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[Xen3k]

For the week 64 challenge you will be designing a card shaped thing that uses a mechanic similar to the Freezing mechanic with its Ice Tokens; Delay.

Delay is a keyword mechanic that takes cards from somewhere and sets them aside with delay tokens on them. At the start of your turn you remove a delay token from each card you own that has at least one. If a delayed card no longer has any delay tokens on it, it is played for free as if it is in your hand (if possible). Cards that cannot be played from your hand like Estates are placed in your discard pile instead, this is not considered discarding. Only cards owned by a player can be Delayed, so Delaying cards from the supply doesn’t mean anything unless someone gained ownership of it first. The point of delay is to allow any card to act as quasi-Durations, for better or worse. The exact syntax is not concrete, so if you prefer to use the term in certain ways, feel free to experiment or ask questions. Examples are below.




The challenge; design a card shaped thing that uses Delay. All official mechanics and fan mechanics are fair game. I will be judging based on my own preferences, but I will try to be as fair as I can. Factors I try to look at are simplicity of design, thought provoking design/mechanics, flavorful name/concept, and balance/playability.

I will be giving a 24 hour warning a week from yesterday and then close it the following day.

This mechanic is similar to Freezing, but I hope the differences are enough to make it interesting and fun to use in designs. I look forward to seeing what you all come up with! Have fun!

[czzzz]

It takes awhile for the exotic goods you order to come in, but it's worth the Delay.

Pretty straightforward though: Delay your Actions/Treasures by 2 to get free play from them (even though it takes longer than normal), and Delay your Victory by 4 to keep them pseudo-Exiled for a bit.
Also the buy lets you manage which thing you're Delaying, so it should be pretty flexible. For example if you really didn't want to Delay any cards you're buying this turn, you could Delay a Copper by 4 first, and it wouldn't be the worst thing. Delay by 2 isn't a bad deal for most playable cards anyways: e.g. turning non-terminal Actions into villages.

[BryGuy]

Slow Trade
$5 Action
+2 Cards,
You may select a card from your Hand or already Delayed choosing one: Delay -1 and +$4; or Delay +1 and +$2; or Delay +3. If the delayed card is a Victory card or costs $0, -$1.

This would allow some versatility, but has a small penalty for certain choices. A positive delay adds a delay counter while a negative delay removes a delay counter.

previous:

Slow Trade
$4 Action
+1 Card,
+1 Action
You may Delay a card from your Hand choosing one: Delay 1; Delay 3 and +$2; Delay 5 and $4. If the delayed card is a Victory or costs $0, -$1.

[segura]

Slow Trade is crazy: Triple Peddler and keep junk temporarily out of your deck.

[Xen3k]

Slow Trade
$5 Action
+2 Cards,
You may Delay a card from your Hand choosing one: Delay -1 and $4; or Delay 1 and +$2; or Delay 3. If the delayed card is a Victory card or costs $0, -$1.

This would allow some versatility, but has a small penalty for certain choices.

Delay values in the negative don't really make sense with how Delay is designed. Could you clarify what the intended function of a negative Delay value is?

[BryGuy]

If a positive delay adds a delay counter, i envision a negative delay removes a delay counter. Now if there are no counters to remove then nothing occurs.

Slow Trade
$5 Action
+2 Cards,
You may Delay a card from your Hand choosing one: Delay -1 and $4; or Delay 1 and +$2; or Delay 3. If the delayed card is a Victory card or costs $0, -$1.

This would allow some versatility, but has a small penalty for certain choices.

Delay values in the negative don't really make sense with how Delay is designed. Could you clarify what the intended function of a negative Delay value is?

[Xen3k]

If a positive delay adds a delay counter, i envision a negative delay removes a delay counter. Now if there are no counters to remove then nothing occurs.

Slow Trade
$5 Action
+2 Cards,
You may Delay a card from your Hand choosing one: Delay -1 and $4; or Delay 1 and +$2; or Delay 3. If the delayed card is a Victory card or costs $0, -$1.

This would allow some versatility, but has a small penalty for certain choices.

Delay values in the negative don't really make sense with how Delay is designed. Could you clarify what the intended function of a negative Delay value is?

Ok, I get it. The structure of your card would need to still set a value for the card being Delayed from your hand and then also add a counter to each Delayed card you control. To keep the mechanic coherent I would suggest something like "Delay 1, add remove a Delay token to from each other Delayed card you control, and +$4". Feel free to change it to your preference.

[NoMoreFun]

Summoner
Action - $3
Gain an Action. For every $2 it costs (rounded up), delay it by 1.

[fika monster]

Portage: A workshop variant where you get dont get the card imideatly, but in exchange get to play it for free in 2 turns.

Portage: 4$ action.

Gain a card costing up to $4. If it's an action or Treasure, delay it by 2.

Worse then a worskop if you have control of your deck and want to draw and play the new card, but on average should be strictly better then a worskhop. Therefor it costs 4$

[emtzalex]

My Submission:

Safehouse • Action - Night - Command • $4
If it's your Night phase, Delay by 3 a card you would discard from play this turn. Otherwise, play one of your non-Command Delayed cards, leaving it there.

[Xen3k]

24 HOUR WARNING!

[J410]

Refurbisher - Action - $5
+2 Cards
At the start of Clean-up, you may choose a card costing $1 or more you would discard from play this turn, to Delay it by 1 per $1 it costs.

The obvious choice would be to use it on itself, but its cost is quite high to make sure there are probably better targets (it had a Debt cost once, but was quite sad then). It offers a Lost City effect, at the cost of keeping a good card out of your deck for a few turns, or maybe you even wanted it out of your deck. Best targets are probably cheap cards providing extra cards and/or actions, and it gets better with (limited) cost reduction.

[Xen3k]

Contest Closed

[Will(ow|iam)]

Snowfolk
Ally
At the start of your turn, you may spend any number of favors to delay by 2 that many cards from your hand.

[Will(ow|iam)]

dammit I was 2 minutes late (not really, the 24-hour warning ended sooner than that)

[Xen3k]

dammit I was 2 minutes late (not really, the 24-hour warning ended sooner than that)

Don't worry. I'll add yours into the line-up. I will be working to get the results up today.

EDIT: I am a bit more busy today than I expected. The results may not be up today.

[Xen3k]

Fan Card Mechanics Week 64: Delayed Gratification
Thank you to those who entered this challenge! I’ll move right along to the entries.
Results

Imported Goods by czzzz Imported Goods - $5 Treasure +$2 +1 Buy Delay the next card you gain this turn by 2 or 4.

Judgement A solid Silver+ for $5. The options are nice as delaying a VP from going into the deck for 4 turns is quite strong late game, and the delayed quasi +1 Card (+1 Action if it delays an Action) that Delay adds makes this really appealing. As you said, the option to buy a Copper with the built in +Buy works in a pinch if you don't want a new card to miss a shuffle, but I doubt that will be used very often unless there are some serious trashing in the Kingdom, like Mercenary. Great design!

Slow Trade by BryGuy Slow Trade - $5 Action +2 Cards, You may select a card from your Hand or already Delayed choosing one: Delay -1 and +$4; or Delay +1 and +$2; or Delay +3. If the delayed card is a Victory card or costs $0, -$1.

Judgement Ok, so I am going to assume that the Delay -1 simply cannot be used on a card in your hand. I do think the wording is still a bit inaccurate, but I understand what you are going for. I like that is plays around with cards that are alreday Delayed. Depending on what you Delay this can be used to perpetually Delay VP with little penalty (-$1 when you have $0 simply zeroes out). I think the +$4 and -1 Delay will be busted, especially when the Delayed card is a non-terminal Action that gets played by going to 0 Delay. I never really thought out how that would work, going to 0 Delay tokens in the middle of a turn, but I think the safest thing would be to immediately play it (or place it in teh discard if it could not be played from your hand). So, I would say that is most definitely too generous a reward, even if it is some work getting an appropriate card Delayed and then getting another Slow Trade. Even Delaying a card by 1 for $2 is pretty generous, especially if you Delay a terminal Draw that you just drew with Slow Trade. I'd have to play with this to fully grasp how powerful just those two options are, but my guess would be "very strong". Very interesting use of the mechanic.

Summoner by NoMoreFun Summoner - $3 Action Gain an Action. For every $2 it costs (rounded up), delay it by 1.

Judgement An uncapped Action gainer! The restriction to only gaining Action cards ensure the full benefit of Delay is applied, with the penalty that the more expensive the card is the longer you'll be waiting. I think the price is reasonable, maybe a bit underpriced with it being able to grab $5 Actions pretty early. Not much to say as it is nice and simple.

Portage by fika monster Portage - $4 Action Gain a card costing up to $4. If it's an action or Treasure, delay it by 2.

Judgement Another gainer, this one being a more traditional universal gainer with a $4 cost cap. I like that it only Delays Actions and Treasures. Delaying the cards by 2 seems like the right call to have it fall in line with other Workshops+. Nice, straight forward design.

Safehouse by emtzalex Safehouse - $4 Action - Night - Command If it's your Night phase, Delay by 3 a card you would discard from play this turn. Otherwise, play one of your non-Command Delayed cards, leaving it there.

Judgement This is a really cool Emulator. I really like that it only copies cards you have in your deck, and only if you first manage to collide them. This makes it a cool hybrid of Throne Room and Band of Misfits that can also hit Treasures. I can see this being a very appealing card to get multiples of so when you get a Gold or strong $5 cost Action you can Delay it and then emulate it a bunch. Excellent deign!

Refurbisher by J410 Refurbisher - $5 Action +2 Cards At the start of Clean-up, you may choose a card costing $1 or more you would discard from play this turn, to Delay it by 1 per $1 it costs.

Judgement Refurbisher plays like a strange Lab that delays the +Action and adds a +Draw to it. The restriction to cards you have in play and with a cost about $0 keeps the mechanic functional and limits abuse. Having a double lab every 5 turns does not sound like the most fun, so your assessment is correct that Delaying itself does not look appealing. I do like the potential it has with Bridge effects and delaying cheap cantrips will probably be the most appealing goal. The cost of $5 is appropriate for the effect in general and the afformentioned incentive to not Delay itself. I really like this design.

Snowfolk by Will(ow|iam) Snowfolk Ally At the start of your turn, you may spend any number of favors to delay by 2 that many cards from your hand.

Judgement An Ally! I really like this effect. With enough Favors you can set youself up for a big Tactician style turn, or just thin your deck out for a short time. I like that it has a set Delay of 2 to not act as a semi-permenant Exile style effect. Noy too much to more to say, I really like this design.

I really appreciate everyone's entries! I am sorry about the delay, and I did rush the judging a bit. Great word all around! I really wanted to have everyone in the Runners Up section! Hope you had fun!
Runners up
Refurbisher by J410
Imported Goods by czzzz

Winner
Safehouse by emtzalex

[fika monster]

fun competition! good judging

was there any particular reason why portage didnt rand higher? my impression is that its because it was good but basic, and the other entries were simply more interesting/unique: ie, they  did things you could only do with {delay}

[J410]

Thanks for the contest and the judging. All cards are very good and I think that has to do with the awesome mechanic. It is very simple, and yet very different from any of the official mechanics. I wouldn't mind seeing this in an official expansion, though it probably takes too many tokens and table space if many cards get delayed.

[Xen3k]

fun competition! good judging

was there any particular reason why portage didnt rand higher? my impression is that its because it was good but basic, and the other entries were simply more interesting/unique: ie, they  did things you could only do with {delay}

I think Portage is an excellent submission. I did not put it on the runners up list just because I try to limit myself, otherwise it would have been there because it is very close in quality to most every other submission. I choose the winner and runners up based on what I feel was most compelling, interesting, and solidly designed. That can be very subjective and change depending on which day I look at it. I don't think anything is really wrong with Portage. If I were to incorporate Delay into my game groups Dominion games Portage would definitely make the cut.

Sorry if I did not go into too much detail on your entry, or if this explanation is not satisfying. I find judging to be quite a bit harder than designing entries, but I really like how everyone addresses the challenge with their designs. You should be proud of your entry, it is very good, I just had to select a limited number of entries to put on the runners-up and winner list.

[fika monster]

fun competition! good judging

was there any particular reason why portage didnt rand higher? my impression is that its because it was good but basic, and the other entries were simply more interesting/unique: ie, they  did things you could only do with {delay}

I think Portage is an excellent submission. I did not put it on the runners up list just because I try to limit myself, otherwise it would have been there because it is very close in quality to most every other submission. I choose the winner and runners up based on what I feel was most compelling, interesting, and solidly designed. That can be very subjective and change depending on which day I look at it. I don't think anything is really wrong with Portage. If I were to incorporate Delay into my game groups Dominion games Portage would definitely make the cut.

Sorry if I did not go into too much detail on your entry, or if this explanation is not satisfying. I find judging to be quite a bit harder than designing entries, but I really like how everyone addresses the challenge with their designs. You should be proud of your entry, it is very good, I just had to select a limited number of entries to put on the runners-up and winner list.

thanks for the thoughts! judging AND formatting a judge entry is hard, dont worry about it

[fika monster]

Some more ideas
(edited them with the suggestions people made)

V2:



v2:


VP card using delay. Probably wildly unbalanced idk

[emtzalex]

Thanks for the judging and the win. The new contest is up.

[Ethan]

(forgot to add "command" to this card. but a sort of mint throne room.

You need "...you have in play" in the underline part.

VP card using delay. Probably wildly unbalanced idk

Small typo: "onto" and "an Action or Treasure".

[Xen3k]

Some more ideas


(forgot to add "command" to this card. but a sort of mint throne room.



VP card using delay. Probably wildly unbalanced idk

Scribe is really cool. I think its on buy effect and how it interacts with it is really cool. It may have a "feels bad" reputation if the cards you want to Throne Room all fall out of Delay, but that is a characteristic of plenty of cards.

I think Storage is an awesome concept. I may be too good as a treasure in its current state, but changing it to an Action/Victory looks far more reasonable. I like that the VP value is basically capped at 2 unless you get multiples, and even then you need variety to score a bunch.

Good design choices. The wording could use cleaning up as Ethan points out, but the core ideas are real cool.