Season 2
Week 11: Acting Sideways (http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=20806.msg870890#msg870890)
Week 12: High on your own Supplier (http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=20812.msg871153#msg871153)
Week 13: Et Factum Est Ita (http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=20820.msg871526#msg871526)
Week 14: 'Tis the Season (http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=20842.msg872538#msg872538)
Week 15: Level Up (http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=20851.msg873115#msg873115)
Week 16: We Only Take Card, No Cash (http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=20860.msg873652#msg873652)
Week 17: Idle Hands (http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=20875.msg874679#msg874679)
Week 18: From A to B (http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=20887.msg874954#msg874954)
Week 19: Join the Queue (http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=20894.msg875641#msg875641)
Survey • Act
If you don't already have it, take Surveying.
Surveying • State
When you next shuffle, first gain an Idle Hands, then +1 Route and return this.
Course • $5* • Action
+1 Card
+1 Buy
+1 Card per level.
Queue a card from your hand per level.
-
When you buy this, reveal your hand. It costs $1 less per Action card revealed.
Beneficiary
$3 - Supplier-Duration
+1 Buy
+$1
$2: Reveal cards from your deck until you reveal an Action card. Set it aside under this and discard the rest. Play it at the start of your next turn.
Living Grounds
Edict
Whenever you gain a Victory card, you may gain a Mustang.
Mustang
$3* - Dawn-Reaction
+2 Cards
Return this to its pile.
-
When you discard this, you may reveal it to put it on top of your deck
(This is not in the supply)
Audience - Action, $5 cost.
Choose one: play an Action card from your Queue; or play an Action card from your hand twice, Queuing it when it's discarded from play.
Prepare - ActPrepare an Audience to keep meeting its target when it returns from the Queue each turn.
At Clean-up, put one of your Actions onto your deck when you discard it from play.
(https://trello.com/1/cards/613cb2d0e2312a353a5baf62/attachments/613cb2e3332b625ff71ea80f/previews/613cb2e5332b625ff71ea846/download/image.png)I thought of an Act with +1 Route by itself, but was put off by the radical openings that could occur. Like with a $5/$2 split, playing a $5 on turn 2 or a Night $5 immediately. The Idle Hands might soften this a bit, but not much with said Night cards.QuoteSurvey • Act
Gain an Idle Hands. +1 Route.
So is Mustang like Tunnel, a Reaction that triggers when it's discarded 'other than during Clean-up'? Do you also want it to react when discarded from hand at Clean-up? Either way it needs the Reaction type.QuoteMustang
$3* - Dawn
+2 Cards
Return this to its pile.
-
When you discard this, you may reveal it to put it on top of your deck
(This is not in the supply)
The thought is this: Beneficiary lets you for example pay to play cards you bought this turn at the start of your next turn, alternatively just accelerating your deck with a Ghost-like effect. Living Grounds lets you slightly mitigate the tempo loss of gaining a Victory card by gaining a Dawn horse, but it might backfire on you. The interaction between Beneficiary and Mustang is twofold: playing actions at the start of your turn minimize the risk of drawing Mustang dead, and if it flips Mustang, you can topdeck it and be guaranteed to be able to play it during your next turn.
(https://trello.com/1/cards/613cb2d0e2312a353a5baf62/attachments/613cb2e3332b625ff71ea80f/previews/613cb2e5332b625ff71ea846/download/image.png)I thought of an Act with +1 Route by itself, but was put off by the radical openings that could occur. Like with a $5/$2 split, playing a $5 on turn 2 or a Night $5 immediately. The Idle Hands might soften this a bit, but not much with said Night cards.QuoteSurvey • Act
Gain an Idle Hands. +1 Route.
Spear Fisher - $3
Dawn - Action - Level
+1 Card
+1 Action
+$1
+1 Action per level.
Gain an Idle Hands.
Way of the Salmon
Way
+1 Route
+$1
It is supposed to work at clean-up, but that might be a bit too confusing. You're right in that it needs the reaction type. I'll fix that now.So is Mustang like Tunnel, a Reaction that triggers when it's discarded 'other than during Clean-up'? Do you also want it to react when discarded from hand at Clean-up? Either way it needs the Reaction type.QuoteMustang
$3* - Dawn
+2 Cards
Return this to its pile.
-
When you discard this, you may reveal it to put it on top of your deck
(This is not in the supply)
The thought is this: Beneficiary lets you for example pay to play cards you bought this turn at the start of your next turn, alternatively just accelerating your deck with a Ghost-like effect. Living Grounds lets you slightly mitigate the tempo loss of gaining a Victory card by gaining a Dawn horse, but it might backfire on you. The interaction between Beneficiary and Mustang is twofold: playing actions at the start of your turn minimize the risk of drawing Mustang dead, and if it flips Mustang, you can topdeck it and be guaranteed to be able to play it during your next turn.
In my opinion, this contest is far too restrictive. I stopped reading when you began to single out particular sideway cards.
(https://i.imgur.com/iT8LEXGh.png) | (https://i.imgur.com/r5DFAzvh.png) |
for this Season's Finale, I am requesting that you submit two designs, each with at least one mechanic. One design needs to be a Kingdom card pile and the other a landscape.
For the Kingdom card pile...The design must incorporate at least one of the mechanics from Season 2 (Weeks 11-19) that is not used in the landscape.
Your landscape submission needs to be . . . an "independent" . . . landscape [e.g. its inclusion in a game is not dependent on one or more other cards, so] W (http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/index.php/Way)E (http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/index.php/Event)L (http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/index.php/Landmark)P (http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/index.php/Project)s, Acts, Edicts, and Wonders (but not Artifacts, States, Boons/Hexes, or Conditions). Your landscape also needs to incorporate a Season 2 Mechanic not used in your Kingdom pile.
Feel free to support either of your designs (or both) with additional cards (non-Supply piles, Heirlooms, etc.) or . . . landscapes (the above mentioned Artifact, States, and so forth). [You may use these supporting cards/landscapes to implement the fan mechanic (e.g. by submitting an Action or Event that allows you to take an Artifact that Queues cards).]
I will judge each of the designs based on my usual criteria, which include Balance, Playability, Simplicity, as well as use of the mechanic and staying within Dominion's theme. I have previously summarized these as asking whether I would be excited to see the card as part of a Kingdom. Since I am asking for 2 designs, I will also be judging on how those designs work together. I would like to see some kind of synergy between the two designs, but more importantly, I would like to see them work together in a fun, balanced way.
I am actually going to score the submissions based on a specific criteria...(laid out in more detail below). The winner will be the highest overall score.
It might be helpful to list the Season 2 mechanics in the OP or link to the Hall of Fame that you've done a really good job of curating.
I think there haven't been a lot of submissions so far because it's hard enough to make one card that combines one or more fan mechanics, but here we have to design two independent ones that also work well together. It's a pretty large design space, but there's a lot more to think about when designing them!
Well, if I read the first paragraph you tell me that I can use ANY sideway card. Yippie, I got a cool Artefact!In my opinion, this contest is far too restrictive. I stopped reading when you began to single out particular sideway cards.
How so? You can submit any kind of sideways card (official W (http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/index.php/Way)E (http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/index.php/Event)L (http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/index.php/Landmark)P (http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/index.php/Project)s, or fan ones like Acts, Edicts, or Wonders) as your design, as long as it uses one of the mechanics from this season.
When you say you stopped reading, I think you referring to my requirement that the submission be what I called an "independent" landscape (and not one that is only used with another card like Artifacts and States). To me this is the same as requiring the card to be in a Kingdom card pile. A State or Artifact itself is not a stand-alone design that can be judged (just like it would be impossible to judge Horse or Idle Hands because you would have to know how players gain them).
But, silly me, I forgot to read the second paragraph which tells me why the first paragraph is actually wrong.
Dude, it is your contest so you can run it however you want to. I just wanna tell you that this kind of hyper-restrictive setup will rather, well, restrict creativity than set reasonable parameters in which it can flourish.
Conscript/Displacement is missing from the list. :)
Just a quick update, stuff has gotten pretty busy at work, so I probably will not be able to finish the judging until sometime mid-week. Will get to it as soon as I am able. Sorry for the delay.
Just a quick update, stuff has gotten pretty busy at work, so I probably will not be able to finish the judging until sometime mid-week. Will get to it as soon as I am able. Sorry for the delay.
Any update on the judging?
spineflu's Survey (with Surveying) and Course (http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=20901.msg876502#msg876502) | |
(https://trello.com/1/cards/613cb2d0e2312a353a5baf62/attachments/613e4e919f6a6265b4b64e83/previews/613e4e929f6a6265b4b64e8a/download/image.png) Quote from: Survey Survey (https://trello.com/1/cards/613cb2d0e2312a353a5baf62/attachments/613e4e9774c3fd023fd9b0ec/previews/613e4e9874c3fd023fd9b0f4/download/image.png) Quote from: Surveying Surveying | Survey If Idle Hands is effectively -1 Action, this -1 Action now, -1 Action in the future, in exchange for a Route token. The question then becomes how much the Route tokens help (and how badly the IH hurt). The strongest case for Routes is as a Defense against junkers, particularly Cursers. Unlike Reactions, which need to be in your hand when the Attack is played, once you have the Route token (unless you use it for something else), it is guaranteed to block one piece of junk. Thus, Survey will tend to be pretty useful in games with junkers (although there is a risk of creating a stand-off, where players don't buy junkers because they will be blocked by the Route, so players don't get the Routes either, and neither ends up being used). The second strongest use of Routes (imo) would be to set up combos, either by gaining and topdecking two cards that work well together (village/Smithy, 2x Treasure Map, etc.), or by putting a card gained during your Action phase (e.g. with Bandit) into your hand for use that turn. You might be able to build (or improve) a strategy around this, but it could be a hard sell, especially if you have to take 2 IHs into a deck without good access to spare Actions. The final, non-edge use of Route (as far as I can think of) is as a general accelerator, acting as a token version of Royal Seal to put the better cards you buy onto your deck. It seems to me that this will rarely be worth the cost of an IH. Of course, that can change if you have a way to mitigate IH's sting. That does make this design somewhat venerable to the presence of a Way (W.o.t. Horse is particularly good here), Advance, or Academy. Once a player buys Academy, the IHs become one-shot cantrips (with a chance of netting a Villager if you get lucky with your timing). This would make using Survey all but automatic (once per shuffle). Having the Act gain a State then having the State carry out the effect on shuffle both delays it, and limits it pretty substantially. While I understand using the State to prevent it messing with openings, I think this delay makes the card significantly less playable. You lose a lot of interesting strategic possibilities around timing and using it multiple times (and somewhat lose the point of it being an Act instead of an Event). Overall it is an interesting idea combining three different mechanics. The fact that its usefulness is fairly conditional on what is around is less of an issue for a landscape, as those cards are frequently so limited (e.g. Tomb). |
(https://trello.com/1/cards/613cb2d131ac5f183233cc50/attachments/613cb2f49fa8564f5ae6acd4/previews/613cb2f69fa8564f5ae6ace6/download/image.png) Quote from: Course Course -- $5 | Course A scaling (with Level) terminal sifter (with a bonus +Buy), that Queues instead of discarding. Queuing instead of discarding is a powerful effect, and I do really like the concept and the pairing of the two mechanics. However, increasing the Level of a $5 card is an expensive prospect, and I don't know how frequently the discounting will be useful. Having an Action card in your hand during your Buy phase pretty consistently represents a failure, and a $1 discount is very little consolation (compare that to Arena, which offers 2VP). That said, if you did manage to Level it up a few times (this would be especially possible with some discounting outside of the card's effect), it would become a strong card. In engines, you could combine it with a village (frequently necessary in engines) to find the cards you need to keep the engine moving, while Queuing dead cards to keep them out of the way (using the Queue's "leaky Exile mat" feature) or setting aside spare engine parts (e.g. extra villages) to have available on future turns (or both). It could also be pretty useful in a big money deck which (absent a nice Kingdom Treasure) can be pretty sad at $5, often having to settle for a Silver after it has as many terminal draw cards (Torturer, Patrol, etc.) as it can fit. By contrast, a player can keep buying Courses (even without any discount), either to add more to the deck (since collisions aren't as painful with the Queuing) or adding Level tokens. |
While each of the designs individually put somewhat of a strain on your need for +Actions, combined that strain grows substantially. Having the alternative use for IH to get the discount on Course is strictly worse than Copper (although they have their own use), as they take up a space in your hand and are $1 you can only use to buy Course. Using Course to Queue IHs can also help mitigate the effect, but absent +Actions, those will be dead cards in your hand (or, at best, Coppers to buy/level up Course). While there is certainly some synergy, the effect of using both of these will be to make the need for villages substantially (and make the absence of such villages majorly limiting on the strategy). |
Jonatan Djurachkovitch's Beneficiary and Living Ground (with "Mustang") (http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=20901.msg876519#msg876519) | |
(https://i.imgur.com/pg3SVUbh.png) Quote from: Beneficiary Beneficiary -- $3 | Beneficiary This is a fun card, and I like the use of the Supplier mechanic. It has hints of Ghost, Golem, and Summon, all of which are fun cards (if not always the easiest to use effectively. And it can be used in different circumstances: if you've drawn your deck, it can play the Action card you bought for $1 less than you have (similar to Summon); in a deck with just a few terminal Action cards, it can ensure that you get to play at least one of them, and function as a virtual village (allowing you to play it and still have an Action left over). However, it is very strong. As you note, the effect is similar to Ghost (albeit playing the card once, instead of twice). Ghost is a powerful card, which you can only get by either trashing a Haunted Mirror then discarding and Action card (which is generally limited to 1 per game) or by trashing a card costing $5+ (a set of cards which are almost always worth having and which--absent Swindler--you are never junked). By contrast, this card is in the Supply, and costs only $3. And, unlike Ghost (which is useless if you draw your entire deck and don't buy an Action card), it has an alternative function, giving +$1 and +1 Buy. The other way it is weaker than Ghost is the fact that you have to Buy the effect. However, the first time you play and use it it only has a net cost of $1, with the option of spending another $2 and a Buy add a second Action card. This provides the not-unrealistic possibility of setting up 2 different Action cards to be played back-to-back by a single card, something that is generally only enabled by a Golem, and which allows for some crazy combos (like Tactician + dtx). Also, because it is a Supplier - Duration, you can buy the Action in subsequent turns. This sets up the potential to put 2-3 copies of a single terminal draw card (Margrave is a particularly stong option) into your deck; as long as you have a good source of +Buy, you can buy Beneficiary's purchase every turn and keep getting the card no matter how full your deck gets. |
(https://i.imgur.com/gb7Xpd7h.png) Quote from: Living Grounds Living Grounds (https://i.imgur.com/ByKyRkrh.png) Quote from: Mustang Mustang -- $3* | Living Grounds (with Mustang) Living Grounds accompanies each Victory card you gain with Mustang, a one-shot Dawn that nets +1 Card and has a reaction to topdeck it. I'm not sure that there is enough of a difference between Mustang and Horse to justify inventing a new (and more complicated) version of a very similar card. And while the ability to topdeck when discarding during Clean-up hypothetically mitigates the risk that you draw Mustang at the start of your turn, the fact that you have a dead card one turn for a net-effect of +1 Card the following turn means that the two effects basically cancel one another out (and it is probably even worse than that, as getting the extra card later is generally worse than having it sooner for a variety of reasons). Generally speaking, LG makes buying Victory cards more desirable, but not nearly enough to suggest buying regular dead cards early in the game. It does makes slogs more practical, and improves the prospect of buying dual-type Victory cards (like Mill or Harem). However, I think Mustang is too weak to make any strategic impact in most games. There may be some narrow exceptions (e.g. in a game with Quest and no other source of +Cards, it might be worth having a Mustang to try to have 6 cards and get a Gold), but I think this will generally just give an unreliably little boost somewhat randomly at the end of the game. |
As you pointed out, card played at the beginning of your turn won't draw the Mustang dead, and if you discard the Mustang while looking for the Action card, it will go onto your deck. Also, Beneficiary could potentially mitigate the effect of buying more Victory cards early, as it would sift through them looking for Action cards. (Alternatively, it can help you get to the Action/Victory card). However, because Mustang is not an Action card, it cannot be played using Beneficiary, and I don't see any of the synergies really being strong enough to make the presence of one increase the likelihood of using the other. |
NoMoreFun's Relax and Tourist Village (http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=20901.msg876521#msg876521) | |
(https://i.imgur.com/Oom0q4rh.png) Quote from: Relax Relax | Relax A very interesting and innovative use of 3 of this Seasons mechanics: Acts, Idle Hands, and Queue. By Queuing the IH, you avoid one of the means of breaking the card (Academy). When playing this with an empty Queue, it is effectively, +1 Card, -1 Action at the start of your next turn (with the potential option of forgoing that effect and getting junked with IH). It is sort of to one-per-turn, (although if you have a ton of Actions on one turn and fairly consistent access to 2 Actions every turn, you could Queue more than one to get +1 Card, -1 Action on multiple future turns). To me, this appears to be useable in 3 contexts -- (1) you are drowning in spare Actions, (2) you know you are going to start the next turn with an extra Action (with, e.g. Fishing Village, Ghost Town, Barracks, Prince, or WotTurtle) or (3) you are strictly playing a Big Money strategy (or some other strategy that involves buying no Action cards). You could also use it in a deck with only non-terminal Action cards, but you would risk drawing them dead (although if you had a relatively low number of them, that might be worth the risk; that could also be mitigated if you had access to villagers). Upon further consideration, (3) might be a non-frivolous possibility. If you used Relax every turn (and had no Action cards in your deck), it would effectively function as a Hireling, giving you an extra card in your hand every turn (each turn you would put the IH from your Queue into your hand, then play Relax to put an IH onto your empty Queue, then play the IH, using your 1 Action and drawing a 6th card from your deck). If you could supplement that with some solid alt-Treasure and/or Night cards, that might very well make a strong strategy. This could be made even stronger with the presence of Donate or Goat, giving you access to trashing without any Action cards (Monastery works as well). Ultimately, the fact that this is most useful either in the presence of a ton of Actions or in the total absence of other Action cards makes it a bit of an odd duck, but certainly an interesting one. |
(https://i.imgur.com/NHaAsYlh.png) Quote from: Tourist Village Tourist Village -- $3 | Tourist Village Designing a village that costs less than $4 is itself an accomplishment, and this is definitely a fun use of the Season mechanic. The way this will actually work with the Seasons is interesting. While a player could easily buy the card during Spring (turns 1-3) to use in time for Summer (turns 4-6), it seems unlikely they would be in a position to make use of +3 Actions (that is, to have 3 additional Action cards, at least 2 of which are terminal) by then. However, the point of having villages in your deck is to be able to play your terminal cards consistently. To have that go away for 3 turns in Winter is a pretty hard price to pay. Even if you make it back to Summer (turns 16-18) with an engine, it could useful, but you still could not build a deck around that sudden influx of Actions. Ultimately I think this is actually substantially worse than a regular Village, perhaps enough to make it cost $2 (although probably not, as it is still usually stronger than Hamlet). If it was the only village in the game (or if the only other cost $5 or $6 and you needed one sooner), it would still certainly be worth buying (as even with a regular village there is a risk of getting stuck using a terminal card terminally if they don't collide). |
Together, Tourist Village creates a new circumstance for using Relax: in summer, when you are likely to have access to a lot more +Actions. Conversely, Relax provides a use for those spare +Actions that isn't built into your deck (and, therefore, won't leave your deck unbalanced when you move into another season). |
Aquila's Audience and Prepare (http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=20901.msg876533#msg876533) | |
(https://i.imgur.com/Yquekznh.png) Quote from: Audience Audience -- $5 | Audience A throne variant that makes a fun and interesting use of the Queue mechanic. However, I think it might skew to the overly strong side. An Action that you would want to throne is probably an Action you would want to play again next turn, so the fact that you're Queuing it is a pretty strong added feature. The main only potential downside would be if you Queued to many Actions, but this solves that problem as well, by allowing you to play those Actions from the Queue. This also potentially fixes the biggest problem with throne variants, when you draw them without another Action card. It is interesting, but I think it might be a little too strong. |
(https://i.imgur.com/ipPSH55h.png) Quote from: Prepare Prepare | Prepare There are (broadly) two limitations which Action cards have that Acts don't, which I would call (1) Acquisition and (2) Presence. Acquisition means that before you can use an Action card, you need to buy it. This almost always has an opportunity cost (arguably buying $2 Actions generally does not, as you are not foregoing any other buy), which isn't present with an Act. It also means you can't have an Action and the start of the game (except with Necropolis - Way of the Mouse). Presence is the requirement that the card be in your hand in order to use it (or, with Durations / Way of the Turtle, have been in your hand on a previous turn). This means that (absent a killer engine which draws your deck every turn or Prince) you will not always have access to the card. It also means you are limited on the number of times you can play the card on a given turn (to the number of copies you have, potentially increased by throne variants). Prepare is not overly strong when used on an opening, but the ability to use it as many times as you have spare Actions (and Action cards leaving play to use it on) is extremely powerful. One comparison to an official card is Walled Village. The point of a village is to allow you to play extra Action cards (either an extra terminal Action, or non-terminal Actions following a terminal draw). Sometimes, when WV fails to fulfill its purpose (because you played 0-1 other Action), it goes back onto your deck to try again on your next turn. By contrast, EVERY village that does not get fully used (e.g. for which there is an Action left over) can go back onto your deck (plus, there is a large amount of additional flexibility). Looked at another way, this gives every village the option of being played as a Scheme. Given the usefulness of both cards in engines, this is a really strong additional option. Both of these things mitigate considerably the downside of investing more heavily in villages. This also leads to some genuinely insane synergies. On a Prepare - Bandit Camp board, you could play every BC you have every turn, flooding your deck with Spoils (until the pile starts to run thin). Or, with 2 Fishing Villages an a Smithy (which you can have in your deck by turn 3 in the vast majority of games, and potentially get going a couple of turns after), you could play FV and Smithy every turn, then use Prepare to topdeck the previous turn's FV and the Smithy. This has the net effect of +1 Card, +$2 every turn. (And, because after you play FV at the start of your turn you have 4 cards in hand, can combo further with cards like Diplomat or Cursed Village). This could be a lot of fun, and very useful with engines, but in my opinion it is too strong. I think this probably needs to be limited to once per turn (or have some other nerf put on it). |
As you pointed out, together these allow you to throne any non-terminal Action every turn, Queuing the card and top-decking the Audience with Prepare. That turns Audience, a $5 card, into a super Prince, throning cards (instead of playing them once), having no price restriction (meaning Lab is on the table), and being able to change which card you use. And since you're Queuing Audience, you start from 4 cards you don't need for the play. |
Xen3k's Spear Fisher and Way of the Salmon (http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?action=profile;u=7581) | |
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51469677675_bc9cea7e8a_b.jpg) Quote from: Spear Fisher Spear Fisher -- $3 | Spear Fisher This starts as a peddler variant (or, at Dawn, a Bazaar) that gives an Idle Hands. A peddler is a pretty strong effect for an unleveled Level card (especially at $3), although the Idle Hands is usually a pretty serious disadvantage. Adding a level makes it into a village (or double-village at Dawn), and each additional Level makes it more village-y. In theory this could further mitigate the effect of gaining an Idle Hands, but the bigger risk is not that you won't have enough +Actions, but that they don't collide (so Leveling it up several times may frequently result in more wasted Actions). Because this gains so many IHs, it's balance particularly vulnerable to existing cards/landscapes that substantially mitigate the harm of IHs. A number of official cards operate under the presumption that Action cards are generally quite useful things that you want to hold on to, and therefore treats foregoing using them as substantial. Ruins have exactly the same issue. So, for example, in the presence of certain Ways, what is supposed to be the penalty of getting IHs is either mitigated (e.g. Way of the Chameleon, Mule, Ox), all but eliminated (Way of the Pig), or even turned into an benefit (Way of the Horse, Way of the Mouse [especially if a cantrip like Village or Merchant is set aside). In a game with Way of the Horse, even before Leveling up, this is a peddlar variant with "Gain a Horse", a card which, if official, would almost certainly cost $5. Other landscapes mitigate IHs as well, the most obvious being Academy (which turns future IHs into 1 shot cantrips, with a chance to keep a Villager). |
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51458599325_5bbb5a882b_b.jpg) Quote from: Way of the Salmon Way of the Salmon | Way of the Salmon Way of the Salmon is a Way that gives a Route token and a coin. I like the idea, and it is a nice fit thematically with both the Ways from Minagery and Route tokens. Its strength is going to be highly dependent on how useful Route tokens are. The strongest use for Routes is as a defense against junkers, particularly Cursers. Unlike Reactions, which need to be in your hand when the Attack is played, once you have the Route token (unless you use it for something else), it is guaranteed to block one piece of junk. Thus, WotS be extremely useful in games with junkers (although there is a risk of creating a stand-off, where players don't buy junkers because they will be blocked by the Route tokens, so players don't gain more than one Route token either, and neither ends up being used). The second strongest use of Routes (imo) would be to set up combos, by gaining and topdecking two cards that work well together (village/Smithy, 2x Treasure Map, etc.), or or strengthen gainers, by putting a card gained during your Action phase (e.g. with Bandit) into your hand for use that turn (this could also set up a combo, e.g. if you played a cantrip then used Ironworks to gain a Conspirator, which you could then play with +1 Card, +1 Action). There are a number of ways to build (or improve) a strategy around this, although using an Action as a Way twice to set something up once might not often be worth it. The final, non-edge use of Route (as far as I can think of) is as a general accelerator, acting as a token version of Royal Seal to put the better cards you buy onto your deck. This actually makes WotS into a variant of Way of the Seal, with Salmon being stronger since you can topdeck a card not gained that turn, but weaker since you can only topdeck a single card. Ultimately, I think this skews a little too strong for a Way, but it isn't terribly overpowered, and does have some interesting possibilities. |
Way of the Salmon, like almost any Way, can at least somewhat mitigate the effect of having an IH. If you have an IH that doesn't collide with your Spear Fisher (or some other source of +Actions), you can use WotS to get a Route token and $1. Since Spear Fisher is a self-junker, those Tokens are available for their strongest use, and saving you from the IH when you would next use Spear Fisher. A really solid combo that smooths out some of the issues of each card. |
Timinou's Conscript and Displacement (http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=20901.msg876868#msg876868) | |
(https://i.imgur.com/v43bKmc.png) Quote from: Conscript Conscript -- $3 | Conscript An Action-Level card that gives 2 Route tokens, and (once it is Leveled), either plays Action card(s) from your Queue or Queues card(s) from your hand. As already discussed above (see Survey or Way of the Salmon), Route tokens have a few different uses of varying strengths: defending against junk, setting up combos, or accelerating your deck. This gives the tokens an additional use, putting a card into your hand. This will probably be the most common use: with one Level token, you can Queue the card you buy during your Buy phase and have a Route token left over. If you manage to Level it up a few more times, it actually becomes a pretty effective use of the Queue mat's storage function. By putting 1 or 2 useful cards that you gained into your hand, then Queuing those along with any dead/useless cards, you can keep those bad cards in your Queue behind the good ones, taking out the useful cards (in the order that works best with the hands you have) and (hopefully) Queuing more beneficial cards before you have to take the dead cards (or at least take out too many of them). I don't know how often the first choice will be useful, especially if this is the only card with the Queue mechanic. Even if you gain 2 Action cards during your Buy phase, unless you get another Conscript on the following turn, they will probably end up coming off your Queue before you can play them. Even if you level this up a lot, you generally are not going to want to have Action cards in your hand at Clean-up to Queue (although there could be situations where this happens). Overall this is a nice, balanced design with a few different uses. |
(https://i.imgur.com/uqKs98U.png) Quote from: Displacement Displacement | Displacement Another Edict, which Queues 2 Idle Hands each time you trash a card. As mentioned with Relax, Queuing an Idle Hands has the effect of giving you +1 Card, -1 Action on a future turn. Giving it automatically when you trash a card is a pretty interesting concept, although potentially a huge bummer. Generally, trashing is used to get rid of junk cards, but a card that gives you 2 pieces of junk for every card you trash makes trashing a massively less appealing prospect. Of course, if you play the IH the turn you get it, it doesn't actually end up being junk in your deck. However, most trashers are Action cards, and using an IH always runs the risk of drawing those dead. My big concern is that in a lot of games, this will render trashers unusable, the result of which will be that neither the trasher nor this have any use. With cards that mitigate or even eliminate the negative impact of IH (see my second paragraph of Spear Fisher, above), this becomes a very different design. In a game with Way of the Horse, each time you trash a card you effectively get +2 Cards at the start of 2 future turns. This makes trashing massively more desirable. |
This is the potential exception to the lack of use of the play-from-Queue mechanic. If you level up Conscript 3-4 times, and uses its Queuing ability to keep the Queued IHs on your mat, you can then fire it off as a Smithy or Hunting Grounds. (Even better if you can throne it, as then you can put any dead cards onto your Queue). The Route tokens are even potentially a source of trashing to fill those mats, in games with junkers or +Buys. |
The Alchemist's Crowded Village and Relocate (http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=20901.msg877371#msg877371) | |
(https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/449166977991180299/889331247787155466/Crowded_Village_1.png?width=441&height=676) Quote from: Crowded Village Crowded Village -- $4 | Crowded Village An interesting use of the Idle Hands mechanic, which gives an extra Action now in exchange for -1 Action later. While I like the idea a lot, I think it is going to tend to be of pretty limited use. It will be fairly rare to have CV in a hand with 3 terminal Actions, and while having it with 2 terminal draw cards is somewhat more likely, you have to make the choice about whether to use CV before you know what you are going to draw (which might include additional villages). As discussed previously (see Spear Fisher and Displacement), there are a few existing landscapes (and to a lesser extent, cards) which turn IH from a liability into either something harmless or even a benefit. |
(https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/449166977991180299/889328709096599612/Relocate_2.png?width=1037&height=676) Quote from: Relocate Relocate | Relocate A simple Act, it allows you to convert spare Actions into villagers (effectively banking them for future turns), but only if you have an Action card in play. That restriction is a cleaver way to limit the card's use, both in the opening (where you would always use it and where, absent a Necropolis, you won't be able to because of a lack of Action cards), and throughout the game (if you have a bunch of terminal Action cards you will end up without an Action to spare each turn, but if you have mostly non-terminal Action cards you won't need all of the spare villagers you will be getting). However, it is still a powerful effect. Being able to turn any unused Actions from a village into villagers (which you always will the village will be an Action card in play) means fewer villages will go a lot further to ensuring you can play terminal Actions (especially terminal draw cards) repeatedly without getting stuck drawing Action cards dead. And this continues on. If you play a Smithy, draw a cantrip (or, say, a Forager), then use one of your villagers to play the cantrip, you would then get that villager back. This is a massive boost to engines, making them a lot more potent. |
The synergy here is obvious (but also fun): you can turn the extra Action you got from gaining the IH into a villager, which you can use to mitigate the IH when it comes up again. |
Thanks for the win, emtzalex!
I will be going out of town so won't be able to judge the next one. I'd be grateful if one of the runners-up could take my place.
Thanks for the win, emtzalex!
I will be going out of town so won't be able to judge the next one. I'd be grateful if one of the runners-up could take my place.
I can come up with something for the next challenge, unless The Alchemist already has an idea ready. If I don't see anything from The Alchemist, I will try and have something up later tonight.
Thanks for the win, emtzalex!
I will be going out of town so won't be able to judge the next one. I'd be grateful if one of the runners-up could take my place.
I can come up with something for the next challenge, unless The Alchemist already has an idea ready. If I don't see anything from The Alchemist, I will try and have something up later tonight.
I have an idea ready I've been preparing for a while, I will post it up!