functionally any different from Outpost other than starting with a full hand?  Your tfb comment sounds like you're also scrapping the "trashed cards go to discard" part of Possession.

Correct; the new card is exactly like a MUCH more powerful Outpost... full starting hand, and you can get multiple turns in a row (just not infinite). But then again, same goes for the current Possession.

[GendoIkari]

You could KC-Possess yourself, that's a lot more fun than getting KC-Possessed by your opponent.

But not a lot more fun than KC-Possessing your opponent.

[GendoIkari]

...This is the reason Smugglers can gain up to $6, but Workshop can only gain up to $4, right?

Sort of... while Smugglers can gain more powerful cards in general, you have no (or little) choice about what card you can gain with it. Usually it's either "gain this specific card, or don't play it." Workshop can only gain up to $4, but you get your choice of any card up to $4. Not quite a good analogy, because with the current Possession, you aren't limited to what you can do on your extra turn... you can do anything you can do with a normal 5-card hand, it just happens to be your opponent's deck instead of yours.

[One Armed Man]

Smugglers can also gain nothing (opponent gained nothing, potion cards, 7 costs, provinces, peddlers, platinum, or colony).

[AJD]

...This is the reason Smugglers can gain up to $6, but Workshop can only gain up to $4, right?

Sort of... while Smugglers can gain more powerful cards in general, you have no (or little) choice about what card you can gain with it. Usually it's either "gain this specific card, or don't play it." Workshop can only gain up to $4, but you get your choice of any card up to $4. Not quite a good analogy, because with the current Possession, you aren't limited to what you can do on your extra turn... you can do anything you can do with a normal 5-card hand, it just happens to be your opponent's deck instead of yours.

Whereas with Outpost, you get to use your own deck, but you can only do what you can do with a 3-card hand.

[GendoIkari]

...This is the reason Smugglers can gain up to $6, but Workshop can only gain up to $4, right?

Sort of... while Smugglers can gain more powerful cards in general, you have no (or little) choice about what card you can gain with it. Usually it's either "gain this specific card, or don't play it." Workshop can only gain up to $4, but you get your choice of any card up to $4. Not quite a good analogy, because with the current Possession, you aren't limited to what you can do on your extra turn... you can do anything you can do with a normal 5-card hand, it just happens to be your opponent's deck instead of yours.

Whereas with Outpost, you get to use your own deck, but you can only do what you can do with a 3-card hand.

Right. Plus with Outpost you can't get more than 1 extra turn in a row. But I already see Possession as a much more powerful version of Outpost (thus the high potion cost for it). I'm not sure my new version is that much more powerful than the current Possession, but it probably is a little bit.

[popsofctown]

I'm not sure we really want a strong outpost to exist.  It would be hard to balance.  Outpost as a weak card with hipster uses works out well, Outpost at stapley strength, like Caravan strength, is going to lead to waiting around for bonus turns to get played out without any real additional strategic considerations surrounding whether to buy the card (at least for the first copy).

[GendoIkari]

I'm not sure we really want a strong outpost to exist.  It would be hard to balance.  Outpost as a weak card with hipster uses works out well, Outpost at stapley strength, like Caravan strength, is going to lead to waiting around for bonus turns to get played out without any real additional strategic considerations surrounding whether to buy the card (at least for the first copy).

Why is that not true with the current Possession, then?

[AJD]

I'm not sure we really want a strong outpost to exist.  It would be hard to balance.  Outpost as a weak card with hipster uses works out well, Outpost at stapley strength, like Caravan strength, is going to lead to waiting around for bonus turns to get played out without any real additional strategic considerations surrounding whether to buy the card (at least for the first copy).

Why is that not true with the current Possession, then?

Same reason Smugglers isn't "gain another copy of a card you gained on your last turn". Possession is only worthwhile if the things that can be done with your opponent's deck are things you want to do, which your opponent has at least some control over. Self-Possession is less balanced because you can already do things you want to do with your own deck.

[popsofctown]

I'm not sure we really want a strong outpost to exist.  It would be hard to balance.  Outpost as a weak card with hipster uses works out well, Outpost at stapley strength, like Caravan strength, is going to lead to waiting around for bonus turns to get played out without any real additional strategic considerations surrounding whether to buy the card (at least for the first copy).

Why is that not true with the current Possession, then?

The current Possession has "real additional strategic considerations surrounding whether to buy the card".  It works well with trash for benefit, ambassador, masquerade, engines, and governor, but works badly with alt VP, explorer, VP chips, BM, attacks, and green in general.  So you have to decide whether the contents of your opponent's deck make it worthwhile.  That valuation is, itself, interesting enough that we like having the card around even though we have to sit through a bonus turn.

A self Possession works well with anything that helps you when you take a turn, that is, it helps you with everything but green cards and maybe attacks that don't stack.  If your deck is full of green cards, you aren't buying cards that let you take extra turns like selfpossession or outpost anyway because you are buying green cards and/or 3 piling, so that doesn't even add any depth to the card.
The only thing you could do is price self-possession at a price point where it only works in decks with an atypical lack of green in them over the course of the game.  So, VP chip loops and decks that can gain multiple Province cards per turn.  The first is bad, the second one is kind of interesting admittedly, but it is still a tricky price point to hit on the nose and I don't feel it's interesting enough that I want to wait for extra Highway roadtrips - one Highway roadtrip is plenty.  If an opponent takes a Highway roadtrip with my deck, at least when it's my turn I get this interesting opportunity to buy cards for both my own deck and my opponents.

[Rush_Clasic]

What if Possession worked on your own deck?

It'd be called "Self-Actualization."