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[GendoIkari]

I've seen at least a couple fan cards submitted for the last 2 challenges that are action cards starting with the text "when you play this..." That's very poor wording and needlessly confusing. Everything listed on an action card is stuff that you do "when you play this" unless specifically noted otherwise (while this is in play, when you gain this, etc). "When you play this" should never appear on an action card. It's fine for treasure cards, though.

[eHalcyon]

It bugs me when vanilla bonuses aren't in the right order.

Market
$5 - Action
+1 Buy
+1 Action
+$1
+1 Card

Tell me that doesn't bother you.

[Schneau]

I have 2 fan card pet peeves that I posted in my Challenge 13 commentary that I'll cross-post here for good measure:

A major pet peeve of mine appears on cards that return to the supply instead of being trashed when played. Most of the time, the only thing this does is make it so that pile can never run out, which IMHO, is BAD NEWS. If you notice, almost none of the official cards can return themselves or other cards to the supply (Ambassador is the only one I can think of). This fundamentally changes the game - games don't move toward an end when you're buying cards you can return. Maybe there's a mechanic-specific reason to return them to the supply, but not on most of the cards I've seen here. So, unless you have a good reason, don't do it! Just trash it instead, it will make the card much more appealing!

Another pet peeve is the text "that costs $x more than this card" (or with "less" instead of "more"). If your card costs $4 and x=1, why not just say "that costs up to $5." This wording is simpler and easier and they are almost always the same. Only use this phrasing if absolutely necessary, which is usually not true. Maybe sometimes they will be slightly different with Highway, Bridge, BoM, etc., but it usually doesn't matter - plus, let those cards catch a break!

[HiveMindEmulator]

Another pet peeve is the text "that costs $x more than this card" (or with "less" instead of "more"). If your card costs $4 and x=1, why not just say "that costs up to $5." This wording is simpler and easier and they are almost always the same. Only use this phrasing if absolutely necessary, which is usually not true. Maybe sometimes they will be slightly different with Highway, Bridge, BoM, etc., but it usually doesn't matter - plus, let those cards catch a break!

This actually matters a lot. If Border Village said "up to $5", then having one Highway/Bridge in play would allow you to empty the Border Village stack in 1 buy.

[rinkworks]

Market
$5 - Action
+1 Buy
+1 Action
+$1
+1 Card

*twitch*

[rinkworks]

If you notice, almost none of the official cards can return themselves or other cards to the supply (Ambassador is the only one I can think of).

It's also worth noting that even when Ambassador returns cards to the supply, it still DOES work toward the end-game condition with 4+ players and is only regressive in this sense in 2-player.  Even there, some uses of Ambassador will still advance the game (when the player reveals a card but does not return any copies) or will be neutral (when a single card is returned).

Both the other "return to supply" cards are extra piles from Dark Ages (Spoils and Madman) which don't count toward the end-of-game condition anyhow.

I don't think it's unworkable to have a return-to-supply card, even one less checked than Ambassador, but you're absolutely right -- great care needs to be taken to keep the cards from screwing up the course of the game too badly.

[Davio]

I don't like cards with "+X" in the wording, the variable X is so.....Magic.

On the other hand, if it says "its cost in coins" or something similar, I'll accept it. I don't like seeing the X.

[Rush_Clasic]

I like that Donald X. has taken a lot of short-cuts with wording. It makes things much more conversational and a lot less textual. That said, ambiguous short-cuts on custom cards irk me.

[Schneau]

Another pet peeve is the text "that costs $x more than this card" (or with "less" instead of "more"). If your card costs $4 and x=1, why not just say "that costs up to $5." This wording is simpler and easier and they are almost always the same. Only use this phrasing if absolutely necessary, which is usually not true. Maybe sometimes they will be slightly different with Highway, Bridge, BoM, etc., but it usually doesn't matter - plus, let those cards catch a break!

This actually matters a lot. If Border Village said "up to $5", then having one Highway/Bridge in play would allow you to empty the Border Village stack in 1 buy.

Sure, I'm not saying in all cases - it's the right thing on Border Village, and I'm sure other circumstances may warrant it. But, no other official card has this wording (that I can find), and most of the fan cards would be fine with "up to $5", etc. If it needs to be "up to $2 more than this", that's fine, but most don't have that need.

[Fragasnap]

Another pet peeve is the text "that costs $x more than this card" (or with "less" instead of "more"). If your card costs $4 and x=1, why not just say "that costs up to $5." This wording is simpler and easier and they are almost always the same. Only use this phrasing if absolutely necessary, which is usually not true. Maybe sometimes they will be slightly different with Highway, Bridge, BoM, etc., but it usually doesn't matter - plus, let those cards catch a break!

This actually matters a lot. If Border Village said "up to $5", then having one Highway/Bridge in play would allow you to empty the Border Village stack in 1 buy.

Sure, I'm not saying in all cases - it's the right thing on Border Village, and I'm sure other circumstances may warrant it. But, no other official card has this wording (that I can find), and most of the fan cards would be fine with "up to $5", etc. If it needs to be "up to $2 more than this", that's fine, but most don't have that need.

Band of Misfits feels left out.

[zahlman]

I'll throw mine in: your card should not say "draw up to N cards". The proper wording, as it appears on Library etc., is "draw until you have N cards in hand". Otherwise, it sounds like "choose a number less than or equal to N, and draw that many cards".

[razorborne]

Another pet peeve is the text "that costs $x more than this card" (or with "less" instead of "more"). If your card costs $4 and x=1, why not just say "that costs up to $5." This wording is simpler and easier and they are almost always the same. Only use this phrasing if absolutely necessary, which is usually not true. Maybe sometimes they will be slightly different with Highway, Bridge, BoM, etc., but it usually doesn't matter - plus, let those cards catch a break!

This actually matters a lot. If Border Village said "up to $5", then having one Highway/Bridge in play would allow you to empty the Border Village stack in 1 buy.

Sure, I'm not saying in all cases - it's the right thing on Border Village, and I'm sure other circumstances may warrant it. But, no other official card has this wording (that I can find), and most of the fan cards would be fine with "up to $5", etc. If it needs to be "up to $2 more than this", that's fine, but most don't have that need.

Band of Misfits feels left out.

why does BoM have that wording, anyway? just so you don't have to deal with the infinite regression of BoM as BoM as BoM as BoM ad nauseam? does that actually make a difference? I don't know that dominion rules have a way to handle infinite loops as of right now since to my knowledge no such method exists, but it's not a hard one to add intuitively. you can just borrow the Magic rule of "okay we get it you can do this infinite times now tell us how many you're actually gonna do it for so we can move on." and there's no actual upside to playing BoM as BoM a million times before you decide its actual target. is it just for power reasons, to prevent it from being big expensive stuff with a couple highways/bridges?

[HiveMindEmulator]

there's no actual upside to playing BoM as BoM a million times before you decide its actual target

Well, there is an advantage to playing it 3 times for Conspirator, and it's not inconceivable that there could be another future card for which it matters that you can play an obscene number of actions with just one card.

[Fragasnap]

Another pet peeve is the text "that costs $x more than this card" (or with "less" instead of "more"). If your card costs $4 and x=1, why not just say "that costs up to $5." This wording is simpler and easier and they are almost always the same. Only use this phrasing if absolutely necessary, which is usually not true. Maybe sometimes they will be slightly different with Highway, Bridge, BoM, etc., but it usually doesn't matter - plus, let those cards catch a break!

This actually matters a lot. If Border Village said "up to $5", then having one Highway/Bridge in play would allow you to empty the Border Village stack in 1 buy.

Sure, I'm not saying in all cases - it's the right thing on Border Village, and I'm sure other circumstances may warrant it. But, no other official card has this wording (that I can find), and most of the fan cards would be fine with "up to $5", etc. If it needs to be "up to $2 more than this", that's fine, but most don't have that need.

Band of Misfits feels left out.

why does BoM have that wording, anyway? just so you don't have to deal with the infinite regression of BoM as BoM as BoM as BoM ad nauseam? does that actually make a difference? I don't know that dominion rules have a way to handle infinite loops as of right now since to my knowledge no such method exists, but it's not a hard one to add intuitively. you can just borrow the Magic rule of "okay we get it you can do this infinite times now tell us how many you're actually gonna do it for so we can move on." and there's no actual upside to playing BoM as BoM a million times before you decide its actual target. is it just for power reasons, to prevent it from being big expensive stuff with a couple highways/bridges?

I would guess Band of Misfits/Highway would probably be absolutely broken if Band of Misfits read "up to $4". Band of Misfits can be strangely powerful because of its utility, so preventing it from turning into whatever it wants when Highway is on the table is probably a good check against it. Furthermore, it can be confusing enough to track what each Band of Misfits is currently in play as, so ensuring that the pool is limited could probably save some headaches. (Though the Secret Histories do speak of a card that could somehow increase the price of Band of Misfits and another expansion is on the way, so we can't count it out. I'm really just playing devil's advocate. I'd love to see Band of Misfits turn into any action it wants to)

By the by, every reaction that is only revealed from your hand by strict definition already creates an infinite loop, they are simply built to avoid any benefit from this loop. (You can reveal Moat any number of times, but you're protected from the attack the first time, so why bother the second? You can reveal Trader any number of times, but you're already gaining a Silver after you reveal it once, so why bother the second? You can reveal Watchtower any number of times, but after the first time it will have lost track of the card you're gaining, so what's the point in revealing it twice? and so on...)

[GendoIkari]

there's no actual upside to playing BoM as BoM a million times before you decide its actual target

Well, there is an advantage to playing it 3 times for Conspirator, and it's not inconceivable that there could be another future card for which it matters that you can play an obscene number of actions with just one card.

I don't think that's correct. Playing BoM as Village only counts as having played 1 action so far this turn. So playing BoM as BoM as Conspirator would still just count as 1, not 3.

[LastFootnote]

there's no actual upside to playing BoM as BoM a million times before you decide its actual target

Well, there is an advantage to playing it 3 times for Conspirator, and it's not inconceivable that there could be another future card for which it matters that you can play an obscene number of actions with just one card.

I don't think that's correct. Playing BoM as Village only counts as having played 1 action so far this turn. So playing BoM as BoM as Conspirator would still just count as 1, not 3.

You are correct, sir. It would only count as one card played.

EDIT: If Band of Misfits could be played as a Band of Misfits, there is a possible interpretation of the rules that would make it do nothing, rather than making you choose a card again. After all, Band of Misfits itself doesn't have an on-play effect. So when you choose a card, if it skips past the in-the-act-of-playing-this timing that only BoM has and moves right to the when-you-play-this timing, Band of Misfits would do nothing.