I don't have time to give my thoughts on cards just yet, but I find it funny that I disagree with a lot of what posters believe about the current power level of Adventures cards. I mean, I agree on some points, but I feel some cards people think are weak, I feel are strong, and I feel some cards people think are strong, I think are weak.
It still seems after a month, we are still getting used to the cards and players still have very divergent beliefs regarding them.
I will be happy to hear your thoughts on this matter.
Man, I was almost done typing my response and then I accidentally hit refresh. 
I guess tomorrow I will post my thoughts.
Still waiting.
Sorry for taking so long on this. After I wrote that long description and accidentally refreshed, I was kind of not in the mood to type everything again. But, here goes.
One quick note. Initially, I thought there would be a fair amount of duds in Adventures. It ends up, I was wrong, and Donald X. has gotten better at making sets. I feel this expansion has the least amount of duds which is surprising considering we have 30 kingdom cards and 20 events. Even the cards that dud-like still have their uses such as Miser. I mean, hey, it's still a trasher and on some boards you can actually get decent money from it.
And, one more thing before I get to the cards, I still feel we are far away from the reality stage. I think it will take us a at least a year of playing before we can really nail down how good certain cards. I mean, it is easier now since we have so much more experience with past Dominion but Adventures introduces some game-breaking stuff with Events and Travellers and tokens and all that jazz. Anyway, onto the cards
$2 Costs
Ratcatcher: I thought this looked amazing, and it is amazing. A non-terminal cantrip $2 trasher that removes itself from the deck is amazing, and unlike Raze, you get to trash a hand of 5 cards. A lot of people say Raze is better. I felt that way at first, but right now, I have them roughly at the same power ranking which is super strong.
Raze: Looked amazing, and is amazing. Again, a $2 trasher that has the ability to trash itself is strong. Plus, in the early game your estates draw you a card while also providing cycling. Solid card.
Coin of the Realm: Stronger than I thought it would be. Most reserve cards seem to offer a lot of ways to make sure your deck keeps firing. I think CotR is best used as a backup plan. Sure, you have some villages, but it's good to have one or two CotR's just in case your cards just don't line up. As the only village, it's pretty reasonable, allowing you to play one more action than most villages and unlike Crossroads, you can call multiples in the same turn.
Page: I think I slightly overrated this,but not much. The card looked super strong, and it is super strong. Some people say that it doesn't feel like Dominion when playing. It felt that way at first, but now it does feel Dominion-like to me. I think Warrior is likely overrated, or players don't yet know the proper Warrior into Champion strategy yet. I'm not sure.
Anyway, as far as Page and it's game-breakingness goes, I am reminded of four cards, Thief, Witch, Gardens, and Chapel. These are the original pillars of Dominion. These are considered pillars because their presence tends to change your strategy and make you go in a different direction. Obviously, as time went on, people realized Thief was weak. I feel cards like Goons and KC are pillars, but so is a card like Rebuild or Cultist. Some pillars are monolithic and don't let for much diverging strategies. These kind of cards I think are unfortunate Dominion cards. Other pillars open the doors for lots of strategies. For instance, Chapel is the ultimate engine enable. Champion is somewhere in the middle. On some boards, it can appear to be a monolithic strategy. On other boards, I think it opens up potential strategies. So, I like that it changes the game so much because I think one core aspect of Dominion is having cards that dramatically sift the direction of the game in a direction different than we are used to.
Peasant Stronger than I thought. I thought Page would be the crazy powerful line, and it is crazy powerful, but I think Peasant is a smidge more stronger. Or, maybe I just like it more. Anyway, Disiciple is nuts. I knew it looked strong, but I had no idea how strong it is. Teacher is also stronger than I thought it would be, although, I had a feeling the token effects would be strong.
$3 costs
Amulet: A smidge weaker than I thought. I felt this would be on the same power level of Steward, and it's not, but Steward is crazy good. Amulet still trashes very well and is a solid trasher.
Guide: It's exactly as good as I thought it would be. I thought it would be a great card to help you get the hand you want, and it is. Like CotR, this helps your engine fire off.
Gear: Better than I thought. The card doesn't only draw two cards, but it can remove crap cards from shuffles or help set up the next turn. I feel this is a bit overrated right now, but it's still a solid card.
Caravan Guard: I thought this looked meh. It ends up it's a decent card to buy when you have a spare $3. It's an average card. Doesn't really hurt your deck. I think though I figured that all out from looking at it. So, I guess it is just slightly better than I anticipated, but not much really.
Dungeon: A lot of people are saying Warehouse is better. I actually think a lot of the times this is better because it helps set up your next turn. As far as how I felt, I think my initial impression was that this seems good. So, overall, I will say my initial impression has not changed much from when I first started playing.
$4 costs
Miser: Roughly as good as I thought it would be. I thought it would be a situational trasher, and it pretty much is. Slogs and Colony games like it. Also, if it is your only trasher, getting one of these is usually a decent call.
Messenger: I really need to buy this card more. I think it's stronger than I give credit for. I'm just so hesitant to ever buy it. But, a Woodcutter Chancellor might be decent. Right now, I have not formulated a strong opinion on it because of my hesitancy to purchase it. My initial impression though was that this is the worst card in the set.
Port: I severely underestimated this. Winning the split can be huge, especially when it is the only village. This is the second best $4 Village just behind Wandering Minstrel.
Duplicate: I tend to overbuy this which means I'm still figuring this card out. I really, really want to do some weird mega turns with this, but the reality is that is not easily possible. So, I will say I slightly overrated this. This is just a Smugglers with a little more flexibility, and if you're lucky the occassional mega-turn potential. It does feel nice though to gain 4 Duchies at once.
Magpie: I overrated this. I thought this would be crazy strong. It's strong and winning the split almost always is important, but it's not as good as I thought. With that said, I think people have gone from overrating this card to now underrating this card.
Transmogrify: Way, way, way better than I thought it would be. This card is amazing. It not only remodels your early estates, but later on, you can help kick off your deck by changing the contents of your hand as needed. Occasionally, you can even pull off weird three-pile endings. But, pretty much, this card offers a lot of flexibility to your engine making sure you have the right components at just the right time.
Ranger: I don't know what it is with me and $4-costs, but I also tend to under buy this card. My initial impression was that this seems okay, and well, it still is okay. Drawing 2.5 cards is weaker than 3-cards. The +buy is nice, but usually if there is another source of +buy like Market, I tend to buy smithy over this. The card is okay, and I think my initial impression was that this would be an okay card.
$5 costs
Bridge Troll: This is much stronger than I thought it would be. Bridge at $5 seemed weak to me, but really getting the effect over two turns is actually really good and makes pulling off a mega-turn much easier. Also, the -$1 token can really hurt sometimes.
Artificer: I had dreams of pulling off HoP like megaturns with this card. While it is possible to pull off a mega-turn, you really need cost-reduction to make it work or be able to draw a zillion cards. This card is a tricky card requiring good deck-tracking skills to get to work. This card is wonkier than I thought it would be. I still think it is solid, but nowhere strong as I first hoped.
Wine Merchant: I thought this card would be woodcutter level bad but worse since it costs $5. I was so wrong. $4 with +buy is amazing payload. This card isn't always worth getting, but this is actually pretty strong.
Haunted Woods: I thought this would be okay. After reading comments from playtesters, I thought this would be strong, and it is. Being able to start your next turn with 3 cards is so much better than drawing 3 from a Smithy on the same turn. Really helps set up the next turn well. This card is really good. Not Wharf good, but it's pretty up there as far as terminal draw cards goes.
Royal Carriage: Way, way, way better than I thought it would be. This isn't a TR. It is so much more. This isn't KC-level strong, but does help engines kick-off if you save one on your mat, and can also help you play the same card multiple times in the same turn. Calling multiple RCs on MB is pretty nice. My advice, don't think of this as just a Throne Room.
Giant: I thought this card would be crap. It's usually not worth going for, but sometimes it is the only attack and there is a way to play it at least twice in a turn. So, I would say, overall, it is better than I thought, but still on the weaker side of $5-costs, but not total crap.
Relic: I thought this would be Royal Seal bad. Man, I was so wrong. The attack can really hurt. This is like a Ghost Ship. You can even combine this with other attacks. Making it non-terminal is what makes this strong.
Distant Lands: When I first saw this card, I thought it would be bad. Then, Stef said this was the strongest card in the set. I think he was trolling, but this card is strong, arguably the second strongest alt. vp card behind Vineyards. DL is great. There are so many Adventures cards like this that seem weak on the surface and then end up being very good once you start playing with them.
Lost City: I would say this is roughly at the power level I thought it would be at. It's draw and a village at the same time. What more is there to say. I guess the penalty helps the opponent, but the card is nice.
Swamp Hag: Seeing as how this is a junker, I really thought this would be better than it is. Surprisingly, this card is pretty ignorable. I mean, you can't always ignore it, but usually by the time the curses matter, the game has already won. This card is much weaker than anticipated. Not terrible though, but takes the right board for it to really work.
Treasure Trove: The idea of being treasure flooded does not excite me and usually there is better payload such as Wine Merchant. This card is overrated. Okay, in slogs and BM, this is great, but usually engines win out in the end and if you don't have a way to deal with all the treasures coming your way, your engine is going to get gunked up. So, I would say it has met my expectations and the community is still overrating this card. That's not to say this card is bad. It's roughly on the same power-level as Hoard. But, Hoard usually sucks in an engine and so does this.
$6 costs
Hireling: Weaker than I thought. This card is kind of slow to get going. I thought it would be easier to get many of these in play, and well, simply that isn't as feasible as I first imagined. It's a decent card, but not a great card. It helps to have one or two out.
Events
Alms: This is probably weaker than I thought it would be because gaining a free $4-cost sounded amazing. In slogs, this is great. Sometimes, you get the double $4 or open $5/$4 or have virtual coin and get an extra card. This card does make the game a little faster though, and it's really good in Ambassador games. Still though, I feel like I overrated this one. Maybe it's strong, but I find it's effect kind of boring.
Borrow: I think I overrated this one as well. I really don't buy it too often. Losing that card hurts, so you have to have a really good reason to Borrow such as really needing that Province or the $5 cost is just that important. Some people seem to think it's amazing, so maybe I just don't know how to optimally play this event.
Quest: Weaker than I thought. It's not a bad card though like some people suggest. There have been many games where I gained a gold. Okay, usually, I only ever gain a single gold in a game, but that's not terrible. It's weak, yes, but not the worst event ever. Okay, maybe tied for the worst, but Raid and Quest are nowhere near as bad as the weakest kingdom cards such as Navigator or Scout or even Pearl Diver (with the exception of tokens on its pile).
Save: Holy crap did I underestimate this. I will go so far as to say this event is probably broken. You can set up future turns, get an extra coin, or make crappy estates miss the shuffle. This thing is amazing and is essentially a lab for $1 each turn.
Travelling Fair: I underestimated this not realizing how good +Buy is. Also, the top decking is nice.
Scouting Party: This effect actually seemed really good to me. I think though I buy it more than I thought I would, so I will say I slightly underestimated it.
Expedition: This seemed pretty strong, but the effect is more situational. Knowing when best to buy it can be challenging sometimes. Still though, its decent, just not as great as I hoped.
Ferry: Probably as strong as I thought, maybe a little weaker because it ends up even when you make a $5-cost $3, you still want Villages and stuff for your engine. So, yah, I think I actually overrated this. It does change the games it is in though.
Bonfire: I thought this looked like an amazeballs trasher. It ends up I was right.
Plan: I thought this looked crazy strong, and then I played with it and thought it was horrible, and then I got better with it and realized that it is probably even stronger than Bonfire. This card is crazy good. So, I will say it roughly met my expectations, perhaps slightly under because when I first read it, I had fantasies of trashing my entire deck.
Mission: This is stronger than I thought it would be because it ends up there is a lot more you can do on an extra turn that does not involve buying.
Pilgrimage: Weaker than I thought. It ends up, you usually only gain once with this in a game. Sometimes twice if you're lucky. Okay, there are some games you can gain, gain, with this but those games are pretty rare.
Ball: Seemed strong, and it is strong. Getting two Ironmongers for $5 feels so good, or really gaining any two $4-costs is great. I feel this met my initial expectations.
Raid: This seemed weak to me. It still is pretty weak, but maybe more useful in BM games than I thought. Still though, it looks weak and is weak.
Seaway: Roughly as good as I thought. I pretty much figured that when you wanted +buy this would come in handy. I guess there are some boards where getting a lot of +buy is a thing, so I guess that makes it potentially slightly better than I thought, but not by a lot.
Trade: Wow! I way underestimated this card. Being able to upgrade crap cards for silvers is really good. It beats the pants off of buying gold. I really like this event a lot, and is a great way to add economy to your deck without actually adding additional cards to your deck. I feel right now, this is probably the most underestimated event.
Lost Arts: Before reading playtest comments, I wasn't sure what to think. I didn't really consider just putting this on a Smithy. So, I guess this exceeded my first impression. Though, by the time this came out online, I knew this card was really strong, and well, it is.
Training: Better than I thought. Buy this over Gold. If you have 3 of something, you are essentially adding a gold to your deck without actually adding a gold to your deck.
Inheritance: I wasn't sure what to think. The cost seemed expensive. I would say I underestimated this. There are some boards where Inheriting stuff is huge!!!
Pathfinding: I understimated this. You can draw so many cards from Pathfinding. This card is crazy nuts. You can turn 5 of any cheap cantrip into 5 labs for just $8. A lot of people say Lost Arts is the best event, but I really like Pathfinding a lot. They're both super strong though. And, for $8, you're really getting a bargain for the amount of draw you get out of this.
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Topic: Adventures: first impressions vs. reality (Read 18692 times)