Dominion Strategy Forum
Dominion => Variants and Fan Cards => Topic started by: LibraryAdventurer on September 03, 2015, 01:46:32 am
-
I just played a couple games with my Mysterious Door card ($3 cost until tonight) and was thinking this card might be weak enough to be the first $2 cost attack card*.
Mysterious Door
Cost 2 - Action - Attack
Each other player reveals the bottom card of his deck. You decide if he puts it on top or discards it. Either way, if the player on your left: topdecked an action card, do what it says as if you played it; discarded an action card, +2 actions; revealed a victory card, +2 Cards; revealed a treasure card, +$2.
It's possible to get an unusually good effect for a $2 cost, but only if the player to your left reveals a good action card and you tell him to put it on top of his deck (which would usually help him unless the card is a knight or something like that).
I realize it can be slightly political, but I'm okay with that as long as the choice will (usually) be made based on how good the revealed card will be for the player of Mysterious Door, and not 'do I want to help this person over the other?'. In the two games I played today, only twice was an action card revealed by Mysterious Door. (Part of the reason for that is my gaming group is reluctant to use it which is partly why I think it'd be good to lower the cost. Between the two games, only one Mysterious Door was gained (voluntarily) by someone other than me.)
*Well, except Embargo, but it doesn't have the attack type.
-
I think I really like this. My biggest concern is that it does too many different things. The main idea for the attack is pretty nice, and I think it could just be combined with a simple vanilla effect (maybe just a cantrip). As it is it's really cool too though. Playing the top-decked action card is a fun and unique effect, but it might be really crazy in some situations. In thin decks where you expect them to have all actions anyway, moving it to the top usually won't be helpful for them.
Here's a weird edge case I just thought of. If they have only one card in their deck, and it's a Mysterious Door, you have to discard it, because if you don't, you get stuck playing it over and over until you do. I think this is okay in 2-player (equivalent to revealing a Moat forever), but in multi-player it can get weird. Suppose one player has a Mysterious Door and nothing else in his deck, and another player has a Woodcutter and nothing else in his deck. Now you can generate unbounded coin and buys, by just having them both top-deck it over and over. It's also hard to track, since they're all nested. I'm actually not 100% sure it happens like that, because the Woodcutter/Mysterious Door might be stuck in being revealed land until you finish resolving the revealed Mysterious Door. I'm getting really confused now...
-
I think I really like this. My biggest concern is that it does too many different things. The main idea for the attack is pretty nice, and I think it could just be combined with a simple vanilla effect (maybe just a cantrip). As it is it's really cool too though. Playing the top-decked action card is a fun and unique effect, but it might be really crazy in some situations. In thin decks where you expect them to have all actions anyway, moving it to the top usually won't be helpful for them.
Here's a weird edge case I just thought of. If they have only one card in their deck, and it's a Mysterious Door, you have to discard it, because if you don't, you get stuck playing it over and over until you do. I think this is okay in 2-player (equivalent to revealing a Moat forever), but in multi-player it can get weird. Suppose one player has a Mysterious Door and nothing else in his deck, and another player has a Woodcutter and nothing else in his deck. Now you can generate unbounded coin and buys, by just having them both top-deck it over and over. It's also hard to track, since they're all nested. I'm actually not 100% sure it happens like that, because the Woodcutter/Mysterious Door might be stuck in being revealed land until you finish resolving the revealed Mysterious Door. I'm getting really confused now...
I thought that too, but its only the player on your left's card that you do anything with. That also solves the bad scaling issue for multiplayer. The only problem is that it isn't very intuitive.
-
Mysterious Door
Cost 2 - Action - Attack
Each other player reveals the bottom card of his deck. You decide if he puts it on top or discards it. Either way, if the player on your left: topdecked an action card, do what it says as if you played it; discarded an action card, +2 actions; revealed a victory card, +2 Cards; revealed a treasure card, +$2.
Jack Rudd plays Mysterious Door...
...LibraryAdventurer reveals an Island
...Jack Rudd sets aside the Island with an Estate from hand
...Jack Rudd draws two cards
-
I don't think political is quite the right word, but the thing is that this attack hurts the player to your left differently than it hurts other players. Say all 3 opponents reveal Grand Market. You want the Grand Market effect, so you top-deck your left opponent's Grand Market, while discarding the others. In general Dominion avoids getting screwed over just because of seating order. Sure you could be spared a Curse because there's only 1 left and you aren't to the left of the guy who played Witch, but that's at most 1 time during the entire game (Ambassador edge case, blah blah). Here, you really want to be seated to the left of the guy playing this card.
-
If I have tunnel, I really want to be to the left of the guy playing tribute?
If I have Smugglers, I really want to be to the left of the guy buying [whatever I want most]?
Not that your main point is incorrect, but there is some of this already in Dominion.
-
If I have tunnel, I really want to be to the left of the guy playing tribute?
If I have Smugglers, I really want to be to the left of the guy buying [whatever I want most]?
Not that your main point is incorrect, but there is some of this already in Dominion.
There is some, yes, but they all require combos of specific cards; or edge cases. This would happen every time you play your card and a good action is revealed.
-
Does the text fit on an actual card?
-
I think I really like this. My biggest concern is that it does too many different things. The main idea for the attack is pretty nice, and I think it could just be combined with a simple vanilla effect (maybe just a cantrip). As it is it's really cool too though. Playing the top-decked action card is a fun and unique effect, but it might be really crazy in some situations. In thin decks where you expect them to have all actions anyway, moving it to the top usually won't be helpful for them.
Here's a weird edge case I just thought of. If they have only one card in their deck, and it's a Mysterious Door, you have to discard it, because if you don't, you get stuck playing it over and over until you do. I think this is okay in 2-player (equivalent to revealing a Moat forever), but in multi-player it can get weird. Suppose one player has a Mysterious Door and nothing else in his deck, and another player has a Woodcutter and nothing else in his deck. Now you can generate unbounded coin and buys, by just having them both top-deck it over and over. It's also hard to track, since they're all nested. I'm actually not 100% sure it happens like that, because the Woodcutter/Mysterious Door might be stuck in being revealed land until you finish resolving the revealed Mysterious Door. I'm getting really confused now...
I thought that too, but its only the player on your left's card that you do anything with. That also solves the bad scaling issue for multiplayer. The only problem is that it isn't very intuitive.
Oops, you're right. But I think things still get weird/hard to track if the player to your left reveals a Mysterious Door. Everyone (including the player to your left) is already revealing something, but now they have to reveal something else and remember which one to put back first (and obviously this gets worse if the player to your left reveals another Mysterious Door you want to play).
-
I think I really like this. My biggest concern is that it does too many different things. The main idea for the attack is pretty nice, and I think it could just be combined with a simple vanilla effect (maybe just a cantrip). As it is it's really cool too though. Playing the top-decked action card is a fun and unique effect, but it might be really crazy in some situations. In thin decks where you expect them to have all actions anyway, moving it to the top usually won't be helpful for them.
Here's a weird edge case I just thought of. If they have only one card in their deck, and it's a Mysterious Door, you have to discard it, because if you don't, you get stuck playing it over and over until you do. I think this is okay in 2-player (equivalent to revealing a Moat forever), but in multi-player it can get weird. Suppose one player has a Mysterious Door and nothing else in his deck, and another player has a Woodcutter and nothing else in his deck. Now you can generate unbounded coin and buys, by just having them both top-deck it over and over. It's also hard to track, since they're all nested. I'm actually not 100% sure it happens like that, because the Woodcutter/Mysterious Door might be stuck in being revealed land until you finish resolving the revealed Mysterious Door. I'm getting really confused now...
I thought that too, but its only the player on your left's card that you do anything with. That also solves the bad scaling issue for multiplayer. The only problem is that it isn't very intuitive.
Oops, you're right. But I think things still get weird/hard to track if the player to your left reveals a Mysterious Door. Everyone (including the player to your left) is already revealing something, but now they have to reveal something else and remember which one to put back first (and obviously this gets worse if the player to your left reveals another Mysterious Door you want to play).
Aside from tracking issues, it's still a problem to play Mysterious Door an unlimited number of times. What if you have one of your +1 tokens on it?
-
I think I really like this. My biggest concern is that it does too many different things. The main idea for the attack is pretty nice, and I think it could just be combined with a simple vanilla effect (maybe just a cantrip). As it is it's really cool too though. Playing the top-decked action card is a fun and unique effect, but it might be really crazy in some situations. In thin decks where you expect them to have all actions anyway, moving it to the top usually won't be helpful for them.
Here's a weird edge case I just thought of. If they have only one card in their deck, and it's a Mysterious Door, you have to discard it, because if you don't, you get stuck playing it over and over until you do. I think this is okay in 2-player (equivalent to revealing a Moat forever), but in multi-player it can get weird. Suppose one player has a Mysterious Door and nothing else in his deck, and another player has a Woodcutter and nothing else in his deck. Now you can generate unbounded coin and buys, by just having them both top-deck it over and over. It's also hard to track, since they're all nested. I'm actually not 100% sure it happens like that, because the Woodcutter/Mysterious Door might be stuck in being revealed land until you finish resolving the revealed Mysterious Door. I'm getting really confused now...
I thought that too, but its only the player on your left's card that you do anything with. That also solves the bad scaling issue for multiplayer. The only problem is that it isn't very intuitive.
Oops, you're right. But I think things still get weird/hard to track if the player to your left reveals a Mysterious Door. Everyone (including the player to your left) is already revealing something, but now they have to reveal something else and remember which one to put back first (and obviously this gets worse if the player to your left reveals another Mysterious Door you want to play).
Aside from tracking issues, it's still a problem to play Mysterious Door an unlimited number of times. What if you have one of your +1 tokens on it?
I'm not actually sure what happens in that case, since you're technically not playing the Mysterious Door. But even then, the confusion about it could still be a problem.
-
Does the text fit on an actual card?
Yes, I have the mock up in my Resurgence thread, only it still shows it costing $3.
I haven't changed the mock-up because my computer died (mostly), and I'm waiting on getting Photoshop again until I have a new computer (it's still possible I might get mine fixed). Anyway, I can use a borrowed computer, but I don't have access to Photoshop now.