WDC #156: When Gain
Commentary & ResultsThanks everyone for the submissions, there were some really great entries and I enjoyed seeing the many different directions people went with this one.
OPs are linked, shortlisted entries are bolded, enjoy!
Healer by GubumpA clean and simple terminal Silver that can trash from hand when you gain a card. A lot of similarities to Priest which I think is the more interesting card usually with its $2 bonus for later trashes, but I like Healer a lot too. It's nice you don't have to trash right away, which often lets you play out the rest of your hand and trash when gaining cards in your Buy phase. Obviously plays nice with gainers, +Buy, and other when-gains. Nice one.
Junk by kru5hA new take on Borrow and Desperation, but as a card, which becomes temporary junk (literally). Essentially, this can net you an extra +$1 or +$3 depending on if you buy it or just gained it. The "first time" clause is key here to prevent autopiles. Generally, I feel like this idea is best suited to an Event after all rather than dedicating a pile of 10 cards to it. That said, it does get a lot more interesting with gainers like Workshop especially, as that's something Borrow/Desperation can't do.
Gardener by JoxeftExiling VP on-gain is always the dream, right, though I think this is way too strong, and it's feels weird that it's a cantrip that you only actually need one of to get the full effect. I think this would be much more interesting if the VP exile only worked on one VP card (with a "once this turn" clause) which would require players to buy multiples if they planned on buying multiple VP cards a turn. Making it terminal with a different bonus could make for a more interesting card as well--as is, Gardener just feels too automatic.
Pawn Shop by Builder_Roberts' brotherYou can tell your brother I like this card and we'd love to see him join the forums for more contests! The on-gain Salvager which is something I've never seen before and works brilliantly as both a Copper/Estate trasher but also as late game payload. You'll need a gainer or +Buy to make it work, which the on-play nicely provides. I don't totally understand the on-play discard which feels unnecessary and weakens this card significantly, I think Woodcutter would have been fine, although that would be quite similar to the new Nomads. All that to say, I like it.
Barrows by MochaMoka I've never gotten the Farmland hate, it's a narrow card to be sure, but I still think it's a really interesting VP card that's different from most alt-VP, and the new errata makes it even better. Barrows has definitely got Farmland vibes, but they actually play pretty differently, since this often requires you to trash an engine piece for the Duchy gain, and can't mill copies of itself (it can also trash a stray Curse or Copper). Barrows can truly function as a Province alternative for the engine player trying to catch up. My one suggestion is that 4VP feels like a lot for $6 especially alongside the Duchy gain, perhaps 3VP (or maybe even 2VP though that might be too close to Farmland) might be a bit more balanced, but even still, this is a really neat one.
Incredible Workshop by fika monsterMissed opportunity to call this "Impcredible Workshop" haha. This isn't quite a traditional on-gain effect, but I'll take it nonetheless. It's a pretty powerful gain and play, and can often be a stronger Sculptor, though it loses its luster the later in your turn you play it, unless there's a wide variety of cards you want to gain. Also like Sculptor, gain Silver, +$2 is a strong base option, though you don't get the Villager.
Hound by X-traHound's on-play is fine if a little boring, but of course it's the wacky below-line that makes it so interesting. Games with Hound have a sort of permanent Swamp Hag on all non-Action cards unless you have a Hound in your hand. It's really nice that Curse tokens don't junk your deck, but the negative VP sure hurts, and makes you think twice about opening Silver (Hound can conveniently go get your Silver for you instead). The tricky thing is you'll have to keep at least one dead Hound around that you don't play until your Buy phase if you want to avoid the Curse tokens (and you can always avoid by just buying more Actions). There's definitely going to be boards where your deck simply can't support the necessary Hounds to stop the tokens once you start greening, but I think Hound definitely creates plenty of unique decisions to think about in most games. Bonus points for another blue dog.
Trust by spinefluPouch on play, with an overpay effect that converts $ to cards, similar to Storyteller. I haven't yet seen a full, officially updated Guilds rulebook that talks through the new Overpay rules as of last week's errata, but as of yet, all official Overpay cards only allow overpaying when paying for a card during your Buy phase. Trust, as currently worded, seems to allow players to overpay when gaining it which is a bit confusing and I'm not totally sure if that actually works within the official overpay mechanic rules. Setting that aside though, I think on-gain Storyteller is definitely a neat idea worth exploring, however it's going to be tough to get this to work in a lot of situations, since you don't want +Cards in your Buy phase (rendering overpaying when you Buy it useless), and you have to have virtual money (unless this card's overpay rules allow you to play treasures when you gain it with e.g. Workshop?) in order to take advantage of the overpay ability. I think Trust needs some work on these issues, I likely overpay isn't the best implementation for this mechanic, and just a straight +Cards on-gain (or variable based on some condition), might be better. Arguably, a similar convert coins to cards idea already exists in Expedition.
County by mandicoa15A cheap Province that trashes your hand, sort of like a big, mandatory Cemetery. This is a weird one in that it's an expensive but powerful trasher, so you want to try and spike $6 early (sort of like Mint or Forge), but it's also got a big enough amount of points that you're also thinking about it for the endgame, if the Kingdom allows for it. It's tricky though, especially once you start greening as you'll need a way to get Provinces and other Counties out of your hand so they don't get trashed by County gains. Many boards won't allow for this, but it sure will feel badass when you can build an engine that can consistently gain these without too much damage.
Silverbug by Augie279Not sure how this small metal insect became a project, but that's okay! So this is a fascinating one, it's basically a permanent Coppersmith, but uh, for Silvers, turning your Silvers into Golds, but at the cost of turning your Golds into Silvers. Additionally, it works on gain, which effectively makes Silver cost $2 when you have this and Golds cost $7 (plus a money bonus or penalty for gainers). Obviously this likes Silver gainers (Masterpiece, Jack, Trader, Delve, and now Weaver all look REAL good with this) and hates Gold gainers, but even apart from those Silver combos, Silverbug seems like a potent Money enabler buy allowing players to forgo Gold entirely as payload. Hitting $7 is admittedly tough, but once they do, Silver flooding becomes a very viable strategy. There's some real Way of Chameleon vibes here, I like it!
Flea Market by NoMoreFunA $2 Necropolis that can turn itself into Silver and play itself on gain. I like that this creates an alternate way to gain Silvers for only $2 (like Delve as you mentioned). The on-gain is a bit sad when there are no gainers, but it is really neat that these can get you some +Actions mid-turn and then immediately turn into payload you can draw later.
Seamstress by Xen3kI don't like how small the text is here, but I like the idea, and it feels like there's maybe some ways to tighten it up and use a slightly larger font. It reminds me a bit of Hamlet, though it hurts that it doesn't draw unless you discard. The on-gain Anvil is cool, but wouldn't "gain a card costing up to $4 other than Seamstress" be simpler than the "$1 or $2 more?" More flexibility seems better, so long as you don't allow Seamstress gaining.
Books by DubdubdubdubA big Workshop Treasure that can gain any Action, nice. It's similar to Sunken Treasure, but without the in-play restriction. $6 is a lot though, and this becomes much less helpful than Gold once you start greening. The on-gain lets you play an Action or Treasure from your discard which can be really helpful, though it's dependent on A) having a discard pile, and B) having things worth playing in your Buy phase (since most games won't have ways to gain this in your Action phase). Without both of these, the on-gain won't be super helpful. One small wording thing, you no longer need to say "look through your discard pile" (see new Inn), and you can instead use a simpler "When you gain this, you may play an Action or Treasure from your discard pile other than this."
Lumberjack by emtzalexA Woodcutter variant that can be played as a non-terminal Silver, a straight Woodcutter, or +$2 and play the next Lumberjack you gain for free. The flexibility to keep these nonterminal or get the +Buy is nice, though I think the 3rd option will be less useful than it seems. It will work with gainers, but triggering after buying often won't net much for the player. The bigger issue here is this also feels similar to Nomads which I feel accomplishes what this is trying to do in a more elegant way.
Training Grounds by xyz123Wow, that is a lotta Horses! It's a neat idea, a sort of permanent Livery, but like Livery, I might suggest putting a cost restriction on it (e.g. When you gain a card costing $4 or more), which would also eliminate the need for the "other than Horse" clause. Even still, I worry this will slow games a bit (gaining Horses is a lot slower than just taking a Villager or Coffer as with Academy or Guildhall). I could be wrong though, and especially with a cost restriction, it may be okay.
Christmas Tree by CaptainReklawA $2 cost Treasure that gains Gifts which are a randomized pile of non-supply, one-shot Treasures (I'm assuming these are supposed to be non-supply cards). In some ways, we sort of already have Gifts in the form of Spoils, which Gifts of course offer more variety, but that's at least a helpful frame for judging the strength of Christmas Tree. At $2, it doesn't provide any economy or benefit when you play it aside from the Gift gain, which feels right in terms of cost--a Treasure that just said "Gain a Spoils" could probably cost $2. I think it's okay, something you'd pick up for a spare Buy I suppose, but a bit boring with no other bonus attached to it. As for the Gifts themselves, most seem fine, some need some wording work (the discard VP cards one in particular, needs a from your hand and a reveal clause somewhere, etc.
Bribe by jorikkeA $5 Treasure that gives $ depending on how many Attacks you have in play, sort of like Soldier, along with an on-gain that lets you get one of these for free when you gain an Attack. The biggest issue is how board dependent this is. Some games, you get Minion or Urchin or other ways to play a bunch of Attacks each turn and these become insane payload, and other games there are literally no attacks and this does nothing. I would recommend making this part of a split pile or making the card itself an Attack to ensure there's some way it can actually do something.
Burough by JonasssssA simple cantrip that can chain copies of itself for a Lost City effect and conveniently comes in pairs like Port. As with Port, winning the split is more lopsided (since it's 8 to 4 instead of 6-4) which I don't love about Port either, but a larger pile makes sense anyway with the on-gain. It feels real bad to not collide them, but they thankfully don't hurt your deck either. Clean and simple card, not a lot else to say about it!
Footman by AJL828Choice of +2 Cards now, or next turn, and then the when-gain can get you a pile of Villagers or Coffers if you have a bunch of differently named cards. One question: can you get some of each? Like if I have Village, Smithy, Copper, and Silver in play, can I gain this and get +1 Villager and +1 Coffers? Either way, seems like an okay card, a sort of mini-Barge without the Buy. The Villagers/Coffers are certainly helpful, and with some support you can bring in a nice haul.
Honorable Mentions: Healer by Gubump, Pawn Shop by Builder_Roberts' brother, Barrows by MochaMoka, Hound by X-tra, Flea Market by NoMoreFun
Runner Up: County by Mandicoa15
WINNER: Silverbug by Augie279Congrats to Augie279 and thanks everyone for participating!
are Curse tokens. They don't clog your deck, but are worth -1
at the end of the game. There's a limited amount of Curse tokens to hand out in a game: Use as many as there are Curses in the Supply (10 in a 2-player game, 20 in a 3-player game, etc...).
