CHALLENGE #40 - KEEP YOUR EYE ON THE PRIZE!!! VERDICTSWell, coming up with a Prize gainer is certainly no easy task. I've tried a few times with no success, so I applaud and admire everyone who participated in this weeks challenge. There were some very good cards to sort through. Anyways, I put an asterisk next to individual cards I liked. Runner-up, the honorable mentions and winner will be at the bottom!
Agora/Affluent Village by alion8meAgora: Slowly down the gaining of prizes by having to navigate a Traveler Line is a neat idea. The sifting power of Agora will make this much faster though. Agora itself seems quite strong for $5. Draw+Coin is deceptively strong.
Affluent village*: A Villa that can be drawn dead and then played is certainly useful. I see this fitting in well with the prizes, but in terms of creativity, to me it fulfills the same role as Villa.
King's Accountant/Scrubland by pubbyKing's Accountant: Nice to see another piling mechanic akin to Swashbuckler. Ultimately though I think this sets a very low bar for gaining prizes. By the 3rd play of KA you'll have a prize and a Coffer to spare. I think your original idea of requiring more Coffers was sound.
Scrubland*: Very interesting idea. Really changes the dynamic of how to play a Cursing board. Adding an additional Buy to the prize pool should help on boards without Buys. Even though this can essentially turn an extra Buy into 2VP, Princess can turn a extra buy into 1VP and do a lot more on top of that.
Village Fair/Master of Ceremonies by Commodore ChucklesVillage Fair*: Very clever requiring both a mono and deck diverse strategy to gain Prizes. I might be off here, but I feel this would strategically speaking be more interesting without the +Action. Possibly more balanced too as a Throne Room with an extra Action is very good and this will gain you Prizes down the road.
Master of Ceremonies: Certainly feels like a good Prize fit. Some people have made good arguments for this being overpowered, but since I'm judging this mainly on creativity I can mostly ignore that.
King's Quest/Golden Lance by AquilaKing's Quest: At first glance this seems like a pretty low bar for gaining Prizes, but that's deceptive. It essentially equates to $10, +2 Buys and a stop card clunking you up until you can get rid of it. I still think the bar might just be low enough that some players will get this to go off by shear luck. Your cards are always very thought out so I really hope I'm not missing something here.
Golden Lance*: Hyper, mega Treasure drawer! What an awesome card idea. Makes Bag of Gold much more attractive as well as the Silver gaining on Trusty Steed. Could lead to some very lucky, big draws, but in a Tournament game this would less likely. King's Quest much more so.
Uncanny Storekeeper/Erect by spinefluUncanny Storekeeper*: There's nothing more satisfy then playing Treasures during your Action phase! This mostly can be seen as play three of these and gain a prize. This can lead to scaling problems with games of 3+ players. Even if you fall short of getting three for Prizes, US still seems like a very useful card.
Erect: In terms of creativity it's just a remodel with +Action that can turn itself into something if it duds near the end of the game. Putting this back into the Prize pile might be a more interesting twist.
Dragon Fight by pstDragon Fight*: Really interesting concept. I can imagine how intense going though this process would be. Like fighting a real dragon maybe! It really makes use of the Prizes $0 cost. The more Prizes you have, the less cards you have to win the fight. Albeit Prizes can be used for Copper. Trashing all of your cards might be rough, but I can also see where it could be used as a trasher.
Sanctification/Rematch by faustSanctification: Neat idea! Seems to add a lot of value to Gold as it will usually be the most expensive and accessible card early that also has value in your deck.
Rematch*: I like to top bit quite a lot. Very interesting idea. The bottom part also, but I could easily do without it, but then again it solves to problem of one player having the only extra Buy or Village.
Inner Court/Half of the Kingdom by 4estInner Court: Hard to find balance issues with a card that has a value assigned to players within the game.
I feel Mountain Mass is only once per game for a reason. Having to do this 6 times may be tedious, but that depends on the play group I guess. Prizes that gain like Half of the Kingdom, Bag of Gold, etc will be in high demand given the debt.
Half of the Kingdom: Seems like a pretty strong card. Cards that gain only one $5 are already pretty good. With Prizes and the good amount of gaining, the 5VP seems almost guaranteed.
Rat King/Frog by grrgrrgrrRat King: Interesting use of Rats! With so much cantrip trashing all players should eventually end up with pretty clean decks. There could be some very unfortunate hiccups along the way though.
Frog Prince is certainly a good card and it does what it does well. Requiring another Prize in hand is interesting, but some games you only get one prize. If that one prize if Frog then you just did all that work for a Copper. But maybe that's what your getting at with naming this Frog?
Horse Show/Archivist by FragasnapHorse Show*: Very interesting card! I like the layers of complexity this brings. I'm afraid the inclusion of $4 and $5 cost Treasures will makes this absurdly powerful though and easy to gain Prizes.
Archivist*: Trashing, drawing and $ all on the same card and you make it seem very balanced! Very nice!
Crusade/King's Favor by naitchmanCrusade*: Very nice mechanic for delaying the player with the first Prize more than the second. The no Copper clause will work well with slowing down the pace of Prize gaining.
King's Favor: This depends highly on what the $4 cost card is. A choice of two cards might make this more viable. Of course I'm just speaking in general as I'm not judging the Prizes in how often they are useful. I do like the concept a lot, but I do feel like it is missing something. Maybe if there was a way to guarantee what kind of card the restricted card will be. Draw comes to mind and would certainly make the first play of King's Favor really good.
Pumpkin Contest/Mother of Dukes by majiponiPumpkin Contest: I'm not very familiar with the $6P price point, but it seems like a fair price for a Prize.
Mother of Dukes: Essentially does a portion of what Tournament does. Does enable Estate pile out strategies though.
Pyrrhic Victory/Guided Tour byNoMoreFunPyrrhic Victory*: $4 cost for a one shot Prize. Really neat idea! I can see a lot of interesting play arising from the shuffling of Prizes. Some Prizes may have more value at certain times in the game than others depending on the board. Assessing that would be a lot of fun.
Guided Tour: One of my favorite prizes, but I do think it is very over powered. Dropping the gaining would do a lot to address that and help in situations where you may not want to gain certain cards. So dropping it could also buff it. :I Really cool name too!
Volatile Alchemies/Noble Deflect? by popsofctownVolatile Alchemies: Interesting idea. Certainly makes people stop and think about if they are ready for a card they may not need versus just blinding rushing the Prizes. All the prizes are mostly useful, but not always. Take Diadem on a board with no Villages/Splitters. Will anyone even go for this knowing that will likely be the first card given out?
Noble Deflect: Hopefully I've assumed correctly that this is your intended submission and not Golden Mace. There's some interesting stuff in here but ultimately I think trashing Prizes isn't very fun.
Promote/Promenade by GubumpPromote: A bit like Replace but instead of an Attack it gains Prizes. Seems like a pretty low bar for the latter. Decks will generally have enough $5 cost cards that lining one up with Promote shouldn't be hard. You are losing a key part of your deck, but the Prize should make up for that. I do like that this moderate difficulty Prize gaining comes with an additional cost of Promote becoming less useful late game. Top decking Provinces is no fun, but shouldn't matter on your last turn.
Promenade*: Nice draw is a welcome sight in the Prize pile. The double top-decking is also neat and could be useful with some cards. Wishing Well and Will-O-Wisp come to mind.
Safari/Trophy by King LeonSafari*: Lab with a Buy is useful. Should help getting those Prizes. 7 differently named cards in hand will always be achievable and should generally be within reason to achieve.
Trophy: A not always useful but neat addition to the Prize pile. I wonder if this is like a "rich get richer" thing though. Sure you can grab it to deny someone 6-8VP, but then you now have a dead card in your deck for little VP to show. In a 2 player game though, someone should at least get 4VP out of it, which is good.
Knighting/Seat of Honor by Fly-Eagles-FlyKnighting: The on-gain trashing seems quite strong. You can slim down very fast with just a couple of these gains. It wouldn't be too hard to then pivote to Golds and other $4 cost to start getting Prizes.
Seat of Honor*: Might need a non-Duration clause for tracking. Other tracking issues could be problematic, but other than that I like this a lot. Both options are in a way trying to achieve the same goal, but in very different ways. Seems very fun.
Master Craftsman/Throne by GazbagMaster Craftsman*: Another good value card that sees its usefulness taper off. The amount of Master Craftsman and Golds needed to make Prize gaining reliable seems like a fair price to pay.
Trone*: Very clean design! Not at all useful early on, but boy does it get good. Would be very tempting to get this as a first Prize even if that meant giving up another good Prize. But then maybe you end up with Throne and Princess. Sad times!
Burial Ground/Craftsman by anordinarymanBurial Ground*: What an interesting card. A very strong card on it's first play that just gets worse and worse, culminating in the ultimate of humiliations, losing your whole hand. But alas, perhaps its all worth it for that sweet, sweet Prize. The default strategy of spamming Burial Grounds is a no-brainer, but I imagine there is a lot of room to outplay your opponents here. Using other cards that discard for instance.
Craftsman*: A Lurker that comes primed with one of each card. Its usefulness is only marginally board dependent, but even on the worst of boards, this will have already left its mark by removing one of each Kingdom card. The setup clause is just beautifully made for a Prize.
Joust/Reinforcements by scolapastaJoust: Like faust said, this has an Attack-esque quality to it. I don't believe this was intentional though so I'll judge based on what I believe you intended for the card. Even with fixing that, this is roughly a $4.5 value even without the prize gaining. It's a very interesting idea though.
Reinforcements: A Royal Carriage that puts itself back on the Tavern mat is certainly useful. Not a lot of difference between the two beyond that.
I just want to again emphasize that this was a tough challenge and I appreciate everyone's entries. If I didn't judge someones card well its likely not because I thought it was a bad card or design, but more that it just didn't have the qualities that I think a good prize gainer should have. I can go into more depth on this later if anyone likes. Anyways, on to the awards!!!!
Honorable Mention: faust
Honorable Mention: Commodore Chuckles
Honorable Mention: Gazbag
Runner-up: Fragsnap
Winner: anordinaryman