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[Elyv]

Mercury:

Um...Militia?  This card is just about strictly worse, and MUCH worse.  They get to pick 4 cards out of 6 instead of 3 out of 5?  And if they have more than 5 they don't even discard down to 4?  Cool name though.

It's a treasure.

My main fear with mercury is some sort of engine deck laying down 3+ of these during the buy phase and locking everyone else out of the game.

[rinkworks]

Ore
Treasure      4
Worth $1
Name a card type which hasn't been named this turn. Cards of the named type cost $1 less while this is in play.
Love the card. Compare with bridge and quarry. But it's pretty useless without +buy, so it might be better as a non-terminal, non-serial action? Note that you can name any type, so you could get multi-type cards down even more. Or maybe I can actually give this a buy? Can I? Is that not too strong? Issue is, first one's going to be just better than silver too much there I think.

Tough question here.  Let's say Ore offers +Buy and compare with Bridge:

(1) Bridge consumes an action, making it harder to spam.  Ore can be played in multiples much more easily.
(2) Bridge operates on all types; Ore on only one type per play.
(3) Bridge stacks, whereas Ore cannot stack (except with multi-type cards, but I think we can mostly regard that as insignificant for balancing/pricing considerations).

The first two points might seem to counterbalance each other, but I don't think so.  Because how many times do you want to buy two cards of different types?  Obviously it happens.  But lots of times you only wind up using one of your Buys, and when you do buy more than one card, lots of times they're the same time (two Minions, for example; or a Province and a Duchy in the endgame).  The ability to buy different types at a discount doesn't seem like enough compensation for the lost action.  So Ore wins so far.

But now we come to point (3), which is that Bridge can be so game-dominatingly powerful when stacked.  That's far and away anything Ore can do under ANY circumstances.  Ore can be spammed more easily, yes, but when it is, the benefits only accumulate to a point.

So I think that, yes, you can add that +Buy to Ore and be quite balanced at $4.  I think the "average" use of the card will be better than the "average" use of Bridge, but on the other hand Ore has a much weaker upside.

Soldiers' Village
Action         4
Discard 1 card
+2 Cards
+2 Actions
Quite possibly a bit too strong, as if you've got any bad cards of the other four, this is going to be really strong, like a level 2 city. On the other hand, it really might be quite fine.

It's tough to say, since that Level 2 City effect doesn't stack.  Roughly speaking, you can only get that Level 2 City effect once per green card in your initial hand.  The effect of the card is not a million miles removed from ChaosRed's Village card, which struck me as seeming quite balanced.  His lets you replace a green card you might have drawn; yours requires the bad card to be in your initial hand but allows it to be something besides a green card, like a Curse or Copper.  Ultimately it's probably a wash.  Thus, my suspicion is that it's probably balanced.  I do like it.

Mercury
Treasure-Attack      4
Worth $2
Every other player with 5 or more cards in hand draws a card then discards 2 cards.
Could also switch the order if this is too weak, but I have a feeling that would be too strong. I actually think this is pretty likely good where it is.

To respond to goober's comments above, Mercury is a Treasure and therefore doesn't consume an action.  Thus, the attack *should* be weaker than Militia's.

To respond to Elyv, the attack doesn't stack, so multiple plays can't hurt anybody worse than just one.

Here's my feeling on the attack:  "Every player with more than 5 cards discards 1 card" is a frightfully weak attack, and this is even weaker.  Think about Vault's "every other player" effect.  That's there because sometimes other players want to do this.  Mercury's attack is basically the same thing, only weaker still, because the players get to draw first.  Of course, Vault's effect is optional, and that's a really big deal.  Still.

But, WW, I've reconsidered since I emailed you about this card.  Yes, the attack is weak, but then again it ought to be.  It's effectively a $4 non-terminal.  The attack really shouldn't be any stronger than Spy's, which draws a card instead of offering +$2.  So I think my initial impulse here, that the attack is too weak, was wrong.

However, there is this.  Not that this is a principle you have to adopt for your own cards.  But I think on a board with Royal Seal and Stash, this is going to look like a bargain at $4.  If it were me, I'd keep this card as written, but price it at $5 just based on Donald's remarks and experience here.

Really enjoying this thread, WW.  Considering your cards are great thinking exercises.

[goober]

I missed that Mercury was a treasure rather than an action; my apologies.  I could claim that a treasure-attack is so exotic that I hadn't considered it, but really I just read your post too fast.  Seems like as a treasure it's probably balanced, but presents the new problem of being just not very interesting.  On most boards the attack is just about a wash, and apart from that Mercury is just a "slightly better than silver" priced at 4, which others have pointed out may be a problem.  Seems not really bad, just not really interesting either.  I would like to see a similar card with a stronger attack, but a less money produced than the standard treasure at it's price point. 

[WanderingWinder]

Salt
Reaction-Attack      4
Whenever a victory card is bought, you may discard this from your hand. If you do, every other player gains a curse.
Okay, I'm not going to lie. I wanted the novelty of a reaction attack. But I actually do like this design of card. It's much better obviously with dual-type victories. Once again, you want to note that you can react to yourself. But do you really want to buy that duchy to give a curse? Probably not so often actually. Yes, you gain VP, but you're actually losing tempo here - they have the curse, but you've wasted two buys (one on this, another on the duchy) and have a green card to offset their curse. And late game, curses are not so strong.


Straits
Action-Victory      4
+1 Buy
+$1
__________________________________
Worth 2 VP
Probably quite boring and a touch weak. I originally had this as a card and a buy, but that's probably even weaker. Here it's a worse woodcutter that gives you 2 VP. But this is, honestly, one of the top cards I'm considering replacing.

Logistician
Action         4
+1 Card
+1 Action
Reveal cards from the top of your deck until you reveal a copper. Put the copper in your hand discard the rest.
A lab that guarantees you to have one of the draws be copper. Or if you have no other copper in your deck, a cantrip chancellor. Originally I let you replace the revealed cards, but then if you don't have much or any copper, you might easily get to the situation where you're stacking your entire deck, and that's not something you really want mechanics-wise, mostly for practical reasons, but also somewhat for power reasons.

[Titandrake]

I really don't know what to make of Salt. I think my biggest gripe with it is that if no one buys a victory card, it's completely useless. It's not like that doesn't happen with other cards too (ex Lookout in a trimmed deck, Sea Hag with no curses), but Salt seems especially bad in comparison. It seems very much like a late game card with an early game cost (so it's basically a trade route )

Straits is yeah, not especially interesting, but I don't think it's unbalanced.

I do like Logistician, but it might be a tad strong. I don't have much experience with Tournament-chains in the early/mid game, but that + deck cycling might make it worthwhile. Still, power level seems safe.

[WanderingWinder]

I really don't know what to make of Salt. I think my biggest gripe with it is that if no one buys a victory card, it's completely useless. It's not like that doesn't happen with other cards too (ex Lookout in a trimmed deck, Sea Hag with no curses), but Salt seems especially bad in comparison. It seems very much like a late game card with an early game cost (so it's basically a trade route )

How often do you play games where nobody buys any victory cards? And how often do YOU not have the ability to buy a victory card - this is the way I assume it's going to get activated most often. It may be a bit weak, but it *is* a non-terminal curse-giver for 4.

[rinkworks]

All three of those seem balanced to me.  Logistician is more or less Peddler + cycling, which feels strong for $4 until one realizes that the cycling effect will grow as the game goes on and the Coppers spread out in your deck.  That's exactly what you don't want -- to be cycling in those greens faster in the end game.  So I think the power level is fine.

Straits is balanced and kind of boring, yeah.  It seems like it would be really fun to have as a extra card in the kingdom, but I'd be disappointed to see it take away a slot that a more interesting card could have filled.

Salt, for example, is that interesting card.  I agree with all your thoughts on this and concur that it would add a really interesting dynamic to the game.  This might be my favorite card of yours so far, assuming it plays like it seems it would play.

[WanderingWinder]

Last 2 4s
Regroup
Action         4
+1 Card
+1 Action
You may discard a victory card. If you do, +$2.
I thought 'this is probably broken with chapel'. Then I realized bishop is probably moreso. But I still think this is almost assuredly broken.

Veteran
Action         4
Do this twice:
Choose one: +1 Action, +1 Card, +1 buy, +$1
A card I've wanted to make for a long time. It's pawn, except: you can pick the same thing twice, and you can make the second choice after you've received the benefit from the first. So you can draw a card then see if you need the action or not. Is this a 4? Probably not a great one, but it's very versatile, and I think it's too strong for 3 probably.

[rinkworks]

Can you walk through your line of thinking on Regroup being broken?  I'm not really seeing why it's broken with Chapel in particular.  Sure, a Chapelled deck means it's easier to chain those Regroups together, but the discard requirement puts a limit on how much you can do that.  I can see how unstoppable a deck with a bunch of these and a Tactician would be.  But moreso than a bunch of Conspirators, a Tactician, and a Village?

Veteran is a great idea.  $4 is probably right, considering how versatile it is.  But I think it would not be very economical in a deck without extra actions, or you'd probably usually still use it like a Pawn (e.g., Action+Buy or Action+Coin).  In a village-based engine, though, the versatility would be fantastic.

[mith]

Sure, a Chapelled deck means it's easier to chain those Regroups together, but the discard requirement puts a limit on how much you can do that.

You can get around the limit for a very small deck (or a deck that can draw itself before playing the Regroups), because the victory card you discarded for one Regroup will be drawn again by the next.

If you get your deck down to four of these, a Chapel, and a green card, you're guaranteed Province buys until you hit four green cards, at which point you can alternate between trashing your worst green card and buying another Province. Whether or not that's game-winning depends on how fast you can get your deck to that point, and what your opponent is doing.

[rinkworks]

OH!  Of course, yes.  Thanks for pointing that out.

[mith]

(Looks like best case you could get down to the 6 card deck after 6 turns... which means 3 Provinces in 9 turns, 4 in 11, and a 4-3 split turn 13 - though of course there's a chance of a 5th Province on turn 12.)

[mith]

(And actually, you don't need to trash to keep the engine going; you can just buy more Regroups on turns you don't make it to 8. As long as you draw 4 Regroups before your hand is full of Chapel/green, you are guaranteed a Province.)