Cozener rewards players for gaining curses, it doesn't cause players to gain curses, and the prompt was the latter. I don't think this qualifies.
Well, that depends on what "cause" means here. Rewarding players for gaining Curses can, technically speaking, cause them to gain them when they otherwise wouldn't.
I had hoped to avoid pedantry, but I suppose the URL should have been enough of a clue that I wouldn't manage it. Cozener counts, for the reasons Commodore Chuckles states.
Pariah
Types: Action
Cost: $4
Gain a card costing up to $5. Each other player may gain a Curse onto their deck to gain a copy of it (their choice).
Pariah will likely have similar issues to other "-VP for a good effect" cards, in that the effect is very strong when you can throw away the card (or Curses), but will be practically useless otherwise. Pariah does flip the issue on its head though, as the buyer is determining if the effect is too weak for the other players, rather than themselves. In games where the Cursing is devastating (very fast games or games with no trashing), Pariah becomes a super-
Workshop for basically free. In other instances, Pariah's primary use will likely be a timely buy to use as a Duchy gainer.
Shady Witch
Types: Action, Attack
Cost: $4
+1 Card, +1 Action. You may discard a Treasure to trash a card from your hand. You may discard a Treasure. If you do, each other player gains a Curse.
Shady Witch is a low-tempo trasher and a low-tempo Curser that can also be used to deal with its own problem. Putting trashing onto an Attack that gives out junk runs into a similar centralizing problem as
Ambassador. Of that centralizing I am not a huge fan.
Demon Worshiper
Types: Action, Attack
Cost: $5
Reveal your hand. +1 Card per Copper or Curse revealed. Each other player gains a Curse from the trash.
While this is in play, when you gain a card, trash a Curse from the Supply.
Demon Worshiper's on-play gives players a large amount of potential draw by keeping starting Coppers and from any Curses gained. It also gives Curses to other players from the trash, ensuring the Cursing game will never ends--as its in-play puts Curses into the trash. The concept is quite exotic. The big problem I have with it is the way it puts Curses into the trash. Demon Worshiper puts 1 Curse into the trash when you gain a card, so multiplayer games will have the Curses in the trash immediately de-synched with respect to the players: Have each other player put a Curse into the trash and this would look a lot better.
Dark Village
Types: Action, Dark
Cost: $3
-1VP. +1 Card, +3 Actions.
When you trash this, gain a Curse from the Supply or trash.
Giving this a new type for the -VP is probably necessary. Strong Cursers having another pile to drain would be bad. Dark Village avoids the "-VP for a good effect" trashing issue by having an on-trash that gives you a Curse again. Either way, while +3 Actions is a reasonable effect I don't think it is particularly compelling for all the hoops we have to jump through to get here.
Blackmailer
Types: Action, Attack
Cost: $4
+$2. Each other player discards the top card of their deck, then chooses one: Either thy gain a Curse onto their deck; or you may gain a copy of the discarded card. (They may pick an option that isn't possible.)
Blackmailer reads a lot like a fixed
Jester: Random Cursing, but with less wild gaining that ends multiplayer games. Unfortunately, the most fun part of
Jester is trying to stick together your own deck when you're gaining random cards from other players. Blackmailer will practically never give you cards except Silvers or maybe other terminal payload. A fixed, but less interesting
Jester is ultimately something I don't really want.
Consul
Types: Action, Attack
Cost: $5
+1 Card. Reveal a card from your hand. You may trash it. Each other player may discard a copy of that card. If they don't, they gain a Curse.
Consul is a hand-Attack, Cursing-Attack that offers low-tempo trashing. This type of Attack is often somewhat political because players might have different deck constructions, but this either hits the hand or the deck construction. What I do take umbrage towards is Consul's tiny terminal draw, and further its hand-attack being non-mandatory make this look a frustrating card.
Scientist
Types: Action, Attack
Cost: $3P
+1 Card, +1 Action, +1 Buy. You may trash a card from your hand. You may gain a Curse. If you do, each other player gains a Curse onto their deck.
Is this intended as a fix to
Familiar? Scientist aims to solve its problem by giving the player of it a Curse as well, but that would be super weak on its own, so it also gives the answer to its own Curses with trashing. Unfortunately, this still carries the big problem
Familiar has of its prohibitive cost--trashing junk and giving junk simultaneously and in a stacking fashion will make players missing Scientist in an even worse position than those missing
Familiar.
Gambit
Types: Action
Cost: $5
+3 Cards. You may gain a Curse to your hand. If you do, +1 Action.
Definitely agree that +3 Cards, +1 Action at $5 is way more interesting than a smaller draw alternative at a lower cost. The ability to trash the Curses will make this much, much stronger, and doubly so because the Curse comes into your hand. With such a powerful draw and the choice behind it, I think it might come out well enough. In some games, it will be a $5 Smithy with an ability that you only use when it is mandatory or convenient. Others you will be able to gain a Curse in the event that you can immediately trash it.
Totem
Types: Treasure, Attack
Cost: $5
$2, +1 Buy. When you play this, each other player may reveal a card you do not have a copy of in play from their hand. Those who don't gain a Curse.
It is always risky to put a +Buy on a Curser because players may purchase it for +Buys and, hey, there are Curses now. Totem might be okay because it is a good source of +Buy and, until you build a large-variety deck, it is an unreliable Curser. It is a stop-card itself whose Cursing will always be stopped by a Curse or most Victory cards. This has a lot of great design considerations, I don't feel wholly on its own: It is probably my number 4, but I'm only allowing two runner-ups.
Scarecrow
Types: Action, Attack, Duration
Cost: $4
Now and at the start of your next turn: +$1. Each other player may discard an Estate. Those who don't gain a Curse.
While this is in play, when another player trashes a Curse, you may draw a card then discard a card.
I love this in-play sifting effect. That's super cool. I think Scarecrow's Attack is a lose, lose-more effect since you are less likely to have Estates to discard when you gain Curses. As likely as it is to miss on at least one of its two turns, it cannot be overstated how rapidly Scarecrow will inevitably dole out Curses in multiplayer games since you won't have the Estates to discard. It should probably give reprieve to itself by putting Curses into players' hands and being blocked by Estates and Curses.
Cursed Estate
Types: Victory
Cost: $4
1VP. Whenever you gain this card, all other players gain a Curse.
Setup: This supply pile contains 10 cards.
Cursed Estate is immensely similar to
Ill-Gotten Gains, but instead of you getting a mostly-junk card, it's everyone gets a junk card. When Cursed Estate is relevant, the game will be a fairly boring rush. Most of the time, Cursed Estate will probably be a source of what is functionally +2VP in games without other Cursers.
I'm torn on whether this is a fixed
Ill-Gotten Gains, in that an irrelevant one is at least a passable VP source, or a broken
Ill-Gotten Gains, in that it cannot be used to acquire Provinces in itself. Either way, I am not enchanted.
Wood Witch
Types: Action, Attack, Victory
Cost: $4
+1 Card, +1 Action. Reveal the top card of your deck. If it's a Victory card, put it in your hand and each other player gains a Curse.
Worth 2VP if the Curse pile is empty.
Wood Witch is a non-terminal
Witch if the other card it draws is a Victory card, and a cantrip otherwise. If you can successfully drain the Curse pile, Wood Witch becomes a super Great Hall that sometimes draws 2 cards even. The ultimate play pattern of Wood Witch is to buy as many Wood Witches as you can: You give out Curses, it becomes a better source of draw (and gives out more Curses) with more copies of itself, and it becomes a wildly worse source of draw the more Curses you have in your deck so you get to neuter other players' Wood Witches, and since you'll drain the Curse pile eventually in-so-doing, you'll already get VP from your Wood Witches assuming you can run them in your favor.
This is interesting, but has such a monolithic ideal that I can't vote for it in good conscience.
Devil's Bargain
Types: Action
Cost: $3
+1 Card. Look at the top card of your deck. You may put it in your hand. If you do, +1 Action and gain a curse.
Devil's Bargain is a
Laboratory if you're willing to gain a Curse, and a cantrip- otherwise. If the Curse pile empties, then you can use Devil's Bargain as a cheap
Laboratory with impunity. This is where the discussion of "trashing an Estate is like gaining a
Laboratory" is especially relevant, because if you use that analysis then you'll see that the first time you use this to gain a Curse it practically negates its own benefit--except in Devil's Bargain's case, it remains a really crappy card in itself since you have to keep gaining Curses to make it more than a cantrip-! If it were a cantrip naturally, I would still consider it largely less interesting than Chris is me's Gambit. I'll recommend putting +1 Action on the on-play and letting it turn into a
Lost City when you gain a Curse.
Enclave
Types: Action, Victory
Cost: $6
Set this and any number of cards from your hand aside. You may trash a card from your hand, and each other player may set aside up to 2 cards from their hand. If they do, they gain a Curse to their hand and draw a card.
2VP
Enclave falls into the category of "bigger versions of interesting, unique cards" which I don't find very compelling.
Island is already
Island, and a bigger
Island doesn't necessarily interest me.
Taskmaster
Types: Action
Cost: $2
+1 Action. Reveal the top card of your deck, then put it in your hand. If it's a curse or a victory card, +1 Card, +1 Buy, +$1; otherwise, gain a curse, and you may put it on your deck.
Taskmaster is either a cantrip that gains a Curse, or a
Market+
Laboratory (unless you top-decked a Curse with your previous Taskmaster, in which case it is effectively just a
Market). This is an incredibly swingy effect. It will probably only be bought in the late-game as a last-ditch attempt to get Provinces on the hope that once can hit Victory cards with it.
Emissary
Types: Action, Attack
Cost: $4
For each other player, choose one: +2 cards; or gain a Curse to your hand. Pass each other player a card from your hand.
Triggering per player is interesting. In 2-player, Emissary maintains hand-size, but multiplayer Emissary starts increasing your hand-size. It also becomes significantly more political in nature in multiplayer, since you can slow down leading players by handing them junk or speed up a losing player. Or become an agent of chaos. I am not a fan of such politicking.
Cozener
Types: Action
Cost: $3
+1 Buy, +$1
While this is in play, when you buy a Curse, gain a card costing up to $5.
Cozener does run into the "-VP for a good effect" problems of behavior between trashing and non-trashing games. However it does manage a level of flexibility: In games with trashing, you can use it as a novel gainer; in games with spammable buy, you can use it to control piles; in engine games, you might be able to get 2 Cozeners into play to grab multiple cards with each Curse buy (also controlling piles). The fact that it can gain Duchies might even prove to be a problem, as far as pile rushing goes.
Janus
Types: Action, Attack
Cost: $5
Choose one: Gain a card costing up to $5; or +$2 and each other player gains a Curse.
Janus gives two options between economy and harming other players' buildings or an amazing gainer. I think there is an important reason that each card that can gain $5 cards without drawback cannot gain copies of itself (or is
Vampire and is totally neutered by the
Bat thing). It's kind of like the
Ironworks-rush thing, but in every game. I imagine this would be okay, but annoying at $6 (because getting to $6 for a curser is hard), and overpowered at $5.
Redeemable Ruins
Types: Action, Victory
Cost: $5
3VP. +1 Buy. Return a card from your hand to the Supply.
When you gain this, you may gain up to 2 Curses. For each Curse gained in this way, +$1.
Redeemable Ruins is a Ruined Market that can return Curses that can be effectively acquired as 3 Junk cards for a cost of $3. Gaining Curses will probably never be the right move with it (
Watchtower excepted) because it only reduces the cost from $5 to $4 for 2VP or $3 for 1VP--even if it can be "redeemed" with a collision. It is strictly better than Duchy, anyway.
Show:Cozener
Types: Action
Cost: $3
+1 Buy, +$1
While this is in play, when you buy a Curse, gain a card costing up to $5.
Place:Scarecrow
Types: Action, Attack, Duration
Cost: $4
Now and at the start of your next turn: +$1. Each other player may discard an Estate. Those who don't gain a Curse.
While this is in play, when another player trashes a Curse, you may draw a card then discard a card.
Win:Demon Worshiper
Types: Action, Attack
Cost: $5
Reveal your hand. +1 Card per Copper or Curse revealed. Each other player gains a Curse from the trash.
While this is in play, when you gain a card, trash a Curse from the Supply.
In spite of my misgivings regarding its desynched cursing (something I imagine is easily patched anyway), Demon Worshiper has a unique concept that combats itself in an interesting way.
You may take the reigns when you would, faust.