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[Xim]

Hey all, I'm new here. I like to make my own Dominion Cards.   

This is a small expansion that has a card that modifies others - the title card, actually - Magic. I was reading some other fan expansion threads, and apparently, some people print theirs out. I have no clue how I would even do that. My Dominion playing group just substitutes extant cards and remembers what they "actually are" for this game. A few disclaimers here first- This used to be part of another, regular-sized expansion, but it had too many cards. Unfortunately, only about half of these have been play-tested. I don't own Prosperity, so none of them have been tested in Colony games (or with any other cards from Prosperity, Hinterlands, or Cornucopia- don't own those either). Sorry in advance if I've reused any card names or if any of these card ideas have been made previously. Any comment, criticism, help, anything is very welcome. Anyway-

$4 Magic - There will be a supply of 13 for this card.
If this is in your hand, all other action cards grant an additional +1 Card for their first effect.
Trash this card at any time for +1 Action
Set this card aside with up to 2 Curses from your hand, pull all Magic/Curses set aside this way into your hand any time after this turn.

-->Magic counts as an action card. Setting the Magic (with up to 2 Curses) aside takes an action.
-->Magic cards also stack up, if you have 2 in your hand, all other action cards grant an additional +2 Cards for their first effect.

$2 Salt - Duration
Now and at the start of your next turn, +1$
If you have any Magic Cards in your hand, Salt in play is worth +2$

$2 Skeleton
You may discard a card.
If you have 2 or fewer cards in your hand, +1 Card, +1 Action.
If you have any Magic Cards in your hand, +1$

$3 Exile Camp
+2 Actions
If you have any Magic Cards in your hand, +2$

$3 Redeemer
+1 Card
+1 Action
Worth 1 VP for every 3 Curses and *Damages in your deck, rounded up.

$3 Ritual - Duration
+1 Action
This card stays in play for next turn.
Trash this card at any time while in play for +1$
If you have any Magic Cards in your hand, trashing this card yields +2$ instead

$3 Hog's Head - Attack
Opponents reveal a hand with a victory card or they discard a card.

-->Not play-tested.

$4 Diviner
+1 Action
Look at the top 3 cards of your deck. Draw 1, put the other 2 back in any order.
If you have any Magic Cards in your hand, look at the top 4 cards of your deck instead. Draw 1, put the other 3 back in any order.

-->This version not play-tested.

$4 Wizard
+1 Action
The player to your left reveals cards from the top of his deck until an action card is revealed, you play that card.

$4 Spell Book
+1 Card -1 Action (yes you read that right, this card is super-terminal!)
If you have any attack cards in your hand, play them twice.

$5 Tavern
+1 Action
Look at the top 2 cards of your deck. Put revealed treasures and actions into your hand; trash the victory cards.
If you have a Magic Card in your hand, discard revealed actions, but you do not have to trash revealed victory cards.

$5 Swamp
+2 Cards
Discard 2 Cards
If you have any Magic Cards in your hand, +1 Card. Place a card from your hand on top of your deck.
Worth 1 VP

$5 Hex - Attack
All other players incur -1 Action or they gain a curse, their choice.
If you have a Magic Card in your hand, they incur -1 Action and -1 Buy instead (or gain a curse, their choice).

-->Not play-tested. This card could turn out to be terrible for a few reasons, don't know yet.

$5 Occult - Attack
+1 Card -1 Action
Other players gain a Damage*
If your opponents gain more than 1 Damage in a turn, you gain a Damage.
If you have any Magic Cards in your hand, Occult does not activate Reaction Cards.

0$*Damage
A treasure card worth -1 (negative one)

$5 Sacrifice - Attack - There will be a supply of 13 for this card.
Trash this card along with any number of other cards in your hand. If you trash:
1 other card: +1 Card, +1 Action
2: +1 Card, +1 Action, +2$
3: +2 Cards, +1 Action, +2$
4: +4$, all other players gain a curse.
5 or more: +2 Cards, +5$

-->Best use is obviously to sacrifice 4 curses or damages of your own, thereby giving out a curse as well. In this way, this card can grant you up to +5 VP for $5 while clearing your deck up big time. One game I sacrificed 2 Estates and a Duchy and ended up getting a Province out of the 4 card, +2$ hand I got in return.
-->Not tested with Tactician, it would be incredible. Maybe so good that it would have to be changed.

$6 The Viy - Attack
Other players reveal their hands, you may choose one for each opponent:
Trash a Gold, gain a Curse
Trash a Duchy, gain an Estate
Trash a Silver, gain a Copper
Trash a Copper, gain an Estate

-->This card could turn out to be an absolute bastard, further play-testing required.

Making these cards is fun for me. I try to keep them simple, but sometimes complexity creeps in. It's hard to avoid.

Here's an example turn for a bit of explanation.
My draw is: 2 Magic, a Swamp and 2 Copper.
I play my Swamp. Swamp's basic effect is +2 Cards, Discard 2 Cards, however, as I have 2 Magic in my hand I get an additional +2 Cards first. So, you get +4 Cards, then you choose from the 9 cards in your hand which 2 you want to discard. Then, because of Swamp's special combo ability with a Magic in your hand, you get another +1 Card and you must set a card from your hand (of 8 now) on top of your deck. Now, you have no more actions, but you're set up with a 7 card hand (partially filtered), and because of the card you set on your deck, you're potentially set up for a better next turn as well. If one of those other 5 is an action card you'd really like to play, you can trash one of those Magic (if you didn't discard those 2 for the Swamp requirement) for +1 Action and play it. That action card play will give you an additional +1 card if you still have the other Magic in your hand.

So, a double-Magic-Swamp cycles/filters through at least the next 5 cards on your deck, pretty good. 

* Damage cards are a new concept (lol not really, they're just curse versions of treasures). These cards can only be gained through cards that give them to you directly or indirectly. They cannot be bought. Their 'cost' is zero. There are the same number of Damages as their are Curses. Damage cards can seriously mess with your game. Suddenly, +draw cards can have the exact opposite effect you want them too! Occult/Magic is a cutting combo.

Because of Spell Book, I am considering this version of Occult:

$5 Occult - Attack
+1 Card -1 Action
Choose one:
Other players gain a Damage
Trash a Damage
If you have any Magic Cards in your hand, Occult does not activate Reaction Cards.

Finally, and probably most importantly, I have not play-tested Damage giving cards in games where there was no trashing mechanism. So, the possibility exists that these Damages could eliminate an economy completely, don't know yet.

[Morgrim7]

The Viy shares the same problem as Sea Hag and Saboteur. There is no benefit to you whatsoever. Maybe cost 5?
As does Hog's Head. Also, this card might be good at 2, or add something on like +$2 or +X amount of cards.
As does Hex. So this card either denies an action phase or is a Witch? huh. Needs some sort of benefit like +$2.
Exile camp is strictly worse than Fishing Village.

[Xim]

Yet Sea Hag and Saboteur exist, and they can get away with it because of their power... Saboteur to a lesser extent. $5 for the Viy might be good. It definitely would be bought quicker if it only cost 5.
Hog's Head is there because of Spell Book honestly. $2 for it might be good, play-testing needed.

Exile camp is just worse than Fishing Village, you're right. How about +2$ with Magic in hand? Would that make it worth 4?

Seriously considering just getting rid of Hex. I don't see it as being very good/fun to play with.

For Wizard, any trashed cards are discarded to the player whose deck they were in.

Tavern isn't play-tested either. It's a fancy Laboratory.

[eHalcyon]

Welcome to the forums.

You'll probably want to read the huge post in this subforum about designing cards.  Thoughts on these ones:

(Just a note -- most of my comments are critical, but a good deal of it is because things are not worded clearly.  There are definitely some neat concepts here, but they all need polish and lots of testing. )

Magic -- needs better wording.  Sounds like this should be a reaction.  It'll probably have to be a "reveal and set aside" mechanic if you want them to stack.

Salt -- needs a wording change too.  If you have Magic, is it worth $2 or $3 total?

Skeleton -- seems like it would be worthless on most boards, or at least very difficult to use.  Hm.  It might work at $2 anyways, as a useful card in niche situations.

Exile Camp -- as Morgrim said, this is strictly worse than Fishing Village.  FV provides +2 actions, +$1 now AND next turn for the same cost, without the need for a Magic in hand.  Buff it or lower to $2 cost.

Redeemer -- rounded up?  That means it is worth 1 VP even without Curses.  That makes it strictly better than Great Hall.  Needs to be $4, but it seems like a fairly weak $4 card.

Ritual -- needs to be phrased like other durations.  Also should probably be $2.  The only bonus you get from trashing it is $1 (or $2 with Magic in hand).  Silver would be better because it gives you $2 without trashing it. Silver isn't strictly better because you could potentially "save" Ritual until the next turn, but that is super situational.

Hog's Head -- Morgrim touched on parts of it.  Is it intentional that you require them to reveal their whole hand, rather than just a Victory card?  This card probably needs some sort of bonus, and then extensive play-testing.  Directly discarding a card can be very powerful if played in multiples, as it can wipe out a player's hand.  However, any VP acts as a moat, making it much less reliable especially early and late game.

Diviner -- It seems OK, though the non-Magic action seems too weak.  You should rephrase this.  I think you mean for it to be one or the other, but as it is written right now, having a Magic in hand means Diviner lets you draw 2 cards out of the top 5 (you do the non-Magic part first, then the Magic part).

Wizard -- Very interesting take on Golem.  Probably doesn't need the +1 Action.  Not at all sure if $4 is the right price for it.

(pre-edit: what do you mean "any trashed cards are discarded to the player whose deck they were in"?)

Spell Book -- Errr... so it gives -1 Action but then lets you TR every card in your hand, making the -1 Action irrelevant?  I must be misunderstanding something.

Tavern -- This seems somewhat weak, especially at $5.  First of all, a search space of 2 really isn't very much.  Drawing treasure/action and trashing victory cards might be good in the early game, but the $5 cost makes it less likely you can open with it.  The "Magic" action doesn't seem like a huge improvement if you can no longer draw your actions.  Finally, there are some bugs with this card.  What happens if you reveal a hybrid VP like Nobles or Harem?  Does it go into your hand, or does it get trashed?  And with Magic, if you don't trash the VP, what do you do with them?  It's not specified.  I would assume discard, but it could also be right back on top of the deck.

(pre-edit: Tavern almost seems strictly weaker than Lab.  It isn't actually, because the trashing can be useful early on, but it's just extra dangerous in the late game.)

Swamp -- Seems too weak for $5.  Compare with Inn, which is the same but with +Actions and a great on-gain effect.  Compare with Lab, which is non-terminal and doesn't require discard.   Even with the Magic bonus it is much weaker than Smithy.  Maybe the 1 VP justifies the $5 price tag?  I'm not sure.

Hex -- This is not so good because -1 Action doesn't mean anything when it's not your turn.  You could say "-1 Action on their next turn" but then how do you track it?  The concept is difficult to work because it will shut down games with reliable engines.  On such a board, you basically have to race to build the engine that can play multiple Hexes, preferably with Magic in hand.  The first one to do so and do so reliably wins, because nobody else can take any action or buy any card after that.  It's too easy to abuse.

Occult -- OK, a card that hands out a Curse variant.  Not much to say about that.

Damage -- Treasure worth negative $1?  If I had this, I could just treat it as a 0 VP card and never actually play it, meaning that the negative coinage never actually affects me.  The only exception would be if it was automatically played via Venture.

Sacrifice -- a $5 one-shot card is really off-putting.  You would never trash a single card with it, because then it was a huge waste of $5.  Two cards makes it a Grand Market.  Trash 3, GM with +2 cards instead of +1.  In an engine deck, this may actually be the best option -- the +1 action makes a huge difference.  I think the trash 4 effect is stronger than trash 5+, though you could argue that +cards is better than cursing.  But still, I would not want to spend $5 on a card that trashes itself.

The Viy -- Not quite sure how this works.  Do you choose for each opponent, or is it one choice applied to everyone?  When you say "X becomes Y", do you mean "each player trashes X and gains Y"?  This card sounds way too powerful, especially Gold->Curse.  However, Saboteur also sounds really brutal when it is actually rather weak.  I think this card would make players try for a treasureless deck.  Hm.




Overall -- I'm not quite clear on how Magic bonuses work.  From your Swamp example, apparently the bonus on the other cards don't stack.  Is that correct?  Many cards should be rephrased to be consistent with existing cards.

I'm curious why you put -1 Action on so many cards.  It's been put forward as a concept in the past but it always looks like a bad idea to me.  Maybe if a card was so powerful that you needed to make it extra hard to chain, but even then, -1 Action doesn't prevent you from playing it with King's Court.

The most interesting concept to me is Wizard.  Next is probably Skeleton Key, even though I would almost never buy it as is.

I'm probably misunderstanding some of the cards.  Please clarify if so.

Hope this feedback helps you out!

[pst]

Damage -- Treasure worth negative $1?  If I had this, I could just treat it as a 0 VP card and never actually play it, meaning that the negative coinage never actually affects me.  The only exception would be if it was automatically played via Venture.

You might want to play one because of Horn of Plenty too, and of course all when buying Mint! But I guess the intention is that you'd be forced to play them, which is a difficult concept to have in Dominion.

Hm, maybe with a Stash like card! Suppose you had a Evil Stash that you still could put wherever you wanted in your deck when shuffling, but that was worth $-1 and that you were forced to play! If you get a lot of those you'd really like a Chancellor to avoid playing all the trash you put at the bottom of your deck.

[Xim]

Welcome to the forums.

Thanks 

Magic would be good as a reaction card, but I'd prefer it wasn't discarded on reveal.

Not sure I can make Salt any more clear. It's an action card that if played grants +1$ this turn, +1$ next turn... unless you have a Magic card, then +2$ when it's in play rather than +1$.

Skeleton -- seems like it would be worthless on most boards, or at least very difficult to use.  Hm.  It might work at $2 anyways, as a useful card in niche situations.

Exile Camp -- as Morgrim said, this is strictly worse than Fishing Village.  FV provides +2 actions, +$1 now AND next turn for the same cost, without the need for a Magic in hand.  Buff it or lower to $2 cost.

Redeemer -- rounded up?  That means it is worth 1 VP even without Curses.  That makes it strictly better than Great Hall.  Needs to be $4, but it seems like a fairly weak $4 card.

Should be worth zero with zero curses. If you're rounding up to the nearest integer in math class, and you have zero, the answer is still zero. I don't really know how to make this clearer.... maybe you can only buy this card if you have a curse in hand? ...something like that.

I am going to change Exile Camp, not sure how yet. Skeleton is a weak defense against cards that make you discard. Or if you have 3 actions, two others that grant +1 Action, play those, then play Skeleton, you get +1 Card, +1 Action.

Ritual -- needs to be phrased like other durations.  Also should probably be $2.  The only bonus you get from trashing it is $1 (or $2 with Magic in hand).  Silver would be better because it gives you $2 without trashing it. Silver isn't strictly better because you could potentially "save" Ritual until the next turn, but that is super situational.

Except it's not that situational... you can trash it for +1$ when it's in play. So, if you ended up getting 7$, but last turn you played ritual, so trash it to buy a Province. That, and they can stack up, so you can trash 2 at once for +4$ with Magic. That said, $2 might be a good price.

Hog's Head -- Morgrim touched on parts of it.  Is it intentional that you require them to reveal their whole hand, rather than just a Victory card? 

No- is there a big difference? I've found that only very rarely does seeing an opponents hand even matter.

This card probably needs some sort of bonus, and then extensive play-testing.  Directly discarding a card can be very powerful if played in multiples, as it can wipe out a player's hand.  However, any VP acts as a moat, making it much less reliable especially early and late game.

Not much to say here, just need to play-test.... figure out what it should cost. Maybe I'll give it a bad bonus like, +1$.

Diviner -- It seems OK, though the non-Magic action seems too weak.  You should rephrase this.  I think you mean for it to be one or the other, but as it is written right now, having a Magic in hand means Diviner lets you draw 2 cards out of the top 5 (you do the non-Magic part first, then the Magic part).

Wizard -- Very interesting take on Golem.  Probably doesn't need the +1 Action.  Not at all sure if $4 is the right price for it.

Fixing up Diviner a bit. It's definitely supposed to be an either/or thing, not both.

In my play-testing, the +1 Action is what makes Wizard worth buying at a 4, because it's so variable. The player to your left might have bad cards, they might have great cards but reveal Chapel, and Wizard cannot trash cards.

"any trashed cards are discarded to the player whose deck they were in" - There are some cards that let you/make you trash cards. Say I draw a Wizard, 3 Copper, and a Treasure Map. I play Wizard. The player to my left reveals Treasure Map... well, because I (as the Wizard) have played that card, it goes in the trash. I thought this was too mean (because the affected player then might only have 1 Treasure Map), so the trashed treasure map goes in the discard pile of the player to my left. This clause also makes Wizard a little bit weaker, because you cannot use it to trash cards.

Spell Book -- Errr... so it gives -1 Action but then lets you TR every card in your hand, making the -1 Action irrelevant?  I must be misunderstanding something.

Tavern -- This seems somewhat weak, especially at $5.  First of all, a search space of 2 really isn't very much.  Drawing treasure/action and trashing victory cards might be good in the early game, but the $5 cost makes it less likely you can open with it.  The "Magic" action doesn't seem like a huge improvement if you can no longer draw your actions.  Finally, there are some bugs with this card.  What happens if you reveal a hybrid VP like Nobles or Harem?  Does it go into your hand, or does it get trashed?  And with Magic, if you don't trash the VP, what do you do with them?  It's not specified.  I would assume discard, but it could also be right back on top of the deck.

(pre-edit: Tavern almost seems strictly weaker than Lab.  It isn't actually, because the trashing can be useful early on, but it's just extra dangerous in the late game.)

Spell Book does give you -1 Action, which makes it super hard to stack. Throne Room bypasses this, but if that's you're strategy it takes some serious luck to pull off-- You'd have to have a Throne Room, a Spell Book, and a attack card all in your hand. That would make you to play that attack card 4 times. This has never happened in play-testing. Spell Book only works on attack cards. One time, one of my friends drew a spell book and 2 witches. He played spell book- giving out 4 curses to each player and drawing 8 cards. Now, that's devastating, but think of what it took to pull off: Witches cost 5, spell book cost 4, so this combo took $14 worth of cards, along with some major draw luck. If he'd drawn the two witches and no spell book, one would have been a blank card in his hand and an awful turn instead of an incredible one.

I think Tavern it going to be deleted along with Hex. It's too similar to lab, although it would be a great buy on the first few turns. I like the concept (originally called it Casino) but the ambiguity with dual-classification of cards like Nobles/etc. is going to kill it I think.

Swamp -- Seems too weak for $5.  Compare with Inn, which is the same but with +Actions and a great on-gain effect.  Compare with Lab, which is non-terminal and doesn't require discard.   Even with the Magic bonus it is much weaker than Smithy.  Maybe the 1 VP justifies the $5 price tag?  I'm not sure.

Unfortunately, I don't even know what Inn does... I'll go look it up, but for the mean time, in play-testing, the filtering effect it has with Magic is huge. $4 might be a good price though. Next time I play with it, it will cost $4 to see how it goes.

Damage -- Treasure worth negative $1?  If I had this, I could just treat it as a 0 VP card and never actually play it, meaning that the negative coinage never actually affects me.  The only exception would be if it was automatically played via Venture.

Sacrifice -- a $5 one-shot card is really off-putting.  You would never trash a single card with it, because then it was a huge waste of $5.  Two cards makes it a Grand Market.  Trash 3, GM with +2 cards instead of +1.  In an engine deck, this may actually be the best option -- the +1 action makes a huge difference.  I think the trash 4 effect is stronger than trash 5+, though you could argue that +cards is better than cursing.  But still, I would not want to spend $5 on a card that trashes itself.

I tested Sacrifice at $4. The trouble is that opening with it, trashing 4 cards, cursing everyone else, then buying a silver is an AMAZING play.

The way my friends and I had been playing, we just total our money up at the end, then buy what we can. So... this is incorrect? You have to play your treasure?

The Viy -- Not quite sure how this works.  Do you choose for each opponent, or is it one choice applied to everyone?  When you say "X becomes Y", do you mean "each player trashes X and gains Y"?  This card sounds way too powerful, especially Gold->Curse.  However, Saboteur also sounds really brutal when it is actually rather weak.  I think this card would make players try for a treasureless deck.  Hm.

I've been reworking this card a lot lately, this is very unlikely to be the final version. As it is now, you choose for each player. And X becomes Y means trashing, yes.

Overall -- I'm not quite clear on how Magic bonuses work.  From your Swamp example, apparently the bonus on the other cards don't stack.  Is that correct?  Many cards should be rephrased to be consistent with existing cards.

I'm curious why you put -1 Action on so many cards.  It's been put forward as a concept in the past but it always looks like a bad idea to me.  Maybe if a card was so powerful that you needed to make it extra hard to chain, but even then, -1 Action doesn't prevent you from playing it with King's Court.

Hope this feedback helps you out!

I've been playing it as if special bonuses don't stack up, but the card drawing ability does... I'll work on wording.

The -1 Action is only on 2-3 cards. I made it up for Spell Book, stacking that card would make it too powerful in certain situations. KC/Spell Book/any other attack card would be devastating, it's true. But then again, the whole point of Throne Room and Kings Court is to make killer plays.

Yes, feedback is helping, thanks!

[eHalcyon]

Magic -- yeah, that's why I suggested a "set aside" mechanic, similar to Horse Traders.  Maybe something like, "when you play this card, you may reveal and set aside any number of Magics from your hand.  For each one, [specific bonus].  Then return each Magic to your hand."  On Magic itself you could say, "When you return this card to your hand after setting it aside, +1 Card" to implement the universal bonus you described.  Interestingly, I think this would have Magic interact with Horse Traders, Native Village and Haven in a neat way.

Salt -- as you have it worded currently in the OP, it would give +$3 total, as you don't say "rather than".

Redeemer -- oops.  Late night math fail, my bad!

Ritual -- I'm saying it's situational because it is only better than Silver in situations where it bumps you up on the next turn.  But in most cases, Silver is far better.  Suppose you draw a hand of 4 Rituals.  If they were Silvers instead, you could buy a Province.  You could play them all and hope to get the Province on the next turn, but if you want the coin from Ritual you have to trash all those cards, leaving your deck in much worse shape than if you had gone for Silver.

Hog's Head -- not a huge difference, but existing cards only force people to reveal for verification purposes (e.g. reveal to show that you have no Copper when opponent plays Cutpurse).  Otherwise, it just has you reveal the single card that matters.  I'm not saying that revealing the whole hand is a problem though!

Re: your Wizard example -- you'd only buy it if your opponent's deck has things you would want to play yourself.  Likewise, if you are running a Golem strategy, you probably don't want to pick up mandatory trashers like Remake.  Note that Chapel isn't a mandatory trasher.   Fair point on Treasure Map, but are there any other cards from your opponents deck where this would matter?  Embargo and Feast... can't think of much else.  I doubt it's a big enough problem to require a clause.  If Wizard is on the board, you might want to rethink grabbing Treasure Map, is all.

Spell Book -- ah, I see.  When I said "lets you TR every card" I just meant that this was Spell Book's effect, not that you should try playing it with Spell Book.  Now that I see that it only works on attack cards, the glaring issue is that it's useless in any game without attacks.  It just becomes a dead card in the kingdom. :\

Inn is +2 cards, +2 actions, discard 2 cards.  On gain, it lets you shuffle action cards from your discard back into your deck.

Sacrifice -- yeah, I can see it being an overpowered opener at $4.  I guess it would be good at $5 too... hmm.  I may have misevaluated it last night.  Still, it sucks to be the one who opens 4/3 against an opponent with 5/2 when this is on the board.

Damage -- yes, you have to play your treasure cards one by one.  Usually it doesn't actually matter, but there are certain cases where it does:

Grand Market -- you might opt to not play your copper so that you can buy GM.
Mint -- you probably want to hold back better treasures when you buy it, so that only the junk Copper gets trashed.
Contraband -- usually you want to play this first, so your opponent has less info to block what you want.
Bank -- you want to play this at the end to maximize its value.
Horn of Plenty -- another card you want to play at the end, so you can gain a better card.

There are probably other cases, but these are some common ones.



If you aren't familiar with all the existing cards (e.g. Inn), you should read up on them!  It will help you to word your text more consistently, and it may also inspire some new ideas.  Check them out here:

http://dominionstrategy.com/card-lists/

There are still two unreleased expansions, with one (Dark Ages) coming out in a few months.

[Xim]

>>Ritual -- I'm saying it's situational because it is only better than Silver in situations where it bumps you up on the next turn.  But in most cases, Silver is far better.  Suppose you draw a hand of 4 Rituals.  If they were Silvers instead, you could buy a Province.  You could play them all and hope to get the Province on the next turn, but if you want the coin from Ritual you have to trash all those cards, leaving your deck in much worse shape than if you had gone for Silver.

Yes it is situational, but consider this- I think a one-off +4$ is better than having 2 silver in your hand. With 4$, you can likely buy Gold, which is better than 2 silver. Then, your deck is thinner too Instead of having 2 silvers and a Gold, you have Gold alone. If you do this a few times, you have 2-3 golds. 3 gold is much better than 6 silver in a cut down deck. This works especially well if your opponents don't buy any Rituals. You can trash them for money this turn or next turn, so if you don't have a Magic card in you hand, maybe you will next turn! Ritual/Magic + Big Money is killer, you just have to buy a couple other action cards.

Ex: My draw 2 Magics, 2 Rituals and a Copper. I will play Ritual giving me +3 Cards +1 Action. Then I will play my second Ritual, + 3 Cards +1 Action. Now, you have a 7 card hand (not counting your 2 Magic!), complete with an action. Say I drew another action card as one of those 6, say... Village. I play Village, giving me +3 Cards +2 Actions. I have 9 cards with 2 actions. And if I want, I can still trash those Rituals for +4$. That's a good setup for just about anything. Add in a +Buy action card, and the power can be dangerous. Too much money? I won't trash my Ritual cards, and they stay out like Duration.

I thought of this as I made these cards, but I had read about the Prosperity set. Some of those cards let you get way, way better turns.

>>Spell Book -- ah, I see.  When I said "lets you TR every card" I just meant that this was Spell Book's effect, not that you should try playing it with Spell Book.  Now that I see that it only works on attack cards, the glaring issue is that it's useless in any game without attacks.  It just becomes a dead card in the kingdom. :\

Yes, I've never played with it without another attack card. I have an idea that can fix this. It's a card that lets you gain another card ala Tournament. Here's another card I made:

$6 Mob
Choose one:
Gain a Renegade
Opponents gain a *Damage
Reveal another Mob from your hand. If you do, +4$

*0$ Renegade - Action/Curse, can only be gained through Mob.
+2 Cards
+2 Actions
+1$
-1 VP

--->Those above cards aside, what if Spell Book had a weak(er) attack function in addition and cost $5?

>>Inn is +2 cards, +2 actions, discard 2 cards.  On gain, it lets you shuffle action cards from your discard back into your deck.

Damn, Inn is pretty good. If it costs 5, Swamp should probably cost 4, even with the VP.

>>Sacrifice -- yeah, I can see it being an overpowered opener at $4.  I guess it would be good at $5 too... hmm.  I may have misevaluated it last night.  Still, it sucks to be the one who opens 4/3 against an opponent with 5/2 when this is on the board.

Yes, that would hurt. Hopefully to be balanced out by a weak(er) card for $2. Or maybe there wouldn't be a $2 card on the board. It conflicts with other trashing cards too. The best you could do would be to sacrifice them later in game, or maybe trash an Estate or 2.

Sacrifice is a super powerful card, honestly. In heavy curse games, it's value goes way up too. The built in curse also raises the value of the remaining Sacrifices. It has to be $5 though. No one buys it at $6.


*What if these Damage cards said: You must play all Damage before other Treasure?