Develop is often thought of as one of the worst (hardest to use) TFB cards because it so often depends on having useful cards at all prices. But what most people don't realize about develop is that out of all the TFB cards, it increases the overall quality of your deck the most! By overall quality, think of it as your deck's "net worth" by adding up the individual costs of each card.
Apprentice is often seen as a good beginning game TFB via estate trashing for deck cycling and a stellar endgame TFB in its ability to trash high quality cards for that last game-winning turn. But mid game it tends to fall back a bit in that you generally don't have as many cards in your deck that you want to trash.
The synergy between Develop and Apprentice is a unique combination between cards. When Develop is played, it takes the value of a single card and doubles it, constantly giving fodder to the Apprentice. The Apprentice can then trash a card, increase cycling more, and play develop more, which give more fodder, etc. etc. etc.
In
this game I use the synergy between those two cards to circumvent an Embargo'd IGG pile. Additionally, by doubly Embargoing the Duchies, I am able to ensure I'm the only one who can gain Duchies due to Develop's gaining rather than buying.
Has anyone else noticed the synergy between Develop and other TFB's. With the community ranking it so low on
Qvist's list, I'm love to see other ways that this card has been used successfully and maybe as a community we can show some love to this sad member of the island of misfit cards.