Town Watch - $2
Action - Duration
+1 Action
While this is in play, when another player plays an Attack card, +1 Card.
Love the idea. We could use more duration cards that activate on attacks like this. I like that the defense is soft, as the attacker, aware of this card being out, may still want to play it. That differentiates the way this card plays from Lighthouse from the attacking side as well as the defending side.
However, the softness of the defense makes it compare quite poorly to Lighthouse, a hard defense with a strictly superior action effect. True, for some weak attacks, you'd *rather* take the hit and get +1 Card, rather than stopping them completely. But Lighthouse will be preferable as a defense most of the time and as an action all of the time.
So I would add a little something to the action component, such as making it any of these:
- +1 Action, +1 Buy, +$1 (making it slightly better than Lighthouse's action component)
- +1 Card, +1 Action
- +2 Actions
Goblin - $3
Action - Attack
+2 Coins
Each other player discards a Treasure card or reveals a hand with no Treasure cards.
Comment: swingy, but i think cheap Attacks like this should be swingy.
This is strictly superior to Cutpurse (except in a couple of contrived and unlikely scenarios one might fabricate as a puzzle) at a cheaper price. I think $5 might even be too weak for this: the saving grace of Cutpurse, which is brutal in the early game, is that its power wears off. This one would start out just as brutally and usually get WORSE as the game goes on.
Warg - $3
Action - Attack
+1 Action
+1 Coin
The player to your left chooses one:
You draw two cards or he discards one card.
That's a really interesting idea. It does seem like it was made for chaining, so I think it's one of the rare attacks I agree is best as a non-terminal. The +Coin makes a lot of sense, too: most likely the opponent will choose to discard on the first couple of plays of this card. The +Coin keeps the card from being useless to the player if he doesn't have any more to chain.
However, I don't like that it only hits the player on the left. While not a
targetted attack, which is a good thing, I don't like that a 3p game might be decided by seating order if one player decides to rush Wargs on a board that the other two players agree is bad for it.
How about "Every other player may discard a card. If any do not, +2 Cards."? Seating order still matters here: Opponent #1 may not want to discard a card, but he might think sacrificing a card is worth it to keep the attacker from drawing any more. But then if Opponent #2 does not discard, Opponent #1 will have discarded for nothing.
On the other hand, if Opponent #1 does not discard, Opponent #2 never will.
I'm not sure if this is a desirable gameplay flow either, but I do think it's worth exploring ideas like this that attempt to hit every player.
Call to Arms - $4
Action
Gain an Attack card from the Supply. Play it immediately.
Comment: a speedy way to hit your opponent exactly how and when you want. the "Attack" designation is almost purely a disadvantage; this changes that somewhat.
Great in a kingdom without Attack cards, but about 20% of kingdoms with this card in it will not, and then it's a dead pile.
Catapult - $4
Action
Choose an Attack card in your hand. Play it three times, then trash it.
Comment: a cheap Attack-only King's Court. let's be honest, you're only going to see that Attack a few times per game. you may as well use it once to devastating effect, eh? eh?
Another really interesting idea that suffers from the same problem. I suppose if these are in an attack-heavy set, and the intention is to play with them together, it's fine. But it does sort of break down the "any 10 cards work" design principle of Dominion a little bit. So I guess, worth doing if that's what you want, but it's a weakness it's good to be aware of.
Necromancer - $4
Action
The player to your left may trash a card.
If he does, you may gain that card and put it on top of your deck.
If not, you may gain a card from the Trash pile and put it on top of your deck.
Again, I don't really like the fact that it only hits one player, though in this case it seems to be more of a help than a hurt. As you surmise in your comments, this is pretty weak. I'd basically never buy this, because I think it would be somewhat rare that it would actually hurt. Certainly there are times when it would -- maybe about as often as you actually get something good from Masquerade.
It doesn't really enable the Trash, either: on many boards, this will be the only trasher in the kingdom. But it will never put anything worth having in the trash, since, if the defending player only has good cards, he will simply forego trashing anything at all. So nothing good will ever get there, except on the very few boards with a trash-for-benefit card. And on those, players will be dissuaded from actually using those cards, since it might benefit their opponents.
Demon Slayer - $5
Action - Reaction
+2 Coin
Each other player discards an Attack card from his hand or reveals a hand with no Attack cards.
---
When another player plays an Attack card, you may discard this from your hand. If you do, that Attack card is trashed. (It may still affect you.)
Although not strictly useless in a kingdom without attacks, you can always do better than a terminal +$2 that costs $5 -- by buying Silver instead, for example. So this is another dead card in an attack-less kingdom.
The greater problem, though, is that reactions that hurt the attacker are inherently flawed. It sounds like good gameplay if an attacker has to think twice before playing an attack, but really what will happen is that players simply won't buy attacks in the first place, for fear of the tempo loss when they lose them. That, in turn, means this is a dead card even IF there are attack cards present in the kingdom.
Ogre - $5
Action - Attack
The player to your left may trash a card from his hand. If he does, the player to his left may trash two cards. If he does, the player to his left may trash three cards. This continues clockwise until a player refuses to trash any cards. That player discards his hand.
Comment: in a two-player game, if you're willing to trash two cards, your opponent may be forced to either discard his hand or trash four cards total. pretty crazy card, certain to be a gamechanger. (perhaps also the dumbest thing i've ever come up with)
LOL. I doubt this card actually works, but it does sound fun enough, in a crazy sort of way, to at least try out as a novelty.
Haunted Village - $5
Action - Attack
+2 Actions
+1 Card
Each other player gains a Curse card.
Comment: a bewitched village. is this strictly better than Witch? it might be. if so, add "Discard a card from your hand." after the +1 Card
Yikes. It's not
strictly better than Witch, but it's strictly better than Familiar, which is powerful enough that it requires a Potion cost to be costable at all. I think even with a "discard a card," it's too strong. Maybe discard 2?
I do think adding in a penalty is a better idea than blindly raising the price, though. It's probably too swingy to have a $6 card that might decide the game based on which player gets to it first.
Temple - $5
Victory
Worth 1 VP for each Temple in your deck.
Comment: Competing for these is a waste of time, but getting them all will win you the game. I'm almost positive something exactly like this has been suggested before.
This has come up, yeah. In the Secret History of the Intrigue Cards, Donald said that Duke started out this way, but it was broken due to the extreme variance. The solution, he said, was to make it count another card instead of itself.
Infernal Chest - $6
Treasure
Worth $4
When you play this, reveal the top card of your deck.
If the revealed card is a Victory card, gain a Curse.
If not, trash the revealed card.
Comment: a deal with the devil. it could actually help you, if you prepare for it; it can trash Coppers and Curses just as well as your other stuff.
I was with you until trashing the revealed card. That just introduces way too much luck into the game, for my taste. But if you simply discarded the revealed card, this could at least be worth trying. I like that it becomes more hazardous to use in the end game. On the other hand, Curses are less problematic in the endgame, so I suspect this is still too strong. I like the idea here, though.
Sorceror - $6
Action - Attack
+2 Cards
Each other player discards the top two cards of his deck, then places 2 Confusion cards on top of his deck.
---
Setup: Add a pile of 8/12/16/20 Confusion cards to the Supply, based on the number of players.
Confusion - $0
Action - Confusion
Return this card to the Supply.
Really interesting variation on the Confusion idea. Changing Confusion in this way is very subtle: now Confusion-giving attacks don't just dry up the moment the Confusion pile empties.
However, I don't like the attack. Sea Hag is extremely swingy already, since if it randomly hits one of your opening buys, you might have just lost the game. This doubles that risk. Why not simply gain the Confusions to the discard pile? That seems plenty strong enough for a $6 attack anyhow and would make this a very interesting card.
The Manticore - $7
Action - Duration
Each other player discards all Victory cards from his hand, or reveals a hand with no Victory cards.
---
While this card is in play, if another player plays an Action, you may discard this card. If you do, the played Action is discarded without effect.
As you note, this does have nice interactions. But you pretty much need those few enablers to make the action component any good at all. I'm also not a fan of the duration effect, but mostly just because I think it would be unfun, rather than broken.
