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[gorlock]

I hate Tournament so much it would be a crime to mention any other card in the same breath. It... is... so... random.

The concept behind Tournament is great, but many feel its execution is awful. A non-attack card that interacts with other players is a rarity in Dominion; the variety and accomplishment of winning prizes is clever.

Tournament should create a side game, like gambling in the game Red Dragon Inn.

Here's an idea I had for it:

Whenever Tournament is in the supply, all players start with one card in their starter deck as well (replacing a copper). When someone wants to start a Tournament, he plays it and anyone else with a Tournament in his hand may then play it as well, joining the match. Then every player takes one remaining card from his hand and secretly "bids" -- the person who bid the highest card wins.

(In the case of a tie, do a rock-paper-scissors thing, with green cards beat actions, actions beat treasures, treasures beat green cards -- this would require a rule to deal with dual-type cards.) Then after the tournament, everyone draws a card to replace the one they bid with.

Whoever wins gets a prize which he draws RANDOMLY (reducing the time it takes to decide which to pick), places on the top of his deck, and returns to the prize pile during clean-up.

This design may not work, so I thought y'all could help me refine it.

[Robz888]

If I have become the poster child for Tournament hate, I can die happy.

[Autumn]

I have something along these lines in the expansion I'm designing.

Duel
$? (still need to decide on a cost)
Action-Duration
+1 action
You may look at the top three cards of your deck, discard as many as you wish and then return the rest to the top in any order.
At the start of your next turn starting with you and going clockwise around the table players state whether they intend to take part in the duel.
Once everyone has stated their intentions, all players that intend to take part in the duel reveal their hand.
Total up the costs of the cards in each hand. Add 2 to the value of the hand of anyone who has a Duel in play and add a further 3 to the value of the hand of the person who played this copy of Duel.
Whoever revealed the most valuable hand gains a Duel prize. Whoever revealed the least valuable hand gains a curse. All players who revealed their hands discard their hand and draw 5 cards.

I really like the mechanic. It functions kind of like a duel, and you're sacrificing good hands for shots at winning a prize, or sacrificing bad hands at the risk of gaining a curse.

[Captain_Frisk]

If I have become the poster child for Tournament hate, I can die happy.

Careful - I think chwhite might come in here and tell us all about how tournament is a high skill card.

Tournament is a perfect example of a card that is a crowd pleaser.  You can't tell me you didn't have a bundle of joy in your heard the first time you got a prize.

Most people will never play dominion thousands of times.

I also hate the card - but it wasn't made for us.

[Davio]

It's hard to find a good alternative to Tournament, because there's such a cascading effect.
You can get all the Warehouses and Tournaments you want and still lose to a guy with 1 Tournament and 1 Province.

This cascading effect is an inherent part of the game. Some games you can lose on the first turn if you open 4/3 vs 5/2 with Mountebank and Chapel in the supply. Or you could shuffle a bit worse with a better strategy and still lose. A quick first Gold gets more Golds, more Golds get more Provinces. It's hard to fight bad luck.

But Tournament makes it worse, partly because of it's cost.
I would have liked Tournament to maybe cost $6 or something so you can't get multiple copies early and abuse them like Peddlers.
At $6 you really need to have a plan with your Tournament to get it over Gold. You already need to have a pretty decent engine in place to make good use of them and you would probably win anyway with a good engine.

[rinkworks]

I started a related thread a while back.  I was interested in having other cards that would also gain Prizes.  Seemed like a waste to only use them with Tournament and a lost opportunity for some interesting dynamics when multiple Prize-gainers were on the table at the same time.

The Copper-trashing card in that thread turned out to be a dud, but I regularly play with this one:

Museum
$3 - Action
You may choose a card from your hand that you do not already have a copy of on your Museum mat.  Place it on your Museum mat.  If you have at least 4 cards on your Museum mat, you may trash 4 of them and gain a Prize and a Duchy.

This turned out to be a little weak -- it needs a vanilla bonus -- but otherwise a fun card.  The primary difference from Tournament is the lack of a cascading effect:  getting one Prize out of Museum doesn't mean you're suddenly liable to get three or four more, which happens with Tournament all too often.  On the contrary, it sets you back, and if your opponent is racing for a Prize too, he'll almost certainly get the next one.  In fact, it's unlikely you'll be able to get a second Prize before the game ends, though there are certainly situations where you might.