Sorry for the wait! I will be using the previous post's outline to head each entry. I'll figure out how to put hyperlinks afterwards, but let me first get out the judgments.
faust - Eternal Return - Prophecy - Regains trashed non-Victory cards
Simple, game-changing. Yes, I do think that the non-Victory specifier is probably better to have. It makes it less impactful, but still impactful enough to open up new avenues of play. Looking solid.
JW - Renowned Master - Prophecy - Draws upon unique Action plays
It's draw! That's kind of it. Of course some Prophecies are more "transformative" than others. This one seems to be a bit less so. Don't get me wrong, it's a lot of draw. And it also encourages playing with the kingdom. It's a fine card, but I'm not particularly moved by it. Particularly, while it speeds up the game, I'm not sure how much it really changes the way I play. Ways will allow Horse to make some Double Horsey action, but it can take a bit of work.
Optimal_Inefficiency - ④ Pyre Ship - Action-Duration - Optional-Duration trashing that gives more money if you've trashed a Gold
The trashing is very friendly. Doesn't miss shuffles if you want it not to, unlike a certain orange seafaring boi, and can let you spike, or hit your Estates. Also, it has potential to become big, big payload. Well, compare to Priest, or Forager, right. Since it's a good opener, and is even +Buy, you'll often want this card, and you might be tempted to feed a Gold to it. Sounds like fun.
fika monster - Royal Decree - Prophecy - King's Citadel, but trashes the card afterwards
Here's the first Prophecy that I'd say falls under the category of "benefits others before the activator". Yes, the Prophecy isn't all upside, but it's quite the strong effect. I'd rather not be the one to activate this. Most official Prophecies try to be most beneficial to the activator. It's not necessarily a problem to have Prophecies not be the other way, but I'd prefer that the activator is rewarded. Either way, sounds fun.
NoMoreFun - Fashionista - ④ Action-Command - Commands Actions from untouched piles, or from the trash
Some people might complain that this is strictly better than Necromancer, when they're on the same board. It can even Command Durations! I don't particularly mind the comparison with Necromancer because this certainly offers a unique experience. I'd go so far as to say this is a near-must open on the ③/④, but as for whether you get multiple depends on the ease of trashing Actions, and how many Fashionistas the other players have. My biggest complaint is the experience of player 1 playing Fashionista, playing a critical ⑤, then buying that ⑤ -- because it's a critical card -- and also at the same time disabling player 2's Fashionista. Also, maybe make it say no Durations, but I could see either way. I like this card.
Gamer3000 - Armageddon - Prophecy - The game ends in 4 turns
For the words needed, it's a super simple effect, which makes the gameplay with the Omens tremendously different. Well, sometimes the game moves too fast for Armageddon to do anything. The 4-turn timer is relatively generous, but generally the player who can make a deck that most effectively utilizes the Omens should have an advantage. After all, they do get the last turn. Money games in particular (Money? What's that?) will become a mad rush for points. The most interesting boards with Armageddon -- the ones where it's the most transformative -- are probably ones where there's a dichotomy of a money deck vs an engine deck. I mean, money can't control playing Omens as easily, but if the Omens are ones that promote a quick activation (most of them), a player building an engine could be on a serious timer. At what point does investing into deck control become unviable? Should the engine player elect to skip the Omen? Lots of cool interactive questions for this card. I like it.
binbag420 - Harmony - Prophecy - Stack your deck by cost (decreasing)
What a mind-bending Prophecy. Usually the cost hierarchy goes something like: Expensive junk you might want later > Deck control, most payload > Cheap junk you don't want. This means your deck will go kaput once you reach an excess of Golds, Loot, or Provinces, which is very much not something an engine deck wants to deal with. Now there can be ways to deal with this, such as Duration draw, card seeding/saving, or Alley. But for games that have a greening phase, or where Loot or Gold are attractive sources of payload, it will definitely slow the game down. The way you approach deck building with this around changes quite significantly. Oh, also money, which doesn't exist (I kid, it sometimes does), is pretty funny under Harmony. I mean, the money clumping is just horrendous. All the Golds on top, all the Coppers on the bottom. A money deck needs to be able to find some way to control the money distribution. It's usually already completely unviable to play money, and it's even harder under Harmony. My biggest complaint with this card is the decision of ordering your entire deck -- which sometimes needs to be quite a detailed task. However, it also removes shuffling entirely, which is a godsend. I like this card.
LibraryAdventurer - Locksmith - ⑤ Action - Smithy that makes Estates money, or Crop Rotates if someone's gained a Province
Now I know what some of you are thinking -- isn't Locksmith Money super strong? I didn't put this through any simulations, so I can't say, but no. Locksmith money is not strong. Why? Because money decks don't exist*. Not in 2024. Money is weaksauce. That being said, Locksmith seems very strong, just as a draw card. It makes it tremendously easy to hit price points early, and can actually make a lot of money from Estates, if you have this as your primary draw. Of course that requires you to have enough control to get your Estates early, which means oh look go build an engine!! And if/when Provinces are gained, like say your opponent is playing Locksmith money for some reason, Crop Rotation is still a huge boon. I'd say this is one of the strongest Smithies that doesn't have +Buy. Is Old Witch stronger? Well, probably. I mean, it's Old Witch. Locksmith is a fine card. But I don't particularly care for the one-time game effect. It's true, it does contribute to the card's identity, and you might be tempted to keep Estates around a bit longer. You'll get Province when you want it, and then okay the card changes, but not by that much. Now you're a bit more incentivized to trash your Estates, if you still have them around.
infangthief - Prohibition - Prophecy - You get to ban an Action you own a copy of from being played
Here's one of the most brutal Prophecies ever. I mean, just imagine putting Prohibition on the Worker's Village pile. The game halts to a slog, because now everyone's deck is full of unplayable junk, like I mean every single card. Now the solution to this is to just get fewer of each card, and build a bit less. Then you can whack a player on the head if they invest too much into one particular Action... provided you can get to your own copy of the card quickly enough. It's sort of like Warlord, if you think about it. The gameplay is interesting and interactive. I think there would be a very vocal group of haters for this card if it were released, but I like the idea. Can't say whether the gameplay is good or not without playing a lot with it, though. In particular, I'm concerned with the possibility of ruining the only Village on the board. Whether that's the right play or not, is the game still fun to play after that?
BryGuy - Meteor - ⑤ Action - First play: Terminal Silver that lets you Way of the Rat or +1 Buy once you can't; next plays: Gold
It sounded super weak to me at first, until I looked at it from the lens of a Gold gainer. Really isn't that weak there, though there are likely stronger ways to gain payload. Meteor is especially unusable in a money deck. A hand full of Meteors is a recipe for disaster and calamity, and not for your opponents. I don't have much problem with the card itself, but its presence in terms of the one-time game event is very thin. In the first place, the Meteor pile can't deplete unless multiple players invest into it (I don't believe in a Meteor stack unless, I guess, there's Chameleon). And once it does, it just gives you +1 Buy. So I can't give it a high evaluation for the purposes of the contest.
Jonatan Djurachkovitch - Blood Moon - Prophecy - Makes you get in an extra Action after your turn's done
Hmm... this one's awkward. As for the general impact on the game, I'd say it's rather minor, especially when comparing it to the big guns like Great Leader. There are some funny tricks that you can do, like playing Remodel and getting to end the game. And also it can hose you if your only Action is a Village or something. Specifically, the interaction with Throne Rooms and other cards that play lots of cards like First Mate is kind of ridiculous. There, it really goes hard. But still, I don't think I'm seeing the charm to this in most cases. It does something every game. Just not a whole lot. And sometimes it changes the way I build, but the vast majority of the time, it doesn't seem like it has a lot of presence.
4est - Matsuri - Prophecy - Masquerade at the start of every turn
Oh, Masquerade. I'm sorry to tell you, but I have a lot against Masquerade. The passing doesn't really do much. Usually it's just a little fun physical trick with the cards, where people kinda just hand the same two junk cards to each other over and over again. Of course the gameplay here is, don't trash all your junk. But well it's quite common to have a couple Coppers lingering around. And yes, Masquerade gets particularly brutal with handsize attacks. There's gameplay there. But I want my Prophecies to do more! There's actually a Prophecy with a similar passing-ish mechanic in the Secret History of Rising Sun, where you get to yoink an Action from the previous player's play area on their Clean-up. And apparently that's also too boring. I was wondering whether it would be okay to yoink the top card of the previous player's deck. It's pure chaos, yes. But you know, sometimes we can have some of that. Maybe it's just too hard to make this musical chairs effect into something really impactful.
kru5sh - Tsunami - Prophecy - Omens can remove or un-remove Supply piles from the game
Here's a Prophecy that really wants you to have control over being able to play Omens. You just lose all ability to build your deck, or advance the game as you will. The biggest problem with this one imo (besides for the name -- sorry I don't like Tsunami -- names aren't factoring in the judgments though) is the Embargo problem of, if you ban the card, you can't gain it either. This really limits the scope of what you want to actually use this effect on. Because odds are if you don't want the card, they don't either. And well, even if they do, all they need to do is play an Omen. Those are good cards. So while it looks cool, I don't think this does much often. Also -- I should have asked for clarification earlier, sorry -- is what exactly do you mean by that last sentence? The implication I got from Optimal_Inefficiency's question and your answer is that it is impossible to interact with the pile other than flipping, but I mean it's still in the Supply. So, I'm not really seeing the rule that tells me I can't interact with the pile. Like, say I wanna rotate this, or something. Or trash a card from the pile. I know it's an Action pile. What exactly happens there? I assume nothing. But it's a Supply pile. So... Ohhhhh. Okay. It's not in the Supply. But I read it as "It's in the Supply, because it's 'being flipped' = in the state of being flipped by this'. I think I'd word your card like, "After playing an Omen, you may remove a pile from the Supply, or return a pile removed with this back to the Supply." Or something like that. Is that what you mean?
Snorka - New Lands - Prophecy - +1 Card +1 Action +1 Buy at start of turn
This benefits your opponents before yourself (the activator)! Not a fan. Maybe get the effect when you activate it, too. That said, the impact is fine; it's again not particularly major, but it does feel like a big breath of fresh air. Sort of like how Kind Emperor makes it so you never dud again*. Sorry, that's all I have to say for this card.
emtzalex - Eclipse - Prophecy - One Omen you have behaves like a Shadow
This is fine, it's really fine. But how much impact does it have? This is a recurring issue I have with many of these Prophecies. In the words of Donald X. Prophecies change everything. In the words of me, quoted from Katara, "But Everything Changed..." The change here is just too minor for my tastes. It's like, better than +1 Card. And that's fine and all. But I can't give it a high evaluation for the purposes of this contest.
Tiago - Stagnation - Prophecy - Can't buy cards that you have a copy of in play
This hurts yourself (the activator) before your opponents! Not a fan. That being said, it's a pretty tough card to evaluate, in terms of impact, maybe? I think often you'll be stuck with using your coin to buy green. But it does somewhat buff gainers, and promotes variety some. It's very difficult to buy more copies of key deck control cards, because there's hardly ever a turn when you won't be playing them. So it puts a relatively hard stop to building, outside of gainers. Decks with low control, or very lopsided performance, are strengthened a bit, but usually those are not good decks, and I don't expect them to become good decks with Stagnation in play. Final thoughts for this card -- it's fine. It really is. I'm not terribly excited about it, though.
Many interesting and great entries! All said and done, there's only one entry that I can choose as the winner, and I'll give that to NoMoreFun's Fashionista. It's simple, has interesting interactions, and can power down and up pretty significantly over the course of the game. Where's the "one-time" ness?? You might ask. It's there, I think it's there, and it's clever about it.
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Topic: Weekly Design Contest #231: But Everything Changed, When... (Read 2769 times)