Dominion Strategy Forum
Dominion => Variants and Fan Cards => Topic started by: Saucery on October 20, 2011, 09:26:16 pm
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This fan expansion is a compilation of my fan card ideas, mostly based on giving the player more options and decisions. The main theme of this fan expansion is resources on demand, introducing new mechanics which allow players to save up resources and/or trade them for an on-demand bonus. These mechanics include:
- Neutral Cards which are permanently available to all players, which either warp the game or grant additional options.
- Token Currencies which can be saved up and cashed in later on.
- Variable Cost Cards which grant a bonus if you spend more $ to buy the card and are designed to take advantage of token currencies.
Token Rules:
- Fruit tokens may be cashed in during your buy phase for +$1 each.
- 2 Cattle tokens may be cashed in during your action phase for +1 card, +1 action.
- Tokens last until cashed in, and are worth nothing if the game ends.
- Tokens cannot be played while actions or other effects are resolving.
Orchard - Victory - $3*
Worth 2 VP
When you buy this card, you may pay an additional $2. If you do, gain 2 fruit tokens.
Goodwill - Treasure - $4
+$1
While this is in play, when you buy a card, gain a fruit token.
Fruit Merchant - Action - $4
Gain a fruit token. You may discard up to 2 cards. Gain a fruit token per card discarded.
Shepherd - Action - $4*
+2 cards
Gain a Cattle token.
When you buy this card, you may pay an additional $2. If you do, gain 2 Cattle tokens.
City Planner - Action - $4*
+2 cards, +1 action
Discard a card.
When you buy this card, you may pay an additional $2. If you do, set aside a victory card from your hand, returning it to your deck at the end of the game.
Mulching Machine - Action-Reaction - $4*
+1 card
Choose one: +1 action, or trash a card from your hand and gain a fruit token.
When you gain a card, you may discard this card. If you do, trash the gained card and gain a fruit token.
When you buy this card, you may pay an additional $3. If you do, trash any number of cards from your hand. Gain fruit tokens equal to the number of cards trashed.
Plantation - Action - $5
+1 card, +1 action
Gain 1 fruit token. For every fruit token played this turn, Plantation costs $1 less.
Cattle Farm- Action - $5
Gain 3 Cattle tokens. Look at the top card of your deck. Discard it or put it back.
Rancher - Action - $6
+3 cards
You may reveal a victory card from your hand. If you do, gain a cattle token or +1 buy.
When you buy this card, gain an action card costing up to twice the number of cards in your hand.
Botanical Gardens - Victory - $6*
Worth 4 VP
When you buy this card, you may pay an additional $3 ($6). If you do, gain another (2) Botanical Gardens.
Neutral Card Rules:
- Neutral Cards are unique cards which remain in the supply permanently and affect all players. In games where Neutral cards are enabled, randomly select one of them and add it to the supply.
- 'Neutral - Active' means the card's ability can be activated by any player once per turn (during their action phase).
- Activating a neutral card is similar to playing an action, but does not count as an action played and doesn't require actions to be used.
Fertile Ground - Neutral
If this card is in the game, Victory cards are worth 1 more VP but cost $1 more.
Environmental Degradation - Neutral
If there is 1 empty supply pile, Cards with the same name can only be played 3 times per turn.
If there are 2 empty supply piles, Cards with the same name can only be played 2 times per turn.
Out of Season - Neutral
At the start of the game, each player (in turn order) places an Out of Season marker on top of any supply pile.
Cards from those supply piles cost $1 more for the remainder of the game (effect stacks).
Archipelago - Neutral
When a player plays an attack card, he may discard a card. If he does not, other players are unaffected by the attack.
Prismatic Jewel - Neutral-Victory
Worth 4 VP
At the end of the game, the player with the highest number of different card types in their deck gains the Prismatic Jewel. If more than one player satisfies this condition, no player gains it.
Pawn Shop - Neutral-Active
You may return a card from your hand to the supply. If you do, gain a card costing up to the same value which shares a card type with it. Put it in your hand.
Wandering Merchant - Neutral-Active
Discard two action or treasure cards. Choose one: Gain an action card costing up to $4, OR trash a card from your hand and gain a card costing up to $1 more, OR +1 buy.
Mercenary - Neutral-Active
Trash a treasure other than Copper. Choose one: Look at each player's hand and choose a card. They discard that card (unless they have four or less cards in hand) OR Each other player gains a curse, putting it into their hand.
Travelling Circus - Neutral-Active
Choose one: All players pass a card to the player on their left, OR All players may discard a card and draw a card, OR All players may look at the bottom card of their deck and can discard it or put it back.
Miscellaneous Cards
- The rest of this expansion consists of card ideas following a similar theme. Most importantly, rather than adding more curse-giving attacks this set introduces Squatters.
Squatter - Action - $1
+1 action
Return this card to the supply.
When you buy this card, you may return it to the supply immediately. If you do, each other player gains a Squatter.
Laborer - Action - $2
+1 action, +$1
If you have two or more Laborers in play (including this); +1 card.
Trainee - Action - $3
Return this and one other card from your hand to the supply. Gain an action card costing up to the total value of those two cards.
Refugee Camp - Action - $4
+2 actions
Draw until you have 5 cards in hand.
Hooligans - Action-Attack - $4
+$2
Each other player reveals a card from their hand (unless they have 4 or less cards). Choose whether they place it on top of their deck or discard it.
List of Descriptions and Interactions
Shepherd & Cattle Farm: These two cards represent two different ways of using cattle tokens. The first (Shepherd) is where you play a terminal drawer and draw (usually dead) action cards, which you can then play if you have cattle tokens. The second (Cattle Farm) is when you have tokens in store, but are unsure whether it's worth drawing the top card of your deck, hence the mini-spy effect. Cattle tokens are very useful for action chains, terminal drawers, and allows players to use less village-type cards in their engine.
Fruit Merchant, Goodwill & Plantation: These cards represent different ways of getting lots of fruit tokens. Goodwill combined with buys and squatters/plantation/laborer becomes a very powerful trio, otherwise it is a 'save for later' alternative to Silver. Fruit Merchant works best with bad hands (FCEEE), allowing a person to save up to $3 for later. All of these cards work well with grand markets and big buys (platinum, botanical gardens, mulching machine). During playtesting, fruit tokens seem to work best in both very slow (saving for later) and very powerful decks (accumulating boatloads of tokens).
City Planner, Rancher & Mulching Machine: The usage of fruit tokens allows a player to buy cards without actually playing cards. These cards are designed to take advantage of the remaining cards in your hand (usually victory cards/curses) by granting a bonus if you can reach the required $ to buy it while having unused cards in your hand. Mulching Machine's design makes it possibly the only trasher which doesn't clog the deck after its usefulness has run out. The reaction effect trashes, which is important for removing Squatters & Curses from the game.
Orchard & Botanical Gardens: These two cards represent different sides of fruit token usage in the late-game. Orchard is an on-demand source of tokens which can be saved to potentially buy a province next turn. Botanical Gardens grants an efficient source of VP if you've saved up many tokens already and want to dump them.
Environmental Degradation, Out of Season & Archipelago: These cards add different dynamics to the game intended to make the dominant strategy less clear to the players. ED adds a risk to relying on any single card engine, as an opponent can empty the pile to render it useless. OoS allows the players to mini-embargo a card at the start of the game, granting an incentive to buy other cards. Archipelago makes players think twice about pursuing attacks, forcing them to pay a tax to use them.
Pawn Shop, Wandering Merchant & Mercenary: These are the quintessential 'neutral shop' cards. Pawn Shop allows for instant strategy shifts, giving players a lot of flexibility in putting together card combos. The latter two cards grant a bonus effect at a large cost to the player. Mercenary is extremely powerful for eliminating power cards, and works well with treasure gaining cards and IGG.
Fertile Ground: Shifts the value of all the victory cards in the game, pushing players out of their comfort zone (of knowing when to go green). Makes Botanical Gardens and other easily stacked victory cards more powerful.
Prismatic Jewel: Like ED, grants an incentive for variety. Card types include Action, Reaction, Duration, Attack, Treasure, Victory, Curse.
Travelling Circus: A card filled with minor/fun effects which would generally make for very weak cards on their own. Works with Pearl Diver!
Squatter: Squatters are one-shot cursing attacks which are powerful with +Buys. Named Squatter because of the 'Get off my lawn' effect when you send them back to the supply.
Laborer: A simple card which can be stacked to create a cheap, strong engine.
Trainee: Acts as a slow pseudo-trasher, which be upgraded into a better action.
Refugee Camp: A village geared towards hand-size reduction rather than +cards. Works well as a counter to Squatters and Militia, but otherwise it fulfills a niche role and is difficult to string together without powerful trashing.
Hooligans: A more flexible type of handsize reducer, the choice of attack allows you to always damage your opponent.
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Shepherd looks undercosted. Shepherd - Shepherd - immediate cash-in is equivalent to Village-Laboratory or a level 2 City.
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These cards are really cool, there are a lot of interesting ideas here, nice work! If I ever finish the Hinterlands cards, these cards will be next on my list to add to my website.
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I also think Shepherd is probably too good, what if changed it to a terminal action that gets either +2 coins or +2 cards?
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v1.1
- Shepherd: +1a, +1c ------> +2c.
- Plantation: +1b, +2fruit ------> +1a, +1c, +1fruit
- Fruit Merchant: +$1, +1fruit ------> +2fruit
- Cattle Farm: +2cattle, $1, 1VP -------> 1b, +3cattle
- Trainee: +1a ---> 0.
Trying to differentiate and balance these cards. Shep being terminal should be enough. Trainee still seems too powerful compared to feast but I want to keep the idea of upgrading it into a better action.
Any thoughts on the other cards?
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Laborer
Cost: 2
+1 action
If you have two or more Laborers in play (including this); +$1, +1 card.
This is a simple, but effective card, with a great theme, title and overall effect. It's the kind of card I admire most.
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I would say the new version of plantation is probably too good. I think it is comparable to Highway from Hinterlands, the difference being that your card also gives +1 VP. So I would either remove the +1 VP, or change it to be a terminal action.
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I like the changes to the other cards. I'm excited to try these cards out.
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I really think City Planner is too good, it feels like a buffed Island.
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I would say the new version of plantation is probably too good. I think it is comparable to Highway from Hinterlands, the difference being that your card also gives +1 VP. So I would either remove the +1 VP, or change it to be a terminal action.
I think Highway is way more powerful when stacked (with buys). I see it as a great hall which costs $2 more and gives you a fruit token.
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True, Highway will often be better if you have extra buys, but in the absence of extra buys I would always pick Plantation over Highway, and might even choose it over Highway even with extra buys since you don't always get to play Highway with your card with extra buys. Having said all that, the extra +1 VP doesn't justify it costing 6, so it's probably fine to leave it at 5.
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It depends on whether the fruit token is comparable to the other $5 cantrips (treasury, market, etc). If it turns out equal or better than those the vp should be removed.
I need to reevaluate some of these cards, they should generally be inferior to their instant effect counterparts because of the option to save for later.
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I agree, it really depends on how useful the save for later effect is.
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v1.2
- replaced Craftsman (kinda boring) with Vandals
- replaced Merchant's Guild with Refugee Camp
- added more descriptions
- Turncoat now gives +2 cards immediately (gives more incentive to save the attack for later)
- Attendant now gives a choice of +1b, +1a, or trash a card from hand.
- Farmstead now 1 cattle token instead of 2.
- City Planner remade completely. Sets aside Victory Cards at a cost.
still thinking of ways to remake trainee, as an action card which upgrades into a better action card.
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Orange grove gain a fruit token for every Mandarin in your deck :D
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I like the changes. I also think Trainee works well how it is, what don't you like about the current version?
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Being able to send a trainee + estate back to the supply to gain a $5 action makes it strictly superior to feast IMO. And the summon capability makes pairing the two up very easy.
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Being able to send a trainee + estate back to the supply to gain a $5 action makes it strictly superior to feast IMO. And the summon capability makes pairing the two up very easy.
Well it may or may not be undercosted at $3, but it's far from strictly superior to Feast. It can't get you Duchies for one thing, and there's only so many times you can use Estates.
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Good point, it probably is better than Feast. What if you first had to discard a card before doing the rest of the summon effect?
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I'm guessing Vandals should be Action - Attack?
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I just got done adding the following cards to my website: Cattle Farm, Farmstead, Fruit Merchant, Plantation, and Shepherd.
After play testing them a few times the only one that seemed overpowered was Plantation, so I removed the 1 VP from the card.
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Count me as one of the "fans" of Trainee. I really like the design.
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I'm here thanks to icesphere just now adding these cards. I haven't looked at ay of them, but those Token Rules caught my eye. I like the concept, but it seems that in terms of real-life play, it must be clarified what "any time" means. My interpretation is: Only during your Action phase, and only before, between, or after fully resolving Action cards. I have a feeling it would be extremely problematic if you could spend two cattle in the middle of playing a card.
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I removed VP from plantation.
Using tokens is intended to be like playing cards, so yes actions and other things need to be resolved before you play them.
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I've added Laborer and Squatter to my site. Laborer seems to be a perfect fit for a two cost card. I also like Squatter, it kind of reminds me of the Confusion card Donald mentioned, although I think the design of Squatter makes it more interesting than Confusion. I haven't play tested it much yet, but my main concern with the card is that it might be too good if you have a lot of extra buys.
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Squatter
Action
Cost: 0
+1 action
Return this card to the supply.
When you buy this card, you may return it to the supply immediately. If you do, each other player gains a Squatter.
EDIT: i was under the impression that you used Buys to gain cards, not to actually buy them. But the existence of Farmland in Hinterlands says that this wording is fine rules-wise.
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i forgive you ;D
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I don't understand. You're saying "buy" should be "gain," because then the card would be broken?
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Farmland http://dominion.diehrstraits.com/?card=farmland (http://dominion.diehrstraits.com/?card=farmland) says i'm wrong. sorry 'bout that.
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as far as i know, no Dominion card refers to "buy"-ing another card. it always says, "when you gain this" not "when you buy this."
Check out the wording on Embargo. And, I think, Farmland.
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as far as i know, no Dominion card refers to "buy"-ing another card. it always says, "when you gain this" not "when you buy this."
Check out the wording on Embargo. And, I think, Farmland.
Mint and Noble Brigand as well. I think those two and Farmland are the only three that talk about buying itself.
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After playing with Squatter in a few games, I like the card, nice job designing a zero cost card that works well.
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After playing more with Squatter, I actually think it should cost 1 coin. In a game without extra buys this shouldn't change anything, however in a game with extra buys I think it gives too big of an advantage to the player who buys the cards with the extra buys, and it would also avoid having a card that seems to be an automatic buy whenever you have extra buys and zero coins.
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In Goons games, too, Squatter can be brutal.
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Thanks for the update. The potential for squatter wars in some games (market) is immense and something that can only be fixed by testing. Is it bad if both players recognize the strength of squatter and both go for +buy cards? Is it so dominant it trumps real curse-givers or other attacks, leading to boring mirror matches?
I dunno about 1 coin cost, because that severely warps a lot of trashers/cost-based cards like remake and upgrade.
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Remake and upgrade are the only two cards I can think of that it would really affect, and even then it only makes trashing 0 cost cards worse, in which case you might avoid buying those two cards. On the other hand there are a lot of cards that have an extra buy and those cards will often be much better than similarly costed cards in a game with Squatter.
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v2.0: Most cards have been reworked or removed, their effects spread out across new cards or changed for thematic purposes.
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I like the changes. Neutral cards look interesting too - seems like there are a lot of possibilities for new cards with that mechanic.
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After playing more with Laborer, I would modify it slightly. The main problem with it is that it is more often than not a dead card in your hand, and even with two of them you basically have a 4 card hand with +1 coin, which is often worse than a 5 card hand. I would suggest changing it to always have the coin - so it would be: +1 Acton, +1 coin, if there are 2 or more in play +1 card.
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v2.0a: Made that change to Laborer, and gave Shepherd a boost. Having played both I felt the same about Laborer (several frustrating hands) and thought Shepherd was a little slow to get going.
I need to put in some more variable cost cards, they work well with fruit tokens. Cattle tokens are a little weirder though because they only give you bonus actions half the time.
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What about changing the cost of Squatter to:
(0)*
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*During the Buy phase, this card costs (1).
Dunno, I've been thinking about this a lot and think that this is a good solution. It might not change much, but Upgrade and Remodel would be very bad cards with Squatter around, for example.
Overall I have to see that these cards are some of the best I've seen in a fan expansion so far. I haven't played any of the cards yet, but they seem interesting and not as "forced" as some other fan expansions are. Also, I think the theme is great. Good work, keep it up!
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v2.1: - Added City Planner, Mulching Machine, Archipelago
- Goodwill (+1 buy), Plantation (costs $1 less per fruit used)
Overall I have to see that these cards are some of the best I've seen in a fan expansion so far. I haven't played any of the cards yet, but they seem interesting and not as "forced" as some other fan expansions are. Also, I think the theme is great. Good work, keep it up!
;D!
I need to play with it a bit more. As a general rule I don't like bandaid clauses but it definitely covers that problem.
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I've updated Shepherd, Fruit Merchant, Plantation, and Cattle Farm to the new versions on my website, and also added Orchard, Goodwill, and Refugee Camp. That makes a total of 10 Proletariat cards implemented, which means you can now play a game with all Proletariat cards.
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I think goodwill is a bit OP. After playing a game going just Goodwill, and buying coppers when good will is in play, i was able to save up for a 5 province turn on turn 13.
Also, with the base set, chapel lab + goodwill is kinda broken:
Graystripe77 Total:63Provinces:7Duchies:7Estates:0Curses:0Cards:35Turns:13Sins:0
C1 (hard) Total:9Provinces:1Duchies:1Estates:0Curses:0Cards:12Turns:12Sins:0
Cards
Graystripe77 1 Chapel, 9 Laboratories, 2 Coppers, 9 Goodwills, 7 Duchies, and 7 Provinces
C1 (hard) 1 Catacombs, 1 Chapel, 1 Council Room, 1 Laboratory, 1 Copper, 1 Gold, 1 Goodwill, 3 Silvers, 1 Duchy, and 1 Province
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Goodwill definitely becomes a problem when more than one is in play. For now it's been reverted back to no +buy.
v2.2: Rancher added and Botanical Gardens changed
Rancher - Action - $6
+3 cards
You may reveal a victory card from your hand. If you do, gain a fruit or cattle token.
When you buy this card, gain an action card costing up to twice the number of cards in your hand.
This card, mulching machine, and city planner are all based on being able to buy cards using fruit tokens instead of cards. They are pretty much different variations on using or affecting the cards which are still in your hand during the buy phase.
Botanical Gardens - Victory - $6*
Worth 4 VP
When you buy this card, you may pay an additional $3 ($6). If you do, gain another (2) Botanical Gardens.
Ideally this card would be a fixed cost + $X, and the more you pay the more VP you get. Trying to balance such a card even as a thought experiment is tough and I can't think of a good way to do it, so this is my alternative.
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I've played with Goodwill some, and I think it's perfect now.
Nice design ideas btw, i love new mechanics!
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as far as i know, no Dominion card refers to "buy"-ing another card. it always says, "when you gain this" not "when you buy this."
Check out the wording on Embargo. And, I think, Farmland.
Mint and Noble Brigand as well. I think those two and Farmland are the only three that talk about buying itself.
Goons also. And Grand Market. It would be rare, but you can still gain one if you have Coppers in play, you just can't buy one.
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observations from playtesting:
- Fruit merchant ranges between super powerful and good when used with big money. (will most likely change it so it won't hit $6 on its own)
- $4 Shepherd is a brutally effective opener with cheap terminal drawers like courtyard and masquerade (thinking of a cost adjustment)
For those interested, icesphere has done a great job with his website http://kingdom.servegame.org (http://kingdom.servegame.org) where you can play dominion and playtest a number of variants including this one.
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Added Hooligans and removed Farmstead on my website.
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v2.3
Fruit Merchant: changed to emphasize saving for later. Able to discard non-treasure cards as well. Makes it somewhat more effective late game.
Shepherd: Bumped costs to 4 and 6. At 6 grants 2 tokens.
Mulching Machine: felt too strong when revealed more than once (in 3-4p).
Rancher: may grant a buy instead of a fruit token.
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Updated Fruit Merchant and Shepherd and added Trainee and City Planner on my website.
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Hmmm, I had initially thought city planner was OP, turns out i was wrong. Nice cards!
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2.3a: Out of Season changed to increase cost by $1.
With Neutral cards the main design issue (without doing a bandaid clause) is preventing them from messing up the openings too badly - at least in a way that is too random.
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Oh my, I haven't seen this thread since before the 2.0 update. Such a great improvement and some neat ideas.
Just to clarify the rules for cattle tokens: can you cash them in while an action card is still being resolved? Something like:
- Play Cattle Farmer.
- Gain 3 Cattle Tokens.
----- Spend two Cattle Tokens; +1 card +1 action
- Look at the top card of your deck
- Discard it or put it back
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Oh my, I haven't seen this thread since before the 2.0 update. Such a great improvement and some neat ideas.
Just to clarify the rules for cattle tokens: can you cash them in while an action card is still being resolved? Something like:
- Play Cattle Farmer.
- Gain 3 Cattle Tokens.
----- Spend two Cattle Tokens; +1 card +1 action
- Look at the top card of your deck
- Discard it or put it back
Nope, they are played just like cards are
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Oh my, I haven't seen this thread since before the 2.0 update. Such a great improvement and some neat ideas.
Just to clarify the rules for cattle tokens: can you cash them in while an action card is still being resolved? Something like:
- Play Cattle Farmer.
- Gain 3 Cattle Tokens.
----- Spend two Cattle Tokens; +1 card +1 action
- Look at the top card of your deck
- Discard it or put it back
Nope, they are played just like cards are
Okay... then I don't think Cattle Farm and Shepherd don't work as you intend in your description. With, for example, Cattle Farm, looking at the top card of your deck is supposed to help for when you play your Cattle Tokens... but I believe that, according to the original rules of Dominion, your action phase automatically ends when you cannot play any more action cards, so you need a village or an abundance of Cattle Tokens to actually get that benefit.
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But if you have cattle tokens you can play more action cards so it wouldn't automatically end? There's nothing in there about 'when actions = 0'.
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Added Rancher to my website.
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Orchard - Victory - $3*
Worth 2 VP
When you buy this card, you may pay an additional $2. If you do, gain 2 fruit tokens.
Neat.
Goodwill - Treasure - $4
+$1
While this is in play, when you buy a card, gain a fruit token.
Seems too good, but it's really borderline. A point of concern is that one of Big Money/dead draw's weaknesses is hitting 5$ after it already has enough dead draw actions. It has to buy a 5$ Silver with a wince. When this card goes into a big money/dead draw deck or even a big money/terminal deck it allows great flexibility so the deck always hits 3$, 4$, 6$, or 8$.
Maybe when you buy a treasure you get a cattle and when you buy an action you get a fruit? Haha.
Fruit Merchant - Action - $4
Gain a fruit token. You may discard up to 2 cards. Gain a fruit token per card discarded.
Seems too strong to me but definitely within testable range. Horse Traders is underloved.
Shepherd - Action - $4*
+2 cards
Gain a Cattle token.
When you buy this card, you may pay an additional $2. If you do, gain 2 Cattle tokens.
Seems good.
City Planner - Action - $4*
+2 cards, +1 action
Discard a card.
When you buy this card, you may pay an additional $2. If you do, set aside a victory card from your hand, returning it to your deck at the end of the game.
Why limit it to victory cards? That just increases variance, seems to me. I hit 6$ and have a curse in my hand. Jimmy hits 6$ and has an Estate in his hand. Why punish me?
Mulching Machine - Action-Reaction - $4*
+1 card
Choose one: +1 action, or trash a card from your hand and gain a fruit token.
When you gain a card, you may discard this card. If you do, trash the gained card and gain a fruit token.
When you buy this card, you may pay an additional $3. If you do, trash any number of cards from your hand. Gain fruit tokens equal to the number of cards trashed.
This seems like it punishes cursing so much that no one goes into curse strategies. 3 Curse discouragements in one card seems a bit much.
Plantation - Action - $5
+1 card, +1 action
Gain 1 fruit token. For every fruit token played this turn, Plantation costs $1 less.
Seemed overpowered until I thought about it awhile. It's kind of like Conspirator in that when you try to play it's strategy, you keep hitting way more money than necessary to buy the 1-card engine card, so you go ahead and buy other stuff anyway.
Cattle Farm- Action - $5
Gain 3 Cattle tokens. Look at the top card of your deck. Discard it or put it back.
Seems testable
I ended up tiring of commenting but I'll post as far as I got. (I did read them all. And I love botanical gardens)
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Reply:
- Orchard works fine but I'm thinking of an additional action or reaction effect which generates fruit (without leaving your hand, so rancher/other cards can make use of it)
- Having playtested Goodwill a fair bit, it is a consistently strong purchase on many boards. Not convinced it should be bumped to 5 just yet. It has spiral out of control potential with +buys.
- City Planner, and some of the other cards, are designed to work well with spare (victory) cards in your deck. I agree with your point though, it probably should work on any card.
- Mulching Machine hasn't been tested much. The fact that multiple mulchers don't necessarily collide is probably a bigger problem. Regarding its effects, the first two can't occur together, limiting the total trashing you can achieve, and the third is quite difficult to pull off. Thinking of replacing the second effect with something similar to secret chamber (so you can rearrange the top cards of your deck and draw them using MM or cattle tokens)
- The others (Shepherd, Fruit Merchant, Cattle Farm, Plantation) have all been tested thoroughly and I'm happy with them as they are now.
Other thoughts:
- Rancher ranges from very strong to too expensive. Very often it will be too late in the game to buy one as the opponent is already working on provinces. Other times you can buy one and have 3+ cards in hand to gain another one.
-Refugee Camp strikes me as underpowered on many boards with niche strength vs discarding attacks.
- Predictably, the Botanical Gardens pile has a tendency to empty very fast. Not necessarily a bad thing.
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Mulching Machine - Action-Reaction - $4*
+1 card
Choose one: +1 action, or trash a card from your hand and gain a fruit token.
When you gain a card, you may discard this card. If you do, trash the gained card and gain a fruit token.
When you buy this card, you may pay an additional $3. If you do, trash any number of cards from your hand. Gain fruit tokens equal to the number of cards trashed.
This seems like it punishes cursing so much that no one goes into curse strategies. 3 Curse discouragements in one card seems a bit much.
how is discouraging cursing a bad thing? they're are next to no cards that discourage cursing and none that do it really effectivly (except for maybe ambassador with decent support). also this card doesn't really discourage cursing that much, it has a weak watchtower effect (watchtower is only semi-effective anyways) it has a trashing effect when played which isn't really a discourager since it's so little trashing and trashing isn't that effective anyway. And it has a trash on buy which is actually quite good agianst cursing but it's only on buy and you can't trash money with it (Well you could but since the cards have to be in your hand you are giving up on a province). in general this card seems like a slightly better version of watchtower (which is fine since it costs one more), it has more utility in general and some nice trashing for fruit tokens (which is a really cool mechanic), but isn't as good in a lot of the areas watchtower shines.
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It's best if you design cards so that you have to think hard about whether you want cursing, and how much you want given that there's punishment on the board. There's no card in Dominion that punishes cursing so much you don't even think about touching a curser because that's the point, you want people to think, thinking is good.
Young Witch is a good example of how evaluating how easy a curse attack is to defend can be a good, interesting thing.
Jack of all Trades + Lighthouse versus Sea Hag is an example of how a curser can be punished so strongly that no one is going to think about touching the pile, so you're now playing with a 9 card kingdom.
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Wow. Given what we now know about Guilds this fan expansion is looking very prescient....
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Goodwill seems perfect for Guilds (possibly with +1 buy). It's a very interesting variant of bridge.
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Environmental Degradation - Neutral
If there is 1 empty supply pile, Cards with the same name can only be played 3 times per turn.
If there are 2 empty supply piles, Cards with the same name can only be played 2 times per turn.
City just became terrible. I guess that's thematic?
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Bump for relevance.
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I've been out of the loop of this game for ages. Guilds is surreal O_O!