Secret Lab
$4 Action - Remain
(purple/orange color scheme)
Pick a number; X refers to that number.
+X Remain
+X Cards
+1 Action
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-3 VP if there are any remain tokens on this at the end of the game.
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Secret Lab is a lab variant that lets players draw as many cards as they wish, but then gets the same number of Remain tokens (staying out for that many turns). As an additional penalty, if a player uses in in such a way as to have Remain tokens left on it at the end of the game, they suffer a -3VP penalty.
As an initial matter, if it's going to be Purple and give you negative VP, it probably should have the "Curse" type (although that creates its own problems). This also raises some questions (which go to the rule itself and which I need to decide) about how the Remain mechanic interacts with Command cards (i.e. does it put Remain tokens on the Command card or are there just no tokens placed anywhere). However, these issue are secondary to this card being completely busted.
As it is, the card is way too strong as a 1-shot full deck drawer; even with the 3VP penalty, the guaranteed ability to buy a Province makes it a trade you'd always take, which makes the card way too powerful in many situations. The easiest example of this is with Armory. If you open Silver / Armory, and draw the Armory on Turn 3, you can play it to gain SL onto your deck. Turn 5, play SL to draw your entire deck, play Armory to gain an SL onto your deck, then buy a Province with the $9 you have ($7 from your Coppers +$2 from the Silver). In a 2 player game, you can repeat this every turn until the Provinces are gone; with multiple players, you'll get 10 of 12. Even with the 3VP penalty (making your Provinces effectively count as Duchies), you're still way ahead of your opponents. And while this is the most direct way of doing this, there are a ton of cards/combos that let you topdeck a $4 Action each turn.
I'm not sure if there is any clear way to fix this; maybe you could change the VP penalty to something saying "You can't buy Victory cards this turn." That might be too oppressive in most games, while not fixing the problem in others (with, e.g., Dominate or a combo like village - bandit - cantrip - remodel).
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Tropical Village/Farm • Randomizer
This pile starts with as many copies of each card as players, but minimum three and maximum five. All copies of Tropical Village are on top. | Set-up: Add an additional Kingdom piles costing $2.
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Tropical Village • $4 • Action - Remain
+1 Action
+1 Remain
Discard any card for +1 Remain each.
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While this is in play, at the beginning of your Action phase, you may remove a token from here for +1 Action. When you gain a card costing $2, +1 Remain.
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Tropical Farm • $5 • Action - Remain
+1 Action
+2 Remains
Discard any card for +1 Remain each.
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While this is in play, at the beginning of your Action phase, you may remove a token from here for +1 Card. When you gain a card costing $3, +1 Remain.
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This is a split pile of cards that use Remain tokens as a bonus, with the chance to be a village (in the case of Tropical Village) or a lab (in the case of Tropical Farm) on subsequent turns, if they're adequately powered. In addition to their base Remain token(s) (1 for TV, 2 for TF), they get additional tokens from discarding cards on-play, or from gaining cards of a certain value ($2 for TV, $3 for TF) while they're in play. The card also adds an extra $2 Kingdom card pile, and the number of each card is pegged to the number of players (but stays between 3-5).
Unless I am missing something, these seem prohibitively weak. TV plays as a Ruined Village (a junk card), and unless it's bonused up through either discarding or buying a $2 card, it does nothing the following turn but wait around (since the one Remain token is removed during that turn's clean-up). Even if you do bonus it up once or twice (getting a village effect on the following turn), and even if doing so was no real disadvantage (because you discarded dead cards and/or would have gained the $2 anyway), the card is still significantly worse than Fishing Village while costing more. The fact that it gives you no benefit this turn is a huge downside, and needing to buy $2 to bonus it up will often be a bad bet (even with the addition of the extra $2 pile).
TF is not as bad, as (even without bonusing it up) you get a lab effect the following turn. But that play is significantly weaker than Caravan while costing more. Bonusing this up is a bit less onerous, as buying $3 cards is almost always part of some strategy. However, by the time you get to, gain, and play TF, you may very well have finished much of your Silver gaining. It does combo very well with Horses/Experiment. If you can gain 2 Horses or an Experiment (which will then gain you the 2nd Experiment) each turn, you can keep your TF(s) going indefinitely (giving you 1 Remain token for Clean-up and 1 to draw).
One challenge of a split pile is that if the top card isn't emptied, the bottom card is inaccessible (absent Battle Plan). Thus, even in games where TF is particularly strong, players may never see it. This is somewhat mitigated by the adjustable pile size, but even then, there's a strong disincentive to buy multiple copies of a terrible TV, only to unlock TF for everyone.
These need major buffs. At a minimum, I think TV needs a +1 Buy to making getting $2 card easier. I would also be inclined to make TF terminal, so players are incentivized to buy TF. I might do something like:
+2 Cards
+2 Remain
Gain an Estate. You may return an Estate from your hand to the Supply. Discard any number of cards. +1 Remain per card discarded.
While this is in play, at the beginning of your Action phase, you may remove a token from here for +1 Card; when you gain a card costing $3, +1 Remain. That might be too complicated, but I'd like to see the cards do more the turn they are played.
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City Square
Action/Remain - $4
+2 Cards
+2 Actions
At the end of your buy phase, +1 Remain per Action you have.
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City Square is a Lost City variant, that uses Remain tokens as a negative (strictly to withhold the cards). The number of Remain tokens are conditional, based on how many Actions you have at the end of your Buy phase.
I love this card. LC is such a strong engine component because it not only gives you two of the most important things to keep your engine going (cards and actions), but those things complement each other, with the extra Action meaning you'll be able to use what you draw, and the extra Card meaning you'll be more likely to draw something to use that Action on. As a result, LC (or imitators thereof) tend to be quite useful, and you can never really have too many of them (except for the opportunity cost in just getting them, and not other things). CS turns that on its head; while playing 1 SC without any terminal cards is bad enough (keeping it away from you for 2 turn), playing more makes that exponentially worse, adding more Remain tokens to more cards. The fact that it does this on such a simple card is really impressive.
The only issue is certain fan mechanics (Acts, overplay) which could let you burn Actions too easily, and not have any risk, but I'm not counting those against you. Certain terminal ways (Otter, Sheep, Monkey) potential mitigate that risk somewhat, but players will still be in a position of having to choose when to play CS by itself, and when to use the Way. I don't think that in any way compromises the balance of these.
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Guarded Kingdom (Reaction/Remain, $10)
+10%
+4 Remain
Untill this is discarded from play, discard 1 card from your hand at the start of your turns.
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When you gain this, play it.
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Guarded Kingdom is Victory-card-esque card that, as a pure Reaction-Remain, is not playable from your hand. However, it plays itself on-gain, giving you 10 VP tokens and itself 4 Remain tokens, which function as 4 start-of-turn discards. This penalty is interesting. In theory, you could use Remain on Victory cards as a benefit, keeping a dead card out of your deck. But, in a way, this does the opposite, as discarding a card is very similar to drawing a dead card (as you end up with 1 fewer useable card). Thus, instead of never drawing GK for those 4 turns, it's as if you always draw it.
As a card that gives a player 10VP, the obvious comparison is to Colony, which costs $1 more, but does not have the discard penalty. While this could, in theory, be more than balanced, that $1 difference means that you can use standard remodel variants ("costing up to $2 more") to turn $8-6VP Provinces into 10VP GKs. This is a huge difference, and (imo) a big part of the reason that Expand costs $7 while Remodel costs $4.
Speaking of Remodel, the fact that the card gives you the 10VP on-gain also means that (once you get it out of Remain jail), you can use trash-for-benefit cards on it and still keep the VP. In addition to remodel variants, Ritual and Priest are potentially very strong options. Also, the fact that it remains in play messes with some designs (like Changeling) that rely on the fact that high-value VP cards are not in play.
It's an interesting idea, but I think it might need a bit of work, or even work better with a different mechanic (like Freeze).
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Metropolis
$5 - Action - Remain
+1 Card.
+2 Actions.
+2 Remain.
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During each of your buy phases, you may pay $2 for +1 Remain.
At the start of each of your turns while this is in play, +1 Action.
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Metropolis is a village variant that uses Remain tokens as a bonus. In addition to working as a standard village on-play, it will repeat the net effect of giving you +1 Action for each turn it remains in play; at least 2, plus one more for each time you are willing to pay $2 to extend its run. Generally this is a nice, clean use of the mechanic, which I like a lot.
The only issue I have is slightly technical, involving paying $2 to add an extra turn of +1 Action. First, I think players can only spend $2 for +1 Buy once per Buy phase per card, but that should probably be clarified (it's probably enough to do that in an FAQ). Another thing I'd point out is that allowing a player to "spend" $ during their buy phase independent of some other interaction can potentially have some unusual effects. Generally, if you spend your last buy and doing so doesn't have the effect of giving you an additional buy, your Buy phase always ends, as there's nothing else to do. That means, for example, if you buy Nomads with your last buy, the $2 you get is unusable; similarly, playing most Action cards you buy on-gain with Innovation or City-State does you no good, as you have no buys left. It's not a big concern for me, but it's something to think about.
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Author
Topic: Fan Card Mechanics Week 78: He Who Remains (Read 872 times)