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Weekly Design Contest #211: Not Your Ordinary Village

Village is one of the most iconic Dominion cards.  Villages usually don’t do much on their own, but without one, you have to be extremely picky with the other Actions your deck can contain, limiting the potential of the deck and outcome of the game.  This time your task is to design something* that allows you to play 2 or more Terminal Actions in an unusual way. 

That’s kind of vague, so let’s look at some examples from the official cards.  Among all the cards that contain “Village” in their name, only Snowy Village would rate highly in this contest, due to its restriction on further +Actions.  Other cards that rate high are Taskmaster, Conclave, and First Mate.  Throne Room is another good example, but the fact that it exists means that Throne Room variants need to be more unusual to rate well.  Something like Crown rates poorly, while Mastermind is better.  Landscapes like Toil also count, but you'll have to be careful to make your entry different enough from existing Landscapes.

Contest Guidelines:

• *Anything goes, including kingdom cards, landscapes, and all mechanics up to and including Plunder.
• Your entry should contain both card text and a mock-up. You don’t need to add card art, but I want to see the text fit on a card.  I recommend using this mock-up tool.
• If you have any questions, let me know, and I will post my reply here.

• am I allowed multiple entries?
  

  
  From the pinned Weekly Design Contest Discussion post:
  
  

  Is it frowned upon to submit more than one entry to a contest? If I think I have two ideas both worth consideration, should I post them both?
  

  
  I don't think so. You can see the rules in this link, from first contest:
  
  http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=18987.0
  

  
  Thank you for pointing out the rules post. It would be nice if a moderator could pin a thread that contains the rules.
  
  It clearly states only one entry is allowed:
  
  

  6. ... and a person may only submit one entry to a challenge

  
  So you’ll have to pick one of your cards to be your official submission.
  

Judgment Details:

• The contest will close roughly a week from today.
• I will judge entries based on balance, wording/mechanics, simplicity, creativity, and how fun the entry is to play with.

Entries:

• Cohort by Doom_Shark
  
• Untitled action by fika monster
  
• Explosion by Will(ow|iam)
  
• Social Climber by faust
  
• Lute by 4est
  
• Lawless Village by LibraryAdventurer
  
• Helper by Zoyarox
  
• Carnival by BryGuy
  
• Ballroom by n_sanity
  
• Midas Touch by NoMoreFun
  
• Construct by sumrex
  
• Beaver (or Sea Cave or Slaver; please pick one) by petamatt
  
• Dragon Pit by silverspawn
  
• Maid (edited) by D782802859
  
• Marina by LTaco
  
• Pastoral Village by anordinaryman
  
• Witches Coven by RovingBear
  
• Hire by Freddy10
  
• Esplanade by grep
  
• Ancient City by Cutepelican126
  

[Doom_Shark]

Just throwing in an idea for now, mockup, flavor, and probably rebalancing will come in the morning when I'm at my pc and more awake:

Rebalanced - now costs more and doesn't discard your greens and purples. Also flavor and mockup!

Cohort
Action
Look at the top 3 cards of your deck, plus an additional card for each empty supply pile. You may set aside any number of Actions and/ or Treasures from among them, and put the rest back in any order. Play the set aside cards.

Name
Action $5
Look at the top 3 cards of your deck, plus an additional card for each empty supply pile. You may set aside any number of them, and put the rest back in any order. You may play any number of Actions and/or Treasures set aside this way, then discard the rest.

[segura]

Just throwing in an idea for now, mockup, flavor, and probably rebalancing will come in the morning when I'm at my pc and more awake:

Name
Action $5
Look at the top 3 cards of your deck, plus an additional card for each empty supply pile. You may set aside any number of them, and put the rest back in any order. You may play any number of Actions and/or Treasures set aside this way, then discard the rest.

This is obviously too good. Green density is usually low so you draw 3 most of the time. Once you have an Action density of 1/3 it is a DoubleLab and thus broken.

[fika monster]

Untitled card idea:
(Ill make an card image later)

Untitled action
Action
5$ cost

+1 card
+3 $

For the rest of this turn, instead of spending an action, you may instead take 2 debt”

A sorta village for the rest of the turn!
If you use its ability when playing it Its a peddler variant.
Not having to spend an action is very powerful, even if you have to pay 1 money for it. If you have a smithy and pay 1 money to play it and draw 3 coppers, you have on net gained 2 money.
But getting 3 debt for 1 action feels like too much, so i settled for 2 debt.
I considered having this cost 6$, but didnt quite feel right.

[Will(ow|iam)]

I designed this a while back, and it's had some playtesting. lmk if you want something more-newly designed.

[faust]

Social Climber - $1
Action

Do this any number of times:
Play an Action card from your hand that costs more than the last Action card you played this turn.

[fika monster]

Social Climber - $1
Action

Do this any number of times:
Play an Action card from your hand that costs more than the last Action card you played this turn.

Seems really strong. Maybe have it be “costs exactly 1 more than the last card played”?

[faust]

Seems really strong. Maybe have it be “costs exactly 1 more than the last card played”?

I was honestly rather worried that it's too weak. It takes a substantial amount of work to even make this better than Necropolis. And the ceiling (in magical dreamland) is that you can play all the Actions you want for the rest of the turn (if you exploit some shenanigans with other cards playing cards); that's decent, but not like a busted effect.

With your suggestion, it would be completely unplayable on a majority of boards (all that don't have both $2s and $3s).

[silverspawn]

Agree the card is weak. If we're doing suggestions, I'd have it gained to the top of your deck. It also shows a lot of social engagement to show up early~

[4est]

Lute - $3
Treasure

$1
Play up to 2 Action cards from your hand.

Not quite as fancy as Loot, but hey it can play some catchy songs.

♫Toss a coin to your Witcher♫

[LibraryAdventurer]

Something kinda silly.
Instead of drawing you a card, it makes the other players discard one. that's just as good, right?   
...right? 
(I hope this qualifies even though Villagers instead of +actions is the only "unusual" way to get actions with it.)

Lawless Village
$4 - Action - Attack
+2 Villagers.
Each other player with 5 or more cards in hand discards an Action or Treasure. If they discarded an Action, they gain a Treasure to their hand costing less than the discarded Action. If they discarded a Treasure costing at least $3, they get +1 Villager.

[Zoyarox]

A first submission, but probably not my final entry. Thoughts?

Helper
$6 Action
+1 Action
Reveal cards from your deck until you reveal 2 Action cards other than Golems or Helpers. Set one of the Actions aside and discard the other cards. Play the set aside card.

[BryGuy]

Carnival • $5 • Action
+3 Cards
For the rest of this turn, directly after you play an Action card, you may play another action card costing less than it.

This alternative village would help play terminals so long as they don't cost too much.

previous:

Carnival • $5 • Action
+3 Cards
For the rest of this turn, directly after you play an Action card, you may play another action card costing up to $2 less than it.

Carnival • $5 • Action
+1 Card
For the rest of this turn, when you play an Action card, you may play another action card costing up to $2 less than it.

[n_sanity]

My entry: Ballroom

A simple Throne Room variant. Nevertheless, I think this is sufficiently different from Crown, Throne Room, etc to be interesting for this contest. I tried to make something that would play well even when there are no other Night cards in the Kingdom. I think the extra gain plus the fact that you can play this at Night if you want to makes up for the high cost and makes it still play well even with no other Night cards, while still being different enough from Throne Room.



Ballroom
$6 Night - Action
You may play a Night or Action card from your hand twice.
---
When you gain this, gain a cheaper Night or Action card.

[segura]

A first submission, but probably not my final entry. Thoughts?

Helper
$6 Action
+1 Action
Reveal cards from your deck until you reveal 2 Action cards other than Golems or Helpers. Set one of the Actions aside and discard the other cards. Play the set aside card.

Village with a small buff is a $4.

Carnival • $5 • Action
+1 Card
For the rest of this turn, when you play an Action card, you may play another action card costing up to $2 less than it.

This alternative village would help play terminals so long as they don't cost too much.

This needs to be a cantrip to work without the support of another splitter. Then it is a $3 or $4 (it is not clear at all whether this is on average better than Village).

[segura]

My entry: Ballroom

A simple Throne Room variant. Nevertheless, I think this is sufficiently different from Crown, Throne Room, etc to be interesting for this contest. I tried to make something that would play well even when there are no other Night cards in the Kingdom. I think the extra gain plus the fact that you can play this at Night if you want to makes up for the high cost and makes it still play well even with no other Night cards, while still being different enough from Throne Room.



Ballroom
$6 Night - Action
You may play a Night or Action card from your hand twice.
---
When you gain this, gain a cheaper Night or Action card.

There are too few Nights to make the NightThrone thingy matter much in total random, although it is of course situationally (most Action do nothing useful at Night) nice to be able to play a non-terminal Throne with an Action if both have been drawn dead. So basically this is just Border Village but with TR+ instead of Village and thus likely a bit better than Border Village.

[LibraryAdventurer]

A first submission, but probably not my final entry. Thoughts?

Helper
$6 Action
+1 Action
Reveal cards from your deck until you reveal 2 Action cards other than Golems or Helpers. Set one of the Actions aside and discard the other cards. Play the set aside card.

I like it, but I think it'd be fine costing $5, and it may still be weak for costing $5.

Village with a small buff is a $4.

Finding the next two action cards in your deck and letting you choose between them is (potentially at least) a pretty big buff. (But still not worthy of costing $6.)

[segura]

Ain’t no $5 tough. I’d probably prefer Wandering Ministrel over Helper. Like all splitters that dig for Actions, Helper can draw zero (note that it cannot dig for itself which is absolutely necessary but also a huge nerf).

[Will(ow|iam)]

A first submission, but probably not my final entry. Thoughts?

Helper
$6 Action
+1 Action
Reveal cards from your deck until you reveal 2 Action cards other than Golems or Helpers. Set one of the Actions aside and discard the other cards. Play the set aside card.

You should definitely let it set aside Golems, and probably also let it set aside helpers.

[silverspawn]

Helper is great as is, except that the restriction can indeed be dropped

[NoMoreFun]

Midas Touch
Action - $4
+1 Card
+1 Buy
+2 Actions
For the rest of this turn, each time you would get +Actions, get +$ instead

Rules clarifications (based on my understanding of the rules):

• After you play a Midas touch, Villagers essentially become Coffers (you spend a villager to get +1 Action, but because of Midas touch you get +$1 instead
• If you play Snowy Village, then Midas Touch (Ignoring the +2 Actions), then play a card that usually gives +Actions (or spend a Villager), you don't get any $ (as you've "ignored" the +Action instruction).
• Midas Touch does not become a Treasure when you buy Capitalism (it doesn't have a +$ "amount"), nor do any other cards with +Actions but not +$
  

Edit: Added mock up and adjusted wording

[sumrex]

Construct
Action 5$

Reveal the top 3 cards from your deck. Play any action cards among them in any order and add the rest to your hand. Then look through your discard pile. You may put a card from it onto your deck.

[n_sanity]

Yea, I priced this similar to a Border Village but with a Throne Room instead of village, since the Night part of this isn't going to matter most of the time. I'm not sure if it's a fair price or if what I have is too powerful right now.

My entry: Ballroom

A simple Throne Room variant. Nevertheless, I think this is sufficiently different from Crown, Throne Room, etc to be interesting for this contest. I tried to make something that would play well even when there are no other Night cards in the Kingdom. I think the extra gain plus the fact that you can play this at Night if you want to makes up for the high cost and makes it still play well even with no other Night cards, while still being different enough from Throne Room.



Ballroom
$6 Night - Action
You may play a Night or Action card from your hand twice.
---
When you gain this, gain a cheaper Night or Action card.

There are too few Nights to make the NightThrone thingy matter much in total random, although it is of course situationally (most Action do nothing useful at Night) nice to be able to play a non-terminal Throne with an Action if both have been drawn dead. So basically this is just Border Village but with TR+ instead of Village and thus likely a bit better than Border Village.

[fika monster]

Midas Touch
Action - $4
+1 Card
+1 Buy
+2 Actions
For the rest of this turn, cards that give +Actions give +$ instead.

How does this work with capitalism?

[4est]

Midas Touch
Action - $4
+1 Card
+1 Buy
+2 Actions
For the rest of this turn, cards that give +Actions give +$ instead.

How does this work with capitalism?

Capitalism clearly states that the +$ has to be in the card's text, so I don't think Midas Touch + Capitalism would affect cards that give only +Actions any differently.

The interaction I do have questions about is Snowy Village.