A lot of people dislike Tournament, and I am one of them. But one thing I actually really like about Tournament is how it's very strong in the early game, but gets weaker in the mid and late game as your opponent starts buying Provinces. So I was thinking of how Tournament could be made less annoying, while keeping that same mechanic. And I thought, what if you just eliminated the Prizes? What if Tournament's text was just like this:
+1 Action
Each player may reveal a Province from his hand. If you do, gain a Duchy. If no one does, +1 Card and +$1.
It'd still be a great opener. It would still get weaker in the mid to late game. But if it gains only Duchies, and doesn't topdeck them, its main function would be more to boost your early economy, and then give you some endgame control with the virtual +Buy. And the fact that you only get the +1 Card, +$1 bonus if you also do not reveal a Province would make for some interesting tactical decisions in the late game. I think it would still be interesting, and still be a strong card, but would be way less annoying. Thoughts?
(Also, apologies if this should have gone in the Variants and Fan Cards section).
EDIT: another idea I had was to make it so Tournament doesn't gain you Prizes, but can be played as a Prize when you reveal a Province, like Band of Misfits. That way we can keep the shiny Prizes (which are fun to play if you get them!) but effectively give players equal access to them. The race to win the first Tournament would still be important, but would be less likely to be game-deciding, I think. And also playing Followers or whatever a lot would require you to build a deck where you can consistently line up Provinces and Tournaments, which takes skill. More skill than lucking into a key Prize and then just having it in your deck, certainly.