Contest #81 ResultsI wanted to use at least a bit of playtesting with my judging this week, but playing everybodys' cards just wasn't feasible. So, I picked the ones I thought were the best and then played those to decide on an actual winner. I'll comment on the ones I didn't test first before getting to those I have tested (which I am awarding honorable mentions) and ending with the one I have picked as the winner. Other than that though, these are in no particular order.
Scenic Route - grep
Scenic Route
$5 - Action
+2 Cards
If the previous card you have played this turn was not Scenic Route, +2 Actions.
While this is in play, you cannot buy Attack cards.
So, this is interesting. I like the way that the top does "Lost City, but weaker". However the bottom half doesn't feel great to me. In games without attacks, it does nothing to mitigate the power of the card, and in games with essential attacks either you can just buy some attacks before stocking up on these (with most attacks you don't want a ton of copies anyways, as many either don't stack or run out). I would really like to see the top half of this return someday with a different downside.
Moat - majiponi Moat
cost $2 - Action - Reaction
+2 Cards
This turn, you are unaffected by other players' playing Attack cards.
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When another player plays an Attack card, you may play this from your hand.
A moat variant. In 2-player games, almost strictly better than the official Moat (edge case: you cannot choose to be affected by another Attack). In 4-player game, for example, when Alice plays a Militia, you can draw and protect yourself "this turn"; you have to discard 3 cards when Bob plays another Militia.
I feel like this suffers from a variant of the attack-reflection problem - playing this out of your hand and completely no-selling an Attack is a very strong reaction effect, so in games with this the correct move may be for both players to avoid attacks and also Moat.
This dynamic doesn't occur in multiplayer though.
Waterwheel - mandioca15Waterwheel (Action, $6)
+3 Cards
You may trash a card from your hand.
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When you gain this, trash a card from your hand. If you didn’t, return this to its pile.
A big problem I have with this card is how expensive it is. It's basically a masquerade+, but its high cost ($6.5 because you need to actually have a card in hand to trash too, which will often be Copper) makes buying this for trashing purposes not a viable strategy much of the time. Buying it just as a draw card, however, is super underwhelming. I feel like this would work much better at $5, or perhaps at $4 with mandatory trashing.
I am a big fan of the below the line effect on this one, but I don't think the rest of the card works well with it.
Auramancer - spineflu
Auramancer • $2^ • Action
+$2
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While this is in play, Actions with +$ amounts in their text are also Treasures.
I feel like you rarely will want to buy this card. Unless this lets you play 3 or more additional cards it is worse than a Festival. It costing a potion is a major opportunity cost, especially given that you don't really want more than 1 or 2 copies (at least they turn into silvers upon being played though). I can see there being games where it ends up playing an interesting role but I believe those will be relatively rare and usually pretty obvious.
Scouting Party - Jonatan Djurachkovitch
Scouting Party
Action-Reserve - 4$
+1 Action
Put this on your Tavern mat.
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You may call this before or after you resolve an Action to reveal the top 4 cards of your Deck: discard any number and put the rest back in any order.
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When you gain this, put it on your Tavern mat.
This is like a Cartographer effect with the differences that a) it's not a cantrip but instead just a +1 Action and b) it can be saved for use whenever you want it most. I feel like you'll want to call this right after playing itself the majority of the time because this sort of sifting is pretty strong. The most interesting thing it does is how it gains itself to the tavern mat - with that, buying one for its ability to be used next turn seems like an interesting play to make.
Horseman - [TP] InfernoHorseman
$3
Action-Reaction
+2 Cards
+1 Action
Discard 2 cards.
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When any player plays an Attack card, you may play this from your hand.
(+1 Action has no effect if it's not your turn)
I like the way that this lets you get a Village effect if you play an Attack card with it. However, the fact that it reduces your handsize combined with the rather specific reaction condition makes me feel as if it would be a better with a different top half that helps let it be an enabler more easily.
Pushy Salesman - LibraryAdventurerPushy Salesman
- Action - Duration - Attack
Now and at start of next turn: +, +1 Buy.
At the start of next turn: If no other player gained a curse since your last turn, +1 Coffers.
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While this is in play, when another player ends their buy phase, they reveal their hand. If they have any unspent or unplayed treasures, they gain a curse and a copper.
This feels rather centralizing to me. It's like a Mountebank that, rather than being able to discard a curse to defend against, you have to give up control over building your deck. I wish the attack was less severe, or at least ran out eventually, so that taking this was more of an option.
It's also swingy in that you often don't have control over your exact coin production so whether your plans will be unaffected by this or not is up to chance a lot of the time.
Salt - FragasnapSalt
Types: Treasure, Duration
Cost: $3
$1. When you play this and at the start of your next turn: +1 Buy.
While this is in play, when you gain or trash a card costing at most $4, you may Exile it.
This is an interesting effect, but a bit niche. I feel like it would be better as a Silver+ that worked on $5 cards, in order to make it more universally something worth considering while still letting it be good where it is now.
Employ - LordBaphomet
Contracter [one per player]
+1 Card, +1 Action, exchange one of your Ally cards with another player's.
Watchman - Ally - Reaction
Discard a card. Draw up to 5 cards in hand.
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While this is on your ally mat, when you gain a card you may trash it.
Financier - Ally - Reaction
+1 Buy, +1$
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While this is on your ally mat, when you gain a treasure you may set this aside. If you do, play this and return this to your ally mat at the end of your turn.
Thug - Ally - Attack
+2 Cards, each other player with 4 or more cards in their hand discards one card.
Conman - Ally - Attack
+2$, Each other player takes 1 debt or gains a copper, their choice.
Craftsman - Ally
+1 Action, gain a card costing up to 3$.
Hag - Ally - Attack
Each other player gains a curse. You may trash a curse from your hand.
Tavernkeeper - Ally
+2 Cards, +2 Actions, discard 2 cards.
Courtesan - Ally - Victory
+3$, take your -1 card token.
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This is worth 2 VP if on your Allies mat at the end of the game.
Propagandist - Ally
+1 Action, +1 Buy, +1$
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When this leaves your ally mat, take your -1$ token.
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While this is on your ally mat, if you bought a victory card this turn, you may take 1 debt to gain 1VP.
Slaver - Ally - Curse
+3 Cards, +1 Buy
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This is worth -2 VP if on your Allies mat at the end of the game
This is an interesting concept. I feel like there's too much going on here for how much depth it adds to the game though. It seems like a lot of the time the optimal play will be to use your first Employ each turn to take whatever Ally you want to play the others as - spending more than 1 Employ play in a turn taking Allies sounds like something that would be very difficult to justify, especially in multiplayer games.
I also agree with whoever else said that the VP at the end of the game shouldn't be on this type of card - as is it can potentially give a relatively easy 4VP to whoever ends the game in 2p.
Horse Wrangler - Xen3k
Horse Wrangler - Action Duration - $3
Now and at the start of your next turn, gain a Horse.
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Until the end of your next turn, if you have fewer than 3 Horses in Exile, when you play a Horse, Exile a Horse from its pile.
This is an interesting take on Horses that I don't think I've seen before. It kind of worries me how much draw having 2 of these and playing them every turn adds to your deck though. (You get 5 Horses every turn for the cost of 1 terminal Action play each turn).
Scout - silverspawn
It's everyone's favourite Intrigue 1st edition outtake! Scout was usually not an actively bad card to have and the new Reaction effect combined with the low price makes me think that this is actually rather strong for a $2 cost. I like the way you can use this as a makeshift Village although I don't think its particularly good at that function.
A minor complaint is that the cheap price makes it easy to load up on and make each turn take forever, as the Scout effect takes a while to resolve.
Innkeeper - faust
Innkeeper - $4
Action - Reserve - Command
Gain a Gold. Put this on your Tavern mat.
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When you play a Gold, you may call this, to play a non-Command Action from the supply, leaving it there.
This seems kind of crazy to me. The on-play effect is already decent, if a bit weak for its price (comparison with Leprechaun) but the reserve effect is so good considering that in games with this you will already easily have access to a lot of Golds, potentially letting you use a $4 terminal to play whatever terminal you want every turn. It is true that playing a bunch of these will dilute your hand, but that's easily ameliorated by the presence of TfB, which isn't uncommon. Even without TfB, dilution due to Golds isn't usually that bad because of how good a bunch of Golds are at buying things.
Arbiter
Action - $5
+1 Buy
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While this is in play, when you gain a card that isn't a Treasure, gain a Gold
This is usually going to be at least "Gain a Gold" for $5, which isn't great by itself, but it's relatively easy to get 2 or 3 golds out of this. The main reason I'm not rating this higher is because of the crazy potential it has with things that gain a lot of cards - with Haggler or one of the Horse gainers it's very easy to get to 4 golds or more off of this card. You won't always want that many Golds but, as with Innkeeper, there's often TfB that can put them to good use.
Marooner
+$3
Exile this and another card from your hand. Each other player reveals the top card of their deck and discards it if it costs $3 or more.
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When you discard this other than during Clean-up, you may reveal it and each other player with 4 or more cards in hand puts a card from their hand onto their deck.
I like the concept of a Stockpile-like attack. However, the on-play combined with the Reaction effect seems strong to me, and that makes me worry that games with this would often be very slow affairs. I don't think that there's anything wrong with it balance wise though.
Honorable Mention: Elite Village - D782802859
I really like how this makes building easier while being a pain during greening. However, the downside is just too harsh to consider taking this if there are any other decent Villages - when playing with this it's clear that putting more than one Victory card atop your deck (as one of the prime reasons to build up is to double-buy provinces) is just too harsh a downside. I think that this would be much improved if it did the Sea Hag thing so that it could only ever give you a 4 card hand - with that I think that the decision between going for this or not would be a lot more interesting.
Honorable Mention: Salesman - grrgrrgrr
The setup rule here is great - it can make a mediocre card great or a great card awesome but since it's only the +Buy token and not one of the others it can't make things completely broken. The event itself I didn't really think added much to the game though. Although the bottom half was a very clever way to ensure that it was always usable, it ultimately was just a slight increase in flexibility that didn't really require planning - the possibility of using Salesman doesn't make having Buys more enthralling than it normally is.
Runner-Up: Flea Market - anordinaryman
Flea Market - Action - $3
+$2
During your buy phase this turn, you may buy cards from the Trash for $1 less than their cost but not less than $0.
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Setup: Put the top card of each Supply pile into the trash.
First, a technical note - the way this is worded, the cost reduction doesn't stack. This didn't matter in my tests and I doubt you'd often care about it though.
Using this as a building card was interesting. Using this leads to building differently than you would normally because of how good a deal you get via use of multiple buys, especially on cheaper cards.
However, it really suffers from wanting +Buys - using it as a terminal Gold isn't that great because of how it picks up from the trash most of the time. I also didn't get a chance to test this in multiplayer but I'm a bit worried about how it would do with more than 2 people. Even with these issues though, it still ended up creating a good game dynamic that felt unique.
Winner: Specialty Shop - X-tra
I remember seeing this on the variants part of the Discord a while back - I'm happy you didn't take my comments into account because it would be hard for me to pronounce it as winner if you had. Also I'm pretty convinced I was wrong now.
Playing with this just added a whole new dynamic to the game. It definitely has the capability to be game-warping (I experienced this) but it is in a good way because "buy Specialty Shop" is hardly a coherent strategy by itself - the timing of the buys and what to actually use it for are also key aspects.
It can also draw dud cards on the Shop mat in which case it's not fantastic - although putting one of these in play to gain cheap dud cards on a +Buy can still be a decent use.
The only thing I would do to change this would be to make it only put Kingdom card piles costing less than $6 - that way, no one can ever be locked out gaining a particular card completely (OK it can still happen in 6p but there are official cards that aren't great at 6p either so that doesn't concern me).
Results Summary:Honorable Mentions: Elite Village by D782802859 and Salesman by grrgrrgrr
Runner-up: Flea Market by anordinaryman
Winner: Specialty Shop by X-tra
Overall this weeks cards were interesting, it was fun looking through all of these!