Contest #1 resultsIt's been nice to see there's some more interest in this format, with 13 entries. Before we start, straight away we can talk about Woodcutter, as the vast majority of entries are cheap +buys. Not a bad move, we quite like +buys in moderation. These are Donald's words:
Woodcutter: Woodcutter is fine, it's totally fine. It's just, the main set had six vanilla cards, and did it need six? Cards that do things are more interesting. I felt like five would be enough. The card to take out wanted to be one of the +Buy cards, since I thought having three of those was better than having four (even if all three cost $5, which is what happened). Market is way more beloved so Woodcutter was the card to cut.
So it's absolutely fine. If a second base set were to exist, Woodcutter could go in it. If fans want to add it to their 2nd edition base set, no problem. It might just be a bit boring for some, so with all these cheap +buy entries I've made interestingness quite an important factor; would you choose them over Woodcutter? (You wouldn't have both.)
So by default, those I rate higher are going to be ranked better than LibraryAdventurer's entry
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Locksmith (D782802859)
Action, $5 cost.
+1 Card for each other differently named Action card you have in play.
It feels nice to power this up, and the cards are in the base set to make it happen (the several cantrips, festival, throne room). There's a real newbie trap in collecting all the Actions of the kingdom when often that's wrong, but that's a nice lesson to learn here. It feels similar to Library however, in being draw you want to set up nicely; Library also has a backup plan for when it's drawn in a bad hand, you can skip the Actions, whereas this can really fail. If you don't have many different Actions in hand, then you need draw to get them, awkward if Locksmith is (part of) your draw.
Carpenter (gambit05)
Action, $3 cost.
+2 Cards
+1 Buy
Look at the top card of your deck; you may discard it.
Put a +buy on a draw card and you have a valuable engine piece; newer players can learn this as they see how few +buy cards Dominion has. This is quite strong with Village, you get all your engine needs in 2 cheap cards and assemble it quickly, but you'd still need other things to get it up to winning speed most of the time. It is interesting with its Vassal synergy and general cycling, teaching its importance. Nice one.
Vein (Jonatan Durakhovitch)
Action, $4 cost.
+1 Action
You may discard a Treasure to gain a Gold.
The base Treasures are a big part of the base set to be sure. Gardens quite like this too, and it's an interesting matchup to Bandit. Chapel/vein is a very potent opening, but that's Chapel being Chapel. Overall it looks like you want to start getting your deck established, as it's not the best builder, then get this to patch up economy. So it's simple and teaches a few things. It's good.
Repast (spineflu)
Action, $4 cost.
Trash this. If you did, +2 Cards, +1 Buy and + $2.
The obvious thing to do here is compare this payload to gain a $5. It's going to be similar to Feast as an opener, but this is more interesting than it later in helping to set up a mega turn, and it's a nicer pickup with Workshop. If the vanilla were an Action in itself it would probably be worth $5.5 or $6, so about right. Yes, this is quite nice, and the base set lacks a one-shot yet it's a simple premise.
Lumber (xen3k)
Treasure, $2 cost.
$1
+1 Buy
When you play this, you may discard a Victory card for + $1.
The +buy is the big attraction here, over Silver. It also introduces kingdom Treasures, can be good for Mine to upgrade a Copper into once or twice, and sometimes Bandit steals one of your buys away, which can hurt. It's alright, but not that exciting.
Well (Fly-Eagles-Fly)
Action, $3 cost.
+3 Cards
+1 Buy
Discard 2 cards.
Well well well, which of this or Carpenter is the better card? They're very similar and teach the same thing about +buys. This doesn't increase hand size though, so it generally likes a greater money density for its +buy. It's pretty great at making Gardens decks more consistent, but otherwise I'd say Carpenter has the edge in the modern engine meta and feels a bit more interesting. This isn't bad though.
Lumber Mill (silverspawn)
Action, $3 cost.
+2 Buys
+ $2
Sure, this could exist fine, 1 extra buy won't increase the cost that much. It has an emphatic function. Is it interesting? For Gardens it's cool, otherwise it's very much like Woodcutter. You can use this, you may as well have it over Woodcutter for a little more spice, but it's still not that compelling.
Healer (NoMoreFun)
Action, $2 cost.
+1 Buy
+ $1
You may trash a card from your hand. If it's a Curse, + $3.
Putting a +buy on an optional trash card makes for a valuable engine piece. There's also a funny trick that may take a while for some beginners to twig: buy Curses to trash later. Not that they'll carry that lesson on to later expansions. There's countering Witch as well of course. Does the base set need more trashing? It's rather concentrated onto 2 cards (and Moneylender, Remodel sometimes), so probably. Nice one.
Chancellor (LastFootnote)
Action, $3 cost.
+1 Buy
+ $2
You may put your deck into your discard pile.
It would probably have made a lot of sense to fuse the two $3 terminal Silvers into one card in the first place. But now there's a fair bit of top-of-deck synergy in 2E, is the Chancellor effect such a good fit? As in 1E, it's rarely useful. The card overall is quite nice - we know that from Messenger - and the vanilla makes sense with deck into discard to add more good stuff to a new shuffle. So like Lumber Mill, you may as well use this over Woodcutter and I would say over Lumber Mill itself, but it's still not adding a lot more.
Anchorite (LittleFish)
Action, $4 cost.
+2 Cards
If this is your only card in play, +1 Action and + $2.
Going mid to late game this might be interesting, how many of these do you put in your deck to improve the chances of proccing it, can you make use of several Moats to draw the rest of your deck? But as an opener, this looks rather automatic and probably explains why Donald hasn't made a card following this premise.
Silversmith (LordBaphomet)
Action, $3 cost.
+1 Buy
+ $1
You may trash a Silver from your hand for + $3. Each player (including you) may gain a Silver.
Difficult to tell if + $3 is enough of a bonus; you're only getting $1 more, so just the same as Woodcutter, yet if it were too high it could be centralising, everyone leeching on each other's Silversmiths for food. Perhaps a bit less interesting than the 4 Cards variant you had before (Council Room was a fair point), and as is I'd say it's on the weak side.
Gentleman (pubby)
Action, $2 cost.
Reveal a card from your hand and put it onto your deck. If it's an…
Action, +3 Actions;
Treasure, + $3;
Victory, +3 Buys.
I'm not finding many good uses for this, only setting up Vassal. The Treasure option is worse than a terminal Silver in having to top-deck a Copper, and the Victory option is for when you've drawn your whole deck with $16+ and you can handle a weak next hand. So a rather narrow card that's not too interesting overall.
Saprophyte (grrgrrgrr)
Victory, $5 cost.
Worth 1VP per card in the largest group of identical $3-costs in another player's deck (if it's a tie, count any one).
The premise of a Victory card affected by another player's deck could be made to work, though it has the potential to be political in 3+ player games if the group is so inclined. This one can escalate into being better than Duchy very easily; one player only needs 4 or more Villages, Silvers or Vassals. It doesn't feel too good in the base set, where new players are trying to learn what makes a good deck; it's more like an Empires card in its competitiveness, skill and tracking opponents' decks. So: it might be an idea worth banking and tweaking, but it doesn't fit this contest too well imo.
Shortlist: Carpenter, Vein, Repast, Well, Healer
It's a very close call between 3, so I'll name 2 runners-up:
Runners-up: Healer by NoMoreFun, Repast by spineflu
Winner: Carpenter by gambit05Healer could work nicely; I just thought buying your own Curses to trash was one of its neater traits, yet that doesn't suit the Base set too good. In Intrigue maybe. Repast almost won it, but reading Donald's thoughts on Woodcutter again made me think the Carpenter was a tiny bit more compelling.
Congrats gambit, the reins are in your hands!
