I think I will skip the attempt at formatting responses that I used last time. I also forgot to put in a disclaimer for the first contest, but it was OK because I didn't talk up my own card at all. But hey, disclaimer -- one of these cards is mine. And I might actually talk it up, I haven't decided yet.
(Now, after having gone through all the cards, I'll say that there were many that I think looked alright but which I just did not like personally. No knock on the card -- it's just a matter of personal taste. Also, I just don't like Workshop variants.
)
Edit: And I see that some cards have been updated... I will look into those a bit later.
Palanquin
Types: Action
Cost: $5
+1 Action. You may discard an Action card. If you do, +1 Card per $ it costs.
Apprentice that discards instead of trashes (and doesn't care about Potion cost). Not that much on theme... I suppose it helps deal with a large deck? It's probably too powerful. Yeah trashing is good, but TfB do better when they trash expensive things. The drawback is, of course, that most expensive things are cards you'd prefer to keep. Palanquin lets you have the benefit without the drawback of losing those good cards.
Tribe
Types: Action
Cost: $3
+2 Actions. +$1. Look at the top 2 cards of your deck. Discard one and put the other anywhere in your deck.
When you buy this, you may discard a card. If you do, +1 Buy and +$2.
Village with filtering and on-buy -- fits Hinterlands. Putting a card anywhere in the deck is fairly novel -- Stash, but for whatever card you find. Probably you would put a good card back on top, or a bad card on the bottom if you flipped two bad cards. But still, neat.
The on-buy is a fairly popular idea, but it has a different function here. Usually this concept is used on a cheap card such that the bonus gives you a net increase in money. Here, the card costs $3 but only gives you back $2. Effectively, you get Tribe for $1 without needing a buy. But for that effect you do need to discard a card. I wonder if this is too strong, but the discard certainly helps temper it.
All in all, pretty neat.
Quagmire
Types: Victory
Cost: $3
Worth 1 VP.
When you gain this, trash 3 cards from a Supply pile.
I saw Robz already pointed it out, but this is broken. Trashing 3 Provinces is just ridiculously powerful and swingy. An easy fix is to not allow it to trash Victory cards. With that change, I am not sure of its power, but it would be fairly interesting.
Hinterland
Types: Action
Cost: $4
Swap the cards in your hand with the cards on your Hinterland mat.
When you gain this, gain a Silver, putting it on your Hinterland mat.
Odd, and a bit similar to another fan card I have seen recently. Not much else to say. It is fairly interesting and probably difficult to use optimally. I like this implementation though.
Pilgrimage
Types: Action
Cost: $3
+1 Action. +2 Buys.
While this is in play, when you gain a Victory card, Victory cards cost $1 less, but not less than $0.
So this is just non-terminal buys at first. After you gain a Victory card, it is like a Bridge for Victory cards. But if you gain more Victory cards after that, it further reduces cost. Seems like it could be very powerful. It's a weak opener though (don't want to buy VP early), so the $3 cost is fine.
A potential problem is how quickly it can snowball. Highway-Highway-3x Pilgrimage gives a total of 7 Buys. Buy an Estate (free from Highways) and the Pilgrimages reduce VP card cost by $3. Now Duchy is free. Buy that and Province is free. So those 5 cards would allow you to buy Estate, Duchy, 5 Provinces. This seems nearly as potent as the classic KC-Bridge megaturn, but easier to put together. Maybe not an issue -- you still need a way to get the cards together. But if it is a problem, it can be fixed by making it non-terminal or providing fewer Buys. I like the concept.
Consulate
Types: Action
Cost: $4
+3 Cards. +1 Action. Discard 2 cards.
When you gain this, each other player gains a Copper, putting it into his hand.
A non-terminal mini-Embassy. It is questionable whether the Copper gift is an attack... but since it's on-gain, it sidesteps that whole debate, ha! It would play differently from Embassy in that it doesn't increase your hand size, but the heavy filtering is nice. It looks pretty good.
Trade Agreement
Types: Action
Cost: $5
+3 Cards.
While this is in play, when you gain a Trade Agreement, gain a card costing up to $5.
So TA lets you get more TAs easily. I don't know how to feel about that. I suppose one would want to use it to gain villages to create a draw engine? Might be alright, but it doesn't click for me.
Mountain Dwellers
Types: Action
Cost: $5
+1 Card. +1 Action. Reveal your hand. If you revealed 3 or more Treasure cards, +$1.
When you buy this, you may trash a Treasure card you have in play. Gain a Treasure card costing excatly $3 more than it.
On-buy Mine. Once in your deck, it's a cantrip that is sometimes a Peddler. Looks alright, and the name fits (recalling Mine). Maybe "Mountaineer" would be better.
Emerald Vein
Types: Action – Victory
Cost: $5
+1 Action. Reveal your hand. +$1 per Victory card revealed.
Worth 1 VP.
Probably works fine, but I am just not personally a fan of "VP cards for money". Not sure why I don't like that concept.
Troglodyte Caves
Types: Action
Cost: $5
+1 Card. +1 Action. Discard any number of cards. +1 Card per card discarded.
When you gain this, you may reveal a card from your hand costing less than this. Gain a copy of it.
Cellar with +1 Card to start. The extra card should actually make a fairly big difference. I think that's a fine effect that hasn't been used yet. Not sure if I like the on-gain though.
Vendor
Types: Action
Cost: $1
+1 Action
When you buy this, +2 Buys.
Once in your deck, it is just a Ruined Village. Why do that? Ruined Mine or Ruined Market fit the concept better, I think. The on-buy is a little more interesting, in that it just lets you buy more things that turn (net +1 Buy). Pretty handy, and I like the idea.
I am worried that it may be broken. Of course the cost needs to be low (if it's expensive, the cost to get Vendor probably means you don't have enough money left to make use of your extra Buy). But if the cost is low, it might be too easy to use it to run out piles. With just two Highways in play, you can empty Vendor and Estates. Raising the cost only makes the Highway trick slightly harder to pull off while decreasing the value of Vendor on boards where it isn't otherwise broken. Tough call, hm.
Maybe if it had a clause that limited how often you could buy it in one turn.
Artefact
Types: Action
Cost: $2
+1 Card. +1 Action. Choose a card from your hand. Trash it, discard it, or put it on top of your deck.
When you buy this, set it aside instead of gaining it. Gain it after you next shuffle (or when the game ends).
Cantrip trashing is just too powerful for $2 without some sort of penalty. This is even better because you are not forced to trash -- you can discard or top-deck as well. There actually is a penalty -- you gain it one shuffle late. I don't think this is enough of a penalty to justify such a low cost. Increasing the cost is a fine fix.
But even with that, the card itself just isn't that interesting to me.
Ring Leader
Types: Action – Attack
Cost: $3
When you buy or play this, each player (including you) reveals the top 4 card of his deck, discards one that you choose, and puts the rest back in an order he chooses.
Spy variant, but it's a terminal. The filtering is better than on Spy especially because it also reorganizes, and the attack is more likely to hit a key card. Can enable some other cards like Mystic or Wishing Well (though a village would be needed).
Overall I think it is a little weak, but it has enough niche cases for it to work. More importantly, the attack feels different than anything already existing without feeling overly complicated. I like this a lot.
The name could be better.
River
Types: Victory
Cost: $3
Worth 2 VP.
When you gain this during your turn, all cards except Victory cards cost $2 less this turn, but not less than $0.
The on-gain effect is only useful if you have +Buy to take advantage of it (or gain River with Ironworks or something). River itself costs $3, which means you don't get net savings unless you buy at least two non-Victory cards after you gain River. The problem I see is that if you want River for the VP, you are already greening and you're less likely to want to buy non-Victory cards. But if you are still building your deck up, you don't want River to clog up your deck. This contradiction makes the on-gain feel out of place to me.
Factory
Types: Action – Reaction
+1 Action. You may discard a card that is not a Victory card. If you do, gain a copy of it.
When you gain a card, you may reveal this from your hand and put it onto your deck. If you do, put the gained card into your hand.
The cost is currently missing...
I think the card works, but I don't like it. I don't really like that you can just duplicate a card -- feels swingy. Admittedly, gaining a good card requires that you discard it, losing it for the round. Still doesn't work for me. A card that lets you gain cards to hand (be it a reaction or the gainer itself) is something else I've seen before which I am not fond of, though this implementation of it may work well. So I don't think the card is broken (assuming an appropriate cost, and I'm not actually sure what that would be) but it's just not one that I like.
Sanctuary
Types: Action
Cost: $5
+2 Cards. Discard 2 cards.
When you gain this, set aside a card from your hand. Return that card to your deck at the end of the game.
The on-play effect is really weak filtering, but that's fine. The main reason to buy this is the on-gain, which lets you Island a card. I think that's a fine idea, but it is a little boring to me considering that Island already exists, and Astrolabe from the first expansion also performs a similar function. I think this is a fine card and decently balanced already (may work at a lower cost actually), but I am looking for things that feel more unique.
For what it is, the name is nice. Kind of a reference to Inn, Haven and Island all at once. And I may still vote for this, depending on how many other cards are here that I like.
Workers' Co-operative
Types: Action
Cost: $5
+1 Buy. +$3.
While this is in play, when you buy a card, each other player may gain a card costing less than it.
Haggler for others... probably too weak at $5. This same concept appeared in the Prosperity contest as well, on a Treasure card named Charity IIRC. Somehow I like the concept less now. Oh, how the mind works.
Smelter
Types: Action
Cost: $4
+1 Buy. +$1.
While this is in play, when you buy a card, gain a Silver, putting it on top of your deck.
It's a Silver flooder. I think Trader and Masterpiece are enough for that niche.
Witch Doctor
Types: Action
Cost: $4
+$1. Look through your deck; reveal and discard any number of Victory and Curse cards from it. Shuffle your deck.
When you gain this, put your deck into your discard pile.
Takes the niche effect of Chancellor and gives it on-gain, allowing greater control of when trigger it. That's cool. Epic-level filtering, but swingy because it's onl good if you draw it early in the shuffle. Mediocre effect.
Possible broken combo: Tunnel. If I do not vote for it, Tunnel will be the reason.
I like the name a lot though. Saw it recently (in the Bad Ideas thread?) but it actually works very well for this concept and this expansion.
Diviner
Types: Action
Cost: $3
+2 Cards. +1 Buy.
While this is in play, when you buy a card, reveal the top 2 cards of your deck, discard any number, and put the rest back on top in any order.
Simple enough, and probably fine.
Shoreline
Types: Victory
Cost: $6
Worth 4 VP.
When you gain this, +1 Buy.
4VP for $6 is fine by itself. +1 Buy on gain is marginally useful on such an expensive card. It should probably be on-buy, to avoid confusion with Swindler. This is boring though.
Mill
Types: Action
Cost: $5
+1 Action. Each other player draws a card. Gain a card costing up to $5.
When you gain this, each other player discards down to 3 cards in hand.
Another on-gain "attack" in the vein of IGG, now Militia instead of Witch. The effect seems too powerful though. Gaining a $5 card is already quite good, and this is non-terminal to boot.
I am not sure but I recall reading in the Secret Histories that this concept was actually tested. The problem is that it makes the game unfun because there is this persistent threat of a hand size attack. I imagine that Mill on the board feels a lot more oppressive than Militia.
Travelling Salesman
Types: Action – Reaction
Cost: $5
Discard any number of Treasure cards from your hand. +2 Cards per card discarded.
When another player gains a Victory card, you may discard this. If you do, gain a card costing less than it.
Action seems neat and well balanced for $5. Reaction seems OK as well, though maybe a little bit swingy. I like that this hits many of the Hinterlands themes without feeling particularly contrived -- there is filtering, an on-gain effect of sorts, and it cares about Victory cards. I'm a fan.
Courier (A)
Types: Action – Reaction
Cost: $4
+1 Card. +1 Action. Discard any number of cards. Gain a card costing exactly $1 per card discarded.
When you would gain a card other than during your Buy phase, you may discard this from your hand. If you do, gain a card costing up to $2 more instead.
You can gain a card costing up to $5 if you discard your hand (or more if you have draw). It has self-synergy in that it "discards" other Couriers for an extra $1. Seems decent. Maybe a bit too similar to Vault/Secret Chamber. Yeah this is a gainer instead of just giving +$1, but it's still pretty close.
Oicho-Kabu
Types: Action – Victory
Cost: $5
+1 Buy. +$2.
Worth 1 VP. While this is in play, when you buy a card, +$2 and discard the top card of your deck. If it's a Victory card, trash this.
This is a terminal +$4, with the caveat that the money has to be distributed over other Buys. It can combo further if you have more than 2 Buys. They stack extremely well, almost as good as Bridge. There is a catch built-in -- if it flips a Victory card (which includes another copy of it), it gets trashed. That also kills the bonus, since it's "while in play".
I think it might be too similar to Merchant Guild, but having money this turn rather than coin tokens for later probably makes a big difference in how it plays.
Wayfarer
Types: Action
Cost: $2
+1 Card. +1 Action. +1 Buy.
When you buy this, you may trash a card from your hand. If you do, +$ euqal to its cost in coins.
Poor man's Salvager? You need to have +Buy first, maybe from another copy of Wayfarer. When you have +Buy, you can first buy a Wayfarer to Salvage something else. You need to have that +Buy or else the money is wasted (though you could, of course, use it just to trash junk). The main issue is that there is $2 of opportunity cost -- your Salvage is less efficient than an actual Salvager. Still, this introduces some new strategic considerations. I like it.
Sultan
Types: Action
Cost: $5
+2 Cards. +1 Action. Discard a card.
When you gain this, look at the top 3 cards of your deck. Discard any number of them and put the rest back in any order.
Weaker lab, but it makes up for it with an on-gain effect. The effect is just minor filtering though. I don't think that's strong enough to justify $5, but the Lab-lite effect is too strong for $4. Not a fan.
Safe House
Types: Victory – Reaction
Cost: $3
Worth 2 VP.
When you gain a card costing $0, you may discard this. If you do, gain a Gold.
Tunnel variant, in that it is a 2VP Victory-Reaction also lets you gain Gold. The reaction here is neat in that it allows you to buy a better Cache (that is, buy one Copper to gain Gold). But it also functions as a reaction against most junkers, while also making some cute combos. Buy Cache, get an extra two Gold. Gain a Spoils, also gain a Gold. The reaction is more interesting than it looks.
My biggest hang up is that Tunnel is already in Hinterlands, so I don't think the Hinterlands card should be so similar. I will probably still vote for this though.
Commander
Types: Victory
Cost: $5
Worth 2 VP
When you gain this, gain a Reinforcement card, putting it on top of your deck.
Setup: Add an extra Action Kingdom card pile costing $5 to the Supply. Cards from that pile are Reinforcement cards and cannot be bought.
Clarification: Unlike most Victory cards, there are always 10 copies of Commander in the Supply regardless of the number of players.
Wording issue -- if the Reinforcement card cannot be bought, then it's not in the Supply.
Basically you can get Reinforcement cards by gaining Commander. You can imagine it as if you are getting the Reinforcement card and getting a 2VP along with it. Whether that's a bonus or a penalty is up to you to decide. Seems OK, but not that exciting to me.
Midnight Gathering
Types: Action
Cost: $5
+1 Action. You my put your deck into your discard pile. Look through your discard pile and reveal an Action card from it; put it into your hand.
Basically "put any action card you want into your hand". Too powerful, I think.
Pasture
Types: Victory – Reaction
Cost: $4
Worth 2 VP.
When another player gains a Victory card, you may reveal and discard this along with any number of cards from your hand. If you do, +2 Cards per Pasture and +1 Card per other card discarded.
Simple enough effect. The reaction works out to be Lab+Cellar. If you have multiple Pastures in hand, the correct play is actually to reveal and discard only one Pasture, plus any other cards you want to Cellar. Then you can reveal the next Pasture afterwards, sifting even more through what you just drew back. This could actually chain pretty far, because you may also draw into more Pastures. It's probably not a big issue. I like it.
Trailblazer
Types: Action
Cost: $4
Gain a card costing up to $4.
When you gain this, reveal the top 4 cards of your deck. Put any number of the revealed Victory cards and Curses into your hand. Put the other cards back in any order.
Workshop with on-gain filtering. Not that exciting.
Bargain
Types: Action
Cost: $4
You may trash a card from your hand. Gain a card costing exactly $1 more than it, a card costing exactly $2 more than it, and a card costing exactly $3 more than it. Discard down to 2 cards in hand.
When you gain this, each player (including you) may trash a card from his hand.
Seems too good. Maybe in practice it is not, but I am doubtful. This is basically Expand, but you can't gain cards costing equal to or less than the trashed card and you sometimes gain extra cards. There are probably some other minor differences too (e.g. it doesn't play well with Potion costs). But yeah, it's Expand that gives you MORE cards. Now, those cards might actually be a negative. Maybe you get forced into some junk. But it's doubtful. At $4 you can get more Bargains. At $5 you can get Duchy. At $6 there is Gold. At $8 you can get Province. The worst of those is probably Duchy in the early game, except that you can just feed it to Bargain for Gold and Province and maybe a KC if it's on the board.
This just seems way better than Expand to me.
Clairvoyant
Types: Action
Cost: $3
+1 Action. Look at the top card of your deck. You may put it into your hand. Otherwise, +$1 and either discard it or put it back. Look through your discard pile and put a card from it or your hand at the bottom of your deck.
Feels very messy, like a bunch of disparate effects thrown together. Looks almost like an imitation of JoaT, except all the different parts of Jack actually do go together to form an after-the-fact Moat. Maybe I am missing something here.
Fence
Types: Action
Cost: $5
While this is in play, when you gain a card, gain a card costing exactly $1 more than it.
An odd kind of Haggler variant. I don't like the name (whether it refers to dividers, swordsmen or black market dealers) but the effect is neat. Might need some vanilla benefit, but the concept is solid. I will likely vote for this.
Shaman
Types: Action
Cost: $4
+1 Action. Name a card. Reveal cards from your deck until you reveal an Action card with that name. Put it into your hand and discard the rest.
When you gain this, each other player discards any number of cards from his hand then draws a card per card discarded.
Another "find any action" card. Not a fan of the concept.
Tinker's Wagon
Types: Action
Cost: $4
Gain a card costing up to $4.
When you gain this, move a card costing between $3 and $6 from the top of one Supply pile to the top of another.
I just don't like Workshop enough to like seeing it used as another card top.
The main concept is the on-gain though. I don't like it here either. This kind of trick sounds interesting but I think it has too much potential for confusion. If there are 2 or more piles with an Estate on top, what happens when I Ambassador Estate -- can I return my Estate on top of the faux Estate, and from which pile do opponents gain Estates? I also don't really like how this can mess with cursing attacks (I'll just put an Estate on top of the Curse pile).
Thrift Shop
Types: Action
Cost: $6
+1 Action. +$2. If this is not the first time you played Thrift Shop this turn, you may gain a card from the Thrift Shop mat.
When you gain or play this, place a card costing up to $5 from the Supply onto the Thrift Shop mat.
Clarification: There is only one community Thrift Shop mat. Each player does not have his own.
I have no idea how this would play. It's an interesting concept though. Will have to think more on this later.
Grandee
Types: Action
Cost: $5
+1 Buy. Gain a card costing up to $4.
When you gain this, gain a Gold; each other player gains a Silver.
Why is Workshop being used for so many of these card tops?
On-gain Governor for Gold... not interesting to me.
Construct
Types: Action
Cost: $3
Trash a card from your hand. Gain two cards each costing exactly $1 more than it.
When you gain this during your Action phase, +1 Card and +1 Action.
The on-gain feels out of place. Um, I guess you can Construct an Estate into a Construct or two to make use of the benefit. That's probably the intent. I guess it's OK!
Missionary
Types: Action
Cost: $4
Reveal cards from your deck until you reveal a Victory card. Gain an Action or Treasure card costing up to the Victory card's cost, putting it onto your deck. Discard the revealed cards.
When you buy this, reveal a card from your hand. If that card costs $6 or less, gain a copy of it.
I believe there is already a Missionary from the first MSDC.
The action looks too swingy. The on-buy is another clone effect, which I'm not a fan of.
Chapterhouse
Types: Action
Cost: $5
+1 Action. +$1. Draw until you have 6 cards in hand. Discard 2 cards.
When you buy this, each other player draws a card. When you gain this, each other player with at least 4 cards in hand discards a card.
Aw man. I read the below-the-line stuff before the rest of the card. First thought was that the idea was really clever. If you buy the card, it benefits opponents (net effect is that they sift a card). But if you gain it in some other way, it's an attack! Although on-gain Militia feels oppressive, I think the way this is done works really well.
But the card top is completely unrelated and actually kind of boring. And a cost of $5 removes a good chunk of gainers. This might actually be a card where the Workshop top is tolerable, especially if Chapterhouse itself cost $4.
I really love the clever on-buy and on-gain... but the top is more than just vanilla, so it might be too big a change to allow for a vote from me. Hm.
Barn
Types: Action
Cost: $5
+1 Card. +1 Action. Discard a card. If you discarded a Victory or Curse card, gain a Treasure costing up to $4. Otherwise, +$1 and gain a Victory card costing up to $4. Put the gained card into your hand.
When you gain this, gain an Action card costing up to $4, putting it onto your deck.
Feels very messy to me when reading it, but it does seem to have a direction. How would this play... even though you discard a card, you gain another card into hand. If you sift out a Victory or Curse, you get Silver (or better) in hand, making this like an activated Conspirator. If you [have to] discard something else, you get an Estate. Or if Gardens or Silk Road is on the board, you just rush those.
Might be just too good an enabler for SR/Gardens. Cantrip silver gaining is also really good, and it doesn't much mind even gaining Estates because they can be sifted away. I might be overestimating it though?
Huntsmen
Type: Action
Cost: $0*
+1 Action. +1 Buy.
When you gain this, +2 Buys. During your Buy phase, this costs $2 more for each card you've gained this turn.
I think I like this. It is similar to Vendor above, but the top portion of the card fits better and the on-gain implementation is self-limiting. You can get your extra Buy, but you'll have a tough time emptying piles because the cost of Huntsmen increases. There may be some rules confusion with cost reduction, but I don't think there's anything super problematic that can't be dealt with by FAQ. I don't think the name fits. But I like this a lot.
Painful Journey
Types: Action – Curse – Reaction
Cost: $4
Discard any number of Curses. +2 Cards for each Curse discarded.
Worth –1 VP. When you would buy a Victory card, you may trash this from your hand. If you do, gain a Victory card costin less than the bought card and gain 2 Curses.
Clarification: You cannot gain this card when another card instructs you to gain a Curse.
Nope nope nope.
Curse type is just a terrible idea. It requires that clarification, and then there's confusion over whether "Curses" in the action text refers to itself or regular Curses or both. Probably both. And the clarification says "another card" -- so if you trigger the reaction, can you gain another Painful Journey? It's not *another* card, right? Confusing.
Even without those issues, I am still not a fan of these cards that give you benefit for Curses.
Wagon Raider
Types: Action – Attack
Cost: $4
Each other player may put a card costing more than $2 from their hand into your discard pile. If he doesn't, he gains a Curse.
While this is in play, when you buy a Gold, you may gain a Province.
This is probably just a plain Curser. Most cards costing more than $2 are too good for other players to just hand them to you. I am not going to lose $2 from my hand AND give you a Silver to boot. The in-play effect just makes this a Hoard for Provinces. Overall not interesting.
Nomadic Village
Types: Action – Reaction
Cost: $4
+1 Card. +2 Actions.
When you gain this, put it into your hand.
When an opponent gains an Action card, you may discard this. If you do, search your discard pile for an Action card and put it into your hand.
This also does the "find an action" thing, but it does it as a reaction. That makes it far more tolerable. Even so, it's a reaction to a pretty common occurrence and pushes players into playing more BM. Not sure I like that.
Stranger
Types: Action
Cost: $5
+1 Card. +1 Action. +1 Buy. Each other player discards the top card of his deck. Copies of cards revealed this way cost $2 less this turn, but not less than $0.
Too swingy, and I think it would be hard to track.
Courier (B)
Types: Action
Cost: $2
+1 Action. +1 Buy.
When you discard this from play, if you bought no more than one card this turn, you may put this on top of your deck.
This is to +Buy what Walled Village is for +Actions. I actually quite like Walled Village, and I like this a lot too. It's a weak $2 card that provides +Buy when you need it. It's a good niche to fill and an appropriate level of power for a $2 card. Definitely a fan of this.
Sawmill
Types: Action
Cost: $3
+1 Action. +1 Buy.
When you gain this, set it aside onto your Sawmill mat. At the start of each of your turns, you may put any number of cards from your mat into your hand.
Remarkably similar to Courier (B) right above it. It is also just non-terminal +Buy and it also tries to let you have it when you need it. Sawmill costs a bit more but it is stronger in that you can get it at any time you need without hurting your hands in the meanwhile (whereas Courier is a weak card that keeps filling up a slot until you use the +Buy). It is weaker in that Sawmill only gives you the flexibility once, after which it is just a junky vanilla card. This is probably weak enough that it could also cost $2.
I like Courier more. It is just more interesting, IMO.
Pyramid
Types: Action
Cost: $4
+1 Action. +$1. +1 Card per Pyramid you have in play. Discard one card per Pyramid you have in play.
When you buy this, gain an extra copy of it.
Stacks strongly with itself. It's a Copper that also sifts, more so when you play multiples. I'm not a great fan of stacking cards like this though.
Lucky Coin
Type: Treasure
Cost: $4
Worth $1.
When you gain this, each other player with at least 5 cards in hand reveals his hand and discards a card that you choose.
Eeep. Pillage is so powerful that it is a one-shot terminal $5 action. This is a $4 version of it on-gain. It is stronger than Pillage in that it costs less and you get the attack immediately, plus being on-gain makes it easier to time it for maximum damage (not to mention not requiring an action play). It is weaker in that it ends up as a Copper in your deck, and you don't get any Spoils out of it. But I think it is stronger overall. Moreover, this probably feels even more oppressive than on-gain Militia.
Used Land Salesman
Types: Action
Cost: $5
+4 Cards.
While this is in play, when you buy a card, gain a Victory cards costing less than it.
Interesting. While the in-play effect can be a benefit (late game buy Province, gain Duchy), it is mostly a hindrance. Very simple, very elegant. I like it.