#13 Loan (my rank: #22): Okay, so you want me, to buy a Copper instead of a Silver so I can trash my Coppers??? Are you nuts? This is the 2nd (after Develop) worst trasher in the game! Unless you have absolutely no other choice, it is a big NO and there are many boards, where Loan is the only trasher, and it is still SO SLOW, you don't want to waste time for buying it over Silver. Compare it to other "coppertrashers" - Moneylender gives you $3, Spice Merchant gives you +2cards/+1action. This poor guy gives you a Copper. No, thanks! (I know that Moneylender and SM trashes the Copper from your hand, so they give you a virtual "-$1", but at least you KNOW that you gonna trash the Copper, Loan can show you a Gold)
There are a couple subtle things about loan that make it better than Moneylender and Spice Merchant, imo.
1. It doesn't take an action
2. It costs only $3, so you can open it with a good (terminal) $4 card
3. It only gives $1 less than moneylender, but
cycles at least 1 card4. It gives about the same money as spice merchant (assuming cards give $1 on average).
5. You don't have to trash to get the $1
"1 card more" is also the difference between Smithy and Moat.
Really, Smithy reads, draw my replacement card, then 2 more, and Moat/Oracle reads, draw my replacement card, and 1 more. It's a huge difference.
Maybe one should compare it more to Courtyard?
It compared to courtyard like cellar does to warehouse. Theory would hate it
Ah, but even the simulators (!) show that BM/Oracle is superior to BM/Smithy. And they necessarily play Oracle sub-optimally. Oracle is actually a power card.
Superior in what way? I have tried and found that it does not beat it heads-up.
Other stuff:
I agree with most people that the attacks are too low and black market is too high. It's hard to complain, because while I put a lot of thought into the top of my list, I didn't spend much time on the rest, as it's really hard to compare the really situational $3 cards. The one that I ranked much lower than it turned out was oasis. I guess I underrated it, but I felt like it's mostly a do-nothing card (if you discard a copper, it's essentially a cantrip) that in some situations (menagerie, minion, library-types) is pretty good. I have a hard time seeing how it can rank better than wishing well, for instance.
EDIT:
To add more specific discussion about the attacks:
I'm not surprised fortune teller is low, since it's not a good early game attack. Like rabble, it's a good late game attack, and it's easy to forget about $3 cards late game.
The thing with oracle is when you first read it, nothing jumps out at you, but if you think about it at all, it's pretty good. Skipping a good card in the early game hurts sooo much. Yes +2 Cards isn't sexy, but no one complains about witch being weak. You can't say an attack card is bad by ignoring the attack part.