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[GeoLib]

Bargain
$3 - Reaction
When you would gain a card, you may reveal and discard this. If you do, instead, gain a card costing exactly one more than it.

For buying one card, this is just a copper, but it interacts strongly with gainers, multiple buys, swindler, cursers etc. I originally priced it at $2 before looking at the list of cards and seeing just how many things it interacts with. What do you guys think? Are there any broken combos I'm missing?

Also, can someone think of a better name? I think a location where you can get things for a reduced price with a medieval theme would be good. I would have called it Black Market if that didn't already exist.


Edit: I'm an idiot. It doesn't interact with multiple buys at all because you have to discard it.

[SirPeebles]

Bargain
$3 - Reaction
When you would gain a card, you may reveal and discard this. If you do, instead, gain a card costing exactly one more than it.

Are there any broken combos I'm missing?

You can keep revealing the card over and over to gain every more costly cards.  If you have Poor House, a $4 cost card, and a $7 cost card on the board, then you can buy a Copper and gain all of the Provinces at once.  You probably want to 1) discard Bargain when you reveal it and 2) state that the costlier card is gained instead of the original one, since as worded it is an additional gain.

[achmed_sender]

You can keep revealing the card over and over to gain every more costly cards.  If you have Poor House, a $4 cost card, and a $7 cost card on the board, then you can buy a Copper and gain all of the Provinces at once.  You probably want to 1) discard Bargain when you reveal it and 2) state that the costlier card is gained instead of the original one, since as worded it is an additional gain.

you may reveal and discard this

You can just react once a turn.
Because of that, I think it's very weak without a vanilla bonus or something. Maybe: "+2$ ;You may put this on your deck" (makes the reacting being useful more)

[SirPeebles]

How did I misread both of those points?  Was there some sort of ninja edit before I quoted it, or am I just completely out of it?

[GeoLib]

How did I misread both of those points?  Was there some sort of ninja edit before I quoted it, or am I just completely out of it?

Haha. Nope.  Those are both important points though.

You can just react once a turn.
Because of that, I think it's very weak without a vanilla bonus or something. Maybe: "+2$ ;You may put this on your deck" (makes the reacting being useful more)

If it looks too weak I might move it back to $2. Obviously it isn't a star in every deck, but if you don't have +buy or gainers then you just shouldn't buy it. With 2 buys it's already silver though.

[Schneau]

Since you have to discard it, I don't see how it interacts with multiple buys any differently than Copper.

Note that it also has some anti-synergies -- Bank, Coppersmith, and Counting House off the top of my head.

I don't think this would be strong enough for $3 without having an Action part. As it is, I'm guessing even $2 would be a bit pricey, and $1 might be reasonable.

[pst]

For buying one card, this is just a copper, but it interacts strongly with gainers, multiple buys, swindler, etc.

And in particular, you can avoid Curses (or maybe get Poor House instead). I like it!

[popsofctown]

I'm feeling pretty dense.  How exactly does this interact with multiple buys if you lose it when you use it?

[Just a Rube]

It needs an action to go with the reaction. I suggest making the top-half a village (+2 Actions, +1 Card).

Then you can name it "Bartertown"

[Warfreak2]

If you're doing an engine which gains cards with Workshop/&c., it'll be a tough decision to discard a village from your hand, it wouldn't be fun to play with all that AP. Maybe make it a Peddler (+1 Card, +1 Action, +$1) for $5? Or an Oasis (add "discard a card") for $4.

Another option would be to make it a gainer, for self-synergy, and to ensure it will have something to react to on any board. Like, "Gain a card costing up to $4" for $4, then colliding them is a good bonus because of the big gap between $4 and $5 cards.

[GeoLib]

Since you have to discard it, I don't see how it interacts with multiple buys any differently than Copper.

I'm feeling pretty dense.  How exactly does this interact with multiple buys if you lose it when you use it?

It doesn't. I'm being dense. I probably thought of this interaction before I realized that I have to make you discard it otherwise you get the problem SirPeebles described. This makes it much less powerful, which is good because I didn't intend to make a power card.

If you're doing an engine which gains cards with Workshop/&c., it'll be a tough decision to discard a village from your hand, it wouldn't be fun to play with all that AP. Maybe make it a Peddler (+1 Card, +1 Action, +$1) for $5? Or an Oasis (add "discard a card") for $4.

Another option would be to make it a gainer, for self-synergy, and to ensure it will have something to react to on any board. Like, "Gain a card costing up to $4" for $4, then colliding them is a good bonus because of the big gap between $4 and $5 cards.

I like self-synergy better than anything else, but if it's possible I'd prefer to leave it as just a reaction and price it accordingly. The idea was that it be a copper that you'd actually want to buy sometimes, so I don't really like the idea of making it a cantrip or something. Then it's always better than copper.

For buying one card, this is just a copper, but it interacts strongly with gainers, multiple buys, swindler, etc.

And in particular, you can avoid Curses (or maybe get Poor House instead). I like it!

Yeah! That's one of the reasons I don't think it's too weak (maybe priced at $2). There are ~100 mentions of the word gain on the all-cards page. Obviously some are multiple instances in the same card, but that's a decent chunk of cards that it interacts with. It doesn't have to be worth it every time.

[popsofctown]

YOU QUADRUPLE HIGHWAY'ED INTO MOUNTEBANK?

GUESS I'LL GAIN THE LAST TWO HIGHWAYS.

[GeoLib]

YOU QUADRUPLE HIGHWAY'ED INTO MOUNTEBANK?

GUESS I'LL GAIN THE LAST TWO HIGHWAYS.

You can only get one, unfortunately.

[GeoLib]

I don't think this would be strong enough for $3 without having an Action part. As it is, I'm guessing even $2 would be a bit pricey, and $1 might be reasonable.

$1 might be fun because it also nerfs it vs. cursers (making it more reasonably priced at $1).

[WanderingWinder]

So, this is a card which can be just a pure reaction - I am always looking for those. The only things that seem to work are reacting to gains of some sort.
If you want to be able to have synergy with +buy, you can take advantage of this by a template like the following:


Bargain
$3 - Reaction
When you would gain a card, you may reveal this and set it aside. If you do, instead, gain a card costing exactly one more than it.
____________________________
While this is set aside, whenever you gain a card, return it to your hand.


I'm pretty sure this gets you everything you want. Most reactions can't do this trick because they already have a line separating the reaction part from the other action type.

[popsofctown]

YOU QUADRUPLE HIGHWAY'ED INTO MOUNTEBANK?

GUESS I'LL GAIN THE LAST TWO HIGHWAYS.

You can only get one, unfortunately.

Not if I have two copies in hand.

[GeoLib]

So, this is a card which can be just a pure reaction - I am always looking for those. The only things that seem to work are reacting to gains of some sort.
If you want to be able to have synergy with +buy, you can take advantage of this by a template like the following:


Bargain
$3 - Reaction
When you would gain a card, you may reveal this and set it aside. If you do, instead, gain a card costing exactly one more than it.
____________________________
While this is set aside, whenever you gain a card, return it to your hand.


I'm pretty sure this gets you everything you want. Most reactions can't do this trick because they already have a line separating the reaction part from the other action type.

I think I'd prefer to leave it with the simpler wording and no interaction with +buy if it can be balanced that way.

[Lhurgoyf]

If you can only reveal this to one curser and then it would be lost, it loses extremely in 3 or 4 player matches, compared to all the other reactions that you can use to defend against multiple attacks from multiple players.

So, this is a card which can be just a pure reaction - I am always looking for those. The only things that seem to work are reacting to gains of some sort.
If you want to be able to have synergy with +buy, you can take advantage of this by a template like the following:


Bargain
$3 - Reaction
When you would gain a card, you may reveal this and set it aside. If you do, instead, gain a card costing exactly one more than it.
____________________________
While this is set aside, whenever you gain a card, return it to your hand.


I'm pretty sure this gets you everything you want. Most reactions can't do this trick because they already have a line separating the reaction part from the other action type.

I think I'd prefer to leave it with the simpler wording and no interaction with +buy if it can be balanced that way.

I find this a fitting solution to above problem.

But still I find a pure reaction card somewhat akward. What if you change it into a Treasure/Reaction card with $1 for simpler play when you're just buying one thing?

[GeoLib]

If you can only reveal this to one curser and then it would be lost, it loses extremely in 3 or 4 player matches, compared to all the other reactions that you can use to defend against multiple attacks from multiple players.

Yeah. I guess it doesn't scale well. I tend (like most people here) to only think about 2 player. Beggar doesn't scale though, though I guess it frequently isn't really a defense so much as a consolation prize.

But still I find a pure reaction card somewhat akward. What if you change it into a Treasure/Reaction card with $1 for simpler play when you're just buying one thing?

But why add extra text to the card just to have it do the same thing?

[Warfreak2]

Making it a $1 Treasure would not be redundant - if there's no $7 card, you can't use this to turn one into a Province.

[sudgy]

So, this is a card which can be just a pure reaction - I am always looking for those. The only things that seem to work are reacting to gains of some sort.
If you want to be able to have synergy with +buy, you can take advantage of this by a template like the following:


Bargain
$3 - Reaction
When you would gain a card, you may reveal this and set it aside. If you do, instead, gain a card costing exactly one more than it.
____________________________
While this is set aside, whenever you gain a card, return it to your hand.


I'm pretty sure this gets you everything you want. Most reactions can't do this trick because they already have a line separating the reaction part from the other action type.

The problem with this is that you never return it to your hand/discard it...

[Warfreak2]

Well, it immediately gets returned to your hand when the "if you do" bit triggers, unless you can't gain a card costing exactly $1 more, in which case it stays set aside until you gain something else, which is funny.

[sudgy]

Wait, scratch that.  I'm stupid.

[popsofctown]

Suggestion:

2$ popBargain
Reaction

If you would gain a card, you may discard this from your hand.  If you do, then instead of gaining that card, gain the cheapest card costing more.


Benefits:
Synergizes with +buy and other manners of gaining 0$ cards (Cache).
Can interact with Alchemy.
Jumps from 0 to 2$, 6 to 8$, sometimes jumps from 3 to 5$, always jumps from 9 to 11$.
Can gain itself when defending against junkers, helping it overcome the once-per-attack limit.

Issues:
A tad confusing with Alchemy.
Boards offering no other 2$ card can make it an iffy reaction, unless you stack 2 of them to get to 3$, which would be tough in 4 player.
Having a 2$ card that can function as a Copper or Potion based on which one you need might be OP

[GeoLib]

Suggestion:

2$ popBargain
Reaction

If you would gain a card, you may discard this from your hand.  If you do, then instead of gaining that card, gain the cheapest card costing more.


Benefits:
Synergizes with +buy and other manners of gaining 0$ cards (Cache).
Can interact with Alchemy.
Jumps from 0 to 2$, 6 to 8$, sometimes jumps from 3 to 5$, always jumps from 9 to 11$.
Can gain itself when defending against junkers, helping it overcome the once-per-attack limit.

Issues:
A tad confusing with Alchemy.
Boards offering no other 2$ card can make it an iffy reaction, unless you stack 2 of them to get to 3$, which would be tough in 4 player.
Having a 2$ card that can function as a Copper or Potion based on which one you need might be OP

This is interesting, but what if I buy a $3 card and there's both a $3P and a $4 card in the kingdom. Which one is cheaper? (Don't answer that please. I'd prefer to keep the discussion of partially ordered sets off of this thread)