When explaining Bandit Camp to my father today, we got to talking about how similar it is to buying a Village and a Gold. This got me thinking about how Spoils vs. Gold define the way that economy works in Dominion: you don't lose money when you spend it. However this is not true with Spoils. Anyway, I was thinking about the concept and came up with the following card ideas. Don't expect them to be play tested or properly formatted, especially since I'm posting this from an iPad. Instead, think about the concept of one-shot money and it's implications on the game.
Gold Rush
Cost: $7
Type: treasure
$0
Gain a Spoils, putting it into your hand.
This is basically a Gold, but you can save a Spoils if you don't need it.
I figured this would be too good, but also too similar to Gold. So I thought of a nerf:
Expedition
Cost: $6 (or $7)
Type: treasure
$1
Gain a [one-shot Silver], putting it into your hand.
Similar thought, but definitely worse. This got me thinking to a more conventional card:
Token
Cost: $5
Type: treasure
$2
Gain a Silver.
Obviously, this draws comparisons to Explorer and is not different enough to ever be produced, but is still interesting.
The first two cards are more at the heart of what I was getting at: imaging Dominion economy as a more realistic economy. Thoughts on the concept, more so than the card themselves, would be appreciated.