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« on: January 09, 2012, 01:03:46 am »
This is a preliminary version of a fan expansion I've been working on. I would appreciate any criticism/advice/comments. This is a rough draft, and I fully admit that many of the cards have problems.
SHRINE ($2) ACTION
+1 Action. Trash a card from you hand. You may trash this immediately.
When you buy this card, you may trash a card from your hand.
The obvious comparison here is to Chapel. This card trashes an estate immediately when you buy it, which means
your first reshuffle will give you a deck that already has only 2 chapels. This also has +1 action, so it can't conflict
with whatever other action you buy. And, when you're done with it, it can trash itself, unlike chapel. The downside is that
after the on-buy effect, its slower than chapel.
ALCOVE ($2) ACTION
+1 Card, +1 Action. You may discard three cards from your hand to gain +3$.
This is a variation on the secret chamber/vault/oasis line of cards. Its a cantrip, unlike secret chamber, so it can just
replace itself if its not useful. However, you need to be able to discard 3 cards to get the effect. Ideally, you want to
use this to discard an estate and turn it into 1$, like with oasis. You can also turn up to 3 estates/curses into $.
However, if your hand doesn't have a total of 3 "bad" cards, you can't use this. Of course, it's ok to have coppers, so as
long as your hand has 2 coppers and 1 estate/curse, this card is an oasis for 1$ cheaper. Like oasis/chamber/vault, it
becomes easier to use the ability the more cards you have in your hand, so this combos well with drawing cards.
BEGGAR ($2) ACTION
+1 Action. The player to your left chooses an action card from the supply other than a Beggar. Gain a copy of it and place
it in your hand.
The most obvious reaction to this card is that your opponent will just choose to give you a copy of whatever other 2$ card
is in the supply, if there is another 2$ card. If that card is an embargo...then, well, you might be better off without a
beggar. But if the setup has pawn, hamlet, etc in it, then this works sort of like a 2$ version of workshop. Depending on
the setup, your opponent might rather give you 3$ cards, so, you might want to use this if your setup has, for example,
wishing well and village...but not if it has fortune teller and develop. Very setup-dependant card. Keep in mind that the
card does go directly into your hand, so you will always get some sort of action out of this. Only problem is, if there's a
weak terminal, your opponent will just always give you that. So, either don't buy one of these, or stock up on villages so
that you don't mind getting terminals.
CULTIST ($3) ACTION-ATTACK
+1$, +1 Action. Each opponent gains a curse. Each opponent may then discard any number of cards from their hand and draw until they have 5 cards in hand.
My attempt at a 3$ cursing card. 3$ means you can buy two of these in your starting turns...but is that really a good idea?
You're giving your deck coppers in order to give your opponent curses, like IGG, but at the same time, you allow your
opponent to have free cellars, and the ability for them to quickly reach 5 or 6$ is something they might gladly accept.
Sure, they get a curse, but if that means they can turn a 3copper/2estate hand into a 5$ buy, then it could be a benefit,
meanwhile you just have coppers in your deck instead of other opening buys, and its hard for you to catch up.
TUTOR ($3) ACTION
+1 Action. Until the end of your turn, every time you play an action, you may draw a card and then discard a card from your hand.
This is a clear action-chaining card. Will tremendously help a deck with an engine going, and, in other decks, is probably
not worth it. Draw it without another action and its useless. Draw it in a hand with 3 other actions and you've already got
a warehouse. More than that, and you're not only vastly increasing the power of your engine, but also cycling your deck
faster.
HIDDEN VILLAGE ($3) ACTION
+2 Actions, +1$. If there are less than 4 cards in your hand, +2 cards.
Shanty Town variation. When you get the effect, its like a shanty town, but with an extra $. A lot of setups have a way to
get you down to only 4 cards in your hand, so this works with the same cards that stuff like watchtower or jack's drawing
works with. It also works with itself, since if you play 2, then the second one would get you down to 3 cards, and then
you'd draw back up to 5 and have 3 actions and 2$.
INDUSTRIAL VILLAGE ($3) ACTION-ATTACK
+1 Card, +2 Actions. Choose one: Discard 5 cards from the top of your deck, or each opponent discards 5 cards from the top of their deck.
When you buy this, each opponent may discard a card from their hand, then draw until they have 5 cards.
Slight variation on the basic village. It adds extra cycling power to your deck, so the effect can be sort of like a mini-
chancellor. And when you don't want to cycle anymore, like once you've started greening, you can do it to your opponent
instead, assuming they've started to green as well. It also combos with or counters cards that affect the top of your deck.
None of these benefits are really that powerful, so I am fine with costing this at 3$. It has a small negative on-buy effect
to make it not strictly superior to village.
ARMORY ($3) ACTION-DURATION
+1 Card, +1 Action. You may discard your hand and draw 5 cards as many cards as you discarded. At the start of your next turn, you may discard your hand and draw 5 cards.
A card that minimizes draw luck. It doesn't really help your hand, but it does give you two hands to choose from. If you
have a deck with a lot of curses, or if there's no trashing, this can help a lot. If your deck is relatively consistent,
then this will end up doing nothing a lot of the time. But, hey, if you don't need it this turn, you can use it again next
turn. An attempt to make a card that encourages a game with less luck. Its cheap, it can't hurt you, and overall, it makes
draw luck matter less.
SPECIALIST ($4) ACTION
+1 Action. Look at the top 3 cards of your deck. Choose one and put it in your hand. You may discard the other 2 cards, or
put them back in any order.
This one is reminiscent of spy, lookout, scout, etc. Its really just a cantrip but it lets you choose from 3 cards to draw
with it. And, if you don't like the other 2 cards, discard them! Or put them back, and reorganize them. If you have another
cantrip, this means you can also choose which of the other 2 cards to draw. And the ability to choose which cards to take
into your hand this turn and which to save for your next is sort of like haven/courtyard/mandarin in terms of helping you
set up your hand.
DUPLICATE ($4) ACTION
+1 Action, + 1 Card. Reveal the top card of your deck. If it has the same name as a card in your hand, add it to your hand.
Otherwise, discard it.
A variation on wishing well with a higher success rate. Of course, when it succeeds, it'll probably be because its drawing
only a copper. Works best when you're designing your deck around a specific card or combo, otherwise its just like an
inconsistent lab. I suppose it also works really well with big money, and could encourage people to just buy treasures...
BANKER ($4) ACTION
Discard a copper from your hand. +2VP.
Gives 1 more VP than a monument, which is actually a lot more powerful. So, to make up for this, it doesn't give you any
money, and it requires you to discard a copper, which means you're left with a 3-card hand to work from. Buy this if you
have an engine going, or if your deck is consistent enough to do well with 3-card hands. Or, try and build a deck around it,
not even attempting to get to provinces.
MISSIONARY ($4) ACTION-ATTACK
+1 Action. Choose one: gain a silver and put it in your hand OR Each opponent gains a copper.
Another card that gives you silvers. As Jack has proven, this can be very powerful. (And I even like Bureaucrat!) It doesn't
do anything other than give you a silver, but it doesn't use up an action either. And when you're done wanting silvers, you
can use it to give your opponent coppers instead. Or you could use it for that from the beginning, if you don't want
silvers.
BRAINSTORM ($4) ACTION
+1 Action. Reveal the top three cards of your deck. Put up to 2 actions among them into your hand, and discard the rest.
Works best in setups with trashing. Chapel away your starting cards and build a deck made up of tournaments, villages,
treasuries, attack cards, and this. Very powerful. But, if there's no trashing, then this may not be very consistent, and
will usually give you just 1 action and 1 card, maybe even no card. If there's no trashing, then you can still use +buys to
get lots of cheap cantrips. So this works in setups that work with conspirator, vineyard, ironworks, etc.
BLACKSMITH ($4) ACTION
Choose one: +3 Cards, or Trash up to 3 cards from your hand.
When you buy this, you only draw 3 cards in your clean-up phase this turn.
A chapel/smithy variant. Its a chapel that only trashes 3 cards, which is a small nerf, and then when you're done with it,
it becomes a smithy. Or, use it as a smithy right away if you've drawn it in a hand with no estates. Because its a
combination of two other cards with very little drawbacks, it has an on-buy effect that makes your next turn pretty weak
(especially if you're buying this in your first two turns) So it gives you a small setback right away, but then it becomes
very strong.
PIONEER ($4) ACTION
+1$, +2 Cards. When you buy this, set aside a Settlement from the Settlement pile. At the end of your clean-up phase, add it to your hand.
SETTLEMENT ($0) ACTION
+1 Action, +1 Card, +1$. Trash this.
This is not in the supply.
Sort of like a one-shot card. The card itself is alright. Not very strong, but not especially weak either. The card draw is
like a moat, and only 1$ isn't very strong. You might not want to buy a lot of these, unless you have spare actions.
However, the on-buy effect is quite strong. Your next turn starts you off with 6 cards and an extra $ to spend, so its like
having a treasury AND a lab played automatically. Use this to boost you up to getting a strong card, to make up for the fact that you bought a slightly-improved moat for 4$.
BARGAIN ($5) TREASURE
Worth 2$. When you gain buy this, gain any card costing up to 3$. For every unused action you have, the cost of the card gained can be increased by 1$.
A 5-cost silver inspired by border village. At the very least, it gets you a card costing 3$, which, in some set ups, can be
good. But the opportunity cost is a bit high, since you'd usually rather get a good 5$ card than what is essentially two 3$
cards. (A silver + whatever you gain) Have an action left over though, and you can get a 4$ card, which is now a bit better. And, if you're running a deck that somehow has 2 actions left over at the end of each turn, then you can get a 5$ with a free silver attached to it! Is it a good strategy to just stock up on villages, buying no other cards, and hope to consistently be able to get to 5$ with 3+ extra actions left? Maybe. But is all that worth it just to get extra silvers?
Might be better off to only go for this when lots of villages is already a viable strategy.
ASSASSIN ($5) ACTION-ATTACK
+1 Card, +1 Action. Each opponent with more than three cards in hand must discard a card at random.
Cantrip militia! Except, not really a militia. Giving your opponent a hand of 4 random cards is really more like the minion
attack. Play two and its really powerful. But if you're able to play two every turn, then that means you've used all your 5$
turns to buy these, so your deck might not be capable of producing much money. Plus, if you draw more than 2 of these in a turn, the extra ones are wasted, so you might not want to buy lots of them.
INVESTMENT ($5) TREASURE
Worth 2$. During your clean up phase, trash a card you have in play.
Its like loan! But its 5$ instead of 3$, and its a silver instead of a copper, and it trashes from play instead of from your
deck. But it basically has the same purpose: trash coppers. It just does it differently. This method of trashing coppers is
more consistent, since you'll usually draw it with a copper, and you don't have to hope it avoids your other treasures. It
can also trash cards other than coppers, so you never know, you might want to use it to get rid of a terminal action that
you no longer need. Only drawback is, it HAS to trash a card you have in play, so once you're out of coppers, you might not be able to play this without trashing another card. Don't worry though, it can trash itself, since it trashes any card you
have in play.
COLLECTOR ($5) ACTION
+1 Action. Reveal cards from the top of your deck until you reveal 2 cards with the same name. Add both of them to your
hand. Discard the rest of the cards.
A hunting party/laboratory variant. Like with the earlier card that works with matching cards, this will just get your
coppers unless you build your deck around it. So, trash the coppers, and suddenly this becomes very powerful. If you only
buy multiple copies of one action, this could consistently draw them for you. But then you'd also need villages to play both
of them, unless they are cantrips. Use the effect properly, and it can be very strong. Go big money or get lots of silvers,
and this could consistently get your 4$. And, if not, well, the worst that'll happen usually is that it gets you +1 action
and 2 coppers, which is at least a silver.
SACRIFICE ($5) ACTION-ATTACK
+1 Action. Discard a card from your hand. If it is a victory card, +1VP. If it is a treasure card, +3$. If it is an action
card, gain an action card that does not cost more than it. If it is a curse, each opponent gains a curse.
The most important things here are the victory card and action card effects. This can duplicate your action cards. Discard a 5$ action and get another copy of it. Potentially very powerful. But if you're discarding the action, that means you can't
play it and have to wait until your next shuffle, so make sure your deck isn't too slow to make use of the actions.
Alternatively, use this to get a free victory point every time you play it. After all, you'll usually have an estate to
discard. And, if you can't do either of those, then you can at least discard a copper to make this equivalent to a silver.
It also counters curses.
ILL-CONCEIVED DEAL ($5) TREASURE
Worth 2$. When you gain this, each opponent with more than 3 cards in their hand discards down to 3 cards.
A 5$ silver with a militia effect on-gain. Not especially useful in a setup without trashing, like miltia and margrave, but
if you think it could hurt your opponent's hand, then it could be a good buy. Like IGG, you can rush these and get your
opponent stuck at 3-card hands while you keep gaining silver. But that might not always be the best strategy.
EARTHQUAKE ($5) ACTION-ATTACK
+1 Action. Discard your hand, +4 Cards. Each other player with at least 5 cards in hand discards his hand and draws 4 cards. You may do this up to two times.
The attack part is the same as minion, but this card sacrifices the +2$ ability in order to give you more control over the
hand you get. Unlike minion, you can't really chain this, but it does give you a strong chance of getting a good hand. If
you have lots of actions you can play to get money, then this can let you play them and then redraw your hand, like minion. But its a lot less consistent, so you might not want to buy lots of these. It can also cycle through a total of 8 cards, so if you're trying to get to a specific card in your deck, use this.
ARISTOCRAT ($5) ACTION
+1 Card, +1 Action, +1$.
When you gain buy this, gain a second copy of it and place both of them on top of your deck.
An addition to the many +1card/+1action/+1$ cards out there. The most obvious comparisons to this are treasury and market and, well, lots of others. For 5$, this one has no special effect, but it makes up for it by giving you two of them when you buy it. A single treasury can come back a dozen times, which is stronger than if you had two of them that didn't come back, but these guys also go on top of your deck when you buy them, giving you a sort of stash-like effect of ensuring you have one turn with a 2$ bonus.
FOREST ($5) VICTORY-REACTION
Worth 3VP. When you gain this, place it on top of your deck.
When an opponent buys a victory card, you may discard this card from your hand to gain another Forest.
This is a duchy, but with the ability to gain more and more copies of itself. The downside is, it goes on your deck when you
buy it, meaning you only have 4 cards in your hand the next turn. But this card has the ability to get you lots of victory
points, depending on what your opponent does. And every time you get another one, it increases your chances of being able to get even more. The problem is, you want to buy these before your opponent starts greening, so you've gotta start greening pretty early for it to be worth it.
FUND ($6) ACTION-DURATION
+1 Action. Choose one: +2$. Next turn, +1$. OR Set this card aside. At the start of your next turn, return it to your hand.
This is a combination of gold and haven/courtyard/mandarin. With +1 action and a total of 3$, its basically a gold. But you
also have the option of putting it away until your next turn. You set it aside, so you draw it as a 6th card too! As we all
know, though, one good turn is better than two average ones, so the fact that this only gives 2$ compares to 3$ isn't
completely made up for by the extra $ the next turn. Buy this instead of gold when you need your deck to be more consistent, and when you think you might reach over 8$ with your hands.
NECROMANCY ($7) ACTION
+1 Action. Choose a card from your discard pile and place it in your hand.
This lets you retrieve any action from your discard pile and put it in your hand, and then use it right away. It can be very
powerful. But I guess thats why it costs 7$. It can also get golds, so it can function as a gold for 1$ more than can also
get actions if necessary. In colony games, it can get platinums, which is very strong. Like counting house and inn, this
doesn't do anything until you have cards in your discard pile, so you can draw it dead sometimes.
