CONTEST 72 RESULTS
Alright, time to judge. As always, if you’d like to have a rebuttal against what I’ve written, please do so. It’s all about helping one get better at judging. So yeah, I encourage you to show me where you have disagreements and stuff. It’s all in good spirit!
Now, seems like this week’s contest isn’t as a “ball in the park” as I thought it was. Exiling is a new mechanic and this makes it a little harder to judge what is balanced and what isn’t. Especially when it comes to the price of a card. Plus, we only have a
short list of existing Exiling cards to deal with. Grep’s contest of doing Horse stuff also had that same consequence, but I believe that Horse cards are more straight-forward in their usage than Exiling. This is highly reflected by the sheer amount of discussion about balance this week’s contest generated. But I’m glad you guys did so. It really shows an obvious desire to create; and to create well. So good job everyone for making the most of that Exiling contest!
And now, let’s see the entries. We’ve got 27, just like last week! I feel you, Grep, lol. Uhhh so yeah. Two things I’ve noticed: Lots of cards priced at
and a lot of Projects! Anyway, let’s take a look:
Manufacturer (Action)
Choose one: Exile a non-Victory card from the Supply; or gain a copy of a card you have at least 3 copies of in Exile.
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In games using this, you may not buy cards you have copies of in Exile.
Because this costs
and is your only way of un-Exiling stuff in a game using this, I believe there is an edge case to be made in which a player could get stuck not being able to compete if other Exiling Attacks exist in the Kingdom, such as Cardinal or Gatekeeper. Beside that, I don’t know if I want to spend my hard earned
on a terminal card which does nothing but eat up my Action phase the first 3 times I use it. Feels like a trap to fall behind. Beside that, you kinda shut yourself off a particular card the first and second time you Exile it with Manufacturer, whereas players who didn’t do that can still freely buy it and laugh at the stuck player who spent
to be in that position.
Oki (Action)
Exile up to 2 cards from your hand.
Yes. I like stuff like this. Players see that and immediately go: “Oh okay, I get it. Neat.” Though this card might be a
. I’m comparing it to Sanctuary. Sanctuary replaces 1 of the 2 Exiles of Oki with a “+1 Card, +1 Action, +1 Buy”. A cantrip Buy is, in my opinion, way stronger than a simple Exile. And so, I think in comparison to Sanctuary, Oki should cost less.
would be my go to. But still, this is a clean and efficient card.
Toolsmith (Action)
Exile 2 non-Victory cards from the Supply costing up to .
Hehehe, a rush game card. A quick way to absolutely murder the cheap Action card piles. In truth, this is even faster than Lurker to speed up a game. Like, I can’t exactly calculate how fast a game using Toolsmith would be. But imagine if each player opens with Toolsmith in a 4-player game. Since it’s something that “gains” things in bulk, yeah, I think Toolsmith should be in the
club, with the other big boys. Cool card though!
Recompense (Treasure)
When you play this, gain a card costing up to 
per differently named cards you have in Exile. If it’s a Victory card, trash this.
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When you gain this, Exile a card from your hand.
Beside flavor with the name of that card, I don’t see why this needs to be a Treasure. Is it because it was meant to not suck up an Action to be played? If so, I would have removed the big fat
on the card and would have made it a Night card instead. As it is, printed on a card, the text would be super tiny and aesthetically unpleasing. But anyway. So, if this is the only Exiling card in the Kingdom, I hardly see the point on spending
to have the possibility of gaining a card costing up to
. At least you’ve Exiled, like, an Estate? Then next time you gain a Recompense, you need to Exile a Copper to gain stuff costing up to
now? This seems too slow and too expensive to beat a simple
costing Workshop that gains you
cards right off the bat, even if you have to spend an Action to do so.
Way of the Cicada (Way)
Exile this and a copy of this from the Supply. Once per game: You may set aside all copies of this you have in Exile. If you did, play them all.
Wouldn’t this make it too easy to gain duplicates of stuff you really want, such as Nobles or stuff like that? There could be a
limit on which Action card can make use of this Way. Probably would make this too wordy though. But a cool Way nonetheless! Definitely goes hand-in-hand with other wild ways such as Way of the Chameleon and Way of the Mouse!
Sanctum (Action)
+1 Card
+1 Action
Choose one: Put a card from Exile into your hand; or you may Exile a card from your hand that you do not already have a copy of in Exile.
This is nice. A utility card where its power is not-so-obvious at first. This makes it so your deck can handle more terminal Actions than it usually would. It’s sort of a nicely controlled Native Village and I love that. Always had bad luck with Native Village. I’d feel luckier with Sanctum.
New World (Event)
Once per game: Put the cards you have in Exile into your hand. Exile all cards from your deck, your discard pile and that you have in play.
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Setup: Each player Exiles 2 Coppers, 1 Gold and 2 Curses from the Supply and the same set of 4 different unused Action cards.
There are a lot of words on this card. In my opinion, horizontal cards should not have more than 3 lines of text. I know this sounds like something I shouldn’t focus on, but to me that is part of the whole package that is card design. For instance, I don’t think Donald X. would include a card with so much text on it without scrapping the idea entirely. This is definitely a hard hurdle when designing stuff and seriously limits one’s creativity, but that just makes having to work around it a fun little puzzle! Now, I definitely do not want you to think that because you made a card art for this, I immediately spotted the squished text as opposed to those who simply write their card in quote boxes here. That’d be unfair. In fact, check out “Recompense” and “Trophy Collector” on this list, where I once more raise this concern. These cards only came in text form.
But anyway. Cool card name, fits right with the theme of Exiling! This to me wins brownie points. Again, part of the whole card designing package. The idea behind the card is super neat. Originality is oozing from New World and man, do I respect that. This might shift the game entirely toward New World though. Like, it’s gotta be bought at some point. Either at the beginning when you don’t want to invest in stuff you’ll Exile anyway, or when you have bought a sufficient amount of Victory cards toward mid-end game when you don’t want to have ‘em in your hands anymore. But it’s gotta be bought at some point. Otherwise, you’re behind. Kinda like with Donate. The 2 Curses Exiled by default also makes it so that the Curse pile is super small during a game using New World. Almost invalidating certain Cursing Attacks. Hard to judge how much of an impact this would have.
Coyote (Action)
Exile this or a card from your hand. +1 Card per it costs.
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When you gain or trash this, you may play it.
Exile a Province. Draw 8 cards. Be happy you’ve Exiled something you didn’t need/want in your deck in the first place. That’s bonkers. When you have a Province in your hand and
to spare, just buy a Coyote and immediately play it, exiling said Province. That’s bonkers (think I already said that though). Grep is right, this should only Exile non-Victory cards. Cuz you want those little buggers Exiled anyway. So this’d make the choice harder. Still unsure whether the bottom part of the card should exist though.
Commissioner (Action)
+1 Action
If you have any Action card in Exile, put one into your hand. Otherwise, +1 Card and Exile a card from the Supply costing up to .
Well that’s a Workshop indeed. Pretty good one too. I think the +1 Card making this a cantrip on Exiling is a little too much though. Just the +1 Action and Exiling clauses together would have been sufficient imo. Otherwise, this is
really powerful. Exiling without sacrificing your turn, or gaining to your hand a card you’ve Exiled with a spare Action to play it is just like… Workshop+++. So yeah, maybe that’d be the only thing I’d change. Dropping that +1 Card. S’already a good card anyway!
Captive Village (Action)
You may Exile an Action card from your hand. Draw until you have 5 cards in hand. +1 Action per unique Action card in your Exile.
My first instinct here is that it takes a lot to setup that card to be worthy. The first time you use it while Exiling something, for instance, this is simply… well, a cantrip. You’d need to open Captive Village + another cheap Action card to power your Captive Villages early. And this is not boding well for you if you’re sacrificing critical early game time for that. Even if you get this up to +4 Actions, I still think it would not have been worth the effort as opposed to simply buying 2/3 Villages (which are also worth
!)
Rebel (Action)
+2 Cards
+1 Buy
Each player (including you) Exiles a Silver from the Supply. If you have at least 3 Silvers in Exile, you may discard them. If you did, you may trash a card from your hand to gain a card costing up to more.
Player interaction, Silver gaining, Exiling, +Cards, +Buys, trashing, gainer... this is a little much. I don’t think it’s a good idea to have a card with more than one ‘if’ statement. Otherwise, it becomes overly conditional and thus overly convoluted. A card like this would be better broken into two or more smaller cards, maybe even in a split pile! So this card wants you to wait until you have 3 Silvers without discarding them from Exile to be rewarded with a nice trash for benefit. That’s a neat idea. I’m unsure if the player interaction part adds all that much here, but I welcome the intent. I often do lots of non-Attack player interaction stuff for this thread and so I appreciate it when others do so as well!
Pony (Action)
+2 Cards
+1 Action
Exile an Action card from your hand (or reveal a hand with no Action cards).
I disagree with people who said that this was too weak; from my point of view, this is just right with that cost. So it is a Laboratory that costs
less. Why? Because it Exiles, of course. But is it so much of a consequence? Early game, this is absolutely lovely to open with. If you open Pony/Silver, you’re in a pretty good spot (nothing to Exile; except possibly a Necropolis, but meh). Exiling may not be as much of a torn as we make it out to be; it isn’t particularly hard to retrieve an Exiled card, depending on the candidate. Plus, Pony makes you go through your deck at quite an okay speed, so you’ll see them discarded Exiled cards soon enough anyway. This card is neat.
Great Cathedral (Project)
At the start of your turn, choose one: Exile a card from your hand; or put a non-Treasure card from Exile into your hand
That one’s funny. It’ll be like playing with a 3rd pile of card: Your deck, your discard pile and your Exile pile. I like the Donate mirror price because while it is slower than it, it does stuff forever ‘til you win/lose. So it’s a nice comparison. Great Cathedral is one of those big cards though, so I’m scratching my head figuring out if it’s overpowered. In a way, you’ll get rid of those Victory cards real quick while reaping their benefit, so that’s strong. Once you start greening with Provinces, Great Cathedral will take care of them for you. You won’t slow down too much. You’ll be as clean end game as you are mid game, which can mess up with the tempo of the game. However, that’s not enough for me to say “nah” to this card. I still like it a lot.
Escapist (Action – Attack)
+
Each other player gains a Curse. They may reveal a Curse from their hand; if anyone does, Exile this.
Eyyy baby, an Attack! This is very Old Witch-y, in the sense that it’s a Cursing Attack that might not always work. Seems like a card that doesn’t scale so well the more players there are. It’s easier to be caught when you are facing 3 opponents rather than just 1. I don’t know if it’s worth un-exiling an Escapist, since it’s mean you’ll be stuck with 2 terminals. But the choice makes it interesting. Neat little Attack.
Portal (Action – Reaction – Command)
Play this as I it was any non-Command Action card on your Exile mat.
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Whenever you gain a card, you may reveal this from your hand to Exile the gained card.
Allow me to be super annoying and nitpick on the wording. The top part of the card would be better worded as such: “Play a non-Command Action card you have in Exile, leaving it there”, just to be more consistent with the way other emulators work. Now that we have the formalities out of the way, let me just say: I like this. You guys are all so creative. It’s a slow Emulator, it requires a little bit of setup, but once in place, da-yum! It’s stronger than Band of Misfits AND Overlord since it does not have a cost limit on what card it can emulate. The sluggishness of having to invest in a card you want to Emulate beforehand while having the Portal in your hand is enough to justify a lower price though. I dunno, maybe this should’ve been a
? There is a little bit of swingy-ness here. But then, that case can be made for stuff like Prince and yet it exists in Dominion. Look. Point is: I like this.
Thelony (Action – Attack – Duration)
+1 Card
+1 Action
At the start of your next turn: +1 Card, +1 Action, +1 Buy and +. While this is in play, the first time any other player discards a card from their Exile mat on their turn, they take 
.
Well, as others have mentioned, the Attack part can be completely invalidated most games Thelony appears in. Now. One could say: “But X-tra, stuff like Hunting Grounds and Squire’s got some stuff that can be impossible to activate in some Kingdoms!” S’true. However, it is but a small part of those cards, it takes very little space text-wise on the card and it is activable in a lot of games. Trashing or Attack cards are so much more common than cards that can Exile, which is only but a small fraction of Dominion. So the whole bottom part of Thelony only serve to make the text of the card smaller and harder to read. As for the top part, it seems really strong. You start your next turn with a Lost City and then some? And you cantriped to get those bonuses? Incredibly strong, even for a
card!
Export (Event)
Once per turn: +1 Buy. Exile a Gold you have in play. If you did, +1
and your cards cannot leave your Exile mat this turn.
Weird indeed! This card brings forth a lot of conditions for it to essentially award you with 2
to Exile 2 Golds. Mind you, that’s an interesting idea. It’s a tough choice to make. The novelty of it is thrilling and brings the realm of
into Exiling for benefit, something we haven’t seen in Menagerie.
Xanadu (Action – Victory)
Exile a card from your hand.
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Worth 1 per differently named card you have in Exile.
Did not expect anyone to sneak a Victory card in here. Glad you did though, ‘cuz what we have here is pretty bitchin’. It’s actually a very clever way to amass alternate
and like cards like the similarly-priced Fairgrounds, it can really shine depending on the Kingdom. But it’s also good on its own. And so it gets a good thumbs up from me. Get some Villages, a source of +Buy and 2 or more Xanadu and you’ll have a nice alt-
engine.
Valley Town (Action)
+1 Card
+2 Actions
You may Exile this for +1 Card.
Excellent idea here. Simple, but, in my opinion, it works. I love Villages that costs
more because they do a little something else. Not unlike Mining Village, a card which is also a Village with a “You may” thingy in it. This fits right into the spirit of what Exiling should add to Dominion. Sorry I can’t comment more than this for this card, but I won’t invent flaws where there are none (that I can see at least).
Courrier (Action - Duration)
Gain an Action card and set it aside. Each other player may Exile a copy of that card from the Supply. At the start of your next turn, play the set aside card.
Summon says hi. Of same cost, this is the best thing to compare this to. Summon is limited in the sense that it can only gain up to
. This does not. But it has the consequence of setting your opponents up with a (delayed) copy of the card you’re trying to play. You’ll have to forfeit a Buy to use Summon, but here you must use an Action to use Courrier. Thus, in my book, the cost is justified. Thumbs up to a balanced card!
Green Network (Project)
When you trash a non-Victory card, you may Exile it.
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When you buy this, Exile up to 2 cards you have in play.
Thank God for the “non-Victory” clause here! Lots of cards in this list have that but boy is it necessary. Anyway, cool Project. I like the initial auto-Exile thingy, it’s cute. Probably everyone will acquire this project. Not as urgently as stuff like Star Chart though. So it’s priced correctly, I think. This can be abused with stuff like Lurker though, to auto claim a card you trash from the Supply. In fact, this might be an infinite turn enabler.
Gaoler (Action)
Exile the top 3 cards of your deck, then put 2 cards you have in Exile into your hand.
Cool idea! A +2 Cards where you can pull them from a pool of set aside cards you’ve stockpiled before. But see, that’s the thing. That’s... essentially a +2 Cards in essence, no? Yeah, there’s some deck culling attributes with Galoer. But when you play it, the immediate effect is that it’s going to feel like a +2 Cards. Therefore, I believe this is overpriced. I think maybe a
or even maybe a
would have suited this card.
Repair (Project)
The first time you trash a card during a turn, you may Exile it instead if you don’t have a copy of it in Exile. When you Exile a Province or a Colony with this, take back your Cube from the Project.
Interesting. One of each green card can be Exiled to be out of your deck, with Provinces and Colonies slowing that ability down. This seems fair, imo. It is very limited in its use, but it seems like a “hey, why not” Project when you hit
. Cool concept, interesting tied-in limiters.
Agitator (Action – Attack – Reaction)
Exile up to 2 cards from your hand. You may choose a card on each other player’s Exile mat; they discard it.
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When you gain, trash, Exile or reveal this (using the word “reveal”), you may Exile a card from your hand.
I don’t know if the Reaction part is all that necessary. Honestly, if this was left as it is with just the Exiling/Attacking part, I would have already been enamored by the idea presented here. It’s funny, ‘cuz when you think of an Exiling Attack, we’re all like “oh yeah, other players must Exile stuff to make it hard for them to retrieve it harr harr”. Yet here, it’s the opposite; the Attack is all about
un-Exiling. Which is neat and novel! Though uuhhh yeah. I feel like if one opts for an Agitator to clean their deck without sacrificing their Estates, yeah, your opponents are pretty much obliged to follow suit, especially if there are no cards like Bounty Hunter in the Kingdom. This becomes sort of the go-to strategy and could potentially create a tug-of-war that shapes the game too much into investing in that one particular card.
Viceroy (Action – Command)
Name an Action card. Each other player Exiles a copy of it. If they did, play it twice, leaving it there.
The wording is a little confusing here. One could interpret that all other players need to Exile the named Action card, which would make Viceroy worse the more players there are (probably worthless in a 4-player game). Or, you could say that at least one other player must’ve Exiled the named card in order for you to play it. That seems more in the spirit of what this card is trying to achieve. In that case, I’d say: “If at least one other player did”, or “If another player did”, etc. Anyway. This emulator is rather risky. You’d have to sort of keep track of your opponents’ Buys, discard pile and stuff. Because if it fails, it’s frustrating. But then, so is a lone Throne Room in a hand.
Papal Bull (Project)
The first time you trash your card during each of your turns, if it is an...
Action card, put it into your hand.
Victory card, Exile it.
“One of your cards” would be clearer, but that’s me nitpicking (as usual). I feel like this Project’s overpowered. Imagine that: It’d be one of the only time in Dominion where you would purposefully trash a Province. That thought makes me giggle, lol. Imagine this with trash for benefit cards, like Remake or Upgrade. That’s insane. Remodel a Province, exile it and gain... a Province! You
will need this Project in a game where there’s trashing involved. Repair, a little higher, tried to deal with the problem of Exiling big green cards.
Trophy Collector (Action)
Choose one: Exile a card from your hand, or + per 2 differently named cards on your Exile mat (rounded down).
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Setup: In games using this, each player starts with a Silver and a Gold on their Exile mat.
A way to reduce wordiness of that card would be to simply cut the “In games using this” part (Baker doesn’t use that statement, for instance). That card sort of remind me of Miser. Seems more reliable than it though, since it starts with stuff that gives it
already. It is slower than Miser though (needs 2 cards for +
; Miser needs just one Copper). Overall, this seems slow, like… Miser! You’ll probably just want to use this for simply Exiling unattractive stuff in your deck. In which case, other Exiling cards like Bounty Hunter, for the same cost, seems more interesting. And hey. Hey. I wanna see that FAQ. Nothing’s silly here. Silliness would be to think that such things are silly.
(Keep in mind, there was 27 cards to choose from, it was impossible for me to cram everything down the finalists bellow)Semifinalists: Sanctum ; Pony ; Great Cathedral ; Portal ; Escapist
Finalists: Oki ; Xanadu
Winner: Valley Town
'Grats Something_Smart! Valley Town, though how deceptively simple it may seem on the surface, honestly really shines with the Exiling mechanic. It feels like a perfect match for that mechanic. It really brings forth what Exiling adds to Dominion and this neat little card could’ve snuck its way into Menagerie, imo. So congrats!
And hey, congrats to everyone else also! You guys really did put extra effort this week, debating and arguing about your entries with admirable seriousness. You rock
! And uhhh yeah. All I ask is that if y'all are gonna throw stones at me, please have the decency of doing so one at a time, hahaha!
and you want that Copper anyway.
if winning when buying a Debate. This'll be implemented.
There are 10 Accommodations in the pile.
