Assessment Round 12 - Cards for the Nocturne expansionTsuchigumo $5 Action – Duration – Fate +1 Action Now and at start of next turn: +1 Action and receive one of the set aside Boons. ------------------------ Setup: If you haven't already, set aside the top 3 Boons face up.
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Tsuchigumo by grrgrrgrrA non-terminal Druid acting over two turns. It looks solid and gives a lot of flexibility due to the possibility to choose between different Boons each time Tsuchigumo is played. The guaranteed Village at the start of the turn is very helpful for engines and it is quite likely that the one or other set-aside Boon strengthen the start of the turns even more. My guess is that it is fun to play with and that Tsuchigumo is likely useful in most of the games. The concept on the other hand is not really new. Just an idea I had while I was thinking about this card and its mechanic, what about replacing the received Boon with a new one?
Hectare$4 Action – Victory +2 Cards +1 Action Trash this. ------------------------ 2 VP ------------------------ In games using this, replace one of your starting Estates with a copy of this, and a starting Copper with a Silver.
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Hectare by mandioca15This is a novel approach to change the opening turns. Hectare is a Kingdom card (as I have learnt just yesterday) that acts as a one-shot Lab when played and is worth 2VP if not played. Moreover, it is part of the starting deck together with a Silver, which replace an Estate and a Copper. This leads to a variety of opening turns, with a $5 almost guaranteed. I can‘t see many situations where I would like to save the 2VP by not playing Hectare in one of the opening turns; or very soon after if I already have $5 (due to the extra Silver) for buying an important card. Hectare accelerates the opening, but it seems that it isn’t interesting enough to not play Hectare for saving the 2 VP.
The idea is interesting, but the execution has a bit too many flaws. Hectare as a Kingdom card is certainly interesting and the concept has a great potential. However, also having a copy in the starting deck is not a good idea in the way it is. It seems well balanced as a Kingdom card, but as part of the starting deck, it doesn’t work very well. The incentive to keep it should be higher (as a starting card), but then there is the problem that this difficult to balance for the copies that are gained later from the pile. So, there is a certain dilemma to find an appropriate balance between the “I want to play it” part and the “I want to keep it” part as a Kingdom card vs a card already in the starting deck.
I would skip the Silver part and I would make the starting “Hectare” different to the regular Hectare Kingdom card, but associated, so basically an Action-Victory Heirloom. The Victory part of the “Heirloom”-Hectare could be something like “Worth 1VP per Hectare in your deck”. Difficult to find the right balance for this otherwise interesting concept.
Enchanted Orchard$4 Night - Victory – Fate Discard your hand to take a Boon. Receive it now or at the start of your next turn. ------------------------
2VP
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Enchanted Orchard by Xen3kA Victory card combining two characteristic mechanics of Nocturne, Boons and Night. Receiving the Boon is guaranteed since also discarding nothing counts. Enchanted Orchard allows improving the start of the next turn, which is a useful feature for a non-terminal Victory card. There is some self-limiting in place since discarding the remaining cards in hand prevents that multiple copies of Enchanted Orchard are played in the same turn.
When compared to Bard, the most Vanilla Fate card in the official expansion, Enchanted Orchard looks stronger as it is non-terminal, and it’s Boon receiving is more flexible. When compared to other $4 cost Victory cards, e.g. Island, Mill and Cemetery, Enchanted Orchard seems to play in the same league. Each one has its unique feature and Enchanted Orchard adds a new one to this category of alt-VP cards.
Baba Yaga $4 • Action - Duration – Fate Reveal the top two Boons; choose one to receive and put the other on the bottom of the Boons.
At the start of your next turn, gain a Will-O'-Wisp to your hand. If you cannot, gain a Wish and trash this.
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Baba Yaga by spinefluBaba Yaga gives the choice to receive 1 out of 2 Boons, where the unused one goes to the bottom of the pile. This is a novelty as it combines the Druid aspect with the standard Boon receiving of other Fate cards. The back to the bottom of the unused Boon means that unwanted Boons may accumulate in the remaining pool over time, which could be interesting, design-wise, but sometimes also annoying for the player who gets the last 2 Boons before reshuffling the pile.
In the next turn, Baba Yaga gains a Will-O’-Wisp to the player’s hand, which is usually more than welcome. There is even a safety clause, which gives a precious Wish when the Wisp pile is empty. I am not sure I like this latter part as it is a quite radical change; maybe just gain a card costing up to $5? It would take out the extremely strong flexibility of Wish. So to summarize, Baba Yaga looks like a card that is fun to play with and offers new ways to use existing mechanics.
Land of the Damned$4 Victory - Doom 4 VP
------------------------ When you gain this, +2 Cards and trash a card from your hand. If it costs $3 or less, receive 2 Hexes.
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Land of the Damned by X-traThis is for sure a provocative card, giving 4 VP for a cost of only $4 and thus being accessible to a battery of Workshop-type cards. Of course, it can’t be all too good and gaining Land of the Damned has an important drawback akin to Cursed Village, but time 2. Often, the second Hex is somewhat neutralized by the effect of the first one, but since the second one is revealed only after the first one has been received, it is a sort of a gamble that if unlucky can hurt quite a lot. But hey, that is the common feature of Hexes. Receiving the 2 Hexes seems inevitable most of the time with the remarkable exception of Fortress or maybe when other $4 cost cards are spamable. Without a potent Exiler on board, Land of the Damned is mainly a late purchase, where the deck is usually more resistant to the Hexes. Overall, a very interesting card whose presence in a Kingdom can be barely be ignored since a lot of VP are at stake that can be quickly gathered.
Sorceror$5 Action - Attack +2 Cards Discard a card. Each other player gains a Ghouls onto their deck. ------------------------ When you gain this, you may look through your discard pile, reveal any number of Ghouls from it, and trash them.
| Ghouls$0 Action - Doom Receive the next Hex to return this to the Ghouls pile.
(This is not in the Supply.)
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Sorceror/Ghouls by TiminouGhouls represents a new junk card that can be delivered by Sorceror. Ghouls don’t look very scary, since they can be relatively easy removed by a well-timed gaining of a Sorcerer. This on the other hand can lead to some self junking once the Ghouls pile is empty. Ghouls on the other hand can be removed by traditional trashers, or by playing itself for a Hex. Design wise, the Vanilla bonus of “+2 Cards/Discard 1 card” looks better than +$3, though compared to strong junkers like Witch, Sorceror seems to be on the weaker side, even or maybe rather because of the on-gain defense. I would probably remove “Discard a card”.
When attacked by a Sorceror player, Ghouls go on top of the deck of their opponents. This confronts the opponents immediately and escapes the cleaning function of the own Sorcerors. I like the concept and the novel aspects of this card duo. One problem that could spoil the fun too much is the presence of any regular trasher in the game; and there are a lot around. They would make it just too easy to eliminate the Ghouls, making them functionally indistinguishable from other junk cards. Maybe a clause such as “If this is trashed other than by a Sorceror, put it into your discard pile.” would help a lot to make Ghouls a novel annoying junk card. It would make the self-hexing more relevant and the concept more interesting. Just an idea.
Stargazer$3 Night - Duration Look through your discard pile. Reveal a card from your hand or discard pile and put it on top of your deck. At the start of your next turn: You may reveal a Victory card from your hand to receive the next Boon. You may discard a card to gain a Silver. You may trash this to gain a Duchy.
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Stargazer by LibraryAdventurerThis is a cheap Night card doing various things, mostly on the second turn, and potentially supported by its on play function. The player benefits from having a Victory card in hand, which can be even used twice for the second turn effects. In the turn Stargazer is played it prepares for the next turn by placing a suitable card onto the deck. There is some kind of dilemma that a player would rather like to have a key card, such as a Village or an Attack card available for their next turn, but to trigger the second turn effects of Stargazer, a Victory card would be the better choice. If in doubt, I would likely go for the Village/Attack or whatever card than receiving a random Boon. Since Stargazer is cheap and non-terminal and able to inspect the discard pile when played, it seems like the optimal solution is to have a lot of them. One Stargazer could take care of having a Victory card available to receive several Boons, the others look for the key cards.
Finally, Stargazer can be converted to a Duchy. I am not a big fan of such last minute scoring, especially when it can be done by self-trashing of a cheap non-terminal card. I would find it more interesting, if it has a below a dividing line instruction, e.g. “When this is trashed…”. However, taking all the other abilities and its low cost into accountant, I think the best is to get rid of this part at all. This would make the card a lot simpler.
Sorceress $3 Night - Attack – Doom Heirloom: Moonstone Gain a Silver. Each other player receives the next Hex.
| Moonstone $4 Treasure - Heirloom $1
Silver produces an extra $1 this turn.
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Sorceress/Moonstone by silverspawnSilver is clearly the key here; it’s about gaining and up-grading them. Sorceress is a non-terminal $3 cost Hexer that looks more attractive than Skulk, because of the presence of Moonstone. Because of its low cost and none-terminality, it can become really annoying and, a typical feature of the Hexes, quite swingy in its effects, especially early in the game. This is exaggerated by the fact that Moonstone with its cost of $4 is vulnerable to trashing attacks. Notably, with the Hex War (and Locusts with any cost) such an attack is looming early on. With bad luck, a player looses their Moonstone in an early turn, making a Sorceress strategy much less attractive. Since you have set the cost of Moonstone to $4, you had something in mind in doing so. My guess is to give it a trash-for benefit aspect allowing players to get rid of the Heirloom if they don’t want to go for a Silver-based strategy. If Moonstone is hit by Locusts it would, interestingly, become a Silver. Would it be helpful to make it untrashable like a Fortress, maybe combined (or not) with a$0 cost to avoid trash for benefits? Well, I am sure you considered all these obvious possibilities.
Rook$4 Night - Fate Choose 2: Draw an extra card for your next hand; put an Action you will discard from play this turn on your deck; trash a card from your hand and gain one costing exactly $1 more; take a Boon and receive it next turn.
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Rook by D782802859Rook is a Night card that picks 2 choices out of 4, three of them improving the next turn and one with a trashing/remodeling function. All those abilities have their own merit and choosing two of them makes Rook an attractive card for sure. The Scheme-like function alone is worth $3 and having a second option available combined with its flexibility and non-terminality lets me think that Rook is too strong for a $4 cost. Aside of that, playability is guaranteed and a lot of helpful things can be achieved. However, it looks like a bit too much of everything, and “everything” also means nothing that is somehow new or exciting.
Wizard$5 Action - Fate +1 Card +1 Action If this is your only Wizard in play, reveal the top 3 Boons. Choose one to receive and discard the rest. Trash up to 3 cards you have in play, if you trashed any, gain a Night card.
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Wizard by anordinarymanThis is an expensive cantrip Fate card that has the Druid-like feature to pick one out of three Boons, except that they are cycling during the game. Because of this 1 out of 3 choice it is basically guaranteed to upgrade Wizard just with this feature to a strong $5 cost card (e.g. Lab, Market, Bazaar). But… there is a drawback, since the upgrade can only be done when it’s the only Wizard in play. But hey, Wizard has other features; it can trash itself and thus the player can upgrade the next Wizard again. However, with its high cost opportunity, I can’t see many cases where I would go for it. There are cards like Necromancer and Lurker that can benefit from trashed Action cards, or Fortress with its trashing immunity, and there are a few cards like Storyteller that would allow trashing Coppers played in the Action phase, but more often than not, Wizard has to act without them. Then finally we have a quite unique feature, i.e. gaining a Night card, which is expected to be absent in most games, or if present, may vary dramatically between something like Guardian and Vampire. Good thing about this latter feature is that all players are equally affected and that different games (no, weak, strong Night cards) will play remarkably different. So, if my evaluation is somewhat correct, in a lot of Kingdoms, Wizard has its use, but probably rather in a low copy number to just upgrade it to a valuable $5 cost effect with the aforementioned restrictions. In certain other Kingdoms including one or more cards I have mentioned above, Wizard can shine in different ways. So, all together it looks like the composition of a given Kingdom highly influences how strong Wizard is. In some case it looks like a top tier card, in other cases it looks like a - solid but difficult to play - card giving flexibility thanks to the choice of Boons. I struggled a bit with some of the randomness of the card strength in dependency of the available board, i.e. whether I like that aspect or not, but at the end came to the conclusion that the fun part and the novel aspects that make Wizard interesting overweighs its flaws. Maybe as a final remark, how about changing the trashing part to “one Action card”?
Some of your cards look solid, balanced and fun to play with and would be certainly a nice addition to the Nocturne expansion. I assume in 9 out of 10 cases, the master Dominion designer himself would prefer a card with the such features and only occasionally adds a crazier one. Makes sense since a set can’t solely have crazy cards. However, today I am all in for a more progressive/provocative route. I hope I don’t disappoint too many of you.
Notable mention of cards that look solid and balanced and for which I could imagine to be included in this or a similar form in a Nocturne extension:
Tsuchigumo by grrgrrgrr and
Enchanted Orchard by Xen3k (a few more would fit, but it looks stupid when I nominate all cards)
Runner ups:
Wizard by anordinarymanLand of the Damned by X-traWinner:
Sorceror/Ghouls by TiminouCongratulations!
Last but not least: I wish you all a successful 2021 with a lot of exciting things to experience. Hopefully, with less Covid19 around and plenty of good times with friends and families. Maybe, the one or other of you will design a wonderful Dominion Fan card 2021 that will be celebrated in these Forums. Have a nice time!