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Author Topic: Three more victory cards: Canal, Cathedral, and Orchards  (Read 1421 times)

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Diving Pikachu

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Three more victory cards: Canal, Cathedral, and Orchards
« on: November 05, 2011, 03:14:00 am »
+2

Silk Road has prompted a few of you to note that, while even Victory cards are now counted by their own Victory card, there's no Victory card that counts treasures. While a Victory card that only counts all your treasures--without any qualifications--would surely only encourage a boring BM strategy, I've found two potential ways to make certain treasures count in interesting ways. I also have a third Victory card I'd like to share as well.

Canal $4
(Victory)

Worth 1 Victory Point for every 5 Coppers in your deck (rounded down).

When you buy this card, gain two coppers and set them aside. During your cleanup phase, place them into your hand after you draw your 5 new cards.

***

The gained coppers swell your next hand into 7 cards, providing extra $ to make that Province perhaps, or convenient fodder for discards. Of course, fattening up your deck can be detrimental to some strategies. But if you keep those extra Coppers, you can boost this baby up to 2, or even 3 VP easily. When the endgame comes down to a greening race, you might end up buying Estates with $4 (or even $5, when Duchies run out). If you never trash a Copper, your 7 starting Coppers plus 8 more from buying 4 Canals will total 15 Coppers, or exactly what you need to turn these into Duchies. In 4p there won't be enough Canals for everyone to buy 4, but there's exactly enough Coppers for everyone to have 15 c in their deck.

I don't need to point out the synergies with Goons and other buy cards, in addition to the interactions with Copper attacks. But I find it a little neat that this card might make it worth it for you to take a copper from a Jester. Only problem I have with this card's current wording is that it makes it so incredibly vulnerable to Militia and similar attacks. I'd like for the coppers to be set aside until the start of your next turn, but that would be a pseudo-duration thingie, and require at least for you to set aside Canal as well when you gain it, in order to give the instructions about the coppers, which is too complicated.
******


Cathedral $5
(Victory-Treasure)

Worth 1 VP for every 6 coins in the total cost of all cards in your Cathedral Mat (rounded down).
--
When you buy this, place up to four treasures in play into the Cathedral Mat.
--
Worth $1

When you play this, place one treasure in play into the Cathedral Mat to play it a second time.

***

I know all that's a lot to fit on a single card, but I think the concept is simple enough... You can "trash" treasures when you buy this; and when you play this, "trash" another treasure you've played to play it again. It's a non-cycling silver Loan when you use it to clear a Copper. But to bump-up Cathedral's VP value, you're gonna have to Cathedral Mat some Silvers and/or Golds. Silvers would be the more usual target as they're fairly neutral cards in the mid- to late-game. You'd need to clear away two silvers to bump Cathedral's VP value up by 1. Or you can CM a whole Gold for the same effect, getting a nice +$4 for compensation.

I'm wondering whether the "when-buy" benefit is unnecessary... In addition to using up valuable space, it will encourage later buys when Silvers have much less relevance and you can more easily spare a Gold or two. Yet I really want it to be practical for early Copper-clearing, like a Chapel for flavor, and because the work of building up your Cathedral Mat might be too daunting for the "1+ X again" benefit to be nice enough. What I'm aiming for overall is a $5 Victory Card that's looked at like any solid $5 card, unlike Duke, which you can often ignore. Anyways, about the wording: Perhaps I can use a different formula for the VP? And as it is worded now, it can be a little confusing about interactions with Horn of Plenty and Bank, so if I could write an entry in a rulebook, I'd clarify with the following: Any card placed into the Cathedral Mat is still in play on the turn you played it.
******


Orchards $4
(Victory-Reaction)

2 VP

When this card is revealed from your deck, you may put it into your hand. If you do, it no longer counts as a card revealed from your deck.

When your hand is revealed with this card in it, you may discard this and draw one card from the top of your deck.

***

The first reaction is like a ripe apple--you pick out a single card that is mostly useless, but sometimes nice to have (with discards and the like). And both reactions generally make sure that Orchards--which doesn't add much to the productivity of your kingdom--still keeps the hell out of the way of the cards you actually need for business. So this card is like a soothing, delightful orchard sequestered within your castle courtyard, away from it all. I wonder if the wording of the first reaction is too confusing. "No longer counts as a card revealed" means that if revealed as one of the top two cards of your deck, and you take Orchards into your hand you reveal a third card. If it is Fortune Told, Orchard comes into your hand and Fortune Teller continues digging for a Victory or Curse.

Miscellaneous benefits: while it wouldn't avoid a Bureaucrat (yeah, I was disappointed too), it's not a liability for Wishing Well, and can't be left behind by an enemy's Spy. It avoids Jester's curse-giving, and makes Shanty Town suck less. For better or worse, it deflects Saboteur unto another card. It never mucks up Scrying Pool, and it's the only card you can pick up duplicates of with Hunting Party.
« Last Edit: November 05, 2011, 03:22:11 am by Diving Pikachu »
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