My judgment of this weeks cards.
Reminder for myself since I am forgetful
What is "ice Tokens"?
A number of cards in the set involve setting aside cards and putting a number of Ice tokens on them, referred to as "freezing" them. At the start of your turn you remove 1 Ice token from each card you own that is frozen with Ice tokens on it and when the last token is removed you put the card into your discard pile.A quick note: I will be attempting to "grade" the cards. but since I have never done that before, don't take the final score of your card too seriously. I will also write both what i think of the card itself, and how it uses the freeze mechanic. And as always, thanks for everyone that has submitted cards!
- Scout by Segura
A fun stables variant. Its quite simple, but it usually gives the players a tricky decision, but even if you don't have any actions too freeze it gives you +buy, making it something you might buy even if you don't have action cards to freeze. it loves boards with cheap cantrip actions like Pearl diver, and it LOVES Ruins boards.
It makes good use of the freeze mechanic: If you were to simply discard actions with this, you could easily draw them back before the end of the turn. By freezing them, you are making a tougher decision.
Rating: 9/10
- Ice Pond byDunnoItAll
An interesting take on the freeze mechanic. This gives you 2$, which is on the lower end of the power spectrum. But it's passive effect, "+1 card when a ice token is removed" is what makes it interesting. This essentially becomes a Hireling variant. But unlike hireling, which stays in play the entire game, you might have to deal with an inflood of Ice Ponds if you get too trigger happy. This should also interact quite nicely with any other Ice token cards, since you want this to be frozen as long as possible.
I think it uses the Ice token mechanic well.
Rating: 8/10
- Artic Village by silverspawn
I feel a bit bad, but for whatever reason i just dont like this card? It seems fine and well balanced, and i cant see any problems with it but I'm just not feeling it, ie, it doesn't excite me? sorry for not having a more concrete critisism
Rating: 6/10 (?)
- Way of The Scrat by Timinou
Its a quite fun and different way: normally you wouldn't want to use ways on expensive cards, but this makes that a viable option, especially for expensive cards ( i imagine doing this with a card like prince especially). But doing this means you dont have access to that card for two turns, unless you have some card that unfreezes. It also gives a different pilout option.
I think it uses the Ice token for a way very creatively
Rating 9/10
- Glacial Village by spineflu
This card feels like a bizarre delayed City with a bit of thinning. I basically like it, but i worry that it may become absurdly strong late game: if there is another Ice token card that gives you a lot of Icetokens on something, and you have a lot of different cards, then i imagine you could easily get +10 cards on it. This issue lowers its rating for me. An easy fix in my mind would to have you choose 1 card on the ice token mat that you then draw +1 per token on that card. This still makes Glacial Village very strong in the late game, but would limit its power a bit.
It Uses the Ice token well, its just too strong at 4$ for the moment.
Rating 7/10
- Dissolve by Naitchman
This card uses Ice token rule change - When you remove the last ice token from a card, discard that card at the end of that turn.A lab variant. If I've understood correctly, with the rule change, if you play this on say, turn 3, it freezes and then you will discard it from the freeze mat at the end of turn 4, meaning you have it back in your deck on turn 5. And if you have two dissolve in hand, you can get one of them back into the deck turn 4.
This seems like a pretty fun dance. I imagine that most decks would want to pick up a cheap lab, even with it being the only Freeze card, and it being out of your deck for some turns. I mean, i buy ride occasionally, and that's a 1 time lab.
It should work well with command cards too: they cant just play it infinitely like they can with experiments, meaning its a bit tougher of a decision.
The Rule change suggestion seems very relevant for this card: If it didn't have it i would probably have rated it lower.
I think it uses the Ice Token very well
Rating: 9/10
- Glaciate by Aquila
This card uses Ice token rule change - When you remove the last ice token from a card, discard that card at the end of that turn.A fun non-terminal Remodel variant. The Non victory clause is very smart, as it would have been broken without it. You can remodel into anything, but you have to "overpay" with Ice tokens on the gained card. The fact that its non terminal probably makes it strong. Im not quite sure where its powerlevel is. i like that it has to be pure $ on the gained card: means you cant just gain some potion or debt cards, since they are stronger.
Its a simple and fun card. i like it. It uses the Ice Token Well, and the rule change works for this card as well, albeit its not as relevant.
9/10
- Permafrost by mathdude
This card is like hirelings Thinning Cousin. Its probably very strong, as it can, depending on your choice, be a sortof-Exiling cathedral, or Get some card you want out of Ice Mat a bit quicker. I think its probably underpriced, and should probably be priced at 6$, similar to hireling. i think i would probably get this on every board i see it even with a 6$tag.
This card would probably like the Rule change proposed by Naitchman.
8/10
- Mammoth and Discovery by Bootymancer
A peddler variant. I like it a lot thematiclly, and a 4$ peddler is neat! Discoverys extra $ seems usually pretty easy to trigger, even with no other ice token cards. Mathdudes comments about it mammoth being too easily trashed in most circumstances is true, but i dont think that's a problem, as you usually get a discovery. i cant really think of any criticisms here, i think its good..
8/10
- Ice House by Emtzalex
This one is fun! This is probably pretty good on most boards with weak thinning, and loves other ice token cards. The fact that its gained frozen means that if you open this, you will have just one gained card into your next shuffle, which seems interesting. I also give +points for coming up with a good 1$ card: Its always fun to have more of them.
If Ice house is the only ice token card, i might buy another ice house before the first one is frozen: potentially getting +4$ seems very good.
Fun use of the ice token mechanic.
9/10
- Winter Estate by scolapasta
I dont think I've seen a victory card you can overpay for! Being able to pay extra to keep it out of your deck is nice, and is something that wouldn't work the exile mat as that one is a binary "exiled or not exiled". In addition, getting a coffers or villager every time you remove ice tokens from it is neat: In a game with another ice token remover card, i imagine that you would like to remove ice tokens from winter estate, even if you run the risk into cluttering the deck.
Very good use of the ice token mat, and easy to understand.
9/10
- Frozen Mine by Xen3k
Hey this is a fun reaction! I'm one of those people that like the base game mine card, despite it not being very good, so having a cheaper alternative with a fun reaction is nice. I imagine that i would want one or two of these, but that's fine.
This probably likes to hang out with groom and capital: With groom, you can freeze estate AND get +1 card +1 Action AND get the silver to your hand, and its probably strong with capital in the end game, since you dont have to get debt from the capital if you use this, but unlike with counterfeit, you dont get extra money. 3$ is probably the right price for this: since its a silver gainer,/thinner having it be 2$ would make it too good.
Overall, a fun card with a creative reaction.
9/10
- Icehouse by The alchemist
hmmm. Im not sure why, but i dont love this card? i think it probably shouldn't be a cantrip, as having 5 of these would mean you can draw through your deck and gain a gold or something. The non victory part here is good tho: It would be absurd if you could play 4 of these and gain 4 frozen provinces.
I think i would like it more if it either gave you +2 Action OR +2 Cards: That would mean you cant just build a deck with this.
Im not sure potion should just get 1 ice token on it, but on the other hand, writing "+2 Ice tokens per Potion" would probably make this card cluttered.
Good use of the Frozen mechanic.
7/10
- by Frozen Village mxdata
A Ghost town variant. Its a lot more expensive, but can stay out of your deck a lot longer then ghost town, and is probably very good.
I like it. Good use of Ice token mechanic.
8/10
- Fur Trader by NoMoreFun
Im probably not the right person to judge this card, as i dont like embargo and this is essentially an icey embargo. But i think its a good card card, and its setup is very interesting. it basically makes it so that the cards you buy on turn 2 stay out of your deck next shuffle. However, with the current way the ice token works, the setup is rendered a bit less meaningful: after that first shuffle, this is less likely to show up, unless you have workshops. On the one hand, this would probably like the rule change proposes by some. but that rule change would also probably make it too harsh? idk
its semi attack is interesting: you could use it on your own turn to then buy a victory card and keep it out of your deck, or try to harm your opponent on their turn. Its more fun than embargo: getting curses when you try to buy something isn't fun for me, but getting the card a bit later is nailbiting i think.
I think its priced appropriately, and it being a 3$ when played is cool: there aren't many terminal golds in dominion.
I like the theming btw. and the ice mechanic use here is neat.
9/10
Runner ups:
Glaciate by Aquila
Way of the scrat by Timinou
An the winner is....
Winner is: winter Estate by scolapasta!!There were a lot of great entries this week! i hope i did an okay job judging this. (judging this took, i think 3 hours in total invested time spread out over two days, in case anyone is wondering. not sure if that is fast or slow)
Author
Topic: Fan Card Mechanics Contest week 9: too COOL for school (Read 10281 times)