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[Aquila]

The objective is to design a split pile - of any format - where at least one of the cards in it is a Reaction. With fewer available copies of the Reaction(s), perhaps this could be an interesting challenge...

Add in whatever other mechanics you like. I will judge based on how interesting the pile will be to play long term.

The contest will close at Tuesday 26th September 04:00pm forum time.

[JW]

Hungry Foal
- Action
+1 Action
Choose one: You may trash a card costing from your hand for +1 Card. Or trash this for +3 Cards.

Timid Steed
- Action Reaction
+3 Cards
----
At the start of your turn, you may discard a Treasure to play this from your hand.

Notes: 5 Hungry Foals on top of 5 Timid Steeds. I like that, thematically, you can trash Hungry Foal for the effect of two Horses.

Timid Steed (submitted to a prior contest) can be a Smithy or, at the start of your turn, a Stables. Because you need to meet the Stables discarding condition at the start of your turn, it's harder to chain them at the start of your turn than it would be to play a similar number of Stables (consider a deck with other cards with +Cards besides Timid Steed). It makes up for that in the versatility of being playable as Smithy too.

Hungry Foal can trash your starting Coppers, but with Timid Steed benefiting from them, how many will you want to keep?

[BryGuy]

Fish
Action - Reaction
In 2 or 3 player games, this pile starts with three copies; otherwise this starts with four copies of Red Fish, Green Fish, Small Fish, and More Fish. Shuffle before play.

Red Fish
$3 Action - Reaction - Fish
+1 Card
+$1
+1 Buy
+1 Villager
Return this to the bottom of the Fish pile.
-
When anyone plays a Fish, you may discard this to gain two Fish.

Green Fish
$3 Action - Reaction - Fish
+2 Cards
+1 Villager
Return this to the bottom of the Fish pile.
-
When anyone plays a Fish, you may discard this to gain two Fish.

Small Fish
$3 Action - Reaction - Fish
+$2
+1 Buy
+2 Villagers
Return this to the bottom of the Fish pile.
-
When anyone plays a Fish, you may discard this to gain two Fish.

More Fish
$3 Action - Reaction - Fish
+1 Card
+1 Villager
Trash a card from your Hand to gain a Fish.
Return this to the bottom of the Fish pile.
-
When anyone plays a Fish, you may discard this to gain two Fish.

So i had two ideas and this idea seamed more fun than the Reaction to gain a Loot, apparently there is not one yet. Red Fish is like Market. Green fish is like Laboratory. Small Fish is like Festival. Originally these flipped a Fish token and either you return them or you gain a Fish. Maybe as Reactions they are more interesting?

2023021: updated reaction to two Fish and changed cost to coin.

[faust]

Wagon - $3
Action

+1 Card
+1 Action
Discard a card. If it was a Reaction or an Attack, +$3.
This turn during Cleanup, do not discard your hand.

Surveyor - $4
Action/Reaction

This turn, when you discard one or more cards, +$1 and +1 Card.
-
When the game would end on another player's turn, you may set this aside from your hand. If you did, the game continues until the end of your next turn.

This is a 5/5 split pile. I had the idea for the Reaction for the last contest, where it did not quite fit. Here it seems perfect!

Note: Surveyor's on-play works because you discard all at once rather than sequentially. So, if you play Scholar, it only triggers once, but if you play two Wagons, it triggers twice.

Surveyor remains set aside until the game really ends, at which point it is returned to your deck.

[silverspawn]

Super interesting concept, but doesn't Surveyer have loop potential? The way it's worded, if I finish the game and you react with Surveyor, can't I reveal surveyor at the end of your extra turn?

[AJL828]

I think the idea is that Surveyor stays set aside, so you can only react with one 5 times maximum per game (Faust probably used “set aside” instead of “trash” to avoid possible infinite games with stuff that can gain from the trash).

[silverspawn]

I didn't mean infinite loops, just the fact that you can react to surveyor turns with your own surveyor

[fika monster]

The objective is to design a split pile - of any format - where at least one of the cards in it is a Reaction. With fewer available copies of the Reaction(s), perhaps this could be an interesting challenge...

Add in whatever other mechanics you like. I will judge based on how interesting the pile will be to play long term.

The contest will close at Tuesday 26th September 04:00pm forum time.

I have a card idea which is basically a added kingdom card that has the setup that it adds a reaction card to each supply pile in the kingdom, does that fit this contests criteria?

[majiponi]

Sir Craftsman
cost $5 - Action - Attack - Knight - Reaction
Each other player reveals the top 2 cards of their deck, trashes one of them costing from $3 to $6, and discards the rest. If a Knight is trashed by this, trash this.
---
When one of your card is trashed, you may discard this from your hand, to gain a card costing up to $5.


EDIT: 11th Knight card for Knights pile from Dark Ages.

[faust]

I didn't mean infinite loops, just the fact that you can react to surveyor turns with your own surveyor

Yes, that is intended behavior.

[Aquila]

The objective is to design a split pile - of any format - where at least one of the cards in it is a Reaction. With fewer available copies of the Reaction(s), perhaps this could be an interesting challenge...

Add in whatever other mechanics you like. I will judge based on how interesting the pile will be to play long term.

The contest will close at Tuesday 26th September 04:00pm forum time.

I have a card idea which is basically a added kingdom card that has the setup that it adds a reaction card to each supply pile in the kingdom, does that fit this contests criteria?

I guess the brief can be read as 'any format' including official cards, so I will allow it.

Sir Craftsman
cost $5 - Action - Attack - Knight - Reaction
Each other player reveals the top 2 cards of their deck, trashes one of them costing from $3 to $6, and discards the rest. If a Knight is trashed by this, trash this.
---
When one of your card is trashed, you may discard this from your hand, to gain a card costing up to $5.

This is an 11th card added to the Knights pile? I'll allow it too.

[silverspawn]

I didn't mean infinite loops, just the fact that you can react to surveyor turns with your own surveyor

Yes, that is intended behavior.

And you're sure that's a good idea? One extra turn (or one by each player) after the game ends is fun, but a lot of them? If the game ends, often the Province pile is already empty, and sometimes other piles are partially empty, so having a bunch of extra turn may just mean chasing estates or something

[4est]

Here are the Critters, a rotating split pile featuring a colorful assortment of woodland creatures.

Raccoon is a Moat that can also give +$1 if there's Copper in the trash, at the cost of junking yourself (those greedy trash bandits can't resist digging through the garbage). As the first card in the split pile, this one rotates the pile, but only when you line it up with a Silver.

Stag is borrowed from another rotating split pile I designed, a VP card that rewards getting all four of them. They're skittish though and rotate the pile whenever you gain one, making it tricky to collect the whole herd of them.

Fox is Duration trasher and draw to X, very sly. On play it can be like a Lab that trashes, pretty nice, but it can't increase handsize beyond 5. Be careful on the duration turn, the trash is mandatory.

Wolf is a Night - Attack that can gain stuff you haven't gained yet, while making opponents discard a card they have duplicates of.

There are some light interactions within the pile: Fox can combat Wolf's handsize attack and will gladly eat the Coppers Raccoon nabs. Stag and Wolf push the pile's variety theme, and Raccoon's Reaction doesn't mind drawing a Wolf. 

[anordinaryman]

Some feedback:

Wolf -- This could lock people out of their turns by forcing them to discard down to 1 or 2 cards. All other Dominion attacks avoid that possibility, and for good reason. Maybe add a "then draw up to 3 cards" or something. But overall this card is super strong.


I don't think there's a compelling reason for the main rotate to be on the reaction. It slows down the ability to rotate which is tough. And Raccoon doesn't really help you line those up -- you still have to buy a silver and you can't even play it because once it's in play you can't do the reaction. So, to make it easier, Raccoon could react from in-play (when you play a silver, you may discard this from play to rotate the Critters), that way you at least get the +2 cards to increase the chance of lining them up. You may consider having Stag's reaction on the other critters.

Fox is just ridiculously strong. Which is less of a problem since there's only 4 copies, but still. It seems strong.

It doesn't seem like any of the cards really combo enough for a split pile. The only thing is Raccoon gains from trash, and Fox is a trasher. The main potential I'm seeing is Gaining (both Raccoon and Wolf gain). So maybe Fox could be a reaction to play itself "when you gain a Treasure." Just trying to think of a way to make them feel like one pile a little more. This could allow you to simplify Raccoon to the typical "you may rotate the Critters" if you want.

[faust]

I didn't mean infinite loops, just the fact that you can react to surveyor turns with your own surveyor

Yes, that is intended behavior.

And you're sure that's a good idea? One extra turn (or one by each player) after the game ends is fun, but a lot of them? If the game ends, often the Province pile is already empty, and sometimes other piles are partially empty, so having a bunch of extra turn may just mean chasing estates or something

Well, if the stars align, you'd get 5 extra turns from this (or absolute fringe case 5*(n-1), where n is the number of players), and that's in total, not each. I don't think that's excessive. The card is in a split pile so this doesn't go overboard.

I think it would be too swingy if only one person got to use Surveyor, so you have to be able to trigger them in response to Surveyor turns. Ultimately I don't think it's a big deal, if there is no longer a way to win, then you don't have to play it out, and if there is, then it's still interesting.

[4est]

Some feedback:

Wolf -- This could lock people out of their turns by forcing them to discard down to 1 or 2 cards. All other Dominion attacks avoid that possibility, and for good reason. Maybe add a "then draw up to 3 cards" or something. But overall this card is super strong.


I don't think there's a compelling reason for the main rotate to be on the reaction. It slows down the ability to rotate which is tough. And Raccoon doesn't really help you line those up -- you still have to buy a silver and you can't even play it because once it's in play you can't do the reaction. So, to make it easier, Raccoon could react from in-play (when you play a silver, you may discard this from play to rotate the Critters), that way you at least get the +2 cards to increase the chance of lining them up. You may consider having Stag's reaction on the other critters.

Fox is just ridiculously strong. Which is less of a problem since there's only 4 copies, but still. It seems strong.

It doesn't seem like any of the cards really combo enough for a split pile. The only thing is Raccoon gains from trash, and Fox is a trasher. The main potential I'm seeing is Gaining (both Raccoon and Wolf gain). So maybe Fox could be a reaction to play itself "when you gain a Treasure." Just trying to think of a way to make them feel like one pile a little more. This could allow you to simplify Raccoon to the typical "you may rotate the Critters" if you want.

Appreciate the feedback here, very helpful. Wolf definitely should have some sort of handsize check, and Raccoon's pile rotation reaction could be easier to proc, good calls. I think Fox is fine since it's hard to get early or get a bunch of them.

I'll make some updates to these when I can.

[silverspawn]

Split pile, 5 each, Visionary on top.

Edit: Updated to specify that you discard after shuffling. I liked just the crude parenthesis best.

Also apparently it should be "when" not "whenever"!

[Gubump]

Split pile, 5 each, Visionary on top.

Do you discard Prophet for its Reaction before or after you shuffle?

[silverspawn]

Dang that's a really good question. Didn't even think about the difference. Will update the card to choose before or after (but not right now)

[grep]

Halloween theme 5/5 split pile


Sepulcher
Night - Reaction - $3
Trash a card from hand; +1 Villager per card type it has.
-
When you gain a card, you may reveal this to put that card into your hand

Haunted Mill
Action - Looter - $5
+2 Cards
You may gain a Ruins for +3 Cards

[segura]

Looks balanced. Haunted Mill provides a net draw of 4 but given that you need one copy of Sepulcher to deal with the Ruins and that the Ruins is itself dead you only net draw 2 which is the effect of Village+Smithy. Relative to Village+Smithy you get an additional Villager (gotta spent one to play Haunted Mill) plus the extra consistency of Villagers.

[Aquila]

This is the 24 hour mark.

I see that some who said they would enter haven't yet. If anyone would like another day say so, otherwise I will close this time tomorrow.

[NoMoreFun]

Headhunter
Night - $2
Gain a Horse
Put this anywhere in any non-Victory supply pile
______
When you gain this, gain a card from the same pile (that doesn't come with another)

Employer
Action/Duration/Reaction - $5
At the start of your next turn, +$4 and +1 Buy
_______
When any player gains a second card on their turns, you may play this from your hand

(5 Headhunters on top of 5 employers)

[RovingBear]

Explorer
Action - Reaction $3
+2 Actions
Reveal the top card of your deck. If it is a victory card +2 Cards.
_
When any player buys a victory card costing at least $4 you may discard this for +2 Cards.

Fountain of Youth
Victory $4
1VP
_
If this is the first time you gained Fountain of Youth this turn +2 Cards and return to your Action phase.

[Zoyarox]

Quiet Cove
$3 - Night - Duration - Reaction
Set aside a card from your hand face down (on this).
At the start of your next turn, either put it into your hand, or exile it for +1 Card.
-
When another player plays an Attack card, you may first play this from your hand.

Seductress
$5 - Night - Attack - Reaction
+1 Villager
+1 Coffers
If you have another Night card in play, every other player discards a card with the lowest cost in $ from their Exile.
-
When you gain this, play it.

I attempted a full Night (Duration) Reaction split pile.

Start your next hand with one more card with Quiet Cove, perhaps an Action you couldn't play last turn, or exile a junk card, while later preventing Action clashes with Villagers and returning your opponents exiled junk to their deck.

The Night type helps with balancing and Seductress is not gained to your hand, but rather played, to gain the benefits right away even if you're still in your action phase.

[Aquila]

I will start judging from now. Entries are welcome until the judgement post is up. I will likely run into tomorrow.

[LibraryAdventurer]

Road Builder on top of Trade Route 5/5 split pile
First, a card with two reactions:

Road Builder
$4 - Action - Reaction
Discard up to 2 cards for +$2 per card discarded.
-
When a card gives you +Buy, you may play this from your hand.
When you discard this besides during clean-up, you may reveal it for +1 Card and +1 Buy.

EDIT: added 'besides during clean-up'

Trade Route
$6 - Action - Duration
Now and at the start of next turn: +1 Card and +1 Buy, then discard a card and for the rest of the turn, cards that share a type with the discarded card cost $2 less.

(I don't mind having a card share a name with a removed card.)
FAQ: If a card shares more than one type with the discarded card, it is still only discounted by $2.

[fika monster]

Last minute submission.


Action (costs 3)
Wolverine
Trash an action or treasure card from the supply. Reveal cards from your deck until you reveal a copy of the trashed card. play it and trash it, Discarding the rest.
-
set up:
Put an aristocratic feline in the middle of the  kingdom supply piles.


Edit to AF:

Aristocratic feline

Action-reaction. (Costs 5)
+1 card
+1 action
+1$
-
When you trash or reveal this, gain and play this. This is card cannot be modified.


Faq:
If there is a kingdom pile with 8 cards, you have one aristocratic cat in it. And similar for a 20 pile kingdom card.

[BryGuy]

Action (costs 3)
Wolverine
Trash an action or treasure card from the supply. Reveal cards from your deck until you reveal a copy of the trashed card. play it and trash it, Discarding the rest.
-
set up:
Trash a card from every kingdom supply pile in the kingdom, and put an aristocratic feline in the middle of the piles.

Once you trash a card there is usually an odd quantity so the middle is already filled with a card from that pile. The easiest resolution would be to not trash a card.

[silverspawn]

Did we break a new record of most submissions in the last 24 hours?

[BryGuy]

A card with two reactions:

Road Builder
$4 - Action - Reaction
Discard up to 2 cards for +$2 per card discarded.
-
When a card gives you +Buy, you may play this from your hand.
When you discard this, you may reveal it for +1 Card and +1 Buy.

Trade Route
$6 - Action - Duration
Now and at the start of next turn: +1 Card and +1 Buy, then discard a card and for the rest of the turn, cards that share a type with the discarded card cost $2 less.

(I don't mind having a card share a name with a removed card.)
FAQ: If a card shares more than one type with the discarded card, it is still only discounted by $2.

Is this a split pile?
For Trade Route, once the card is discarded it becomes a small issue of tracking the discount. Could it be set aside instead to resolve tracking issues?

[fika monster]

Did we break a new record of most submissions in the last 24 hours?

Yes i think we did.

For my part its because i was at furnavia, a furry convention that happened in norway, and now had the energy and time to make a submission for this.

There was actually a cat furry that has a BF with a wolverine fursona there, whoch is howni got the idea.

[faust]

A card with two reactions:

Road Builder
$4 - Action - Reaction
Discard up to 2 cards for +$2 per card discarded.
-
When a card gives you +Buy, you may play this from your hand.
When you discard this, you may reveal it for +1 Card and +1 Buy.

Trade Route
$6 - Action - Duration
Now and at the start of next turn: +1 Card and +1 Buy, then discard a card and for the rest of the turn, cards that share a type with the discarded card cost $2 less.

(I don't mind having a card share a name with a removed card.)
FAQ: If a card shares more than one type with the discarded card, it is still only discounted by $2.

Is this a split pile?
For Trade Route, once the card is discarded it becomes a small issue of tracking the discount. Could it be set aside instead to resolve tracking issues?

Not only does it have tracking issues, things can get even weirder with type-changing. Suppose I discarded a Vassal with Trade Route, then buy Capitalism. Do Treasures now cost $2 less or not?

Also, unless Road Builder is supposed to work during Cleanup, it needs an extra clause.

[Snorka]

Joining the last-minute submission party! The supply pile for these has 5 copies of Hall of the Mountain King on top of 5 copies of Mountain Town.

[Aquila]

Finally caught up!

RESULTS

JW

Hungry Foal - Action, +1 Action Choose one: you may trash a card costing from your hand for +1 Card; or trash this for +3 Cards. Timid Steed - Action Reaction, +3 Cards - At the start of your turn, you may discard a Treasure to play this from your hand.

Copper trasher or double Experiment on top of Smithy or start-of-turn Stables. +: Hungry Foal's trashing can make interesting choices if the deck will later use Timid Steed, while the self trash helps with its otherwise narrow functionality. TS continues the draw function of the pile; being permanent, it's more interesting than 5 more HFs. The Smithy or Stables choice is interesting; one increases hand size more, but the other is non-terminal. -: the interest of how much to trash with HF can be dampened a bit if you have to also gain the other 4 to get to TS. The Stables function of TS can be unreliable, needing 2 starting hand cards to connect, so the flexibility is not as free as may be liked. Overall: mechanically sound and mildly interesting. With trash and draw in one pile, its presence will point strategies toward engines, rather like Sauna/Avanto but probably less swingy.

BryGuy

Fish pile Action - Reaction In 2 or 3 player games, this pile starts with three copies; otherwise this starts with four copies of Red Fish, Green Fish, Small Fish, and More Fish. Red Fish - Action Reaction Fish, +1 Card + +1 Buy +1 Villager Return this to the bottom of the Fish pile. - When anyone plays a Fish, you may discard this to gain two Fish. Green Fish - Action Reaction Fish, +2 Cards +1 Villager Return this to the bottom of the Fish pile. - When anyone plays a Fish, you may discard this to gain two Fish. Small Fish - Action Reaction Fish, +1 Buy + +2 Villagers Return this to the bottom of the Fish pile. - When anyone plays a Fish, you may discard this to gain two Fish. More Fish - Action Reaction Fish, +1 Card +1 Villager Trash a card from your hand to gain a Fish. Return this to the bottom of the Fish pile. - When anyone plays a Fish, you may discard this to gain two Fish.

Self-rotating pile of cheap one-shots that can react to one played to gain more of themselves. +: some neat novelties. Villagers make the payout consistent with each one, especially Small Fish. Returning to the bottom of the pile is a simple and effective way to have the pile rotate, and likely mix up the order at the same time. They can support almost any deck strategy, yet the decision between play a Fish or discard it to keep a supply of Fish in the deck makes playing with them a bit more interesting than deck support cards like Market. -: The order of the pile could be improved, as Red Fish is the least useful of the four early. Overall: this pile adds a bit of everything to an engine deck, spread out across 4 different cards so they can be cheaper. I get a similar feeling as I do with Market, that it's there and always useable but not the exciting strategy centrepiece of the game. This is a bit more fun than Market with the interactive nature of split piles. So, also mechanically sound and mildly interesting.

faust

Hand preserve over Clean-up on top of game-lengthening Reaction, each with discarding synergy. +: Wagon is new and interesting in taking Journey's hand keeping purely as card control. The mandatory discard helps to balance out what could be too easy a way to hold green. It's a brilliant top card for a Reaction bottom card, helping Reactions to be in hand between turns. Surveyor's on-play effect is suitably niche to fit a potent Reaction, yet potentially exciting and synergistic. -: I see two issues with the Reaction in 3+ player games. One is when two players react at once; if player 1 triggers endgame and players 2 and 3 react at once, play continues to player 3's turn and so player 2's Surveyor ends up doing nothing. The other is the potential for payoff to backfire; player 1 ends the game, player 3 reacts, but player 2 gets more VP on their extra turn than 3 does, which may be enough to put them ahead. With very few windows in which to use it, there may be no opportunity to control this. Overall: I really like Wagon, if it's not too strong, but the Reaction on Surveyor I think could give more definite self benefit.

majiponi

Sir Craftsman - Action Attack Knight Reaction, Each other player reveals the top 2 cards of their deck, trashes one of them costing from to , and discards the rest. If a Knight is trashed by this, trash this. - When one of your cards is trashed, you may discard this to gain a card costing up to .

11th Knight that can replace an attacked card with a , or react to a self thinning trash. +: The Reaction being a soft counter to the other Knights is good. A Market Square variant that can build engines is also nice. -: if there's no reliable way to get it in hand between turns, it might just end up being another Knight. The fun defend moments will be few. Overall: fans of the Knights can make and add variants quite easily. This one nicely fits the combative game they create, and this will be how it works most of the time. I remain not a fan of the Knights, preferring to be allowed to create a meaningful deck, but I can't overlook the opinion of the intended audience.

4est

Colourful, flavour-focused pile with new rotate methods and some variety synergy. +: The novel ways of rotating the pile create different strategies; one player gets a Stag and the rest are rotated away for a time. This might create an interesting late game. -: Raccoon and Fox are an anti-synergy, Raccoon reversing some trashing and making draw to X worse with increasing hand size. I don't think Fox is so strong to need this nerf, considering how late it comes; the next turn will usually draw one card and the mandatory trash may even hurt, so the Duration aspect is a slight nerf. Overall: unless Fox is the only trashing or Wolf's attack is on average devastating, the pile seems quite skippable with Raccoon and Stag being weak starts. The interest I feel is largely in the flavour, and long term that will wear off.

silverspawn

Pile of two deck inspectors that can draw or give . +: Visionary is a kind and likeable Border Guard variant with the flexibility to strategically choose the . They will likely empty. Prophet is draw that can be built around, with a Reaction that is likely to be in hand but calls for draw control or a lot of sifting to work; unpleasant discards from Visionary or Prophet have some compensation. -: they will both take some time to resolve. Overall: with the flexibility of draw or payload with some skill involved to make the desired outcome happen, I see this pile being a very nice play experience. One could argue it could be two separate piles of 10, but it does have a meaningful if not essential interaction.

grep

Sepulcher - Night Reaction, Trash a card from your hand. +1 Villager per type it has. - When you gain a card, you may reveal this from your hand to put that card into your hand. Haunted Mill - Action Looter, +2 Cards You may gain a Ruins for +3 Cards.

Villager tfb on top of terminal draw that gains tfb fodder. +: Sepulcher trashing from hand at Night balances its power, limiting its usefulness on Coppers. The Reaction on a Night card is neat; it means gaining trash fodder straight to hand is very easy, a bit like buying or Workshop-ing Villagers directly. -: the Reaction was "too much" for Donald to put on Sleigh, according to its Secret History, so it may be too strong. Certainly Sepulcher looks a lot stronger than Sleigh. HM gets more strong uses the more players there are, rather than stay the same. Overall: an obvious synergy that feels rather strong. Sepulcher could be fun if balanced, but HM isn't really.

NoMoreFun

Headhunter - Night, Gain a Horse. Put this anywhere in any supply pile. ______ When you gain this, gain a card from the same pile (that doesn't come with another). Employer - Action Duration Reaction, At the start of your next turn, +1 Buy and + . _______ When any player gains a second card on their turns, you may play this from your hand.

Multiple gain enabler on top of payload that reacts to a second gain. +: Headhunter being a Night makes putting it on top of the Provinces/Colonies/influential kingdom pile less trivial, potentially creating interesting strategic changes for all players. Employer adds +Buy and makes double Province/Colony turns always possible, adding a challenge of how deep down to put Hs. H will initially gain a second copy of itself, helping them to empty out. E can elegantly react to itself. -: with a bonus turn giver, H probably becomes overly dominant. Sometimes in 2-player it will be obvious when the opponent must gain one or two Provinces/Colonies, and putting a H just below will feel cruel. Overall: an innovative and clever pile that has a love-it-or-hate-it feel depending on the kingdom. E is nice, but I fear H may spoil things more often than add fun.

RovingBear

Explorer - Action Reaction, +2 Actions Reveal the top card of your deck. If it is a Victory card, +2 Cards. _ When any player buys a Victory card costing at least , you may discard this for +2 Cards. Fountain of Youth - Victory, 1 _ If this is the first time you gained Fountain of Youth this turn, +2 Cards and return to your Action phase.

Village that draws with Victories on top of 1 Cavalry minus +Buy. +: FoY might make an interesting late game buy, the draw enabling a Province as well. -: Explorer's draw is unreliable, so unless it's the only Village they will unlikely empty. The on-buy Reaction could be on-gain. Technically an E could endlessly react to discard and draw itself, but I don't think that's particularly meaningful yet. Overall: I don't see this pile making much of an impact on most games. FoY could likely go up to 2 for starts.

Zoyarox

Slow Sanctuary that speeds up with the Reaction - that could also save a card to protect from some hand Attacks - on top of Exile-reversing Attack. +: Quiet Cove can react to Attacks in fun ways. Seductress is a new Attack. -: QC can thin the deck non-terminally, but being slow without Attacks will it be worthwhile enough to empty out? S isn't a Reaction (Buried Treasure isn't), but that's minor. Its needing another Night in play feels like an unnecessary nerf; it junks at worst, but only if players thinned beforehand (Coven is the only exception). Overall: the presence of another Attack in the kingdom will affect the strength of this pile quite strongly. Even then, I have tried making Attacks that junk on opponents trashing, which I didn't think too fun as trashing is fun. Countering Exile might feel similar.

LibraryAdventurer

Road Builder - Action Reaction, Discard up to 2 cards for + each. - When a card gives you +Buy, you may play this from your hand. When you discard this, you may reveal it for +1 Card and +1 Buy. Trade Route - Action Duration, Now and at the start of next turn: +1 Card and +1 Buy, then discard a card and for the rest of the turn, cards that share a type with the discarded card cost less.

Discarding payload on top of type-specific double-Troll payload, each with +Buy synergy. +: Road Builder is a terminal on the top of a split pile, but useful early and it can be made non-terminal. -: discarding from anywhere to react would be nice for extra draw at Clean-up for the next hand, but the rules on Clean-up I don't think let it happen nicely. If the discarding order was mechanically spelled out it could be made to work, but it's a simple dump your hand and everything in play all at once, and being simple that will probably stay as is. So this would need 'other than during Clean-up'. Some people may not like having to remember the discarded card's types for Trade Route, and the terminal +1 Card now on it doesn't feel nice. Overall: discarding Victories for TRs to become like 2 Bridge Trolls late game is a strong option, but while RB can make decent payload early, emptying them out doesn't seem viable enough.

fika monster

Wolverine - Action, Trash an Action or Treasure from the Supply. Reveal cards from your deck until you reveal a copy of the trashed card. Play it, then trash it, then discard the rest. - Setup: put an Aristocratic Feline in the middle of the kingdom supply piles. Aristocratic Feline - Action Reaction, +1 Card +1 Action + - When your trash or reveal this (using the word "reveal"), other than in Clean-up, you may play it.

Deck searcher that trashes its target and accelerates the game. A Peddler with Fortress and Patron properties goes to the middle of each kingdom pile; the Wolverine will grab and find them easily. +: Felines won't be too intrusive a global change to the game, and may tame Wolverines from trashing the Supply too fast. W can search for the immediately needed card with immaculate reliability, at the balancing cost of losing that card. This is hard to sustain on anything not a Fortress or Feline, but Copper trashing is another use for it. -: Adventures tokens and Traits might be confusing. Which of your Felines is the Reckless one? Likely they just shouldn't be affected, but how would this be implemented cleanly? Overall: this has the potential to be good fun. Players can just manually ignore the Traits snag, though it's still inelegant.

Snorka

Throne that puts deck into discard pile to trash Treasure from it, on top of multiple choice card that can draw from the discard pile. +: the Reaction is a neat free ability in general - better than Messenger which does it mid turn and potentially after drawing junk - but is made more meaningful with the Treasure trash. Mountain Town isn't stronger than HotMK, which is novel for an Empires style split pile, rather supports and is supported by it. -: some people could get analysis paralysis with 10 different options on MT. Overall: HotMK can be high skill with the mandatory Treasure trash; it rewards early but is a risky investment mid to late game if Treasures are the main payload and the discard pile can't be reliably free of them. This will affect how likely HotMK empties. Individually these cards feel like slightly weak s, but together the right player might do well with them and their strong deck control. Quite interesting.

There are good quality designs here. But I think I can narrow things down:

Shortlist: Hungry Foal/Timid Steed, Fish, Wagon/Surveyor, Sir Craftsman, Visionary/Prophet, Wolverine + Aristocratic Feline, Hall of the Mountain King/Mountain Town

Runner-up: Wolverine + Aristocratic Feline by fika monster

Winner: Visionary/Prophet by silverspawn

There is potential in many of these designs to be made into something great. For now, though, contest 200 awaits!

[Snorka]

Thanks for judging, aquila! I appreciate your thoughtful judging style. And that you put up with last-minute submissions ;P

[LibraryAdventurer]

I did add "besides during clean-up", but I added it too late. I should've posted (and fixed) my submission earlier, but I didn't get the idea until it was late...

[silverspawn]

I concur that it was great judging. Also nice formatting.

Super happy that I won! I'll try to think of something suitable for #200.

[faust]

Thanks for the judging! I just wanted to clear up a misconception:

-: I see two issues with the Reaction in 3+ player games. One is when two players react at once; if player 1 triggers endgame and players 2 and 3 react at once, play continues to player 3's turn and so player 2's Surveyor ends up doing nothing. The other is the potential for payoff to backfire; player 1 ends the game, player 3 reacts, but player 2 gets more VP on their extra turn than 3 does, which may be enough to put them ahead. With very few windows in which to use it, there may be no opportunity to control this.

Players never react "at once". In the situation described, player 2 would get the opportunity to react first, and only after that is it player 3's turn. So player 3 can always hold off on using their Reaction.

I see the issue of player 2 potentially getting a free ride, so to speak. It still benefits player 3 to react, because they wouldn't do it if they're already ahead, but it is not ideal if all the reaction does is give the win from player 1 to player 2.

[fika monster]

Edited aristocratic feline to say “cannot be modified” , meaning it always plays like that. This includes enchantress attacks, and means its unnaffected by traits (since its royalty after all)