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[werothegreat]

Secret Agent
Action - $4

The player to your left reveals his hand.  Choose one card in his hand.  Gain a copy of it, and put it in your hand.  Discard a card.

[rinkworks]

Sometimes good for a Province, sometimes a Copper?  Altogether too strong if you allow Victory cards.  Take that out, though, and it's probably an interesting avenue for developing a Jester variant.

[iangoth]

Interesting idea. I like that it somewhat favors the second player. This card probably needs to cost $5, though, even with the victory card restriction. Generally, this card will be better than explorer because after the first few turns, the chance that your opponent has nothing better than a silver is quite small, and you'll be able to gain better than a silver, most of the time. As written, the card is still likely to be unfair with potion cards. Imagine having your opponent take a copy of your possession when he never even bought a potion. A cost restriction like "Choose one card in his hand costing $6 or less. Gain a copy of it..." would address that problem.

[werothegreat]

I didn't want the restrictions of, say, Smugglers or Workshop.  I didn't want a cost labelled in the card.  How about: "If it's a Victory card, you may not discard it."

[iangoth]

You mean "If it is a victory card, you may not gain it?" That would work, although it would still let you gain potion cards, which was what I was really getting at with the cost restriction idea.

[werothegreat]

You mean "If it is a victory card, you may not gain it?" That would work, although it would still let you gain potion cards, which was what I was really getting at with the cost restriction idea.

No, I mean not discard it.  As in, the Victory card would have to take up space in your hand.

[werothegreat]

How about:

You and the player to your left reveal their hands.  Choose a card in his hand that costs no more than the sum of the costs of the cards in your hand.  Gain a copy of it; put it in your hand.  Discard a card.

[iangoth]

Edit: never mind what I wrote. I suspect with this version it would still be easy to gain provinces.

[LastFootnote]

How about:

You and the player to your left reveal their hands.  Choose a card in his hand that costs no more than the sum of the costs of the cards in your hand.  Gain a copy of it; put it in your hand.  Discard a card.

Too complex. Not allowing Victory cards is cleaner and more balanced.

[blueblimp]

I can see this getting a mention in the "Dominion downers" thread. Imagine you open Secret Agent when your opponent opens 5/2. Either you get a $5, or a Copper/Estate.

(Although that said, since it's generally worse than Ironworks on T3/T4, it might be a generally terrible opener anyway.)

[Rush_Clasic]

How about limiting the number of cards revealed? It sets a different parameter and creates some interaction. For instance:

Secret Agent -
Action
The player to your left reveals three cards from his or her hand. Choose one of the revealed cards and gain a copy of it, putting it in your hand.  Discard a card.

[werothegreat]

How about:

You and the player to your left reveal their hands.  Choose a card in his hand that costs no more than the sum of the costs of the cards in your hand.  Gain a copy of it; put it in your hand.  Discard a card.

Too complex. Not allowing Victory cards is cleaner and more balanced.

I did it that way so you couldn't get Potion cards without getting a Potion yourself.

[werothegreat]

How about limiting the number of cards revealed? It sets a different parameter and creates some interaction. For instance:

Secret Agent -
Action
The player to your left reveals three cards from his or her hand. Choose one of the revealed cards and gain a copy of it, putting it in your hand.  Discard a card.

This would synergize with Militia, etc.

[Rush_Clasic]

How about limiting the number of cards revealed? It sets a different parameter and creates some interaction. For instance:

Secret Agent -
Action
The player to your left reveals three cards from his or her hand. Choose one of the revealed cards and gain a copy of it, putting it in your hand.  Discard a card.

This would synergize with Militia, etc.

Are you saying this is a good feature, a bad one, or just pointing it out?

[eHalcyon]

IMO it would be a good thing.  As with Masquerade, it lets you play mind games.  Of course, you'd have to keep a hand of 3 weak cards to really stop the opponent from taking advantage.

I actually quite like the idea of having the opponent choose 3 for Secret Agent.  It does make the card more of a catch-up card, which is nice to balance out the snowballing cards that already exist.  It is significantly better for the player who is behind, as your opponent who is ahead is less likely to have 3 weak cards to show you.

[Qvist]

Maybe add in the may clause, so you don't have to gain a curse if he shows 3 curses.

"The player to your left reveals three cards from his or her hand. You may choose one of the revealed cards and gain a copy of it, putting it in your hand. If you do, discard a card."

[eHalcyon]

Maybe add in the may clause, so you don't have to gain a curse if he shows 3 curses.

"The player to your left reveals three cards from his or her hand. You may choose one of the revealed cards and gain a copy of it, putting it in your hand. If you do, discard a card."

I like it better when it's forced.

[Rush_Clasic]

Maybe add in the may clause, so you don't have to gain a curse if he shows 3 curses.

"The player to your left reveals three cards from his or her hand. You may choose one of the revealed cards and gain a copy of it, putting it in your hand. If you do, discard a card."

That's an unlikely case most times, and an acceptable drawback I'd say. It won't come up all that often, and will create funny stories when it does.

[Qvist]

I don't like swingy cards and even Jester has a option to not gain it. But it's your card, no problem.
You can also add a more Jester-like feeling:

"The player to your left reveals three cards from his or her hand. Choose one of the revealed cards and either he gains a copy of it or you do, your choice, putting it in his/your hand. Discard a card."

So, he won't choose bad cards and won't choose good cards, a difficult choice.

Either way, I like the card, just a little bit too swingy for my taste.

[Kahryl]

The following "gain a nonspecific card" cards either outright ban or nastily restrict victory card gaining:
Horn of Plenty (restricted)
Jester
Haggler
Talisman

And these "gain a nonspecific card" cards don't ban it:
Workshop
Feast
Remodel
Ironworks
Saboteur
Upgrade
Smugglers
Expand
Forge
Remake
Develop
Farmland
Governor
Masquerade
Swindler
Ambassador

The latter list has:
10 cards: Remodel and its MANY variants (including 2 attacks) - i.e. any card that makes you trash one or more of your own cards and gain one or more cards based on the value of the trashed ones.
2 cards: enemies making you gain cards: Masquerade, Ambassador
4 cards: "gain a card costing up to static $":  Workshop, Ironworks, Feast, Smugglers.

What seems to make the restricted/banned list different is that 3 of these (Horn of Plenty, Jester, Haggler) let you gain a card of unbounded value without sacrificing a card of comparable value.
Talisman is more interesting: it is a Workshop variant ("gain a card costing up to static $") but unlike the other 4 Workshop cards it restricts victories. Talisman also comes in a chronologically later expansion - I think at some point DonaldX changed his mind about these because of the existance of Bridge and its variants, which would let you use Workshops to gain a card of unbounded value.

So the conclusion is that if your cardgain isn't based on trashing your own cards, it should - according to DonaldX's design - exclude VPs.

[Jack Rudd]

You missed out University, although there are only three Victory cards it can gain anyway, and one of those only with cost reduction in place.

[Kahryl]

Left out University it only gains certain types of cards. Although I guess hybrid VP cards could still be targeted.

Left out Border Village, too. That's a Workshop variant that you CAN'T improve with Bridge, which is why you can get VPs from it.