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[AJD]

The source of the problems is that this is using Ruins in a way they weren't designed to be used. Ruins were just supposed to be junk cards, not a vanilla bonus randomizer deck.

I dunno; Donald X. cut Hatter apparently because it was too hard to track, not because Ruins simply aren't suited to that function. (Hatter is cantrip, play top Ruins and move it to the bottom of the pile. ...And honestly, I don't see that that's that much harder to track than, say, Ironmonger.)

True, but I'd be surprised if that was the only factor. What happens to Hatter in games where 2 or more players go for Cultist and Marauder?

A good point. If it were up to me I'd have it do something completely different if the Ruins are empty.

...Aha, actually I see Donald X had that idea too (though not for Hatter, which probably didn't survive long enough for him to have worried about it yet):

A few cards tried to provide other uses for the Ruins pile. One was "+1 Card +1 Action, play the top Ruins, put it on the bottom." It was cute but there's a tracking issue. I did Ironmonger instead. Another card played the top four Ruins. It gave you +$3 instead if the Ruins ran out, because what fun is that.

This quote also makes another point I was going to make, which is that Hatter is way too similar to Ironworks to be worth adding (and therefore probably so would a revision of Archaeologist to make it more like Hatter). Which is a shame, because I kind of like Hatter.

[kn1tt3r]

Raid
Types: Action – Looter
Cost: $3
Choose one: Play and trash up to 2 Action cards from your hand; or gain any number of Action cards from the trash costing up to $3 and play them in any order.
When you trash this, each other player gains a Ruins.

Way too powerful for $3. This is like a Throne Room effect. Sure there's a slight chance they steal your good actions, but okay, this is just too good I tihnk at $3.

But Throne Room almost works at $3. The $3 restriction on card gains should have an effect on how this plays out, no? Also, lining up Throne Room with an action can be hard enough. This has to line up with 2 actions to make full use of the first choice.

I really think the card is quite weak and deserves the $3 cost.
1. Aligning it with 2 Action cards is nothing you can take as a given.
2. You have to trash those Actions.
3. You can only get the weaker Actions back from the Trash.
4. Your opponent can do the same thing.

I mean, it probably could cost $4, but what would be the point? You certainly don't want to open double Raid...

[Nic]

A few cards tried to provide other uses for the Ruins pile. One was "+1 Card +1 Action, play the top Ruins, put it on the bottom." It was cute but there's a tracking issue. I did Ironmonger instead. Another card played the top four Ruins. It gave you +$3 instead if the Ruins ran out, because what fun is that.

This quote also makes another point I was going to make, which is that Hatter is way too similar to Ironworks to be worth adding (and therefore probably so would a revision of Archaeologist to make it more like Hatter). Which is a shame, because I kind of like Hatter.

Yeah, I feel like Archaeologist is forced to go in that direction. You could spice it up by allowing the player to return Ruins to the Supply from hand (or maybe the trash); that would prevent the card from killing itself, but it would still be a retread of a card that got cut from Dark Ages for being too similar to a card from Dark Ages. The only thing I can think of is to use more explicit Dominion terms to allow more flexibility when tweaking and allow interactions with Reactions and other cards.

If I had my druthers, it would look like [cantrip or whatever] + "Gain and play a Ruins from the Supply [or trash?]. At the end of your turn, you may return any number of Ruins cards from play to the Supply in any order." Here you can play Ruins from your hand as well, and then toss them back into the Supply to clear out junk from your deck. I think that alone makes it a little more interesting than Hatter, with fewer tracking issues than Ironmonger, but otherwise it stays faithful to the Archaeologist that was submitted. I don't mean to tweak the card in the middle of the contest; I'm just saying that it can be tweaked, and people would come up with more clever things to do with this. It's definitely in the 'Indulgence' rather than the 'Hinterland' category, and if people like the idea they should vote for it with a clear conscience.
Full disclosure: not my card.


There were a lot of RfB cards, but near as I can tell there's only five more that relate the benefit to the actual action, rather than giving a fixed bonus per brown card in hand. That would be Slumlord, Raid, Garderobe, Blood Feud, and Mendicant: I've made it clear that I really want a card of this type to win, however hard it may be to balance it. I'm up past my bedtime as it is, but I'll write more on this tomorrow.

[XerxesPraelor]

Yeah, this is the one contest in which I think my card is one of the worst. And similar to above, I also really want a RuinForBenefit to win. I mean it seems ruins were almost made for something like this, otherwise they'd pretty much just be a confusion. Archaeologist is definately my favorite so far.

[NoMoreFun]

I voted for Charter (B) solely because of the "Each other player gains a Ruins in hand" effect. Unlike Soothsayer, it's a brilliantly simple "benefit now, problem later" effect that doesn't feel forced. I wish Marauder or Cultist worked that way. If the card wins I hope we can couple it with a more interesting non attack effect. Being a Treasure/Attack is interesting but I feel like the Treasure Card in the set should be something that really needs to be a Treasure to make its interesting component work.

[markusin]

A few cards tried to provide other uses for the Ruins pile. One was "+1 Card +1 Action, play the top Ruins, put it on the bottom." It was cute but there's a tracking issue. I did Ironmonger instead. Another card played the top four Ruins. It gave you +$3 instead if the Ruins ran out, because what fun is that.

This quote also makes another point I was going to make, which is that Hatter is way too similar to Ironworks to be worth adding (and therefore probably so would a revision of Archaeologist to make it more like Hatter). Which is a shame, because I kind of like Hatter.

Yeah, I feel like Archaeologist is forced to go in that direction. You could spice it up by allowing the player to return Ruins to the Supply from hand (or maybe the trash); that would prevent the card from killing itself, but it would still be a retread of a card that got cut from Dark Ages for being too similar to a card from Dark Ages. The only thing I can think of is to use more explicit Dominion terms to allow more flexibility when tweaking and allow interactions with Reactions and other cards.

If I had my druthers, it would look like [cantrip or whatever] + "Gain and play a Ruins from the Supply [or trash?]. At the end of your turn, you may return any number of Ruins cards from play to the Supply in any order." Here you can play Ruins from your hand as well, and then toss them back into the Supply to clear out junk from your deck. I think that alone makes it a little more interesting than Hatter, with fewer tracking issues than Ironmonger, but otherwise it stays faithful to the Archaeologist that was submitted. I don't mean to tweak the card in the middle of the contest; I'm just saying that it can be tweaked, and people would come up with more clever things to do with this. It's definitely in the 'Indulgence' rather than the 'Hinterland' category, and if people like the idea they should vote for it with a clear conscience.
Full disclosure: not my card.

That could work, except you probably wouldn't have Ruins in your hand unless there another looter on the Board. I'd tweak it so that it can play up to 3 Ruins from either the top of the Ruins pile or your hand (and combinations of those), but only lets you return 1 of them. It's kind of unfair to ignore that the other RfB cards are actually a lot closer to the fixed Archaeologist than Archaeologist. Plus, the fixes all seem to detract from the original purpose of Archaeologist.

I think we're just going to get a community designed RtB card that improves on Hatter in the end.

[Schneau]

Thursday's Card:

Danse Macabre
Types: Action
Cost: $4
You may play an Action from your hand for none of its effects. If you do, +4 Cards and +1 Action.
When you buy this, trash it.
When you trash this, gain 2 cheaper cards of different costs.

Here's a card that has received some discussion, and one I'd like to think more about. I think the card has many interesting facets, and is really weird, but I'm not sure if it's "weird in a bad way" or "weird in a Dark Ages good way". I'm still not sure whether or not to vote for this, so maybe some discussion will help!

Let's consider the two cases: boards where you can gain this, and ones where you cannot. On boards where you can't gain this, is it likely to ever impact the game? Essentially, when you buy it, it will usually give you a $3 card and a $2 card. This will most likely only be useful with strong $2 cards for the board - Chapel and Lighthouse come to mind, but also Hamlet, Courtyard, and Squire. If those aren't around, this will rarely be bought, and if no $2 are present, it will be almost never. However, this could be huge with Chapel, where you could get Chapel and 2 Silvers before the reshuffle. So, Danse Macabre will usually have little effect if it can't be gained, but rarely a decent one. Reminds me a bit of Duchess, I guess?

Ok, now how about games where it can be gained. Here, I worry that this would just stack way too well, especially with Workshop-like cards that can gain a ton of these. 2 Labs is nothing to sneeze at, especially from a card that you can mass easily and use the "wasted action" on another weak card. If this were to win, I could see tweaking the vanilla bonuses -- maybe something like +3 Cards, +2 Actions would be more reasonable? Maybe it's ok as it is. I do like that this can be a counter to Ruins, which is nice.

How often can Danse Macabre be gained? How many cards can gain $4 cards? I made a quick look through the expansions, and get the following list (I may have missed a few):
3 Base
4 Intrigue
0 Seaside
2 Alchemy
3 Prosperity
2 Cornucopia
4 Hinterlands
8 Dark Ages
2 Guilds
1 Promo
That's 29 cards out of 205. I don't know if this is how it works, but it seems like it would be able to be gained in about 3/20 games, or about 15% of the time. That seems pretty low. Note that this doesn't count cards like Jester or Smugglers, which require an opponent to have gained the card before you can. It does count Hermit, which can gain Danse Macabre after a Highway. This seems pretty low, so you definitely want it to be interesting enough when you can't gain it. EDIT: As some have pointed out, this leads to about 75% of games having cards that can gain Danse Macabre. This is much more reasonable.


All in all, I like how different the card is. But, I would advocate for buffing the on-buy bonus (maybe 2 cards costing $3 or less?) and nerfing the on-play slightly. The on-buy just feels too weak to be interesting in the majority of games where you can't gain this.

EDIT: For probability

[nopawnsintended]

Thursday's Card:

Danse Macabre
Types: Action
Cost: $4
You may play an Action from your hand for none of its effects. If you do, +4 Cards and +1 Action.
When you buy this, trash it.
When you trash this, gain 2 cheaper cards of different costs.

[...snip...]
Ok, now how about games where it can be gained. Here, I worry that this would just stack way too well, especially with Workshop-like cards that can gain a ton of these. 2 Labs is nothing to sneeze at, especially from a card that you can mass easily and use the "wasted action" on another weak card. If this were to win, I could see tweaking the vanilla bonuses -- maybe something like +3 Cards, +2 Actions would be more reasonable? Maybe it's ok as it is. I do like that this can be a counter to Ruins, which is nice.
[...snip...]

When I first read this, I got confused about your "2 Labs" comment.  But then, I thought about it more, and having two of these in your hand is like having two labs in hand.  Sometimes, I'm slow like that.  I guess I was thinking about the better cases for this card.  Implicitly, this wants to make Ruins into companionLabs, which is even better than being a $4 cost card that's 2 Labs when you get two of them.  That's quite a powerful defense against Ruins junking.  It is probably easy enough to "connect" this with another action in order to make it worth while -- much easier than Tournament-Province or Explorer-Province in many circumstances.  But, there is the case where it doesn't hit.  Maybe $4 isn't a bad cost.

Anyway, I love the counter to Ruins.  Whenever I can just play a counterRuins strategy and win, I love it.

One concern I'd have is that buying all 10 of these would lead to a very short game.  Not sure if there's a way to make such a rush optimal, but imagine that Tunnel is on the board.  Buy this, gain Tunnel and Estate.  OK... that's not likely to be a good strategy, but maybe Oasis on the board.  You could gain all the Estates and Oases, and trash all the Danses.  Again, not sure it's optimal, but seems like it could be too fast.

Lastly, I don't (usually) like cards that don't let you gain them when you buy them.  I'd like for it to be viable to use its effect whenever it is in the kingdom (but maybe not a good idea), but if you have no gainers on the board, I wonder what the point is.  So 85% of the time, this card exists in the kingdom and can't be played.  That doesn't feel like a way to balance a card, but that's my usual case.   Maybe this card is an edge case because, in non-gaining situations, buying it is really like buying two cheaper costed cards (and that's interesting in an alternative Talisman way).  With Courtyard in the kingdom, Silver-Courtyard would be a nice pickup with this.  You could open Silver-Courtyard-Silver, not bad.  So, this trash-on-buy effect has some interesting strategy outside of the card, which I like.  Maybe I'm coming around.

This might have been one of the cards I didn't like at first, but I may just vote for it now.

[Jack Rudd]

How often can Danse Macabre be gained? How many cards can gain $4 cards? I made a quick look through the expansions, and get the following list (I may have missed a few):
...
That's 29 cards out of 205. I don't know if this is how it works, but it seems like it would be able to be gained in about 3/20 games, or about 15% of the time.

You're a long way out. If your numbers are correct, it's more like 75%.

[LastFootnote]

How often can Danse Macabre be gained? How many cards can gain $4 cards? I made a quick look through the expansions, and get the following list (I may have missed a few):
...
That's 29 cards out of 205. I don't know if this is how it works, but it seems like it would be able to be gained in about 3/20 games, or about 15% of the time.

You're a long way out. If your numbers are correct, it's more like 75%.

Yeah. Schneau, your estimate of 3/20 would be approximately correct if each game had 2 Kingdom card in it instead of 10: Danse Macabre and one other card.

[Schneau]

How often can Danse Macabre be gained? How many cards can gain $4 cards? I made a quick look through the expansions, and get the following list (I may have missed a few):
...
That's 29 cards out of 205. I don't know if this is how it works, but it seems like it would be able to be gained in about 3/20 games, or about 15% of the time.

You're a long way out. If your numbers are correct, it's more like 75%.

Uh, yeah, you're right. I hate probability.

[nopawnsintended]

How often can Danse Macabre be gained? How many cards can gain $4 cards? I made a quick look through the expansions, and get the following list (I may have missed a few):
...
That's 29 cards out of 205. I don't know if this is how it works, but it seems like it would be able to be gained in about 3/20 games, or about 15% of the time.

You're a long way out. If your numbers are correct, it's more like 75%.

Uh, yeah, you're right. I hate probability.

It's my impression that different kinds of gaining are more or less problematic than others, too.

I just went through the cards that can gain a $4 card without your opponent choosing it and this is the list I come up with.  I only have 22 cards, but I'm leaving cards off like Band of Misfits, Hermit, and Dame Natalie because they need help to gain a $4 cost card.  It's possible that I've missed some too.

Direct Gainers
Workshop
Ironworks
Armory
---
These seem most problematic, especially Ironworks, as gainers, but they don't comprise most of the gainers as we can see.

Remodelers
Remodel
Upgrade
Expand
Remake
Develop
Procession
Graverobber
Butcher
Governor
-----
These are less problematic in my mind.  To get a Danse to use, you'd need to get one of these, then line it up with a card that can be remodeled into a Danse.  Then, wait a reshuffle.  That takes a while, and seems worth the penalty.  Remake might get a bit silly, especially once you have things thinned, Danse-Remake activates.

Feasters
Feast
Catacombs
-----
Same timeline as the remodelers in my mind for Feast.  For Catacombs, it will take longer because you need a way to trash it.

Otherers
Haggler
Border Village
Altar
University
Horn of Plenty
Forge
-----
All of these aside from Forge seem to be quick ways to amass a bunch of Danses. 

So, I count 9 (the direct gainers + the 5 Otherers + Remake) that concern me on average.  Is that easy to achieve?  Well, approx. (9)* 9/205... 40% ish of the time having a super viable gainer... not doing the counting this morning.  The rest of the time, you could hash something together, but it might not be worth it.  That's qualitatively different than 15%, and there's variety in how you'd gain it... so maybe that's interesting too.

Either way, I find that having some context for the type of gaining scheme you'd have to use to get a bunch of these is worthwhile.

[AJD]

Don't forget Talisman! Not sure which category you want to put it in, though.

(And Forge is totally a remodeler.)

[SirPeebles]

I would include Band of Misfits.  The relevant issue is activating Danse Macabre's on-play effect.  While Band of Misfits does not gain Danse Macabre on its own, it can be played as Danse Macabre.  And that's what is important.

Also, Rogue can gain Danse Macabre.

What happens if you buy Danse Macabre during a Possession turn?  DM never actually "belongs" to someone, but the Possessed player is the one who trashes it, so I think would go to this player's discard pile at the end of the turn, even though it is never formally gained.

Edit:  On second thought, Possession refers to "any cards of his that are trashed", so I guess Danse Macabre would just stay in the trash.

[Schneau]

How often can Danse Macabre be gained? How many cards can gain $4 cards? I made a quick look through the expansions, and get the following list (I may have missed a few):
...
That's 29 cards out of 205. I don't know if this is how it works, but it seems like it would be able to be gained in about 3/20 games, or about 15% of the time.

You're a long way out. If your numbers are correct, it's more like 75%.

Uh, yeah, you're right. I hate probability.

It's my impression that different kinds of gaining are more or less problematic than others, too.

I just went through the cards that can gain a $4 card without your opponent choosing it and this is the list I come up with.  I only have 22 cards, but I'm leaving cards off like Band of Misfits, Hermit, and Dame Natalie because they need help to gain a $4 cost card.  It's possible that I've missed some too.

Direct Gainers
Workshop
Ironworks
Armory
---
These seem most problematic, especially Ironworks, as gainers, but they don't comprise most of the gainers as we can see.

Remodelers
Remodel
Upgrade
Expand
Remake
Develop
Procession
Graverobber
Butcher
Governor
-----
These are less problematic in my mind.  To get a Danse to use, you'd need to get one of these, then line it up with a card that can be remodeled into a Danse.  Then, wait a reshuffle.  That takes a while, and seems worth the penalty.  Remake might get a bit silly, especially once you have things thinned, Danse-Remake activates.

Feasters
Feast
Catacombs
-----
Same timeline as the remodelers in my mind for Feast.  For Catacombs, it will take longer because you need a way to trash it.

Otherers
Haggler
Border Village
Altar
University
Horn of Plenty
Forge
-----
All of these aside from Forge seem to be quick ways to amass a bunch of Danses. 

So, I count 9 (the direct gainers + the 5 Otherers + Remake) that concern me on average.  Is that easy to achieve?  Well, approx. (9)* 9/205... 40% ish of the time having a super viable gainer... not doing the counting this morning.  The rest of the time, you could hash something together, but it might not be worth it.  That's qualitatively different than 15%, and there's variety in how you'd gain it... so maybe that's interesting too.

Either way, I find that having some context for the type of gaining scheme you'd have to use to get a bunch of these is worthwhile.

I found a few you missed:

Most concerning: One problematic card that you missed is Stonemason. Hitting $6 for a Stonemason and two DMs seems pretty darn strong. Talisman is also! You'd trash the first one, but gain the second. I definitely think that Band of Misfits should be counted, since it can act like DM easily. Rogue is also pretty easy combo, since DM trashes on-buy.

Less concerning: Someone else mentioned that Swindler and Saboteur are two other cards that can gain DM. Sab is more likely, since it lets you choose what to gain. But, it's not very concerning. Possession isn't concerning, but it's a funny combination, since if your opponent Possesses you and then buys and trashes a DM, they gain the cheaper cards but you gain the DM! Farmland can happen, but not often.

Otherwise, you make good points. But, I think I end up with a different conclusion. The way I see it, DM could be WAY overpowered with cheap gainers like Workshop, Ironworks, and Armory. And, it could be mildly OP with some other gainers. To me, it goes beyond "combo" territory and into "broken interaction" territory. But, that's not to say it's not salvageable -- with some minor tweaks of vanilla bonuses, it could be a very reasonable card.

[GendoIkari]

Danse Macabre
Types: Action
Cost: $4
You may play an Action from your hand for none of its effects. If you do, +4 Cards and +1 Action.
When you buy this, trash it.
When you trash this, gain 2 cheaper cards of different costs.

"Play an Action from your hand for non of its effects" seems like unnecessary wording confusion. Why not simply "You may discard an action card. If you do.." Very slightly more powerful, because you have a chance of drawing that action card again, but I doubt that would make the difference between balanced and overpowered.

[SirPeebles]

I found a few you missed:

Most concerning: One problematic card that you missed is Stonemason. Hitting $6 for a Stonemason and two DMs seems pretty darn strong. Talisman is also! You'd trash the second one, but gain the first. I definitely think that Band of Misfits should be counted, since it can act like DM easily. Rogue is also pretty easy combo, since DM trashes on-buy.

Less concerning: Someone else mentioned that Swindler and Saboteur are two other cards that can gain DM. Sab is more likely, since it lets you choose what to gain. But, it's not very concerning. Possession isn't concerning, but it's a funny combination, since if your opponent Possesses you and then buys and trashes a DM, they gain the cheaper cards but you gain the DM! Farmland can happen, but not often.

Otherwise, you make good points. But, I think I end up with a different conclusion. The way I see it, DM could be WAY overpowered with cheap gainers like Workshop, Ironworks, and Armory. And, it could be mildly OP with some other gainers. To me, it goes beyond "combo" territory and into "broken interaction" territory. But, that's not to say it's not salvageable -- with some minor tweaks of vanilla bonuses, it could be a very reasonable card.

FTFY

Oh, and I don't think that anyone gets the Danse Macabre when it is purchased on a Possession turn.  The Possessed player buys it and then trashes it before he would gain it.  Also, it is not yet his card, so Possession does not set it aside from the trash.

[GendoIkari]

Oh, and I don't think that anyone gets the Danse Macabre when it is purchased on a Possession turn.  The Possessed player buys it and then trashes it before he would gain it.  Also, it is not yet his card, so Possession does not set it aside from the trash.

I lean towards your interpretation, but I think this is a rules clarification that can't be settled with the official rules. Possession says "any cards of his that are trashed." "Of his" is not a clearly defined term in Dominion as far as I know. Is a card that he bought, but hasn't yet gained, "his"? One could easily argue either way. Pretty sure Possession is the only card to say "cards of his", and it never matters in the official cards exactly when it becomes "his."

[SirPeebles]

Danse Macabre
Types: Action
Cost: $4
You may play an Action from your hand for none of its effects. If you do, +4 Cards and +1 Action.
When you buy this, trash it.
When you trash this, gain 2 cheaper cards of different costs.

"Play an Action from your hand for non of its effects" seems like unnecessary wording confusion. Why not simply "You may discard an action card. If you do.." Very slightly more powerful, because you have a chance of drawing that action card again, but I doubt that would make the difference between balanced and overpowered.

In general, it wouldn't make such a big difference.  But this particular card, Danse Macabre, is a $4 nonterminal Hunting Grounds.  These will let you draw your whole deck quite regularly, so you'll eventually pick up those payload Actions you discarded.  If Danse Macabre were, say, an Attack instead of a drawer, then you'd be right.

[SirPeebles]

Oh, and I don't think that anyone gets the Danse Macabre when it is purchased on a Possession turn.  The Possessed player buys it and then trashes it before he would gain it.  Also, it is not yet his card, so Possession does not set it aside from the trash.

I lean towards your interpretation, but I think this is a rules clarification that can't be settled with the official rules. Possession says "any cards of his that are trashed." "Of his" is not a clearly defined term in Dominion as far as I know. Is a card that he bought, but hasn't yet gained, "his"? One could easily argue either way. Pretty sure Possession is the only card to say "cards of his", and it never matters in the official cards exactly when it becomes "his."

Almost surely not, since I buy plenty of cards which I then reveal a Trader to not gain.  I don't think there is any reasonable sense in which that Mint I bought is mine when I gained a Silver instead.

[scott_pilgrim]

I don't think there is any reasonable sense in which that Mint I bought is mine

It could happen if you misread the card.

[SirPeebles]

I don't think there is any reasonable sense in which that Mint I bought is mine

It could happen if you misread the card.

I have no idea what you are talking about.  I clearly chose my example due to the practical on-buy effect, and not as some sort of stealth joke.

[LastFootnote]

Danse Macabre
Types: Action
Cost: $4
You may play an Action from your hand for none of its effects. If you do, +4 Cards and +1 Action.
When you buy this, trash it.
When you trash this, gain 2 cheaper cards of different costs.

"Play an Action from your hand for non of its effects" seems like unnecessary wording confusion. Why not simply "You may discard an action card. If you do.." Very slightly more powerful, because you have a chance of drawing that action card again, but I doubt that would make the difference between balanced and overpowered.

I strongly agree and I suggested this change to the card's author before the ballot was posted. No dice.

[jamespotter]

Danse Macabre
Types: Action
Cost: $4
You may play an Action from your hand for none of its effects. If you do, +4 Cards and +1 Action.
When you buy this, trash it.
When you trash this, gain 2 cheaper cards of different costs.

"Play an Action from your hand for non of its effects" seems like unnecessary wording confusion. Why not simply "You may discard an action card. If you do.." Very slightly more powerful, because you have a chance of drawing that action card again, but I doubt that would make the difference between balanced and overpowered.

I strongly agree and I suggested this change to the card's author before the ballot was posted. No dice.

I think I have to agree with SirPeebles on this one. Even if the card was nerfed in its vanilla bonuses, being able to draw actions again is really powerful.  I'd also like to point out that the wording as is creates some interesting interactions with Horn of Plenty, Conspirator, and maybe a couple of other cards I can't think of right now. Actually, now that I think this through, maybe the remaining in play is a more powerful option...it's really hard to say without playtesting.

[eHalcyon]

Danse Macabre
Types: Action
Cost: $4
You may play an Action from your hand for none of its effects. If you do, +4 Cards and +1 Action.
When you buy this, trash it.
When you trash this, gain 2 cheaper cards of different costs.

"Play an Action from your hand for non of its effects" seems like unnecessary wording confusion. Why not simply "You may discard an action card. If you do.." Very slightly more powerful, because you have a chance of drawing that action card again, but I doubt that would make the difference between balanced and overpowered.

I strongly agree and I suggested this change to the card's author before the ballot was posted. No dice.

But a a big drawer, having to "play" another action is actually a significant check to its power.