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151

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Set Expansion Contest

« on: January 24, 2021, 12:24:29 am »

Suggested wording along the lines of Command cards:
Play the set aside acard, leaving it there. +1 Action per Action it gives.

This would make the card absolutely ludicrous with Encampment, and vanilla with Page, Ratcatcher and Pixie. On top of that, the card's effect is the same for every player throughout the entire game (unlike Inheritance and the Command cards), so there won't be any confusions.

Wacky idea incoming! Posted and tweaked via the help of some Dominion Discord users. If Giants, Golems, Werewolves and Witches can exist within Dominion’s, then so can...

               

There are 3 copies of each 4 Dragons, for 12 cards total (no matter the player count). Like Knights, they are shuffled, and all 4 Dragons share that one junking/discarding Attack. Speaking of which, there are no Attacking Promo cards, so this fills that niche!

Just to be clear on the matter, Blue Dragon sets itself aside forever with no returning mechanic when used for its Reaction, just like Prince.

Cool idea! Maybe adding a Yellow Dragon to the mix that is an Action-Treasure (or Black Dragon, as Night cards are allowed). And I'd rework the Blue Dragon cause this is just straight up confusing.

152

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Set Expansion Contest

« on: January 23, 2021, 05:19:37 am »

153

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Set Expansion Contest

« on: January 18, 2021, 02:43:07 pm »

MENAGERIE EXTENSION CONTEST - RESULTS

Lots of good ideas again. Sorry for the wait.

Horse Thieves (Action - Attack, $4)
+$2
Each other player with 5 or more cards in hand discards a Treasure card (or reveals a hand with none). Either gain a copy of a discarded card or gain a Horse onto your deck.

Early on, this is basically a Cutpurse that also gains a Horse onto your deck. As the game progresses, and the Copper density lessens (or becomes nonexistent), the gap widens: Cutpurse becomes a terminal Silver, while Horse Thieves may force the opponent to discard a Silver or Gold, possibly gaining a copy in the process (and if you don't want to, well, here is another horse!). It is pretty much a 100% superior Cutpurse by a drastic amount; Cutpurse's stackability has next to no relevance really.

And if you play that card while the opponent only has a Gold in his hand, you got a huge swing in your favor. A little too huge for a $4 costs that produces $2 on play, if you'd ask me. An effect like this is especially devastating during the greening phase.

Way of the Manatee (Way)
Set aside an Action card from your hand. At the start of your next turn, play it twice.

This is really similar to Way of the Turtle. It lacks the ability to delay an Action indefinitely, but its effect otherwise requires less actions and less copies of a certain card. For instance, suppose you want to start your next turn with 11 cards. With Turtle, it'd mandate two spare actions, and two Smithies. But with this way, it mandates one action, one Smithy variant, and one arbitrary Acion card. Although this is a nice feature, Way of the Turtle is already good enough for this.

I think that this way can leed to very confusing setups, if you chain Action cards using this way. Additionally, it interacts very strangely with cards with a "while in play" effect. Especially if you use it on Highway: are cards going to cost less outside of your turns?

Apiary (Treasure, $5)
$2
When you next gain a card this turn, you may Exile a non-Victory card from the Supply. For the rest of the turn, cards you have a copy of in Exile cost $1 less.

This looks like a fairly awkward mashup between Silver, Charm, Transport and Quarry. The exact set of cards whose price will be deducted will be fairly hard to keep track off. And in the majority of the cases, Victory cards cannot be Exiled, so the set remains unimpressive. As such, you may wonder, is this worth implementing at all? (it will get dangerously strong when Province can be Exiled, however)

The Exiling it brings is pretty powerful, as Way of the Camel does that at the expanse of an Action and not providing $2. I think it is also good that the card doesn't do this prior to the first purchase (as it would otherwise become a Talisman that works on everything), but the implementations still strikes as (somewhat) awkward.

Gangster (Action - Attack, $5)
Gain two Horses, putting one on top of your deck.
Each other player with at least 5 cards in hand discards an Action or Treasure costing at least $2 (or reveals they can't). If they discarded a card costing at least $4, they gain a Horse.

A Villain that navigates past Victory cards. An attack that is pretty tame mid game, but can be pretty infuriating early game and late game. Villain's primary claim to fame is the Coffers gaining (in the absence of Butcher), which this card doesn't have. Instead, Villain increases the hand size of next turn. This makes the card actually far more similar to Enchantress. Enchantress doesn't hit Treasures and doesn't hit each turn, but is much cheaper. I can foresee this card this card extremely infuriating early game, potentially game breaking at that, but unlike Ghost Ship, its effectiveness dips tremendously mid game.

Jockey (Action, $2)
Gain a Horse. You may play a Horse from your hand.
-
While this is in play, when you play a Horse, +1 Action.

In the majority of the games, this is going to be the only Horse gainer. And in those cases, it is sadly going to be far too weak. The chance of drawing Jockey and Horse together will be way too low to make this an even remotely viable way to get +Actions. And turning a singular Horse into an Encampment will not be terribly exciting as playing Horse+Jockey doesn't increase your handsize.

With other horse gainers, it can be a fierce source of +Actions, although it will still be awkward to get things working.

Unicorn (Action, $8*)
+4 Cards
Gain a Horse.
-
When you buy this, you may Exile an Action card other than a Unicorn from your hand to pay $1 less per $1 it costs.

This is an interesting card, even when we already have a cost-varying drawer in Wayfarer. The self synergy is pretty potent: exiling a Horse to make this cost $5 is pretty good. And unless the RNG-gods decide you dray your Horses before Unicorn, this is also really easy to accomplish. Given that the card's effect is roughly worth $7, this interaction could make the card a little to much to the strong side. (although Grand Market is fairly similar in this regard)

I also think that exiling other cheap actions to this card is going to be extremely suboptimal compared to Exiling Horses, since they are harder to gain (unless you play with Ironworks), but the value is roughly on par. Exiling Villages in particular will be really suboptimal. This can make the effect somewhat one-dimensional. Although the presence of +Buy, Actions that outlive their usefulness and Transport will be exceptions to this. FINALIST

Hawk (Action-Duration, $5)

Now or at the start of your next turn: gain a card to your hand costing up to $4.

I'm going to take your second submission, even though you forgot to alter the OP. It definitely should be a $5 cost, as it is in the same league as Falconer, Cobbler and Sculptor. It has the disadvantage of being always terminal, but the versatility definitely makes up for it. In fact, I kinda view this as the way Falconer should have been, as it is much less luck dependent. It is going to be pretty powerful, though. It will likely be initially used for its Duration effect, and later on for its current-turn effect when there are enough +Actions. In that sense it is similar to Artisan: it cannot gain $5 costs, but doesn't lower the handsize as much.

Bit unfortunate that I cannot see anything about this in the Secret History; maybe I'm not paying enough attention. It sounds like a very trivial use for the subtheme this card uses. FINALIST

Horse Catcher (Action, $3)
Choose one: +2 Cards; or gain 2 Horses; or gain a Horse to your hand
-
While this is in play, when an Action you played leaves play, you may Exile it

The top part looks fine for a $3 cost. The bottom part looks worrisome, though. If there is some way to manipulate the position of Horse Catcher in your deck, this card is going to hoard a lot of Horses very consistently. Of course, you will need +Actions to get any good use out of this card, but I am afraid it will still be too much for a $3 cost.

Stablehand (Action, $3*)
+1 Action
You may discard a treasure from your hand to gain two horses.
-
When you buy this, instead of paying the cost, you may exile a horse from your hand

Yeah, this is very weak. Maybe if there was also +1 Card in the effect, it would be somewhat passable. The below-the-line part isn't going to mean much when the card only costs $3.

Horse Trade (Event, $4)
Gain a Horse per Silver you have in play

This will be a niche card for the most part; it heavily relies on +Buy to be any good. But when this is present, it can be quite a powerhouse. Especially with Watchtower, this can be a cheaper Stampede with no limitations! You obviously need a deck that can support the Silver; it won't outperform Experiment when you only have two silvers. But Horse Trade itself helps in this, and supporting $3 or $4 Silvers is usually not that big of a deal. It will be especially nice with Seer. I think replies #460 and #461 are spot on. FINALIST

Way of the Caribou (Way)
+3 Cards
Each other player draws a card.

This looks like a nice Way. It packs many similarities with Way of the Otter. As a drawer, it is much stronger and it could potentially be your only source of draw. But to use it without +Actions can be quite risky. Much like Counsil Room, this is going to be good with handsize attacks. I like it. I am also going to be curious at the dynamic in Champion games: are people going to spam Attacks so that the opponent won't get the advantage? FINALIST

Way of the Rabit (Way)
Trash this. Gain two cheaper Action cards.

This obviously should be "Return to the supply" or it will have a bad interaction with Fortress. Disregarding that, this seems to be rather weak. It needs to have an Action that outlives its usefulness AND cheaper spammable cards to be of any use. And even then, there needs to be the opportunity cost to play this before the spammable actions run out. This will definitely have its uses, but Way of the Butterfly generally does the exchanging part better.

VERDICT
The top 4 will be:
4) Hawk
3) Horse Trade
2) Unicorn
1) Way of the Caribou

Congratulations, Timinou, for winning this contest! Also, congratulations to the other finalists and thanks for the submissions.

This also brings the next question: What will the next contest be?

154

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Set Expansion Contest

« on: January 17, 2021, 04:13:46 pm »

Will judge by tomorrow

155

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Set Expansion Contest

« on: January 16, 2021, 04:39:14 am »

24 hours left!

156

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Set Expansion Contest

« on: January 10, 2021, 08:20:05 am »

Yay! Thanks for the great judging and also congratz to the runner-ups.

Unless we have skipped something, there is one contest left, namely the...

Menagerie expansion contest

Menagerie is the latest expansion of Dominion and is somewhat of a spiritual successor to Cornucopia and Hinterlands. It brought the following new mechanics:

• Exile
• Horses
• Ways

It is not completely necessary to use these mechanics, however. Menagerie also brought some subthemes:

• Events that let you play Actions during the Buy phase, or Treasures during the Action phase.
• Reactions that let you play the card itself without using an action.
• Cards that have a varying price, or an extra way to purchase it.

Any card that fits better in Menagerie than any other expansion is technically legal. What is absolutely illegal is one of the following:

• Cards that use a typing that is present in an expansion, but not in the base set or Menagerie. This also includes Projects and Landmarks. (Command is an exception though).
• Cards that rely on materials not present in the base game or Menagerie (such as Spirits).

About the future: I think we can do one more round, of creating a Promo card. After that, I think this series is done.

157

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Set Expansion Contest

« on: January 04, 2021, 09:25:00 am »

Theatre Venue
Victory
Worth 1% plus an additional 1% for every 2 Villagers you have (rounded down).
-
When you gain this, if you have no Villagers, +3 Villagers, otherwise +1 Villager.

A VP card that scales with additional Villagers. Some of the other Villager cards could make this busted, so I am thinking it may be too good as is. I am thinking of changing it to be a set bonus VPs for just having a minimum number of Villagers, something like +2 VP for having at last 4 Villagers or something. It is still a decent source of villagers regardless and can be remodeled if that is an option in the Kingdom if you are not going "big villager". Feedback would be appreciated.

Villagers are unbounded, so the infinite VP,  endless game potential here might be quite likely? (Patron and Expedition don't push the game to its end.)

It is a good point that Villagers are indeed uncapped. I still want it pseudo scaling with the number of villagers you have, so I changed it to be capped based on how many Theatre Venues you have.

Theatre Venue
Victory
Worth 1VP plus an additional 1VP per set you have of Theatre Venue - 2 Villagers.
-
When you gain this, if you have no Villagers, +3 Villagers, otherwise +1 Villager.

Updated the original post here. Hopefully this change will address the potential infinite VP concern without nerfing the card too hard.

Problem is that now, all Theatre Venues are Estates after the first one (if I am understanding the card correctly).

Not quite. The VP value is MIN(n*(n+1), (1+[V/2])*n). It explores the concept of a VP card whose value grows quadratically w.r.t. the amount of TVs in your deck (n), but the amount of villagers in your pool (V) drastically keeps the count in check.

158

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Can we get a play all supplies button?

« on: January 02, 2021, 11:53:15 am »

Speaking of autoplay, there should also be a way to make Moneylender not trash a Copper when you play it. I once lost a game because I needed a Moneylender and Copper in play to activate my Magic Lamp.

159

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Set Expansion Contest

« on: January 02, 2021, 11:41:16 am »

Letterpress
cost $6 - Project
When you gain a non-Victory card costing up to $4, gain a copy of it (that doesn't come with another).


A permanent Talisman.  Let's spell a magic of stella!  (Be careful when someone has a Witch.)

I like it. But the Curse thing seems more like a bug than a feature. Maybe "Action Card" rather than non-victory?

Also probably better if it can't double Tunnels. 4 VP for 3$ is a bit silly.

I'd honestly add "costing $2 to $4". Other possiblities include: add a "during your turn" clause or explicitly exclude Curses from eligible cards (you cannot exclude Ruins though).

160

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Set Expansion Contest

« on: January 02, 2021, 06:26:45 am »

Obsolete Denomination (Project, $3)
During your turns, Coppers produce $0. When you play a Copper, trash it.

161

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Set Expansion Contest

« on: December 27, 2020, 07:03:27 am »

My submission is an Attack card for Nocturne that doesn't give out Hexes (at least not directly):



As part of setup, you would create a Ghouls pile with 10 Ghouls for two-player games and 10 additional Ghouls per player for higher player counts.

Unlike Ruins, which can only be removed from your deck by trashing/exiling them, Ghouls can be returned to their pile if you play them as an Action and receive a Hex.

I like this concept, but I think that +$3 makes it a little too strong.

162

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Set Expansion Contest

« on: December 22, 2020, 07:55:43 am »

I don't agree with your rationale against Heirlooms. I personally think this contest is about simulating cards that could have been in this expansion (and this expansion in particular). It is about covering the hypothetical case an expansion getting a v2, with a few extra cards. All used mechanics are equally as likely to occur in a hypothetical "expansion of expansion". So I'd welcome Heirloom based submissions as well.

The only thing that makes an 8th Heirloom awkward is the offchance that there will be 8 Heirloomees used in a kingdom. But that can be solved by adding a rule that whenever that happens, one of the Heirlooms will not be used (which one is random).

Anyway, my submission:

+1 Action
Now and at start of next turn: +1 Action and receive one of the set aside boons.
-
Setup: If you haven't already, set aside the top 3 Boons face up.

This is a Duration Druid. It is also designed to make it act as a glorified Fishing Village. I originally didn't include the Village ability, but I was afraid that that would make the card too underwhelming on average for a $5 cost.

163

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Set Expansion Contest

« on: December 21, 2020, 04:13:37 pm »

EMPIRES EXTENSION CONTEST - RESULTS

Lots of cool ideas here. But there can be only one winner. These are the results.

Lease (Action, $3)
+2 Cards
Play a Treasure card from your Lease mat and pay its $. +1 VP per $ you paid.
-
When you gain this, put up to two Treasure cards from your hand onto your Lease mat.

First of all, the phrasing. More specifically, the phrase Play a Treasure card from your Lease mat and pay its $. There is a reason you don't see this on official cards, as this gets very confusing when there are Treasures that let you play other cards. And although Capitalism didn't exist on Empire's release, Crown did and is even part of Empires. As such, it's better to base the effect on the price of the Treasure.

About the effect itself, it looks rather underpowered. If the Lease mat only contains Coppers, playing a Lease yields +2 Cards +1 VP; not very inspiring. And if you wanna use Lease on better Treasures, well, you you have to forego the effect of the Treasure itself for one turn. Not to mention that if you buy a Lease and want to use the below-bar effect in its fullest, you have to forego a $5 purchase.

It still can be nice in niche situations, especially in the presence of Ironmonger or Villa, but overall, it looks a little too underwhelming. The fact that there are only 10 of those also limits its capability in being a pseudo Bishop.

Colossus (Landmark)
When scoring, count your Action and Treasure cards. -2VP per 1 difference between them.

This one looks pretty nice. It is decent at discouraging the spam of Villages and Caravans. On the other hand, crafting a nice engine is part of the fun in Dominion, and discouraging that leads can lead to the more boring/luck dependent kind of games.

Another thing is that this landmark will probably render Duchies and Estates obsolete as late game points, and Golds and Silvers (and even Coppers) also get the job done for a while, transforming the dynamics even further. Luckily, this works only temporarily (an not until THESE piles run out) as you don't want Treasures to outnumber the Actions.

Lastly, in the absense of Copper trashing, this could very well just act as a Bandit Fort that penalizes the likes of Platina and Relics as well. Overall, it looks like a respectable Landmark. FINALIST

Offerings (Action - Reaction, $4)
+$2
Each player (including you) may discard a card to draw a card.
-
When you discard this other than during Clean-up, you may trash this for +1 Action and +2VP.

I think you kinda messed up the above the part by making it apply to all players, since this effect is generally going to be way more useful for the opponent than the player. And given that this is just a $4 costing terminal Silver, I don't see why this couldn't just apply to the user itself. With the current effect, it's going to be an extremely hard sell.

The below-the-line effect looks OK-ish; as VP without taking a spot in your deck is quite nice, but Emporium looks so much more appealing in that regard. And for making discarders non-terminal, the newly introduced Village Green outclasses this by a severe margin (although Island is also pretty badly outclassed by several Menagerie cards).

Garrison (Action, $4@4)
+5 Cards
+1 Buy
You may trash this and an Action card from your hand, for +1 Action.
-
When this leaves play, take 5 Debt. If it is your Clean-Up phase, you may then pay off Debt.

Overall, the last minute change is an improvement. However, at this state, it is a more expansive Royal Blacksmith. Although it doesn't have the annoying property of discarding Coppers, the 5 Dept most definitely compensates for that in the long run. It also severely limits this card's early game potential, considering getting this card probably mandates debt as well.

The comparisons to Storyteller are cut short thanks to this card being terminal. The "extra" ability to get +1 Action barely seems to be worth including as removing this card AND an other action is an extremely tall order.

Lastly, does it even make sense for this card to be in the same set as Royal Blacksmith?

Gallery (Action, $3)
Take up to 3 Debt to discard that many cards. Draw until you have 6 cards in hand.

Hey, it's Watchtower that exchanges its Reaction for an optional ability to get more out of this card. With Festival or Fishing Village, this extra ability can turn this card into a pretty fierce drawing machine. However, Debt can be pretty costly and trying to replace your Estates with Coppers is not going to be very meaningful. Overall, a very nice way to get a new version of Watchtower and use de Debt mechanic in a method that isn't present in any of the official cards. FINALIST

Tribune (Action - Gathering, $3)
+1 Action
+$1
You may discard a Victory card for +1 Card. Add 1VP to the Tribune Supply pile.

Tribe (Victory - Gathering, $5)
$5 - Victory - Gathering
2VP
--
When you gain this, if you have any Tribunes in play, take the VP from the Supply pile.

Tribune is a VP card that is fairly closely related to Monument and Wild Hunt in that it "unlocks" 1 VP token per play. Unlike these cards, however, Tribune has a very weak on play effect. This means that even if you do manage to snatch in all 5 Tribunes, you are very likely at a disadvantage, by the fact that you have wasted 5 gains on weak stop cards. The situation is even more painful at a 4-1 split (you are now forced to pick up Tribes), and if both players pursue this pile, than players will be discouraged to unlock the first Tribe. As such, picking this up is pretty much guaranteed to be a bad choice. The only case I can see this being worthwhile is with Scrying Pool and maybe with City Quarter or Tactician, although even there it seems lackluster (especially in comparison to Patron).

Lictor (Action, $4)

+1 Card
+1 Action

You may return any number of VP tokens, for +1 Card each.
---
When you gain this, +2VP tokens.

This draws many parallels with Experiment in that it temporary lets you boost your draw before disappearing. The disadvantage is that Experiment is more spread, while the advantage is that the "first" time you draw this, you can immediately get the DoubleLab effect if you want. Another advantage is that if your turn is already shaping to be good, you can go for a blank +1 Card, +1 Action, without needing Way of the Pig.

The interaction with other +VP sources can be quite insane. It is alright with Monument, and probably even Wild Hunt. On Goons boards, it will be extremely powerful. The biggest kicker will be on Dominate boards, where your engine becomes extremely reliable when the first Lictor lets you draw 10 cards.

The +2VP gain is questionable as well for a $4 costing cantrip, especially when it works with pretty all gainers.

Dragonrock (Landmark)
At the end of each turn, +1 VP if you took any VP tokens or gained any Estates this turn.
-
At the end of the game, -1 VP for each Province you have.

The premise of making Provinces less worthwile and other VP sources more is interesting, but the execution seems rather sloppy. I don't think giving VP tokens for earning VP tokens is interesting; it's narrow and too automatic in many cases (especially with other Landmarks). The interaction with Estates feels very tacky as well.

Barbarian (Action - Attack - Gathering, $5)
+2 Cards
Add 1VP to the Barbarians Supply pile.  Each other player with 4 or more cards in hand discards a Treasure (or reveals they can't).  If no players discard any Treasures, take the VP from the pile.

I am not sure if this is intentional, but the attack almost always hits only once. This means that whenever you manage to play this a second time, you will likely get 2 VP, and each subsequent play is equivalent to +2 Cards, +1 VP. This is alright, but not very inspiring, especially for a $5 cost. As a drawing card, it is severely outdone by Wild Hunt.

A very important design philosophy of VP giving cards is that they have to work towards the end. Monument does that by giving +2$ (and lacks spammability by being a terminal stop card). Barbarians only draws a bit, thus not providing any economy. The attack slows down the opponent, thus giving the card an opposite effect. And the attack can be quite nasty at that when Gold is the main source of economy. The card is going to be especially problematic with Champion.

Carpenter (Action - Attack, $5)
Gain a card costing up to $4. Each other player may reveal a copy from it form their hand. Each player who doesn't discards down to 3 cards in their hand.

Carving (Treasure, $4)
$2, +1 Buy
--
When you gain this during your Action phase, put it into your hand.

An unconditionally non-terminal Workshop variant; we haven't seen that before. An extra effect is definitely necessary, although I am not quite sure if this is the right approach. The Carving looks pretty nice, although this this could turn the attack into a non-terminal Militia, which I am not sure if I want to see that. Carving also doesn't add a whole lot over Spices and Charm (the latter of which is in this set). I like the idea of a splitting pile with the cheaper card on bottom.

Salesman (Action, $3)
Trash a card from your hand. You may gain a card costing up to $1 more. You may trash this to gain a Gold.

Merchant Village (Action, @5)
+2 Cards
Reveal the top 2 cards of your deck and put the Action Cards into your hand. Put the rest back in any order.
--
You can't buy this unless you have a Gold in play.

Merchant Village is an inferior Lost City and it will be likely be outclassed by pretty much any Village, as Merchant Village makes your deck stall easily when the Greening phase is in full swing. The card is technically "cheaper" by virtue of being a debt card but mandating Gold and being second in a split pile more than make up for that. 

The first card, Salesman, looks pretty underwhelming: the on-play effect is essentially a worse Develop, with the ability to "eject" itself for a Gold. Having to get through that pile for a village sounds extremely painful. Compare this with Bustling Village, which is greatly diminished by being part of a split pile. However, that card at least has synergy with its upper counterpart (Settlers), and also has +3 Actions to boot.

End results

Runner up: Colossus by Aquila
Winner: Gallery by Gambit05

Congratulations to Gambit05 for winning this contest! Also many thanks for the rest of the submissions!
 

164

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Set Expansion Contest

« on: December 20, 2020, 06:06:06 am »

24 hours left!

(or actually 30-ish since I can't judge before I'm done with work)

165

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Set Expansion Contest

« on: December 13, 2020, 02:14:55 pm »

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay! Also congratz to the finalists and to X-tra's amazing judging.

Anyway, this week's expansion to is Empires, aka Prosperity 2.0. Your submissions should use at least one of the following mechanics.

* Landmarks 
* VP-tokens
* Debt
* Split piles

Since this is about expanding Empires, the following is off-limits:
* Night cards
* Ways and Projects
* Heirlooms, States and Artifacts
* Cards that use materials that are present in other expansions, but not empires. These materials include, but are not limited to, Teacher tokens, Villagers, Coffers, Boons/Hexes, Spirits, Spoils, Ruins, Horses, the Tavern Mat and the Exile.
* Reserve cards, even if you somehow bypass the need for a Tavern mat.

At this point, there is no objection against the overpay mechanic, or any of the other below-the-line stuff you see on Dominion cards. Travellers are technically acceptable as well (the mechanic is self contained and existed prior to Empires), although the chance of winning with such submission is extremely low.

166

Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest Thread

« on: December 12, 2020, 05:14:43 pm »

To make sure I understand, the task is to design a card that (a) belongs to a particular expansion, and (b) is on-theme but off-mechanic for that expansion? So a sifting duration card for hinterlands, or a variety-encouraging way for Cornucopia?

If I understand correctly, it is...

- An Event, Landmark, State, Project, Artifact, or Way for one of the pre-Advantures expansions
- A Landmark, State, Project, Artifact, or Way for Adventures
- A State, Project, Artifact, or Way for Empires
- An Event, Landmark, Project, Artifact (*), or Way for Nocturne
- An Event, Landmark, State (*), or Way for Renaissance
- A Landmark, State, Project or Artifact for Menagerie

(*) States and Artifacts are functionally similar, so not sure how that counts for Nocturne or Renaissance.

167

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Set Expansion Contest

« on: December 12, 2020, 06:38:19 am »

This is extremely similar to Gear and compares extremely favorably to that card.

Collector
cost $5 - Action
You may put a card on your Tavern Mat whose copy is not there, from your hand. +$1 per a differently named card on your Tavern Mat.


Harvest variant.

Looks far inferior to Bounty Hunter which is nonterminal and whose early Coin spikes help you more.

I think this card can be a nice payload on Shelter games or Ruins games, and is definitely able to distinguish itself from Miser and Bounty Hunter. That said, it will be pretty weak on average.

168

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Set Expansion Contest

« on: December 05, 2020, 08:08:03 am »

I think this one fits right here. The above-the-line part is intended to be simple and not overly impactful. The main feature should be the below-the-line part.

169

Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest Thread

« on: November 10, 2020, 04:29:27 pm »

Waterfall - $4 - Victory
1 VP
When you trash this, gain a Waterfall and Exile this.

Some kind of a Victory Card Fortress. Of course Fortress is better as a TfB feeder than Waterfall, in fact it is often centralizing with Apprentice, Upgrade and their like. The idea with Waterfall is that it is more narrow, you have to evaluate whether it is good enough for your TfB and you cannot use it forever.

It also has some different characterics: You kind of get 1VP, when you "trash" it (which is limited by the pile) and you can empty a pile with it quite quickly, if that is what you want to do. There may be games where you gain it for that purpose only. And well, you can give your opponent an "untrashable" card with Swindler.

I guess there are more games I won't touch this than games where I do, but nevertheless I think this could make for interesting decisions.

Looks cool, but I think it should be worth 2 VP.

170

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Set Expansion Contest

« on: October 10, 2020, 03:52:54 am »

171

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Feedback wanted on my "make rebuild interesting" Dark Ages designed kingdom

« on: October 04, 2020, 08:14:20 am »

I disagree. Rebuild is very underappreciated as an unorthodox milling tool. When you have a Province or Duchy in your deck/discard, you just need to click Rebuild and poof, the Province pile is depleted by 1. This is especially dangerous in the presense of Throne Room or King's Court, as this effect is throneable. Rebuild being nonterminal is also an advantage.

Sure, in principle. In practice, how often does it happen that 1) you're playing an engine 2) you're able to set up a Province or a Duchy in your discard pile 3) you're ahead in points but your opponent is playing a slower strategy with a higher payload and could catch up 4) you have a $5+ buy and the best way to spend it is on a card that just mills Provinces?

I think you are oversimplifying a bit. I'm talking about Rebuild as a card that you sneak in at some point, not as a card that is integral to your build. Being able to set up Province/Duchy in your deck/discard pile is a huge plus, but by no means mandatory. Rebuild also works when you draw it before all green cards are drawn, especially since it is nonterminal. And it definitely doesn't "just mill" Provinces, it also has the bonus of netting 3VP when there is a Duchy in your deck (undrawn).

You are right about opportunity cost - it's a stop card and it's useless when there are no green cards in your deck. And it dislikes Estates. So yeah, it probably fails to make it into anyone's deck the majority of the time. But the milling effect it provides is definitely more valuable than adding a card that makes your deck a teeny weeny bit more reliable.

172

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Set Expansion Contest

« on: September 30, 2020, 02:03:47 pm »

173

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Set Expansion Contest

« on: September 27, 2020, 04:48:20 am »

This card is meant to discourage the spamming of Village and Silver.

174

Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest Thread

« on: September 26, 2020, 05:41:34 pm »

175

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Card updating contest

« on: September 20, 2020, 09:20:56 am »

So I'll finish my job as judge, in WDC style:

gambit05

• Mine: This is probably too much of a buff for the turn it's used. C->S makes $3; S->G makes $5 and G->P makes $8. Getting this amount of money out of two cards while also improving your deck sounds rather absurd. I think it is much better by just making Mine produce $1 itself, rather than pulling this kind of stuff.
• Explorer: It is basically a Courtier that uses Province as a dual type and the rest as a single type (albeit worse). Province is a card that is always in the kingdom and also always useful at some point. However, it isn't useful until endgame and prior to then, it pales very much in comparison to Governor and Courtier. And during endgame, having no direct benefit when not connected to Province can be very frustrating (something the original Explorer doesn't have).
• Royal Seal: Its topdecking effect last much longer, and it's cheaper! This is probably the buff it needs.

Lordbaphomet

• Royal Seal (renamed to Royal Decree): I think that this does a little too much for a $4 workshop. First, it's nonterminal no matter what; something we have never seen on a Workshop variant before. And its below-the-line part gives it pretty ridiculous self synergy. Your idea could maybe work on $5, or as a terminal card, but it sounds pretty excessive right now.
• Explorer: This new version of Explorer is completely worthless in hands without Victory cards, and I'm not sure if the effects are strong enough to make up for that. What loses most of its appeal, is that it only works on the three base Victory cards. You probably should have put: if the Victory Card costs $0-$2 then..., if it costs $3 to $6 then,..., if it costs $7+ then...

spineflu

• Royal Seal: This is completely busted. A Treasure lowering the price by $2 could maybe work as a $7 card, but not as a $5 cost that has a while-in-play part that works admirably with it. You could have limited the price reduction to Action cards and it would have been a pretty nice buff, albeit awkward as Quarry and Royal Seal are both Prosperity cards.
• Explorer: You make Explorer less likely to collide terminally, which is definitely a buff. Not sure if this new effect is interesting enough to warrant this much text, or if a simple +1 Action wouldn't be too much, but I like it. 
• Mine: This new version of Mine, unlike Lordbaphomet's, seems quite weak to be honest. It does nothing against Mine's slowness; in fact it only amplifies it as this worsens the cycling, and is worse on the turns you draw the Mine. On top of that, topdecking a Treasure is generally not something you want (although it is nice with Storyteller). The card no longer being terminal is nice though.
  

Aquila

• Explorer: This is a pretty nice Gold gainer that keeps the original Explorer's identity in an elegant way. The discarding options seem rather disjointed, but they work together beautifully. Well done.

NoMoreFun

• Mine (replaced by Ore/Prospect): You have to stick with one option, so it won't win, but I'm going to judge nonetheless. Ore will pretty much always play as a Gold that is delayed by one shuffle, which seems rather automatic and boring. Prospect is pretty decent (and definitely correctly priced), but not terribly exciting.

LibraryAdventurer

• Explorer (replaced by Dwarf/Mithril Bar): $5 seems like an odd limit, as that makes the card really strong with $5 costing Treasures (except the crappy ones which are... the majority). Mithril Bars are really good when Dwarfs bestow them, but not really afterward. That said, gaining Silver to your hand is already pretty strong for a $4 cost, and this effect is a strictly superior version of that.

And the winners per category are:

Explorer: Aquila
Mine: Spineflu
Royal Seal: gambit05

And the overall winner is... Aquila

Congratulations Aquila for winning this contest! And you may judge the next iteration.

That said, this thread has been a ghost town for one week straight, so I'm not sure if this contest is worth resuming.