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[segura]

Way of the Magpie

Discard the top card of your deck. If it is a Treasure, gain a Trinket.

Gains you Trinkets when you want them, mostly.

Trinkets suck in money, they are natural engine pieces that profit from decks that consistently provide several Buys per turn.

[mail-mi]

Iron Rod - Action-Attack-Looter, $5
Each player (including you) reveals the top card of their deck and discards it (you may choose not to). For each player, if it was a(n)... (you get the version in the parentheses)
Action card, gain a Ruins (2 Horses)
Treasure card, gain a Trinket (2 Spoils)
Victory card, gain a Curse ( +2% )

I think this is good enough for a $5, though it might be a little too weak. Should it be $4?

[Marpharos]

Trinkets suck in money, they are natural engine pieces that profit from decks that consistently provide several Buys per turn.

Exactly, you want Trinkets to reduce the cost of cards and you want money to get rid of Trinkets.

I feel like with Trinkets in play I would go for having enough to get a load of mega turns off consistently, so I don’t necessarily need money in my deck too much. Bridges can be drawn dead, Trinkets can’t so having these is much better. If the effect were that cards cost 1 more, that would be a different matter and would feel like junk you would want to get rid of quickly, but as they are I see Trinkets as more of a help in general.

I did consider having it just reveal the top card, but I liked the idea of magpies discarding their Trinkets out of greed. Also, if the magpie also provided +buy it would be too self-sufficient. I feel like Ways, in general, shouldn’t be too OP on their own.

[alion8me]

Way of the Blue Jay

Follow this card's instructions. Gain and play a Trinket.

edit: Changed card.

I'd honestly make it a project, especially considering this is quite busted with stuff like Market Square or Worker's Village.

I agree that Way of the Blue Jay and cantrip +Buy often enables megaturn strategies. However, I don't think making it a project significantly changes that gameplay, and it means that you miss out on interesting early game decisions re: whether or not to use Blue Jay to let you hit a key price point in exchange for what is a copper at that point in the game being added to your deck.

Iron Rod - Action-Attack-Looter, $5
Each player (including you) reveals the top card of their deck and discards it (you may choose not to). For each player, if it was a(n)... (you get the version in the parentheses)
Action card, gain a Ruins (2 Horses)
Treasure card, gain a Trinket (2 Spoils)
Victory card, gain a Curse ( +2% )

I think this is good enough for a $5, though it might be a little too weak. Should it be $4?

I think this should be $4 due to randomness. I would rather give more control to the player than change the price, though, because the benefits of the card can range from adding two more stop cards to your deck to essentially subtracting two stop cards with the horses. This is also hard to play when you want to draw your deck.

The randomness of the attack portion could also make it feel bad, especially in the uncommon case where the other player wants a Trinket. (Which is probably more common than wanting a Ruins or Curse.)

Way of the Magpie

Discard the top card of your deck. If it is a Treasure, gain a Trinket.

Gains you Trinkets when you want them, mostly.

Trinkets suck in money, they are natural engine pieces that profit from decks that consistently provide several Buys per turn.

Even "gain a Trinket into your hand" seems like something you would very rarely want to play, let alone conditional gaining out of your hand.

I'm risking no picture:

Antique Fair - Project, $4 cost.
At the start of your turn, gain a Trinket to your hand.

Here's a project that may actually not be trivial; timing and viability of purchase are factors.

I feel like this is weak enough that it should cost less to pick up.

Gewgaw (Treasure, $5)

+$2
+1 Buy
---
When you gain this, gain 2 Trinkets.

A Spices variant that hands out Trinkets. Trinkets are markedly different from Coffers, so $5 might be too high a price.

This feels very weak to me. I don't think you usually want Trinkets in your deck, unlike Coffers which are almost strictly beneficial.

This seems really game-warping to me, but in a good way. I wish it gave you the option at the start of your buy phase or something so that dudding with it wasn't possible, having your draw stuck on the bottom of your deck hurts enough already.

[segura]

I think this should be $4 due to randomness. I would rather give more control to the player than change the price, though, because the benefits of the card can range from adding two more stop cards to your deck to essentially subtracting two stop cards with the horses. This is also hard to play when you want to draw your deck.

The randomness of the attack portion could also make it feel bad, especially in the uncommon case where the other player wants a Trinket. (Which is probably more common than wanting a Ruins or Curse.)

Stop cards is a bit of a disingenious term for one-shots and it is far from clear that those two Horses are superior to those 2 Spoils. The usefulness of either one-shot is highly situational and deck-dependent.
I agree that the card is a weak $5, but it obviously cannot cost $4 as the most likely option is a Ruins junker with the net effect of +2 Cards (which is weaker than Witch and Cultist but the latter is totally bonkers anyway and hardly the benchmark for anything so the effect is that of a weak $5).

This feels very weak to me. I don't think you usually want Trinkets in your deck, unlike Coffers which are almost strictly beneficial.

Well, an engine which yields 5 Buys and has enough draw power to draw into those Trinkets direly wants them as payload. But as the Buys come from a stop card in this instance, it is unlikely that such a situation can arise.

But in general, it is important to keep in ming that Trinkets are non-drawing Highways and potentially brilliant payload in an engine that yields enough Buys. That's the main point of it all, a Copper/Silver with Platinum potential.

[mandioca15]

Gewgaw (Treasure, $5)

+$2
+1 Buy
---
When you gain this, gain 2 Trinkets.

A Spices variant that hands out Trinkets. Trinkets are markedly different from Coffers, so $5 might be too high a price.

This feels very weak to me. I don't think you usually want Trinkets in your deck, unlike Coffers which are almost strictly beneficial.

Would it work better if it gave $3, rather than $2?

[spineflu]

30ish hour warning
I'll be doing the judging tomorrow, aiming for around 4pm EDT.
If you've got an entry or revision, post it.

[spineflu]

Iron Rod - Action-Attack-Looter, $5
Each player (including you) reveals the top card of their deck and discards it (you may choose not to). For each player, if it was a(n)... (you get the version in the parentheses)
Action card, gain a Ruins (2 Horses)
Treasure card, gain a Trinket (2 Spoils)
Victory card, gain a Curse ( +2% )

I think this is good enough for a $5, though it might be a little too weak. Should it be $4?

am I reading this right that you get each player's conditional bonus? like if you're playing a five player game and everyone including you reveals Harem, you'd get 10VP, 10 Spoils, and hand out four Trinkets and four Curses?

[mail-mi]

Iron Rod - Action-Attack-Looter, $5
Each player (including you) reveals the top card of their deck and discards it (you may choose not to). For each player, if it was a(n)... (you get the version in the parentheses)
Action card, gain a Ruins (2 Horses)
Treasure card, gain a Trinket (2 Spoils)
Victory card, gain a Curse ( +2% )

I think this is good enough for a $5, though it might be a little too weak. Should it be $4?

am I reading this right that you get each player's conditional bonus? like if you're playing a five player game and everyone including you reveals Harem, you'd get 10VP, 10 Spoils, and hand out four Trinkets and four Curses?

No, sorry, you just get your own bonus. So each player reveals Harem, you get +2VP and 2 spoils, and everyone else gets a Trinket and a Curse.

[spineflu]

Iron Rod - Action-Attack-Looter, $5
Each player (including you) reveals the top card of their deck and discards it (you may choose not to). For each player, if it was a(n)... (you get the version in the parentheses)
Action card, gain a Ruins (2 Horses)
Treasure card, gain a Trinket (2 Spoils)
Victory card, gain a Curse ( +2% )

I think this is good enough for a $5, though it might be a little too weak. Should it be $4?

am I reading this right that you get each player's conditional bonus? like if you're playing a five player game and everyone including you reveals Harem, you'd get 10VP, 10 Spoils, and hand out four Trinkets and four Curses?

No, sorry, you just get your own bonus. So each player reveals Harem, you get +2VP and 2 spoils, and everyone else gets a Trinket and a Curse.

ok cool that's much more reasonable.

[anordinaryman]

Reclaimer - Action - $4
+1 Buy

Trash a card from your hand. For every $2 it costs, rounded down, gain a Trinket to your hand.

a Tfb card. Turns Coppers into nothing, estates into a single Trinket. The +buy almost makes it a +$2 for an estate, on par with salvager. This seems to compare a little poorly to Salvager for trashing, and will continue to do so, unless you can play multiple. Look at the following two scenarios:
1. you have two provinces and throne room and Salvager
2. you have two provinces and throne room and Reclaimer
In the first case you can mill two provinces.
In the second case you can mill two provinces and buy a third province (you got 8 trinkets to lower the cost of provinces to 0)

The idea I wanted to pursue here was helping use Trinkets for mega-turn potential and explore the t4b space with trinkets. I didn't want the card to so easily make a mega-turn all on it's own.

I would love feedback on this card.

[anordinaryman]

I really love this card. I wonder if it's too strong. Basically 9 turns after I buy this, I can lower the cost of provinces to 0. That's really strong. It seems like any game with easy to come by +buys (and there's quite a few of these that are non-terminal -- worker village, squire, market square, spices, even to some extent forager. Then any engine that is capable of generating lots of +buys ) there's a simple tactic of buy Gold Tree, then spend 9 turns building a +buy engine, then triggering the gold tree and emptying provinces.

Maybe I'm overestimating the power of this strategy. It would lead me to pricing this up at $6

[Carline]

Trinket Box - - Action
+1 Card
+1 Action
+1 Buy
You may gain a Trinket to your hand.

Trinkets are good with +Buy, so it's a cantrip + Buy with an optional Trinket, which you can gain whenever you need it. It enables play a Trinket strategy during the game or set a megaturn in the end.

Comparing to Market and Highway, the cost of seems good to me.

[segura]

A natural buff to make it more Highway-like and create interactions with gainers is to play the Trinket, although that could very well make the card overpowered.

[lompeluiten]

Trinket Box - - Action
+1 Card
+1 Action
+1 Buy
You may gain a Trinket to your hand.

I just wanted to post that! (expect the cardname). Now I have to think of somethin new

[mandioca15]

Again, to avoid ambiguity, will set my entry as the following.

Gewgaw (Treasure, $5)

+$3
+1 Buy
---
When you gain this, gain 2 Trinkets.

[anordinaryman]

Again, to avoid ambiguity, will set my entry as the following.

Gewgaw (Treasure, $5)

+$3
+1 Buy
---
When you gain this, gain 2 Trinkets.

This is strictly superior to cache. Trinkets are better than coppers almost all the time (cuz they can be self trashed) and this comes with a +buy.

Maybe Cost it 6 or price it with debt or something.

Edit: I do think this design space is really really good (coming with trinkets as a cost, but providing a +buy so the trinkets aren’t actually bad). It just needs to be reworked as to not be so much better than a similarly priced card.

[Marpharos]

Again, to avoid ambiguity, will set my entry as the following.

Gewgaw (Treasure, $5)

+$3
+1 Buy
---
When you gain this, gain 2 Trinkets.

This is strictly superior to cache. Trinkets are better than coppers almost all the time (cuz they can be self trashed) and this comes with a +buy.

Maybe Cost it 6 or price it with debt or something.

Edit: I do think this design space is really really good (coming with trinkets as a cost, but providing a +buy so the trinkets aren’t actually bad). It just needs to be reworked as to not be so much better than a similarly priced card.

Maybe even making it an Action instead, limiting the amount you can play per turn. It’s underpriced due to being a Treasure imo.

[segura]

Again, to avoid ambiguity, will set my entry as the following.

Gewgaw (Treasure, $5)

+$3
+1 Buy
---
When you gain this, gain 2 Trinkets.

This is strictly superior to cache.

So what? Cache is super-super-bad so it should not serve as a benchmark for anything. Banquet basically shows that $3 would be OK as a price for Cache (and you could argue that you more often want a $5 than Gold).

[mandioca15]

To avoid confusing things, I'll leave the card as it is and see what transpires. It may well work better as an Action or with a higher price, but time is short. Thanks for your feedback!

[alion8me]

Again, to avoid ambiguity, will set my entry as the following.

Gewgaw (Treasure, $5)

+$3
+1 Buy
---
When you gain this, gain 2 Trinkets.

This is strictly superior to cache.

So what? Cache is super-super-bad so it should not serve as a benchmark for anything. Banquet basically shows that $3 would be OK as a price for Cache (and you could argue that you more often want a $5 than Gold).

Also, it's not strictly superior; there are some cards that care about Copper specifically, like Settlers, Counting House and Fountain. In addition, Trinkets cannot be used to buy Events and can be maliciously returned by another player via Possession.

Gewgaw is far superior to Cache in the majority of situations, though. Similarly to segura, I don't think this is a bad thing because of a) how terrible Cache is in general and b) many of the situations where you actually wanted Cache, you still want it, because of the Coppers specifically.

[mail-mi]

Again, to avoid ambiguity, will set my entry as the following.

Gewgaw (Treasure, $5)

+$3
+1 Buy
---
When you gain this, gain 2 Trinkets.

This is strictly superior to cache.

So what? Cache is super-super-bad so it should not serve as a benchmark for anything. Banquet basically shows that $3 would be OK as a price for Cache (and you could argue that you more often want a $5 than Gold).

Also, it's not strictly superior; there are some cards that care about Copper specifically, like Settlers, Counting House and Fountain. In addition, Trinkets cannot be used to buy Events and can be maliciously returned by another player via Possession.

Gewgaw is far superior to Cache in the majority of situations, though. Similarly to segura, I don't think this is a bad thing because of a) how terrible Cache is in general and b) many of the situations where you actually wanted Cache, you still want it, because of the Coppers specifically.

Yeah, I think it's kinda like thief/noble brigand, one is superior in almost every way but still allowable since it's not strictly superior.

[spineflu]

Not sure if this was a tough contest or if we're just at a slow time of the year for the board, but looks like we're down a couple entries from the last couple contests. Sorry if it was too tough or too weird, doing a collab on someone else's idea of a junk card,

Also nearly everyone tried to get The Most Use out of Trinket - would yall have tried the same with Ruins? It's interesting because with it being a Not-So-Painful junk card, you could give them out like wildfire and it'd probably be fine. If you ever wanted to make a 1-to-$1 overpay junker, this was your opportunity.
I suppose there are circumstances where that'd help more than hurt but it was just a very strange difference in how i perceived the card vs how you did, collectively.

I think the only revision I'd want to make with Trinket is make it cost $1*; that way it's extra annoying with Remake/Upgrade style remodelers.

On to the judging - i've kind of grouped similar cards but the groups are in no real order; i think i found everyone's stuff, and i tried to be a little more succinct than some of those essays i wrote last time. Feel free to disagree with my analysis; i'm sure given our differing perspectives on the viability of building decks around trinkets, there'll be disagreements over the viability of cards that give trinkets. Without further ado:

Way of the Blue Jay • Way • auth: alion8me
Follow this card's instructions. Gain and play a Trinket.

This might be too strong. Like, timing-wise, it'll still matter because you're flooding your deck with not-great cards, but add "cards cost $1 less this turn" to, say, Margrave. Or Wharf. maybe too beefy.

Way of the Magpie • Way • auth: Marpharos
Discard the top card of your deck. If it is a Treasure, gain a Trinket.

this seems bad. you don't generally want trinkets. like, they slow your deck down. I'm unsure when I'd use this unless i'm already set in like a Squire/City Quarter deck that has more buys than I know what to do with. You could probably also tack a +1 Action on there and it'd still be fine.

Item • $5 • Treasure • auth: [TP] Inferno
$3
+1 Buy
Gain a Trinket.

This doesn't really seem worth it at $5 imo; Even with the potential setup, if you're after a Gold, I'd probably just ... buy Gold. But spineflu, gold is $6! yeah and it's kind of a bad deal at $6. I feel like the only time this'd get a lot of use is when it's the only +buys on the board?
Kind of uninspired, even down to the name :/
I'd be curious how a Haggler variant of this would play, where you gain a Trinket each time you buy a card, That seems more worth $5.

Gewgaw • $5 • Treasure • auth: mandioca15
$3
+1 Buy
-
When you gain this, gain 2 Trinkets

this is an interesting take but I think it'll be passed on in games where there's no deck-draw potential and just be a dead pile (like Cache is in so many of the games its in). I think this will probably be a noob trap in a bunch of games and unskippable in others. I wish there was a bit more middle ground. You unlocked an achievement though, which was "make me google a title to make sure it isn't a cuss".

auth: Something_Smart

Collector • $4 • Action
+$2
Choose one: Reveal your deck, put the Trinkets into your hand, and shuffle the rest back in; or gain a Trinket; or take the Collection.

Collection • Artifact
When you play a Trinket, +1 Buy

A Counting House / Treasurer variant.

Collection is interesting. It could make for some awfully degenerate artifact chasing games, if nothing else provides +Buy. I think i'd try to narrow down the scope of Collection to something like, "at the start of your turn, +2 Buys" or "when you play a Trinket, if you have an odd number of Trinkets in play, +1 Buy" (which is still cheeseable to hit on every play via returning, but takes more doing and you don't get full cost reduction).

Collector, though, could use some work. Patron loves "Reveal your deck" and it seems way overpowered to do it in a way that benefits a "draw your deck" deck (compare/contrast with counting house, or settlers/bustling village, where you want to have your deck in the discard, a tougher thing to do). Maybe my read on that is wrong though. I just think it could use some tweaks.

Tribble • $2 • Action • auth: grep • 16/pile
+1 Action
+1 Buy
You may gain a Tribble. Look through your discard pile, reveal any number of Trinkets, and put them in to your hand
-
When you gain this, gain a Trinket.

The Trouble with Trinkets, eh? This is neat - a little bit counting house, a little bit rats. I think i'd like it better with the Tribble gaining being mandatory and an option to trash a (copper? non-Treasure?) for another trinket.

Iron Rod • $5 • Action - Attack - Looter • auth: mail-mi
Each player (including you) reveals the top card of their deck and discards it (you may choose not to). For each player, if it was a(n)... (you get the version in the parentheses)
Action card, gain a Ruins (2 Horses)
Treasure card, gain a Trinket (2 Spoils)
Victory card, gain a Curse ( +2% )

text size issues aside, this is a neat fusion of the past two contests. It definitely throws a lot out there - VP tokens, spoils, trinkets, ruins, horses, and then cursing - but set up aside, i don't think it'd slow down the game too much. A very efficient junker in games with mixed "big 3 type" cards like Harem and Crown and what have you. Probably needs an FAQ but this isn't the Weekly FAQ Design Contest so i'll let that slide.

Discount Market • $2 • Action • auth: majiponi
+3 Buys
Gain a Trinket to your hand.

This would surely be a go-to card for rushed 3-piles. kind of reminds me of a reverse-beggar

Reclaimer • $4 • Action • auth: anordinaryman
+1 Buy

Trash a card from your hand. For every $2 it costs, rounded down, gain a Trinket to your hand.

I think, on the one hand, the scenario you outlined with the province milling makes a compelling case for this card, but this card will otherwise be a noob trap, Just, in general, you want trashers to get cards out of your deck, not flood it with more junk. I think it's going to be higher skill and/or more niche than you're presenting it (though it does have a fun synergy with Triumph).

I think maybe a direction to look into to fix this would be giving a choice of, per $2 rounded down, +$1 or a Trinket? like you could take the money or take the trinkets, but not a little of each. That keeps it worse than Salvager but not totally useless.

Scientist • @4 • Action • auth: Fragasnap
+2 Cards, +1 Action. Gain a Trinket from the Trinket pile.

This is an unexpectedly neat laboratory variant. Good analysis on Trinkets too, i hadn't thought of them in terms of adventure tokens. This is really great.

Trinket Box • $5 • Action • auth: Carline
+1 Card
+1 Action
+1 Buy
You may gain a Trinket to your hand.

this is fine, i guess? neither explosively good like some of the other entries, nor especially bad; it is going to pollute your deck and i feel like i'd expect better from a $5 card.

Gold Tree • $5 • Project • auth: grrgrrgrr
At the start of your turn, Exile a Trinket from its pile, or put all Trinkets you have in Exile into your hand.

I was super excited for this until I thought through how OP opening this w like, Hamlet or Squire or Ducat would be. There's probably a way to orchestrate a 9-turn game out of that.
I think it needs to be $6 or $7 but also with those being Exiled, it's kinda low-risk, so it turns into how fast can you buy it, and can you grab them from exile before game over?

Antique Fair • $4 • Project • auth: Aquila
At the start of your turn, gain a Trinket to your hand.

This is an interesting contrast to both Cathedral and Gold Tree. I think it requires a lot more strategy consideration - maybe there's some games where it acts as a sort of ongoing Canal (games with enough +Buys, maybe some Competent Trashing to keep your deck from getting overwhelmed). I think you did an excellent job demonstrating a project that's an "if to buy it" rather than a "when to buy it"

Charlatan • $4 • Action - Attack • auth: D782802859
Gain a card costing up to $4. Each other player gains a copy of it and a Trinket.

Ah, the fun part of messenger - junking yourself to junk your opponents. I like this card. Nice and succinct, good candidate for an under-the-line effect, but good as-is too.

Mad Inventor • $4 • Night - Attack • auth: NoMoreFun
Gain a card costing up to $4
You may gain a Trinket. If you did, each other player gains a Trinket.

man this is Quality. a gainer that can piggyback off the cost reduction, a junker for everyone else, well made. Gonna empty piles fast being non-terminal but the fix for that is inelegant and Devil's Workshop is already nonterminal so I'm not too worried.


Honorable Mentions: Antique Fair (Aquila), Charlatan (D782802859), Discount Market (majiponi)
Runner Up: Scientist by Fragasnap
Winner: Mad Inventor by NoMoreFun

[grrgrrgrr]

I updated my submission, based on the feedback.



EDIT: Too late lol.

[spineflu]

I updated my submission, based on the feedback.



EDIT: Too late lol.

yeah literally seconds late; it's fine though, i don't think this really changes my assessment, if anything it just punishes anyone who doesn't buy it turn 1