I'm seeing the Trade token cards a month too late. It's interesting to look at them. I'm thinking of finally getting back to designing fan cards myself. For what it's worth, I've been using "+1 Gem" and "You may spend a Gem" since Trade is an Event. Sort of a retheme. Anyway, I'm going to give my first impressions of these cards. Apologies if I'm dropping this smack in the middle of another week's contest.
Xen3k´s Trade Cutter
A well balanced card, but nothing too interesting. You can do more with the mechanic.
It's nice to have some simple cards like this. Maybe it would be more interesting in practice than in theory, but yeah, not a standout exciting card. I like that it works every third time. Maybe at that point it could give +3 Cards at end of turn instead.
spineflu´s Depot
This is extremely cool. With the trigger, I can imagine, that you can pull off some neat tricks. But even, if it wouldn't had this cool trigger, it would be a fun card.
Simple yet potentially exciting. Maybe too strong, but that's surely fixable if so. Definitely a cool card.
emtzalex´ Speculator
Very interesting card, even without the Trade tokens(which make the card even more interesting). However, this looks broken, especially when you draw more than 6 non-Treasure cards in your turn. More than +$6 is just too much.
There's two concepts here. There's the thing Speculator does, and then there's the play-it-again, a mechanic that Trade tokens are particularly well-suited for. My card Convoy uses the play-this-again mechanic. The current (untested) version is:
Convoy: Action, $4
Look at the top 3 cards of your deck and put 2 of them into your hand. You may spend a Gem to play this again.
When you gain this, +1 Gem.
Anyway, I like the main concept of your card, but I think it's too complex for adding the Trade token on top of it, and maybe could be simplified even beyond that.
MrHiTech´s Storehouse
A very interesting cellar variant. I think it´ll create some fun moments, when you have to guess, how many cards you have to draw, to get the needed. Also, its very nice for advanced players, since you have to know your deck well and have to think about stuff like triggering shuffles. I like it.
This is cool. I'm not sure if it might create too much analysis paralysis in practice. I'm also not sure how much it values Trade tokens relative to other cards. It's hard to judge without having played with it. Very cool idea, though.
Aquila´s Yeoman
I like the mini game, it really creates some tension. However this looks overpowered to me. if you don´t buy any, for the other player, this is as strong as provinces, so you´re almost forced to gain this.
Hmm, well, it's hard to sell me on something with two dividing lines (not that you were trying to sell me on it, just saying). Also I just have this sinking feeling that it won't play nicely with other Trade token cards. Gaining a variable number of Trade tokens depending on what you have in play is cool and I've tried that on a few cards.
Something_Smart´s Foreign Trader/Goods
Really cool idea, which creates interesting choices. What is more important? That the other player can´t use the current Good? Or that I get the needed card? Should I use the Trade tokens now? Or do I hope, that I can reveal "Tea"? Unfortunately, I think the Goods are´nt well balanced.
This is an especially cool concept. I'm guessing if Donald X. were making it he wouldn't want to use Goods for only one card, but I mean it's just 10 extra cards for this card, same as Hermit/Madman or what-have-you. I think the actual effects would need a lot of testing and tweaking, but probably there's something workable here. Specifically, most effects cannot be e.g. "during your Action phase" without causing rules issues; they need a more specific time to trigger.
Timinou´s Muster
Wow, this looks fun. So every player can setup a huge turn twice in the game. It´s a really cool idea and I think, it works out as intended.
Neat idea. I'm all about the two-shots. I wonder if there's a way to shorten that text.
DunnoItAll´s Bargaining Chip/Leverage
I really like the idea of a Heirloom, that gives Trade tokens. I´m also pretty glad, that you removed the Cantrip version. My only problem with this card is, the trigger of the Heirloom. No other Heirloom card refers to its kingdom card. That isn't a real problem, but it just feels weird. I think, it´s just not fun, when you´re forced to buy an explicit card, to use a Heirloom.
I think I would try to simplify this. Perhaps Leverage doesn't have a way to directly gain or spend tokens and always puts itself on the Tavern mat. Then Bargaining Chip loses its on-gain, but allows you to call your Leverage to get a Trade token. Or something.
X-tra´s Grand Ship
I like it. Compared to Royal carriage however, this seems to be too strong. I think, it will be really fun to replay an Action card 8 times, but its just too strong and too easy achieved. Yes, it has to collide with the right card, but that´s not enough compensation.
I tried a version of this, but thought that being able to play a card an arbitrary number of times would be too strong, so I capped it at 3. Your version is elegant if it works out, but I'm scared of e.g. Grand Ship/Bridge.
fika monster´s Governance
Hey, that´s a cool idea. The idea, that you can green earlier, to play Action cards twice is neat. However, I don´t think, you will gain 2 Estates, to replay an Action card. Maybe it would help, if you´d start with one Trade token already. Okay, this already has an use in the end, but that´s not half as interesting as in the beginning.
Definitely a neat idea, but it means there shouldn't be a way to get 2 Trade tokens by playing any Action card, or this could loop infinitely. In general I like it.
LibraryAdventurer´s Cairn
Okay, so this something between Cellar and Moat and VPs. I think the card is fine, but does´nt uses the Trade tokens in a too interesting way.
Hmm, I don't feel like this card is very cohesive. I'm not sure what being a Victory card adds to it.
silverspawn´s Cartell
So this is one of these "You win" cards. I like new win-conditions, but a simple "You win" is hard to implement. There are lots of ways to do it and this looks like one of the cleverer ones. I do´nt think, this is well balanced, but it just influences the game in a boring way. When you go for Cartell, you do´nt have any interesting choices, but just play Cartell as often as possible.
It's certainly a novel idea. Worth testing for sure. Possibly there's some magic number, 15 or otherwise, that makes this fair in most games.
NoMoreFun´s Toymaker
Another Workshop variant and also a cool one. Tis is a really interesting card, but unfortunately I do´nt see any reason, why you used Trade tokens and not the normal Journey token.
I like this one a lot. I might limit it to just one token on-gain (and maybe making it cheaper to compensate), but I'd be happy to try this version first.
Overall, I think Depot is a fine choice for first place. There's a lot of cool ideas here overall, though.