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[LastFootnote]

I'd like to think that my fantastic article on Develop has spurred its use such that it is no long considered underutilized 

I'm new here, so I'm definitely going to look it up. I'm not afraid to pick up a develop here and there but I could definitely learn from that article.

For what it's worth, I think the article undersells Develop as a means of trashing mid-cost cards to gain more mid-cost cards. Also, it fails to differentiate good non-terminal $3 cards on the board (which make you want Develop way more) from good terminal $3 cards on the board (which make you want Develop not at all).

[Stealth Tomato]

For example, King Zog said that watchtower's top deck ability doesn't interact with treasure map, but it does if you can acquire two in a turn. There are many ways to do this, one of which is in my OP

It can interact with TM if you acquire one in a turn, too. I've been in the occasional situation where I have 4-6 cards left in my deck and know one is a Treasure Map, so I Watchtower a TM to the top of the deck and give myself a really good chance of hitting the pair.

[Davio]

Another underrated card: Contraband.

You don't really need that much targets. Sure it's a liability later, but its +Buy is actually pretty nice, like Counterfeits. If you can build a MacGyver kind of engine with all sorts of cheap stuff thrown in, Contraband is a nice addition.

[flies]

Another underrated card: Contraband.

You don't really need that much targets. Sure it's a liability later, but its +Buy is actually pretty nice, like Counterfeits. If you can build a MacGyver kind of engine with all sorts of cheap stuff thrown in, Contraband is a nice addition.

I tend to agree.  Contraband isn't always worth it, but it seems like people avoid it more than they should.

[KingZog3]

Another underrated card: Contraband.

You don't really need that much targets. Sure it's a liability later, but its +Buy is actually pretty nice, like Counterfeits. If you can build a MacGyver kind of engine with all sorts of cheap stuff thrown in, Contraband is a nice addition.

I tend to agree.  Contraband isn't always worth it, but it seems like people avoid it more than they should.

Yeah. It's one of those cards I get and then am happy I got it.

[shark_bait]

The issue with Contraband is the $5-cost price tag.  At $6 you would *almost*always rather have Gold.  Edge cases aside for Contraband having a +Buy, Gold is strictly better.  At $5, you have lots of competition for high power engine based cards.  The only times I'd really want it are when there aren't power $5's and there are a plethora of good cheap card like Menagerie, Caravan, TR, etc that can be used for engines.  You're not getting it in BM because it's too easy to know exactly what to block.

I don't think Contraband is under-rated or underused.  It's just a niche card that occupies a small subset of Kingdoms.

[dondon151]

For what it's worth, I think the article undersells Develop as a means of trashing mid-cost cards to gain more mid-cost cards. Also, it fails to differentiate good non-terminal $3 cards on the board (which make you want Develop way more) from good terminal $3 cards on the board (which make you want Develop not at all).

Yeah, that comment was kind of tongue-in-cheek; the article could have been more elaborate, but I felt like I was getting too long-winded.

Though regarding the terminal/non-terminal $3 card distinction, the list of notable $3 terminals consist of Amb, Masq, and Swindler, and the first two are kind of just plain better than Develop anyway.

[Count Grishnakh]

The issue with Contraband is the $5-cost price tag.  At $6 you would *almost*always rather have Gold.  Edge cases aside for Contraband having a +Buy, Gold is strictly better.  At $5, you have lots of competition for high power engine based cards.  The only times I'd really want it are when there aren't power $5's and there are a plethora of good cheap card like Menagerie, Caravan, TR, etc that can be used for engines.  You're not getting it in BM because it's too easy to know exactly what to block.

I don't think Contraband is under-rated or underused.  It's just a niche card that occupies a small subset of Kingdoms.

I agree 100%. I like getting contraband for the reasons you stated and also I like it if I want to get a possession as early as possible. It works well because players almost always block the gold which allows me to get the possession card. Then after that they tend to block the possession card so I just buy gold or provinces.

[LastFootnote]

For what it's worth, I think the article undersells Develop as a means of trashing mid-cost cards to gain more mid-cost cards. Also, it fails to differentiate good non-terminal $3 cards on the board (which make you want Develop way more) from good terminal $3 cards on the board (which make you want Develop not at all).

Yeah, that comment was kind of tongue-in-cheek; the article could have been more elaborate, but I felt like I was getting too long-winded.

Though regarding the terminal/non-terminal $3 card distinction, the list of notable $3 terminals consist of Amb, Masq, and Swindler, and the first two are kind of just plain better than Develop anyway.

Exactly. And you almost certainly don't want Develop if those are on the table. You want to buy them instead.

[AJD]

I maintain that, for all its flaws, Harvest is the "fixed" Adventurer. It has you discard cards from the top of your deck to produce coin, but it only costs $5 and doesn't require you to have treasure in your deck, just variety.

But Adventurer changes with special Treasure cards, while Harvest does not. I don't see them as being similar at all.

They're both part of a larger family of terminal variable (potentially large, but unreliable) money generators. Counting House is another one of the same family. Interestingly, most of them seem to be pretty weak. (What are the others—Pirate Ship? Trade Route?)

I Agree with Counting House fitting in that family. Pirate Ship and Trade Route not so much because the coin they provide are dependent on conscious actions taken by the players (attacking with Pirate Ship, and buying VP for Trade Route) rather than pure shuffle luck.

Coppersmith!