I’m really impressed with the quality of entries, especially considering the stringent limitations for this contest. Thanks to everybody who participated! Here are the entries in alphabetical order:
Abandoned Stone by majiponi
It’s interesting to think about more cards like Champion and Hireling, and that sort of card is tough to balance. Sadly, I think Abandoned Stone is too complex. I think there’s some merit to the premise though. Being able to fish a card (or cards) out of your discard pile each turn seems like an interesting effect. There’s got to be a simpler way to do it, though.
Alchemical Factory by JW
I like this concept a lot. For $6, I think it should probably gain a differently named card costing as much or less. As it is, I think Alchemical Factory should be cheaper. I think there are times you’d use the effect, but would you use it often enough to be worth buying Alchemical Factory? I honestly don’t know. Cool idea, though.
Border Crossing by scolapasta
Now this is one elegant card. It’s hard to judge whether $4 is a good cost for it. The main thing I’m thinking is: it’s so cheap that if people get a bunch, the piles are going to go very quickly. So I’d almost suggest charging more and giving a vanilla bonus but whoops, obviously that won’t fly in this contest. So I can’t hold that against it. Making the gain optional for other players would remove some of its functionality, but that functionality probably shouldn’t be on a card without the Attack type. Also it’s pretty nuts with e.g. City Quarter. Anyway I’m criticizing it a lot, but I really like this card.
Conglomerate by spineflu
Another “stays in play” entry here. I like how simple it looks, but I think it interacts strangely with shuffles. The way the rules of Dominion currently work, if you need to do something with X cards on your deck, and you have fewer than X cards in your deck AND have cards in your discard pile, you shuffle your discard pile and put it under your deck. Because Conglomerate can discard a card right after you shuffle, it can prompt you to immediately shuffle again! So I’d probably remove the discard option. I recognize that’s a nerf (can’t get past your payload without exiling it), but I think it’s necessary. I guess you could put the card on the bottom of your deck instead of discarding it, if you wanted to keep that option. Anyway, cool card.
Courtyard of Miracles by Shael
Yet another “stays in play” card. I’m a big fan of effects that gain a Copper to your hand. At first I was thinking, this should trigger at the start of each of your Buy phases instead, since you’d have a better idea then of whether you’d need an extra $1 that turn. But since it triggers at the start of turn, it combos with Cellar and other cards that want a large hand size. I don’t think it should give an option between the two times, so I guess it’s fine as-is. BUT, people have made a valid point that once you get 3 or 4 of these in play, you can basically just get a Province every turn. I think for that reason, this would work better as a Project.
Farrier by Chappy7
Whoooooa, no! That’s too many Horses, my friend. Horses are slow to resolve, is one big thing. Livery already gains too many Horses, and this is worse. It won’t be hard to make a deck that gains at least 6 Horses every turn by revealing a Gold with this, and that’s without villages and more expensive Actions/Treasures (like Platinum).
Gold Smithy by Xen3k
Hey, I think I used this art for testing an official card that I called Jeweler! It was the one time I used a different name than Donald X.’s version of the card, which he called Stonecutter. Man, that’s too close to “Stonemason” I thought, but also I just couldn’t find any good “Stonecutter” art. Anyway. This uses a pretty tortured wording in order to not use numbers, I think. It should probably say “If you drew more than 4 cards” or whatever. But I think in general it’s just a little too complex. It’s got a bunch of clauses to try to even out its power level, but as a result the card has too many concepts and it’s hard to remember what all it does.
Grand Feast by emtzalex
Well, hmmm. It’s a cute idea but I get this feeling it wouldn’t play so great in practice. That’s a lot of cards to draw and discard, and I’m guessing it would take a while, depending on how many cards you started with. This gets a lot of points for elegant wording, but I think probably the ability is too clunky.
Harbor by The Alchemist
This is a very interesting one. In general, the ability to exile incoming Victory cards is crazy strong. Stronger than Sanctuary even, since you don’t have to draw the Victory cards at all. There was actually a Reserve outtake in Adventures that was cut for this very reason. I like the ability to play an Action card from Exile (or to put a Treasure into your hand), but I’m guessing that’s all dwarfed by the Victory card exiling. Probably you mostly get this right before greening and then just go nuts gaining Victory cards. Maybe I’m wrong about that, but either way this card seems incredibly strong for $2.
Horse Race by 4est
I like how thematic this is, but I’m guessing it does gain too many Horses. Though being a Duration at least means you can only play it every other turn, so that helps. However, one big thing about Horses is that you never (other than Conspirator) have to keep track of how many you’ve played. The Duration effect of Horse Race throws that right out the window. Now having untrackable +Actions isn’t a deal breaker by itself, but it’s a strike against the card. Anyway I do like the concept and I think the flavor ties it all together nicely, despite my complaints.
Inventor’s Workshop by mathdude.
Sorry, this is immediately disqualified because your username makes my think of math, which goes against the spirit of the contest. I’m kidding, of course. But seriously, this should probably say “up to $5” if it weren’t an entry for this contest. Also I’m guessing it’s extremly strong. I know people often mostly consider the case when you’re drawing your deck, but even in engines, there’s a lot of game where that isn’t happening. If you get this as your first $5, your deck is often going to ramp up ridiculously quickly. And then at the end you can spend Actions on it to gain Duchies. Or hey, if you’re ending the game this turn, you don’t care if the Duchies go onto your deck!
Jasmine by mandioca15
This also seems very strong to me. You won’t always collide it with e.g. Gold, but once you do it’s extremely powerful, whether you’re building or greening. It’s nice that it always gives you at least a $3 card, but I think it’s too strong overall. I do like the concept, but I wonder if there’s a way to tone it down a bit.
Legate by anordinaryman
A cool concept for sure. Gain and play an Action card. I think probably I’d just have the other player gain a copy of the card and balance it around that, rather than having them set it aside. But maybe that makes Legate too weak at any cost, I don’t know. Regardless, I think this probably empties piles very quickly, especially because it’s effectively non-terminal. And if there aren’t enough copies of a card to go around, missing out on a copy with Legate sounds—on average—way worse than missing out on cards Messenger is distributing.
Metamorphose by Timinou
This is a good concept and seems well-balanced, but it’s just a bit too wordy. I would suggest limiting it to one card and giving it +1 Buy. Of course that still leaves it cramped. It could cost $1 and be once-per-turn, I guess. Anyway it’s a good idea.
Overlook by gambit05
This is clever. I like that you get another chance to activate the ability in case there are no Actions in your discard pile when you play it. It’s possible you won’t have any in your discard pile then either, but hey, sometimes that’s on you. I’d consider lowering the cost to $2. In many ways it’s like a cantrip. The one downside to it is that you have to decide which way to use it before looking through your discard pile, but I sure wouldn’t complicate it to fix that issue.
Portcullis by faust
Hmm, sort of a Tactican-like effect, but can also exile your Victory cards. I think I like it. I mean if you’ve drawn your deck it’s like a super-Sanctuary, but also you can’t play Treasures that turn. Neat. And also in games with other exile effects, it may shunt all your exiled Coppers back into your hand.
Recycle by mxdata
Combos aside, I think this is pretty weak for a $5 card. I like these sorts of flexible effects, but it’s expensive for an effect that only downgrades your cards. Unless there’s something I’m missing, I’d try this at $2 first.
Scribe by fika monster
Hmm. Great with cards you want to discard anyway, like Victory cards. When discarding other cards, the extra flexibility is probably not usually worth it. But then you have the bottom half, which seems pretty strong. It works when discarding it from anywhere, including your hand or from in play. But that’s not going to be super clear to a lot of players. All in all, I think Scribe is trying to do too many things at once. Usually Reaction cards have very terse on-play effects, and for good reason.
Socialite by NoMoreFun
So part of me thought, man this is sort of a way to weasel around numbers, since you’ll usually draw to 6 cards in hand. But actually I really like the fact that it interacts with things that modify others’ hand size. It’s a little twist, but it doesn’t make the card super complex. It’s just interesting enough. Two thumbs up.
Strategem by xyz123
So this is sort of a card version of Delay or Way of the Turtle, but instead of using up a buy or an action, it takes up a card in your hand (except when you first gain it, when it does use up a buy and $2). I like it a lot, but I bet it’s weak even at $2. But when not in the context of this contest, I’d love to see this with a bonus of some sort. Although hey, maybe I’m wrong and it’s not weak at $2. It is a village of sorts.
Tinker by Aquila
A on-demand mini-Forge of sorts. It’s an interesting idea. I guess in some ways it’s similar to Salvager, allowing you to use the $ from the cost of a card and apply it to gaining another card. It’s hard to believe it has to cost $6, but maybe I’m just not thinking through all the possibilities.
Way of the Opossum by bootymancer
Sort of a mega-Way of the Frog, but without the +Action. I think probably it’s pretty niche, but maybe that’s fine for a Way. It’s different enough from Frog to co-exist, but it still doesn’t jump out at me as particularly exciting. Way of the Frog is already one of the more marginal Ways, in my experience.
These are some really tough calls. I wish I’d had time to test the top contenders in order to make a more informed choice. As it is I’ll use the time-honored tradtional guesswork, the best way to judge Dominion cards.
Honorable Mentions: Alchemical Factory by JW, Courtyard of Miracles by Shael, Legate by anordinaryman, Overlook by gambit05, Socialite by NoMoreFun, and Strategem by xyz123
Runner Up: Portcullis by faust
Winner: Border Crossing by scolapasta