10. Peasant
When Adventures came out, I liked Page more than Peasant. Now Peasant has easily surpassed his sister in arms (Page is a girl, right?). His storyline is a lot cooler, which is one thing, but his effects are also more subtle. Probably not stronger, but definitely more interesting. Handing out those tokens is a wonderful feeling, it’s such a satisfying way of building an engine. And you’re not sad even if there are token Events, because that just means you can dump those tokens on a single pile and be done with it!
9. Highway
Now we’re really entering the high ranks. Or the high ways. When I see Highway on a board, my heart jumps with joy and I immediately start looking for the megaturn. Of course, you need a ton of +Buy or gainers to make it happen, but it’s there often enough. I already knew Bridge when I started browsing the Dominion Strategy Wiki, but when I found out about Highway’s existence I got especially excited. The cost reduction mechanic is so interesting that it definitely deserves a cantrip with that ability.
8. Jester
It’s the only Cornucopia card on this list. I don’t specifically dislike Cornucopia, there are just relatively few cards that stick out in a positive way. Jester is certainly the one though. It can be a gainer or a junker, and you don’t know which it’s going to be until you play it, but you’ll almost always be happy with the outcome. Well, maybe not in some rare cases where it hits Silver. Jester really lives up to its reputation and its name: it’s just a load of fun pretty much always. A small portion of kudos to McGarnacle for guessing Jester for #1, you were somewhat close. Although I suspect you only said it because it’s your favorite card…
7. Miser
Before I get to Miser, let me tell you something about Pirate Ship. When I spent countless hours browsing the Wiki, I slowly but surely learned about all the cards that existed. Pirate Ship was the final card I learned about. I had seen it a couple of times already, but I was always like ‘wall of text, people say it’s weak, never mind already’. Of course, in the end I learned what its gimmick was all about. I thought it was pretty cool, if a bit convoluted and weak in the same way Thief is. Well what do you know, Miser has a similar gimmick but it actually helps yourself instead of your opponent. Not a power card, but definitely one of the cooler ones. Yay Miser!