What about an alternate curse card like this:
Counterfeit - $0
$1
-1 VP
At the end of your clean-up phase, put this card on top of your deck.
Treasure-Curse
Sewer doesn't make estates into laboratories. It makes an estate *and* a sewer into two other cards. Apart from the +buy, it's strictly worse than trashing those estates altogether. If it gave +3 cards it might be a contender. In the worst scenario, you'd draw copper, sewer, estate, estate, estate. Play sewer, and get a $3 buying phase. That's pretty poor compared to just getting silvers. This definitely isn't worth $5. It might not even be worth $2.
Similarly with smelter. Drawing one card would just be equivalent to not having the smelter in hand at all.
A -1 VP malus may seem to suck, but it really doesn't. Keep in mind that any card gets used only 2-3 times in a thick deck, especially late game cards like gold.
I'm not sure which proposed cards you're talking about here, but I've playtested the two I proposed, and they're really not THAT strong. Both need support to "virtually guarantee" a Province, which takes time to build up, which means that a player playing without these cards might already be buying Provinces without the penalty. If not, then the question is not whether "probable Province in exchange for -1 VP" is a good trade or not (obviously it is) but whether the -1 VP card gave you a sufficient lead in Province-buying power to compensate.
The other point I'd contend is that they only get used 2-3 times. On the contrary, both my cards tend to produce (and work best within) decks that draw themselves every turn or two, which means that you're possibly playing them every single turn in the end game. In my playtests, blindly playing them every time is frequently (though not always) suicide. I've racked up -20 VP playing with them indiscriminately, and range anywhere from around -2 to -10 VP in more sensible games. Sure, on any individual play that makes a Province possible, it's worth it, but sometimes you've got a Province already and wonder if you can rack up a Duchy too. And sometimes you still fall short of the Province mark. Sometimes you're trying to draw into your other engine cards, which might yield a double-Province turn but nothing at all if it fails.
Lastly, I'd say that IF you're playing in a fat, clogged deck that can't draw itself, you're also playing in exactly the type of deck that CANNOT guarantee a Province just by playing it, because the cards it's liable to draw will be junk. And even if it does, that penalty can still be decisive: If someone plays Valkyrie and jumps from $7 to $8 to afford a Province, maybe he still loses to an opponent who managed to pull that off with a Bazaar instead.
* I kinda want to improve Adventurer somehow. Maybe give $1 if you hit two Coppers? Or perhaps just slap on a +Buy?I'd make adventurer an action/treasure: if played as an action, it does what adventurer does; if played as a treasure, it's worth $2. That way an adventurer can draw adventurers but doesn't allow the absurd chaining that venture does without lots of +actions.
*One thing I might consider is to boost Bureaucrat and Scout by allowing them to interact with Curses: make your opponent put a Curse on deck w/Bureaucrat, or draw up those Curses w/Scout. They're not so useless that they need it to be playable, and this doesn't actually improve them much, but this tweak seems to be in the spirit of the cards at least. I considered a stronger buff for Bureaucrat, like putting the Silver in hand, but then what do you do with Explorer?I'd agree with this, and it even seems thematic for a scout - he warns you of upcoming danger as well as the lay of the land (green cards).
*Speaking of, Thief and Explorer are the two cards which I find to be so useless that that actually do need a buff to be playable. Explorer is probably just a blind spot in my play-style, but Thief is actually completely useless in virtually every single Kingdom. Perhaps you can put the stolen loot on top of your deck? In your hand? Give the Thief +1 Card/+1 Action? It needs something.I think explorer would be useful with apprentice: draw a ton of cards with apprentice by trashing a gold, use explorer to reveal a province and gain a gold in hand, then buy another province. Disclaimer: I have used explorer effectively exactly *once*.
*On the other end of the spectrum, there is exactly one card that desperately needs a nerf: Ambassador. Ambassador is the best card in the game, basically a true must-buy in all but Gardens situations, it's cheap as all get-out, and it's attack becomes obnoxious in a way that even the curse attacks aren't. I get why it is as cheap and powerful as it is: its power is not immediately apparent to newbies, so there's a "journey of discovery" like you have with Chapel. But once you're experienced, Chapel games stay fun and Ambassador games become dreary slog-fests where everyone goes Ambassador and the winner is usually just going to be the one who doesn't have his/her two Ambassadors clash, or show up on Turn 5, or whatever. Among good players, Ambassador is just too powerful to exist in its present form. Maybe it should cost $4? Maybe your opponent doesn't get a card if you return two- so you have to choose between maximum thinning and maximum attacking? Maybe take it even further, and say that they only get a card if you return exactly one to the supply? This would prevent the midgame from getting too degenerate. Ugh, something needs to be done about this card.I've just grown to accept Ambassador games as a different style of dominion, sort of like chapel, where deck-drawing power is way, WAY more important than usual, and cursing attacks (except mountebank) become less important. Granted, it's a really soul-sucking sort of "different," but.. different.
I kinda want to tone down King's Court as well, but there isn't a good way to do it: making it cost $8 wouldn't actually change much.Wasn't there another thread about a proper cost for a non-recursive KC? That would certainly weaken it, but I'm not sure how to word such a card, especially since KC + TR would allow you to non-directly KC a KC anyway.
Thanks for the feedback, minced. I really appreciate it. Here's Cultist 3.5, which borrows from--of all things--Possession and Smugglers:
Cultist $3, 1 Taboo
(Action [Attack])
+$2
At the end of this turn, the player to your left sets aside one treasure card of his choosing for every Cultist or Taboo in play, or reveals a hand with no treasure cards left. He immediately takes one extra turn with these cards as his hand. Gain a copy of all cards the player gained on that turn. Cultist cannot cause him to take more than one extra turn.
This version forces the victim to choose between hurting himself and helping you, more or less. Sometimes it's a Cutpurse. Other times, if the victim has stronger trashing than you or is pursuing a different strategy, it's a chance for him to actually sabotage your deck. If it diminishes his hand by anymore than a militia would, then he can still probably make a decent buy with the diverted treasure hand. If it splits his treasure 2/3, or 3/3 it might actually help him pick up an important card he neglected but can't pick up now due to lack of buys. I know this can get pretty weird with duration cards, especially if it gives him a minion, but the way it affects you in the end (gain a copy of every card he gains) remains the same. The only problem I see here is that this creates a very intimate interaction between two adjacent players, which diverges from the "affect everyone equally" formula. And also, Possession gets balanced out by the fact that the player still gets a fresh hand to play from, however subtly you might have sabotaged it with Alchemist, Treasury, or dead draws/unwanted reshuffles.
I see your point about Cultist 2.0. Cultist 1.0 had problems too... How about instead of potentially crippling other people's engines, every cultist you've played forces other players to discard 1 treasure from their hands, or reveal their hands if they have no treasures left? That way, most action chains are immune, and it punishes Big Money. And Cultist provides money so it's a good counter to itself.
As for Port Tax, how about I remove the VP penalty, and boost it to a +$5? And everyone gains "a curse or copper, your choice" when they make any buys beyond their first?Penalizing +buy essentially punishes players who aren't going big money, and +buy cards like market and woodcutter are already rather weak. Note that $6 + (potion) has more opportunity cost than a *province* so this card is also wickedly expensive for a curse-giver that almost never curses.
For Census I actually thought of the flavor to fit the function. I had cards like Transmute in mind when I decided to make this one "all over the place". Revealing an action gives you an estate, which initially bloats your deck by a little, but if the Census reveals the estate you gained, it's a free, action-less VP token (plus, in the endgame, who can argue with a free victory card?). Revealing a treasure gives you a gold, which is worth more than the ~$5 this would have cost. All the while it helps you cycle through the deck a little. In the end game, it gets risky with Provinces, but can help you grab a win-defining Duchy if you keep a Curse or Taboo. In the earlier game, the self-trashing function is more like a $5 feast to grab $6's.First off, Census's text doesn't actually fit on a dominion card. Second, a card that can trash multiple provinces into duchies is not going to get bought in the endgame, ever, and a card that gives you estates in early game for drawing actions isn't really worth it - your deck is *already* going to be bloated because you got curses, and estates make that effect even worse. Third, transmute is entirely unlike this card because it gives you a choice, and this one doesn't.
Villas/Manor ($4)
+2 Actions
Reveal cards from the top of your deck until you reveal a Victory Card. Put that card into your hand and discard the other cards. If there are no Victory Cards in your deck, you may put this on top of your deck.
Here's another.
Monastery ($4)
+2 Actions
Reveal the top card of your deck. You may discard it, trash it, or place it back on top.
Frontier VillageThis card would probably be best in curse games, where you have a few good cards and a lot of crap. However, I think it's (almost) strictly inferior to hunting party. I almost think it would be better at $4 with "discard the rest" replaced by "rearrange the rest."
Action ($5)
+2 Actions
Reveal the top four cards of your deck. Pick one to add to your hand and discard the rest.
With five curses, this card becomes a +5 cards +10 actions whenever you have two in hand, so it's fairly broken. I'd remove the curse-fishing and require the user to discard a curse to get +1 card +2 actions.
Heretical Village
Action ($4)
Choose one - Gain a Curse, adding it to your hand; or add all curses in your discard pile to your hand.
Then - Gain +1 Card and +2 Actions for each Curse in your hand.
Reactions are usually terminal for a reason: flooding your deck with reactions is not meant to be a winning strategy. Free trashing, attack immunity, *and* a setup for a counterattack? I think this card needs some work.
Barbaric Village
Action - Reaction ($4)
+1 Card
+1 Coin
Reveal your hand. If you have at least one attack card, +2 Actions.
When another player plays an attack card, you may reveal and discard this card. If you do so, the attack has no effect on you and you must trash a card from your hand.
This card is ridiculously good as a trasher in a curse game - you just need to end the game before you have a thin deck and the pious villages become a liability, which is quite easy in curse games.
Pious Village
Action ($4)
+1 Card
+2 Actions
Trash or discard a card from your hand.
Guarded Village ($4)
+1 card
+2 actions
When another player plays an Attack card, you may reveal this from your hand. If you do, you are unaffected by that Attack.
(actually, I'd been thinking of a moat cantrip, but I think a moat village may be a better cost $4).
Once again, reactions are specifically built so you *can't* build your deck around them: lighthouse has a weak benefit, moat's +2 cards is insufficient for a drawing engine, and secret chamber can easily get you stuck at $4 or below. I think a non-terminal reaction would have to provide a much weaker benefit than complete attack immunity, otherwise attacking games would get boring very quickly.
Soldiers' Village $4Similar to frontier village. I think $4 and three cards makes it a little more useable. The cycling is a very strong benefit and not to be underestimated.
+2 Actions
When you play this card, you may reveal the top three cards of your deck. If you do, discard two, put the other one back on top, then, +1 Card.
COAL MINEReally interesting idea. It's certainly weak in a Province game, because not buying a $6 card with $6 is likely suicide, but in cursing games, it will likely break the game because most turns will be around $3 and no buys.
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This card is worth $1 for each token on your Coal Mine mat.
-
(Setup: During your Clean-up phase, if you have no Buys and at least $3 remaining in play, put a token on your Coal Mine mat)
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Treasure - $6
CONDUCTORI like this card because it's almost harmless on its own, but devastating with militia/torturer. The first thing a player does when hit by a militia attack is to discard victory cards, after which this attack virtually ruins his/her turn. I don't really see why it's a "conductor" though.
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$2
Each other player may reveal a Victory card from his hand. If he doesn't, he discards a Treasure card from his hand. If he doesn't, he discards his hand.
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Action/Attack - $5
FUNICULARInteresting effect, gives net +4 cards if you discard a silver. That's just about as good as Envoy in early game but much better than Envoy late. A little strong but well-conceived.
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+2 Cards
You may discard a Treasure card costing at least $3 from your hand. If you do, +3 Cards
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Action - $4
HANDCARThis card is junk in multiplayer because it only takes one player to refuse the trashing to deny you the lab effect. Other than that, it's kind of cool as a self-replacing trasher.
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+1 Card
+1 Action
Each other player may trash a Treasure card from his hand. If he does, both he and you draw a card.
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Action - $3
JUNKYARDIt's half a diadem. I can see this card doing very, very well in city games. In most games it's probably worse than herbalist though.
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+1 Buy
+$1
You may convert 2 Actions, 2 Buys, or 1 Action and 1 Buy into $1
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Action - $2
