So there are plans for new card strength rankings (and maybe also tiers) on this forum, and I'm excited for them already! But they're not quite done yet, so instead, I decided to write about my favorite cards. These are not necessarily the strongest cards, just cards that appeal to me personally. Nevertheless, discussions about them are welcome.
It's going to be a top 30 because I got a bit lazy after that, and there's not a lot of interesting stuff to say about all of those middle-of-the-road cards. There are cards I do truly hate, such as Cultist and Possession, and I could write about those, but let's just focus on the good times instead! Yay!
Without further ado, here are the numbers 26-30, and I will slowly move up to number 1 in the days to follow.
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30. QuarryI really enjoy cost reducers. Is it because I’m Dutch? It might be; we’re somewhat notorious over the entire world for being cheap and always looking for the best deal. Anyway, Quarry is good for getting multiple engine components quickly, but it really needs +Buy to excel, which can be a bit frustrating. Then again, engines that don’t work out because a component is missing are always frustrating. Spoiler alert: not all cost reducers made it to this list. Bridge Troll is missing, and I suspect that it is because the attack is somewhat annoying to resolve, which makes it fall just outside of the top 30.
29. GoonsIt has all the components of an awesome card. Obviously, it’s the single best payload card in the game, and it’s a very cool way to get a metric ton of Alt-VP. The only reason it’s not higher on this list is because it’s a bit too strong. Its presence seriously diminishes your interest in other cool payload cards like Bridge Troll and Merchant Guild, because you’d rather just have another Goons instead. So Goons is a bit too overcentralizing, which is a shame, because it’s awesome otherwise. I kinda feel it shouldn’t have an Attack, that way it would be way more balanced.
28. SaboteurYeah. Sue me. I’m probably the only person who likes this card. Interestingly, I don’t like Knights at all; they’re stronger on average because they give resources and don’t give your opponent replacements, but I strongly feel that trashing attacks need to be on the weak side. Saboteur is rather weak, but excelling with weakish cards is cool in its own right. I actually like that it can trash Provinces, because that helps prevent the ability to have your opponent on points lockdown. Nothing worse than participating in a game you know you can’t win.
27. VaultOne of the few draw cards in this list. Most draw cards are rather boring, although they are a welcome addition to engines; it doesn’t feel like you’re doing something very interesting if you play a Smithy variant in most cases. Vault is cool though. It rewards overdrawing your deck and makes your payload variable, and it offers some more difficult decisions at times. I usually dislike cards that give a benefit to your opponent, which is why Council Room, Governor and Bishop will never make it to this list, but Vault is an exception probably because it usually doesn’t actually feel like you’re helping them all that much.
26. SalvagerTime for another unpopular opinion: Seaside is my least favorite set. It’s about as vanilla as the Base set, but at least the Base set gets some love because I really enjoy teaching the game to new players, and there are a couple of cool cards. Seaside almost completely lacks those cool cards. Almost every card that is a bit more complex is clunky (Pirate Ship), overpowered (Ambassador) or just happens to be a card that I suck at (Tactician). Salvager is an exception though, and the only card that made it to this list. It’s a really nice and satisfying TFB card that will make sure you rarely truly regret buying something, as you can always turn it into something else.
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Topic: Aleimon Thimble's top 30 favorite cards (Read 34465 times)