Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

I don't know if 6 is the right number.

Inspired by Distant Lands of course, instead of only worth points after something, it's only worth points before something. Does that count as "fitting in modern Dominion" enough?

For this contest, we will revisit Gazbag's Ice Token mechanic!

- Instructions can have you set aside a card with tokens on it, using a wording like "freeze [this] with # Ice Tokens"; e.g. "Freeze the top card of your deck with 2 Ice Tokens."
- At the start of your turn, remove 1 Ice Token from each card you own that is frozen with Ice tokens on it.
- Once the last token is removed, the card is put into the players discard pile immediately.


For examples of cards using the mechanic, refer to FCMW 9's post or Gazbag's Fan Expansion Dominion: Ice Age.


The Dominion: Ice Age post was created more than 7 years ago. Since then a lot has happened in Dominion: We've got new expansions, new mechanics, and second edition of cards. We have night cards, next time-effects, Traits, Loots, Rewards, Allies, ... you name it!

What cold magic can Ice Tokens work in these new use cases? Thus this week's challenge:

Design any form of card that uses the Ice Token mechanic and fits into the world of "modern Dominion", ideally using any newer mechanic or effects.


Reminder of expansions since 2017:

• Nocturne
• Renaissance
• Renaissance
• Renaissance
• Menagerie
• Allies
• Plunder
• Guilds 2E
• Cornucopia 2E
• Prosperity 2E
• Seaside 2E
• Hinterlands 2E

Rules & Suggestions
- At least one card in your submission must include the Ice Token mechanic.
- Your submission can consist of multiple cards (Horses, non-supply-cards of your own creation, rotating split piles etc. pp.)
- Your submission must include an image of the card(s), at least a mock-up. I prefer to have something visual along the cards name and theme (and of course to see how the text fits on the card).
- Think of the vibe, images, themes (like seafaring, reactions, cold), mechanics (like next time, Loot, Night phase) and other effects introduced with in recent cards.


Submission Info & Judgment Criteria
- Ingenuity in the use of Ice Tokens and recent themes and instructions, fun, balance and versatility; in that order.
- The contest will end in roughly 7 days, I will post a 24h warning.
- If you want to submit a different card, please do so in a new post and mark your old one accordingly, so I know which one to judge.


I hope this challenge will help you cool down during these hot days. 

Thanks for judging and the win!

Will have the next contest up shortly.

Seasonal Market
+1 Card
+1 Action
If your discard pile is empty: +$1. Otherwise: +1 Card and +1 Action.

A lost city that becomes worse whenever your discard pile is empty, turning into a peddler.

I think it is pretty cool, and much better than what you did in the other thread.

The Elixir mechanic is a nice way to offset the infuriating aspect of Potion cards (namely not hitting enough for the Potion card and having a very bad turn in result). That said, why are all effects at the start of the turn?

I think Weaver is my least favorite Hinterlands 2nd edition card, as its on play effect does too little to differentiate it from Workshop (making them near-identical on boards without discarding). So I went with the following:

Weaver (Action - Reaction, $4)
Choose one: +$2, or gain a card costing up to $4
-
When you discard this outside of Clean-up, you may play this.

I was also considering +2 Cards. I don't want to make it too similar to Trail or Village Green, so +1 Card, +1 Action is off the table.

Nice effort! Cards that differ per game always intrigued me, even though it is usually ill-advised to design a card this way. So I'm going through the cards that use Ways as a means of making them Druid variations.

Woodland Sages: This is far away the best Ally that uses this concept, and I can see this being interesting with most of the Ways. The fact that it has 3 ways increases the chance that there is an interesting Way in there, and the limitation to one per turn prevents the chance of it being overbearing. It is still kinda weird to design an Ally this way, as you need to go through 2 layers of randomness to get this Ally in the first place.

Oxen: I see this being even worse than Farming village in that its enhanced part will matter extremely infrequently. It is not going to make getting Duchies more appealing any time soon, as turning dead cards into weak terminals is generally not worth it. It also doesn't help that several Ways, like Way of the Chameleon or Way of the Frog, are completely pointless for this. Playing Duchies is a messy concept; the payoff has to be worth it.

Farmhand: As Tiago said, the "Choose one: +1 Action" part is completely pointless, and if you let the abilities completely depend on the used ways, this card is going to be dreadful far too often. The concept has potential, just replace the "+1 Action" part with something meaningful. The easiest option is to go for "Trash 2 cards", making it a variation on Steward. You can also go for "+1 Card, +2 Actions" making it similar to Town.

Estate Manager: You want to get rid of Estates, not turn them into very weak cards that take up your precious terminal space (at the expense of 2 hard earned Favors, mind you). This will certainly be able to pull its weight on Import games, in which the opening turns become far better than usual. But with any other Liaison, this is very likely going to be ignored, even without Estate trashing. (And it also makes the FAQ of Inheritance even longer than it already is).

Beast masters: This and Woodland Sages look like drafts for the same cards; something I see more often in your expansion. I far prefer Woodland Sages though, as this can got out of hand very easily with Underling, as you can trigger the Way after two Underling plays. With Way of the Otter, Underling becomes a superlab every two plays! Enabling an effect to trigger after any Action card is also rather uninteresting; it's far more interesting to go for a Fellowship of Scribes-esque approach.

Animalistic: It is kinda cool, but there is a reason why there are no Traits like this in Plunder: discarding outside of Clean-up is not that common! And even then, it's probably more interesting to just play the card itself normally than as a fixed Way. (or maybe not use it as a Trait but apply it to an actual Kingdom card)

Golden Company (Action - Duration, $5)
+2 Actions
+2 Cards
The next time you have no unused Actions (not Action cards) during your turn, put this on the bottom of your deck.

You probably want to tighten the timing window on that. During your turn is pretty ambiguous. Depends on what you want to have it do exactly, but during Clean-up is usually the way to go.

EDIT: Nvm for some reason i disconnected "the next time" from "during your turn" and missed that the timing is actually pretty clear. My bad.^^

But thats a really elegant solution. Where if you buy too many you don't get them back till the end. I was toying with the concept of it staying out as a downside too but more along the lines of "buy this thing you don't want to get it back" but i like yours better.

Golden Company (Action - Duration, $5)
+2 Actions
+2 Cards
The next time you have no unused Actions (not Action cards) during your turn, put this on the bottom of your deck.

Lancers by Tiago

Flexible: Gets the most out of being used in the Action phase (+Action) BUT has the least "cost" in Buy or Night phase (can't normally use the leftover Action card, so it's a freebie to discard it. Excellent!
Fun: Hard to think of a set where you wouldn't want it. Lots of fun
Cool: Totally. Simple but effective
Balanced: Strong, sure, but it doesn't work automatically or anything either. If you open with this and a $3 Action, they might not end up in the same hand and this'll dud
Fantastic card.

Stone Scribe by BryGuy

Stone Scribe • $4 • Fury
To play, discard a non-Victory card.
Gain a card costing less than the card you just discarded.

Flexible: Hmm since it's a gainer, this looks like a Night card to me. Not much reason to play this in the Action phase over another phase
Fun: Yes. Gives you some interesting decisions ("do I play this Gold, or discard it to gain a $5?)
Cool: It's a unique card, I like it
Balanced: Totally. If you could discard Provinces and Colonies to gain stuff, that would be one thing, but since it disallows Victory cards you're kinda paying the price for the card you're gaining. It'd probably be fine to even lower the price of Stone Scribe because of that -- which is feedback I always like to hear on my cards because it means they're not overpowered, haha.
Nice idea.

Royal Council by Zoyarox

Flexible: Absolutely. Throning is nice on Actions, Treasure, or Night cards, so there would be situations where you'd play it in any one of them over the other phases. Has the highest marks in this contest for the category of taking advantage of Fury flexibility
Fun: Throning and draw are always fun and useful
Cool: Unique, for sure! Very cool
Balanced: Maybe it needs to cost $1 more or something just because of the flexibility in when you play it and how you trigger it? But yeah it's balanced
Great card.

Mendicant by grep

Mendicant
$3 - Fury
To play, gain a Copper.
Reveal your hand.
+$3, then -$1 for each of your cards in hand or in play costing $4 or more.

Flexible: It is nice that you can trigger it at whatever point of your Action or Buy phase you'll be able to get the most out of it.
Fun: The early spike this will give you is nice
Cool: Pretty funky hand/play state you're aiming for when you play this card, but having it Fury might let you pull it off for awhile.
Balanced: Gold for $3?? Haha but yeah it's junking you and also becoming more of a junk card the better your deck gets.
Fascinating idea.

Survivalist & Pioneer by valb_7k

Survivalist $4
To play, discard 1 card, revealed
If it's an Action, exchange this for a Pioneer
Otherwise, the next time you gain a card this turn, you may also gain a differently named card with the same cost or lower.

Pioneer
To play, discard a Victory Card costing at least $1, revealed
This turn, Victory cards cost $2 less
(This is not in the Supply.)

Flexible: Ah, Survivalist is a like a gainer, but because if you have an Action card that's a gainer you might want to play this before it, so there could be reason to play it in the Action phase over the Buy phase. Pioneer is similar, like maybe you want to Workshop a Duchy or something.
Fun: Haggler and cost reduction are always a good, crazy time, especially together.
Cool: You bet. Pretty different stuff
Balanced: It was probably for the best that you didn't put a buy on Pioneer, even though it's what you want as a player, haha.
Sweet cards.

Cowboy by segura

Flexible: As it's a Horse gainer, you're probably just playing this Night phase. There are some exceptions if you're playing with Actions that can manipulate your discard pile.
Fun: Discarding junk to gain Horses is fun! Nice and simple card, and you definitely want it in your deck if you have Victory cards.
Cool: Totally. Turning this card and a junk card into draw on future turns.
Balanced: We don't have a price, but it can be pretty cheap without causing trouble.
Cool card.

I really appreciate each of your submissions, everyone!

Winner: Royal Council by Zoyarox
Runner up: Lancers by Tiago