Because of some craziness this weekend I didn't get around to submitting a card, but hopefully that means I will be unbiased in my comments on the cards here.
Cemetery
Types: Victory
Cost: $5
Worth 2 VP plus 1 VP for every 2 differently named Action cards in the trash.
When you gain this, trash a card from your hand other than a Cemetery.
I'm not sure why the "other than Cemetery" clause is needed. In the worst case, this is a 2 VP card, and if you spent $5 getting it, then you were probably in a position where you want those 2 VP. Since most of the benefit from it is how many VP it scores at the end of the game, by the time you get it you almost certainly don't want to trash it.
Without support it almost certainly doesn't seem worth going for. It's probably not going to be worth more than 2 VP (without support), and spending $5 to replace a card in your deck with a 2 VP card isn't good. With support it could be decent, but I'm not sure that it's really exciting.
Model Village
Types: Action
Cost: $4
+1 Card. +2 Actions.
When you trash this, you may trash a card from your hand. If you do, gain a card costing up to $2 more than it.
This feels too similar to Fortress...a $4 village with an on-trash bonus. It also seems like it could run into tracking issues. I trash Model Village to trash Model Village to trash Catacombs and gain Inn and shuffle things into my deck and gain Death Cart and two Ruins, and gain Noble Brigand and attack everyone...With the right combination of on-gain and on-trash effects, having an on-trash effect that both trashes and gains could get hectic. On the other hand, this is Dark Ages, so maybe that's okay.
Renovate
Type: Action
Cost: $4
Trash a card from your hand. You may gain a card costing up to $1 more than the trased card, putting it into your hand. If it is an Action card, play it.
I feel like this compares way too favorably to Remodel. You lose $1 of value, but in return you get an extra card in hand, potentially an extra action, and the flexibility to choose the card based on what you need to do this turn. Actually it may even compare too favorably to Upgrade, although I guess it doesn't get the extra card for Copper trashing which could be a big deal. Still, +$2 to trash Estates into Silvers seems too strong for $4.
Brick
Types: Treasure
Cost: $5
Worth $1. When you play this, trash a card you have in play. Gain a card costing exactly $1 more than it.
When you trash this, gain a Copper, putting it into your hand.
I think I like this card, the on-trash effect is quite interesting. You get a little boost this turn, but water your deck down with Copper and probably Gold (assuming you trashed it with another Brick). I feel like there could be some issues with trashing from play, though I can't think of any.
Deathmonger
Types: Action Reaction
Cost: $3
Trash the top card of your deck. You may trash the top card of your deck.
When any player (including you) trashes cards, you may reveal this from your hand. If you do, that player puts the trashed cards into his hand.
This seems interesting but maybe too weak or too swingy. I understand that there's supposed to be a risk with trashing the top card of your deck, and that you're supposed to connect these to avoid that risk, but that's not the problem that I have (although I suspect connecting them will generally be tough, which is part of what makes them weak). The problem that I have is with playing this in the early game and hitting your other opening buy. You could just not play it whenever you draw it T3 without your other opener (or T4 without having seen your other opener yet), but then you just opened with a card that hurts your T3/T4. I don't know...I want to like it, but it's hard to imagine ever buying it, even in the context of DA on-trash effects. I like weak cards, but I think I would need to be convinced that this isn't too weak to be worth ever getting. I think the fact that it's reaction counters itself makes it weaker and swingier as well.
Carpenter
Types: Action
Cost: $5
Trash a card from your hand and gain a cheaper card, putting it into your hand. +$ equal to the cost in coins of the gained card.
When you trash this during your Action phase, +1 Action.
This sounds crazy strong. It's almost a Salvager, but it also gains a card costing less than the trashed card, which already sounds very strong (trash a Gold for a Duchy and +$5 in the end game sounds crazy), but then it also puts the gained card into your hand, which opens the door for insanity. DA is all about insanity, but usually in the form of combos, not insanity on one card by itself.
Necromancy
Types: Action Attack
Cost: $5
Choose one: Gain an Action or Treasure card from the trash, putting it into your hand. Play it immediately. At the end of the turn, trash that card; or each other player reveals the top 2 cards of his deck, trashes one of them costing from $3 to $6, and discards the rest.
When you gain this, you may trash a card costing up to $6 from the Supply if there is not a copy of it in the trash.
I don't like that this doesn't provide a way to decrease the size of the trash pile in the long run (unless there's Fortress in the trash). That's not a big issue, and it seems nice otherwise, but not terribly exciting.
Ravage
Types: Action Attack Looter
Cost: $5
You may discard a card. If you do, +1 Action. Each other player with 3 or more cards in hand reveals his hand and discards the card with the highest cost in coins (you choose in a tie). If he discarded a Victory card, he gains a Ruins, putting it into his hand.
This seems like it just slaughters opponents' hands. Their hand slightly improves when you hit a green card, but their deck gets hurt for it. But when you don't hit a green card, this is almost as bad as Pillage, except that it can stack way too much. In a 4-player game, I feel like everyone would be starting with 2-card hands, and not only that, but those 2 cards were probably the worst two cards out of 5. The game just comes to a stop at that point. Okay, maybe it's not that bad because people are getting their Ravages discarded by Ravage, but it still seems horribly painful. If you make it 5 or more instead of 3 or more it might be okay. But still, people don't like attacks that don't benefit themselves, and +1 action is not really enough of a benefit.
Junkyard (A)
Types: Action Looter
Cost: $5
+1 Action. You may gain a Ruins, putting it into your hand. Discard any number of cards. +1 Card per card discarded. You may trash this.
When you trash this, +2 Cards.
I really like the idea here, but it seems weak. It's a $5 Cellar which can become a cantrip if you're willing to take a Ruins into your deck, and then you can trash it for an extra boost. I feel like it could cost $4, but maybe someone can convince me otherwise. I really like it though.
Edit: So there has been a correction stating that this card is supposed to also give +1 card per action card discarded. That may be enough to fix the concern that I had about its weakness, since you get an extra card now if you to take the Ruins. That means that if you take the Ruins it's like a sifting Lab, plus it gets better with more Ruins, but at $5 it's not like it's easy to load up on them. I think I like it better with the update.
Mortuary
Types: Action
Cost: $5
+1 Action. Look through your discard pile. You may trash a card from your discard pile or hand.
While this is in play, when you trash a card costing $2 or more, +1 Card.
This could be crazy when stacked. I think this is a very DA card, I like it a lot.
Incendiarist
Types: Action Attack Looter
Cost: $5
You may trash a card from your hand. If it is an
Action card, each other player gains a Ruins; Treasure card, gain a Spoils; Victory card, each other player gains a Curse.
This seems cute. It doesn't have "iron" in the name though. Having a single card which can hand out both Ruins and Curses is dangerous, but I think it's okay because how many action and victory cards are you going to trash anyway.
Priestcraft
Types: Action Attack
Cost: $5
+$2. Choose one: Trash a card from your hand; or choose a card in the trash and each other player gains a copy of that card, putting it on top of his deck.
This can give out Copper without any kind of filter to slow it down. I know Donald X. didn't like that and I think it's for good reason. It does attempt to dodge the problem of running out of cards from the trash to hand out by handing out copies of them from the supply rather than from the trash itself, but I don't think the result is much better than the original problem.
Miser
Types: Action
Cost: $4
Choose two: +$2; gain a Spoils; gain a Silver. (The choices must be different.)
This compares too favorably to Explorer. The only advantage Explorer has (barring a few edge cases) is that it can gain Gold later on, but it costs an extra $1 and doesn't have the Spoils option. I like the name though and the effect is interesting, it would just need to be adjusted.
Charter (A)
Types: Action
Cost: $4
+1 Card. +1 Action. Trash the top card of your deck. You may gain a card from the trash.
When you trash this, +2 Cards.
This sounds too strong, but I do like it a lot. I think it could cost $5. Either you discard a good card, or it's a cantrip trasher, that doesn't trash from hand. If you get a high enough density of them they approach +3 cards, +1 action. I like it a lot, maybe the price is okay but it sounds strong to me.
Astral Conqueror
Types: Action Attack Looter
Cost: $5
+$2. Each other player gains a Curse, a Ruins, and a Spoils. This cannot cause the last player to gain the last Curse or Ruins in the Supply.
That's way too many things to be handing out. So it tries to dodge the instant two piles gone problem, that's nice I guess. It gives us Spoils to make up for the fact that we're getting two junk cards, but that's not going to be enough. The Spoils aren't permanent, but the junk is. But even if I'm wrong and this card is balanced, I still don't like it because if you're giving out three junk cards, everyone almost completely loses control over their deck. In a 4-player game, I can take nine cards into my deck before my next turn, even with no villages on the board. That's crazy. The one card that I buy on my turn isn't going to have almost any effect on my deck compared to the nine cards I just got swamped by. At least Mountebank hands out solutions to it's own problem to slow down the rate at which you're getting cards into your deck. This just converts people's decks into a giant pile of Curses, Ruins, and Spoils.
Alehouse
Types: Action
Cost: #3
When you trash a card this turn, +1 Action, discard a card, +1 Card, and you may gain a card costing less than the trased card. Trash a card from your hand or from play.
I think this is going to be way too hard to track with several of them in play, especially with on-gain and on-trash effects.
Iron Maiden
Types: Action Attack Looter
Cost: $4
+$2. Each other player with 5 or more cards in hand discards a card. If it is an
Action card, he gains a Copper; Treasure card, he gains a Ruins; Victory card, he gains a Curse. He puts the gained card into his hand.
When you trash this, you may trash up to 2 cards from your hand.
I don't like this as much as Incindiarist because the combined Cursing and Looting on one card is not, in this case, filtered by something you want to do. Once one of the piles runs out, you can choose what card type to discard based on which pile is out, but until then, the hardest option is the action discarding, and you get a Copper for that. It is interesting though, the decision between discarding Treasure for Ruins or Victory card for Curse is nice, but I think having one card hand out both Ruins and Curses without a good filter is not good.
Bargain
Types: Reaction
Cost: $1
When you would gain a card, you may discard this. If you do, instead, gain a card costing exactly $1 more than it.
I think I saw this in another thread recently. It's a nice concept but I think it's just way too weak, almost like a Copper. The advantage it has over Copper I guess is that you can use it for gainers, but it doesn't seem worthwhile usually. Maybe if it were $2 more, like a weird Silver variant, and cost $5 it might be interesting though.
Stronghold
Cost: $6
Worth 1 VP for every 2 Spoils in your deck (rounded down).
When you gain this, gain 3 Spoils.
The victory part seems very weak, so I guess you get it for the Spoils. I guess 3 Spoils is not bad. This card just doesn't seem exciting enough to me.
Smelter (B)
You may trash a card from your hand. If you trash an
Action card, +2 Actions; Treasure card, +$2; Victory card, +1 Cards.
When you trash a card you may discard this from your hand. If you go, gain a card costing less than the trashed card.
It's missing the cost/type. I'm going to guess $3 or $4. I think the victory card benefit could be +2 cards, since that's still worse than Masquerade, and the other options also are probably generally not better than Masquerade.
Charter (B)
Types: Treasure Attack Looter
Cost: $5
Worth $2. When you play this, each other player gains a Ruins, putting it into his hand.
I know I've seen this card somewhere before...I think it's less painful than Cultist, but also not very different from Cultist.
Street Sweeper
Types: Action Looter
Cost: $4
+2 Cards. +1 Action. Trash a card.
When you trash this, gain a Ruins.
This is absurdly strong. It's like Spice Merchant but not limited to treasures (but without the Woodcutter option), or Masquerade with an action, or Laboratory but with the ability to trash. I though the consensus was that "+1 card, +1 action, trash a card from your hand" was too strong for $4, and this draws an extra card. Okay, so you don't want to use them to trash each other because you get a Ruins, but that punishment is not nearly enough to make it not worth getting several of these. You can just clear out the Ruins with future plays of Street Sweeper.
Also, it should presumably say "Trash a card from your hand."
Author
Topic: Treasure Chest Design Contest Card #3: Dark Ages (Read 100996 times)