The final three new cards for Seaside. The tension is palpable. Or would be if I left a big blank space here or something.
Explorer is fine. It's been complained about a lot over the years, but well, it's really not so bad. But it was borderline, it was a contender for going, and then I wanted to add Pirate, which is similar. So, out with Explorer.
Pirate gains a Gold next turn, or maybe some other Treasure, and maybe faster than it looks.
Pirate Ship for years has been one of the very weakest cards in the game. At the same time it terrifies casual multiplayer groups, where everyone buys it and so someone who bought it wins. It also requires tokens for again just a single card in the expansion.
I felt like some people would be sad to have no piratey shippy thing, so there's Corsair. It attacks Treasures in a way that doesn't help your opponents.
Ambassador! It's such a classic old Dominion card. At first it just looks silly; later you find out it's a powerhouse. It's not necessarily a problem in 2-player, though you get a sub-game of trashing down with Ambassadors before you get to the main game after that. But in multiplayer, it can just shut you out. As with Ghost Ship, you don't get to see your deck.
Sailor is unrelated, other than also covering trashing. It's a Duration card that ties into Duration cards, by letting them leap into play. And if there aren't any other ones on the board, well it can work with another Sailor.
But wait, there's more. A few cards got errata. My philosophy has shifted on "while in play"; now I think it's way more confusing than "this turn." For some years there I thought the opposite; let's hope I don't reverse again there. So, Lighthouse has a different phrasing to get rid of "while in play." And then Treasury wanted to not be in the tiny font if possible. And it was possible. Here's the whole set, with all current wordings / images, only small.
I know what you're thinking. What about Lookout and Merchant Ship? I always thought casual players hated Lookout, but when I actually polled some, they didn't. And they absolutely loved Merchant Ship, even though for experts it was a shoe-in to go, one of the first cards any of them would think of replacing. And then I had a new Explorer too. So Lookout and Merchant Ship survived (secret history: if I'd replaced Lookout, it would have been with Sentinel). And whatever else you want to ask about probably has a similar story. I got to replace 9 cards, counting blanks; some work went into those choices. Lots of people weighed in, and I playtested the removed cards too, for just how replace-worthy they were.
There you have it, Seaside 2E! I hope you like it. I'll have a little more to say about the cards in the Secret History. And somehow Prosperity 2E will follow just a few weeks after Seaside 2E (there is no more precise date yet okay).