Elixer
$5
When you play this, play an action card from your hand. Worth $ equal to half its cost in coins, rounded up*.
I haven't playtested this because my real life playgroup isn't experienced enough for me to feel confident that they'd understand this but I'm interested in people's thoughts on it: would it be an interesting card or is it too weird?
*I know dominion convention rounds things down but the card looks really bad in comparison to festival otherwise.
Your title says "treasure village" and you use the term "worth", so I assume that Elixer is a Treasure card.
Note that it should actually be spelled "Elixir".
The main problem with this card is that it breaks the separation between action phase and buy phase. This could still work, but it wouldn't really allow Elixer to function as a village. I believe that, according to the rules, it would play out as follows:
- You conduct your action phase as normal.
- You decide to move into your buy phase; note that you may still have actions remaining (relevant for Diadem).
- You play Elixer and, as per its instructions, you play an action card; let's say Laboratory, which draws you more cards and gives you another action.
- At this point you may have more Action cards available, but because you're in the buy phase you still cannot play them even if you have actions remaining (maybe from playing any non-terminal with Elixer). You can play more Treasures though, potentially playing more actions with more Elixers.
- You buy things.
- You clean up and end your turn.
Assuming that this is all understood, the card may work just fine.
Strategically, I am not sure how it would play out. You typically want villages for engines, but Elixer seems awkward for this purpose. How do you play when your hand is Smithy-Elixer-Copper*3? If it were a village, it's obvious that you play the village first and then play Smithy. With Elixer, there are two things you could do:
1. Play Smithy in your action phase, then use Elixer to play any action you draw from Smithy. If you don't draw an action, Elixer is dead.
2. Don't play Smithy, instead moving directly to the Buy phase and playing Smithy via Elixer. Now you are liable to draw actions dead, unless you also find another Elixer.
An additional disadvantage is that Elixer itself can be drawn dead if it shows up in a hand with no actions.
If you want to playtest it, I suggest making it worth $1 on its own, then giving additional money based on the action played rounding
down. Or maybe make it worth $2 and forget about any cost-related bonus. That will make it work a little more like a village because it won't feel as necessary to follow scenario 2 described above. Making it worth $1+Bonus may b more interesting because then there is still some incentive to follow scenario 2, giving the player an interesting choice.
