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26

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Fan Expansion- Justice and Piety

« on: November 29, 2011, 08:54:44 pm »

Holy Village- $3
Action

+2 Actions

You may trash a card in your hand.

This card's too unfocused, and it gives too much choice to the player. Take a look at all the non-terminal trashers which already exist. Perhaps you can can make it always trash 1 card, and/or make the type of card that you trash with it determine Holy Village's effect:

Holy Action Thing
Action
+1 Action
Trash 1 card in your hand. If it is a victory card, +2 cards. If it is a treasure or action, +1 Action.

Bounty Hunter- $4
Action- Attack

$2

Each other player discards an attack card or reveals a hand with no attacks.

I don't like how this would make the mild and optional attack cards so unreliable. It would also completely disincentivize depending on an attack's non-attacking benefits as part of your engine. What if the only draw card available is a Torturer? If you're gonna have Spies, Noble Brigands, Jesters, or Minions not worth buying, you might as well say "screw it", and build less interesting strategies like Big Money+Smithy. Remember, the worst punishment for using Attack Cards that Dominion has so far is Horse Traders, and that doesn't deny the attacker the benefits of AC's, and it sometimes doesn't even cancel out the harm of the attack either. Anyways, on a no-attacks board, this card would be superior to Duchess, with its guarantee of information on the other player's cards. On an board with attacks, this card would be as good as any $5-6 action. It hurts far worse than a Millitia, as you don't get to save your good cards when you discard.

Exchange Market- $4
Action

Choose one: Place a token on the Exchange Market mat OR remove a token from the Exchange Market mat OR gain a card with cost up to the number of tokens on the Exchange Market mat.

If everyone's not going to have their own Exchange Market mat, I suggest you look more closely at City and Trade Route for the treatment of a shared resource. Or Embargo for a shared harm. As it stands, Exchange Market is just too convoluted and would probably result in a zero-sum subgame of political squabbles and sabotage. Which would not feel like Dominion at all.

Inquisition- $5
Action

+1 Action

Place the Inquisition Marker on an Action Card supply pile other than Inquisition, or set it aside.
_
While the Inquistion Marker is on an Action Card supply pile, copies of that card may not be played (the Inquisition Marker begins the game set aside).

Far too disruptive, especially when there's multiple viable strategies on the board. It's a worse rooster-block than an Embargo, as Embargo requires early and decisive play at significant opportunity costs, and still can be overcome or ignored on many boards. I don't like how Inquisition is the only counter to itself available. It can also make games pretty miserable for one player just by the results of a shuffle, or a race for first to obtain multiples. This card is anti-fun.

Wilderness- $5
Victory

At the end of the game, if one or fewer piles in the supply are empty, this card is worth 6 VP. Otherwise it's worth 1 VP.

Intriguing idea that incentivizes tempo control. But it has to somehow speed up the depletion of Provinces in order to work.

27

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: The Seven Deadly Sins - Mini-expansion concept

« on: November 28, 2011, 10:34:48 pm »

Pride - a card that gives you Victory Points for the amount of Curses in your deck

Gardens already delves somewhat into that territory, and it is a much more versatile card. It does not depend so heavily on specific cards; it just needs a source of buys or gains. Pride requires you to fundamentally change Dominion into something unrecognizable, with unlimited curses and added constraints upon the board. It would be a different story if Pride counted cards that cost 0. Perhaps you could make Pride actually cost 0, but come with curses and coppers upon gaining it? If it counted any 0-costing card, including itself, it would definitely be more self-sufficient and able to be played on non-7 Sins boards.

Envy - a card that gains Curses, while gaining a Victory Point

This card is so dependent on your other cards dominating the board that it does not interest me nor invite further analysis. It's like an appendix to a book I'll never read, or merchandise from a show I'll never watch.

Greed - a card that gives you an easy way to gain Treasure (such as taking them from your opponents)

This attack should affect each other player equally. Even Possession at least lets the victim play a proper full turn for himself, afterwards. And the presence of this card on the board would just incentive coin-generating actions or copper strategies that would thus make this card less desirable and thus never bought.

Wrath - a card that gives everyone a Curse

Even the flawed cursers--Young Witch and Sea Hag--are $4. And they're terminal actions, to boot. Please don't tell me you don't see what's wrong with cursing villages at the exact same cost of a Silver...

... But in case you don't see it, the obvious optimal opening would be Wrath/Wrath, and it will cause the game to degenerate into a horribly boring slog where players pray to the Gods of the Shuffle and Random Number Generators to come out of this buttslap fest the victor. Add trashers into the mix and you got yourself an even more egregious exercise in futility.

Gluttony - a card that allows you to put aside all of your Curses, so they don't clutter up your deck.

A card that requires Pride and/or Lust to even be glanced at. And those cards require your other cards to even be worth it.

Lust - a card that turns Curses into Treasure

Salvageable, but only if it counts everything that's neither an action or treasure. Victory cards are many degrees of magnitude more relevant to the game than Curses.

28

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: How many niches for village-types are left? Can you think of any new ones?

« on: November 28, 2011, 09:54:29 pm »

In the rules of Dominion, there's no dictated phase in drawing where you keep drawn cards separate from the rest of your hand before integrating both piles into one. Yet this card's reaction requires just such a phase, as that is the only time where it can be revealed. Although the idea is simple enough, it still has to be precisely and fully commanded by the text on the card, just as the deck-digging mechanisms of Farming Village and Golem have to be described as unambiguously as possible. I personally couldn't think of how to command such a significant change in how players draw cards that would fit on a single card. At the same time, I don't know if I'd want such a change to play that would slow down every turn by every player.

29

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: The Seven Deadly Sins - Mini-expansion concept

« on: November 28, 2011, 03:14:34 am »

This card would probably go as quickly as Gardens does at the beginning of the game.

Um... How many Gardens games have you actually played? Gardens rushes are tricky to pull off, even with a perfectly enabling board. And if you can't rush them, you most likely will be getting them in the mid- to late-game, but even then, they'd only be worth buying in slow games with little-to-no trashing.

Anyways, this expansion that you're building is so fundamentally different from actual dominion play that modeling the strategies that these cards would engender is like guessing the trajectory of a rocket made out of pykrete covered in spirals of cheese, attached to a helium-filled blow-up doll.

My advice at this point is to actually play with these cards to see if they add anything to the game. And to remember that even potion-costing cards can potentially stand their own in usefulness and relevance in a board where they're the only Alchemy card there.

30

Dominion Isotropic / Re: Isotropic on iPad

« on: November 27, 2011, 08:42:34 pm »

Are you using an iPad 2? On my iPad 1 I always eventually get disconnected from the server. My Isotropic rating actually took a hit from that, with all the forfeits.

31

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: How many niches for village-types are left? Can you think of any new ones?

« on: November 27, 2011, 08:23:47 pm »

Yes. I think that's probably simplest.

This card definitely needs a differently-colored back in order to work. That way, all players can witness the exact moment you put it into your hand. Otherwise there'd be no accountability built into this card. Reactions also usually have a command to "reveal" as part of their reaction mechanic, and the way you have this written, you don't even have to do that to draw the extra card. You need more precise wording.

I suggest the following:

In games using this, when you put a yellow-backed card into your hand, you may draw one card.

And then Servants' Dormitory would have yellow-colored backs. This wording would incentivize SD users to clearly but quickly show to everyone else exactly when they draw one into their hand, so that they can receive the benefit. The extra game rules used by cards such as Duchess, Young Witch, Trade Route, etc are sometimes the easiest way to implement certain ideas. Just trying to think of how a similar reaction could be written properly makes my head spin.

Of course, my solution introduces the problem of making shuffles technically not as random anymore. This was a feature for Stash, but might complicate Servants' Dormitory. Perhaps you should be given the option to space them however you'd like during a reshuffle as well?

Now, analyzing the actual play of this card: Even in boards without discard-for-benefit, the extra information and options granted by getting a large hand--before even playing your first action--is incredibly valuable.  Drawing a few of these in one turn basically turns it into a pseudo-Tactician turn. Granted, it's more the equivalent of a Tactician turn with a lot of nerfed Villages drawn, but you can use Nobles and Hunting Party to much greater effect. And I don't even have to delve into Vault, Stables, Cellar, etc, do I?

As for this card's interaction with hand-size reducing attacks... A hand swollen-up by SD's drawn during the cleanup phase might perhaps be somewhat vulnerable to such attacks, though it at least nerfs them into Margraves. I find that interesting, thought I don't know if it's good or bad.

32

2011 / Re: 2011 DominionStrategy.com Championships Registration

« on: November 23, 2011, 01:43:45 am »

cornucopoo-ah
GMT -6 (central)

33

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Courier

« on: November 12, 2011, 05:56:49 pm »

Upon further examination, this card seems underpowered. Rarely would getting a few extra $2-3 cards help anybody, and that's what you'll mostly be doing, even after you get your $5 action. Even worse, every play of this card would actually prolong the amount of time between shuffles, so that your prized $5 actions would be more difficult to trot out. So not only are you decreasing your refresh rate, but you are making it rarer for you to gain the $4 cards that that are so easy for a workshop or ironworks to get in comparison. Here's a third version of Courier that I think should be more viable (and spot on for flavor, to boot):

Courier $6
(Action)

+1 Card
+1 Action

You may reveal 1 Action or Treasure from your hand. If you do, gain any card costing less than it and place both cards at the bottom of your deck.
***

34

Game Reports / Re: It is apparently now possible to play with no actions at all

« on: November 06, 2011, 05:11:05 pm »

The title only mentioned the absence of treasure cards. That's why I included Farmlands and Duke as well. And, AJD, if PS's worth will vary wildly depending on what part of the shuffle you draw it, how is that not luck?

35

Game Reports / Re: It is apparently now possible to play with no actions at all

« on: November 06, 2011, 04:55:31 pm »

Potion and Philosopher's Stone take up two whole slots Ok, they don't, but Philosopher's stone is still a relatively boring and luck-based card. Plus, for all these different sources of coins, and you get no +buy!? That would get pretty monotonous. Contraband is a must.

Here's what I would go with:

Fool's Gold, Loan, Tunnel, Contraband, Venture, Duke, Ill-Gotten Gains, Horn of Plenty, Farmland, Bank (and Platinum and Colony)

Bank doesn't add much interest on its own, but it's there for so that, via Farmland, you can trash a $5 card into something else (or else it can be trashed for a Platinum).

36

Game Reports / Re: Epic Bad Luck

« on: November 06, 2011, 04:06:35 pm »

What was your overall plan for going Potion? With three Scrying Pools you definitely should have gone for Minions yourself, and used the Governor plays for draws or upgrades, instead of Gold. All those Golds clash with Scrying Pool, while Scrying Pool could've enabled a much more consistent Minion engine instead. Buying a Golem on Turn 5 with only Chapel and Governor in your deck made you lose out on the chance to buy another powerful stand-alone card that you could play early and often throughout the game. Golem is only as good as the cards it enables you to play. If you had bought a Spice Merchant or Silver on Turn 3, you could've gotten a critical early Gold or Minion instead.

37

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: How many niches for village-types are left? Can you think of any new ones?

« on: November 06, 2011, 02:05:56 am »

A pure Reaction (not labeled as also an Action) reverse-order village:

Pilgrim Camp $2
(Reaction)

If you draw a card during your action phase, you may reveal and discard this card. If you do, +1 Action.
***

It's missing the +1 card that would make it a closer mirror of Village, because such a card would be too often better than Village, as you could never draw it dead, but this wouldn't be a very exciting $4 village. Plus, we have too many of those already. I want another $2 village, as those inhabit much more unique design spaces. Obviously, this needs drawing power on the board to work at all, but even a single +1 card can trigger it.

38

Variants and Fan Cards / Three more victory cards: Canal, Cathedral, and Orchards

« on: November 05, 2011, 03:14:00 am »

Silk Road has prompted a few of you to note that, while even Victory cards are now counted by their own Victory card, there's no Victory card that counts treasures. While a Victory card that only counts all your treasures--without any qualifications--would surely only encourage a boring BM strategy, I've found two potential ways to make certain treasures count in interesting ways. I also have a third Victory card I'd like to share as well.

Canal $4
(Victory)

Worth 1 Victory Point for every 5 Coppers in your deck (rounded down).

When you buy this card, gain two coppers and set them aside. During your cleanup phase, place them into your hand after you draw your 5 new cards.
***

The gained coppers swell your next hand into 7 cards, providing extra $ to make that Province perhaps, or convenient fodder for discards. Of course, fattening up your deck can be detrimental to some strategies. But if you keep those extra Coppers, you can boost this baby up to 2, or even 3 VP easily. When the endgame comes down to a greening race, you might end up buying Estates with $4 (or even $5, when Duchies run out). If you never trash a Copper, your 7 starting Coppers plus 8 more from buying 4 Canals will total 15 Coppers, or exactly what you need to turn these into Duchies. In 4p there won't be enough Canals for everyone to buy 4, but there's exactly enough Coppers for everyone to have 15 c in their deck.

I don't need to point out the synergies with Goons and other buy cards, in addition to the interactions with Copper attacks. But I find it a little neat that this card might make it worth it for you to take a copper from a Jester. Only problem I have with this card's current wording is that it makes it so incredibly vulnerable to Militia and similar attacks. I'd like for the coppers to be set aside until the start of your next turn, but that would be a pseudo-duration thingie, and require at least for you to set aside Canal as well when you gain it, in order to give the instructions about the coppers, which is too complicated.
******


Cathedral $5
(Victory-Treasure)

Worth 1 VP for every 6 coins in the total cost of all cards in your Cathedral Mat (rounded down).
--
When you buy this, place up to four treasures in play into the Cathedral Mat.
--
Worth $1

When you play this, place one treasure in play into the Cathedral Mat to play it a second time.
***

I know all that's a lot to fit on a single card, but I think the concept is simple enough... You can "trash" treasures when you buy this; and when you play this, "trash" another treasure you've played to play it again. It's a non-cycling silver Loan when you use it to clear a Copper. But to bump-up Cathedral's VP value, you're gonna have to Cathedral Mat some Silvers and/or Golds. Silvers would be the more usual target as they're fairly neutral cards in the mid- to late-game. You'd need to clear away two silvers to bump Cathedral's VP value up by 1. Or you can CM a whole Gold for the same effect, getting a nice +$4 for compensation.

I'm wondering whether the "when-buy" benefit is unnecessary... In addition to using up valuable space, it will encourage later buys when Silvers have much less relevance and you can more easily spare a Gold or two. Yet I really want it to be practical for early Copper-clearing, like a Chapel for flavor, and because the work of building up your Cathedral Mat might be too daunting for the "1+ X again" benefit to be nice enough. What I'm aiming for overall is a $5 Victory Card that's looked at like any solid $5 card, unlike Duke, which you can often ignore. Anyways, about the wording: Perhaps I can use a different formula for the VP? And as it is worded now, it can be a little confusing about interactions with Horn of Plenty and Bank, so if I could write an entry in a rulebook, I'd clarify with the following: Any card placed into the Cathedral Mat is still in play on the turn you played it.
******


Orchards $4
(Victory-Reaction)

2 VP

When this card is revealed from your deck, you may put it into your hand. If you do, it no longer counts as a card revealed from your deck.

When your hand is revealed with this card in it, you may discard this and draw one card from the top of your deck.
***

The first reaction is like a ripe apple--you pick out a single card that is mostly useless, but sometimes nice to have (with discards and the like). And both reactions generally make sure that Orchards--which doesn't add much to the productivity of your kingdom--still keeps the hell out of the way of the cards you actually need for business. So this card is like a soothing, delightful orchard sequestered within your castle courtyard, away from it all. I wonder if the wording of the first reaction is too confusing. "No longer counts as a card revealed" means that if revealed as one of the top two cards of your deck, and you take Orchards into your hand you reveal a third card. If it is Fortune Told, Orchard comes into your hand and Fortune Teller continues digging for a Victory or Curse.

Miscellaneous benefits: while it wouldn't avoid a Bureaucrat (yeah, I was disappointed too), it's not a liability for Wishing Well, and can't be left behind by an enemy's Spy. It avoids Jester's curse-giving, and makes Shanty Town suck less. For better or worse, it deflects Saboteur unto another card. It never mucks up Scrying Pool, and it's the only card you can pick up duplicates of with Hunting Party.

39

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Reaction cards mechanics

« on: November 03, 2011, 04:02:26 pm »

Ghost Village is cool fun. Minion + Ghost Village is NASTY though

Oops, you made me realize I shared High Street and Ghost Village when I meant to share High Street and Gypsie Camp.

Here's Ghost Village before I edit it out of my above post:

Ghost Village $4
(Action-Reaction)
+1 Card
+2 Actions
When you discard this other than during a Clean-up phase, you may reveal it. If you do, each other player gains a Curse card.

40

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Reaction cards mechanics

« on: November 03, 2011, 03:40:41 pm »

2) Next would be drawing.
A card could have the reaction text "When you draw this other than during a Clean-up phase, you may reveal it."

This idea has a fatal flaw: there's no method built into Dominion rules to keep players accountable as to whether this condition was truly met or not. Dominion has no phase within drawing where you have the card but keep it separate from the rest of your hand. That's why effects with conditional draws make you Reveal the card first, and then Put it into your hand, and not ever simply "draw" it. Perhaps you can make it "When you draw a card, you may reveal and discard this card to draw X more cards as well".

I myself have actually been playing around with a reaction using this condition: "When you draw this during your cleanup phase, you may reveal it before the next player's turn starts. If you do..." I was thinking this card could do a pre-emptive horse traders: you set aside the reaction and discard one other card, which makes you immune to Militia etc, and then your next turn, you get it back and draw one more card.

7) On-Attack is already done often. But there might be more possibilities.
"Hurdle $2 Action-Reaction // +2 Cards, When another player plays an Attack card, you may reveal this from your hand. If you do, discard this, +3 cards."
So if an opponent plays a Militia-like card, reveal Hurdle, discard it, draw 3 cards and discard 2 cards from the attack, so you have still 5 cards. Or you gain a curse, but now you have 7 cards in hand.

Makes every single attack card significantly worse to use. You're better off avoiding even Spies and Minions.

Anyways, you might be interested in these villages I made in the village thread with reactions that make them essentially treasures during the buy phase:

Gypsie Camp $5
(Action-Reaction)
+2 Actions
Name 1 card before revealing the top 4 cards of your deck. You may put one revealed copy of the named card into your hand, if you find any. You may discard one revealed card as well. Put the remaining cards on top of your deck in any order.
If you start your Buy Phase with this card in your hand, you may reveal and discard it. If you do, each other player gains a Curse card.
***

High Street or Market Street $4
(Action-Reaction)
+1 card
+2 Actions
If you start your Buy Phase with this card in your hand, you may reveal and discard it. If you do, +1 Buy, +$2
***

41

News and Announcements / Re: Good post / Bad post mod installed

« on: November 01, 2011, 09:54:11 pm »

I've often had the urge to upvote things here like in Reddit, so it's nice to be able to leave feedback in such a manner, as comments of simple agreement usually don't add much to the discussion.

42

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: New to creating cards, what d'you think of these two?

« on: November 01, 2011, 09:28:51 pm »

Witch's Epithet ($7 Action)- Trash your hand.  Gain a Gold for every card trashed.
I couldn't decide between $6 or $7 for this.  I settled on $7, as it makes it more of a late game card.  I figure the only cards you reeeeally are gonna have to think about sacrificing are Provinces, so making it $7 makes it that much more a late game buy.

Many times, it's worth it to make a $5 or $6 purchase when you come up with $8 early with no extra buys. But this would definitely be something I'd consider over a Platinum. If you go big money you could get this quickly, and it will guarantee you a more streamlined deck with even bigger money. Just consider: if you had 4 other coppers in hand, this card would be like playing Mine 8 times in a row. Now consider larger hands: with any decent draw engine, you'd only have to play this once on a large hand of rubbish (such as estates, coppers, curses, silvers, unplayed terminal $2-4s and perhaps even $5s as well--plus perhaps a gold or two mixed in, but you won't be losing those anyways) and then you'll be making consistent Province buys obscenely early. And your engine cards will remain perfectly intact. Have you ever played any games with Tournament? It encourages Province buys extremely early, but it's very difficult to even trigger their benefit. You need to think of ways to limit the power of Witch's Epithet, because the proper price would be astronomically high. And playing a lot of Golds that you got with an easy play of a single card wouldn't be very fun, either... It's a little faster than normal big money, but it's essentially the same thing.

Golden Witch ($4 Action)- Your choice: Either everybody else gains a Gold and a Curse, or you do.
I am honestly not sure whether the effect is beneficial, but it'd be solid in the presence of other cursers to drain the pile.

It won't ever be worth it to attack others. And for the self-gaining option... Its worth varies dramatically between boards with trashing cards, and boards without... Perhaps you should consider some other drawback to playing this card... Maybe something effecting the handsize or your next turn or your next draw.... Or each other player draws a card?

43

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Silver Lining - Beta Cards

« on: November 01, 2011, 07:56:10 pm »

Just a small addendum: I stress-tested Black Knight last night and it is indeed quite beatable. A standard Silver Vein tactic, will actually kick its ass. You'll see Black Knight's value diminish in the next rankings.

In playtesting, do you keep track of the same stats as Councilroom has? Do you play both as both players? And how do you physically mock up the cards? Play with real ones but keep track of which card represents which fan card?

44

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Dominion: Fantasy, a fan made expantion by mail-mi

« on: October 31, 2011, 12:11:05 am »

Centaur
+$2
Each other player gains a copy of the top card of the Centaur pile, then put the top card of the Centaur pile on the bottom.
--
Set up: Shuffle together the Copper, Curse, and Estate randomizer cards and place them face up on the board. This is the Centaur pile.
$4
Action-Attack

This has Black Market's chancy unevenness. You might think that the three most undesirable cards in the game may as well all be distributed at random by this card, but the board can easily make these cards' impact differ from each other by a lot. It will leave a lot of people unhappy during 3-4 player games, most definitely.

Magical eye
+1 action
The player to your left shows his hand to only you. +1 card per Victory card in his hand.
--
If another player plays an Attack card, you may reveal then discard this card. Look at his hand and choose an action card. Place that card into your hand. When you discard that card, discard it into his discard pile instead of yours. If that player has no action cards, you are protected from the attack.
Action-Reaction
$5

A reaction should never make an attack backfire upon the attacker. That just makes people less likely to use attacks, which makes the reaction itself sort of useless. And that sort of situation's not very fun or interesting. Also, have you seen Crossroads from Hinterlands? If not, take a look, and compare it to this card.

Area 51.1
+1 card
+1 action
Gain a Mystery card, put it under this card. At the start of your next turn, put the Mystery card on top of your deck and trash this card.
--
Set-up: Create a mystery pile at the beginning of the game with one copy of ten random, different kingdom cards not in the supply. Place them face down on the board.
Action-Duration
$5

You can't really build a strategy around this (especially since it comes so late), and it's essentially taking a huge gamble. It removes the terminal silver aspect and the actual buying requirement of Black Market (which IMO are what made BM reasonable enough to get it printed at all), and basically centers around BM's chancy, disruptive, gimmicky nature, and amplifies it.

Griffin
$1
Worth +$1 for every Victory card in your hand.
--
While this is in play, if you buy a Victory card, +1 buy, +$1. This card can only give you this bonus once per turn.
--
When you discard this card, if you bought at least 2 Victory cards this turn, you may put this card on top of your deck.
Treasure
$5

Ok, this actually looks viable. You should definitely focus on playtesting this to see how it feels.

Titan
Reveal the top 5 cards of your deck. You may trash any of the revealed cards with a cost of $2 or less. Draw up to two of the remaining cards, then discard the rest. If you trashed any cards this way, each other player gains a Curse card.
Action-Attack
$5

Trash-to-curse is something that I haven't seen before, but with how helpful of an ability trashing is, you should probably stipulate that at least one card costing at least $2 be trashed for the cursing effect. That way, once you clear the estates, you're gonna have to start making some choices. You should let any card worth anything be trashed, too, because most situations people will only want to trash the $0-2 cards anyways. But besides that, this is sort of like an uber warehouse. Look at Embassy for comparison, as well. This is way too powerful as it is.

Phoenix
+2 cards
+1 action
+1 buy
+$2
You can only buy action cards this turn.
Action
$5

On a board with actions that provide coins or gains, this card will be overpowered, being essentially a lab with a free play of woodcutter. And with no way to opt out of that actions-only clause, this card would be incredibly frustrating on certain occasions as well. Perhaps you should split the benefits between what you always get, and what you would get if you choose only to buy actions on that turn.

Runaway
+1 card
+$1
Each other player with at least 5 cards in hand discards their highest costing card that is not a Victory card.
Action-Attack
$6

Interesting attack that has a limit to how hard it can actually hit. And it can be subsequently paired with another discard attack for added power. However, the most significant aspect of this attack is the information it provides. Don't know how I feel about that.

Dragon
Each other player gains two curses. If there are no curses remaining, then +1 card, +1 action
Action-Attack
$7

It definitely makes certain reactions much more significant. However, I feel that the presence of this card on the board can make the game devolve into a simple race for getting and playing Dragon, and depending on the shuffle, it can really make it hard for the loser of the race to recover and hit back. Especially when you consider reactions and their timing, this card feels like it would cause way too dramatic swings based on the shuffle. And don't even get me started on KC or Scheme.

45

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: How many niches for village-types are left? Can you think of any new ones?

« on: October 30, 2011, 10:07:19 pm »

I think if you compare Village to Smithy and Historic Village to Nobles, Historic Village shouldn't be more than $5.
Also with Resort Village I think you need to be more explicit about under which conditions you're allowed to trash a Gold for the RV.

I don't think that's a very good analogy. Nobles is not that great of a card, and often ends up a liability to someone trying to build an engine. Sure, it's worth 2 vp in the end, but you could easily get ahead much further with dedicated action cards. The +1 card of a Village makes such a huge difference. I'd be much happier to see Historic Village in a hand with 1 other action, than draw a hand containing Nobles and 1 other action.

46

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Dominion: Fantasy, a fan made expantion by mail-mi

« on: October 30, 2011, 09:43:52 pm »

Sorcerer's Apprentice
Reveal the top card of your deck. If it is a...
Victory card, discard it, +1 card
Action card, put it into your hand, +1 action
Treasure card, put it on top of your deck, +$1
Curse card, trash it, +1 buy
Action
$2

As  HP7289 noted, you'll run into problems with hybrid cards. I suggest something like this:

Sorcerer's Apprentice
Reveal the top card of your deck.
If it is an action card, put it into your hand, +1 action. If it is a treasure card, put it back on top of your deck, +$1. If it is anything else, either discard it for +1 card, or trash it for +1 buy.

This way, you collapse single-typed victory cards and curse cards into a single category, and leave it to the player to figure out what he wants to do with it. There won't always be cursing cards on the board, and the trashing-curses-for-buys feels too specific, infrequent, and circumstantial. Anyways, players will most likely want to trash their estates too, instead of just discarding them, so there's that. All in all, this card could be a powerful cycler when the ratio of non-treasures to treasures in your deck gets high enough, but at the beginning, it's mostly a terminal action that gives you copper. I don't think many people would find that appealing enough to buy it, as it's too high of an opportunity cost for so little gain.

Satyr
Choose one: +2 cards; +2 actions; +$2; or +1 buy and gain a card costing up to $4
Action
$3

This is basically an alternative version of Steward, except that it's missing the trashing ability that most people use Steward for at the beginning. The option to make it a village, however, does maintain its relevance through all stages of the game. I don't think most people would find the last ability very useful, though. Gain cards are useful when you're hurting for buys, but the ability gives you a buy at the same time. And no one wants to be swimming in cost $2-4 cards, which is what you're gonna be doing with this card. Most cards with +buy at least give you more cards or coins to actually make the extra buys useful.

House Elf
+1 card
You may discard that card. If you do, play House Elf again.
Action
$3

Sorry, you'll need more precise language than that. It can't just say "+1 card," because literally, this just makes your hand one card bigger, with a card drawn from the deck. There's no accountability built in that keeps that drawn card separate. You need to say "reveal [or look at] a card from the top of your deck." Then it could be something like "Either put it into your hand, or discard it and play House Elf again". Even then, I'm dissatisfied with the language in "play X again", but it's the only way I could think of to preserve your original meaning. Anyways, it's interesting that this card introduces a form of deck cycling that's infinite and precise. Such a card is way undercosted at $3. Perhaps $5 or $6 will do.

Wealthy Village

Either a silver or village at the same price as both? Definitely undercosted. Plus, I'm leery about how weirdly this card would interact with everything else, since it would be targeted by the vast majority of cards that target a type.

Destroyed Village
+2 cards
+2 actions
Discard 2 cards. Only one can be a Victory card.
Action
$4

Getting rid of the when-gained ability of Inn, and adding a "1 victory card only" clause is still not enough to make it $4. Consider that Lab is $5, and how inconsequential the 1 card net difference from this card will be when you might have 6 cards to choose from when you discard. Add another +1 Action and you got something at least on the same level as Lab, if not better. Plus, you can get some pretty extreme situations with this card... Consider what would happen if this was in a board with trashing. Or if there were VP tokens in the game. I understand that this card gets less effective when you're greening in the endgame, but still, that just makes it a less-fun card, instead of a well-balanced card.

Sacred Waters
Reveal a card from your hand. If it is a...
Victory card, discard it, +2 cards, +$1
Action card, return it to your hand, +1 card, +2 actions
Treasure card, put it on top of your deck, +1 buy, +$2
Curse card, trash it and gain a Silver, putting it on your deck.
Action
$4

Again, consider hybrid cards.

47

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Courier

« on: October 30, 2011, 04:00:06 am »

I was (and still am) pretty sure that unconditional top-decking is far too powerful for a $4 card, especially when coupled with the scalability of Courier's gaining power. But when I made Courier, I still wanted to include the future draws-maintenance involved in top-decking. I just needed to temper it somehow. Right now, I'm very much satisfied with bottom-decking. There's an improvement to the card's elegance in that I can give the option unconditionally, as you don't always reap the benefits the following turn. In fact, as the game draws on and your deck grows, you reap the benefits of bottom-decking less and less often. Yet the more you can play this card per shuffle, the better hands you can end up with at the end of it. (A prime opportunity for Scheme?)

Anyways, this was completely unintentional at first, but with bottom decking, Courier's now essentially giving you a parcel of goodies that's waiting for you at the bottom of the deck. I'm happy that a once-far-fetched name is now so apt! And this end-deck parcel becomes a notable element of the game, in and of itself. For one, it's definitely vulnerable to your opponents' devices. They'll note every time you play Courier, and greedily watch your deck as it dwindles closer to that sweet juicy cache at the end. And then, BAM, they target it with Pirate Ship or Jester... Or perhaps they Minion, Masquerade, or Torture it away once it's in your hand. Or even knock it all out with Rabble or Tribute or Fortune Teller (giving a different dimension to FT's attacks, for sure). You too can use this info to your advantage, by more boldy Warehousing or Cellaring or Inning to the good stuff you know you have. Perhaps Treasure Map will become a more respectable, less chancy option on a board with Courier? And of course, the once-humble Pearl Diver will now actually become a part of a viable strategy.

Anyways, Rinkworks, I should have knocked out your concerns with Old Courier--especially concerning the counting--because eyeballing the deck should be sufficient for both the Courier-user and his opponents, and if he really needs to time something precisely, counting the deck is actually allowed, while counting the discard isn't.

And Biopower's important note about Old Courier's swingy potential on turn 3 has made me doubly happy that a New Courier opening should normally get you the silver on turn 5, whether you draw Courier on turn 3 or 4.

48

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Notes About Set Design

« on: October 29, 2011, 01:55:49 pm »

Donald has written in his Secret History of the Alchemy Cards that "'has a potion in its cost' is not actually a huge connection functionally, so [he] supplemented the main theme with a 'cares about actions' sub-theme." And Seaside has a much more pervasive "next turn" theme, even though not all its cards strictly use the duration mechanic. I also read that from Donald's secret history of the set.

In fact, I'd feel that any discussion on set design would be incomplete without the invaluable design notes that are Donald's Secret Histories, which Theory has conveniently posted in the subforum called The Bible of Donald X.

49

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Courier

« on: October 27, 2011, 09:49:38 pm »

I feel like this is somewhat swingy in the Turn 3-4 range. A person who plays Courier Turn 3 can get a Topdeck silver Turn 4, which could translate to a Gold buy Turn 4 before the reshuffle. In contrast, someone who plays Courier Turn 4 can only Topdeck a silver Turn 5, which means even if they could buy a Gold it misses the shuffle.

Hmm... I see your point. Perhaps I can avoid that by making this a $3 card. That way, such a scenario would only transpire if you get both Courier and your $4 action on the third turn... Few people would want to rely on such chances for a card which in most cases will net them a $2 card if they opened with it, and therefore wait until they get more $5 and $4 actions.

50

Variants and Fan Cards / Courier

« on: October 27, 2011, 06:33:36 pm »

EDIT MAR 26 11:58 PM: My even-newer-than-what-was-previously-the-newest Courier (version 3.5, like the one true edition of D&D) is now here in Blue. Ignore the rest of this OP, for it's not that relevant anymore. See my latest post for comments.

EDIT NOV 12 4:59 PM: All text from the first edit which is now irrelevent will be now struck-through. See my absolute newest post for the reasoning behind Courier 3.0

EDIT OCT 31 12:50 AM: All old and irrelevant text now hidden by spoiler bars. See my newest post for more info, but please read the edits to this post as well!

Courier $6 (Even Newer!)
(Action)

+1 Card
+1 Action

You may reveal 1 Action or Treasure from your hand. If you do, gain any card costing no more $ than it does, and place both cards at the bottom of your deck.
***

I'm putting together the beginnings of an expansion which focuses upon future draws and shuffle/discard/deck interactions. This is the weirdest card I have so far a much more transparent card now, yay! and it's a bit difficult to analyze, so I turn to you But I'd still like your input.

Courier $6 [Newest!]
(Action)

+1 Card
+1 Action

You may reveal 1 Action or Treasure from your hand. If you do, gain any card costing less than it and place both cards at the bottom of your deck.
***

Courier $4 (New!)
(Action)
+1 action
At the start of your buy phase, gain a card costing less than the action you have in play which costs the most coins. Place the gained card at the bottom of your deck.
***


Old Courier $4
(Action)
+1 action
At the end of your action phase, gain a card costing less than the action you have in play which costs the most coins. After you gain that card, if your deck or your discard pile has two or fewer cards, you may put the gained card on top of your deck.
***

I've gone through the various scenarios involved in a (New) Courier opening, and found that if it hasn't been drawn or revealed dead in turn 3, it will give you an extra $3 card that you are guaranteed to see in turn 5, along with 2-4 cards from the reshuffle. Of course, improbable interactions with Loan or opponents' attacks might possibly make the gained $3 card available turn 4, or even delay it to turn 6, but worrying about that's like worrying about the opponent(s) poorly timing Noble Brigand or Fortune Teller, or the occasional 5-2 split in a Mountebank game.

However, if you open Chancellor-Courier, and turn 3 draw both Chancellor and Courier, you could see your extra $3 card with 4 cards of the reshuffle on turn 4. A neat little improbable trick that shouldn't break the game, because even if you get gold, you're at the beginning of a fresh draw and will still have to wait.

Since $5 actions are usually the most powerful ones you play, this amounts to an ironworks-ish effect, and $3-4 cards are usually not ones you want to accumulate too many of. At the same time, this card will increase in strength when you start playing $5, $6, or $7 actions. And when you approach the dreaded reshuffle of a heavily-greened deck in the late game, if you have been playing this card, it will reinforce your first hand so that you can hopefully maintain your momentum. And if you've built such a powerful engine that you're drawing your whole hand each turn... Well, you're probably already doing well for yourself, so it hopefully isn't too broken.

Random notes:

A) This card makes it important to note when your deck has 0 cards... Technically you only reshuffle when there's 0 cards left and you need to draw more, but people IRL might take a shortcut and reshuffle when they reach exactly 0... Might be a problem...

B) I worded this card to be clear about interactions with potion costs. You can't gain any potion-costing cards if your most coins-costing card the card you put back didn't cost a potion as well. But if you played put back a Golem (and no actions costing $5 or more), you can gain an Alchemist. And if you played put back even a Scrying Pool, you can gain a Vineyards(!)...

C) Chancellor FTW!