I think VP cards are some of the hardest to balance properly. And pure VP cards offer even more challenges to overcome. If it's the kind of card you can build a strategy around, you'd like it to only be that way sometimes. But you'd also like it to have some utility in games where it's not the dominant point card. If it's the kind of card that won't ever dominate a game, then you want it to be useful support in most games you see it. Too many of these cards fail on those criteria for me. Either they they are just too weak to be considered in most games, or they are too strong half the time while being too weak the other half.
That said, balance is only one of the criteria I'll use to rank these. Creativity can overcome poor balance, since I figure if I ever play with these cards I can tweak them if I don't like the power level.
Anyway quick thoughts:
Gadwall
$6 - Victory
4 VP
--
When you gain this, trash a card from your hand. If you trashed a Curse this way, gain a Gold.
$6 for 4VP sounds about right to me. The trash a curse clause rarely triggers outside of curse games so it'll be often useless, and probably a touch too strong in them since you are basically netting 5 VP and a Gold for $6.
Loon
$4 - Victory
Worth 1 VP per territory token on [This Card]'s supply pile.
--
Whenever a player buys a Province, put a territory token on [This Card]'s supply pile.
Whenever a player buys a [This Card], remove a territory token from [This Card]'s supply pile.
Could create a decent metagame, but I suspect this is actually too strong as is. If one player rushed them early game, your opponent is basically stuck since he can't start gaining provinces without powering these up. So both players will end up rushing these early, and then the game will degenerate somewhat.
Grebe
$9* - Victory
Worth 1 VP per [This Card] token you have.
--
This costs $1 less per [This Card] token you have (but not less than $0).
--
When you gain this, gain a [This Card] token.
Too strong. Basically negates the need to ever buy provinces. Also creates a huge snowballing effect for the player who gets going faster.
Flamingo
$2 - Victory
Worth 2 VP if you have more Estates than [This Card]s.
--
When you buy this, +$1, +1 Buy.
The +$1/+buy clause I think kills this card. I get the idea is to buy one of these and then use the extra buy to nab an estate, but it's way too easy to just drain this pile for the leading player.
Petrel
$5 - Victory
Worth 1 VP for each card you have 5 or more copies of.
I like this one, and I think it's balanced but I'm not positive. Pretty easy to get to 3 points with coppers, estates, and silvers maybe. Often gets up to 4 or 5, and with the right board 6+. So it sometimes acts just as support, and sometimes can work as it's own strategy.
Shearwater
$4 - Victory
2 VP
--
When you buy this, place a card that is in play on top of your deck.
On buy scheme effect. Probably balanced as is, but a little uninteresting to me. Likely you just use this to topdeck a Gold or strong action in the end game when you fail to hit a province.
Guillemot
$4 - Victory
Worth 1 VP for every 2 Estates in your deck (round down).
--
When you gain this, trash a Treasure from the play area. If you trash a Treasure, gain an Estate.
Probably a bit strong. Too easy to gain these and estates, leading to a very fast rush with no need for another card to support.
Cormorant
$6 - Victory
1 VP
--
When you buy this, gain 3 VP tokens.
I considered making a card which gave VP tokens, but really, in almost every game this card is just $6 for 4VP. OK you get to keep 3 of those points if you trash this for benefit, but I don't find that to be more interesting.
Pipit
$4 - Victory
Worth 1 VP for each Masterpiece card in your deck.
--
Setup: Add an extra Kingdom card pile to the Supply. Cards from that pile cost $1 more and are Masterpiece cards.
I suspect this will either brokenly strong or very weak, with little ground in the middle.
Gannet
$6* - Victory
When the game ends, if the Province or Colony supply pile is empty (if it was available), then this is worth 4 VP. Otherwise, this is worth 2 VP.
--
During your Buy phase, if two supply piles are empty, then this costs $3.
I think this will go unbought in too many games, though the games where it is relevant should be somewhat interesting.
EDIT: I think i read this wrong. Actually seems like a pretty interesting card all around. Most games it'll just act like a better duchy.
Tanager
$6 - Victory
2 VP
--
The turn you buy this, only draw 3 cards (instead of 5) in this turn's Clean-up phase. Take an extra turn after this one. This can't cause you to take more than two consecutive turns.
One shot outpost? Going to be pretty weak most of the time. Will likely end up just being a desperation ploy for the endgame.
Egret
$3* - Victory
2 VP
--
When you buy [This Card], pay any amount greater than or equal to its cost. Then, gain a victory card costing at most $2 less than that amount.
Seems balanced to me. $4 for 3VP, $5 for 4VP, $7 for 5VP spread out over 2 cards. Never going to be a power card, but will influence the end game dance a bit.
Heron
$8 - Victory
1 VP
--
During your buy phase, this card costs $2 less per action in play, but not less than $0.
--
When you buy this, you may set it aside. If you do, return it to your deck at the end of the game.
Probably going to be worthless on a number of boards, and will be drained pretty quickly on most engine boards with +buy. The option to set it aside is good, as it functions either as just a 1VP chip or lets me keep it to interact with trash for benefit cards. Also interacts with swindler.
Bittern
$4 - Victory
This card is worth 1 VP for each [This Card] left in the supply at the end of the game.
Not sure I like what this card does to the endgame. The first couple are obscenly strong but then your opponent needs to start buying them just to block you, and in the end we just end up with a bunch of lowish point extra green cards clogging our decks.
Ibis
$3 - Victory
1 VP
Worth another 1 VP for every 3 tokens on your [This Card] mat.
--
Setup: Each player has his own [This Card] mat. At the start of a player's Clean-up, he gains a token on his [This Card] mat for each unused Buy.
In any game with decent sources of +buy, this card is going to be obscenely powerful. And in a game with no +buy it will be completely ignorable. Needs a lot more middle ground.
Spoonbill
$4 - Victory
Worth 1 VP for every two differently named cards in the trash, rounding down.
Another card which is either worthless or very very strong with nothing in the middle. Needs trashing to be useful, but any decent trashing will get this up to 5-6 points easily enough. Also suffers from the trade route problem. You can't build a strategy around this by trashing everything cause it powers it up for your opponent as well. So only used in games where you're trashing a lot anyway.
Osprey
$5 - Victory
Worth 1 VP per [This Card] in your deck.
--
Can only be bought if you have at least 1 Action Card in play.
Exponential point growth might make this too strong. The buy restriction tempers that somewhat, but I'm not convinced this is too powerful, especially with any sort of engine where you can buy a bunch of these at once.
Harrier
$4* - Victory
2 VP
During your Buy phase, this costs whatever you want, as long as it costs at least $4.
--
When you buy this, gain a card costing less than this.
--
(Rules clarification: [This Card]'s cost can change in the middle of the Buy phase. E.g., with $11 and 2 buys, buy [This Card] for $5 and for $6. When cost reduction like Bridge is out, [This Card] must still cost at least $4.)
Wording is a bit clunky, but the intent is clear. Similar to egret, but much more powerful. Too strong I would think. Spending $6 for 5VP, or $9 for 8VP is very strong.
Kestrel
$6 - Victory
8 VP
--
When you gain this, trash all treasures you have in play and gain a Curse. If you do not gain a Curse, place [This Card] on top of your deck.
Just way too strong for engines where you don't want treasure. 8vp for $6! There is the curse, but in engines you can likely get rid of that easily enough. Also the second curse clause seems unnecessary since that will only matter in games where there is another curser.
Plover
$5 - Victory
This card is worth 1 VP for every 5*P cards in the trash (round down).
(P = number of players)
--
When you gain this, trash up to 4 cards from your hand.
Better than the other trash card since it has a trash mechanism built in. I think it might still be weak, especially in multiplayer without other trashing cards because you need a ton of these just to get up to even duchy points.
Oystercatcher
$6 - Victory
Worth 10 VP, minus 2 VP for every 5 non-Victory cards in your deck (rounded down).
--
When you buy this, you may trash a card from your hand.
Maybe balanced? Hard to tell. I would find it very hard to keep track of the value of this card during the game, moreso than other variable VP cards. Also with the current wording, this thing can go quite negative with a large deck.
Yellowlegs
$7 - Victory
2 VP
--
When you gain this, gain a card costing less than this.
Another gain a cheaper card thing. Seems balanced. Will almost always be used to gain a Duchy I would think though, since you don't really want extra green cards outside of the end game. So maybe not the most interesting card, but sometimes plain and balanced is nice.
Sandpiper
$2* - Victory
When you gain this card, place a VP token on this card's supply pile.
--
For each VP token on the pile, the cost of this card increases by 1.
--
At the end of the game, this card is worth victory points equal to the number of VP tokens on the pile.
Too strong, I think. If I buy 6 of these, they are worth province points and yet I didn't have to pay as much as a province for any of them.
Tern
$3 - Victory
2 VP
--
If you gain this during your action phase:
+1 Card
+1 Action
+$1
Compare to tunnel. Even if you never use the 'reaction' part, still useful. Will be out of control with Ironworks, and still very strong with other gianers. Probably mostly balanced as is though.
Puffin
$9 - Victory
4 VP
--
When you gain this, gain a Duchy and an Estate.
Going to cause some massive clogging in the endgame since you are getting 8VP for $9. But you will have some interesting decisions on whether to go for this or Province.
Macaw
$6 - Victory
2 VP
--
When you gain this, you may trash a card from your hand. If you do, gain 2 Silvers; if you don't, gain 1 Silver. Put the gained Silver(s) on top of your deck.
very strong, I think. I might consider taking this over Gold midgame or Duchy in the end game. So could offer some interesting choices at least.
Hummingbird
$6 - Victory
2 VP
--
When you gain this: +1 VP. You may trash a card from your hand. If you do, get +VP equal to half its cost in coins, rounded down.
So it's a bishop? I guess it could be interesting. You could do a weak golden deck of this and some money without much set up.
Kingfisher
$4 - Victory
Worth 1 VP for every 2 cards in the supply pile with the [This Card] token on it (rounded down).
--
When you gain this, you may move the [This Card] token to a Kingdom supply pile of your choice.
--
Setup: Place the [This Card] token on the [This Card] supply pile.
As a friend of mine said, he thinks this card could be renamed kingmaker. Does odd things in multiplayer and in 2p it's going to be a ton of jockeying for position, and I'm not sure in an interesting way.
Pelican
$6* - Victory
4 VP
--
When you buy this card, you may pay an additional $3 ($6). If you do, gain another (2) [This Card].
The wording confuses me. Is it saying i could pay either $6,$9 or $12 to gain 1,2 or 3 of these cards? If so, too strong. $9 for 8VP is really really good, even over 2 cards.
Waxwing
$6 - Victory
Worth 1 VP for every Province in the supply at the end of the game.
Could be intersting in curse slogs or if my opponent goes alt VP. Will far too often go unbought though.
Woodpecker
$4 - Victory
Worth 5 VP minus 1 for every three treasures in your deck (round up), but not less than 0.
--
When you buy this, you may trash a treasure card from play and from your hand.
I kind of like this in concept. Will sometimes be worthless (money games), sometimes dominant (engines with good money giving actions and sometimes in the middle (weaker, or money based engines). I can get behind that. Might still need balancing, it's hard to tell. The round up wording confuses me. Am I rounding treasures up to nearest 3 or points up to nearest integer?
Flycatcher
$4 - Victory
Worth 1 VP for every three [This Card] tokens you have.
--
In games using this, you may gain a [This Card] token at the end of any turn in which you shuffled your deck.
So it's basically a VP card that rewards deck cycling or thin decks. It could be ok in theory, but likely this leads to some degenerate games where you just trash down to a very thin deck with a bunch of these and sit and do nothing forever.
Bluebird
$10 - Victory
Worth 1 VP for every differently costed card in your deck.
--
Rules: In games using this, add Platinum to the Basic cards in the Supply.
So it's a colony replacement, more or less. Lets see, at most this will get up to 11 points or 15 with potions, . Realistically 8 or 9? I can see it being balanced, as you have to build around it much the same way you do Faigrounds. But unlike fairgrounds, this could often be fewer points than province for a lot more money, so you don't pick it up as a consolation prize, which hurts it's value somewhat.
Vireo
$6 - Victory
3 VP
--
When you gain this, gain a Victory card costing less than this.
Way too strong. 6 Points for $6? Even over 2 cards that breaks things.
Bunting
$6 - Victory
Worth 1 VP for each special card in your deck.
--
Setup: Before the first turn each player selects a special card from among the kingdom cards and these are announced simultaneously.
Can the special card be any of the cards named or does it have to be your own? Can you name this card as the special card? Either way this is way too strong if there is any decent cantrip around.
Lark
$4 - Victory
2 VP
--
When you gain this card, you may gain a copy of a card costing $4 or less that does not have the name [This Card].
Why a copy of the card? Why not just gain a card. Anyway this is going to be super super good with IW or Silk Roads or likely gardens as rush cards. Otherwise, probably not that interesting except as a consolation for not even getting duchy in the end game.
Nuthatch
$4 - Victory
2 VP
--
When you gain this, you may gain a Curse. If you do, gain a card costing up to $6 that is not a Victory card.
Probably a bit too weak. Early game I do not want a green, and it's not worth it to take a green and a curse just to get a $6 card instead of a $4 card. Late game, it's not so bad to get 2VP for $4, but I don't see this card being impactful hardly ever.
Warbler
$5 - Victory
Worth 1 VP for each set of Copper, Silver, and Gold in your deck.
I like it. Might be too strong. Might need some balancing. But it's the most interesting VP per treasure variant I've seen.