Hello friends!
I’ve been playing Dominion online and IRL for a few years now and only in the last few months have I started getting more involved with f.ds discussions and tournaments and such. It’s an awesome community (one of the most friendly and respectful I’ve seen on the internet) and I’ve been learning a ton by reading and posting and playing. And now, I’m trying my hand at a small fan expansion!
Currently, it’s 17 cards, that loosely revolve around the theme of discarding for benefit and cycling cards that either like or can create small hand-sizes. I kept them simple—no durations, tokens, reserves, debt, potions, travellers and such. All have gone through some playtesting, but I'm continuing to playtest and modify as I go.
I’d love to get feedback from the community—do certain cards seem too strong or too weak, does wording need to be more clear, do certain mechanics need reworking, etc. I appreciate your help! Please post comments below.
Thanks!
4est
Kingdom Cards:
Individual Cards:I’ve discovered a new planet—I mean, card-shaped thing! I wanted a cheap Vagrant/Patrician that prefers variety. The first version of Astronomer was effectively a mini-Hunting Party, but that immediately proved to be too strong in play testing—way too easy for them to just be $2 Labs. This revised version checks another player's hand instead.
Unlike most of my cards which started with a card idea or mechanic, and got names and images later, Brewery started with the name and image. Emulating the drunk monk, I wanted a weird hand-discarder like Minion that works out for you in the end. You can keep your best 2 cards, or if your cards suck, discard them all and draw 3 more, to go with your extra actions and coins.
Carnival’s “travel between players” mechanic is inspired by Last Footnote’s Wanderer and Asper’s Pilgrim, but instead of a draw card, Carnival provides some nice payload. It’s great for hitting $5 and $6 in the early game, and higher price points later, and players are never sad to have one passed to them. Another key difference is that taking the coins and passing to your opponent is optional—you can always play it just for the non-terminal buy and cash out at another time (or try to amass a few Carnivals for a big turn later).
My Butcher variant that uses discarding instead of Coin tokens for Remodeling. Early on, it also drew a card, but this made it just a bit too easy to gain cards costing $4 more, so the +1 Card was removed.
It’s a giant Workshop! Gainers that can gain that many cards per play are always risky designs, but the differently named clause prevents it from piledriving, and on many boards, you end up taking stuff you don’t necessarily need. Also, for each card you gain, you can discard something else to topdeck it, a handy little bonus.
Falconer is a cheap Band of Misfits variant that offers you a choice when you play it: a simple cantrip, or play it as the worst Action card in your opponent's hand. Sometimes what they reveal just doesn’t work, but hey that’s okay, Falconer can never hurt you. But sometimes, their worst card is still a winner. Late game, it can become a tactical puzzle for your opponent on which of their good actions to reveal that will help you the least.
Market is a nice card, but sometimes it feels sad to pay $5 and not use all the +Buys or Coin. Introducing Fish Market, where you can build your own Market! Need a Village? Just discard a card. Need +Buy? Just discard a card. Need Coin? You know what to do. Don’t need any of those? Then just draw a card. Need an actual Market? Well you probably should have just bought one of those then. It’s the flexibility you’re paying for in Fish Market.
It's a Smithy with a neat discard effect. It does suffer from the Harbinger effect—you’re sad when your discard is empty, but when it’s not, trading out the worst card in your hand for the best card in your discard pile is a sweet deal.
My attempt at a fast Big Money enabler. Also a lesson in basic personal finance: I can spend all my money now, invest a little in a short term return next turn, or invest a lot in a long term return next shuffle. If only it was this simple in real life..
Marshal is a cantrip discard attack like Urchin, but multiples can bring your opponent down to 3 cards in hand (like Soldier). Sometimes you don't mind getting hit by two Marshals though, since it sort of counters other Marshals by giving you a nice bonus with a small handsize.
A cheap village that gives you a choice of what to do with the top card of your deck. It can offer +Buy with a little sifting, light trashing, or a draw and discard--all useful things, but the randomness makes the card play a little bit differently each time.
Another Draw-to-X style card, this time in Peddler form. The fewer cards you have in hand, the better Poet gets. With five or more, it’s a nonterminal Copper: okay, not so great. But it has the potential to draw two, three, even four cards. Good thing you’ve been playing all those discard for benefit cards!
The curser for this set, Rebellion provides a nice chunk of terminal coin for each set of duplicate cards in your hand. The attack gives a Torturer-like Curse or discard choice for hands with duplicate cards, but can be countered by hands with no duplicates. Rebellions need like-minded people working together in order to succeed.
I wanted both a trasher and gainer in the expansion, and then I had the idea: why not make a card that does both? Smelter is flexible, trashing like Steward or gaining like Workshop, and if you’re feeling adventurous, you can do both, but then your opponents get to trash too. Better make it worth it!
Playing Treasures from your hand is so old school. Nowadays we just discard them instead! Introducing Trinket, the Treasure you can’t wait to discard! On play, it’s just a nonterminal Herbalist, but you can also play it on your next Buy phase by discarding it. Anything Tunnel likes, Trinket likes too.
Similar to Watchtower in its versatility, Undertaker has lots of neat reaction tricks up its sleeve. It can turn sifters into trashers (including other Undertakers), it can defend against trashing attacks and make discard attacks actually helpful, it can turn trash-for-benefits like Apprentice into crazy discard-for-benefits instead, etc. I’ve tried a bunch of different things for the top, and settled on a terminal Forum for now, but I’m still testing other options as well.
The first version of Water Wheel had 2VP and could be discarded from your hand at the start of your turn for a bonus but it proved to be confusing, overpowered, and could lead to weird discarding loops. So it was scrapped and replaced with this version, still with 2VP but now a Scheme-like on-buy effect. Basically, you can discard whatever cards you have left in your hand to Scheme that many cards you have in play (including Treasures) to use next turn. With just a few discards, you can set up an ideal next hand. It’s pricey though, and only worth it if you actually have some cards left in your hand when you buy it, otherwise you just spent $6 for 2VP. And of course, once it’s in your deck, Water Wheel is a dead card—and another prime target for discarding when you buy another one.
Outtakes:
