If Duchy gains Duchess, Province gains... anything you want! A straightforward card that appears balanced and worth buying, but the strategy implications aren't huge because of how late you'd buy it. The "once per game" could be removed, but I understand it's needed to fit into my silly rules. And hey, this card seems like something Donald X would make.
Eminent Domain
Types: Project
Cost: $14
Now and at the start of each of your turns, put your hand on top of your deck in any order and gain a Province.
This is the "all-in" of dominion. Once you buy it, chances are you won't be playing for the rest of the game. That's genuinely cool. OK, there are a few ways to keep playing using combos - durations, Guide, etc. But you're probably not playing anymore.
Often, spending $16 on double province is better than spending $14 on this. Of course, not every game has the +Buy for double provinces. In situations like that, the game can be decided by whoever buys Eminent Domain first. That feels swingy to me. It's a bit like tournament and KC, but more severe.
It's a mixed pile, six of each, that are shuffled together; the supply pile is kept face down and the top card is face up. You can only buy/gain/exchange for the top card (a la Knights)
Manuscript $1P Treasure
$1 plus $1 per Grimoire you have in play.
+1 Buy
-
During Clean-up, you may exchange this for a Grimoire if one is available.
Grimoire $1P Treasure
$2
You may spend any number of P. This is worth $1 more for each P spent.
If this is your first Grimoire played this turn, gain a Manuscript if one is available.
If this is your first Grimoire played this turn, gain a Manuscript if one is available.
Worth big money and a couple extra buys if you can run the pile; they don't leave potions dead in your hand.
The mixed pile stuff is really interesting. I love the idea and the possibilities! But the cards are a little weak. Both are centered around providing coin, but you need a lot of these cards to be worth it over Gold. Engines typically can't support large amounts of treasure payload, and for those that do the potion requirement is very slow. I foresee problems with having the pile be truly random. If the top cards are all Manuscript, that's a crummy pile. The idea is solid but it needs balance tweaks to be worth buying.
I really like draw-to-x decks so I'm a bit of a sucker for these cards. Encyclopedia seems extremely powerful with the +Coin it provides, but that's okay because they're hard to acquire... or are they? If you have two Volumes in your starting hand, you can play them, gain the Encyclopedia and play it for +4 cards, +$4, +1 Buy. That's exactly what you need to buy another Volume! So it's not expensive really, just hard to line up.
I'm not sure if the balance is right. I think these cards tend towards being either really bad or really good. If you have virtual coin like Festival, yeah that's going to be triple province turns. If instead you have Wharf, well this village ain't so exciting.
Lots of neat stuff going on with this card but when combined the effects are complicated to their detriment. There are many mechanics but the end result is a straightforward remodel which makes it all seem unnecessary. I love the reserve gaining - that's great! There are some neat strategies involving stockpiling Blessings and tokens and then using them all for a megaturn but that same idea could be executed simpler. Would love to see this one tweaked.
Pennymonger
Cost: $4
Type: Action
+2 Cards
+1 Action
Gain a Copper.
When you gain this, you may put it into your hand or onto your deck (instead of to your discard pile).
It's a lab variant that doesn't help you draw your deck because it junks as fast as it draws. It's good with trashers and other draw, but not so playable otherwise. The on-gain has its uses. It's good with workshops, and it's OK late-game to boost your next turn, though Den of Sin is obviously better.
I think this card is reasonable, but not at $4. Way too expensive. Make it cheap.
The most interesting thing about this card is that the Curio pile isn't part of the supply. That means you might buy this card just to get access to the pile. That's sick. I don't think the card even needs the $5 bit (not every card needs to be useful every game, etc etc), though I'm not complaining that you included it. A game where Curio Shop is the only +Buy could be neat.
CHALLENGE #42 - MONOGAINER ENTRY
Headhunters
Cost: $5 Type: Action
Gain a Silver then reveal your discard pile. +1 Card per differently named card revealed.
This card seems excellent in big money and I do believe the world needs more big money cards! In engines, I'm not so sure. If you're drawing your deck every turn, you wouldn't have any cards in your discard at all. I mean, sometimes you would, but I don't see engines using this card for their draw. And of course, silver isn't so hot as engine payload. You could use this as a replacement for Explorer (+1 Card is as good as gaining to hand), but in how many games are you buying Explorer?
I like the concept but this idea doesn't want to be a monogainer. Imagine if the card let you gain more types of cards! That would really spice up the diversity theme.
Island is a tricky card to make use of, but this version couldn't be easier! You can hide away all the cards you want, but you can't reduce your deck size at all. Pretty neat.
To me, it seems very obvious to buy this card in almost every game. The strategy is straightforward - buy it turn 1 or 2. The card does modify how the game is played - you can green earlier and such - but I don't think it leaves a huge impact. Seems fun though.
The prophet pile is a mixed pile of 20 cards, 10 copies of each of these versions:
Another mixed pile thing! Hurray!
To me, this card seems like a swingier, more frustrating version of Chapel. There are too many ways to get screwed. Imagine your opponent opens with the even-Prophet and you get stuck with the odd-Prophet. Okay, your opponent gets to trash 4 cards, while you only get to trash 3. That's not exactly fair. But imagine if your opponent drew their even-Prophet with a silver. Okay, so do they only trash 2 and feel sad? Imagine if you're the first player to get the extra +$1 because your opponent pushed it over the threshold. It's too luck-based for being a Chapel-level trasher.
Inherited Lands
Project, $10
At the start of your turn, you may discard a Victory card to gain a Duchy.
Get a whole bunch of Duchies for the price of two! If that's what you really want.
This card's very expensive. For $10, you could have just bought two Duchies! Plus, you can't usually decide if you're going to start your turn with green in hand. For that reason, I don't think this card works. I do love gaining Duchies though. The world needs more Duchy gainers.
Another 1-shot super lab, akin to Experiment and Expedition but much more expensive. Sadly, this one doesn't start with "Ex" (Why wasn't it called "Exchange?").
This card has obvious comparisons to Herald. Herald doesn't just draw actions - it plays them. That's a better effect than Trust. However, this card gains copies of itself. That's pretty good!
I dislike how this card pops when it reveals another Trust. That means that even if you build the perfect action-dense deck, you're never safe from your Trusts getting trashed. To me, that's frustrating. I also dislike the difference in strength of the first effect from the second. You can't control if Trust reveals an action or not, so it feels very lucky.
Merchant Village
cost $3 - Action
+1 Card
+1 Action
+1 Buy
You may play a Merchant Village from your hand.
If this is the first time your played a Merchant Village, gain a Merchant Village.
This looks like a card you always want to buy, and you probably want to buy it turn 1 or 2. There's not much much strategy opening with it, but there is strategy in when you should buy additional copies. Sadly, in 2p games the 20 card pile works against this. There's less incentive to win the split if there's an abundance of these cards to go around, though you do need more than a typical village to make them consistent.
Overall, decently balanced and inoffensive. I like it, but don't feel too excited by it.
I hope Ruins gaining counts.
Junkyard
Action - Looter - $4
+1 Card
+1 Action
You may gain a Ruins to your hand.
Discard any number of cards. +2 Cards per action card discarded, +1 Card per other card discarded.
You may trash this
When you trash this, +2 Cards
Seems bonkers powerful. A cantrip cellar would already be a good $4 card worth buying in most games, but add on better-than-Shepherd draw and we're talking about something crazy. Gaining a ruin pushes this even further into nuts territory. Making it non-terminal would fix several issues.
BTW, it would be cute to merge this entry with the Pennymonger entry: +1 Card, +1 Action, Gain a Copper to your hand. Discard any number of cards. +1 Card per card discarded.
my entry:
Scientist
$5 - Action
+1 Card, +1 Action.
You may trash a card costing at least $2. If you do, +2 cards. Otherwise, gain a Silver.
This card accelerates engine building a bit like JoAT does. You trash your Estates (that's good!), you draw (that's good!), and you gain payload (that's good too!"). With Jack you usually reach a point where you stop playing it, but with this you just keep going, trashing Silvers to draw cards. That's cool. It would be very fun (albeit screwy) to build an engine using this as your only draw.
Seems decent in money and slogs too. I like it. Good design.
It's a lab that gains more labs... with a catch. The more you play the less you can do.
The concept is spot-on. What makes monogainers most interesting is not the upside you get from gaining cards, but the downside. It's a curious choice of whether you should play the card or not, for is the gained card actually improving your deck? (For this reason, I think Rats is better designed than Magpie, but I digress)
The downside here is OK, but the text is wordy and complicated. You had to handle Copper some way, but this version isn't elegant. You can do better with this concept.
Vendor
+1 Card
+1 Action
You may trash a Copper from your hand. If you do, gain a Silver, putting it into your hand. Otherwise, +$1.
Action
$5
Oh wow, it's a Mine variant that's actually playable. Or is it a Peddler variant? I mean, it always gives you +$1 no matter the circumstance. That's really cool.
If there's no trashing, you probably want this 100% of the time. If there is trashing, there's an interesting decision in how many coppers you should trash.
Chicken
Action - $0*
Gain an Egg.
(This is not in the Supply.)
Egg
Action - $0*
Gain a Chicken.
(This is not in the Supply.)
The true winner of the contest.
This card is like Shepherd. It's worse at drawing cards, but better at giving huge amounts of +Action. And hey, you only need a single Province in your deck to farm actions.
To me, it's a little undercooked and weak. I'd prefer if the +Actions were fixed to +2 per victory card discarded. But I can see other disagreeing. It's a sweet card nonetheless.
Braggart
Type: Action Attack
Cost: $5
+ $3
You may trash a Treasure card from your hand for +$1. Each other player gains a Copper to their hand.
+$4 is nice but too much coin. The bottom half is a weakened Ambassador.
In 3 player and up games, players will junk each other faster than they can trash. That's problematic and leads to weird sloggy game states where nobody can buy what they want.
In 2 player games, players will be trashing at the rate they junk. I foresee one player getting buried in copper while the other player remains clean. This has more flaws than Ambassador. With Ambassador, players get rid of 2 junk and hand out 1, allowing both players to get clean. With Braggart, that's not possible without other trashers.
Cauldron
$1P - Action
Gain a Potion.
+3 Cards
Play up to 3 Potions from your hand, for +1 Action each.
-
The first time you gain this on one of your turns, +1 Buy.
Here's a card like Manor House, but slightly different. Instead of Estates, it's Potions, and you're gaining them every play. If you have all 10 in your deck, you'll have 20 card draw with 16 stop cards. That's +4 Cards, +6 Actions, with some inconsistency thrown in. If you have 5 in your deck, you have 10 card draw with 8 stop cards. +2 Cards, +3 Actions. Not a great benefit, but hey, it's not so slow to build because you get +Buy when you purchase it.
Overall, I like both this and Manor House, but feel both could be revised. I said this in Manor House's entry, but I'd really like something as simple as: +2 Cards, Discard a (junk) for +2 Actions. Gain a (junk) when you buy this.
FINAL SUMMARYSweet cards overall with many very clever ideas. The winner has to be Curio Shop - it nails the interesting aspects and unique strategy of monogainers too well. Vendor gets second place. Vendor is a well designed card with no foreseeable issues that fulfills a niche previously wasted on Mine and Taxman. I liked Scientist for this reason too, especially how Scientist can be used for draw. Lastly, Volume+Encyclopedia gets fourth place. These two cards must be tons of fun to play with, but I couldn't place them higher because of my perceived balance concerns. +1 Buy, +$6, +6 cards is just nuts, you know?
WINNER1. Curio Shop by 4est
RUNNERS UP2. Vendor by alion8me
3. Scientist by LibraryAdventurer
4. Volume + Encyclopedia by Aquila