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[LastFootnote]

Simple little Treasure card. It's a Vault variant.

Auction
Types: Treasure
Cost: $3
+1 Buy. When you play this, discard your hand. Worth $1 per card discarded.

EDIT: Added +1 Buy. Great suggestion, soulnet!

Old versions:

Auction
Types: Treasure
Cost: $3
When you play this, discard your hand. Worth $1 per card discarded.

[market squire]

I like it. I've made a similar card some time ago in the German Forum:

(Secret Passage)
Types: Treasure
Cost: $4
Worth $1.
When you play this, discard any number of cards from your hand. +$1 per card discarded.

It also got a little testing. It needed the basic worth of $1.
But I prefer your auto-discard wording, it makes it more straightforward.

[SirPeebles]

I wonder if this would be better if it gave +$1 to start.  Maybe that would be too strong, but I can't help but think I would feel sad to draw this card without any dead cards.  At least Vault gives +2 cards, and Secret Chamber's action always struck me as just a consolation prize for when the reaction isn't triggered.

[silverspawn]

I don't think it can have +1$. Even if testing it worked fine, there is a hidden power issue. If it has +1$, it guarantees you 5$, and that's quite problematic on a treasure. it's killer in slogs and straight up the best card for duke rushes

[LastFootnote]

I don't think it can have +1$. Even if testing it worked fine, there is a hidden power issue. If it has +1$, it guarantees you 5$, and that's quite problematic on a treasure. it's killer in slogs and straight up the best card for duke rushes

Yes, this is the reason I didn't give it +$1. Even with that, it might not be too powerful for $3 or $4. Horse Traders almost guarantees you a $5 buy and isn't susceptible to discard attacks the way Auction is. It could certainly have +$1 if it cost $5, but I want it to be easy to buy when you're drowning in Curses, etc.

I wonder if this would be better if it gave +$1 to start.  Maybe that would be too strong, but I can't help but think I would feel sad to draw this card without any dead cards.  At least Vault gives +2 cards, and Secret Chamber's action always struck me as just a consolation prize for when the reaction isn't triggered.

Yes, I'd have to test it to see if it's any fun in practice. The possibility of it being worth $0 is certainly a point against it. On the other hand, Philosopher's Stone can also be worth $0 and Bank can be worth $1, etc. Auction is not a card you want it every deck, but hopefully you want it in enough decks. One in an engine is obviously nice once you start greening. Probably you want several in slogs where you're buying $4 cards. And in Big Money + terminal draw, it allows you to buy some more Actions and discard them for profit. Of course unless you're discarding at least 2 cards, you'd rather have a Copper. Hmm.

One of the intended combos is with terminal draw. You can discard whatever you draw dead for Coins.

I like it. I've made a similar card some time ago in the German Forum:

(Secret Passage)
Types: Treasure
Cost: $4
Worth $1.
When you play this, discard any number of cards from your hand. +$1 per card discarded.

It also got a little testing. It needed the basic worth of $1.
But I prefer your auto-discard wording, it makes it more straightforward.

Dang, can you tell me more about your playtesting? Did you not usually have more than one card to discard to it?

[dominator 123]

This seems a bit to Secret Chamber to me. The only difference is that this gives +1 action, and can't be drawn dead. Looks like this will be better than SC only in terminal draw games without +action. So this would be useful in only Big Money, with the exception that you can have more Smithies in your deck. Still seems a little boring to me, but that's just my opinion.

BTW, will you be adding this to Dominion: Enterprise?

[LastFootnote]

BTW, will you be adding this to Dominion: Enterprise?

Maaaaybe? I honestly haven't decided. Why do you ask?

[mail-mi]

BTW, will you be adding this to Dominion: Enterprise?

Maaaaybe? I honestly haven't decided. Why do you ask?

Wait, Enterprise's theme is one-shot, right? Maybe you could have it draw a card beforehand so you can get up to +$5, and have it trash itself

Wait that seems a bit weak... maybe have if trash instead of discard for benefit. So, +1 card, trash any number of cards, +$1 per card trashed, yeah this? Well that gets really bad in the late game... maybe make it just a solid +$5, take off the bonus +1 card, trash any number of cards from your hand, if you don't trash any cards, trash this.

Hmm that seems just a bit too powerful now... Could add an on-gain penalty that isn't actually that bad of a penalty considering the effect of the card... gain a curse? No, too weak, but 2 curses is too steep...2 ruins could work... Yeah let's make this a looter! +$5, trash any number of cards from your hand, if you don't trash this, when you gain this, gain 2 ruins.

Well that's still too good, because I mean +$5 on a $3 card is really good. Let's up the price to $4, and instead make the trashing a penalty. What penalty though... trash a treasure, no... trash an action could work with the on-gain penalty. I got it!

Auction
$4 Action-Looter
+$5
You may trash an action card from your hand. If you don't, trash this.
--
When you gain this, gain two Ruins.

...wait...

[SirPeebles]

I suppose Auction would allow for decks with unusually high numbers of terminal actions since it softens the blow of collision.  It also can't be drawn dead, so it would be a great addition to big money terminal draw decks.

[market squire]

Dang, can you tell me more about your playtesting? Did you not usually have more than one card to discard to it?

I can't remember, but I'll try to tell from the old forum thread (it was in 2010).
We tried other versions that did not discard but only reveal or that gave an extra +$1 for discarding Actions.
For the last version, I thought it would be nice to use dead Actions as Silvers. But we did not like buying many terminals without villages.
So I dropped that version and turned back to the original version but with +$1, which we found nice. (Edit: And yes, the original version often happened to be worth $0 or $1.)

I don't think it can have +1$. Even if testing it worked fine, there is a hidden power issue. If it has +1$, it guarantees you 5$, and that's quite problematic on a treasure. it's killer in slogs and straight up the best card for duke rushes

Well, my testing group can't be called professional players. Also Hinterlands etc was not out yet.

However, I was aware that it guarantees $5. Secret Chamber provides $4; Vault ensures $6. At the given price point, I think guaranteeing $5 isn't a no-go. Okay, the step from $4 to $5 is huge, but why not have a card that makes slogs strong?

[popsofctown]

It should cost 0$P! You can use your potion for coin now!

[LastFootnote]

Over the years, I've gotten pretty good at searching for things on the internet. But you know what's f***ing impossible? Finding a painting OF an auction.

[enfynet]

Photoshop filter to convert a photograph to a painting.

My first idea is the cymbal monkey from Phantom of the Opera.

[soulnet]

How about tacking in a +Buy? +Buy in Treasures is nice for engines (nicer than woodcutter usually), slogs and rushes, yet not exceedingly powerful.

[LastFootnote]

How about tacking in a +Buy? +Buy in Treasures is nice for engines (nicer than woodcutter usually), slogs and rushes, yet not exceedingly powerful.

I like it!

[Awaclus]

Would it hurt to give it a "may"? Sometimes, you might want to keep stuff in your hand when you buy things.

[enfynet]

Over the years, I've gotten pretty good at searching for things on the internet. But you know what's f***ing impossible? Finding a painting OF an auction.

Closest I could find. It's a bit abstract to be using on a card.

[LastFootnote]

Would it hurt to give it a "may"? Sometimes, you might want to keep stuff in your hand when you buy things.

So you may discard your hand? But you get +1 Buy either way?

[LastFootnote]

Over the years, I've gotten pretty good at searching for things on the internet. But you know what's f***ing impossible? Finding a painting OF an auction.

Closest I could find. It's a bit abstract to be using on a card.

Wow, thank you! But I just found a good one on the Wikipedia page for "auction".

[enfynet]

Who bothers to check Wikipedia anymore?!

In all honesty, it's a better image. You can tell what it is, at least...

[Awaclus]

Would it hurt to give it a "may"? Sometimes, you might want to keep stuff in your hand when you buy things.

So you may discard your hand? But you get +1 Buy either way?

Yeah. Like:

Auction
Types: Treasure
Cost: $3
+1 Buy. When you play this, you may discard your hand. Worth $1 per card discarded.

[silverspawn]

I don't really see the appeal of this card tbh. we already have 3 cards that let you discard cards for $, one for 2$, one for 3$ and one for 5$, why need another one? But regardless, adding +buy seems reasonable. I'd guess that it's okay balanced both with and without it.

I'd also prefer "discard any number of cards" instead of "discard your hand". Since it's a treasure, it's very similar, but the latter kills synergy with black market, farmland, floodgate and maybe some others. Seems like a bad thing...

[Thanar]

Over the years, I've gotten pretty good at searching for things on the internet. But you know what's f***ing impossible? Finding a painting OF an auction.

It helps to use specialized search engines on paintings websites, such as:

http://www.artrenewal.org/pages/sitesearch.php
http://en.gallerix.ru/roster/
http://www.wikiart.org/
http://www.painting-palace.com/
http://xaxor.com/oil-paintings
http://www.fineartlib.info/

Even this doesn't eliminate finding the word "auction" that is around because some random painting is itself up for auction, but it works better than a straight Google search.

Here are a few auction images I found came across:

Studio Before the Auction by Rudolf Ritter von Alt

Larger version: http://www.wikiart.org/en/rudolf-von-alt/the-studio-before-the-auction-1855

Bast auction on the tube in the XVII century by Apollinaris M. Vasnetsov

Larger version: http://en.gallerix.ru/album/Vasnecov/pic/glrx-351037597

A Furniture Auction by Thomas Rowlandson

Full info: http://www.artrenewal.org/pages/artwork.php?artworkid=18751

[Thanar]

Just ran across a bunch more that might be of interest with this search of http://www.wikigallery.org/ (which is distinct from wikiart.org):

http://www.wikigallery.org/wiki/Main_Page?searchi=auction&sartist_id=0&page_id=search&fulltext=Search

[LastFootnote]

I don't really see the appeal of this card tbh. we already have 3 cards that let you discard cards for $, one for 2$, one for 3$ and one for 5$, why need another one? But regardless, adding +buy seems reasonable. I'd guess that it's okay balanced both with and without it.

Well, it's not meant to be a star card. But it's nice to have some really simple, elegant support cards. The fact that Auction is a Treasure matters a lot. You can play a Smithy, draw an Auction, and still get use out of it. The best part about +1 Buy is that the card is always giving you something even when you have nothing to discard. It still might be worth playing.

I'd also prefer "discard any number of cards" instead of "discard your hand". Since it's a treasure, it's very similar, but the latter kills synergy with black market, farmland, floodgate and maybe some others. Seems like a bad thing...

It's so slick, though. Discard your hand! Boom! I think that's worth losing synergy with a few cards like Black Market and Farmland. Floodgate/Auction should actually be a good combo. You don't want to buy Floodgate after you play Auction. You want to buy Floodgate while Auction is still in your hand so that the Floodgate, Auction, and any other dead cards in your hand all carry over to your next turn. Get +$1 for that Floodgate!