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[Archetype]

This set has gone through several phases. The theme of the set has changed constantly as well as the cards, but I think I've got it down now.

This is Dominion: Woodlands.

The theme of the set is Victory cards. Cards that give you Victory cards, cards that have effects correlating with Victory cards, and many new Victory cards.

There are 13 cards in the set. So let's begin:


Fief
Cost: 3
Victory/Reaction
1 VP
.                         
Whenever you gain a Victory card costing 6 or less, you may reveal and trash this card from your hand. If you do, gain a copy of the gained Victory card.

A Mint for Victories, but works differently. This card is useful for getting Victories when you are chocked up with Victories.

First time on the Forums.

Shaman
Cost: 3
Action
+2$
At the end of your Buy Phase, you may put this card on top of your deck.

Terminal Silver with the ability to guarantee you have an Action card next turn. Helps with sifting through your deck of Victories. A create card in BM.

The original Shaman:

Shaman
Action
Cost: 3
+2$
During cleanup, you may put this card on top of your deck.

Hunter
Cost: 3
Action
+1 Action
Look at the top 3 cards of your deck. Put one into your hand. Discard the rest.

A card idea I made a while ago. Fit perfectly in the set, Allowing you to pick in choose what card to draw, and discarding the other, unwanted Victories. Good in a Curse heavy game.

Original Hunter called 'Scavenger', which name obviously needed to be changed:

I've been testing this card, and it seems pretty balanced.

Scavenger
Cost: 3

+1 Action
Look at the top 3 cards of your deck. Put 1 into your hand and discard the rest.

Meadow
Cost: 3
Action/Victory*
+1 Card
+2 Actions
.                       
When this card's supply pile is empty, this card is a Victory card worth 2 VP instead of it's original effect.

I'll admit, this card isn't my design. But it's my favorite card that has ever been posted on the forums. It is originally called "Park". It fitted really well in this set, Just don't go overboard on buying these, or someone can buy the last few and shut down your engine.

This card came from this old fan set by Dubdubdubdub, here's the link to his thread: http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=1327.0

Card hasn't changed at all.

Surveyor
Cost: 4
Action
+1 Buy
You may put a Victory card from your hand on top of your deck. If you do:
+3$

A buy that comes with a Gold if you are willing to bureaucrat yourself. Pretty solid, balanced card. Similar to Baron.

First time this is on the Forums.

Wooden Idol
Cost: 4
Action/Attack

Choose 1: +2 Cards or +2$

Every other player may discard a Victory card from their hand; those who don't, gain a Curse card.

A Curser! I don't want a lecture about how this card isn't as good as Sea Hag. Because I know it isn't, Not all Curse givers need to be in the top 10 best cards. The choice is to add some variety, and doesn't really make the card too powerful.

First time on the Forums.

Cottage
Cost: 4
Action/Victory

+2 Actions
Trash a card from your hand. Gain an Estate.
.                                         
Worth 1 VP for every 2 Estate cards in your deck.

The first alt Victory strategy in the set! There are 2 and they both counter one another. This card counts your Estates, and allows you to get more, at a price. Terrible card in DA games, and a great card in games with limited trashing.

First time on the Forums.

Crown
Cost: 4
Treasure

When you play this, return it to the supply. Reveal your hand, this worth $2 for every Victory card revealed.
.                                                     
In games using this, when you gain a Province, you may gain a Crown.

A card that helps with the traditional way of getting Victory points. Province snatching. It's a one shot that benefits decks with lots of Victory cards. Can be amazing in mega turns. Though with a lot of Victory cards it may be hard to pull this off. What's also cool is that in a 5 card hand, this + 4 other Victories = A Province, and, you can even get your Crown back!

First time on the Forums.

Lake
Cost: 5
Action
+1 Card
+1 Action
+1$
You may discard 2 cards from your hand. If you do, +1$

An improved Oasis! Not the strongest 5$ Peddler, but gets the job done in this set. Turning your Victory cards into money.

First time on the Forums.


Hiker
Cost: 5
Action
+1 Card
+1 Action
Reveal cards from your deck until you reveal 2 Victory cards. Put them into your hand. Shuffle the other revealed cards back into your deck.

My entry for rinkworks' contest. Fits perfectly in the set, cleaning your deck of 2 Victory cards while still keeping your good cards in the deck.

First time on the forums, but was entered into rinkworks' contest, as was previously mentioned.

Forest
Cost: 5
Victory

2 VP

Worth an additional 2 VP in you have less Victory cards than the player who has the most.
.                                                 
When you gain this, everyone else gains an Estate.

My favorite card in the set, and to my knowledge has never been done before. The Estate giving really helps Cottage strategies, but also gives them more VP, so it is more likely you'll have less.

First time on the Forums.

Gypsy
Cost: 5
Action/Attack

+2$

Each other player puts a Victory card from their hand on top of their deck, or reveals a hand with no Victory cards and reveals cards from the top of his deck until he reveals a Victory card. He puts it on top and discards the other revealed cards.


A card with a lot of wording, but simple in practice. I wanted a Fortune Teller +Beuarocrat card, so this was born. I don't really like designing Attack cards (besides Cursers), but this one is pretty cool.

First card on the Forums.

Acreage
Cost: 6
Action/Victory

2 VP

Reveal cards from your deck until you reveal 2 Victory cards. Put them into your hand discard the other revealed cards. Discard as many Victory cards as you want from your hand, and draw that many cards.

The last card from the set, and a cool one at that. Is always +2 Cards, but some combos with other cards, (namely Hiker and Scout), can turn this card into a drawing powerhouse.

One of the few cards to survive from the original Woodlands expansion. Here's the original:

Acreage
Action/Victory
Costs: 6
2 VP
Reveal cards from your deck until you've revealed three Victory cards, putting them into your hand. Discard the rest of the revealed cards.  Then discard as many Victory cards as you want from your hand, and draw that many cards.

...

And that's them all! I hope people like these cards as much as I do! I'll try to get images made when I have the time too. Until then, I hope you enjoy the cards!

Any criticism is encouraged and wanted.

Thanks for reading!

UPDATE 1: Fixed up some cards. Images and Secret History coming soon!

[eHalcyon]

Fief -- Interesting.  Like a one-shot reverse-Talisman that goes up to $5.  I like it.

Shaman -- As with Venture and Adventurer, I don't think this actually improves your next hand on average.  But that is a long and tired debate filled with much confusion.  This doesn't look very strong, but that's OK for $3.

Hunter -- Looks fine.

Meadow -- The text implies but does not exactly state that it loses Village status when the supply pile is empty.  It says "worth 2 VP instead", but it is not at all clear instead of what.  I only make the connection because of your commentary.  So the wording needs work.

Surveyor -- I question how balanced this actually is.  Compare with Mandarin.  Mandarin is terminal, mandatory topdecking without +Buy.  On the plus side, you can put other cards on top instead of VP, and there is the on-buy effect.  But even so, I think Surveyor compares pretty well to Mandarin.  Might still be OK, since it does rely on collision to get your money.  Hm.

Wooden Idol -- Comma splice!  I think the Dominion-y phrasing would be "Each other player... if he doesn't..."  For sake of simplicity, I think I would prefer it if you picked either coin or cards and just used that instead of giving the choice.  But it seems fine anyway.

Cottage -- I'm having trouble deciding whether this is really strong or really weak.  Buying it means you are committing yourself to a flood of Estates, which means you're probably not going to hit more than $4 ever.  That's bad.  But then, if my opponent went after this, can I afford to let him have the pile?  Unless I contend, he'll get the whole stack and all 8 Estates.  Including starting Estates, that makes Cottage worth a whopping 5VP.  That and 2 piles down, it would be hard to catch up.  And I expect it would be decently fast, so long as you can keep hitting $4 to buy more Cottages.  So I think I would have to contend.  But then it's a close race where it's equally likely for either party to come out ahead, and it's a slog.  Ugh.  But then... Sea Hag games exist.  This would be like that, but with green.  Even so, there are times when I would ignore Sea Hag.  I don't know if I could ever ignore Cottage.  It's just too powerful if left unchecked... and not that good if more than one person goes for it.  Eh.

Crown -- Interesting.  Can't tell if it is balanced, but it's neat.  Treasure effects should read, "When you play this..."

Resevoir -- Yeah, that looks pretty strong.  Hm.

Hiker -- Seems fine.  It's an Improved Scout!

Forest -- This card worries me and it is difficult to articulate why.  I think it bothers me that one player is guaranteed to get short-changed with weaker Forests than his opponent(s).  OTOH, it probably means that player won an important split.  But then you could get into a weird situation where you shouldn't buy the last Province because it gives your opponent the win i.e. you had the same number of VP cards and buying the last Province would upgrade all their Forests... or buying it would set you tied for most and thus your Forests get downgraded.

Gypsy -- I don't like it.  Two VP on top feels really bad for the victim.  Non-terminal means it's OK for you to load up on them without fear of terminal clash, which means you have an easier time playing this every turn.  Compare with Ghost Ship which hurts in approximately the same way, but you can't load up on GS without support because it is terminal draw.  I'd like it better as a terminal.

Acreage -- I think it seems too strong, but I'm not sure.  I am probably overestimating and it is fine.



Overall -- I like it, but that's because alt VP is so fun.  I wonder how it would feel in practice to play a set entirely focused on VP.  Might be weird, but don't know if it would be in a good way or not.

[Cuzz]

Shaman + Tunnel ftw

[zahlman]

Shaman + Tunnel ftw

Exactly what I was thinking. "Bad in BM? *Amazing* in BM, if Tunnel is present..."

[Archetype]

Fief -- Interesting. Like a one-shot reverse-Talisman that goes up to $5. I like it.

Shaman -- As with Venture and Adventurer, I don't think this actually improves your next hand on average. But that is a long and tired debate filled with much confusion. This doesn't look very strong, but that's OK for $3.

Hunter -- Looks fine.

Meadow -- The text implies but does not exactly state that it loses Village status when the supply pile is empty. It says "worth 2 VP instead", but it is not at all clear instead of what. I only make the connection because of your commentary. So the wording needs work.

Surveyor -- I question how balanced this actually is. Compare with Mandarin. Mandarin is terminal, mandatory topdecking without +Buy. On the plus side, you can put other cards on top instead of VP, and there is the on-buy effect. But even so, I think Surveyor compares pretty well to Mandarin. Might still be OK, since it does rely on collision to get your money. Hm.

Wooden Idol -- Comma splice! I think the Dominion-y phrasing would be "Each other player... if he doesn't..." For sake of simplicity, I think I would prefer it if you picked either coin or cards and just used that instead of giving the choice. But it seems fine anyway.

Cottage -- I'm having trouble deciding whether this is really strong or really weak. Buying it means you are committing yourself to a flood of Estates, which means you're probably not going to hit more than $4 ever. That's bad. But then, if my opponent went after this, can I afford to let him have the pile? Unless I contend, he'll get the whole stack and all 8 Estates. Including starting Estates, that makes Cottage worth a whopping 5VP. That and 2 piles down, it would be hard to catch up. And I expect it would be decently fast, so long as you can keep hitting $4 to buy more Cottages. So I think I would have to contend. But then it's a close race where it's equally likely for either party to come out ahead, and it's a slog. Ugh. But then... Sea Hag games exist. This would be like that, but with green. Even so, there are times when I would ignore Sea Hag. I don't know if I could ever ignore Cottage. It's just too powerful if left unchecked... and not that good if more than one person goes for it. Eh.

Crown -- Interesting. Can't tell if it is balanced, but it's neat. Treasure effects should read, "When you play this..."

Resevoir -- Yeah, that looks pretty strong. Hm.

Hiker -- Seems fine. It's an Improved Scout!

Forest -- This card worries me and it is difficult to articulate why. I think it bothers me that one player is guaranteed to get short-changed with weaker Forests than his opponent(s). OTOH, it probably means that player won an important split. But then you could get into a weird situation where you shouldn't buy the last Province because it gives your opponent the win i.e. you had the same number of VP cards and buying the last Province would upgrade all their Forests... or buying it would set you tied for most and thus your Forests get downgraded.

Gypsy -- I don't like it. Two VP on top feels really bad for the victim. Non-terminal means it's OK for you to load up on them without fear of terminal clash, which means you have an easier time playing this every turn. Compare with Ghost Ship which hurts in approximately the same way, but you can't load up on GS without support because it is terminal draw. I'd like it better as a terminal.

Acreage -- I think it seems too strong, but I'm not sure. I am probably overestimating and it is fine.



Overall -- I like it, but that's because alt VP is so fun. I wonder how it would feel in practice to play a set entirely focused on VP. Might be weird, but don't know if it would be in a good way or not. tongue

My original version for Shaman was: "You may put this card on top of your deck during clean-up", but it is too good in BM, so I flipped it around to get a different Action on top besides Shaman.

Surveyor is actually a cross between Bsron, Horse Traders, and Mandarin. Instead of discarding, you put a card on top, which is a Victory card. You do need to have some luck like you do with Baron, but the effect of putting a Victory on top of your deck is more harmful than discard 2 cards as you do with Horse Traders. So I added the +1 Action. Which you don't usually use, but, you might.

Wooden Idol: I like the choice function because with either one, it's just a much weaker Torturer (in some ways)

Cottage: It's kind of like when someone goes Duke. You can't ignore the Duchies. You have to pick up a few more Estates to push Cottage so it isn't worth as much for them. But of course, Cottage can fuel itself, and Duke can't.

Forest: I wanted this to be a catchup card, as we don't have many of those, and "less Victory cards" seemed to be the best way to do it. The player that's ahead will usually never buy Forests, they just aren't high quality enough that he can pick them up and still have lower Victory cards. I do think it is balanced though.

Gypsy: I really want an Attack similar to Bureaucrat's as it would be really fun to play with in this set. I added the 2 Victory part at the bottom to give the opponent a choice, but I don't know how I would do the Bureaucrat attack. I can definitally knock off the Action though.

Acreage: It's actually fine. And fun in the way that Crossroads is. On a mega turn, you can draw many cards, but then you can only draw three for the rest of the times. It is generally better than Farmland though.

I'll fix the wording on some of the cards too.

Shaman + Tunnel ftw

Exactly what I was thinking. "Bad in BM? *Amazing* in BM, if Tunnel is present..."

Eh, yeah, probably is too great of a Tunnel enabler, might go back to the original Shaman.

Thanks for reading!

[zahlman]

You could use a set-aside mechanic to avoid discarding large numbers of cards.

[Archetype]

You could use a set-aside mechanic to avoid discarding large numbers of cards.

How so?

[eHalcyon]

The other thing with Cottage is that, as a Province player, picking up Estates just to block Cottage is really, really bad.  Against Duke, picking up Duchies is not so terrible.

[Archetype]

The other thing with Cottage is that, as a Province player, picking up Estates just to block Cottage is really, really bad.  Against Duke, picking up Duchies is not so terrible.

I see your point, but I don't know how to balance it. I could remove the top part, but that removes the fun of it.

[rinkworks]

This is a great set.  The only one that really doesn't appeal to me is the "Worth 2 VP if..." one, which just screams swinginess in a way that doesn't really interest me.  But the rest of the cards look very solid and interesting.  Great work!

[eHalcyon]

The other thing with Cottage is that, as a Province player, picking up Estates just to block Cottage is really, really bad.  Against Duke, picking up Duchies is not so terrible.

I see your point, but I don't know how to balance it. I could remove the top part, but that removes the fun of it.

I may be overestimating.  Maybe it chokes itself enough that it even gets difficult to hit $4.

[zahlman]

You could use a set-aside mechanic to avoid discarding large numbers of cards.

How so?

Actually, you wouldn't even need to set them aside. Just have it say "shuffle the other revealed cards and put them on the bottom of your deck", or something.

Regarding Cottage: 8 Cottages + 11 Estates (8 from pile + starting 3) nets 51 points, the same as 8 Provinces + 3 Estates. And you need to do a lot more gaining. I think it's fair to the Province player, since the Cottage player wants/needs a way to empty a third pile (and Curse is a pretty poor candidate here ) before the Province player can get all the Provinces.

(For another point of comparison, 8 SR + 11 Estates = 43 points, but the next Duchy or whatever brings the SRs up to the 5 points that Cottages get at maximum. And SR is hardly overpowered... OTOH, SR doesn't give you +2 Action, either.)

[eHalcyon]

You could use a set-aside mechanic to avoid discarding large numbers of cards.

How so?

Actually, you wouldn't even need to set them aside. Just have it say "shuffle the other revealed cards and put them on the bottom of your deck", or something.

Regarding Cottage: 8 Cottages + 11 Estates (8 from pile + starting 3) nets 51 points, the same as 8 Provinces + 3 Estates. And you need to do a lot more gaining. I think it's fair to the Province player, since the Cottage player wants/needs a way to empty a third pile (and Curse is a pretty poor candidate here ) before the Province player can get all the Provinces.

(For another point of comparison, 8 SR + 11 Estates = 43 points, but the next Duchy or whatever brings the SRs up to the 5 points that Cottages get at maximum. And SR is hardly overpowered... OTOH, SR doesn't give you +2 Action, either.)

SR also doesn't gain Estates for you.

The question is whether the Estate gaining from Cottage interferes enough with hitting $4 that the Province player has time to race to 8 Provinces.  $4 is a lot easier to hit than $8, but maybe the essential Estate flood slows down the Cottage rush.

Was Cottage modified to include mandatory trashing?  That balances it out more.  Either you trash your Estates/Cottages and weaken your score or you trash your treasures and actions and speed up the clogging effect.  Means you really need a plan.

[zahlman]

It appears to be mandatory now. Yeah, I agree it'd be overpowered otherwise.

[Archetype]

Yeah, it's always been mandatry. That way, if you want to do this strategy, you have to be willing to go all in on it. The +2 Actions is almost never needed, but it is thier for flavor and in case you are dong some Baron type deck.

Should the gained Esate go in hand? It makes it combo with Acreage, Baron, and Crossroads, and I know the later two need the boost because of DA.

[Archetype]

I playtested the set a bit more. Here are some changes and my thoughts:

Fief: Changed to "When you gain a Victory card costing 6 or less" as well as raised the cost to 3 and gave it 1 VP. It's an interesting card and good to pick up with extra buys if you can draw it the next turn.

Shaman: Changed to, "you may put this card back on top of your deck at the end of cleanup", It's very simple and great in BM.

Hunter: Similar to Warehouse, but is very fun to play with.

Meadow: Changes your perspective on Villages. It's hard to build a Conspirator chain or mass spam these as they can be shut down by opponents. On the other hand, you can piledrive these near the end of the game, where each one you buy doesn't hurt you until the last one is bought. Still one of my favorite cards.

Surveyor: Knocked off the +1 Action. It's still a powerful card and is similar to Baron. I like this card slightly better as it's usefulness improves as the game goes on.

Wooden Idol: Weak compared to the other Cursers, but the choice of Vanilla bonus makes it fun.

Cottage: This card is interesting. I think I've used the Actions on it once...which was to play another one. It's a fairly fast rush, but you can't really open with this and immediately start grabbing Estates. You have to get a bit of an economy. Otherwise, you can't empty the third pile.

Crown: This card is a good opener, if you get lucky. The "free with a Province" thing is cool as it counters all the Alt VP in the set.

Reservoir/Lake: Changed the card completely. Now it's an improved Oasis. It's not the strongest Peddler-with-a-bonus, but it combos well with cards in the set.

Hiker: Cool card. Like Scout, will often only be good in the set it belongs with, but it's got some combos with cards in other sets too.

Gypsy: Changed the Attack part to make it less brutal. Now it's Bureaucrat + Fortune Teller.

Forest: Interesting card. Really helps a Cottage player, but then again, a Cottage player really helps them.

Acreage: This card is deceptively powerful. I changed it to "Search for 2 Victory cards", because it becomes a monster late game.

There are a bunch of cards in the set that combo with each other and counter each other. They are all a blast to play with!

Overall, I'm very happy with the set. I'll be doing some images hopefully soon as well as a flavor paragraph and "Secret History"

[One Armed Man]

On the new Gypsy there are some wording mistakes (play vs. player) and the text is very long. Try: "Each other player puts a Victory card from their hand on top of their deck, or reveals a hand with no Victory cards and reveals cards from the top of his deck until he reveals a Victory card. He puts it on top and discards the other revealed cards." Do you want Curses to count for both effects?

I am liking the updated cards. Could you point us to all previous incarnations of this set with some links?

[Archetype]

On the new Gypsy there are some wording mistakes (play vs. player) and the text is very long. Try: "Each other player puts a Victory card from their hand on top of their deck, or reveals a hand with no Victory cards and reveals cards from the top of his deck until he reveals a Victory card. He puts it on top and discards the other revealed cards." Do you want Curses to count for both effects?

I am liking the updated cards. Could you point us to all previous incarnations of this set with some links?

Thanks, I know the text is long, and I just quickly wrote the effect. I like your wording better. I don't know if I want Curses to count. I guess it could, but it would add more words Plus the card is pretty powerful as-is.

I can try to hunt down the links, but most haven't been posted on the forums.

[One Armed Man]

I'd like to see the transformation (i remember a woodlands set thread) so you see how the cards changed from when the early posts were made.

[Archetype]

I'd like to see the transformation (i remember a woodlands set thread) so you see how the cards changed from when the early posts were made.

Updated it, most of the cards in the set come from my private collection because the original Woodlands' theme was much different from this one's.