126
Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Fan Mechanics Week 54: At the Border
« on: January 23, 2023, 06:34:46 pm »
Thank you Aquila for judging and apologies for missing the judging. I will post a new contest shortly.
Show Posts
This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.
127
Dominion General Discussion / Re: Plunder Card Power Levels First Impressions
« on: January 23, 2023, 05:47:09 am »I didn't get around to voting, but it's interesting how weak people are ranking Fortune Hunter.I think it is a simple matter. LastFootnote has argued that Adventurer is a $2, i.e. digging for Treasure is not better than drawing. So Fortune Hunter is similar to +2 Coins, +1 Card which is weaker than Smithy. Smithy is a strong $4, so Fortune Hunter is a weak $4.
It's very often at least a Terminal Gold and it has a few other tricks up its sleeve. It's also likely to come up in people's experiences in "extra plunder" games, giving it more Treasures to interact with. That's setting it up to be seen as very strong, and I thought Terminal Gold was already considered too good for $4. So it's very interesting that even in first impressions something similar to it in power isn't really impressing anybody.
I wonder how strong a Terminal Gold actually is.
That sounds like something I would say, but Fortune Hunter is different from Adventurer in a lot of important ways. Adventurer's base value is +$2, and you have to work pretty hard to make it reliably better. Fortune Hunter's base value is +$3. It can whiff more easily than Adventurer, but it's still not likely to in the kind of deck where you want it. But perhaps equally important, Fortune Hunter puts the other cards back instead of discarding them. So it's effectively pulling a Copper out of your next hand (or next draw if you didn't play it at the end of your Action phase). That's usually a pretty nice side benefit. Also, Fortune Hunter sometimes lets you choose between different Treasures, and you can smooth out your money a bit that way. You can even opt not to play any of the Treasures! With Adventurer you're stuck with whatever you get.
That's good for hitting precise price points the way Courtyard-BM and Gear-BM is. It's too bad the simulation forum is dead as I'd like to see how it compares to other BM strategies.
128
Dominion General Discussion / Re: Plunder Card Power Levels First Impressions
« on: January 20, 2023, 01:10:48 pm »I wonder how strong a Terminal Gold actually is.Well, strictly worse than Treasurer, so it couldn't be priced at $5 or higher. Could well be in the sour spot where it's too strong at $4 and too weak at $5.
That's what I thought, but now I'm less sure. I think we would have said the same thing about +3 Cards if Smithy didn't exist.
129
Dominion General Discussion / Re: Plunder Card Power Levels First Impressions
« on: January 20, 2023, 10:22:56 am »
I didn't get around to voting, but it's interesting how weak people are ranking Fortune Hunter.
It's very often at least a Terminal Gold and it has a few other tricks up its sleeve. It's also likely to come up in people's experiences in "extra plunder" games, giving it more Treasures to interact with. That's setting it up to be seen as very strong, and I thought Terminal Gold was already considered too good for $4. So it's very interesting that even in first impressions something similar to it in power isn't really impressing anybody.
I wonder how strong a Terminal Gold actually is.
It's very often at least a Terminal Gold and it has a few other tricks up its sleeve. It's also likely to come up in people's experiences in "extra plunder" games, giving it more Treasures to interact with. That's setting it up to be seen as very strong, and I thought Terminal Gold was already considered too good for $4. So it's very interesting that even in first impressions something similar to it in power isn't really impressing anybody.
I wonder how strong a Terminal Gold actually is.
130
Variants and Fan Cards / Re: More Ruins - Post your ideas too
« on: January 20, 2023, 09:42:58 am »
This is a blast from the past!
I'm not really fond of Ruins any more. Cultist and Marauder don't feel very different to cursers. Death Cart is neat in the way that it can trash both the junk it comes with and Actions but I wonder if it would have worked with "trash an Action or a Curse". There's some interesting interactions with Ways and cards that assume Actions are valuable (e.g. Siren, Advance), and games where you are very happy to have a Ruined Market. But not really worth the 50 cards in Dark Ages it takes up.
I think the fan mechanics "Snow" (oneshot +1 Action) and "Idle Hands" (oneshot +1 Card) are more interesting versions of what Ruins was trying to do. They're weaker but that leads to more interesting designs with the cards, and they still have the fun of Action junk.
If I was making a 2nd edition of Dark Ages. I'd remove Ruins as we know it and replace it with a pile of oneshot "+2 Actions", or maybe one of Snow/Idle Hands, which aren't in the supply. I'd still call it "Ruins" (in the card name) so existing cards can stay though theyd lose the "Looter" type. I think Death Cart stays but Cultist and Marauder are best gone (but maybe they'd be fine with weaker "Ruins"). People would accuse me of living up to my username but that frees up room in the box (you probably wouldn't need 50 of the new Ruins) and I would like to see Events etc. in Dark Ages with all the non-supply cards.
I'm not really fond of Ruins any more. Cultist and Marauder don't feel very different to cursers. Death Cart is neat in the way that it can trash both the junk it comes with and Actions but I wonder if it would have worked with "trash an Action or a Curse". There's some interesting interactions with Ways and cards that assume Actions are valuable (e.g. Siren, Advance), and games where you are very happy to have a Ruined Market. But not really worth the 50 cards in Dark Ages it takes up.
I think the fan mechanics "Snow" (oneshot +1 Action) and "Idle Hands" (oneshot +1 Card) are more interesting versions of what Ruins was trying to do. They're weaker but that leads to more interesting designs with the cards, and they still have the fun of Action junk.
If I was making a 2nd edition of Dark Ages. I'd remove Ruins as we know it and replace it with a pile of oneshot "+2 Actions", or maybe one of Snow/Idle Hands, which aren't in the supply. I'd still call it "Ruins" (in the card name) so existing cards can stay though theyd lose the "Looter" type. I think Death Cart stays but Cultist and Marauder are best gone (but maybe they'd be fine with weaker "Ruins"). People would accuse me of living up to my username but that frees up room in the box (you probably wouldn't need 50 of the new Ruins) and I would like to see Events etc. in Dark Ages with all the non-supply cards.
131
Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #175 - Super Expensive
« on: January 20, 2023, 12:33:56 am »
Metropolis
Action - $10
+3 Actions
+3 Cards
+3 Buys
You may trash up to 3 cards from your hand.
Action - $10
+3 Actions
+3 Cards
+3 Buys
You may trash up to 3 cards from your hand.
132
Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Fan Mechanics Week 54: At the Border
« on: January 15, 2023, 01:29:35 am »
IMO this should have a type as it impacts the game whether you buy a relevant card or not, so it has "in games using this" rules.
Anyway, my entry (no extra type included).
Infiltrate
Action - $5
Trash a card from your hand. You may play an Action from your Border twice
It's a Throne Room that can also trash if it misses an Action, expedite an Action you gained this turn, or salvage one you trashed earlier (for benefit?).
Anyway, my entry (no extra type included).
Infiltrate
Action - $5
Trash a card from your hand. You may play an Action from your Border twice
It's a Throne Room that can also trash if it misses an Action, expedite an Action you gained this turn, or salvage one you trashed earlier (for benefit?).
133
Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #174: Back to the Future
« on: January 14, 2023, 09:33:50 pm »Donald X: Don't make silver+ power level cards costing 4$ or less, they're too good.
Community: k
Donald X: here's Patron lol
Community: oh yeahlook at what we got
Why do people always name Patron as the first official Silver+ for $4. Conclave came first.
Arguably it started with Delve. You never buy "Silver" in Delve games. But Silver is still ending up in your deck.
Conclave is terminal if you don't have differently named cards to play with it. A hand with 2 conclaves and no other actions, you would rather have a Silver.
Patron can be drawn dead.
Gondola is the first true example of a strict Silver+ for $4, although there are reasons you might still end up getting Silver in games with Gondola (Silver gainers, avoiding opponent Stowaway triggers).
The rule made sense because it wasn't strategically interesting to have Silver+ on the board. When you have $4 and it isn't really a decision whether to buy Silver or the Silver+, so in a way it's a waste of a slot. I don't think Drachma has that problem - it plays differently and you'll be thinking about shuffles and so forth.
134
Dominion General Discussion / Re: An Opinion on the 3 New Revisions (Seaside, Prosperity, Hinterlands)
« on: January 13, 2023, 03:58:09 pm »
I think Stowaway would have been better than Sailor for Seaside. It's no more complex than Pirate, and has the fun of interacting with Durations.
Sailor is lots of fun though. Having a few cards you don't like playing with because they're too complex is better than 1E where there are cards you don't like playing with because they're bad, meaningless, or slow the game to a crawl.
Sailor is lots of fun though. Having a few cards you don't like playing with because they're too complex is better than 1E where there are cards you don't like playing with because they're bad, meaningless, or slow the game to a crawl.
135
Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #174: Back to the Future
« on: January 12, 2023, 05:27:04 am »Reinforcements - $5
Action - Duration - Attack
+$2
Each other player discards down to 3 cards in hand.
The next time anyone plays an Attack, draw until you have 6 cards in hand afterwards.
Might be ok at $4, the way that both Witch and Sea Witch are worth $5 despite the latter doing more, because it will miss reshuffles. Reinforcements might end up sitting around for a while.
I considered $4. It's tricky to judge because if you're able to play multiple copies on a turn, only one is stuck in play, and copies beyond the first provide both draw and virtual coin, a rare and powerful combination. I also kind of want to avoid $4, because then it's more accessible and useful in the opening, but it gives a huge advantage to the player that happens to play it first. At $5 it competes with so many other cards that are better for the early game, so you really have to think about when the best time to get it is.
It probably is fine at $5 because Militia is a strong $4. But it's not particularly spammable (main risk with $4s) as both the draw and the attack don't stack. You really want to play exactly one every turn. It's also not particularly strong in the opening (probably weaker than Militia).
Cool design at any rate.
136
Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #174: Back to the Future
« on: January 12, 2023, 12:41:32 am »QuoteReinforcements - $5
Action - Duration - Attack
+$2
Each other player discards down to 3 cards in hand.
The next time anyone plays an Attack, draw until you have 6 cards in hand afterwards.
Might be ok at $4, the way that both Witch and Sea Witch are worth $5 despite the latter doing more, because it will miss reshuffles. Reinforcements might end up sitting around for a while.
137
Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #174: Back to the Future
« on: January 10, 2023, 06:56:05 pm »
Town council. Set it up, and the next copy rewards you for the amount of cards you played in between. Synergizes with duration cards, forever-in-play cards, and engines that can reliably play a lot of cards in between villages. Price could be changed idk if $4 is balanced.
Should be "any other" town councils, or else the card does nothing except for edge cases.
It will suck to have more than 2. Perhaps make the +2 Actions unconditional?
138
Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #174: Back to the Future
« on: January 10, 2023, 05:19:22 pm »
Cleric
Action/Duration - $4
+1 Buy
The next time you gain a Curse, return it to its pile, gain a card costing up to $4 to your hand, and you may put a card from your hand onto your deck.
Action/Duration - $4
+1 Buy
The next time you gain a Curse, return it to its pile, gain a card costing up to $4 to your hand, and you may put a card from your hand onto your deck.
139
Dominion General Discussion / Re: Annoying and potentially harmful card anti-synergies
« on: January 08, 2023, 10:57:05 pm »Shaman + Swindler can sometimes end up helping your opponent, depending on what cards it trashes, since they can get the trashed card back on their next turn
It's especially bad in a game with Feodum. Trash a Feodum, your opponent gets 3 Silvers plus a $4, and then they get their Feodum right back, so you're basically just increasing the value of your opponent's Feoda
It's a real gamble because it's stronger than usual when it hits Curse, Copper and Estate. You probably still want a Swindler but it's a good candidate for late game trashing.
140
Dominion General Discussion / Re: Annoying and potentially harmful card anti-synergies
« on: January 07, 2023, 10:23:09 am »
Thinking of when Traits are at their worst.
- Cheap Band of Misfits - Still good in some boards but there's more of a chance it can't play anything. Other cards Cheap arguably makes worse: Border Village, Falconer, Berserker, Rats, Raze, Fortress. (Not putting Silver Mine as being $4 more than makes up for not being able to get $4 Treasures with it).
- Cursed Port - Turns a safe gain into a big gamble, and the Loots don't care about Port's +Actions.
- Fated Merchant Camp - It's optional so a card is never worse for being Fated, but sometimes it's not particularly useful. With Merchant Camp, if it's not topdecked there's a reason for it, so the trait ends up being an "are you sure?".
- Fawning Chapel - Once you're getting Provinces, you probably don't have much use for Chapel. At least Rats is a cantrip that could save a late hand. So it's kind of junk.
- Friendly Chapel - An optional effect, so can't ever be worse. So what's a card you don't want that many copies of? Where you're likely to need to decline the "Friendly" prompt most often? Edit: Agree with joefarebrother that the false friend that's Friendly Trail is annoying.
- Hasty Rats - As soon as you buy one, you're going to gain one every turn until the pile runs out and be forced to trash a lot. Maybe not too bad (it's like Cathedral) but having less control over Rats isn't a good thing. Beggar is another card you really don't want to be forced to play.
Edit: Hasty Treasure Maps are pretty much worthless - getting one into your deck requires the same trick as getting a Siren without trashing an Action, and then you have to line it up. Good find by Ethan. - Inherited Royal Blacksmith - People don't buy this early for a reason. Watch out for misclicks.
- Inspiring Rebuild - What's a non terminal card that also doesn't really appreciate other cards in its deck?
- Nearby Overlord - No real downside, so what's a card where you're unlikely to make use of the on buy +buy? One where you're likely to be in debt after buying, that's much harder to gain through methods other than buying.
- Patient Swamp Shacks - Can actually be extremely useful with Prepare or Journey. But nothing to make you curse your deck order like seeing the option to play a dead card for little effect next turn.
- Pious Distant Lands - It's optional, so what's relatively expensive that you mainly want late game.
- Reckless Tactician - Very thematic. It doesn't work any better than a normal Tactician and you lose it after one battle.
- Rich Poor House - A paradox reflected in gameplay. You get a free Silver that the Poor House doesn't want to see.
- Shy Cursed Village? - Surprisingly not Shy Lab or Lost City etc. as you can draw the Shy Lab to play it "again". I thought Cursed Village as something where you probably aren't getting much benefit from discarding it but even then it might be good to do that in some kind of disappearing money engine. These optional ones are hard.
- Tireless Hireling etc.- Tireless can be meaningless. I really wanted to think of an anti-synergy - a card you want evenly spaced in your deck rather than clumped together (e.g. Throne Room and King's Court). But there's a lot of ways those cards benefit too. So useless Tireless it is.
141
Dominion General Discussion / Re: Neat and potentially useful card interactions
« on: January 07, 2023, 08:56:19 am »
Best pairing I could think of for each Trait:
- Cheap Seer - Seer is a great card to gain lots of, which is much easier at $4 (e.g. with Workshop variants), and now it can draw itself
- Cursed Tiara - Would be Watchtower but Watchtower and Cursed (something else) is likely as good or better. Best Cursed card with Watchtower on the board is probably King's Cache. Tiara wouldn't be far behind it. Even on its own once you have a Tiara in play you can buy cursed Tiaras to topdeck a Tiara and the Loot (or do that multiple times with Tiara and probably the Loot's +buy) and continue the cycle. Shame about the Curses though.
- Fated Augurs - Play a Herb Gatherer every turn (hopefully to good effect), and as you do that make the bottom decking with Sibyl more like discarding junk. Makes it easier enough to throw Sorcerers into the mix.
- Fawning
IslandShepherd- With Fawning Island, Provinces come with a card that can take it out of circulation while keeping the points. Great for golden decks. Sanctuary would also do this just as well but giving Island the nod for "most improved (and the 2 bonus VP)".
Edit: Also remembered Rebuild still exists. If you're playing Rebuild, more free Rebuilds as you're doing the thing is very powerful.
Edit 2: Forgot Shepherd and agree with grrgrrgrr to give it the nod. A great card to appear in your deck as soon as you start greening. Same with other sifters (especially Forum) and Groundskeeper - Friendly
Village GreenGroundskeeper - EDIT: Village Green doesn't play on discard during Clean Up as grrgrrgrr pointed out. Groundskeeper works well as a card you want lots of eventually where the biggest pain is buying them, so the cloning of Friendly works great. - Hasty Experiment - For your next shuffle, instead of being a net +2 cards, it's a net +4 Cards and +3 Actions and guaranteed to be at the start of your next turn.
- Inherited Altar - Less sure about this one. Trashing is great at the opening and Altar helps you get lots of 5s quickly. Maybe inherited Chapel is better though - early trashing is amazing.
- Inspiring
Black MarketCultist - Edit: As mxdata points out, you have plenty of chances to hit a card with chaining Cultists. If you're both going for cultist, even playing Ruins non terminally can be an advantage. Black Market has plenty of chances to be non terminal but isn't as spammable and would rather some cheap non terminal or terminal draw in the kingdom is Inspiring instead. - Nearby Peddler - Spammable and not too hard to get to $0 for an instant Pileout. Can also be done with Nearby Wayfarers, but Peddler gets the nod for being non-terminal.
- Patient Smithy - Or any Terminal Draw. Patient cards can't be drawn dead, so now Terminal Draw cards are spammable.
- Pious Experiment - Buy in the opening with your $3 hand to trash your estates, and a nice cheap double trasher in general. Experiment has the edge over Port due to cost, usefulness in the opening, and the pile not running out.
- Reckless Scheme or Merchant Camp - Reckless Scheme because it's a Lost City that topdecks itself and still does the job of Scheme. Insanely powerful card. 4 Reckless Merchant Camps and you can buy a province every turn - though it's vulnerable to Militia and friends and a lot of redundant +Actions.
- Rich Sauna - Came to mind as instead of opening Silver/Sauna, you can open Rich Sauna and something else. Rich Merchant is also nice.
- Shy Faithful Hound - A Hireling, then double Hireling you can open with that doesn't cost an Action to play (and softens discard attacks). Shy Village Green is also nice as a spammable card with no downside to discarding.
- Tireless Mystic - Easy guessing and stacking. Vassal also works great with Tireless cards but Tireless Vassals might end in dud turns or limit what else you can play.
142
Dominion General Discussion / Re: Neat card interactions that were useful in the game you found them in.
« on: January 07, 2023, 06:34:05 am »
Piazza will play Crew or a Tireless card every turn.
Though in the game I found this in it was an anti-synergy as my Tireless Lookout nuked my deck (I already overtrashed) and there was nothing I could do about it.
Though in the game I found this in it was an anti-synergy as my Tireless Lookout nuked my deck (I already overtrashed) and there was nothing I could do about it.
143
Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #173: New Year's Resolutions
« on: January 01, 2023, 06:24:50 pm »Mine would perhaps work at $4 or if it were non-terminal, or both. Does being able to Mine Actions really push it from $4/$5 into $6 territory? I seriously doubt it, that is an edge case.
I would try this at $4 and $5.
Mine is a decent card when Platinum is available. $6 makes it harder to get your first Gold Mine but you can turn Silvers into Gold Mines and Gold Mines into Platinum. I added the Action trashing so it's more useful late game. Silver Mine is a $5 card that gains silvers to hand in most games without copper trashing. If it's too weak at $6 I'd add +$1 and/or allow it to trash any card.
144
Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #173: New Year's Resolutions
« on: January 01, 2023, 03:02:29 am »
I've been meaning to post "3rd editions" of all the sets for some time - incorporating my own designs as well as other fan cards as a tribute to this community where I've spent the last 11 years
The year of Dominion that was 2022 kept pushing back my plans, especially with the new 2nd editions. But 2023 looks like a good year to get it together.
The premise is that each set would have exactly 500 cards. Most sets would expand. Each set has at least one type of landscape in it to fill out the box. For example Events are now in the base set. I also want to include everything in the base set you would need that isn't a card - so there are cubes and tokens which are used for some base set Events (cubes for tracking "once per game" events). Some cards are removed, and their "replacements" (in the vein of the official 2nd editions) might not be in the same set.
There are a few other rule changes. One of them is that games with a Prosperity card are guaranteed to have Colonies and Platinums in them. So here's my "fix" for Mine (remembering that every game with this card in it includes Platinums)
The year of Dominion that was 2022 kept pushing back my plans, especially with the new 2nd editions. But 2023 looks like a good year to get it together.
The premise is that each set would have exactly 500 cards. Most sets would expand. Each set has at least one type of landscape in it to fill out the box. For example Events are now in the base set. I also want to include everything in the base set you would need that isn't a card - so there are cubes and tokens which are used for some base set Events (cubes for tracking "once per game" events). Some cards are removed, and their "replacements" (in the vein of the official 2nd editions) might not be in the same set.
There are a few other rule changes. One of them is that games with a Prosperity card are guaranteed to have Colonies and Platinums in them. So here's my "fix" for Mine (remembering that every game with this card in it includes Platinums)
145
Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #173: New Year's Resolutions
« on: January 01, 2023, 12:37:05 am »My entry this week is a Prophecy, these landscape cards always trigger around the 8th turn, (ignoring extra turns). These cards effect everyone, similar to Edicts but due to the distinct timing element it felt like best to make them a new type. The 8th turn was chosen as the point where the early game ends and the game's tempo either shifts into a long game or quickly starts the end game. Expect to see more of these from me.QuoteBalance
Prophecy
After each player has had eight turns, reverse the game’s turn order. (For example, if play had proceeded clockwise around the table, it now goes counterclockwise.)
One of my many issues as a Dominion player and really player of most games is complaining about apparent uneven starts. This card is my way of addressing the well documented inherent unbalance of Dominion where the start player gets 1st cracks at piles, is less effected by early attack cards, and most importantly always get more total turns then player late in turn order. This Prophecy aim to fix this with the 1st player get the early advantages but later last player gets that powerful extra/final turn advantage come late game. I hope that with the "Balanced" achieved I can focus on game skill over just saying to my opponents "You only won because you ended the game and I didn't get a chance to buy a Province during my last turn like you did."
Rules clarification: The last player in turn order will "Trigger "this card and start the new turn order, so this card effectively means the last player will take two turns in a row.
You may be interested in week 44 of the Fan Card Mechanics contest http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=21468
146
Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Fan Card Mechanics Week 52: It only gets Charter
« on: January 01, 2023, 12:33:55 am »
Vow of Poverty: Cathedral that you can turn off fairly intentionally (as you can get by without Gold in many games). Would have been more interesting if it triggered on any $5 or more card, not just treasures. If this and Cathedral are on the board, you'd almost always buy this, especially as you have more flexibility around which cards you trash, though there's some interest in whether you'd buy both. I think games where Cathedral "backfires" and dealing with it are more interesting in terms of strategy than the strategic considerations here.
Plunder: I'm not judging on the basis of name, but I think is the first time I've seen someone intentionally name something the same as an official card/expansion, but with nothing interesting mechanically or particularly thematic. Not a fan.
I like the design itself. You want it to be active every turn of the game if you can. It's a no brainer to buy if you have $2 and there's no good $2s on the board, but are you really going to forego a Duchy to reactivate it later? The VP also complicates the late game in a way I enjoy. I'd prefer Cards/$/Actions to Horses/Coffers/Villagers.
Money Wagon: Nice and simple. Probably a bit weak because it will likely be 2 shuffles before you see the Horse. Not being able to buy multiples would grate more with this design than others.
Deployment: Tracking might be difficult. One which will be bought quite often because you pay $3 for a $4 card, and then +buy makes it interesting (and the card can give +buy). If it's the only +Action or +Buy on the board I can see some very interesting play.
Gold Mine: I like this. I think I'd like it more if it said "At the end of your buy phase" so that you could deactivate it immediately. Reminds me of Priest and Inventor - functional cards if you use the effect once, but also very interesting things can happen if you use the card to its fullest extent. Might not need to cost $7 as written (but would with my suggested change).
Instructor: I don't particularly like the "this stops" wording but it's fine. This is game shaping, but in a way I like. It would be fun to try and set up a chain of differently named actions that you can play reliably. Probably a bit too cheap but I'd like to playtest to know for sure.
Hide: Very simple, surprised this doesn't exist as an event (it's easy enough to remember buying it). Perhaps could give you a small bonus next turn (+$1?) to make it relevant in games without attacks. But the cost is right to make it a meaningful decision in games with attacks.
Claim: I think in most games people will buy this instead of their first province and then ignore it. There's some fun counterplay with remodel variants to avoid triggering claims until it's too late, but I can't see it coming up that often. Perhaps something involving duchies might be more fun? There's definitely a good idea here somewhere, just not as written.
Special Delivery: Not seeing much interesting here compared to Transport and Invest. There's a good concept in exiling a card, then the card getting out of exile being a trigger, but I don't imagine gaining a Horse changing the equation much.
Serfs: Very good. Encourages making a deck full of weaker cards which can be a lot of fun, and the +buy helps you keep buying those cards. This will also be interesting in games without other sources of +buy.
Hired Help: This is at its best in the late game to sift through green cards. Possibly too good an engine enabler but you miss out on a duchy to buy this so it's strategically interesting. Might take a bit too long to resolve in irl games.
WINNER:
Serfs by czzz
Runner up:
Deployment by emtzalex
Plunder: I'm not judging on the basis of name, but I think is the first time I've seen someone intentionally name something the same as an official card/expansion, but with nothing interesting mechanically or particularly thematic. Not a fan.
I like the design itself. You want it to be active every turn of the game if you can. It's a no brainer to buy if you have $2 and there's no good $2s on the board, but are you really going to forego a Duchy to reactivate it later? The VP also complicates the late game in a way I enjoy. I'd prefer Cards/$/Actions to Horses/Coffers/Villagers.
Money Wagon: Nice and simple. Probably a bit weak because it will likely be 2 shuffles before you see the Horse. Not being able to buy multiples would grate more with this design than others.
Deployment: Tracking might be difficult. One which will be bought quite often because you pay $3 for a $4 card, and then +buy makes it interesting (and the card can give +buy). If it's the only +Action or +Buy on the board I can see some very interesting play.
Gold Mine: I like this. I think I'd like it more if it said "At the end of your buy phase" so that you could deactivate it immediately. Reminds me of Priest and Inventor - functional cards if you use the effect once, but also very interesting things can happen if you use the card to its fullest extent. Might not need to cost $7 as written (but would with my suggested change).
Instructor: I don't particularly like the "this stops" wording but it's fine. This is game shaping, but in a way I like. It would be fun to try and set up a chain of differently named actions that you can play reliably. Probably a bit too cheap but I'd like to playtest to know for sure.
Hide: Very simple, surprised this doesn't exist as an event (it's easy enough to remember buying it). Perhaps could give you a small bonus next turn (+$1?) to make it relevant in games without attacks. But the cost is right to make it a meaningful decision in games with attacks.
Claim: I think in most games people will buy this instead of their first province and then ignore it. There's some fun counterplay with remodel variants to avoid triggering claims until it's too late, but I can't see it coming up that often. Perhaps something involving duchies might be more fun? There's definitely a good idea here somewhere, just not as written.
Special Delivery: Not seeing much interesting here compared to Transport and Invest. There's a good concept in exiling a card, then the card getting out of exile being a trigger, but I don't imagine gaining a Horse changing the equation much.
Serfs: Very good. Encourages making a deck full of weaker cards which can be a lot of fun, and the +buy helps you keep buying those cards. This will also be interesting in games without other sources of +buy.
Hired Help: This is at its best in the late game to sift through green cards. Possibly too good an engine enabler but you miss out on a duchy to buy this so it's strategically interesting. Might take a bit too long to resolve in irl games.
WINNER:
Serfs by czzz
Runner up:
Deployment by emtzalex
147
Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Fan Card Mechanics Week 52: It only gets Charter
« on: December 31, 2022, 05:49:21 am »
Contest closed
I will judge soon
I will judge soon
148
Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Revised versions of published cards
« on: December 30, 2022, 07:33:26 am »
Collection
Treasure - $5
+$2
+1 Buy
This turn, when you gain an Action card, if it's the first time you gained a copy of it this turn +1VP
Thematic with the name and removes the broken interactions with horse gainers.
Treasure - $5
+$2
+1 Buy
This turn, when you gain an Action card, if it's the first time you gained a copy of it this turn +1VP
Thematic with the name and removes the broken interactions with horse gainers.
149
Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Fan Card Mechanics Week 52: It only gets Charter
« on: December 29, 2022, 06:09:41 pm »
24 Hour Warning
150
Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #172: Trait Me Right
« on: December 26, 2022, 06:54:52 pm »This is pretty funky with Experiment.
A lot of Traits are!