One concept that has not been implemented in Dominion, which has been implemented in its sister game Magic: The Gathering, is the idea of cards that flip. While this may make shuffling a challenge, cards could be inserted into card sleeves, similar to what is often done in Magic, as the cards themselves are similar sized. In addition to providing more gameplay variety (and a slight increase in complexity), this could also reduce some needs for storage space.
Obvious examples: Cards which are already directly related.
-Hermit / Madman - No need for separate pile, requires less tablespace.
-Urchin / Mercenary
-Vampire / Bat
-Starting Estates / Shelters - Determine which side you start with, based on kingdom cards present for a given game as in the rulebook.
-Page / Traveler line - No more looking for the card to exchange into. It's right there on the back.
-Peasant / Traveler line - Same as Page note.
Not-so-obvious examples: Cards not directly related, but could be.
-Squire / Knights - When Squire is "trashed" (by any other card, Chapel or Remodel, etc.) can advance into a Knight, or any other card. Just because a Padawan was studying to be a Jedi, does not mean they did not fall to the dark side...
-Ruins / Base card - Matching the Art Trivia comment from Donald X. Only exception is Survivors / Rabble. Now if a card dishes out a Ruins to you, you have the option, if you can pull it off, to Remodel or Upgrade or Expand that Village back into a Walled Village: the people learned the value of a good defense going forward. Or, if your card is trashed (by a Knight, Swindler, etc.) and you have a Ruin option, you may choose to Ruin it rather than trash it.
-Starting Coppers / Heirlooms - Same as Shelters note. Except Mirror could have backside of Ghost...
- Catacombs?
- Rats?
- Tragic Hero?
- Mining Village? - I wouldn't consider this a "one-shot" because trashing is optional; versus Embargo where trashing is mandatory.
Generally speaking...
- Bad candidates for Flips: Non-action cards - Victory, Treasure, Duration, Reaction, etc. Action cards that give VP coins. Victory would be worst because the penalty would be fewer points at the end. Durations and Reactions complicated enough. Treasure might work as a flip in fringe cases, like Heirlooms perhaps. One shots would be bad for Flips because how would you ever unlock the other side? Plus having one shots go to the trash helps cards like Rogue, Lurker, Graverobber.
- Good candidates for Flips : Action cards which are similar functionally and thematically, but differ in price. Cards which trash or discard into other cards are ideal. Also if the cards are similar, you probably wouldn't want both in the same kingdom anyhow. For example, Smithy could discard (like a Traveler) into Torturer (i.e. he found a new use for his tools... ahem...) because you probably wouldn't want both in the same 10 card kingdom set. Or Young Witch can discard into Old Witch, etc.
Nate
