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[petrie911]

This is something a friend and I put together for the MIT anime club after we discovered most people in the club really like Dominion.  We tried to strike a good balance with card flavor, though sometimes we just had interesting ideas and then tried to fit them to something.  The expansion has a bit of a theme going about the top card of your deck.

We actually printed out a set of cards and playtested them, so I think we struck a good balance with most of them.  The goal was for this to be an expansion of Dominion, so the cards were made with the other expansions in mind.  (Except for Hinterlands, which was not released when we made this)

EDIT: Card images have arrived.  The cards are in black and white because we don't have access to a good color printing service.  Also black and white is a lot cheaper.

http://imgur.com/IIQNA,NjBld,VHnGT#0

AT Field
$2 Action-Reaction-Duration

Now and at the start of your next turn: +1 Action
-----
As long as this is in play, if another player plays an Attack card, it doesn't affect you.
-----
When another player plays an Attack card, you may reveal this card from your hand. If you do, you are unaffected by that attack.

Comments: We wanted a card that blocked attacks really well, but otherwise did little for you.  At first this had just +1 Action, but we changed it to its current form so that it complied with Duration rules and wasn't always a dead card with no attacks.

Dragonball
$2 Action

Trash this card and as many copies of Dragonball as you like from your hand. If you trash at least 2 Dragonballs, +$7 +1 Buy.  If you trash at least 7 Dragonballs, +$70 +7 Buys

Comments: We wanted a Treasure Map-style money accelerator that wasn't so swingy.  The +$7 was so that it couldn't be used to buy a Province by itself, and then the name just kind of worked with that number.  The trash 7 effect is largely there as a joke, but if you somehow manage to pull it off, you flat out win unless your opponent already has 6 Provinces, which seems appropriate.

Sailor Scouts
$2 Action-Reaction

+3 Cards
Discard 2 cards
-----
When another player plays an attack card, you may set this aside with as many cards as you like from your hand. If you do, then at the start of your next turn, discard the set aside cards; +1 Card per card discarded.

Comments: The reaction effect was created first, and just seemed like a neat idea.  It went through a few different action effects, but this one was neat in that it was very similar to the reaction effect.

Deity
$3 Action

Trash this card. Duplicate the effect of an action card in the supply costing $6 or less.

Comments: This used to cost $2 and was limited to $5 actions.  The problem was it was too often the obvious best pick at $2, and it was too easy to pick them up with extra Buys.

Ninja Village
$3 Action

+2 Actions
You may discard the top card of your deck. Put the bottom card of your deck into your hand.

Comments: A village that draws from the bottom of your deck, why not.  We had to be careful to make sure it wasn't strictly better than Village so it could still be $3, but the idea was always a village with a way to get around topdecked crap.

Shinigami
$3 Action

+$2
For each opponent, name a card type (Action, Treasure, or Victory). Each opponent reveals the top card of his deck and discards it; if the card is of the named type, he gains a Curse.

Comments: We wanted a weak cursing attack, and came up with this.  It plays a lot like Swindler.

SOS Brigade
$3 Action

+1 Card
+$1
Shuffle your discard pile and turn it face down. Reveal the top card of your discard pile, the top card of your deck, and a card from your hand. Put one in your hand, one on top of your deck, and discard the other one.

Comments: A fun card effect, though having to shuffle your discard pile can get annoying.  This ended up being better than I thought it would.

Time Machine
$3 Action-Duration

You may choose an action card in your hand. Play it and set it aside. At the start of your next turn, play it again.

If you do not set aside a card, at the start of your next turn, put this card into your hand.

Comments: I'm kind of surprised this wasn't in Seaside.  It was originally $4, by analogy to Throne Room, but it turned out to not be as good and plays more like Scheme, so we dropped the price.

Bounty Hunter
$4 Action

+1 Card
+1 Buy
While this is in play, all cards are Treasures that can be played for $1 (in addition to their other types).

Comments: We wanted a card that let you play junk cards in your hand for coin.  Then we realized that was essentially Vault/Secret Chamber.  So we spiced it up with the type-changing effect.  On its own, I think this card is properly priced at $4.  But it has a lot of weird combos with other cards, and that makes me wonder if it should be $5.

Detective
$4 Action

+$2
Each player (including you) reveals the top two cards of his deck. You choose one to put back and one to discard.

Comments: Simple deck inspection attack.  Kind of vanilla, but we needed some simple cards.

Floating Continent
$4 Action-Victory

Reveal your hand.  +1 Card per Victory card revealed.
-----
2 VP

Comments:  For a while, this cycled Victory cards instead.  We changed it back because it just wasn't that good.  Also, this was made before Crossroads existed, though we copied its wording for the final version.

Miko
$4 Action

Trash up to 2 cards from your hand. For each differently named card trashed, if it is an...

Action card, +2 Actions
Treasure card, +$2
Victory card, +2 Cards

Each other player may trash a card from his hand.

Comments:  Tribute meets Bishop, and a bit of a different take on trash for benefit.  I've got an eye on this for possibly being too good.  I'd rather not move it to $5, but we'll see how it plays out.

Pokemon Center
$4 Action

Reveal your hand. Draw until you have 6 cards in your hand that are not Curse cards. Then trash all Curse cards in your hand.

If you did not trash any Curse cards, you may trash a card in your hand and then draw a card.

Comments: We wanted some Curse hate, and this seemed like a fun way to do it.  The generic trashing effect was added so that it could still get good use on non-cursing boards, and ended up bumping the cost up to $4

Heart of the Cards
$4 Action

+1 Card
+1 Action
Name a card. Reveal the top card of your deck. If it's the named card, put it into your hand. Repeat until you guess wrong.

Comments: Wishing Well++.  Honestly, this was designed purely off flavor.  But it works so well that way that I like it.

Hell Link
$4 Action

+1 Action
Name an Action or Treasure card. Reveal cards from your deck until you reveal the named card. Play that card, then trash it. Discard the other revealed cards.

Comments: A tutoring card with a hefty drawback.  A decent opener, where it plays like a more reliable Loan.  It has nice lategame utility when you need to dig up that vital action or a Gold to buy the last Province.

Iron Town
$4 Action

+2 Actions
Reveal cards from the top of your deck until you reveal an Action card. Put that card into your hand and discard the other cards.

Comments: I was always torn whether this was balanced at $4.  The fact that it skips over treasures ends up being a lot more of a drawback than it seems, but digging for actions is quite powerful.

Death Note
$4 Action-Attack

Choose one: Gain a Curse or trash a card from your hand costing 4 or more. If you do gain a Curse or trash a card, each other player discards 4 cards.

Comments: This card was hard to balance.  It started as a $5 and the curses scaled with the number of opponents, but it turned out that was a lot worse than we thought.  I think we've reached a good place with it, and flavor-wise it works out if all the numbers are 4.

Geass
$5 Action-Attack

+1 Card
+1 Action
+1 Buy
Each opponent with at least 5 cards reveals his hand. You choose one card in each opponent's hand. He puts the chosen card on top of his deck.

Comments: This used to be $4 and the card was discarded.  That turned out to be...somewhat unbalanced.  Topdecking the card at least means you get that good card next turn, and if their hand is already awful, you can screw up their next turn a bit.  Also fits better with the "top card of deck" theme we ended up with.

Student Council

$5 Action

+3 Cards
+1 Buy

Comments: We wanted a few vanilla cards because we'd be teaching people to play with this set.  This seemed like a reasonable combination.  Of course, Margrave now makes this look pretty bland, but it's hard to spice it up while keeping it simple.  And yes, the name is a reference to Council Room.

Prosecutor

$5 Action-Attack

+2 Cards
+1 Buy
Each player reveals a Victory card from his hand and places it on his deck (or reveals a hand with no Victory cards). Each player that revealed a Victory card then gains a Curse, putting it in his hand.

Comments: We also wanted a stronger Cursing attack, and ended up coming up with this.  It self combos quite well, since the victory card ends up in your hand next turn.  Putting the Curse in your hand lessens its power.

Grand Line
$5 Treasure-Attack

$2
If this is the first time you played a Grand Line this turn, each other player gains a copper.

Comments: We wanted a treasure attack, and this seemed like the logical way to do it.

Equivalent Exchange
$5 Action

Trash up to 3 cards from your hand. Gain up to 3 cards with total cost in coins exactly equal to the total cost in coins of the trashed cards.  (You may gain a different number of cards than you trashed.)

Comments: This would have been Forge if Forge didn't already exist.  Originally it was Forge limited to 3 cards, but that was kind of boring (and surprisingly bad), so we gave the option of gaining multiple cards.

Spiral Energy
$5 Action

When you play this, count your deck and discard pile.

+1 Card for every 4 cards total between them (rounded down).

Comments: A draw card that scales with the size of your deck.  It works well enough, but I wonder if the numbers could use adjusting.

Mecha
$6 Action

+2 Cards
+$2

Comments: This was originally $5.  That was clearly wrong.  It seems to be working at $6.

Host Club
$6 Treasure-Victory

$?
When you play this, it's worth $1 per Host Club you have in play (counting this).
-----
1VP
Worth an additional 1VP for every 2 Host Clubs in your deck (rounded down).

Comments: We knew immediately we wanted a male version of Harem for Host Club.  It scales with the number you have, which seems logical for a harem.

Card Rules

Time Machine and self-trashers--If you Time Machine a self-trasher, it loses track of the card and can't play it again the next turn.  Time Machine may return to your hand in this case, as no card was set aside.

Time Machine on Time Machine--Suppose you use Time Machine to play Time Machine, and then don't set aside a card with the second one.  At the start of your next turn, you may either play it again or return it to your hand, but not both. 

Trashing Duration cards--If a Duration card is trashed after you play it (either through Deity or Hell Link), you still get its "at the start of the next turn" effect.  You don't get its in-play effect.

Bounty Hunter--All cards have type Treasure in addition to their normal types while this is in play.  Actions played as treasures will not have their action effects, but will have their in-play effects.  Cards that are already treasures can be played for their normal effect or for $1, your choice.

Equivalent Exchange--You may choose to trash no cards.  In that case, you may gain up to 3 cards with total cost 0.  Similarly, if you trash cards with total cost 0, you may choose to gain no cards.  And yes, you may choose to trash no cards and gain no cards.

These are the ones that are most obvious.  If you can think of any other potentially weird interactions, tell me.

[rinkworks]

A pretty solid list of cards here.  I love Hell Link, where the trashing aspect really makes it interesting.

A few concerns:  Surely Miko is mandatory to open with.  This seems far stronger than any other trasher in the game.  The ones that trash without hurting your buy phase (Masquerade, Trading Post) tend to be power cards and/or expensive, and this blows them all away.

Geass is a pin hazard.  Someone drawing his deck reliably every turn can make sure his opponent never gets to, by putting back his key card every turn.  With 3+ players, this is even more likely to occur.

Anyway, great work.

[GendoIkari]

To make AT field completely impenetrable, you might want to even add "when you gain a Curse, you may reveal this from your hand. If you do, trash the Curse." This will prevent IGG from hurting you as well. And I should know a thing or two about AT fields.

[Davio]

For Hell Link, there needs to be some modification to stop players from searching for cards they don't have and going on indefinitely.

Maybe something like: If the named card isn't in your deck, gain a Curse. Hehe.

[GendoIkari]

I think you should change Student Council... Margrave doesn't just make it bland, it is strictly better than it.

[WanderingWinder]

I think you should change Student Council... Margrave doesn't just make it bland, it is strictly better than it.

No, it's not strictly better. 3 cards out of 6 has a non-trivial chance of being better than 5 out of 5. Okay, not a big chance, but not a trivial one. Plus this isn't an attack, so opponents can't benefit off of reactions (basically horse traders).

[GendoIkari]

I think you should change Student Council... Margrave doesn't just make it bland, it is strictly better than it.

No, it's not strictly better. 3 cards out of 6 has a non-trivial chance of being better than 5 out of 5. Okay, not a big chance, but not a trivial one. Plus this isn't an attack, so opponents can't benefit off of reactions (basically horse traders).

Interesting... I guess you're right. I certainly have had times that an opponent's Margrave has turned a crappy turn into a good one. Though on the same note, a Ghost Ship can help your opponent as well, and yet a $5 that does nothing but +2 cards would be considered worse than Ghost Ship!

[WanderingWinder]

I think you should change Student Council... Margrave doesn't just make it bland, it is strictly better than it.

No, it's not strictly better. 3 cards out of 6 has a non-trivial chance of being better than 5 out of 5. Okay, not a big chance, but not a trivial one. Plus this isn't an attack, so opponents can't benefit off of reactions (basically horse traders).

Interesting... I guess you're right. I certainly have had times that an opponent's Margrave has turned a crappy turn into a good one. Though on the same note, a Ghost Ship can help your opponent as well, and yet a $5 that does nothing but +2 cards would be considered worse than Ghost Ship!

Oh I agree. And Student Council is worse than Margrave, no question. Like, most of the time, the attack is a good, not a bad. Same with the Ghost ship thing. It's just, not ALWAYS.

[GendoIkari]

I think you should change Student Council... Margrave doesn't just make it bland, it is strictly better than it.

No, it's not strictly better. 3 cards out of 6 has a non-trivial chance of being better than 5 out of 5. Okay, not a big chance, but not a trivial one. Plus this isn't an attack, so opponents can't benefit off of reactions (basically horse traders).

Interesting... I guess you're right. I certainly have had times that an opponent's Margrave has turned a crappy turn into a good one. Though on the same note, a Ghost Ship can help your opponent as well, and yet a $5 that does nothing but +2 cards would be considered worse than Ghost Ship!

Oh I agree. And Student Council is worse than Margrave, no question. Like, most of the time, the attack is a good, not a bad. Same with the Ghost ship thing. It's just, not ALWAYS.

Makes me ask... is there any attack that is ALWAYS bad for your opponent? I don't think so... and assume that we aren't counting benefit from Horse Traders or Secret Chamber either.

Cursers can give your opponent more points from either Gardens or Fairgrounds.
Discard attacks can make a hand better if it has Menagerie or any "draw up to" cards. (Or Tunnel).
Rabble & Fortune Teller can discard Coppers and cycle faster.
Minion can replace 5 crappy cards with 4 good ones.
Saboteur can give your opponents more points in the late-game.
Swindler can hit a Curse when the Curse pile is empty.
With deck-inspection you can have them discard a card that they didn't need anyway, or have them keep a card that ends up being useful.
Bureaucrat... probably actually the attack LEAST likely to help your opponent! But it can still cause a Province to be paired with a Tournament that otherwise wouldn't, or put a Nobels or Tunnel on top, where it happens to work much better in your next hand than your current one.

[petrie911]

A pretty solid list of cards here.  I love Hell Link, where the trashing aspect really makes it interesting.

Hell Link is a card that I still don't think I understand how to use.  It's got a lot of interesting combos for such a simple card idea.

A few concerns:  Surely Miko is mandatory to open with.  This seems far stronger than any other trasher in the game.  The ones that trash without hurting your buy phase (Masquerade, Trading Post) tend to be power cards and/or expensive, and this blows them all away.

Yeah, that's been a concern I've had about Miko.  The differently-named clause hurts it a bit, as you really need to trash an Estate and a Copper to get good stuff, though admittedly you have a chance to get a Gold that way.  The fact that other people get to trash makes opening with it less dominating.  Still, you're right, it's something to test more.  Any suggestions for improvements?

Geass is a pin hazard.  Someone drawing his deck reliably every turn can make sure his opponent never gets to, by putting back his key card every turn.  With 3+ players, this is even more likely to occur.

It seems like a poor deck drawing engine that has only 1 copy of its key card.  Eventually the Geassing player will find he can only topdeck one of the cards he needs to.  Especially if the opponent has also bought Geass.

To make AT field completely impenetrable, you might want to even add "when you gain a Curse, you may reveal this from your hand. If you do, trash the Curse." This will prevent IGG from hurting you as well. And I should know a thing or two about AT fields.

Hehe, I thought you might have something to say about that card.  There's only so much room in the text box, though.  Also, you could trash the Curses gained from Death Note with it, which I'd rather not allow.  Not to mention it still wouldn't block Masq's pseudo-attack (and, for some decks, Embassy's and Governor's).

For Hell Link, there needs to be some modification to stop players from searching for cards they don't have and going on indefinitely.

Maybe something like: If the named card isn't in your deck, gain a Curse. Hehe.

There's no problem with that.  It's just like if you play Hunting Party and there's no unique cards left in your deck.  It searches until it finds the end, then just stops.  I suppose it does let you Chancellor yourself, but that's hardly a good enough effect to warrant self-cursing.

I think you should change Student Council... Margrave doesn't just make it bland, it is strictly better than it.

Others have mentioned why it's not *strictly* better, but yeah, Margrave is clearly the better card overall.  It's hard to come up with a way to give it its own flavor while still being a simple card, though.  Maybe +2 Buys...

Glad to see generally positive reactions.  We're looking to do another printing of the cards soon, so I'm trying to make sure the effects are all good before commiting to paper.

[popsofctown]

So little to criticize! What a neat set!

And I bet the pictures are fun

Disappointed by the amount of flavor in Death Note   You should set it aside and be able to set it aside and name how many turns you want the attack to wait to activate! or something!

EDIT: Yo dawg I herd u like reacting so I put a reaction in your reaction so u can react while u react!

[dondon151]

How does Time Machine interact with Duration cards? Do you get the "next turn" bonus and the "this turn" bonus simultaneously on the subsequent turn? Do you get another "next turn" bonus on the turn after that? How long do you have to leave it out?

Spiral Energy looks like it suffers from the Philosopher's Stone problem of being a pain to play with in a real life game.

Some of the cards could be worded better (Equivalent Exchange, for example, could use "up to 3 cards" instead of the numerical wording that you have now).

[petrie911]

How does Time Machine interact with Duration cards? Do you get the "next turn" bonus and the "this turn" bonus simultaneously on the subsequent turn? Do you get another "next turn" bonus on the turn after that? How long do you have to leave it out?

I'll just illustrate how it works with an example.  Suppose you play Time Machine on Merchant Ship.

Turn 1:
You play a Time Machine
...playing a Merchant Ship
... ... getting +$2

Turn 2:
Merchant Ship gives you +$2
Time Machine plays Merchant Ship again
... getting +$2

*Time Machine is cleaned up here*

Turn 3:
Merchant Ship gives you +$2

*Merchant Ship is cleaned up here*

Spiral Energy looks like it suffers from the Philosopher's Stone problem of being a pain to play with in a real life game.

Eh, it's not too hard to count once and then keep track of your deck size.  Spiral Energy anti-synergizes with engines, so it's usually not too hard.

Some of the cards could be worded better (Equivalent Exchange, for example, could use "up to 3 cards" instead of the numerical wording that you have now).

"Up to 3 cards" allows you to gain no cards, which is not how we want it to work.  You're right that it needs better wording, but I'm not sure how to improve it.

Any other cards that need wording improvements?

[AJD]

Time Machine was actually <a href="http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=117.0">playtested for Seaside</a> and rejected. I don't really understand why people are confused by how such a card would interact with Durations, though.

[dondon151]

I'll just illustrate how it works with an example.  Suppose you play Time Machine on Merchant Ship.

Different question: don't you need to indicate on Time Machine that it needs to be set aside with the card that you play? Or, if you're doing it like Haven, doesn't it need to be a Duration?

"Up to 3 cards" allows you to gain no cards, which is not how we want it to work.  You're right that it needs better wording, but I'm not sure how to improve it.

Thematically, it doesn't make sense that Equivalent Exchange can trash cards and gain nothing, but think about the card itself. Trashing 3 cards and gaining nothing is strictly worse than Chapel, so I don't see why that possibility should be excluded (it just makes the card very slightly stronger). There's also the edge case where you do something like play 5x Highway, play Equivalent Exchange, trash nothing and gain 3 Duchies for free, but it's not like you can't do something similar with trashing 1 Copper with the card as is.

Time Machine was actually <a href="http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=117.0">playtested for Seaside</a> and rejected. I don't really understand why people are confused by how such a card would interact with Durations, though.

Long story, but I was designing cards for a team Dominion expansion that employed Duration cards that yielded benefits for your teammate come their turn, and also designed a card similar to Time Machine (except it worked for your teammate). I was trying to figure out how to resolve that interaction (as well as tracking problems), and it was a nightmare. I suppose it's easier when you're only keeping track of your own cards and when you're only playing your own cards.

[petrie911]

I'll just illustrate how it works with an example.  Suppose you play Time Machine on Merchant Ship.

Different question: don't you need to indicate on Time Machine that it needs to be set aside with the card that you play? Or, if you're doing it like Haven, doesn't it need to be a Duration?

Oh, right.  It *is* a Duration.  I apparently forgot to put that in the first post.  Edited.

As for Equivalent Exchange, I have no doubt it would be balanced with the "up to 3" wording (just like I doubt Forge would be made that much better if the gain were optional).  It's definitely more of a thematic issue than a balance one.  Still, "Trash up to 3, gain up to 3 with equal total cost" is significantly simpler, which makes it worth considering.

EDIT: I decided to go with your wording.  I realized that you wouldn't be allowed to trash, say, 2 Estates and a Copper to gain nothing, because that wouldn't have the same total cost.  Trashing 3 Coppers into nothing would be allowed, but we all know Coppers are worthless, so it does kind of make sense.

[petrie911]

Updated the OP with the card arts, for those of you who want to see them.  We're planning on making color versions eventually, but for now we're using black and white because we can actually print those.

Also, Time Machine now returns to your hand next turn if you don't play an action with it.  It had proven to be a little weak, so I thought this buff would make it more playable.  I had considered allowing it to work with treasures, but that runs into rules wonkiness with Bounty Hunter's type-changing effect.

[Thanar]

Thanks for this well-designed variant set! Props from a MIT alumnus ('89 Course 6.3).

I'm interested in printing a set out for myself, but I find the images you posted to be too low-resolution. I'd be able to read the text, but everything would be very pixellated. Is there any chance of posting a higher resolution version (in the same 9-up format)?

[petrie911]

Ah, that would be because photobucket downsized the images.  Didn't know it did that.

http://imgur.com/IIQNA,NjBld,VHnGT#0

This should work.