Dominion Strategy Forum
Dominion => Variants and Fan Cards => Topic started by: JW on March 22, 2018, 06:08:00 pm
-
Philosopher’s Stone, Revised
Treasure, $3P
+1 Buy.
Worth $1 per differently-named Action card you have in play, to a maximum of $5.
This version substantially reduces the amount of counting required. It has synergy with action-heavy decks to fit the theme of Alchemy. It also seems strong enough to be worth going for on a reasonable percentage of boards even if it’s the only potion-cost card.
-
The theme is good and it would be much easier to play with this variant.
It's very similar to Horn of Plenty. 'Gain a card costing up to N' and '+1 buy, +$N' are very similar effects (the latter being a bit more flexible). Horn of Plenty has two other pros and one con compared to this though: it also counts non-Actions, and this card is capped at $5, while Horn of Plenty auto-trashes if you choose a Victory card. Considering that similarity I think the price is correct. Compare Familiar ($3P) and Witch ($5) which differ only in terms of '+1 card, +1 action' vs. '+2 cards' which are pretty similar. So this costing $3P compared to $5 for Horn of Plenty sounds about right.
-
Philosopher's Stone is best in large decks that don't draw themselves. I feel like this change makes it good in the opposite situations, and that changes the core concept of the card.
-
Philosopher's Stone is best in large decks that don't draw themselves. I feel like this change makes it good in the opposite situations, and that changes the core concept of the card.
The problem is that you almost never want a large deck that doesn't draw itself, and when you are forced into it, buying a potion, hitting 3P, and then getting the stone actually into a hand is a pretty large task.
-
It's very similar to Horn of Plenty. 'Gain a card costing up to N' and '+1 buy, +$N' are very similar effects (the latter being a bit more flexible). Horn of Plenty has two other pros and one con compared to this though: it also counts non-Actions, and this card is capped at $5, while Horn of Plenty auto-trashes if you choose a Victory card. Considering that similarity I think the price is correct.
Additionally, Horn of Plenty can directly gain additional copies of itself, while gaining this card is limited by the number of Potions available.
Philosopher's Stone is best in large decks that don't draw themselves. I feel like this change makes it good in the opposite situations, and that changes the core concept of the card.
The problem is that you almost never want a large deck that doesn't draw itself, and when you are forced into it, buying a potion, hitting 3P, and then getting the stone actually into a hand is a pretty large task.
That's the problem in terms of the card being too weak. But it also takes too long to resolve because there is so much counting. My version counts unique actions in play and has a maximum to make it faster to resolve. To the extent that the theme of the card makes it too slow, it needs to change. As Donald X said:
- Philosopher's Stone: I'd just drop it. Some people cannot count fast enough.