Dominion > Variants and Fan Cards

Kudasai's Random Dominion Cards

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Aquila:
Moon Shrine - thinking about it more, it may be that $3 is too cheap. Nonterminal 2 coffers may make it too similar to a Silver+, so could push the cost to at least $4. Or it could be too easy to buy many moon shrines, stockpile VP on the Provinces and use the coffers to buy them up before the opponent does.

Slumlord - maybe you intend for it to work on Treasures and Nights, maybe you don't. The concept is interesting, the theme fits well, and there's not a lot you can do to balance it other than taking the +Card off, should it need it. This is my favourite.

Stadium - another interesting concept, it's nice how it scales as your deck progresses. If there is a problem with it, perhaps it can be too volatile as a cantrip, many of them in play needing only 1 card in your next hand. But there's no +buy, it could be fine.

Lost Temple - it should be distinguished enough from Steward. Its use of buys may or may not be broken; being a Chapel that can later be a cantrip (or Lost City) may be too strong. Certainly one to test with Seaway.

Industrious Village - it requires treasure trashing or several cantrips to be worthwhile (save the only-Village scenario), things that indirectly benefit the standard Village anyway. It might be fun, or it might be uninteresting, I don't really know.

Blockade - going with Theta's interpretation, I guess you use this according to personal taste. It can be nice to get rewarded for kingdom analysing skills, including the speed of the game, but most times the game can be well defined, and then there isn't much VP difference to be had.

Gamble - what Puk said. But trusting that you mean you only want Kingdom cards to be named, it's an infinite source of VP, so when you can know your next hand you almost always do it. (So I'd encourage a flavour change, when the situation calls for it it's always right to gamble? So yeah, and gambling shouldn't give VP anyway.)

Overall, playtesting will tell a lot about whether the cards are balanced. Maybe you've done some, in which case it'll be good to see what you've found.

Kudasai:
Thank you all for the great comments and feedback (especially Aquila). You have already pointed out a few problematic issues. For the sake of being concise, I'll try and reply to all the comments thus far in one post.

Card Explanations/Personal Thoughts:

Army - I'm still inclined to say this card is not broken or overly powered. It can certainly be powerful late game, but it does take a while to get to that point. Sometimes the very cards in your Army can accomplish the same thing played individually and at a faster pace. Army may take center stage in a lot of games, but some cards are just like that (Tournament, Governor, Chapel, etc). Army at least requires the other Kingdom cards to be involved to work.

Commander - Yes, this card does need a price increase (thinking $6 or $7). Unfortunately this card does lead to an issue with Tactician (good catch Aquila!), but I'm torn if that means I should rework the mechanics for one single card interaction. I could roll this back to a version that required a card to give +Actions in order to draw, but the wording gets a bit funky. Also it is worth noting that 3 Commander cards in play equals the draw of 3 Laboratory cards in play; it's only the 4th Commander played that overcomes Lab.

Heir - I view this as a mini-Dominate type. Dominate is certainly strong, but if you can't build for it fast enough, you're probably better off just Province rushing. I think the same applies to Heir. By the time you get 5 or so Heirs and you're consistently hitting $9, your opponent may have 4-5 Provinces. The payoff has to be good enough to warrant the risk of over-building.

Royal Decree - My thinking is that this has to be strong enough early to warrant an early buy. This then entices people to buy Silver and Gold, which leaves them open to being used by their opponents. If Royal Decree is too weak I don't think anyone would ever buy it given the risk. A cool interaction is leaving a Treasure card in your hand when you buy Royal Decree. If you hit another players Royal Decree you get to then play it three times, otherwise not at all. It's power scaling with more players in unfortunate, but other cards like that exist. I did my best to make the on-buy effect powerful enough on a two player game to warrant to risk of buying it.

Moon Shrine - I think this outshines Silver early, but falls off quickly mid to late game. You can surely pick up an early Province with 2-3 extra VP early, but that's not likely later on when $8 is an easy price point to hit. I don't see a mass Moon Shrine deck working.

Slumlord - Yes, the villainous Slumlord can work with Treasure and Night cards, but effectively ends your Action phase. Better than Throne Room early, but probably falls short late game.

Stadium - Out played by Silver early, but amazing late game with a reliable engine. Definitely needs +Buys to shine. Massing Stadiums also doesn't really work since they anti-synergize.

Lost Temple  - Another strong trasher that should be priced higher, but I kept artificially low to ensure every player had a shot to open with it (consider Chapel's cost to power level). The Seaway interactions is making me think it should be $5 though. 

Industrious Village - You nailed it! Won't always be great, but when it is, it's really great (maybe that's the definition of swingy though). In my opinion that's the fun of Dominion; trying to figure out what card interactions work and when to go for them.

Blockade - You also nailed this one. It basically rewards players who can see how a board will play out and who are willing to risk high card positions. Of coarse you have to be very careful not to gain your own card, because you will not gain VP points. Also, if two or more players pick the same position/pile, that pile is essentially blocked for those players unless someone wants to give their opponent points. There's a lot of subtly here and I recommend a 10x10 grid chart (for most boards) to keep track of gains and where your card/positions are.

Gamble - Kodos to 'Puk' for pointing out a card flaw in hilarious fashion. This needs to be changed to "Name an Action card and amount of 1 or more". It's reliable early, but giving up $2 at that stage is tough. Even late game in a close match, $2 might not be available, especially since you might whiff. Best in decks with variety. Play testing has found this card to be balanced, but fun is another question. Included it for those players who really enjoy card counting (Yuck!).

Thanks again for the comments and insights. I'll update some of these and post version changes in the comments soon.

Holunder9:
Moon Shrine is good but I'd tweak the vanilla stuff: 2 Coin tokens on a non-terminal card is too good for $3 and potentially also too good for $4.

Slumlord is a great Throne Room variant.

Stadium will probably yield most of the time 2. 3/4 is risky unless you play a thin money deck with a high likelihood of Gold/Province in your hand. So this will mostly be a delayed double Peddler, early in the game with some risk that you have no $4 card in your hand. But even then I think this is pretty / too good for a $4.

I like Lost Temple and the thematic hint at Lost City.

Industrious Village could get away with only caring about your Action cards in play. Not for the sake of balancing but simplicity. At the first glance it looks like a reverse Shanty Town. Often the first Shanty Town you play in a turn is the best one and Shanty Town is pretty bad for draw engines whereas with Industrious Village it seems to be the other way around.

About Old Witch, I love the idea of out-of-deck Curses that land in your deck on some condition (and greening is probably one of the best conditions!). But I would hesitate to put this Attack, or Attacks in general, on an cantrip/Oasis.
Even though it is weaker than ordinary Cursers it still a junker, with the junk coming delayed but all at once. And for a cheap price of $3 it might often be best to open Old Witch/Old Witch.

Kudasai:
Thanks for the comments! It's been fun reading people's thoughts on cards I've spent a lot of time on.


--- Quote from: Holunder9 on May 20, 2018, 03:25:23 pm ---Moon Shrine is good but I'd tweak the vanilla stuff: 2 Coin tokens on a non-terminal card is too good for $3 and potentially also too good for $4.

--- End quote ---
Certainly powerful for it's cost, but mid to late game it usually turns in to +2 Coffers, one other player takes 1VP, which is a bit weak. Of coarse niche scenarios probably exist.

--- Quote from: Holunder9 on May 20, 2018, 03:25:23 pm ---Stadium will probably yield most of the time 2. 3/4 is risky unless you play a thin money deck with a high likelihood of Gold/Province in your hand. So this will mostly be a delayed double Peddler, early in the game with some risk that you have no $4 card in your hand. But even then I think this is pretty / too good for a $4.

--- End quote ---
Stadium would actually be stronger at $4 since amassing Stadiums would almost guarantee $2 Coin out of it. Cost $3 slows it down and makes you think hard about how many you want. In my test it's about as good as a Silver overall when no +Buys exist.

--- Quote from: Holunder9 on May 20, 2018, 03:25:23 pm ---I like Lost Temple and the thematic hint at Lost City.

--- End quote ---
Thanks! Also a reference to Chapel.

--- Quote from: Holunder9 on May 20, 2018, 03:25:23 pm ---About Old Witch, I love the idea of out-of-deck Curses that land in your deck on some condition (and greening is probably one of the best conditions!). But I would hesitate to put this Attack, or Attacks in general, on an cantrip/Oasis.
Even though it is weaker than ordinary Cursers it still a junker, with the junk coming delayed but all at once. And for a cheap price of $3 it might often be best to open Old Witch/Old Witch.

--- End quote ---
Yeah, this is a tough one. If your opponent opens double Old Witch and you don't, they will surely win the Curse split, but what are they giving up? They won't hit $5 until after their second shuffle; you hopefully will have at least once or twice. I think a strong trasher + Silver opening will beat double Old Witch.

Kudasai:
Going to do some basic play testing on some of the more contentious cards (Moon Shrine, Army, Commander) over the next few days and I'll post results.

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