Contest #62: resultsSocial experiment ([TP] Inferno)
Action, $5 cost.
+2 Cards
+1 Buy
-
When you discard this during Clean-up, if you bought 2 or more cards this turn, +2 Villagers.
If you're adding more cards to your deck, be they Actions, Treasures or junk, you'll always like Villagers, so this is an elegant bonus to using the buy. It favours buying several terminals including copies of itself, as the potential number of Villagers you get can be very high (2 bought cards makes 2 Villagers per Social Experiment in play). This is going to be reached late game, which makes for quite a different way to build a deck.
But I feel that the times when you buy junk just to keep your Action supply up won't be pleasant. You may not use those Villagers, especially if said junk gets in the way; yet, you had to do it. You don't mind junking for Goons or Merchant Guild so much; when they don't work out it doesn't sting so strongly as when deck functionality fails.
A lower cost giving 1 Villager could be a consistency aid also during the building process, and there would be less pressure when this is the only source of Actions.
Gongfermor (somekindoftony)
Action, $4 cost.
+3 Coffers
This turn, you may only buy cards in the trash (as if they were in the Supply).
-
When you buy this, trash a card from the Supply and +1 Buy.
There basically has to be some kind of trash-for-benefit for this to be buying cards from the trash in the long term. The province trash-and-buy you mentioned will only work if there's a Gongfermor in the trash or you Innovate one. Even with tfb you can't get any further ahead afterward on VP without a source of VP tokens or Salt the Earth. Also, with 4 bridge variants in play this can instantly empty 2 piles, itself and Curses in 2-player games.
So, this is mostly like a Tactician variant carrying 3 Coffers over to later turns. There might be a cool idea to be made out of this if the +Buy were better implemented; I thought maybe a Duration with +1 Buy at the start of next turn instead of the when-buy bit.
Tea (spineflu)
Treasure, $5 cost.
$2
+1 Buy
-
When you buy this, you may spend any number of extra buys on it. For each, draw an extra card for your next hand at Clean-up.
Converting buys into another resource is a nice concept, but it has to compete with Events for viability. In this case it's Expedition. Each buy with $3 becomes 2 cards, whereas this is $5 needing at least 2 buys so less accessible. Each time you're also adding a Silver with +buy to the deck, so not a move to use in engines. Overall, awkward to use outside of markets/Worker's Village and other Spices lookalikes are favourable.
Credit (mandioca15)
Treasure, $4 cost.
$2
When you play this, you may set aside <2> for +1 Buy. When you discard this from play, take any set aside <>, and then you may pay off <>.
Travelling Fair (without the top-deck) attached to a Silver, but you pay for it later. The result is just a Capital worth $2, but the option is the advantage here. Get a big $5 or $6 sometimes, get a crucial buy other times. It's quite a steep cost for just an extra buy, so it's only mildly useful, mildly nice, nothing too exciting.
Royal Docks (NoMoreFun)
Action Duration, $5 cost.
+1 Buy
This turn, when you gain an Action card, you may set it aside under this. While any cards are set aside under this, at the start of each of your turns, play one twice.
Your buys can immediately prepare your next turns. That's a neat premise for a building card. It does a lot more to the Actions than Cargo Ship, but in balance it gives no payload of its own (I saw it nearly did, but it's good that it doesn't since there's no incentive to then choose not to use the extra buy to get it back into the deck sooner. Elegant). To really start going with it you need to get that payload first. So if it doesn't prove imbalanced, it's good and I like it.
Atelier (mail-mi)
Action, $4 cost.
Choose one: + $2; or gain a card costing up to $4.
-
When you gain this during your Action phase, +1 Buy.
It can get lots of cards in your deck, perfect for Gardens, but… I'm not seeing what else it's good with. You're not often going to want the extra buy from gaining this when that buy could often be a different $4 gained; you add a fairly weak, terminal stop card into the deck, needing plenty of villages and draw to use the + $2s. Forum is non-terminal and it isn't a stop card, and that I feel is rather crucial to its having the bottom-line bit. If this had 2 Actions instead of $2…?
(For newer people here, a stop card is one that doesn't help you draw more of your deck.)
Savings (X-tra)
Treasure, $5 cost
$2
When you play this, choose one: -1 Buy and + $2; or +1 Buy.
At one time I may have thought, 'you can't do -1 Buy, it's never going to be interesting'. But this has trumped that in very simple fashion. The balance also looks spot on; it's a bit more than $2 +Buy, just like Charm and Spices, and 2 together with no other buys can become 2 Golds, a fine worst case. Markets and Worker's Village are the best cases, which feels about right for a kingdom Treasure. A sound design.
Deed (forkofnature)
Treasure, $2 cost.
$0
-
When this is your first buy in a turn or when you trash this, + $3 and +1 Buy.
A free + $1 boost like Borrow, but the downside is a junk card in the deck. Only rarely worth it, but with a trasher in the game, definitely worth it. It's great if it's balanced.
Bourse (grep)
Project, $6 cost.
At the start of each of your turns, +1 Buy.
When you buy a second card in a turn, +2 Coffers.
Fair with a boost, and a sensible one at that. It keeps giving you incentive to use the buy, giving more $ for better buys on later turns, yet because it's a Project at $6 cost and you can't get copies of it, there's no pressuring game speed and pile emptying. Simple and sound, it's always a useful pickup but it might not be an especially interesting play experience.
Bulk Order (naitchman)
Treasure, $5 cost.
$3
+1 Buy
-
While this is in play, you may only end your Buy phase if you cannot use a Buy, or if you've bought more cards this turn than Bulk Orders in play.
It's like Contraband but with a different setback. You can't overload on these unless you're after deck inflation. Most of the time then it's just there when you need the buy, and there's not much strategy to it otherwise.
Shanty Market (majiponi)
Action, $3 cost.
+1 Card
+1 Action
+1 Buy
The second time you gain a card this turn, + $1.
Either the second card effectively costs less per Shanty Market in play, or you can increase your $ for the 3rd gain. Unless you have a Workshop variant it's going to be hard to make all 3 buys meaningful. I think it would be more interesting, even if more expensive, triggering after the first gain.
Gondolier (scolapasta)
Night Reserve, $4 cost.
+1 Coffers per card you've bought this turn. Put this on your Tavern mat.
-
At the start of your Buy phase, you may call this for +1 Buy.
With other sources of buys, it can generate a lot of Coffers because it's non-terminal, but in balance you can't do it every turn. Without other +buys, you can cycle 2 of these every turn in an engine and get 6 Coffers, or if you get 6 copies then 3 for 12 Coffers. This takes a bit of work to put together and sustain though. So there's high potential. When you can't really reach that potential, it's principally about the buy on demand, so not useless.
Pretty good overall, but something's holding me back from really liking it. I think it's because this is only strong in decks that are already strong? As a payload card it isn't standing out over others, just the buys on demand bit and that could better fit on a cheaper card.
I'm comparing it to Bridge and Merchant Guild. They're terminal, but they generate their own buys immediately and their total payload can be varied to suit the player's needs. This is non-terminal, but lesser flexibility is implied; buying several cards is less of an option if you want to make your investment in these count, since if ever you don't buy much you have to wait at least a turn until you can go for it again. Also, Bridge and MG's payload is immediate, whereas these Coffers aren't, so you have to handle all the extra purchases before going in with the mega turn.
So: it's not as pleasant a card to use as Bridge or MG, and it seems to be rather weak. So I've drawn a very long-winded conclusion that just says 'it should be cheaper'. If balance says it can't be, then it can't really exist.
Crate (kru5h)
Action Duration, $4 cost.
At the start of each of your turns for the rest of the game, if this is still in play, +1 Buy and + $1. (This stays in play.)
-
At the end of your Buy phase, discard this if you have any Buys left.
A payload effect in the form of Key coming with a constant Buy you must use, where if you don't buy you lose the Key and get a terminal stop card back into the deck. It's a reliable deck strategy option. It can encourage pile emptying, but not absolutely, so this looks sound.
Bulk Order is also doing enforced buys, but with getting either $3 and +Buy or nothing, and no middle option like this has in Peddler but the card re-enters deck, it's less flexible. So this feels like a better execution. That said, this will be cwazy with Triumph or Goons.
Inspector (Doom_Shark)
Action, $5 cost.
+1 Card
+1 Action
+1 Buy
-
While this is in play, when you buy a card, look at the top card of your deck. Trash it, discard it, or put it back.
This is a nice new way to trim your deck and sift through it. It can do similar to Sentry, but it comes in at the Buy phase so it plays differently and involves different strategies. There's a possibility that a cheaper variant without the +Buy would be better, but this looks fine and interesting.
Crook (Gazbag)
Action Attack, $5 cost.
+1 Buy
+$2
This turn, whenever you buy a card, each other player with 5 or more cards in hand discards one with the same cost as that card (or reveals they can't).
At first I thought, since you can only discard once usually, what's the +Buy doing? Now I see of course, the first buy can scout for the second. That's a fun spin to add to the buy process, although potentially political with it; 'you could've got a $5, but you chose a $4 just to hit me'. If players don't mind that, they've got a pretty nice card here.
Adventurers' Guild (gubump)
Action, $6 cost.
+1 Buy
+ $2
You may play an Action from your hand that you don't have a copy of in play.
-
While this is in play, when you buy a card, +1 Villager.
On-buy Villagers is similar to Social Experiment, but to me here the on-play effect is a better fit. Because the bonus is $ rather than +Cards, and because it's sometimes non-terminal, there is less pressure to buy just to keep Action supply up. The Villagers are still useful though, since this goes with the Conclave effect rather than +1 Action; a good move.
Overall this is a nice blend of Actions and payload together, like Festival but more reliable as a Village.
Lumber Camp (Kudasai)
Action, $3 cost.
+1 Card
+1 Action
+1 Buy
-
When this is one of your first 2 gains of the game: take Innovative, or if you already have it, flip it over to Twice Innovative.
(Twice) Innovative, two-sided State: at the start of your turn, +1 (2) Cards per empty Supply pile.
This seems to have similarities to a Gardens rush strategy. Once someone does the right opening, what strategy they're going for becomes obvious. Others can try to avoid the piles they're most likely to empty, but either way they're committed to their course. If you open with one or two of these, you've got to get emptying piles for your investment to pay off. That won't be easy seeing that these don't give any payload, and once they are empty you have to then win within a limited amount of time. It's hard to call if this is worthwhile often enough to be interesting.
Top Executive traveller line (grrgrrgrr)
All stages are Actions, upgrading as the official ones do.
Young Merchant - Discard any number of cards for + $1 each.
Teen Merchant - put your -1 Card token on your deck. If you do, gain a Gold.
Local Manager - +2 Cards. At the start of Clean-up, +1 Villager per $1 unspent.
Entrepreneur - +3 Cards. This turn, cards cost $1 less.
Top Executive - Duration. For the rest of the game: when you buy a card costing $1 or more, +1 Buy, and at the start of each of your turns, draw until you have 6 cards in hand. (This stays in play.)
You progress towards getting infinite buys, which I suppose if Champion can exist so can this. From here you can buy lots of Young Merchants and progress them into a near complete engine strategy. The problem here is that if a Traveller line can win all by itself, it's not interacting with the rest of the kingdom. Teacher and Champion are support cards, but Top Executive is payload with the rest of its line. This does seem to appreciate trashing and cycling like the others, being quite slow with the -card token and needing unspent $ for Villagers, but it would still need testing for speed.
Lapidary (snowyowl)
Action, $0 cost.
+1 Action
+ $2
+1 Buy
This turn, cards cost $1 more.
The only reasons to use this are if there's some kind of trash-for-benefit involving $ cost, or there are Events you don't mind repeatedly buying like Expedition. Too narrow to be interesting.
Sawmill (D782802859)
Action, $4 cost.
+1 Buy
+ $2
-
While this is in play, when you buy a card, you may trash a card from your hand.
Similar to Inspector, but here the trash has to be from hand rather than the deck so losing Coppers can mean weaker purchases. You do get some payload to make up for this though. It's a simple but powerful builder that will be an appealing addition to many decks, possibly too powerful.
Exchange (Something_Smart)
Action, $5 cost.
+1 Card
+1 Action
-
While this is in play, when you gain a card, you may trash a card from your hand for +1 Buy.
The buy lets you exchange again. This feels a little weird. It's a $5 cantrip, yet you don't want that many as you won't have many cards in hand to trash. It could be a Project, or maybe a terminal with +2 or 3 Cards, and it would have a more defined purpose.
Shortlist: Royal Docks, Savings, Deed, Bourse, Crate, Inspector, Crook, Adventurers' Guild, Sawmill.
Plenty of good designs in this contest, and many more were nearly good, so well done all. To choose a winner from these though…
Runner-up: Royal Docks by NoMoreFun
Winner: Savings by X-tra.Royal Docks has high potential to be fun, but Savings is a card that seems good to go, has some interesting strategizing with how many buys you actually want this turn, and it covers a new mechanic. Simple but effective, congrats!