Facade: $1
Action
+1 Card
+1 Action
Place this on top of any supply pile.
----
When you buy this, +1 Buy
This has been one of the more interesting mechanical ideas floating around, and I really like this interpretation of it. It's simple, effectual, and the buy bonus is nice. It does come with a lot of rules baggage, though.
1) If it's on top of the Silver pile, and I play Trader, do I gain it or a Silver? I think this is an intuitive enough situation: I gain Silver. That's what Trader says I gain. But it sets a precedent that causes other issues.
2) If it's on top of the Estate pile, and I play Ambassador revealing an Estate but returning none of them, does my opponent gain an Estate or a Facade? Again, the intuitive answer is to gain an Estate. Facade is, after all, not a copy of it.
3) Suppose Facade is the second card down in the Copper pile, because I returned 2 Coppers with Ambassador and only have one opponent. If I later Ambassador a Facade, can my opponent gain the one that's buried? I'd instinctively say "no", but this is where I start to think some disagreement might crop up.
These questions go on for a while. There are reasonable answers to most, but man, that's a lot of Q&A. That's why I'm a fan of adding clarification on the card for how it works. Something like "If this is on top of a Supply pile and you would gain a card from that pile, gain this instead. The same is true for trashing." I'm not even sure that covers all of the corner cases. It might also be that I've over-thought this ability since it's one of the first custom designs that intrigued me, but I think the issues are at least marginally real. I'd be very curious to hear about more testing on this card.
Smuggled Goods: $4
Treasure
$1
+1 Buy
Play a treasure from the trash or supply. Trash it or return it to the supply. Trash this.
Play this, play a copy of it from the supply, play another copy, trash the whole pile in one stroke. Needs a different mechanic.
Treaty: $3
Action/Duration
+2 Actions
+1 Buy
At the start of your next turn, +1 Action, +1 Buy. While this is in play, when another player plays an attack card, it doesn't affect you.
Fair enough, but treads a bit on Lighthouse's shoes. There's a reason none of the other reaction cards just Moat attacks, for instance.
Tailor: $2
Action
+2 Cards
When you gain or play this, shuffle a card from your discard pile into your deck.
It's a pet peeve of mine when cards add excessive shuffling to a game. It's so much busy work and is the number one thing slowing play down. I'd like this more if if just triggered on the buy, that way there's a limited amount of extra forced shuffling. I mean, Chancellor exists, so there's an argument the other way. And the game already shuffles way more than almost any card game I've ever played. So take that for what you will. Overall, I really do like the function.
Panacea: $3p
Action
+1 Card
+1 Action
Choose one: +1 Card, OR +1 Buy, +$1, OR trash a card from your hand.
One of the reasons I like Pawn is because it's a challenging card to play well. This version strips a bit of that, since the cantrip takes away much of the concern. That does make it simpler to play though, which is a nice feature. Not a big fan of it being to only Potion card in the set. Instead of that, you could add another condition for buying it. "As an additional cost to buy this, discard a Duchy." There's all sorts of things you can do, albeit less elegant unless you want to make a theme of it.
Prospector: $5
+$1
Trash a card from your hand.
Draw up to 5 cards in hand.
The +$1 sorta sticks out. You say the card is powerful, so I wonder if it's necessary. I really like the idea: the trashing is an excellent theme to weave into a Library variant.
Cathedral: $3*
Victory
2vp
--
You may pay any amount for this, so long as you pay at least $3. When you buy this, gain a card costing at most $2 less than you paid.
I like the idea behind this card, but not the wording. If I understand correctly, if I pay $4 for this, I can gain an Estate? I had to read it a number of times before being rather certain about that. It's also awkward that you have to spend $3 on this even with a three Highways out. I'm not sure how best to approach it. The concept could be interesting: it's basically a flexible Border Village.
Professor: $3
Action
+2 Cards
Put any number of cards from your hand on top of your deck.
Tough to judge the power on this one. I feel like Courtyard would be better in a huge amount of situations, but I wonder if it is in enough to obsolete this. Either way, I think this can exist fine at $2.
Canal: $3
Action
+1 Card
+1 Action
Reveal your hand. Discard a card costing $4 or less that is not a Victory card, and gain a copy of it.
I like it! Sorta like a Workshop that doesn't waste your action for the turn... but then again, it sorta does. Seems like it could be great with kingdoms that cantrip a lot but don't village up.
Scribe: $2
Action
+1 Card
+1 Action
Name a card costing $5 or less. While this is in play, when you gain the named card, put it on top of your deck.
Seems like a simple enough card and a generally good idea. How differently does it play from Royal Seal? I feel like this should live at a higher cost. Notice the similarities to Scheme.
Merchant Banker: $4
Action/Duration
+$4
--
At the start of your next turn, discard a card.
Not much to say. The "big turn at the cost of a small turn" theme has proven well in the past.
Missionary: $2
Action/Reaction
Trash two cards from your hand.
--
When you gain a card, you may discard this from your hand. If you do, gain a card costing $1 more instead.
Very interesting card. It took a while for the theme to sink in, but I like it now that it's there. It's neat that your trasher still has a use later in the game, in exchange for being a weaker trasher to being with.
Assassin: $5
Action/Attack
+$1
Put your deck into your discard pile. Each other player gains a curse.
That's evil. I wonder if this could just go the Sea Hag route and not provide coins at all.
Archer: $4
Action
+2 Cards
+1 Buy
+$1
Gotta get all those available combinations while they're still out there!
Bath House: $4
Action
+1 Action
+1 Buy
+$1
Trash one or three cards from your hand.
Hmmm... I'm lost on what to think of this. The variable trashing is interesting if nothing else.
Abandoned Village: $4
Action/Reaction
+1 Card
+2 Actions
--
When any player gains a Victory card, you may set this aside. If you do, gain a Silver in hand. At the start of your turn, return this to your hand.
Awkward in games with no +Buy. I mean, not that awkward: you buy a Duchy, you set this aside, your Silver goes to hand, you discard your hand, Abandoned Village comes back. I just mean that the Silver going to your hand won't mean anything sometimes, which is fine, that happens to all cards. Just not so obviously.
Sneak: $3
action
+2 Actions
+$1
Each other player reveals their hand. +$1 if any cards costing $6 or more were revealed this way.
Very reasonable. It's a nice enough way to work toward the endgame, and the improvement is simple and nice. One of my favorites in the lot.
Author
Topic: Fan Expansion: Control Freak (1st Half) (Read 4870 times)