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[rinkworks]

Submission Rules

* Submit no more than one card per person per challenge.  You do not need to submit for all challenges if you don't want to, but of course you can't win if you don't compete.
* Submit your cards to me via this forum's messaging system.  Submissions made after each week's deadline cannot be accepted.
* Each card you submit must have a name, a cost, a list of types, and the exact wording that should appear on the card.  Also include a brief description of any special design considerations (e.g., Stash having a unique back), but do NOT include any other information, such as strategic commentary or examples about it would play.
* Although you must submit names for each of your cards, the names will not be listed on the voting ballots, so make sure your card's appeal does not depend on your choice of name.
* I will accept revisions to your contest entries provided they are submitted to me before the deadline.  If you submit a revision to an entry you have previously submitted to me, resubmit your revised card(s) in their entirety.  That is, don't tell me "Oh, can you make that +2 Cards say +3 Cards instead?"  Just resubmit the full card.
* Only submit cards that are your own design.
* You may submit cards that have been previously posted here in this forum, including those that have been refined by the community as a whole, provided you can still claim that the central conceit of the card -- and the majority of its final version -- is yours.  This applies to cards previously posted, however -- if your submissions aren't already posted on his board, please refrain from doing so until after the results have been announced.
* A single card might conceivably qualify for multiple challenges within this series.  However, you may not submit the same card for more than one concurrent challenge.  That is, if you have submitted a card to one challenge, you may not submit it to another challenge until the results of that first challenge have been announced.
* Do not disclose your submissions publicly, either in this thread or elsewhere

--

The deadline for this week's challenges is Monday, September 3, at 10am EDT.

--

Challenge #14 - Self-Synergizing Card

Objective: Create a card that synergizes or combos with itself in such a way that playing the card might be more effective or powerful when prior copies of the card have already been played.

Because self-synergy is difficult to define in black and white terms, no card will be refused eligibility.  However, voters will be charged with judging not just card quality but their conformance to the spirit of this objective as described above.

Note that this definition of self-synergy is a distinct concept from a card that is merely helpful to play in multiples.  For example, playing multiple Villages might be a good idea, because you can get a lot of +Actions that way.  But playing one Village doesn't generally enable you to play another to better effect.

For this challenge, no rules clarifications are permitted.  This is to avoid a situation where a rules clarification may suggest a non-obvious self-synergetic use for the card and leave voters to guess about a non-obvious self-synergetic use for other cards.  (However, there is no reason self-synergy for any or all of the submitted cards can't be discussed after the ballot is announced, including by the authors of the cards.)

Because all cards will be considered eligible for this contest, I will not list any non-examples.  Instead, I'll list a few sample arguments for some official cards that fit the spirit of this contest.

Better-Than-Linear Yields:  Bridge (cost-reduction and +Buys both stack, resulting in exponential benefits when multiples are played).  Goons (VPs-per-buy and +Buys both increase, resulting in exponential benefits when multiples are played).  King's Court (after one, play a card three times; after two, play three cards three times).  Fool's Gold (playing one quadruples the benefit of any others you play).

Compounding Draw: Crossroads (draws cards to power up other Crossroads).  Madman (draws cards to power up other Madmen.)

Subtle Self-Synergy: Stables (playing one successfully increases the chance that you'll have Treasure cards with which to play others successfully).  Mystic (one failed Mystic play guarantees the second will succeed).  Conspirator (playing a Conspirator as your second action activates successive Conspirators).  Native Village (play some to stow cards away, then another to draw them all into your hand).  Bank (playing one increases the value you derive from any others you can play).  Cartographer, Apothecary (a second play of each of these cards enables you to draw a specific card out of the next four in your deck).  Cultist (playing one means you can play others without consuming Actions).  Rogue (play one to put something good in the trash, then another to take it back out).

Single-Card Engines:  Minion (playing a Minion to cycle is more effective if you've already played some for cash).  Hunting Party (playing a Hunting Party is generally going to be better at finding your key cards -- or other Hunting Parties -- if you've already played some to draw copies of junk cards into your hand).  In this category, the line between "card that is good to spam" and "card that powers up successive copies" is especially fine, but it's there.

Unlikely Cases For Self-Synergy: Outpost, Counting House (they have no effect when stacked).  Militia, Ghost Ship, Fortune Teller (repeating the attack portions of these cards doesn't compound the severity of the attack).  Scout (each play of Scout decreases the likelihood that another Scout will be as helpful).  Laboratory (because although each play of a Laboratory increases the likelihood that you'll have another to play, the benefit you get from playing each Laboratory is the same).

Wrong Kind of Self-Synergy: You might say that University self-synergizes, because it gains you Actions and also gives you +Actions to play them.  Yes, but how does University enable or power-up playing other copies of itself?  There are a number of cards whose different components synergize with each other, but that's not the kind of self-synergy I'm looking for here.

I'm going to put Treasure Map in the "wrong kind of self-synergy" category too, because although you do need another copy of itself to get the four Golds, you don't play that second copy.  Grand Market and Peddler each help you buy more copies more easily when you play some, but they don't change the effectiveness of successive copies you play.

Still, these are nuances that voters will have the freedom to work out for themselves and come to their own conclusions about.

--

The Ballot
The Results

[Schneau]

Another type of self-synergy is "cheap cards that have +Buy". Cards like Hamlet, Pawn, and Squire are good examples, where you can use the +Buy to get a copy of these while also getting a more costly card (or, getting 2 copies).

[Kirian]

Suggestions for true Anti-Synergy, not just "unlikely"

Menagerie: each successive play decreases the likelihood of being able to get the +3 Cards benefit.
Cellar: each successive play decreases the number of cards cycled/sifted.
Oasis: each successive play decreases the number of discard choices.

[rinkworks]

Another type of self-synergy is "cheap cards that have +Buy". Cards like Hamlet, Pawn, and Squire are good examples, where you can use the +Buy to get a copy of these while also getting a more costly card (or, getting 2 copies).

They help you buy more copies, but they don't help you play more copies, which is what I was getting at when I mentioned Grand Market and Peddler in the "wrong kind" section at the end.

[Robz888]

More examples: Alchemist and Scrying Pool. Each successful play of one of these makes it more likely that you will be able to consistently play more of these.

[rinkworks]

Suggestions for true Anti-Synergy, not just "unlikely"

Menagerie: each successive play decreases the likelihood of being able to get the +3 Cards benefit.
Cellar: each successive play decreases the number of cards cycled/sifted.
Oasis: each successive play decreases the number of discard choices.

The main reason I said "unlikely" instead of "anti" is that I just know somebody somewhere will figure out some weird exception.  But I agree with your reasoning in all three examples here.

[Schneau]

Another type of self-synergy is "cheap cards that have +Buy". Cards like Hamlet, Pawn, and Squire are good examples, where you can use the +Buy to get a copy of these while also getting a more costly card (or, getting 2 copies).

They help you buy more copies, but they don't help you play more copies, which is what I was getting at when I mentioned Grand Market and Peddler in the "wrong kind" section at the end.

Ah yes, I was confuseled. You are correct here.

[ChocophileBenj]

And what about... Torturer !!!!?

[rinkworks]

And what about... Torturer !!!!?

That's a great example, actually, at least in the case where the victims choose the discard option.  When a victim chooses the discard option, that means taking the Curse would be worse.  Therefore, a second Torturer means that the victim must either (1) choose that worse option, or (2) discard two less-junky cards.  In both cases, the second attack is more severe than the first.

[qmech]

Better-Than-Linear Yields:  Bridge (cost-reduction and +Buys both stack, resulting in exponential benefits when multiples are played).  Goons (VPs-per-buy and +Buys both increase, resulting in exponential benefits when multiples are played).  King's Court (after one, play a card three times; after two, play three cards three times).  Fool's Gold (playing one quadruples the benefit of any others you play).

Some mathematical pedantry for those who might be interested.  Sorry. 

Bridge and Goons aren't exponential: in each case the benefit is #(plays) x #(cards bought); with each card giving +Buy, the effects are quadratic in the number of cards played.  Madman is truly exponential because your hand size (almost) doubles each time.

KC and Fool's Gold are both linear, with (2n-1) triplings for n KC's and $(4n-3) for n FG's.  "Superadditive" is fair, since playing two is more that twice as good as playing one.

Your regularly scheduled card design contest continues after this message.

[AJD]

Better-Than-Linear Yields:  Bridge (cost-reduction and +Buys both stack, resulting in exponential benefits when multiples are played).  Goons (VPs-per-buy and +Buys both increase, resulting in exponential benefits when multiples are played).  King's Court (after one, play a card three times; after two, play three cards three times).  Fool's Gold (playing one quadruples the benefit of any others you play).

Some mathematical pedantry for those who might be interested.  Sorry. 

Bridge and Goons aren't exponential: in each case the benefit is #(plays) x #(cards bought); with each card giving +Buy, the effects are quadratic in the number of cards played.  Madman is truly exponential because your hand size (almost) doubles each time.

KC and Fool's Gold are both linear, with (2n-1) triplings for n KC's and $(4n-3) for n FG's.  "Superadditive" is fair, since playing two is more that twice as good as playing one.

You beat me to the exact comment I was going to make. Bank is another example of a <a href="http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=1269.msg20671#msg20671">quadratic card</a>, like Bridge and Goons.

Rinkworks, I take it from the statement of the assignment that (non-playable) Victory cards with self-synergy are no good for this one? E.g., Silk Road has self-synergy in that getting more Silk Roads increases the value of the Silk Roads you already have.

[rinkworks]

Better-Than-Linear Yields:  Bridge (cost-reduction and +Buys both stack, resulting in exponential benefits when multiples are played).  Goons (VPs-per-buy and +Buys both increase, resulting in exponential benefits when multiples are played).  King's Court (after one, play a card three times; after two, play three cards three times).  Fool's Gold (playing one quadruples the benefit of any others you play).

Some mathematical pedantry for those who might be interested.  Sorry. 

Bridge and Goons aren't exponential: in each case the benefit is #(plays) x #(cards bought); with each card giving +Buy, the effects are quadratic in the number of cards played.  Madman is truly exponential because your hand size (almost) doubles each time.

KC and Fool's Gold are both linear, with (2n-1) triplings for n KC's and $(4n-3) for n FG's.  "Superadditive" is fair, since playing two is more that twice as good as playing one.

You beat me to the exact comment I was going to make. Bank is another example of a <a href="http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=1269.msg20671#msg20671">quadratic card</a>, like Bridge and Goons.

Rinkworks, I take it from the statement of the assignment that (non-playable) Victory cards with self-synergy are no good for this one? E.g., Silk Road has self-synergy in that getting more Silk Roads increases the value of the Silk Roads you already have.

Correct.  I thought about expanding the rule to accommodate Victory cards, but the set already has quite a number, so I didn't feel it important to make the necessary allowances.

[ConMan]

Ah, nuts. I had a great idea, then I realised that it sits somewhere between "Wrong kind of synergy" and "Anti-synergy" (in that having multiple copies is better, but you'd rather not play them together). I might pop it into a thread of its own.

[Saucery]

I suppose cultist would count for this contest, but what about venture?

[eHalcyon]

I suppose cultist would count for this contest, but what about venture?

From reading the topic, I would expect it not to count.

Create a card that synergizes or combos with itself in such a way that playing the card might be more effective or powerful when prior copies of the card have already been played.

Playing a second Cultist is more effective in that it doesn't cost an action if it follows the first.  But playing a Venture does not improve subsequent plays...

But on further reflection, maybe it does?  The first one can pull others out of the deck and play them...

But then, that goes for any treasure, not just other Ventures.  Cultist only works on other Cultists.  So I am back on thinking Venture doesn't count.

[Guy Srinivasan]

Since, on average, coin gives superlinearly increasing utility as the amount you get per turn grows, would Gold count as self-synergizing?

[AJD]

Since, on average, coin gives superlinearly increasing utility as the amount you get per turn grows, would Gold count as self-synergizing?

In many cases, your fourth Gold on a turn is way less useful than your third.

[Guy Srinivasan]

Since, on average, coin gives superlinearly increasing utility as the amount you get per turn grows, would Gold count as self-synergizing?

In many cases, your fourth Gold on a turn is way less useful than your third.

Right, it's also more unlikely than getting your second Gold... what I'm guessing is that on average, taking a random non-Gold card from a random hand from a random game played by a random Dominion player, given that that hand contains a Gold, given that a Gold remains to be drawn and will not miss the reshuffle, swapping the upcoming Gold with the card in your hand will improve your odds of winning more than the same procedure without conditioning on the hand containing a Gold.

This was not a serious question, though, hence the "". ()

[rinkworks]

This is exactly why I bowed out of trying to define strict rules of eligibility.  :-)

I will submit, however, that the fourth play of a card need not be improved -- can even be weakened -- if the second or third or fifth is improved instead.

[Tables]

This is a tricky one. I submitted my card, but after rereading the rules, realised it was more a high density in deck being good than a high density in hand. So... this is tricky.

[nopawnsintended]

I don't think this one has been mentioned, but what about Nobles?  Also, on the issue of cards whose options synergize with each other, Governor for Gold into Governor for Remodel seems like it would qualify.

[Tables]

Nobles anti-synergises with itself, if anything. One in hand, you get a Smithy ($4 card). Two in hand, and you get a Village and a sub-Moat ($3+$2). Governor, I'd say, is a self synergy, but again, it's not really dependant on getting the Governors in hand together.

[popsofctown]

Anyone want to review my card ideas for these two challenges and picking a favorite?  I can never predict how well my submissions will do, which is a sign I'm not in touch with what other people want to play with.  I think I'm good with concepts and balance, though.  Maybe.  Self serving biases meh..

[eHalcyon]

Anyone want to review my card ideas for these two challenges and picking a favorite?  I can never predict how well my submissions will do, which is a sign I'm not in touch with what other people want to play with.  I think I'm good with concepts and balance, though.  Maybe.  Self serving biases meh..

I can review, if you'd like.  I think I'm decent with concepts, not as good at balance/costing (Aqua Vitae was originally stronger and cost less).  I don't have an entry for this contest and I'm not sure I will... I had an idea but I think it is the wrong kind of synergy (playing it makes subsequent plays stronger, but plays don't have to be in the same turn for there to be benefit).

[Archetype]

Would Archivist qualify? I'm assuming so, you were the one who created it

Also eHalcyon, can I ask for your critiques on my card too? I your a higher ranked iso player than me, but even if you aren't, you have won several of these contests. I hope some of your winningness would rub off on me

[eHalcyon]

Would Archivist qualify? I'm assuming so, you were the one who created it

Also eHalcyon, can I ask for your critiques on my card too? I your a higher ranked iso player than me, but even if you aren't, you have won several of these contests. I hope some of your winningness would rub off on me

I think my highest rank was 24, but that was in less than 200 games or so.  I haven't played much in a very long time; last I checked my rank had dropped to 19.  CR is down now so I can no longer check.

I could critique, sure.

Oh, and in case I wasn't clear in my last post, I don't have an entry for THIS contest (self-synergy) but I have one for the other contest.  I have an idea now but I think I will leave it out anyway.  I can't think of elegant wording for it.

[zahlman]

I think I've already submitted some deliberately self-synergizing cards to previous contests, and I don't think I'm alone in this.

(My TfB entry would probably have been better designed as a one-shot, too )

[rinkworks]

Would Archivist qualify? I'm assuming so, you were the one who created it

Sure would.  Minion inspired that card -- I wanted to design another card that was self-sufficient like that but which didn't play out so similarly each time out.  I feel like that's still a very wide-open design space, hence this particular challenge.

[rinkworks]

I'm going to be out-of-town on Monday, which is a holiday here in the U.S., so results won't be posted until Tuesday or possibly Wednesday.  I'll continue to accept entries right up until when I post the results.

[popsofctown]

sounds like i'll spend labor day making alts

[rinkworks]

Here is the ballot for Challenge #14!  Remember, unlike other challenges in this contest, there were no eligibility rules.  However, voters are encouraged to consider the potential for self-synergy when voting.  As a reminder of what "self-synergy" means in this context, here is what the challenge objective was:

Create a card that synergizes or combos with itself in such a way that playing the card might be more effective or powerful when prior copies of the card have already been played.

Note that this definition of self-synergy is a distinct concept from a card that is merely helpful to play in multiples.  For example, playing multiple Villages might be a good idea, because you can get a lot of +Actions that way.  But playing one Village doesn't generally enable you to play another to better effect.

--

Voting Rules:

Each person may cast votes as follows:  For each Challenge, you may fill your ballot out in one of two ways:

(1) Award 3 points to one entry.  Award 1 point to any number of other entries.
(2) Award 2 points to each of two entries.  Award 1 point to any number of other entries.

Submit your votes via PM to me by Thursday, September 13, 2012, 10am EDT in the following format:

Challenge 1

3 CardName
1 AnotherCardName
1 StillAnotherCardName
1 AnotherCardNameGoesHereToo

Challenge 2

2 CardName
2 AnotherCardName
1 StillAnotherCardName

Please use the above format!  One card per line, with the number of votes given before it, and no extra punctuation or anything.  This will make it easy for me to copy-and-paste your votes into the format my vote-counting script needs it to be in.

Do not submit votes for your own cards.  (If you do, my script will catch you anyway.)

By submitting vote(s) for a challenge, you will automatically earn 1 point for your entry in that challenge.  This is to incentivize contestants to submit votes.  (My script does this automatically, so don't worry that I'll forget to do this.)

Note that the supplied card names are for discussion/identification only -- they are not the card names that were submitted to me.  The proper card names will be revealed when the results are announced.  Whenever card text says "[This Card]" it means the submitted text says the card's own name there.

Inclusion on the ballot means that the card was deemed eligible for the contest.  You therefore do not need to consider eligibility when voting.  In some cases, this may mean a pretty loose interpretation of the eligibility requirements.  I tried to be fair but also forgiving when a submission came in that twisted the rules in a way I hadn't foreseen.

As a voter, you may use whatever criteria you wish in determining what your votes will be.  Be as forgiving or particular as you like concerning conformance to standard Dominion terminology.   For all winning cards, there will be a chance to tweak the wording as a community, if necessary, before they are canonized.

--

Hydrogen
$4 - Action
+1 Card
+1 Action
Choose one: Draw up to 6 cards, OR +$2 and discard two cards.


Helium
$5 - Action
+2 Actions
+1 Card for every three action cards in play (including this).
+$1 for every four action cards in play (including this).
If you have twelve or more action cards in play (including this), trash this.


Lithium
$5 - Action
+1 Action
Reveal cards from your deck until you reveal a treasure putting it into your hand.
For every differently named treasure card in your hand, choose either +$1 or +1 Card.


Beryllium
$5 - Action
+1 Card
+2 Actions
If you have played [This Card] two or more times this turn, +1 Card.
If you have played it three or more times this turn, +$1.
If you have played it four or more times this turn, +1 Buy.
If you have played it five or more times this turn, +1 VP.


Boron
$5 - Action-Attack
Choose one: gain an Attack card from the supply; or all other players gain a Curse.
--
When you play this you may reveal Attack cards from your hand. +$1 for each revealed Attack card.


Carbon
$3 - Action-Duration
+1 Card
+1 Action
Look at the bottom three cards of your deck. Put one of them on top of your deck
At the start of your next turn you may discard your hand, if you do +4 Cards.


Nitrogen
$4 - Action
Choose one: +1 Card, +1 Action; or +$1, +$1 for each [This Card] you have in play (counting this), +1 Buy.


Oxygen
$3 - Action
+1 Action
+$1
Draw 1 card and discard 2 cards, OR draw up to 5 cards.


Fluorine
$4 - Action
+1 Action
Set aside the top card of your deck face-down on your [This Card] mat. Gain a card costing up to $2 more than the number of cards on your mat.
You may not look at the set-aside cards. Discard the set aside cards at the end of your turn.


Neon
$5 - Action-Reaction
+2 Cards
+1 Action
Discard a card.
--
If you discard this card from your hand other than during a Clean-Up phase, draw a card and place this on top of your deck.


Sodium
$3 - Action
Choose one: +1 Action per [This Card] in play (including this card), +1 Card; or +$1 per [This Card] in play (including this card), +1 Buy.


Magnesium
$4 - Action
+1 Action
Reveal a card from your deck for each copy of [This Card] you have in play (including this), and one more. Put one of the revealed cards into your hand; discard any number of other revealed cards; put the rest on the bottom of your deck.
--
When you clean this up, if you did not play another [This Card] this turn, put this on top of your deck.


Aluminum
$2 - Action-Duration
For each copy of [This Card] you have in play, including this one, choose one: $1, +1 Card, or +1 Action.  The choices may be the same or different.
At the start of your next turn: $1.


Silicon
$4 - Action
+3 Cards
+1 Action
Discard a card.
Each other player draws and discards a card.
Reveal your hand. If you did not reveal any [This Card], return this to the supply.


Phosphorus
$3 - Action
Reveal any number of Silver cards from your hand. +1 Action for each Silver revealed. Then, +2 Cards.


Sulfur
$4 - Action
All cards cost $1 less this turn, but not less than $0.
You may gain a card costing up to $3.


Chlorine
$3 - Action
+1 Action
Draw until you have 5 cards in hand, then draw a card, revealing the drawn cards. Set aside one of the revealed cards and discard the rest.
You may put the set aside card into your hand at any time before the Clean-up phase this turn. If you do not, discard it.


Argon
$2 - Action
+1 Action
+1 Buy
+$1
Trash this and another card from your hand. If you trash this, and have no cards in hand, the player to your left reveals his or her hand. Gain 4 non-Victory cards costing at most $6 which were not revealed.


Potassium
$5 - Action-Victory
Worth 2 VP
--
Reveal a card from your hand, if it is an...
Action card, +2 Actions
Treasure card, +$2
Victory card, +2 Cards
You may trash the revealed card.


Calcium
$5 - Action
Discard any number of cards from your hand.
Draw until you have 6 cards in hand.
Reveal your hand. For each [This Card] in it, +1 Action.


Titanium
$5 - Action-Attack-Reaction
+1 Card
Each other player discards a card.
You may return up to two [This Card] tokens to its supply. Each other player discards an additional card per token returned.
Gain a [This Card] token.
--
When another player plays an Attack card, you may return a [This Card] token to its supply and discard this, then at the start of your next turn, +1 Card. You may instead trash this card if you do not return a [This Card] token to its supply, if you do, gain a [This Card] token.
If you do either, you are unaffected by that Attack.


Chromium
$5 - Action
+1 Action
When this is in play each time you draw a card remove a token from your [This Card] mat if possible, or instead of drawing a card you may place a token on your [This Card] mat.  During this or another turn you may redeem your mat's tokens for a card equal to the number of tokens on your mat.
+1 Card


Manganese
$4 - Action
+2 Actions
The player to your left chooses a non-empty kingdom card supply pile that you have not gained a card from this turn.  Gain a copy of that card.


Iron
$5 - Action
+1 Card
+2 Actions
--
During your buy phase, if you had at least three unused actions in your action phase, +$2.


Cobalt
$2 - Action
+1 Action
Choose one: +1 Card; or +$1 for each [This Card] you have in play (including this one).


Nickel
$3 - Action
+1 Card
+1 Action
+$1 for each [This Card] token on your mat
You may trash a card from your hand.  If you do, gain a token on your [This Card] mat.
--
When you discard this from play, choose one: gain a Copper, or return all [This Card] tokens to the supply.


Zinc
$4 - Action-Looter
Choose one: +2 Actions and trash a card from your hand; or gain a Ruins and draw until you have 7 cards in hand.


Gallium
$5 - Action
Choose one: +$1; or +1 Card; or +1 Buy.
Choose one: Each other player gains a Curse; or reveal cards from the top of your deck until you reveal a [This Card].  Put it in your hand and discard the other cards.
You may play a [This Card] from your hand.


Arsenic
$2 - Action
+1 Action
+$1
Reveal the top 4 cards of your deck. Put all copies of this card into your hand. Discard the rest.


Bromine
$5 - Action
+1 Action
If you have trashed a Card this turn, +3 cards, +$1. Otherwise, trash 2 cards from your hand.


Krypton
$2 - Treasure
Put a card from your hand on top of your deck.
Worth $2 per card from hand you put on top of your deck this turn.


Cadmium
$4 - Action-Duration
+1 Action
+$1
At the start of your next turn, draw as many cards as you have [This Card] in play. Discard down to 6 cards in hand.


Tin
$5 - Action
Choose one: Draw until you have 6 cards in hand; or: +2 Actions, +$1, +1 Buy.


Iodine
$3 - Action
+$1
+1 VP
You may play a [This Card] from your hand.


Xenon
$3 - Action
For every [This Card] you have in play (including this), you may choose one (no option may be taken more than twice):
+1 Action, +1 Card, +$1, +1 Buy, trash a card from your hand.


Barium
$4 - Action
+1 Action
Name a cost. Reveal the top 3 cards of your deck. Put the cards with the same cost as you named in your hand. Put the others on top in any order.


Tungsten
$6 - Action-Attack
+3 Cards
Discard 2 cards.
If this is the first [This Card] you've played this turn, each other player discards any number of cards from their hand and draws until they have 5 cards.  Otherwise, each other player discards a card from their hand.


Mercury
$3 - Action
Gain a card costing up to $3 per [This Card] in play, counting this.


Lead
$5 - Action
Choose One: +3 Cards; or +3 Actions.


Radon
$2 - Action
+1 Action
+1 Buy
+$1
You may convert 2 Actions, 2 Buys, or 1 Action and 1 Buy into $1.
You may convert $1 into 2 Actions, 2 Buys, or 1 Action and 1 Buy.
(You cannot go below 0 Actions or 0 Buys.)


Radium
$5 - Action
+3 Cards
Trash a card from your hand. If that card costs $3 or more: +1 Action.


Uranium
$5 - Action
+3 Actions
+1 Buy
+$5
-$1 per card in your hand, to a minimum of $0.


Plutonium
$2P - Action
+2 Cards
+$1
Return a card from your hand to the Supply and gain a card costing up to as much as it, putting it into your hand.
You may play a [This Card] from your hand.

[Kirian]

[First 20 elements in order]
[Then Rinkworks starts randomly skipping elements]

The chemist in me is cringing.  I don't suppose I can rearrange those for you?

/twitch
//twitch

[rinkworks]

[First 20 elements in order]
[Then Rinkworks starts randomly skipping elements]

The chemist in me is cringing.  I don't suppose I can rearrange those for you?

/twitch
//twitch

Hey, at least what elements are there are in order.  I had to skip some, though, because some names are more cumbersome to use in conversation than others.  Also, there are elements like Copper, Silver, Gold, and Platinum.  I already jokingly used Silver as a pseudonym for the other challenge (Patricia Wentworth's detective Miss Maud Silver), so no sense doing that here as well.

[Robz888]

This is my first time giving commentary. Maybe doing so will give me better luck in these challenges.

Hydrogen
$4 - Action
+1 Card
+1 Action
Choose one: Draw up to 6 cards, OR +$2 and discard two cards.

This is a cool idea, but far too strong for $4. It's sort of comparable to Minion, but yeah, definitely under-costed. Maybe at $5?

Helium
$5 - Action
+2 Actions
+1 Card for every three action cards in play (including this).
+$1 for every four action cards in play (including this).
If you have twelve or more action cards in play (including this), trash this.

I don't know how I feel about this. When it hits, it REALLY hits. I am guessing that it's too dominating, since you can just buy lots of them, in combination with virtually any other non-terminal.

Lithium
$5 - Action
+1 Action
Reveal cards from your deck until you reveal a treasure putting it into your hand.
For every differently named treasure card in your hand, choose either +$1 or +1 Card.

So as long as you have more than one different kinds of Treasure in hand, this is strictly superior to Laboratory. I don't think the synergy is super interesting, either.

Beryllium
$5 - Action
+1 Card
+2 Actions
If you have played [This Card] two or more times this turn, +1 Card.
If you have played it three or more times this turn, +$1.
If you have played it four or more times this turn, +1 Buy.
If you have played it five or more times this turn, +1 VP.

It's a Level 2 City the second time you play it on any given turn? Too similar to City.

Boron
$5 - Action-Attack
Choose one: gain an Attack card from the supply; or all other players gain a Curse.
--
When you play this you may reveal Attack cards from your hand. +$1 for each revealed Attack card.

I appreciate this for being a fairly original idea. Would be awesome with Torturer or Familiar, perhaps? Or Goons. Actually, it makes weaker attacks like Spy more interesting, too, since you have a reason to buy them (boosting the value of Boron). Yeah, actually this is a really cool card. Nice job.

Carbon
$3 - Action-Duration
+1 Card
+1 Action
Look at the bottom three cards of your deck. Put one of them on top of your deck
At the start of your next turn you may discard your hand, if you do +4 Cards.

Ouch. I don't think I'd ever want to Minion myself, unless I had Minions.

Nitrogen
$4 - Action
Choose one: +1 Card, +1 Action; or +$1, +$1 for each [This Card] you have in play (counting this), +1 Buy.

It's hard to tell, but this might be balanced. I like that it becomes non-terminal when you really cash in on it. But it sort of suffers from the fact that you have to get a lot of this card, specifically, and get them together. You might consider having more than 10 of these in the supply.

Oxygen
$3 - Action
+1 Action
+$1
Draw 1 card and discard 2 cards, OR draw up to 5 cards.

The fact that it's non-terminal makes it look too strong to me. In a way, it's strictly superior to Oasis, since it will almost always replace itself and you don't have to discard. Of course if you do, it makes it better in combination with itself (and also with Oasis).

Fluorine
$4 - Action
+1 Action
Set aside the top card of your deck face-down on your [This Card] mat. Gain a card costing up to $2 more than the number of cards on your mat.
You may not look at the set-aside cards. Discard the set aside cards at the end of your turn.

This isn't very good, I don't think. So you'd have to play it like, 3 times in one turn to get anything good? It's a bit expensive for that, since it conveys no other benefit.

Neon
$5 - Action-Reaction
+2 Cards
+1 Action
Discard a card.
--
If you discard this card from your hand other than during a Clean-Up phase, draw a card and place this on top of your deck.

The wording is problematic. Reactions generally make you reveal the card and then do the reaction part. But this reaction triggers once you have discarded the card, and obviously you can't reveal it then (because it's discarded). But if you reveal it before it's discarded, then you could just reveal it infinitely here for infinite cards on top of your deck. And if you don't have to reveal it all, you could cheat.

Sodium
$3 - Action
Choose one: +1 Action per [This Card] in play (including this card), +1 Card; or +$1 per [This Card] in play (including this card), +1 Buy.

The second time you play this on a turn, it's strictly superior to Village. I think that's okay. Overall, it's fine, but doesn't hugely excite me.

I'll comment on the rest later (probably in chunks). Boron is my favorite so far.

[Kirian]

[First 20 elements in order]
[Then Rinkworks starts randomly skipping elements]

The chemist in me is cringing.  I don't suppose I can rearrange those for you?

/twitch
//twitch

Hey, at least what elements are there are in order.  I had to skip some, though, because some names are more cumbersome to use in conversation than others.  Also, there are elements like Copper, Silver, Gold, and Platinum.  I already jokingly used Silver as a pseudonym for the other challenge (Patricia Wentworth's detective Miss Maud Silver), so no sense doing that here as well.

Scandium, Vanadium, Germanium, and Selenium are crying right now.  Look what you've done, making them cry!  You monster.

(On the other hand, Copper don't care; Copper don't give a shit.)

[PurplePotato]

Boron
$5 - Action-Attack
Choose one: gain an Attack card from the supply; or all other players gain a Curse.
--
When you play this you may reveal Attack cards from your hand. +$1 for each revealed Attack card.

I appreciate this for being a fairly original idea. Would be awesome with Torturer or Familiar, perhaps? Or Goons. Actually, it makes weaker attacks like Spy more interesting, too, since you have a reason to buy them (boosting the value of Boron). Yeah, actually this is a really cool card. Nice job.

I agree, this is one of my favorites too.

Carbon
$3 - Action-Duration
+1 Card
+1 Action
Look at the bottom three cards of your deck. Put one of them on top of your deck
At the start of your next turn you may discard your hand, if you do +4 Cards.

Ouch. I don't think I'd ever want to Minion myself, unless I had Minions.

I really like this card as well. Generally, the "minion yourself" duration isn't terribly useful, but it can save getting a bad draw, and can give you a second chance if you say got a $4 hand, but really wanted $5. Also, it has a nifty self-synergy that can come up sometimes. For example, suppose that you've used this card enough so that you only have three cards left in your deck, which are all VPs, in addition to having played two carbons last turn. You now "minion yourself" twice. The first time you draw the VPs and trigger a shuffle, and the second time you dump the VPs for a fresh hand of 4. This may be hard to pull of, but I think its really nice when it works. This is the pearl diver I've always wanted.

[nopawnsintended]

Here's a set of comments.

Hydrogen
$4 - Action
+1 Card
+1 Action
Choose one: Draw up to 6 cards, OR +$2 and discard two cards.

I like the idea of chunky sifting.  This feels priced too low.

Helium
$5 - Action
+2 Actions
+1 Card for every three action cards in play (including this).
+$1 for every four action cards in play (including this).
If you have twelve or more action cards in play (including this), trash this.

Seems like it has FBI (if I understand the term correctly).  This could get out of control with the +Cards and +$, so we tack a you must trash this clause onto it.

Lithium
$5 - Action
+1 Action
Reveal cards from your deck until you reveal a treasure putting it into your hand.
For every differently named treasure card in your hand, choose either +$1 or +1 Card.

Interesting idea.  Probably needs a "Reveal your hand" or "Reveal any number of treasures from your hand" clause.  With alt-Treasure, this could be worth a lot.

Beryllium
$5 - Action
+1 Card
+2 Actions
If you have played [This Card] two or more times this turn, +1 Card.
If you have played it three or more times this turn, +$1.
If you have played it four or more times this turn, +1 Buy.
If you have played it five or more times this turn, +1 VP.

This seems really strong to me.

Boron
$5 - Action-Attack
Choose one: gain an Attack card from the supply; or all other players gain a Curse.
--
When you play this you may reveal Attack cards from your hand. +$1 for each revealed Attack card.

A workshop for witches and minions.  This would be an interesting way to build a Minion stack.  The self-synergy element seems lacking though.  Each additional play doesn't make subsequent plays of the card any stronger this turn.

Carbon
$3 - Action-Duration
+1 Card
+1 Action
Look at the bottom three cards of your deck. Put one of them on top of your deck
At the start of your next turn you may discard your hand, if you do +4 Cards.

Delayed Minion without the attack, plus some sort of bottom deck filtering.  I don't know if I like that.

Nitrogen
$4 - Action
Choose one: +1 Card, +1 Action; or +$1, +$1 for each [This Card] you have in play (counting this), +1 Buy.

Interesting idea.  Play a lot of Nitrogens and then cash in on the last one.  Sorta like a Peddler with one Buy for the whole stack and an additional $1.  I like it more than I hate it.

Oxygen
$3 - Action
+1 Action
+$1
Draw 1 card and discard 2 cards, OR draw up to 5 cards.

[begin Oxygen joke] Ahh, a breath of fresh air!  [/end Oxygen joke]

This is like Hydrogen, but weaker.  The comparison with Oasis is OK for small handsize, but this card is worse than Oasis if you have any draw in your deck.

Fluorine
$4 - Action
+1 Action
Set aside the top card of your deck face-down on your [This Card] mat. Gain a card costing up to $2 more than the number of cards on your mat.
You may not look at the set-aside cards. Discard the set aside cards at the end of your turn.

Not a fan of the "You may not look at the set-aside cards" clause.  That requires too much self discipline.

Neon
$5 - Action-Reaction
+2 Cards
+1 Action
Discard a card.
--
If you discard this card from your hand other than during a Clean-Up phase, draw a card and place this on top of your deck.

This is synergy in hand (which I like), but not really synergy on play.

Sodium
$3 - Action
Choose one: +1 Action per [This Card] in play (including this card), +1 Card; or +$1 per [This Card] in play (including this card), +1 Buy.

I'm not sure how this would play.  Seems like you could end up with a pile of coin, but there would be a lot of variability to this.

Magnesium
$4 - Action
+1 Action
Reveal a card from your deck for each copy of [This Card] you have in play (including this), and one more. Put one of the revealed cards into your hand; discard any number of other revealed cards; put the rest on the bottom of your deck.
--
When you clean this up, if you did not play another [This Card] this turn, put this on top of your deck.

Seems like a lot of deck management to me.  It might be worth it, but I'd have to see how it would be play.

... there are more, but I got busy with some things.  Hopefully, I will have a chance to comment more later.

[eHalcyon]

Since most of these should be stronger on collision, I also expect that they would be weaker without collision.  Balance is trickier, thus harder to judge.

Hydrogen
$4 - Action
+1 Card
+1 Action
Choose one: Draw up to 6 cards, OR +$2 and discard two cards.

This may be too strong.  The first play of this is almost strictly superior to Lab.  The self-synergy between discard and draw-up-to is huge.

Helium
$5 - Action
+2 Actions
+1 Card for every three action cards in play (including this).
+$1 for every four action cards in play (including this).
If you have twelve or more action cards in play (including this), trash this.

Too weak, I think.  You need two other action cards in play to make this a Village.  You need three other cards in play to make this a Bazaar.  I suppose it is quite strong if you can spam these and other actions.  Probably better if there are cantrips or other Villages available, so you can activate these more quickly.

Lithium
$5 - Action
+1 Action
Reveal cards from your deck until you reveal a treasure putting it into your hand.
For every differently named treasure card in your hand, choose either +$1 or +1 Card.

Very much like a Silver-with-a-bonus.  At the least (barring edge cases), this draws a Treasure (Copper?) and gives +$1 (for the Treasure you drew).  It is often worth more though.  It shouldn't be difficult to have Copper and Silver in hand with this.  Then it is like a non-terminal Gold for $5.  Possibly too strong.

Beryllium
$5 - Action
+1 Card
+2 Actions
If you have played [This Card] two or more times this turn, +1 Card.
If you have played it three or more times this turn, +$1.
If you have played it four or more times this turn, +1 Buy.
If you have played it five or more times this turn, +1 VP.

First play is a Village.  Second play is a level 2 City.  Third play is pretty much a level 3 City.  Seems too strong to me.

Boron
$5 - Action-Attack
Choose one: gain an Attack card from the supply; or all other players gain a Curse.
--
When you play this you may reveal Attack cards from your hand. +$1 for each revealed Attack card.

I don't think this fits as playing one does not improve the effect of playing a second one on the same turn.  It kind of improves future plays on future turns, in that you can have more Attacks to draw, but on the same turn it doesn't really help.  In fact, it actively hurts.  Say you have two of these in hand.  The first one will give you +$1 but the second will produce no coin.

Carbon
$3 - Action-Duration
+1 Card
+1 Action
Look at the bottom three cards of your deck. Put one of them on top of your deck
At the start of your next turn you may discard your hand, if you do +4 Cards.

Playing a second one will draw whatever you topdecked previously.  OK, that's self-synergy... Pearl Diver does the same thing though.  I don't think the wording is adequate to keep it in play as a Duration.  It doesn't seem to fit with the rest of the card anyway.

Nitrogen
$4 - Action
Choose one: +1 Card, +1 Action; or +$1, +$1 for each [This Card] you have in play (counting this), +1 Buy.

Ah, punctuation is confusing.  Here you either choose cantrip or building money.  I think this is a little too weak.  Suppose you play a bunch as cantrips and then cap it off with coin.  However many you play, it is always weaker than playing the same number of Peddlers (except for the +Buy).  Peddlers are reliable without collision and the last one in the chain won't consume your action.  If you have Village support this could be better for judicious use of the coin option.

Oxygen
$3 - Action
+1 Action
+$1
Draw 1 card and discard 2 cards, OR draw up to 5 cards.

Similar to Hydrogen, above.  Weaker and cheaper.  Probably too strong for its price as well.  With just the second choice, it is often a Peddler.  The first choice gives additional sifting when it is better for you.

Fluorine
$4 - Action
+1 Action
Set aside the top card of your deck face-down on your [This Card] mat. Gain a card costing up to $2 more than the number of cards on your mat.
You may not look at the set-aside cards. Discard the set aside cards at the end of your turn.

So the mat contents only last for one turn.  First play gains up to $3, second play up to $4.  Third play is where it really counts.  Lack of draw weakens the card, which is fine.  I wonder if this would work at $3.  I like it, but the set already has a gainer in Carpenter.  I may still vote for this though.

Neon
$5 - Action-Reaction
+2 Cards
+1 Action
Discard a card.
--
If you discard this card from your hand other than during a Clean-Up phase, draw a card and place this on top of your deck.

Reaction wording could use some work.  The self-synergy in this card is that you can discard one with the other and get around the discard penalty.  The thing is, this does not fit the theme, because the synergy doesn't really help the second play of this card.  Maybe I'm missing something.

Sodium
$3 - Action
Choose one: +1 Action per [This Card] in play (including this card), +1 Card; or +$1 per [This Card] in play (including this card), +1 Buy.

Similar to Nitrogen, above, but the action choice improves from cantrip to Village to better, and the money choice doesn't come with a default +$1.  The wording is a bit awkward, but I can't think of a better way.  This is mostly stronger, but it is priced lower.  Is it priced correctly?  Maybe it should be $4.

If you play two for actions, it is worse than playing two Villages.  If you play one for actions then the second for coin, it is worse than playing two Peddlers (but for the +Buy).  If you play two for actions then a third for coin, it is the same as playing three Peddlers with a bonus +1 Buy.  A fourth play would net an additional +$4.

Takes a lot of work to get there, but the payoff is decent.  Without much collision it is weaker, but not that much weaker.  Might need a price bump, but I think it could be OK as is.

Magnesium
$4 - Action
+1 Action
Reveal a card from your deck for each copy of [This Card] you have in play (including this), and one more. Put one of the revealed cards into your hand; discard any number of other revealed cards; put the rest on the bottom of your deck.
--
When you clean this up, if you did not play another [This Card] this turn, put this on top of your deck.

I think this looks fine.  The draw is a bit better than Cartographer because you get to look and choose.  However, you can't put any cards back on top of the deck, which is more often bad than good.  You also start off looking at fewer cards.

I don't really like the clean up instruction.  It's fine if it needs some support to be most effective.  If it's too weak, then drop it to $3 -- the set needs cheaper cards anyway!

Aluminum
$2 - Action-Duration
For each copy of [This Card] you have in play, including this one, choose one: $1, +1 Card, or +1 Action.  The choices may be the same or different.
At the start of your next turn: $1.

It could result in so much AP!

Silicon
$4 - Action
+3 Cards
+1 Action
Discard a card.
Each other player draws and discards a card.
Reveal your hand. If you did not reveal any [This Card], return this to the supply.

This lacks self synergy in playing the card.  It really wants to find other copies of itself, so that you don't lose them, but playing one does not improve the effects of playing the second.  It is technically worse on subsequent plays because it becomes more likely you'll have to return it to the Supply.

And I am biased against card draw now, as the set has lots already.

Phosphorus
$3 - Action
Reveal any number of Silver cards from your hand. +1 Action for each Silver revealed. Then, +2 Cards.

Mild self-synergy in that the card draw can pull more Silver into your hand.  So that's fine.

A bit weird strategically.  In order to get +action you need to collide it with Silver, but in an engine you usually don't want a lot of Silver.  I would probably use this most as a cheap Lab.  The activation of having a single Silver in hand is not terribly difficult.  I think it may be too powerful for the price.

Sulfur
$4 - Action
All cards cost $1 less this turn, but not less than $0.
You may gain a card costing up to $3.

Starts as a Workshop.  Subsequent plays can gain stronger cards.  Probably fine.  We already have a gainer (Carpenter) but price reduction is good, similar to virtual coin.

Chlorine
$3 - Action
+1 Action
Draw until you have 5 cards in hand, then draw a card, revealing the drawn cards. Set aside one of the revealed cards and discard the rest.
You may put the set aside card into your hand at any time before the Clean-up phase this turn. If you do not, discard it.

A little confusing.  Is the "draw up to 5" included for the reveal?  From the wording it does not quite seem like it, but it doesn't make sense to set aside one card out of one.  The wording there needs work, though I can't think of an elegant way to phrase what I think is meant here.

Self-synergy is that each play lets you reveal more cards.

I think it's OK, but the wording is a bit confusing.  Positive points for low price.

Argon
$2 - Action
+1 Action
+1 Buy
+$1
Trash this and another card from your hand. If you trash this, and have no cards in hand, the player to your left reveals his or her hand. Gain 4 non-Victory cards costing at most $6 which were not revealed.

Is this in the wrong contest?  Self-synergy... um, it gets you closer to having no cards in hand.  OK, I guess.  The gain effect is weird.  It will almost always be better to just work towards buying those cards directly, because the gain here is unreliable (you might get blocked from the key cards) and hard to achieve anyway.

Potassium
$5 - Action-Victory
Worth 2 VP
--
Reveal a card from your hand, if it is an...
Action card, +2 Actions
Treasure card, +$2
Victory card, +2 Cards
You may trash the revealed card.

Wrong kind of self-synergy.  It likes to reveal itself, but the first play does not improve the second play.  Also, I am biased against VP because the set has a lot already.

Calcium
$5 - Action
Discard any number of cards from your hand.
Draw until you have 6 cards in hand.
Reveal your hand. For each [This Card] in it, +1 Action.

Wrong kind of self-synergy.  It likes to reveal itself, but the first play does not improve the second play.

Titanium
$5 - Action-Attack-Reaction
+1 Card
Each other player discards a card.
You may return up to two [This Card] tokens to its supply. Each other player discards an additional card per token returned.
Gain a [This Card] token.
--
When another player plays an Attack card, you may return a [This Card] token to its supply and discard this, then at the start of your next turn, +1 Card. You may instead trash this card if you do not return a [This Card] token to its supply, if you do, gain a [This Card] token.
If you do either, you are unaffected by that Attack.

Disregarding the Reaction for now, the Attack has the potential of locking out opponents.  If you never store up tokens, every play of this card other than the first play of the game will cause your opponents to discard two cards.  Unlike Torturer, there is no guaranteed way out (i.e. choosing to gain a Curse).

The Reaction is a built in defense to itself, but that's not so great because it forces opponents to buy Titanium or suffer.  The defense is really weak anyway -- you either give up your own attack (because you have to lose a token AND discard Titanium) or you trash Titanium... and gain a token that is less useful because you just lost the card that uses them.  There is no clause that lets you return tokens without having Titanium in hand, so the token alone is not helpful.

Even worse -- you have to use the reaction when they play the Attack card.  So if you trash a Titanium to moat the attack, the attacker can choose to save their token for the subsequent attack.

Chromium
$5 - Action
+1 Action
When this is in play each time you draw a card remove a token from your [This Card] mat if possible, or instead of drawing a card you may place a token on your [This Card] mat.  During this or another turn you may redeem your mat's tokens for a card equal to the number of tokens on your mat.
+1 Card

I play Watchtower, which lets me draw up to 6.

Instead of drawing a card, I gain a token.  I am still at less than 6 cards, so I keep drawing.  Instead, I gain another token.  And another.  Actually, just give me all the tokens, thanks.

Token redemption is a little weird though... a card equal to the number of tokens?  Equal in cost, I suppose?

Manganese
$4 - Action
+2 Actions
The player to your left chooses a non-empty kingdom card supply pile that you have not gained a card from this turn.  Gain a copy of that card.

Unique, fairly interesting.  If you spam these, your opponent will eventually have to give you good cards.  You don't mind getting flooded with terminals because Manganese gives you actions to deal with it.  This won't be worth it on most boards, but will be great if there are few or no weak cards, or if you want lots of cards (Gardens, possibly Fairgrounds).

Iron
$5 - Action
+1 Card
+2 Actions
--
During your buy phase, if you had at least three unused actions in your action phase, +$2.

Interesting approach to self-synergy.  I like it.  I wish it cost $4 and gave +$1 instead.  Set needs cheaper cards!

Cobalt
$2 - Action
+1 Action
Choose one: +1 Card; or +$1 for each [This Card] you have in play (including this one).

Similar to Nitrogen and Sodium, above.  Since you can always choose the cantrip option, this is always safe to pick up with extra buys.  Looks stronger than Nitrogen because it is always non-terminal and it costs much less.  The lack of +Buy doesn't hurt it that much.  Probably fine?

Nickel
$3 - Action
+1 Card
+1 Action
+$1 for each [This Card] token on your mat
You may trash a card from your hand.  If you do, gain a token on your [This Card] mat.
--
When you discard this from play, choose one: gain a Copper, or return all [This Card] tokens to the supply.

Suppose you always return tokens.  This becomes a $3 cantrip trasher.  Too strong!

Suppose you always gain a Copper.  It doesn't really junk up your deck because it will trash those Coppers for you.  It quickly becomes better than Peddler or an activated Conspirator.  It is like a non-terminal Pirate Ship that you build up on your own.  Way too strong.

But you actually have the option to do one or the other.  Way, way, way too strong.

Zinc
$4 - Action-Looter
Choose one: +2 Actions and trash a card from your hand; or gain a Ruins and draw until you have 7 cards in hand.

This reminds me a lot of Nobles, except the +Actions comes with trashing and the draw is up to 7 (which I think will often be better than just +3 cards) and comes with a penalty.  It can handle the penalty though, since it trashes.

I think this looks OK, but I am not sure.  FBI is quite possible -- the effect is powerful and the Ruins stack won’t last.

Gallium
$5 - Action
Choose one: +$1; or +1 Card; or +1 Buy.
Choose one: Each other player gains a Curse; or reveal cards from the top of your deck until you reveal a [This Card].  Put it in your hand and discard the other cards.
You may play a [This Card] from your hand.

I suppose it is OK.  A single play is generally weaker than other $5 Cursers.  Even though it provides choice, +1 is usually not as good as +2 (Witch, Mountebank) or +3 (Torturer).  Its strength is in forgoing the Curse to find more of itself and stack its bonuses.  At the end of the chain, you either Curse or Chancellor.

I like it.  But I am biased against expensive cards this time around, and we already have a Curser in the set.  I may still vote for it.

Arsenic
$2 - Action
+1 Action
+$1
Reveal the top 4 cards of your deck. Put all copies of this card into your hand. Discard the rest.

Self-synergy is in clearing the top of the deck so that subsequent plays can find more.  Wording needs a touch up -- put all revealed copies of this card into your hand.  Otherwise, this looks good to me.  Bonus points for low price and virtual coin.

Bromine
$5 - Action
+1 Action
If you have trashed a Card this turn, +3 cards, +$1. Otherwise, trash 2 cards from your hand.

I think this is too strong.  I am not sure how much the trashing hurts.  I am biased against expensive cards and non-terminal draw. as the set has enough of it

Krypton
$2 - Treasure
Put a card from your hand on top of your deck.
Worth $2 per card from hand you put on top of your deck this turn.

Interesting.  Might be a little hard to track.  I’d prefer it if it just tracked plays of itself.  You would only really lose interaction with Courtyard and Mandarin.  Cards like Cartographer put back revealed cards, not cards from hand.

Cadmium
$4 - Action-Duration
+1 Action
+$1
At the start of your next turn, draw as many cards as you have [This Card] in play. Discard down to 6 cards in hand.

So if you have two in play, you would draw 4 total?  Three draws 6?  Pretty interesting.

Tin
$2 - Action
Choose one: Draw until you have 6 cards in hand; or: +2 Actions, +$1, +1 Buy.

Looks way too strong for $2.  The second choice is already really nice -- non-duration FV with +Buy.  That’s solid for a $3 card already.  Draw to 6 makes it incredible.

Edit: with the corrected price of $5, I think this is fine.  Except I am biased against expensive cards this time around.

Iodine
$3 - Action
+$1
+1 VP
You may play a [This Card] from your hand.

Too similar to Monument, IMO.

Xenon
$3 - Action
For every [This Card] you have in play (including this), you may choose one (no option may be taken more than twice):
+1 Action, +1 Card, +$1, +1 Buy, trash a card from your hand.

A little ambiguous, but you can repeat options per play of the card, right?  I would expect so.  Otherwise subsequent plays are more limited.

This looks a bit too weak to me.  First one is probably just for the action, second is a cantrip or a Copper, then it’s finally a Peddler.  I think this would work at $2.

Barium
$4 - Action
+1 Action
Name a cost. Reveal the top 3 cards of your deck. Put the cards with the same cost as you named in your hand. Put the others on top in any order.

Looks fine.  Interesting mini-game.

Tungsten
$6 - Action-Attack
+3 Cards
Discard 2 cards.
If this is the first [This Card] you've played this turn, each other player discards any number of cards from their hand and draws until they have 5 cards.  Otherwise, each other player discards a card from their hand.

Interesting attack.  It can lock players out, but it’s slow (only discards one card per play) and harder to set up (first play is actually a huge help for them and can help them find counters like Moat or Horse Traders).  Also much weaker in multiplayer, because your attack might be reset by the next player (letting everyone draw up to 5 again).  I think this would be fine at $5.

Mercury
$3 - Action
Gain a card costing up to $3 per [This Card] in play, counting this.

Whoa, that’s really fast escalation.  Not sure if that’s a good thing or not.  Villages make this super powered, but it’s weak without them.  Hm.

Lead
$5 - Action
Choose One: +3 Cards; or +3 Actions.

Too similar to Nobles, I think.

Radon
$2 - Action
+1 Action
+1 Buy
+$1
You may convert 2 Actions, 2 Buys, or 1 Action and 1 Buy into $1.
You may convert $1 into 2 Actions, 2 Buys, or 1 Action and 1 Buy.
(You cannot go below 0 Actions or 0 Buys.)

I don’t like the conversion concept.  Tracking nightmare.

Radium
$5 - Action
+3 Cards
Trash a card from your hand. If that card costs $3 or more: +1 Action.

Not sure where the self-synergy comes in.  Finding more cards to trash?  Eh.

Uranium
$5 - Action
+3 Actions
+1 Buy
+$5
-$1 per card in your hand, to a minimum of $0.

I am not sure how this would play out.

Plutonium
$2P - Action
+2 Cards
+$1
Return a card from your hand to the Supply and gain a card costing up to as much as it, putting it into your hand.
You may play a [This Card] from your hand.

Seems fine, but not all that exciting.  Potion cost seems unnecessary.

[zahlman]

Doing the usual every-other-one, mine-is-in-the-other-half thing.

Hydrogen
$4 - Action
+1 Card
+1 Action
Choose one: Draw up to 6 cards, OR +$2 and discard two cards.

Aside: the standard wording is "Draw until you have X cards in hand". This is actually anti-synergizing when you don't have two cards you'd want to discard for $1 each, while the first draw is almost strictly better than Lab, as noted. So this totally fails imo.

Lithium
$5 - Action
+1 Action
Reveal cards from your deck until you reveal a treasure putting it into your hand.
For every differently named treasure card in your hand, choose either +$1 or +1 Card.

Sort of a HP variant, I guess. I guess it works out as balanced by analogy to HP, but it just seems awkward to me. While it increases the values of its own future plays (by putting more treasures in your hand), the value is usually fairly limited, although it skyrockets with a bunch of alt-treasure. Except that in any case, to capitalize on this (pun intended) you need to be able to draw a lot of Lithium in a deck that's full of treasure. So there's a conflict here between engine and BM approaches. Awkward.

Boron
$5 - Action-Attack
Choose one: gain an Attack card from the supply; or all other players gain a Curse.
--
When you play this you may reveal Attack cards from your hand. +$1 for each revealed Attack card.

Doesn't help find more Borons, and doesn't improve future plays of Boron. Instead, it improves as a result of playing Boron on previous turns. That's an even more wrong kind of self-synergy IMO. It'd work if it gained the Attacks to hand. Also, on boards where it's the only attack... it looks really horrible compared to if Witch were the only attack. Instead of +2 Cards always, you get... a Copper as compensation if your terminals collided. Needs +Action to be worthwhile IMO; that way you'd at least self-synergize with multiple Borons in hand (getting O(N^2) coins). Otherwise it's just too hard to set up the engine (and Curses are in limited supply anyway).

Nitrogen
$4 - Action
Choose one: +1 Card, +1 Action; or +$1, +$1 for each [This Card] you have in play (counting this), +1 Buy.

So apparently the idea is to cantrip a whole bunch of them, and then let the last one be worth a Buy and a bunch of coins for the whole stack. That isn't really self-synergy; that's net +$1, +1 Buy vs. playing the same number of Peddlers.

Well. If you're drowning in +Action, and you know how many Nitrogens you're going to draw, you could really rake in the dough. Seems tough, though. Maybe on a City board it could become huge, but then it's just overkill for a strat that would probably be dominating anyway.

Fluorine
$4 - Action
+1 Action
Set aside the top card of your deck face-down on your [This Card] mat. Gain a card costing up to $2 more than the number of cards on your mat.
You may not look at the set-aside cards. Discard the set aside cards at the end of your turn.

Blind set-aside cards are novel. The problem with this is that if you get a bunch of Fluorines trying to build up a big stack for lots of coin... you may end up setting aside Fluorine a bunch. So it's self-limiting, but also swingy in a sense. It's great if you draw a bunch of them together, but drawing 5 Fluorines still doesn't get you a Province.

Sodium
$3 - Action
Choose one: +1 Action per [This Card] in play (including this card), +1 Card; or +$1 per [This Card] in play (including this card), +1 Buy.

Appears to be a lot stronger than Nitrogen. You lose a coin when you choose the coin option, but you can rack up actions on the action option. And it costs only $3. It's self-supporting in that if you have 10 of them in a row in your deck, you can use the surplus +Action from the first 4 to play the other 6 for 45 coin with 7 Buys (and still have 1 Action left). I like this version of the idea a lot better, but now it's way undercosted. Although it probably doesn't look too appealing at $5 for the first few plays... but then, City exists.

Aluminum
$2 - Action-Duration
For each copy of [This Card] you have in play, including this one, choose one: $1, +1 Card, or +1 Action.  The choices may be the same or different.
At the start of your next turn: $1.

This idea is clever, but yeah, lots of choices, and the third play is already a quite powerful card. I'd amend it by dropping the Duration and making it always +1 Action, with coin or card for each other copy.

Phosphorus
$3 - Action
Reveal any number of Silver cards from your hand. +1 Action for each Silver revealed. Then, +2 Cards.

I don't see how this is self-synergizing.

Chlorine
$3 - Action
+1 Action
Draw until you have 5 cards in hand, then draw a card, revealing the drawn cards. Set aside one of the revealed cards and discard the rest.
You may put the set aside card into your hand at any time before the Clean-up phase this turn. If you do not, discard it.

Having to keep track of cards that you drew into hand so that you can then reveal them is a little weird (but not unmanageable). But then you're discarding all but one of the revealed cards... o_O so the idea is that it's a cantrip, but you get more choice in what you draw if your hand is small? and then the idea is that if you set aside Chlorine, your hand got smaller, so the next Chlorine is more powerful, and then you pull the set-aside Chlorine into hand later and use it - I see. So eventually you build up this engine that lets you sift and cycle your deck really powerfully, but you're stuck with a small hand... until you finish with the Chlorines and put all non-Chlorine set-aside cards into your hand and play your engine for real? o_O This is actually interesting. Deep, even.

Potassium
$5 - Action-Victory
Worth 2 VP
--
Reveal a card from your hand, if it is an...
Action card, +2 Actions
Treasure card, +$2
Victory card, +2 Cards
You may trash the revealed card.

This only self-synergizes in that it's a dual-type card offering type-based rewards. If you get a lot, it becomes crazy, a Trusty Steed worth VP (although you may never have a use for the surplus Actions). Being able to use it as a gimped Moneylender (or trashing your Estates for 2 cards) is also kinda neat. I sense that this becomes too strong overall.

Titanium
$5 - Action-Attack-Reaction
+1 Card
Each other player discards a card.
You may return up to two [This Card] tokens to its supply. Each other player discards an additional card per token returned.
Gain a [This Card] token.
--
When another player plays an Attack card, you may return a [This Card] token to its supply and discard this, then at the start of your next turn, +1 Card. You may instead trash this card if you do not return a [This Card] token to its supply, if you do, gain a [This Card] token.
If you do either, you are unaffected by that Attack.

Unlimited discards are bad because they get brutal in multiplayer even if nobody builds a real engine. This is an average of 2 cards discarded per play, and the "self-synergy" of that is awkward anyway. Oh, but then there's a reaction that protects against itself effectively, but you have to buy the same card, so this becomes one of those game-dominating cards.

Manganese
$4 - Action
+2 Actions
The player to your left chooses a non-empty kingdom card supply pile that you have not gained a card from this turn.  Gain a copy of that card.

Misread this at first; no, you won't gain a Curse, then a Copper, then an Estate... This seems slow to start up; opponent is tempted to give you more Manganese on the first play each turn. The +Action is a good choice for the vanilla benefit as opponent can't just load you up with terminals. This probably plays like Contraband or Develop in that you want a board with a lot of decent Kingdom cards to make it worthwhile.

Cobalt
$2 - Action
+1 Action
Choose one: +1 Card; or +$1 for each [This Card] you have in play (including this one).

Another stab at the Nitrogen idea. I still don't like it.

Zinc
$4 - Action-Looter
Choose one: +2 Actions and trash a card from your hand; or gain a Ruins and draw until you have 7 cards in hand.

A 1-card Hamlet-Library-combo-ish thing, with a benefit and a drawback. Interesting. Hard to evaluate. Probably not horrible.

Arsenic
$2 - Action
+1 Action
+$1
Reveal the top 4 cards of your deck. Put all copies of this card into your hand. Discard the rest.

So... it finds itself, but doesn't make future plays of itself better. It forces you to cycle potentially other good stuff. And then the vanilla part is just non-terminal Copper, which is about the same as Copper as a treasure. Well... except for the part where you potentially get to sift your deck and put 10 of them into play. But all the same, I'd much rather buy Fool's Gold than this. (rinkworks, you should have assigned this one to Lead )

Krypton
$2 - Treasure
Put a card from your hand on top of your deck.
Worth $2 per card from hand you put on top of your deck this turn.

Seems like it could get ridiculous with other topdeckers like Watchtower. It's self-limiting in that you'll run out of things to topdeck during your Buy phase. A hand of 5 Kryptons is worth $10, by my reckoning.

Tin
$2 - Action
Choose one: Draw until you have 6 cards in hand; or: +2 Actions, +$1, +1 Buy.

Another attempt at the Hamlet-Library-combo approach, I guess. I suspect it is too powerful - in an otherwise BM deck it becomes much better than Moat (Reaction notwithstanding) for example.

Xenon
$3 - Action
For every [This Card] you have in play (including this), you may choose one (no option may be taken more than twice):
+1 Action, +1 Card, +$1, +1 Buy, trash a card from your hand.

Oh god that's a lot of choosing.

Tungsten
$6 - Action-Attack
+3 Cards
Discard 2 cards.
If this is the first [This Card] you've played this turn, each other player discards any number of cards from their hand and draws until they have 5 cards.  Otherwise, each other player discards a card from their hand.

Unlimited-discard attack, except that in multiplayer, everyone's attacks actually cancel each other. So I have to give credit for "solving" that problem. But now the bad stuff. In 2-player, you need to be able to play it several times for the attack to be worthwhile - although 6 plays basically nets you a free turn, so winning the split 6/4 and building an engine that can reliably play them all is an automatic win. And then, when the +Actions aren't available, this is horrible as the attack is generally a net benefit to opponents (deck cycling, Tunnel discarding etc.) and the terminal draw/sift is really not worth very much. So this has ridiculous FBI. And then I'm worried about political issues in multiplayer ("why did you keep Tungsten and undo my attack?").

Lead
$5 - Action
Choose One: +3 Cards; or +3 Actions.

This only self-synergizes in a jerky Nobles kind of way (i.e., in that you normally want to balance out your +Card and +Action). It's an interesting enough concept, but I don't think it's right for this contest. I'm not really convinced the choice makes it enough better than Smithy, either.

Radium
$5 - Action
+3 Cards
Trash a card from your hand. If that card costs $3 or more: +1 Action.

Hey, this "caring about cards that cost $3 or more" thing was supposed to be my gimmick Not really seeing the self-synergy here, except in that Radium itself costs $3 or more. But trashing your Radiums in order to play a Radium chain is... pretty awful. Well, I guess successive plays of Radium are more likely to find a Silver or something, but then you still need to play the first ones. Again, a decent idea but not imo appropriate to the contest.

Plutonium
$2P - Action
+2 Cards
+$1
Return a card from your hand to the Supply and gain a card costing up to as much as it, putting it into your hand.
You may play a [This Card] from your hand.

Why the potion cost? Also I'm not sold on "You may play a [This Card] from your hand." as a general mechanic; Cultist is special, and we aren't all DXV. Certainly that satisfies the self-synergy requirement, though. But I'm really not seeing the special ability as being worth much very often. I guess if you do get a bunch of these, you get to play them as coin-generating Labs, which is quite strong.

[eHalcyon]

Disclaimer on earlier reviews -- one of them was mine.

Robz thought Helium would be too strong, I thought too weak.  I'm more likely to be wrong.  Maybe it's FBI.

I find the differing opinions on Nitrogen vs. Sodium quite interesting, given how similar they are.

[zahlman]

I find the differing opinions on Nitrogen vs. Sodium quite interesting, given how similar they are.

Sodium is mostly more powerful - in a way that improves the self-synergy - and cheaper - in a way that lets you open Sodium-Sodium 5/6 of the time. I think that makes them worlds different. I like the improvement to the self-synergy, but $3 is IMHO ridiculous.

Robz thought Helium would be too strong, I thought too weak.  I'm more likely to be wrong.  Maybe it's FBI.

No, I agree with you. It's quite slow to start up, and it can't completely power itself as there are only 10 of them available. It does basically nothing for you until you start gaining coin from it, at which point it's still not much more than a Peddler since you presumably still have an excess of +Action from the previous plays. If you already have an engine, it can make a huge bonus (assuming it's not a huge 12-card engine ) but then it's not really about the self-synergy any more.

[eHalcyon]

I find the differing opinions on Nitrogen vs. Sodium quite interesting, given how similar they are.

Sodium is mostly more powerful - in a way that improves the self-synergy - and cheaper - in a way that lets you open Sodium-Sodium 5/6 of the time. I think that makes them worlds different. I like the improvement to the self-synergy, but $3 is IMHO ridiculous.

I think it might have to be $4, but $3 doesn't seem ridiculous to me.  It needs to collide with itself to escalate, and it needs to collide with itself a LOT to get good.  Playing three Sodium only equates to three Peddlers, and it's not trivial to get it to that point.  For that much work, I expect a decent payload.

[Kirian]

I find the differing opinions on Nitrogen vs. Sodium quite interesting, given how similar they are.

Gaaaaah you people don't understand how difficult it is to read sentences like this without my brain exploding!

[One Armed Man]

Hydrogen
$4 - Action
+1 Card
+1 Action
Choose one: Draw up to 6 cards, OR +$2 and discard two cards.

This is Archivist, the only fan card to grace Isotropic. Sorry you had to find out this way.

Helium
$5 - Action
+2 Actions
+1 Card for every three action cards in play (including this).
+$1 for every four action cards in play (including this).
If you have twelve or more action cards in play (including this), trash this.

This doesn't need the last part. The first 2 (if you only play these) are junk. You need to play one of these first, then an Action from your hand, then the other one. Then, you have a village. You then play one more for a Bazaar. The others get better, but not much so and it doesn't work with ThroneProcessionCourt.

Lithium
$5 - Action
+1 Action
Reveal cards from your deck until you reveal a treasure putting it into your hand.
For every differently named treasure card in your hand, choose either +$1 or +1 Card.

I don't like the +$1 option. It should just be card draw. Also, this card is likely giving you a $1.7 treasure and drawing you an average of 2 cards, making it worth far more than $5.

Beryllium
$5 - Action
+1 Card
+2 Actions
If you have played [This Card] two or more times this turn, +1 Card.
If you have played it three or more times this turn, +$1.
If you have played it four or more times this turn, +1 Buy.
If you have played it five or more times this turn, +1 VP.

Haha! This is my Railroad Town 3 (with an extra VP clause). I'll vote for my own card (this time).

Boron
$5 - Action-Attack
Choose one: gain an Attack card from the supply; or all other players gain a Curse.
--
When you play this you may reveal Attack cards from your hand. +$1 for each revealed Attack card.

The "When you play this" clause is weird. How about: "Reveal any number of Attack cards from your hand. +$1 for each Attack revealed. Choose one: gain an Attack card; or all other players gain a Curse." With this wording, the card is okay.

Carbon
$3 - Action-Duration
+1 Card
+1 Action
Look at the bottom three cards of your deck. Put one of them on top of your deck
At the start of your next turn you may discard your hand, if you do +4 Cards.

I see the trick to this. The first times you play it each game, the top-decking seems to conflict with the Minioning. Eventually this gets potent. A likely contender. Seems okay.

Nitrogen
$4 - Action
Choose one: +1 Card, +1 Action; or +$1, +$1 for each [This Card] you have in play (counting this), +1 Buy.

A card that becomes a cantrip or is a woodcutter. With 2, this is a Bridge where you buy two cards. With 2 (and extra actions), this can be +$2.5 and a buy each. With 3, this is $4 +Buy. With 3 (and extra actions), this can be +$7 +2Buys. As crazy as this is getting, the card seems to benefit adding other cards to its strategy well. Seems fun.

Oxygen
$3 - Action
+1 Action
+$1
Draw 1 card and discard 2 cards, OR draw up to 5 cards.

Another Archivist variant. This one with a bad Oasis or a bad Production Village mode. Two copies give +$2, +1 card, +3 card at the cost of 2 cards, making each +2 cards, +1 action, +$1, discard a card. That makes each almost a Grand Market. This one gets out of control too quickly.

Fluorine
$4 - Action
+1 Action
Set aside the top card of your deck face-down on your [This Card] mat. Gain a card costing up to $2 more than the number of cards on your mat.
You may not look at the set-aside cards. Discard the set aside cards at the end of your turn.

Without multiple copies, this card is awkward, though a non-terminal silver gainer for $4 isn't unreasonable for a consolation. In multiples, it starts gaining itself. It takes way too much work to gain a $5 card with this after you have flooded yourself (unless it is with Menageries, etc.)

Neon
$5 - Action-Reaction
+2 Cards
+1 Action
Discard a card.
--
If you discard this card from your hand other than during a Clean-Up phase, draw a card and place this on top of your deck.

We already have a "on discard" reaction in our set. If we didn't, I'd say this was fine.

Sodium
$3 - Action
Choose one: +1 Action per [This Card] in play (including this card), +1 Card; or +$1 per [This Card] in play (including this card), +1 Buy.

Compared to Nitrogen, this is overcomplicated. Much stronger than Nitrogen and it is a completely linear combo (since it gets its own +Actions). Too cheap and easy to pull off.

Magnesium
$4 - Action
+1 Action
Reveal a card from your deck for each copy of [This Card] you have in play (including this), and one more. Put one of the revealed cards into your hand; discard any number of other revealed cards; put the rest on the bottom of your deck.
--
When you clean this up, if you did not play another [This Card] this turn, put this on top of your deck.

Magnesium here has too many moving parts. I like the sifting power by itself.

Aluminum
$2 - Action-Duration
For each copy of [This Card] you have in play, including this one, choose one: $1, +1 Card, or +1 Action.  The choices may be the same or different.
At the start of your next turn: $1.

Cute. A duration selfcounter. This takes into account 10 cards worth of Aluminum, making a collision of 3 likely, generating hugely versatile combinations. Thankfully, this does not have +buy, so the Aluminum deck needs a +Buy to work properly. I still imagine that this is too strong.

Silicon
$4 - Action
+3 Cards
+1 Action
Discard a card.
Each other player draws and discards a card.
Reveal your hand. If you did not reveal any [This Card], return this to the supply.

You have to "hold off" on using this until you have 2 or more. When you play it "blind" and fail, you have to wait until you buy another one to even try again. This creates a bad feeling. Also, we have other cards just like this in our set.

Phosphorus
$3 - Action
Reveal any number of Silver cards from your hand. +1 Action for each Silver revealed. Then, +2 Cards.

This card is hard to judge, since Lab effects are weak in BM and Silvers are weak in Engines. This must work best with Silver-gaining cards.

Sulfur
$4 - Action
All cards cost $1 less this turn, but not less than $0.
You may gain a card costing up to $3.

OOOOooo. I like the subtlety of the self-support. Like Flourine, except with more interactivity. This card is much harder to use than Flourine and even Bridge. This starts out as an Ironworks that always gives the $1, then becomes a non-trashing Feast that gives $1. To get that, though, you need at least one village. Seems fun.

Chlorine
$3 - Action
+1 Action
Draw until you have 5 cards in hand, then draw a card, revealing the drawn cards. Set aside one of the revealed cards and discard the rest.
You may put the set aside card into your hand at any time before the Clean-up phase this turn. If you do not, discard it.

We already have a "draw up to 5" in our set. The wording here is confusing and I still do not understand what this does.

Argon
$2 - Action
+1 Action
+1 Buy
+$1
Trash this and another card from your hand. If you trash this, and have no cards in hand, the player to your left reveals his or her hand. Gain 4 non-Victory cards costing at most $6 which were not revealed.

Play Fishing Village, Argon (trashing estate) and Argon (trashing Copper). The opponent reveals Argon, Argon, Copper, Silver. You gain Gold Gold Gold Gold? This is just a cheap Treasure Map? They cannot collide turn 3 (Unless your opponent foolishly Militias you). They trash junk out of your hand instead of top-decking the Gold, but they provide the money you need to . You can also just Warehouse/Oasis/ Lighthouse/Hamlet your way down to 2 cards and you don't even need to get a second Argon. This is also a coin-giving-nonterminal single Estate trasher. I'd like this card to cost more, maybe $3.

Potassium
$5 - Action-Victory
Worth 2 VP
--
Reveal a card from your hand, if it is an...
Action card, +2 Actions
Treasure card, +$2
Victory card, +2 Cards
You may trash the revealed card.

Its self-synergy is that you can reveal itself to make it a VP-giving City. It also is one of the most versatile cards in the game on its own, trashing (masquerading, loaning), villaging, and terminal silvering. I think this is too much better than Nobles at a lower cost.

Calcium
$5 - Action
Discard any number of cards from your hand.
Draw until you have 6 cards in hand.
Reveal your hand. For each [This Card] in it, +1 Action.

I like revealing itself for actions. If you reveal 2, then you are incentivized to keep playing them, discarding your whole hand except Calcium in the hopes of getting more. This is much easier than the Minion strategy (without the attack, but with +actions instead of +$2). As annoying and dominating as this may be, it seems okay.

Titanium
$5 - Action-Attack-Reaction
+1 Card
Each other player discards a card.
You may return up to two [This Card] tokens to its supply. Each other player discards an additional card per token returned.
Gain a [This Card] token.
--
When another player plays an Attack card, you may return a [This Card] token to its supply and discard this, then at the start of your next turn, +1 Card. You may instead trash this card if you do not return a [This Card] token to its supply, if you do, gain a [This Card] token.
If you do either, you are unaffected by that Attack.

Too many parts. The Attack and benefits scale poorly to multiplayer. I don't even want to read the whole thing again to see if it makes sense.

Chromium
$5 - Action
+1 Action
When this is in play each time you draw a card remove a token from your [This Card] mat if possible, or instead of drawing a card you may place a token on your [This Card] mat.  During this or another turn you may redeem your mat's tokens for a card equal to the number of tokens on your mat.
+1 Card

This is arranged oddly. This needs more commas! Redeem!? It lets you save your drawing for next turn? So it is a weak tactician.

Manganese
$4 - Action
+2 Actions
The player to your left chooses a non-empty kingdom card supply pile that you have not gained a card from this turn.  Gain a copy of that card.

Weird collaboration potential. There are some games where this becomes strong and many conditions that make this weak: (1) all cards are relevant to an engine (2) this is the only village, so the players cannot just stuff you with villages (3) this is one of the cheapest cards (4) there are no redundant Hard trashers like Chapel (5) there is no unsupported Tunnel. (6) there is no bad card like Thief, Pirate Ship, Scout, Counting House or Cellar to make you gain.

Iron
$5 - Action
+1 Card
+2 Actions
--
During your buy phase, if you had at least three unused actions in your action phase, +$2.

You play two of these to make each one a Grand Market? Three of these and a random terminal and you have +$12? Seems too strong, but this is more expensive than a Fool's Gold. This leads to the kind of strategy that you only want Villages with...

Cobalt
$2 - Action
+1 Action
Choose one: +1 Card; or +$1 for each [This Card] you have in play (including this one).

   This is a variant on Nitrogen and Sodium. By itself it is a copper or cantrip. With another you have a cantrip and a silver or a copper and a silver. With 3 you have a cantrip, a silver, and a gold, etc. This one gets strong too slowly, especially compared to Fools Gold, where all three are Gold.

Nickel
$3 - Action
+1 Card
+1 Action
+$1 for each [This Card] token on your mat
You may trash a card from your hand.  If you do, gain a token on your [This Card] mat.
--
When you discard this from play, choose one: gain a Copper, or return all [This Card] tokens to the supply.

If you don't intend to use this many times, this is a cantrip trash. That is too good for $3 if it has bonuses.

Zinc
$4 - Action-Looter
Choose one: +2 Actions and trash a card from your hand; or gain a Ruins and draw until you have 7 cards in hand.

I see what is going on here. It is cute. Another Archivist variant. Each ability seems right at $3, and combining them seems very strong because if two collide, you are gaining +5 card from the second. If three collide, you can trash all but one card from your hand and draw +7 from one card. The strategy does need coin and buys to make it work, so it is not completely linear.

Gallium
$5 - Action
Choose one: +$1; or +1 Card; or +1 Buy.
Choose one: Each other player gains a Curse; or reveal cards from the top of your deck until you reveal a [This Card].  Put it in your hand and discard the other cards.
You may play a [This Card] from your hand.

A Curser with options. The option where you play another this card lets you chain them and the last one gives the Curse (unless you already had 2 in hand in which case they both do). When the Curses are out, this ability is just going through your whole deck every other turn to find another Gallium for +1 Card. We already have a complex Curser in our set, but this might have potential.

Arsenic
$2 - Action
+1 Action
+$1
Reveal the top 4 cards of your deck. Put all copies of this card into your hand. Discard the rest.

A copper that finds itself out of the deck. Each gets another chance to find its friends. Not the best card, but it can get out of hand since you can have a 22 card deck with 8 of these if uncontested. Seems fun.

Bromine
$5 - Action
+1 Action
If you have trashed a Card this turn, +3 cards, +$1. Otherwise, trash 2 cards from your hand.

Trashing 2 cards non-terminally is cool. Drawing and coining is cool. I like it. Seems fun.

Krypton
$2 - Treasure
Put a card from your hand on top of your deck.
Worth $2 per card from hand you put on top of your deck this turn.

Keeping track of that is quite weird. The balance of the card seems fine in most cases, but there isn't much interaction since very few cards topdeck from hand.

Cadmium
$4 - Action-Duration
+1 Action
+$1
At the start of your next turn, draw as many cards as you have [This Card] in play. Discard down to 6 cards in hand.

Discarding down to 6 cards rarely hurts you much (since a 7 card hand is bound to have some junk). This is a delayed Peddler. Since this would trigger as many times as you have Cadmium, you filter many times. The intention I think would be: "At the start of your next turn, draw as many cards as you have [This Card] in play, then discard your [This Card] from play and discard down to 6 cards in hand." With that sort of change, seems okay.
 

Tin
$5 - Action
Choose one: Draw until you have 6 cards in hand; or: +2 Actions, +$1, +1 Buy.

Another Archivist variant. This one is a very good $2 village in addition to being a cheap front end of Watchtower. Putting these options together creates a strategy doesn't need any non-Tin cards (maybe a terminal silver would help the deck). This one is weak at 5. It is still an insular strategy that doesn't need much help, and it isn't that great either (this has been editted)

Iodine
$3 - Action
+$1
+1 VP
You may play a [This Card] from your hand.

This seems the same as a non-terminal +VP with very little interactivity with other players or other cards. This seems more vulnerable to the Monument non-ending game state than existing cards.

Xenon
$3 - Action
For every [This Card] you have in play (including this), you may choose one (no option may be taken more than twice):
+1 Action, +1 Card, +$1, +1 Buy, trash a card from your hand.

To get any use out of this, you need at least 3 Xenon. 3 Fools Gold gets you a Province.

Barium
$4 - Action
+1 Action
Name a cost. Reveal the top 3 cards of your deck. Put the cards with the same cost as you named in your hand. Put the others on top in any order.

Seems very swingy, since this can draw 0 to 3 cards. Apothecary is similarly swingy. In multiples, you can be guaranteed at least 1 card total. You may feel it is best to say 0 and take your Coppers. An interesting play involves 3 Bariums. Play one, naming 2, getting an Estate and revealing a Copper and a Barium. Play another, naming 4, drawing the Barium and revealing 2 or 3 coppers. Play another, naming 0, drawing 2 to 3 coppers. Altogether, you only gained yourself 1-2 cards. If you trash your way down to only 4 cost cards, this could be a mighty engine, but the average use of this card is rather weak.

Tungsten
$6 - Action-Attack
+3 Cards
Discard 2 cards.
If this is the first [This Card] you've played this turn, each other player discards any number of cards from their hand and draws until they have 5 cards.  Otherwise, each other player discards a card from their hand.

Wow. This card is awful the first time you play it and becomes a painful attack if you play it 4 or more times. It scales wonderfully for multiplayer since each player resets it. Unfortunately, I think it is too difficult to pull off. Torturer costs less, doesn't require discards, and after 4 plays the other players also have taken 2 curses. The attack part or the self benefit need to be improved, but I love the idea.

Mercury
$3 - Action
Gain a card costing up to $3 per [This Card] in play, counting this.

Gaining itself or a Village in preparation of a big turn is interesting, but this clogs your deck too much unless you can reliably get provinces with this, in which case it becomes a powerhouse. The power level might be just right. Seems okay. It also doubles as a bad Workshop.

Lead
$5 - Action
Choose One: +3 Cards; or +3 Actions.

This is just a VP-less Nobles (to be specific a tested version of Nobles that DXV said was too strong with the VP at $6). Kind of uninteresting.

Radon
$2 - Action
+1 Action
+1 Buy
+$1
You may convert 2 Actions, 2 Buys, or 1 Action and 1 Buy into $1.
You may convert $1 into 2 Actions, 2 Buys, or 1 Action and 1 Buy.
(You cannot go below 0 Actions or 0 Buys.)

This is confusing. This would be simplified to: "Choose one: +2 actions, +2 Buy; +$2; or +1 Action, +1 Buy, +$1." The conversion rates seem fine, just the AP under the weight of an easy to acquire $2 is boggling.

Radium
$5 - Action
+3 Cards
Trash a card from your hand. If that card costs $3 or more: +1 Action.

If the point of this is to trash nicer cards from you hand, I would like this to be +2 cards, give the other +1 card if the card costs 3 or more, and cost $4. Right now, the card seems too strong, like a Masqerade with an additional +1 card.

Uranium
$5 - Action
+3 Actions
+1 Buy
+$5
-$1 per card in your hand, to a minimum of $0.

Play this by itself or with 1 action, and it is a copper. Play this, then a terminal silver, and then another, and each one is a silver. Play a sifter, then this, then a terminal silver, then another this, and each one is a gold. It takes too much effort to make this good, except in the case of discard attacks or Vault, when this becomes amazing.

Plutonium
$2P - Action
+2 Cards
+$1
Return a card from your hand to the Supply and gain a card costing up to as much as it, putting it into your hand.
You may play a [This Card] from your hand.

I can almost forgive the combination of +cards and +$1 because of "balance" issues with the other 2 card abilities. I am not voting for this because of the potion thing, but the card intrigues me, since my potion card used a similar ability and got fifth. You can turn Golems into this to play more of this? To do what? The abilities just don't seem connected enough

[nopawnsintended]

I find the differing opinions on Nitrogen vs. Sodium quite interesting, given how similar they are.

Gaaaaah you people don't understand how difficult it is to read sentences like this without my brain exploding!

Hmmm... given that Hydrogen and Oxygen exhibit similar mechanics, I wonder if there's something we can do that is two parts Hydrogen and one part Oxygen.

[One Armed Man]

I find the differing opinions on Nitrogen vs. Sodium quite interesting, given how similar they are.

Gaaaaah you people don't understand how difficult it is to read sentences like this without my brain exploding!

Hmmm... given that Hydrogen and Oxygen exhibit similar mechanics, I wonder if there's something we can do that is two parts Hydrogen and one part Oxygen.

Water
$5 - Action
+1 Card
+1 Action
+$1
Choose one: discard up to two cards, OR draw up to 5 cards.

[nopawnsintended]

Hydrogen
$4 - Action
+1 Card
+1 Action
Choose one: Draw up to 6 cards, OR +$2 and discard two cards.

This is Archivist, the only fan card to grace Isotropic. Sorry you had to find out this way.

It's not exactly Archivist.

http://boardgamegeek.com/image/1140683/jsimantov

... or at least the version I have seen.  It seems less flexible in that you must discard exactly two cards, but it compensates by giving you more money.  So, it is a (sort of) constrained Archivist with more money.  Because of the extra money, it's still not priced high enough though.

IMO, there's room for another fan card with an Archivist-style mechanic... given those cards in this contest are named Hydrogen and Oxygen, I'd suggest referring to it as "Water Elements" mechanic.... but I know almost nothing about chemistry.

Edit:

I find the differing opinions on Nitrogen vs. Sodium quite interesting, given how similar they are.

Gaaaaah you people don't understand how difficult it is to read sentences like this without my brain exploding!

Hmmm... given that Hydrogen and Oxygen exhibit similar mechanics, I wonder if there's something we can do that is two parts Hydrogen and one part Oxygen.

Water
$5 - Action
+1 Card
+1 Action
+$1
Choose one: discard up to two cards, OR draw up to 5 cards.

That's mostly Oxygen though.  The only difference I see is the "up to" clause.

[One Armed Man]

My point is that it is extremely similar to Archivist by rinkworks. I know it is not the same, but we shouldn't just have a tribute to rinkwork's fan card in his fan set. Archivist is better balanced, I think.

[rinkworks]

I made a typo when including Tin on the ballot:  it should be priced at $5, not $2.

For those of you who have already voted, please reconsider your vote (or lack of a vote) for this card.

[eHalcyon]

I find the differing opinions on Nitrogen vs. Sodium quite interesting, given how similar they are.

Gaaaaah you people don't understand how difficult it is to read sentences like this without my brain exploding!

I applaud rinkworks for the most amusing card names so far.





At the corrected price, I think Tin is OK.




My entry is getting mildly negative reviews, and I think I agree with them.  I foolishly undercosted it because I wanted cheaper cards, but I didn't nerf the ability because I think the name I gave it is so flavourful.




I repeat that Chromium has broken interaction with draw-to-X cards (JoaT, Watchtower, Library).  Also, the redemption is very much ambiguous.  I guessed that it was a gainer, gaining a card costing up to $X where X is the number of tokens you have.  Others seem to think that it is a card drawer.  I can see that interpretation too.  But either way, Chromium+Watchtower (or the others) gets you ALL the tokens.  From that point, you either guarantee drawing your deck every turn or just gaining all the Provinces immediately.

[popsofctown]

I don't like comparisons to Fool's Gold.  Fool's Gold is one of the most poorly designed cards in Dominion.  It stacks with itself in an FBI way.  Minion is a better model for this challenge.

Criticisms that a card is weaker than Fool's Gold reads to me like criticisms that a nonterminal drawer is stronger than Scout.

[Schneau]

For a reminder, here are the objectives to this contest:

Create a card that synergizes or combos with itself in such a way that playing the card might be more effective or powerful when prior copies of the card have already been played.

Note that this definition of self-synergy is a distinct concept from a card that is merely helpful to play in multiples.  For example, playing multiple Villages might be a good idea, because you can get a lot of +Actions that way.  But playing one Village doesn't generally enable you to play another to better effect.

I will likely critique a card for bad self-synergy if I don't think it improves if a copy of it has previously been played.

Also, I wasn't really a fan of cards that explicitly self-synergize by saying "+1 Something for every [This Card] you have in play". These cards usually mean you have to go all-out for them, or ignore them. The only official card I can think of like this is Fool's Gold, which I'm not a huge fan of anyway.

Hydrogen
$4 - Action
+1 Card
+1 Action
Choose one: Draw up to 6 cards, OR +$2 and discard two cards.

As mentioned, this is a lot like Archivist. It is a little weird that you would draw up to 6 after getting a generic +1 Card. It's probably fine, but may be a bit strong for $4. Even straight up "+1 Card, +1 Action, +$2, discard 2 cards" is probably pretty strong for $4.

Helium
$5 - Action
+2 Actions
+1 Card for every three action cards in play (including this).
+$1 for every four action cards in play (including this).
If you have twelve or more action cards in play (including this), trash this.

I expect to see a lot of these "for every X action cards you have in play" cards in this challenge - we'll see! I don't know if it is intentional or a mistake, but this card will register other players' Duration cards as-written, which is probably bad. This is a card that is initially very bad, but gets good-ish if it is your 4th card in play, and very good after 6. Actually, to tell the truth, this has FBI - it is very weak in many decks, but throw in a few easily spammed cantrips and this gets ridiculous. I think the Duration problem is a big one, and shouldn't be taken lightly.

Lithium
$5 - Action
+1 Action
Reveal cards from your deck until you reveal a treasure putting it into your hand.
For every differently named treasure card in your hand, choose either +$1 or +1 Card.

This card has wording issues to start. First, you should reveal Treasures from your hand or your whole hand. Also, it doesn't tell you what to do with the other revealed cards, and the first sentence is a run-on. See Adventurer's wording to make the wording here better.

As for the actual mechanics of the card, it is probably too strong, especially with any decent Copper trashing. It also doesn't seem to fit the challenge theme that well.

Beryllium
$5 - Action
+1 Card
+2 Actions
If you have played [This Card] two or more times this turn, +1 Card.
If you have played it three or more times this turn, +$1.
If you have played it four or more times this turn, +1 Buy.
If you have played it five or more times this turn, +1 VP.

Haven't we seen this (or a variant) in some other challenge? I wasn't a big fan then, and am not now either. It is probably too strong; plus, all that text is messy and ugly.

Boron
$5 - Action-Attack
Choose one: gain an Attack card from the supply; or all other players gain a Curse.
--
When you play this you may reveal Attack cards from your hand. +$1 for each revealed Attack card.

I don't think this card improves if a copy has already been played. It may benefit if you have multiple copies in-hand when you play it, but that's not the objective of this challenge. Either way, this is probably way too strong, especially with just about any other Attack card on the board. Even with Spy - it's a no-draw-Witch until Curses run out, and then gets you a Spy with every play.

Carbon
$3 - Action-Duration
+1 Card
+1 Action
Look at the bottom three cards of your deck. Put one of them on top of your deck
At the start of your next turn you may discard your hand, if you do +4 Cards.

This card stacks sort of like Pearl Diver, except better - it satisfies the challenge objective fine for me. The main part is a better Pearl Diver, and the Duration part is fine here too. Combined, it may be a bit strong for $3, but probably not. I like it!

Nitrogen
$4 - Action
Choose one: +1 Card, +1 Action; or +$1, +$1 for each [This Card] you have in play (counting this), +1 Buy.

So, this can be a Woodcutter, or something to beef up future Nitrogens? It's probably fine, but is a little boring and weak.

Oxygen
$3 - Action
+1 Action
+$1
Draw 1 card and discard 2 cards, OR draw up to 5 cards.

This is probably fine. Actually, the second option if you play it as the first card of your hand is a Peddler, which is generally considered a $4 card. So, it may be a bit too strong for $3, but may be fine.

Fluorine
$4 - Action
+1 Action
Set aside the top card of your deck face-down on your [This Card] mat. Gain a card costing up to $2 more than the number of cards on your mat.
You may not look at the set-aside cards. Discard the set aside cards at the end of your turn.

I like it! Basically, is a +1 Action weak Workshop with your first play, and can gain a 1 better card with every play that turn. It's a little weird that cards from your deck are used to keep track of it - if there's a mat, why not just put tokens on it? I guess maybe you could use it for filtering if you know your top card? Also, this makes it weaker in draw-your-deck engines, since you have to have cards to sacrifice to your mat for the turn - but maybe that drawback is warranted to not make this too powerful? Anyway, I like it, weird mat interaction and all!

Neon
$5 - Action-Reaction
+2 Cards
+1 Action
Discard a card.
--
If you discard this card from your hand other than during a Clean-Up phase, draw a card and place this on top of your deck.

So, I don't think this really fits the challenge objective of "card is better if another copy was played earlier this turn". It's better if you have one in your hand when you play it, but the second time you play it, it isn't better than the first time. So, I won't be voting for it here. That said, I think it's an interesting card - it's a weak Lab, but if you discard it, it gives you an extra card (sort of like Lab). It is unclear what would happen if you discard this to a "discard down to" type Attack - say, Militia. You discard 1 card, then this, then do its reaction, did you discard down to 3 cards even if you have 4 now? Or do you have to discard again? Even worse if you discard and reveal 2 of these! Also, needs wording more like Tunnel - should say "you may reveal it" somewhere in there to be a Reaction.

Sodium
$3 - Action
Choose one: +1 Action per [This Card] in play (including this card), +1 Card; or +$1 per [This Card] in play (including this card), +1 Buy.

Definitely stronger than Nitrogen, especially at $3. The thing about this card is, you either have to really invest in them or not at all - buying 1 or 2 is just awful. I guess that's sort of like Fool's Gold, but I'm not sure Sodium makes up for that fact. It's probably fine, and on the weaker side of balanced, but I'm not intrigued.

Magnesium
$4 - Action
+1 Action
Reveal a card from your deck for each copy of [This Card] you have in play (including this), and one more. Put one of the revealed cards into your hand; discard any number of other revealed cards; put the rest on the bottom of your deck.
--
When you clean this up, if you did not play another [This Card] this turn, put this on top of your deck.

This is pretty strong for a sifter, even if you only play 1, but definitely if you play multiples. Definitely stronger than Warehouse, maybe stronger than Cartographer. The card is probably fine, but I'm uncomfortable with it at $4 without major playtesting.

Aluminum
$2 - Action-Duration
For each copy of [This Card] you have in play, including this one, choose one: $1, +1 Card, or +1 Action.  The choices may be the same or different.
At the start of your next turn: $1.

The duration is cute and obviously makes this card more powerful. Third play can be a Laboratory - probably too powerful for $2. Interesting anyway, I sort of like it at $3.

Silicon
$4 - Action
+3 Cards
+1 Action
Discard a card.
Each other player draws and discards a card.
Reveal your hand. If you did not reveal any [This Card], return this to the supply.

Umm, what? I think you combined the challenges and failed at both. First of all, I think this doesn't fit the theme of playing a second time being better. Second, this has all sorts of FBI. All sorts. I don't know if it is balanced, but I'm guessing no.

Phosphorus
$3 - Action
Reveal any number of Silver cards from your hand. +1 Action for each Silver revealed. Then, +2 Cards.

The self-synergy here is really weak. I guess, if you have Silvers the first time, you'll have more the second time? Still, not really synergy, more like... silvergy. Anyway, the card itself is probably actually pretty strong for $3 - as long as you have 1 Silver, you get a Lab, and more than 1 is at least as good as second-level City. Maybe at $4 this would be decent, but I'm not even sure then.

Sulfur
$4 - Action
All cards cost $1 less this turn, but not less than $0.
You may gain a card costing up to $3.

I can definitely see the self-synergy here. First play it's basically a Workshop with a Bridge effect for your buys. It's not the most creative card, but I don't see anything broken about it, and do like the synergy. I was originally thinking you would need +Buy for a mega turn, but if you play KC-KC-Sulfer-Sulfer-Sulfer, by the 5th Sulfer play you can gain a Province, so this will gain you 4 Provinces plus 1 guaranteed from your normal buy. So, it's probably about as easy to mega turn as Bridge, for better or worse. Anyway, it's probably fine, and I sort of like it.

Chlorine
$3 - Action
+1 Action
Draw until you have 5 cards in hand, then draw a card, revealing the drawn cards. Set aside one of the revealed cards and discard the rest.
You may put the set aside card into your hand at any time before the Clean-up phase this turn. If you do not, discard it.

I think the wording here needs work. In my interpretation, it would be something like:

"Reveal cards until the total number of revealed cards and cards in your hand is at least 5, then reveal 1 more card. Set aside one of the revealed cards and discard the rest."

So, basically, this allows you to play multiple of these without increasing your handsize, and then draw the set-asside cards. The synergy comes in because playing one decreases your handsize so that the next one you play can reveal more cards. Yes, there's synergy there. I think the card is fine (with better wording), but is actually going to play very similar to Sage. I'm not a big fan of the "set aside + put it in your hand whenever" mechanic, and the wording is worrysome.

Argon
$2 - Action
+1 Action
+1 Buy
+$1
Trash this and another card from your hand. If you trash this, and have no cards in hand, the player to your left reveals his or her hand. Gain 4 non-Victory cards costing at most $6 which were not revealed.

Another card that could have been in the one-shot challenge. I'm going to say that even though this is one-shot, it is Way Too Strong (TM) for $2. It is, believe it or not, pretty easy to get down to no cards in your hand on many boards. So, this card could basically get you 4 Goons or Golds just for getting down to 0 cards in-hand - oh wait, it also gives you +1 Action, +1 Buy, +$1, and lets you trash another junk card? This is incredibly OP. Especially so since, yes, it does synergize with itself.

Potassium
$5 - Action-Victory
Worth 2 VP
--
Reveal a card from your hand, if it is an...
Action card, +2 Actions
Treasure card, +$2
Victory card, +2 Cards
You may trash the revealed card.

Formatting things: Action part goes on top of Action-VP cards (see Nobles). This card synergizes if you have one in hand when you play it, but I don't think when you play a second. So, pass since it doesn't fit the objective. About the card itself, I think it is probably better than Nobles at a lower price. Sure, you might not always be able to draw cards, and the number of cards is fewer, but it combos with multi-type cards very well. Plus, you can use it to trash junk. So, this card would be hard to price as-is, since it's probably better than Nobles. Maybe make it worth 1VP, and then it might be correctly priced at $5 or $6.

Calcium
$5 - Action
Discard any number of cards from your hand.
Draw until you have 6 cards in hand.
Reveal your hand. For each [This Card] in it, +1 Action.

Again, this self-combos when in-hand, but not for a second or third playing of it. So, zero points for this challenge's objective. This card is pretty strong for $5, but it's hard to tell how strong without testing. Probably has FBI.

Titanium
$5 - Action-Attack-Reaction
+1 Card
Each other player discards a card.
You may return up to two [This Card] tokens to its supply. Each other player discards an additional card per token returned.
Gain a [This Card] token.
--
When another player plays an Attack card, you may return a [This Card] token to its supply and discard this, then at the start of your next turn, +1 Card. You may instead trash this card if you do not return a [This Card] token to its supply, if you do, gain a [This Card] token.
If you do either, you are unaffected by that Attack.

Holy fortress Batman, this card is complex. There are definitely FBI going on here. I'll give it one thing - I think there's the right kind of synergy on this card. Besides that, this card has too much going on for almost anyone to wrap their mind around. Plus, I'm pretty sure it's broken in one or more ways - it seems too easy to make your opponents discard all their cards with some sort of KC-Titanium shenanigans.

Chromium
$5 - Action
+1 Action
When this is in play each time you draw a card remove a token from your [This Card] mat if possible, or instead of drawing a card you may place a token on your [This Card] mat.  During this or another turn you may redeem your mat's tokens for a card equal to the number of tokens on your mat.
+1 Card

I think this makes it so you can save up +Cards to gain an equivalently priced card? Maybe? There are lots of wording issues here to work out, so I won't even go into them. Also lots of FBI, as well as "draw up to X" card issues. So, lots of issues. Does it self-synergize? I guess so, but only barely, since any other +Card also synergizes with it.

Manganese
$4 - Action
+2 Actions
The player to your left chooses a non-empty kingdom card supply pile that you have not gained a card from this turn.  Gain a copy of that card.

Ha! I like it! Short, sweet, and simple. Plus, it self-synergizes nicely in a way that we haven't seen yet in this challenge or official cards. Is it too good on some boards? Maybe? Like, in the rare case where almost all of the cards are spectacular? It's hard to tell, but I'm guessing that it is balanced fine at $4. Maybe it would be better with only +1 Action, but it's probably ok. It would be really fun on boards with lots-o-parts engines. There should probably be a rules clarification about what happens if you have gained every kingdom card that turn already (maybe you KCed a bunch of these). Not that that's a big deal at all, but something should be said. Anyway, good job on this card, it's a nice one!

Iron
$5 - Action
+1 Card
+2 Actions
--
During your buy phase, if you had at least three unused actions in your action phase, +$2.

I don't know how I feel about this. It's probably hard to hit 3 unused actions in a kingdom where this is your only Village, but maybe too easy in some others? And when this is activated, it's pretty great. Not super great (I mean, only $1 more than Bazaar). So, anyway, this would be really good on some boards, and meh on others - I think there's some FBI here, though not too much. Anyway, may be balanced, and is sort of interesting and self-synergizing.

Cobalt
$2 - Action
+1 Action
Choose one: +1 Card; or +$1 for each [This Card] you have in play (including this one).

Another one of these - like Nitrogen and Sodium. It's probably fine, though not super exciting.

Nickel
$3 - Action
+1 Card
+1 Action
+$1 for each [This Card] token on your mat
You may trash a card from your hand.  If you do, gain a token on your [This Card] mat.
--
When you discard this from play, choose one: gain a Copper, or return all [This Card] tokens to the supply.

What I mean what. Man, this card is broken-strong. At $3, you could buy tons of these, and then always gain Coppers. Sure, you have Coppers, but you can easily make this give +$8 without trying hard. Plus, it helps trim your deck of those Coppers? Definitely broken.

Zinc
$4 - Action-Looter
Choose one: +2 Actions and trash a card from your hand; or gain a Ruins and draw until you have 7 cards in hand.

This card is in the Minion-Archivist vein, but probably different enough - it doesn't give +$, so it needs support. It would require you to own DA to play with it. And we haven't really seen many Looters yet, so it's hard to tell at this point if it's balanced or not. Basically, a no-draw Village trasher, or draw to 7 but gain a Ruins. It's probably balanced, and definitely self-synergizes.

Gallium
$5 - Action
Choose one: +$1; or +1 Card; or +1 Buy.
Choose one: Each other player gains a Curse; or reveal cards from the top of your deck until you reveal a [This Card].  Put it in your hand and discard the other cards.
You may play a [This Card] from your hand.

Isn't this an Attack card? It's pretty strong to be able to chain these if you have a bunch, though I guess all you'll usually gain is $1 or 1 card each time. It's probably weaker than Witch (which is good, because not many cards can be stronger and balanced). Since we already have a Curser, I'll pass.

Arsenic
$2 - Action
+1 Action
+$1
Reveal the top 4 cards of your deck. Put all copies of this card into your hand. Discard the rest.

Is this better than Scout? Might just be. Basically, it' a Copper that can find more copies of itself. I think the self-synergy is really weak here at best. Still, it's probably balanced and a bit interesting. Actually, after further review, I didn't realize you have to discard the other revealed cards instead of putting them back. I don't like that at all - you have to get rid of your good cards to find more crappy Arsenics!? That's no fun.

Bromine
$5 - Action
+1 Action
If you have trashed a Card this turn, +3 cards, +$1. Otherwise, trash 2 cards from your hand.

I really think this is too strong. Non-terminal trasher that can turn into Super Lab Plus Money? That's really good. It might work if it were +2 Cards instead, but there are definitely FBI even with that. It needs some playtesting to even out. (To be fair, I like the interaction with Rats )

Krypton
$2 - Treasure
Put a card from your hand on top of your deck.
Worth $2 per card from hand you put on top of your deck this turn.

At first I was like, "how are you going to keep track of the number of cards you put on your deck this turn", and then I was like, "the same way you keep track of Actions and money, silly pants". Definitely self-synergy here. I really like how it keeps itself in check - if you can't put a card on top of your deck, you don't get the $. I think interactions with other cards are fine - most other cards don't topdeck from hand, or if they do then it's not on your turn. Is it too strong? Maybe? If you have 2 of these in a hand of at least 4 cards, you can buy a Province - that's pretty strong for 2 cards that cost $2. (Am I computing that right? Lets see - you play 2 Kryptons, topdeck 2 cards, making each Krypton worth $4 - so, yes). So, I think it's a bit strong - maybe it would be better to always give $1, plus $1 per topdecked card this turn. It's a solid concept though, so good job there. EDIT: I was corrected in that the first Krypton played cannot gain worth if a Krypton played later in the turn also discards a card. So, Krypton 1 -> $2, Krypton 2 -> $4, Krypton 3 -> $6. So, 2 is worth $6, 3 are worth $12 (if you have 3 cards to top-deck). Even though this is a lot of money, it most likely hurts your next turn with all the top-decked cards. So, I think this is probably balanced, and a fun card! It may be rushable, similar to Fool's Gold, but is probably less strong than Fool's Gold because of the top-decking.

Cadmium
$4 - Action-Duration
+1 Action
+$1
At the start of your next turn, draw as many cards as you have [This Card] in play. Discard down to 6 cards in hand.

So, it's sort of like Caravan that gets stronger if you've played more Cadmiums? If you have 1 in play, draw 1 card. 2 draws 4. 3 draws 9. So, squared. But, you then have to discard down to 6 cards. If you have more than 1 of these in play, it gives you good sifting - and 3 or more is ridonkydonk sifting. I'd guess this is slightly less powerful than Caravan, but not by too much. It's probably fine, but doesn't get me too excited.

After reading others' comments, I realize that these would probably take effect sequentially instead of all at once. So, you play 3, and you get three times to draw 3 and discard down to 6. I don't know if this is what is intended, but that's how it reads if taken literally.

Tin
$5 - Action
Choose one: Draw until you have 6 cards in hand; or: +2 Actions, +$1, +1 Buy.

Taken straight-up, the draw option is very weak without support - which is where choice 2 comes in. The second choice is like a gimped Festival, like the first option is a gimped Library. The thing is, you'd want a lot of these to get any decent use out of them, but they cost $5 so that's hard. Let's say you plat 2 - you end up with 1 Action, $1, 1 extra Buy, and a 6 card hand. That's a lot like playing a Labratory then a Market, or a Festival then a Smithy (though losing $1). So, it's probably fine, but maybe on the weak side.

Iodine
$3 - Action
+$1
+1 VP
You may play a [This Card] from your hand.

So, a gimped Monument with a Cultist chainer effect? Probably fine, sort of boring, may have FBI, pass. (Actually, this may be much worse than Monument for non-ending +VP games; if you can get 4 of these and a trasher as your whole hand, you get an easy 4VP every turn. Pass.)

Xenon
$3 - Action
For every [This Card] you have in play (including this), you may choose one (no option may be taken more than twice):
+1 Action, +1 Card, +$1, +1 Buy, trash a card from your hand.

This may be too strong, since it gives you the trashing you need to get a thin deck, plus anything else you need to. Granted, the first you play is gimped, and the second you play is little better than a Pawn. But, the third can be just about whatever you want, including Lab, Village, and Peddler. So, I'm going to say too strong and too much AP.

Barium
$4 - Action
+1 Action
Name a cost. Reveal the top 3 cards of your deck. Put the cards with the same cost as you named in your hand. Put the others on top in any order.

I guess there's some self-synergy if you know your top cards and can predict what cost to name with future plays, so that's fine. This will be decent near the beginning (name $0), and is obviously better with multiple plays. I don't see anything broken or too weak, and I sort of like it, so... good! I wonder if there is a Barium + Coppers + Coppersmith possibility here? That would be fun!

Tungsten
$6 - Action-Attack
+3 Cards
Discard 2 cards.
If this is the first [This Card] you've played this turn, each other player discards any number of cards from their hand and draws until they have 5 cards.  Otherwise, each other player discards a card from their hand.

Nothing stopping you from pinning your opponents by playing 6 of these every turn (likely with KC-KC-Tungsten-Tungsten-whatever). So, no.

Mercury
$3 - Action
Gain a card costing up to $3 per [This Card] in play, counting this.

First -> $3, second -> $6, third ->$9? I guess it's probably ok. Of course, this card is near worthless on boards without Villages. I'd say too much FBI - usually weak, but sometimes too strong.

Lead
$5 - Action
Choose One: +3 Cards; or +3 Actions.

Pretty sure I've seen it before. Too boring. +3 Actions is, in reality, a lot like +2 Actions, which makes this basically Nobles. Probably is weak too.

Radon
$2 - Action
+1 Action
+1 Buy
+$1
You may convert 2 Actions, 2 Buys, or 1 Action and 1 Buy into $1.
You may convert $1 into 2 Actions, 2 Buys, or 1 Action and 1 Buy.
(You cannot go below 0 Actions or 0 Buys.)

I don't like this "convert" concept - it's not a thing, and isn't well-defined. Just lay out all the options. Plus, this is way confusing, and way AP prone.

Radium
$5 - Action
+3 Cards
Trash a card from your hand. If that card costs $3 or more: +1 Action.

Not really any self-synergy (of the right kind) here. It's probably fine, though may be too strong in BM. Pass because no self-synergy.

Uranium
$5 - Action
+3 Actions
+1 Buy
+$5
-$1 per card in your hand, to a minimum of $0.

I guess I see the self-synergy - if you've played this before, you probably have fewer cards? I dunno, this just screams of FBI without major playtesting. Remember: Poor House was majorly playtested, yet it doesn't look half as crazy as this card. Pass.

Plutonium
$2P - Action
+2 Cards
+$1
Return a card from your hand to the Supply and gain a card costing up to as much as it, putting it into your hand.
You may play a [This Card] from your hand.

What's up with all the Cultist copycats? I don't really like Cultist, don't really like these. Plus, with the $2P cost, how often will you likely really have more to play? The returning a card to supply and getting one back is sort of chincy, I think it will often be used to put back and gain the same card. Plus, I have no idea how balanced this is - all sorts of FBI here.

[zahlman]

... so... did you actually like any cards this time around, Schneau?

[Schneau]

... so... did you actually like any cards this time around, Schneau?

To tell the truth, not as many as usual! I voted for about half as many cards as I usually do. There were actually quite a few cards that I liked, but felt that they didn't meet the objective of the challenge. So, those cards may have gotten votes on a different challenge. Also, most of the cards that are self-referential ("for every [This Card] you have in play") weren't very appealing to me - most of them seamed like they would have to be the focus of a strategy, and couldn't ever be just sidekick cards.

[DWetzel]

Krypton
$2 - Treasure
Put a card from your hand on top of your deck.
Worth $2 per card from hand you put on top of your deck this turn.

At first I was like, "how are you going to keep track of the number of cards you put on your deck this turn", and then I was like, "the same way you keep track of Actions and money, silly pants". Definitely self-synergy here. I really like how it keeps itself in check - if you can't put a card on top of your deck, you don't get the $. I think interactions with other cards are fine - most other cards don't topdeck from hand, or if they do then it's not on your turn. Is it too strong? Maybe? If you have 2 of these in a hand of at least 4 cards, you can buy a Province - that's pretty strong for 2 cards that cost $2. (Am I computing that right? Lets see - you play 2 Kryptons, topdeck 2 cards, making each Krypton worth $4 - so, yes). So, I think it's a bit strong - maybe it would be better to always give $1, plus $1 per topdecked card this turn. It's a solid concept though, so good job there.

Pretty sure that's the wrong interpretation -- compare to Bank.

I'd read this as:

1. Topdeck a card with Krypton.
2. Krypton is worth $2.
3. Topdeck a card with Krypton.
4. Krypton is worth $4.

[Schneau]

Krypton
$2 - Treasure
Put a card from your hand on top of your deck.
Worth $2 per card from hand you put on top of your deck this turn.

At first I was like, "how are you going to keep track of the number of cards you put on your deck this turn", and then I was like, "the same way you keep track of Actions and money, silly pants". Definitely self-synergy here. I really like how it keeps itself in check - if you can't put a card on top of your deck, you don't get the $. I think interactions with other cards are fine - most other cards don't topdeck from hand, or if they do then it's not on your turn. Is it too strong? Maybe? If you have 2 of these in a hand of at least 4 cards, you can buy a Province - that's pretty strong for 2 cards that cost $2. (Am I computing that right? Lets see - you play 2 Kryptons, topdeck 2 cards, making each Krypton worth $4 - so, yes). So, I think it's a bit strong - maybe it would be better to always give $1, plus $1 per topdecked card this turn. It's a solid concept though, so good job there.

Pretty sure that's the wrong interpretation -- compare to Bank.

I'd read this as:

1. Topdeck a card with Krypton.
2. Krypton is worth $2.
3. Topdeck a card with Krypton.
4. Krypton is worth $4.

I was reading it that the worth wasn't determined until all cards had been played, but now I think you are correct. But, note that Bank (as well as all other Treasures with on-play effects) says "When you play this...". So, this card should be changed to read, "When you play this, put a card from your hand on top of your deck. It is worth $2 per card from hand you put on top of your deck this turn."

I will change my review accordingly.

[Polk5440]

Uranium
$5 - Action
+3 Actions
+1 Buy
+$5
-$1 per card in your hand, to a minimum of $0.

Play this by itself or with 1 action, and it is a copper. Play this, then a terminal silver, and then another, and each one is a silver. Play a sifter, then this, then a terminal silver, then another this, and each one is a gold. It takes too much effort to make this good, except in the case of discard attacks or Vault, when this becomes amazing.

Well, sure, if the card also didn't have +3 Actions and +1 Buy.... For example, Festival is not a Silver. This card is in the Festival family. Uranium+Horse Traders+Uranium is good. Oasis+Uranium is good. It would also be good in Library style engines and against discard attacks. The self-synergy is not quite as game dominating in this card as in others. That's a plus to me. It would be a little silly to build a one-card strategy around this card's self-synergy. But if anything, the card seems a little strong overall.

[Polk5440]

My comments. Warning: My likes are limited for this set of cards.

For a reminder, here are the objectives to this contest:

Create a card that synergizes or combos with itself in such a way that playing the card might be more effective or powerful when prior copies of the card have already been played.

Note that this definition of self-synergy is a distinct concept from a card that is merely helpful to play in multiples.  For example, playing multiple Villages might be a good idea, because you can get a lot of +Actions that way.  But playing one Village doesn't generally enable you to play another to better effect.

I will likely critique a card for bad self-synergy if I don't think it improves if a copy of it has previously been played.

Also, I wasn't really a fan of cards that explicitly self-synergize by saying "+1 Something for every [This Card] you have in play". These cards usually mean you have to go all-out for them, or ignore them. The only official card I can think of like this is Fool's Gold, which I'm not a huge fan of anyway.

I agree with this whole-heartedly. I would add that I am leery of balance of the cards that are "+1 Something for every [this other card] you have in play." I don't really know how to evaluate them well. For these reasons, these cards are out for me: Helium, Beryllium, Sodium, Magnesium, Aluminum, Potassium (also, seems strong), Cobalt, Cadmium, Xenon, Tungsten, and Mercury.

Not enough on-play self-synergy or Cultist-style self-synergy (I don't like it): Boron (definitely not on-play self-synergy), Nitrogen, Neon, Potassium, Gallium (also, don't like the attack itself), Iodine, and Radium (also, just give me Stables instead, please).

These cards aren't my cup of tea because of uninteresting or broken mat and token shenanigans: Fluorine, Titanium, Chromium, and Nickel (seems to strong).

Villages and Festivals

I think the most promising cards are in this category.

Phosphorus is a neat idea, but its self-synergy is pretty uninteresting.

Manganese
$4 - Action
+2 Actions
The player to your left chooses a non-empty kingdom card supply pile that you have not gained a card from this turn.  Gain a copy of that card.

Interesting idea for self-synergy! Too bad my first thought is that this probably will be an unplayable card at $4 on most boards and too powerful on the rest. First play: Gain Manganese. Second play: Gain Pearl Diver. Third Play: Gain Cellar. Or maybe have them gain a Chapel every turn.... Too often this might be an attack on yourself!

Iron
$5 - Action
+1 Card
+2 Actions
--
During your buy phase, if you had at least three unused actions in your action phase, +$2.

Now this card I like! Seems kind of strong, though, and might be too good as a one-card strategy. I am a little unsure of the intent, though. Did the author intend each Iron in play to give the bonus when you have unused actions in the buy phase (so you play two Irons and get +$4 in buy phase, which seems a bit much), or give $2 total? If the later is the case, I would like this card even more, and you could probably get away with it costing $4. 

Interesting approach to self-synergy.  I like it.  I wish it cost $4 and gave +$1 instead.  Set needs cheaper cards!

That would be okay, too.

Zinc
$4 - Action-Looter
Choose one: +2 Actions and trash a card from your hand; or gain a Ruins and draw until you have 7 cards in hand.

Seems fun. I am a little sad it's so Dark Ages specific.

Tin
$5 - Action
Choose one: Draw until you have 6 cards in hand; or: +2 Actions, +$1, +1 Buy.

Seems okay. The set could do with a Festival-like card. Kind of weak, though. Maybe it would be okay at $4?

Lead is too similar to Nobles.

Uranium
$5 - Action
+3 Actions
+1 Buy
+$5
-$1 per card in your hand, to a minimum of $0.

Tough to think about whether it's balanced right, but I think the set could do with a Festival-like card. I like it.


Other Interesting and Not-So-Interesting Cards

As far as Lithium goes, what I like about the card is the last line giving coin or card for each differently named Treasure in your hand. But the +coin for differently named Treasure is better implemented in DA's Forager. So I don't think I can vote for this.

Carbon is okay -- but I'm not nearly as excited about it as others. "A better Pearl Diver"
 is not a strong tag line, to me. Also, there should be some line about putting cards back in any order (I assume the other two go back on the bottom since it's not specified). Not the most exciting synergy, either.

Oxygen
$3 - Action
+1 Action
+$1
Draw 1 card and discard 2 cards, OR draw up to 5 cards.

I like this card. It would be much better priced at $4, but that's an easy change to make. I prefer this card to Hydrogen. It is a shame they are both so similar to Archivist. Is there play testing data from when Archivist was on Isotropic? Did it turn out okay as a $5?

Silicon
$4 - Action
+3 Cards
+1 Action
Discard a card.
Each other player draws and discards a card.
Reveal your hand. If you did not reveal any [This Card], return this to the supply.

I was with you until the last line. The card should be trashed, not returned to the supply, and I feel the revealing of your hand is really unnecessary. Too much hand revealing, and we may as well play with open hands. I would like it a lot better if the last line was something like "You may reveal a [This Card] from your hand. If you don't, trash this card." But even then, I don't think I am up for a Stables-like synergy in this category. Calcium has unnecessary revealing that bugs me, too. Don't care for that card, either.

Sulfur
$4 - Action
All cards cost $1 less this turn, but not less than $0.
You may gain a card costing up to $3.

I am not liking this. Bridge x Workshop? WHY? This is a card that looks okay on paper but would be difficult to play and its best use would not play a whole lot differently than Bridge. When there is plus buy in the kingdom, you get the plus buy and Sulfur and you are trying a Bridge-Workshop/Ironworks combo. King's Court? Would play like KC-Bridge without the game ending killer combo. I don't see the new excitement here. There's better potential for new synergies in other cards.

I do not like the mechanic on Chlorine at all.

Argon seems better suited to be in the one-shot category. I don't like the self-synergy on it or the price.

Arsenic: A Copper that cycles a little bit of your deck and may find itself....Come on, we can do better than that for a $2 card, right?

Bromine
$5 - Action
+1 Action
If you have trashed a Card this turn, +3 cards, +$1. Otherwise, trash 2 cards from your hand.

This is pretty slick. I like the idea, but it may not be the best addition to the set.

Krypton seems too strong. As much as I like Treasure, this one is not for me.

Radon has a too much AP potential.

As much as I dislike Potion cards, I kind of like Plutonium. It would be good for a Potion-themed set, which I really hope this one isn't turning into.


I submitted a card to the contest.

[rinkworks]

The results are in!  As a reminder, here was the objective for this challenge:

Create a card that synergizes or combos with itself in such a way that playing the card might be more effective or powerful when prior copies of the card have already been played.

Because self-synergy is difficult to define in black and white terms, no card will be refused eligibility.  However, voters will be charged with judging not just card quality but their conformance to the spirit of this objective as described above.

Note that this definition of self-synergy is a distinct concept from a card that is merely helpful to play in multiples.  For example, playing multiple Villages might be a good idea, because you can get a lot of +Actions that way.  But playing one Village doesn't generally enable you to play another to better effect.

For this challenge, no rules clarifications are permitted.  This is to avoid a situation where a rules clarification may suggest a non-obvious self-synergetic use for the card and leave voters to guess about a non-obvious self-synergetic use for other cards.  (However, there is no reason self-synergy for any or all of the submitted cards can't be discussed after the ballot is announced, including by the authors of the cards.)

My own contribution would have been Archivist, a card some of you are already familiar with from past threads and its brief foray on Isotropic.  It remains a favorite of mine in my home games.

Archivist
$5 - Action
+1 Action
Choose one:  Draw up to 6 cards in hand; or +$1 and discard one or more cards from your hand.


That said, it probably doesn't fit very well in the set as it exists so far.  There are already plenty of $5 cards and drawing cards.  But let's see what card did make the set....


#1 - Salesman by dnkywin with 20 points (Sulfur)
$4 - Action
All cards cost $1 less this turn, but not less than $0.
You may gain a card costing up to $3.


dnkywin won with this Workshop-with-a-bonus card that gets better and better the more you play it.  Workshop itself can do some fancy things with, say, a chain of Highways, but it's tricky.  This card has the cost-reduction built into it.  You probably still don't want it without good $4's on the board, because you won't get to play multiples of these all the time, but if you can manage it sometimes, this could be a crafty little power move.

The runners-up:


#2 - Recruiter by yuma with 17 points (Boron)
$5 - Action-Attack
Choose one: gain an Attack card from the supply; or all other players gain a Curse.
--
When you play this you may reveal Attack cards from your hand. +$1 for each revealed Attack card.

#3 (tie) - Carnival by Polk5440 with 11 points (Uranium)
$5 - Action
+3 Actions
+1 Buy
+$5
-$1 per card in your hand, to a minimum of $0.

#3 (tie) - Broker by nopawnsintended with 11 points (Oxygen)
$3 - Action
+1 Action
+$1
Draw 1 card and discard 2 cards, OR draw up to 5 cards.

#5 (tie) - Mylaptopislowonbattery by popsofctown with 10 points (Manganese)
$4 - Action
+2 Actions
The player to your left chooses a non-empty kingdom card supply pile that you have not gained a card from this turn.  Gain a copy of that card.

#5 (tie) - Telescope by Michaelf7777777 with 10 points (Carbon)
$3 - Action-Duration
+1 Card
+1 Action
Look at the bottom three cards of your deck. Put one of them on top of your deck
At the start of your next turn you may discard your hand, if you do +4 Cards.

#7 - Prairie Village by ashersky with 9 points (Iron)
$5 - Action
+1 Card
+2 Actions
--
During your buy phase, if you had at least three unused actions in your action phase, +$2.

#8 (tie) - Drunkard by jamespotter with 8 points (Bromine)
$5 - Action
+1 Action
If you have trashed a Card this turn, +3 cards, +$1. Otherwise, trash 2 cards from your hand.

#8 (tie) - Wildfire by Archetype with 8 points (Arsenic)
$2 - Action
+1 Action
+$1
Reveal the top 4 cards of your deck. Put all copies of this card into your hand. Discard the rest.

#10 (tie) - Lumber Mill by sitnaltax with 7 points (Nitrogen)
$4 - Action
Choose one: +1 Card, +1 Action; or +$1, +$1 for each Lumber Mill you have in play (counting this), +1 Buy.

#10 (tie) - Lottery by Tdog with 7 points (Barium)
$4 - Action
+1 Action
Name a cost. Reveal the top 3 cards of your deck. Put the cards with the same cost as you named in your hand. Put the others on top in any order.

#12 (tie) - Book Cart by Schneau with 6 points (Zinc)
$4 - Action-Looter
Choose one: +2 Actions and trash a card from your hand; or gain a Ruins and draw until you have 7 cards in hand.

#12 (tie) - Acrobat by Saucery with 6 points (Neon)
$5 - Action-Reaction
+2 Cards
+1 Action
Discard a card.
--
If you discard this card from your hand other than during a Clean-Up phase, draw a card and place this on top of your deck.

#12 (tie) - Maneuverer by Schlippy with 6 points (Cadmium)
$4 - Action-Duration
+1 Action
+$1
At the start of your next turn, draw as many cards as you have Maneuverer in play. Discard down to 6 cards in hand.

#15 (tie) - Kolkhoz by Qvist with 5 points (Tin)
$5 - Action
Choose one: Draw until you have 6 cards in hand; or: +2 Actions, +$1, +1 Buy.

#15 (tie) - Town Musician by eHalcyon with 5 points (Sodium)
$3 - Action
Choose one: +1 Action per Town Musician in play (including this card), +1 Card; or +$1 per Town Musician in play (including this card), +1 Buy.

#15 (tie) - Windmill by Rush Clasic with 5 points (Radium)
$5 - Action
+3 Cards
Trash a card from your hand. If that card costs $3 or more: +1 Action.

#15 (tie) - Fountain by Robz888 with 5 points (Iodine)
$3 - Action
+$1
+1 VP
You may play a Fountain from your hand.

#15 (tie) - New Moon by Bella Cullen with 5 points (Hydrogen)
$4 - Action
+1 Card
+1 Action
Choose one: Draw up to 6 cards, OR +$2 and discard two cards.

#20 (tie) - Collector by heatthespurs with 4 points (Potassium)
$5 - Action-Victory
Worth 2 VP
--
Reveal a card from your hand, if it is an...
Action card, +2 Actions
Treasure card, +$2
Victory card, +2 Cards
You may trash the revealed card.

#20 (tie) - Barge by DWetzel with 4 points (Aluminum)
$2 - Action-Duration
For each copy of Barge you have in play, including this one, choose one: $1, +1 Card, or +1 Action.  The choices may be the same or different.
At the start of your next turn: $1.

#22 (tie) - Pet Monkey by angrybirds with 3 points (Lithium)
$5 - Action
+1 Action
Reveal cards from your deck until you reveal a treasure putting it into your hand.
For every differently named treasure card in your hand, choose either +$1 or +1 Card.

#22 (tie) - Luchre by Adrienaline with 3 points (Krypton)
$2 - Treasure
Put a card from your hand on top of your deck.
Worth $2 per card from hand you put on top of your deck this turn.

#22 (tie) - Horn of Sufficiency by Sakako with 3 points (Fluorine)
$4 - Action
+1 Action
Set aside the top card of your deck face-down on your Horn of Sufficiency mat. Gain a card costing up to $2 more than the number of cards on your mat.
You may not look at the set-aside cards. Discard the set aside cards at the end of your turn.

#22 (tie) - Revolutionary by NoMoreFun with 3 points (Calcium)
$5 - Action
Discard any number of cards from your hand.
Draw until you have 6 cards in hand.
Reveal your hand. For each Revolutionary in it, +1 Action.

#26 (tie) - Watermill by Fuu with 2 points (Mercury)
$3 - Action
Gain a card costing up to $3 per Watermill in play, counting this.

#26 (tie) - Royal Society by zahlman with 2 points (Magnesium)
$4 - Action
+1 Action
Reveal a card from your deck for each copy of Royal Society you have in play (including this), and one more. Put one of the revealed cards into your hand; discard any number of other revealed cards; put the rest on the bottom of your deck.
--
When you clean this up, if you did not play another Royal Society this turn, put this on top of your deck.

#26 (tie) - Collaborator by RobertJ with 2 points (Cobalt)
$2 - Action
+1 Action
Choose one: +1 Card; or +$1 for each Collaborator you have in play (including this one).

#26 (tie) - Assessor by Guy Srinivasan with 2 points (Chlorine)
$3 - Action
+1 Action
Draw until you have 5 cards in hand, then draw a card, revealing the drawn cards. Set aside one of the revealed cards and discard the rest.
You may put the set aside card into your hand at any time before the Clean-up phase this turn. If you do not, discard it.

#30 (tie) - Flea Market by Watno with 1 point (Xenon)
$3 - Action
For every Flea Market you have in play (including this), you may choose one (no option may be taken more than twice):
+1 Action, +1 Card, +$1, +1 Buy, trash a card from your hand.

#30 (tie) - Samurai by PenPen with 1 point (Titanium)
$5 - Action-Attack-Reaction
+1 Card
Each other player discards a card.
You may return up to two Samurai tokens to its supply. Each other player discards an additional card per token returned.
Gain a Samurai token.
--
When another player plays an Attack card, you may return a Samurai token to its supply and discard this, then at the start of your next turn, +1 Card. You may instead trash this card if you do not return a Samurai token to its supply, if you do, gain a Samurai token.
If you do either, you are unaffected by that Attack.

#30 (tie) - Ifthiscardwinsi'llgiveitanactualtitle by Graystripe77 with 1 point (Silicon)
$4 - Action
+3 Cards
+1 Action
Discard a card.
Each other player draws and discards a card.
Reveal your hand. If you did not reveal any Ifthiscardwinsi'llgiveitanactualtitle, return this to the supply.

#30 (tie) - Junkyard by Tejayes with 1 point (Radon)
$2 - Action
+1 Action
+1 Buy
+$1
You may convert 2 Actions, 2 Buys, or 1 Action and 1 Buy into $1.
You may convert $1 into 2 Actions, 2 Buys, or 1 Action and 1 Buy.
(You cannot go below 0 Actions or 0 Buys.)

#30 (tie) - Whitesmith by One Armed Man with 1 point (Phosphorus)
$3 - Action
Reveal any number of Silver cards from your hand. +1 Action for each Silver revealed. Then, +2 Cards.

#30 (tie) - Conjurer by Kirian with 1 point (Nickel)
$3 - Action
+1 Card
+1 Action
+$1 for each Conjurer token on your mat
You may trash a card from your hand.  If you do, gain a token on your Conjurer mat.
--
When you discard this from play, choose one: gain a Copper, or return all Conjurer tokens to the supply.

#30 (tie) - Juggler by PurplePotato with 1 point (Lead)
$5 - Action
Choose One: +3 Cards; or +3 Actions.

#30 (tie) - Coven by Mecherath with 1 point (Gallium)
$5 - Action
Choose one: +$1; or +1 Card; or +1 Buy.
Choose one: Each other player gains a Curse; or reveal cards from the top of your deck until you reveal a Coven.  Put it in your hand and discard the other cards.
You may play a Coven from your hand.

#30 (tie) - Stratego by ignorentmen with 1 point (Chromium)
$5 - Action
+1 Action
When this is in play each time you draw a card remove a token from your Stratego mat if possible, or instead of drawing a card you may place a token on your Stratego mat.  During this or another turn you may redeem your mat's tokens for a card equal to the number of tokens on your mat.
+1 Card

#30 (tie) - Railway Town by Jack Rudd with 1 point (Beryllium)
$5 - Action
+1 Card
+2 Actions
If you have played Railway Town two or more times this turn, +1 Card.
If you have played it three or more times this turn, +$1.
If you have played it four or more times this turn, +1 Buy.
If you have played it five or more times this turn, +1 VP.

#40 (tie) - Oafs by Powerman with 0 points (Tungsten)
$6 - Action-Attack
+3 Cards
Discard 2 cards.
If this is the first Oafs you've played this turn, each other player discards any number of cards from their hand and draws until they have 5 cards.  Otherwise, each other player discards a card from their hand.

#40 (tie) - Sycophant by Fragasnap with 0 points (Plutonium)
$2P - Action
+2 Cards
+$1
Return a card from your hand to the Supply and gain a card costing up to as much as it, putting it into your hand.
You may play a Sycophant from your hand.

#40 (tie) - Architect's Guild by Tables with 0 points (Helium)
$5 - Action
+2 Actions
+1 Card for every three action cards in play (including this).
+$1 for every four action cards in play (including this).
If you have twelve or more action cards in play (including this), trash this.

#40 (tie) - Contraption by Nicrosil with 0 points (Argon)
$2 - Action
+1 Action
+1 Buy
+$1
Trash this and another card from your hand. If you trash this, and have no cards in hand, the player to your left reveals his or her hand. Gain 4 non-Victory cards costing at most $6 which were not revealed.

[Robz888]

Congratulations to the winner!

Also, nice card, Yuma! Yours was my favorite.

[popsofctown]

I voted for the winner for once! Yaya!

[yuma]

wow second place for my card:

#2 - Recruiter by yuma with 17 points (Boron)
$5 - Action-Attack
Choose one: gain an Attack card from the supply; or all other players gain a Curse.
--
When you play this you may reveal Attack cards from your hand. +$1 for each revealed Attack card.

In the end I am glad it didn't win as it didn't, as was mentioned by others, fit the specifications of the challenge. For that reason I am surprised that it got as many votes as it did.

[popsofctown]

It was easy to miss that it didn't fit the challenge.  I am also glad it didn't win (it's ok to say it after you say it, right?)

This is in contrast with the first winner, which was ok because things were different.

[yuma]

It was easy to miss that it didn't fit the challenge.  I am also glad it didn't win (it's ok to say it after you say it, right?)

This is in contrast with the first winner, which was ok because things were different.

I wasn't planning on it winning by any means, but in the 5% chance that it would, I think I would have either suggested it not be used or figure out a way to tweak it so that it would fit the specifications...

[eHalcyon]

Congrats to the winner -- two price reducers now!



My entry this week, Sodium, was likely overpowered.  I entered it mostly for the theme, which you all did not get to see because names are hidden.

#15 (tie) - Town Musician by eHalcyon with 5 points (Sodium)
$3 - Action
Choose one: +1 Action per Town Musician in play (including this card), +1 Card; or +$1 per Town Musician in play (including this card), +1 Buy.


The name is mostly a reference to Wandering Minstrel.  This is another musical Village card.  Town Musician is a reference to the Town Musicians of Bremen, which is a fun little folk tale about four animals.  With this card, 4 is the magic number -- the first three plays will usually end up turning each of them into a Peddler, but the fourth one can give a big payout.

Nonetheless, it should probably have been costed at $4 or tweaked in some other way.  Can't win them all though!

[PenPen]

Congrats to dnkywin! I didn't vote for it however. I wonder if there are/were medieval salesmen though.

On my card (Samurai/Titanium) I designed around the theme that samurais would be based on tokens (which is kinda like honor or bushido) where you get more honor by attacking other players. Meanwhile when you're attacked, the samurai defends for you, but once the honor's used up in defending you, the samurai commits seppuku (thus the trashing).

It just scaled pretty badly and the card got really complex (it was actually even crazier when I first designed this), and the end result is meh. I do think there's a chance that Guilds may be using a system like the card I designed, but the tokens can be used by multiple cards you own (that's purely speculation from me).

[GendoIkari]

Ummm...

The results are in!  As a reminder, here was the objective for this challenge:

Create a one-shot card.  This is a card that trashes itself, returns itself to its pile, or sets itself aside permanently when played.  The card must always do this when played; it can't, for example, only trash or return itself under certain circumstances, or if the player chooses a particular option.  You may only submit a single card -- that is, you can't submit multiple cards that work together (such as Pillage and Spoils).

[Schneau]

Congrats dnkywin! It looks like we definitely need +Buy now - all these price reducers need them!

[Robz888]

Ummm...

The results are in!  As a reminder, here was the objective for this challenge:

Create a one-shot card.  This is a card that trashes itself, returns itself to its pile, or sets itself aside permanently when played.  The card must always do this when played; it can't, for example, only trash or return itself under certain circumstances, or if the player chooses a particular option.  You may only submit a single card -- that is, you can't submit multiple cards that work together (such as Pillage and Spoils).

You are in the wrong thread! Is that what you are confused about?

[PenPen]

Ummm...

The results are in!  As a reminder, here was the objective for this challenge:

Create a one-shot card.  This is a card that trashes itself, returns itself to its pile, or sets itself aside permanently when played.  The card must always do this when played; it can't, for example, only trash or return itself under certain circumstances, or if the player chooses a particular option.  You may only submit a single card -- that is, you can't submit multiple cards that work together (such as Pillage and Spoils).

You are in the wrong thread! Is that what you are confused about?

No he's right actually...rinkworks used the wordings from the other contest for his rankings in this one.

[nopawnsintended]

Congrats to the winner!

I'm happy with a tie for 3rd on Oxygen/Broker.  Even though it was underpriced, I've played about four games with it (half of the games priced at $4 after the contest was underway... it works better at $4), and it is a lot of fun.

One thing I found with the card is that it pairs really well with Festival.  In a Goons game, it wasn't as good as a Hunting Party Stack, and it is (like most cards) a bad buy in an IGG rush.

In retrospect, I should have noticed the $3 most-of-the-time-it's-Peddler flaw, but oh well, it placed better than I expected... and it was fun to play, too.

[Jack Rudd]

Heh, Railway Town got fewer votes after the modifications to it. Such is life.

[rinkworks]

Ummm...

The results are in!  As a reminder, here was the objective for this challenge:

Create a one-shot card.  This is a card that trashes itself, returns itself to its pile, or sets itself aside permanently when played.  The card must always do this when played; it can't, for example, only trash or return itself under certain circumstances, or if the player chooses a particular option.  You may only submit a single card -- that is, you can't submit multiple cards that work together (such as Pillage and Spoils).

Whoops!  Fixed.

[Polk5440]

Heh, Railway Town got fewer votes after the modifications to it. Such is life.

I noticed the same thing about my card, Horse Farm, last week.

[Mecherath]

Ouch.  Only vote was myself.  Tough crowd.

[ashersky]

I'm happy to finish so high for my Prairie Village/Iron.  My best submission by far so far.  Maybe I'm learning... Congrats to the dnkywin!

[Archetype]

Yay! My card, Wildfire/Arsenic got 8th! I could have made it a copper, but it was just dripping with so much theme

Congrats to the winner! I liked pop's card the best though.

[Schlippy]

Cadmium
$4 - Action-Duration
+1 Action
+$1
At the start of your next turn, draw as many cards as you have [This Card] in play. Discard down to 6 cards in hand.

So, it's sort of like Caravan that gets stronger if you've played more Cadmiums? If you have 1 in play, draw 1 card. 2 draws 4. 3 draws 9. So, squared. But, you then have to discard down to 6 cards. If you have more than 1 of these in play, it gives you good sifting - and 3 or more is ridonkydonk sifting. I'd guess this is slightly less powerful than Caravan, but not by too much. It's probably fine, but doesn't get me too excited.

After reading others' comments, I realize that these would probably take effect sequentially instead of all at once. So, you play 3, and you get three times to draw 3 and discard down to 6. I don't know if this is what is intended, but that's how it reads if taken literally.

Of course that is intended, the other way would be utterly overpowered imho.

[yuma]

I think I figured out a possible fix for Recruiter/Boron so that it would have fit the specs of this competition....

the original card was

$5 - Action-Attack
Choose one: gain an Attack card from the supply; or all other players gain a Curse.
--
When you play this you may reveal Attack cards from your hand. +$1 for each revealed Attack card.

But I think if I changed it to:

$5 - Action-Attack

Choose one: + Action, gain an Attack card from the supply; or all other players gain a Curse card.
--
If you have played 2 or more Attack cards this turn (counting this): +$1


I am not sure if adding the +Action is necessary or not.

I would say that this is the only thing--and it is a pretty minor one--that I don't like about this contest. In that you can't use constructive criticism from other players and get unique perspectives until after your challenge is completed.

[FishingVillage]

Huh... so uh, if I were to use KC on Salesman, then the cost reduction would occur 3 times, since it's using the same wording as Bridge and not what Highway or Princess uses right?

[eHalcyon]

Huh... so uh, if I were to use KC on Salesman, then the cost reduction would occur 3 times, since it's using the same wording as Bridge and not what Highway or Princess uses right?

Indeed.