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[Zoyarox]

This week's mechanic is Contractors, supporting cards that might affect just you or everyone.

Imagine Contractors as a unique ally you can buy or acquire otherwise that lends its service to you for a limited amount of time, then returns to becoming publicly available for hire again. Thematically, this could be a master of their craft, a demigod like Hercules (the direction I originally came from, hiring cool individuals), or even an object for lease.

• Contractor is a card type. Each Contractor is unique. They are not in the supply, but laid out visibly for all players.
• Contractors can be gained when instructed to. When you gain a Contractor, choose one of the currently available Contractors and put it into play in front of you (ideally above your deck) immediately.
• If you have a Contractor in play already when you would gain another, nothing happens. You can only have one Contractor at a time working for you.
• Contractors are considered in play immediately when you gain them. Though, for mechanic's sake, to prevent other issues (on-play effects, Moat etc. (see Attack example below)), you're considered "playing" a Contractor each time its effect triggers (to indicate "played", you could move it from above your deck more into your general playing area).
• Contractors should state only one occasion per turn it (can) trigger. This should be stated at the beginning of the cards instructions, e.g. "The first time you do X: [...]" or "At the start of your turns: [...]" or "During your turn, when you would discard cards from play: [...]".
• Contractors can affect only you, all players, a game state in general, or other activities or phases. Go wild!
• When do Contractors return and become available for grabs again? At first, they would wait at the bottom of your deck and then trigger once before you'd shuffle your discard pile into your deck, but that makes gaining them too difficult and unbalanced tactically, as the duration varies each time for each player. Maybe the next time you gained a Victory card during your turn. For now I think it's best to go with the following: A contractor stays in play for 3 turns and plays itself at least once per turn (visualized by putting a marker on it and removing one each play), then leaving at the the end of your turn if it has no markers on it. So they are staying in play and are not discarded at the end of turn, unless they have run their course. Then they return to the public display and are available for grabs again. (This return is ment to trigger no other effects, e.g. "when you discard a card from play").
• Lastly, for setup, randomly select 1 + a number of Contractors equal to the amount of players, to be available for this game (or more, if you feel like it).

Your challenge: Design a card of any kind or shape that gains you a Contractor, AND design a Contractor (ideally fitting thematically with the gainer). You are very welcome to design more than one Contractor, you decide if any of them are made for fun only and should not be judged (default: I judge your Contract-gainer and all Contractors in your submission post). Provide a mock-up of your card, including an image, I want to see how it looks on a card. Shard of Honor Template link: https://shardofhonor.github.io/dominion-card-generator/?title=&description=&type=Contractor&credit=&creator=&price=&preview=&type2=&color2split=18&boldkeys=&picture-x=0&picture-y=0&picture-zoom=1&traveller=false&trait=false&picture=&expansion=&custom-icon=&c0.0=0.75&c0.1=0.1&c0.2=0.35&color1=5&size=0


Judging criteria:
- balance
- fun (!)
- simplicity (!)
- playability
- theme


Submissions close on Thursday 25th 11pm EST / Friday 26th 4am UTC Saturday 3rd 11am EST / Saturday 3rd 4pm UTC.


Examples of some Contractors, basic gainers, and their power level I had in mind:





*City Guard turned out a bit wordy and might need a different one. It doesn't follow the standard wording of triggering/being active thrice, but the idea would be acceptable for this contest too, as it's supposed to be effective for 3 rounds (3 of your turns and 3 opponent turns, if no extra turns).


Note: I decided against different costs for Contractors, for simplicity's sake. I believe Contractors need no cost-indicator; for all purposes, they simply don't have any. (If you think they should, they can cost $0*.)

[segura]

I suggest to use a wording like "play a Contractor". That is more in line with the official rules and it does not lead to funky interactions with on-gain triggers.
Did I understand the rules correctly, namely that Master Mason and Orthon only trigger twice?

[Zoyarox]

Could be better; feel free to use that wording if you like.

Regarding the rules, Master Mason and Orthon are supposed to trigger thrice: You gain it, put it into play, does nothing. But per the card's instruction it's played at the start of your turns, so the first activating will be the turn after you gained it. You then remove one of the three markers you have on it. This will happen for the next three turns after you gained it.

Was the info "A contractor stays in play for 3 turns" misleading?

I considered a wording such as setting it aside or "preparing" a Contractor (above your deck) and then you "play" it when it triggers (putting it into play). As per the current ruling the Contractor is considered in play but it's considered being played when its trigger occurs; I believed it to make things easier, but maybe there is still a better way to do it?

Bottom line of the idea: When you gain a Contractor, you put it in front of you, and benefit from it 3 times/rounds/turns. 

[BryGuy]

Way of the Ray • Way
Hire a Contractor. If this costs less than $4, take your -$1 token.

Negotiator • Contractor
At your turn's Start, trash a card from your Hand to gain either: a differently named card costing up to $1 more; or a card costing up to $3.
(Not in the Supply)

previous:

Way of the Ray • Way
Hire a Contractor.

Negotiator • Contractor
At your turn's Start, +1 Villager; Choose one: gain a card onto your Deck's top costing up to $4; or take Improving.
(Not in the Supply)

Improving • State
Immediately, trash a card from your Hand to gain either: a differently named card costing up to $1 more; or a card costing up to $3. Return this.

Here is my submission. A simple Way to hire a Contractor. A Contractor that provides some benefit. To save on words, i used a State i use for several cards. I retired some Ways i made and repurposed this one.

[segura]

I think that this is clearly too strong. The Action does not even stay out and the Contractor provides the benefit of a $5-$6 Duration Action.

[Zoyarox]

@Mods: Given the small submission time frame I set at first and amount of submissions, what's the way to go here? Is it in order to set back the submission deadline to the end of next week so I can judge after that?

[Cutepelican126]

I kinda like the idea of certain cards always bringing out certain contractors. Which i think Is what I would do here probably.
I dunno exactly how the mechanic should work. Should there be contractors specific cards add and thats it? Should there be that and general contractors that are always there when a cards gains contractors for more choice? Should it just do the latter? Hard to say. Cause for example this contractor wouldn't work very well without only coming with this card.

[Will(ow|iam)]

(I don't know how to make the images smaller sry)

Disposable - Trait
When you discard a Disposable card from play, you may trash it to gain a Contractor.

At the start of your turns, +1VP.

[Zoyarox]

@Mods: Given the small submission time frame I set at first and amount of submissions, what's the way to go here? Is it in order to set back the submission deadline to the end of next week so I can judge after that?

I'll move the submission window back to Saturday 3rd 11am EST / Saturday 3rd 4pm UTC. Updated the original post.

[segura]

This is too automatic. Unless you are in the endgame, every Disposable becomes a Distant Lands plus whatever the card does normally. You would buy Bureaucrat or Pearl Diver or whatever superweak card if it got the Trait.

[Will(ow|iam)]

This is too automatic. Unless you are in the endgame, every Disposable becomes a Distant Lands plus whatever the card does normally. You would buy Bureaucrat or Pearl Diver or whatever superweak card if it got the Trait.

I was going by the mechanics in the original post, where the contractor is not tied to the trait, and you can't have more than one of a contractor.

[segura]

That has little impact upon play. Play will be fairly symmetric and you will go for whatever Action has the Trait. All skill that is required is timing the gaining moment for the next copy well.

[BryGuy]

(I don't know how to make the images smaller sry)

Disposable - Trait
When you discard a Disposable card from play, you may trash it to gain a Contractor.

At the start of your turns, +1VP.

to made the images easier to view, change:
the first instance of "img" to "img height=250" for the first image since it is a Horizontal
the first instance of "img" to "img width=250" for the second image since it is a card.
You can also select the "Quote" at the top right of this message, to see what i used. Then copy and paste it into your message.

[fika monster]

An action card that gives you a contractor, and an contractor card.
I would suggest adding a type on the action card or event to signal that Contractors are involved in the kingdom, similar to allies and liasons

Funeral
Action-Night

Trash this and any number of differently named Cards you have in play, your discard pile or in your hand.
If you Trashed 4 types or more, you may gain a Contractor.

Miracle Medicine
Contractor

Once per turn:
If it is your Night phase, you may put 2 Cards you have in play into your hand, gain +2 Actions and +1 Buy, and return to your Action phase.

(Return to action phase, my beloved)

[emtzalex]

My Submission:

Urban Planning • $2 • Action - Reaction +3 Cards +1 Action Discard 2 cards. Return this to the Supply. When you gain an Urban Planning, you may discard this to gain a Contractor.	City Planner • Contractor Once during your turn, after you play an Action card, choose one: +1 Card; +1 Action; +1 Buy; +$1.

[Zoyarox]

=== 24 hour warning ===

[Zoyarox]

Contest closed, expect results tomorrow or so!

[Zoyarox]

=≈= RESULTS =≈=

Let's first look at the gainers and the Contractors individually, bundled per entry, then at the Contractors "net effects" side-by-side, and lastly the winners.




Submissions by BryGuy

Way of the Ray
WotRay provides a straight forward and solid strong effect for Actions costing $5 or more. I think "sacrificing" the play of a $5 Action fits very well with the cost precedented by my $6 Event. For cheaper cards, the effect is even nicer and the -$1 a nice touch but potentially not enough to balance it (think Candlemaker giving you -$1 and a Contractor). It makes Contractors easily accessible to every player.
Also, I enjoyed how the mechanics matched here: you can only have one Contractor at a time and only one -$ token at a time.
The wording should probably be "If this costs $3 or less..."

Negotiator
This updated version of the Negotiator functions as a weaker remodel (and sometimes Mine). If you trash Copper (or other low-cost cards) you choose to gain a $3. Essentially only good cards are interesting to trash with the "costing $1 more" option, which is usually going to be subpar, given it's rather slow (that's why Remake does it twice) without topdecking or similar, and you don't have the usually way more valuable step of $2.


Submissions by Cutepelican126

Training Camp
A more flexible village, simple, and significantly more expensive. Its big appeal lies in its ability to easily gain Contractors. Though I believe too easily. Comparing it to my Ally, requiring 4 Favors, this gains you a Contractor right away on its first and every subsequent play, no questions asked (only limited by the rule of having one Contractor at a time).
The "If you do not have a Contractor" is probably redundant, given you can't gain one if you have one already.

Armorer
I feel like Armorer has a nice power balance, gaining you up to three $4's to the top of your deck for the price of a Villager each. This is it's downside, too, you're required to have a Villager at some point in you turn – otherwise it simply does nothing. So while I'm delighted to see such mean of payment in this Contractor, I believe it to be difficult to balance and play satisfactory. Even with Training Camp as villager-gainer, this is hard to pull of, as you'd need four total plays of it to gain and then sustain this Contractor for their duration.
It's a dead Contractor on a board without +Villagers.
I imagine increasing the cost to gain a Contractor on Training Camp or increasing Training Camp to +2 Villagers could fix this. I don't see an easy solution that fixes all issues in a balanced way but they probably always require Armorer not costing you Villagers to function.
Armorer doesn't follow the provided template standard.


Submissions by Will(ow|iam)

Disposable
A trait, lovely! If it's attached to a high-cost card, it's an interesting choice – has the Witch run her c(o)urse and is now truly Disposable? Have you snatched the Key already? Can you spare a Herald for a Contractor?
If it's attached to a low-cost pile it's simply amazing – to the degree of the cards being an automatic want. All in all, it will be swingy, depending on the board and pile attached to.

Landscaper
Not much to say here either, it's a free +4 VP over time. It's simple but also equally boring (sadly), maybe leading to somewhat interesting scenarios and battles in the mid to late game when you have to consider between VP and other Contractors' benefits.


Submissions by fika monster

Funeral
Funeral is a powerful trasher with the downside of trashing itself. $4-cost-cards that trash themselves for a benefit are usually daring and hard to pull of. The biggest issue I see is it slowing down the game a lot: you look for trashing material and their types in three places. Apart from this I like the effect and idea. Though I also wonder if the types on Funeral are counted as well? If so, it's super easy to pull of. With copper and estate, you've got 4 trashed types right away. Buy 3 Funerals and secure yourself 9 turns of Contractors. Them being Nights makes this even easier. Not sure why they got Action and Night as types, I can only assume so they have more types themselves.
But if Funeral's types are not counted, it seems somewhat hard to pull of 4 types. Then it's even more satisfying when you gain your contractor in the mid- to early-game, but then you have to consider if it's worth buying the $4 this late. I guess the trashing is still nice in any cases even early, due to max flexibility.
I believe the card text is missing some "look through you discard pile".

Miracle Medicine
MM is an interesting card that let's you return to your action phase and will allow you to continue your chain of Actions, benefit from other effects or at least allows you to gain another little something (if you you're lucky with your Treasures). Returning two cards from play and getting actions to play them (if you chose Actions) is awesome. Usually your benefit will be either of these: extend your turn and play way more cards; benefit from things like trashing again; gain a low-cost card (think Copper and Silver were your two cards from play in a bad scenario); Curse other players again; or improve your next hand or deck over-all through other card effects. So a bit swingy, depending on the hand you had, but probably very fun and usually very useful. And you do this three turns in a row!
Should probably exclude Durations, otherwise tracking will be a pain.
MM doesn't follow the provided template standard.


Submissions by emtzalex

Urban Planning
A better Warehouse that is a one-shot, with the option to gain you a Contractor when you gain another Urban Planning. It's cheap, well balanced, and it let's you cycle through your deck. But, because it returns to its pile, you have to be considerate of your Buys and if it's really worth it to go for these. Usually, you probably wouldn't – but because of it's Reaction, you now have a reason to spend your Buys on them, maybe a bunch even!
I think the card might work even better and more interesting if it trashed itself instead of returning to its pile. The pile would get more meaning, now reasonably likely run out, and you'd limit an endless cycle and the Contractors this way.

City Planner
City Planner offers flexibility regarding your resources but requires Actions played. Nothing complicated but nonetheless useful, and it doesn't flood you with bonuses. Not much else to say here; it's flexible, it's practical, and it's nicely balanced.




Now, let's look at the Contractors, their net effects and requirements to play properly once more, just as power comparison:

Orthon:
Requires junk in hand.
 +$3, -3 trashed cards from hand, opponents lose 3 cards from hand

Master Mason:
Requires junk in deck.
Discarded/trashed up to 3 upcoming cards, cleaning future hands

Negotiator:
Requires junk in hand.
-3 trashed cards from hand, 3 cards gained (+$1 and/or $3)

Armorer:
Requires 3 Villagers (over the course of 3 turns)
3 cards gained topdecked

Landscaper:
Requires nothing but turns before the game ends (like any other).
+4VP

Miracle Medicine:
Requires at least 2 played cards that are still in play, preferably Actions or high-cost cards.
A powerhouse providing your deck with 6 actions, maybe 6 Action plays, and 3 extra (small) Buys; allows for bigger chains

City Planner:
Requires at least one Action played this turn.
+3 actions/cards/$/buy, your best choice for the moment in turn


Resumι

Honourable Mentions: Miracle Medicine by fika monster, Disposable by Will(ow|iam)

Runner-up: Way of the Ray & Negotiator by BryGuy

Winner: Urban Planning & City Planner by emtzalex

Congrats and thanks to everyone participating!

[BryGuy]

Will the winner be conducting a new contest?

[Zoyarox]

Will the winner be conducting a new contest?

I've shot emtzalex a PM a couple of days ago but not heard back yet, so now I'd say go for it, if you have a challenge