I wrote all of the below before reading any other thoughts. I am reading now, before posting, and I see many of my thoughts have already been posted. Some almost word for word. So, um, yeah.
I have an entry in this contest, but it's not a serious entry. +1 to first person who guesses my entry and what the joke is.
I actually don't like many entries this time around. Hmm.
I will put in another disclaimer -- I know pops entry again. He didn't submit the one that I liked out of his several ideas though.
Sky Diver
$4 - Action
+$2
+1 Buy
Discard a Copper, or reveal a hand with no Copper. If you did discard a Copper, +1 Card, +1 Action.
This is usually very close to Market. A little weaker, so it shouldn't be $5, but I think this may be too strong for $4. It wouldn't whiff very often, after all. Hmm.
Othello
$6 - Action
+1 Action
+1 Buy
+$1
Reveal cards from the top of your deck until you reveal an Action or Treasure card. Put that card into your hand. Discard the other revealed cards.
I bet this is called Farmer's Market. Stronger than Market, certainly. This is probably a weak $6, but still OK.
Centipede
$6 - Action
+$3
--
While this is in play, when you gain an Action, Treasure, or Victory card that you have not gained this turn: +1 Buy, +$1.
Why not just say, "when you gain a card..."? I think the only cards not covered by those three are Curse and Hovel. The latter is a non-issue, and I see no reason to discount the former.
Given the structure of the card, this can always be +$4 if you are willing to pick up a Copper to start.
I wonder if this may be too strong. It competes with Gold, and it fares OK. It becomes a terminal but gains at least one +Buy in every case where it would matter, plus it can make MORE money as you make more purchases. There's the Copper trick, of course. And if you have a a cost reduction card available, you can pick up a few other things for free money too.
The restriction is a nice check to the card. Not sure how worrying those combos might be.
I think this may be OK, but I'd like it a lot more if it didn't make you more money and only gave extra buys.
Asteroids
$5 - Action-Attack
Choose one: +$3 or +3 Cards.
Each other player chooses one: they trash a card from their hand, or draw a card and discard a card from their hand.
Choose one: +1 buy and each other player gains a Copper; OR trash a card from your hand and each other player with four or more cards in hand discards a card.
Too many moving parts for my taste. The number of choices on this card is staggering -- first, money or cards. Then everyone has to decide trash or filter, and in that case they have to decide which card to trash/discard. And then you have to choose an attack, and if you choose the second one then everyone has to choose a card to discard.
This card is just trying to do so much at once. It would be extremely slow to play, and I suspect this would be too powerful anyway.
Egg Catch
$3 - Action-Duration
+2 Cards
Set aside any number of Treasure cards from your hand face up on top of this card.
During the buy phase of your next turn: +1 Buy and play the set aside cards in any order.
Seems mostly OK, I think. It recalls Tactician a bit, so I wonder if $3 is too cheap.
Millipede
$4 - Action
+1 Action
+1 Buy
+$1
Trash one or three cards from your hand.
Hard to judge. Trashing 3 cards was apparently a lot slower in testing (on Chapel). This does a few other things, but if you trash 3 it's still unlikely in the early game that you'll have enough to buy anything. Trashing one, the natural comparison is Junk Dealer. This gives a Buy instead of a Card, and Card is usually better. Not sure if the 3 card trashing option would be enough to put it on par with Junk Dealer. So maybe $4 is the right price for it.
Pole Position
$5 - Treasure
Choose one:
If this is the only Treasure you play this turn, choose 2. Otherwise, choose 1: +$1P; OR +$2; OR +$1, +1 Buy.
So, if you play this first, do you choose 2? What happens if you play more Treasure after that -- does your second choice get rescinded?
If the wording was supposed to be, "If this is the only Treasure you
have played
so far this turn" then it is too powerful as the first one is a terminal Gold with options if you prefer something else.
Perhaps the intention is that you postpone the choice until all treasures have been played? That doesn't quite work within Dominion frameworks though. Things happen when cards are played. Other things may happen "while this card is in play". So if this was the intention, maybe the wording could be changed to make it work. But it would be awkward.
Dig Dug
$4 - Action-Duration
Now and at the start of your next turn:
+1 Buy
+$1
--
While this is in play, when you gain a card, you may trash a card from your hand.
Looks OK to me. There sure are a lot of Duration submissions this time around.
Pengo
$3 - Action
+1 Buy
Reveal and discard the top three cards of your deck. If all three are identical, +$4. If exactly two are identical, +$2. If there are no duplicates, +$1.
Obvious comparison is with Harvest. This is cheaper and comes with +Buy. The criteria is a little more difficult to evaluate. Harvest wants different cards, Pengo wants the same cards. This should hit $2 pretty easily. It's almost certainly a better opening than Harvest. But how quickly does it drop off? I am not sure.
Mario Bros
$2 - Action-Duration
+$3
+1 Buy
At the start of your turn: +$1.
--
During your Clean Up phase, place [This Card] in play for the player to your right.
I don't like this at all. There is probably some other intention, but this is how it would play out according to its wording:
You play it the first time and get a HUGE boost to your turn. Huge.
In cleanup, you pass it to the player on your right.
When it gets to that players turn, they have an extra $1. At the end of their turn, it again passes to the right. And round and round it goes, forever.
Maybe this rotating bonus would be interesting, but I don't think I'd like it -- especially considering that there may very well be multiples of these going around and around.
I wonder if this was what the designer intended. If so, I give them credit for thinking outside of the box. It's just too strange for my tastes though.
Combat
$5 - Action
+1 Buy
--
While this is in play, whenever you play an Action, +$1.
I am going to call FBI on this. On many boards, this will be completely useless. If you have no way to play multiple actions (no Villages, no TR, no Golem, etc.) then this is just a really expensive +1 Buy.
But on engine boards, this card is ridiculously powerful. Get one of these in play and then every cantrip becomes a Peddler. Two in play and they are all activated Conspirators. KC any card and you automatically get +$4 per Combat in play ($1 from playing the KC, $1 for each play of the selected card). It's mind-boggling.
Space War
$2 - Action
+1 Buy
You may trash this and another copy of [This Card] from your hand. If you do, gain two differently named cards costing up to $6, placing the card with the lowest cost on top of your deck.
Resub? I feel like I've seen this before.
Is it two cards each costing up to $6, or two cards costing up to $6 total? If the former, too swingy.
Outlaw
$3 - Action
+1 Card
+1 Action
+1 Buy
--
When you buy a Treasure you have not yet bought this turn, +$1.
OK, I think. Maybe a little weak. Market Square has a really good reaction. The effect here is not that great because it restricts your purchases.
Pac-Man
$4 - Action
+1 Action
+3 Buys
+$3
--
If you have unused buys at the end of the turn you play this card, trash this card.
Quite torn on this. Probably OK. I wonder how fun it would be though... If I'm buying this, I either want it for the big money boost or for the +Buy. If the latter, it would feel terrible to have to trash this. But how often would you fully use FOUR buys on a turn? I mean, really. Three buys even? So you'll almost always have to pick up at least one Copper if you don't want to lose your source of +Buy. You'll usually have to pick up 2, quite often 3.
Jungle Hunt
$3 - Action
+2 Cards
+1 Action
+1 Buy
Reveal and discard 2 cards. If both cards discarded were Actions or Treasures, +1 Card.
It's close to Warehouse with +Buy. I think the extra chance at +1 Card is superfluous. It will be pretty rare when you'll want to use it -- you have +1 action so you would usually rather play your actions than discard them. And it's usually not worth discarding two Copper for a random card, I think.
Still, this is probably OK.
My evaluation assumes that the "reveal and discard" part is "discard from your hand". If it's from the deck, then this is way, way better than Lab.
Krull
$5 - Action-Duration
+1 Buy
+$1
On your next turn: +1 Buy.
Choose two non-empty piles from the supply. Place a Plus token on one and a Minus token on the other.
--
While this is in play, cards from supply piles with Plus tokens on them cost $1 more and cards from supply piles with Minus tokens on them cost $1 less (to a minimum of $0). When this leaves play, remove one Plus token and one Minus token from supply piles.
--
(Rules clarification: The maximum change in price is $1, even if there are multiple Plus or Minus tokens on a pile. If there are both Plus and Minus tokens on a pile, there is no change. If you play this card with a multiplier such as Throne Room or King's Court, there will be tokens left on piles once [This Card] leaves play, but if nobody has one in play, the tokens will do nothing.)
So if a card has 2 + tokens and 1 - token, there is still no change in price? Not intuitive.
But if you take the net change, then you run into the issue of ordering -- what happens if there are enough - tokens to make the price negative, and one + token? Does it cost $1 (counting - tokens before + tokens) or still $0 (counting + tokens first)?
Battlezone
$4 - Action-Duration
Set aside a card from your hand. At the start of your next turn, return it to your hand and gain +1 Card, +1 Action, +1 Buy.
--
When a player plays an Attack card, they may discard a Treasure card. If they do not, players who have a [This Card] in play are unaffected by the attack.
Wording should not have "and gain". Should be: "At the start fo your next turn, +1 Card, +1 Action, +1 Buy and return the set aside card to your hand."
I think the card is too weak since it does pretty much nothing on your turn. However, it has a rather neat way to Moat attacks.
Breakout
$6 - Action-Duration
Now and at the start of your next turn:
+$3
+1 Buy
--
While this is in play, cards cost $1 more.
The problem with cost increasers is that they conflict with cost decreasers. Which applies first? If I play three Bridges, does an Estate cost $0 or $1?
$0: 2 - 3 + 1 = 0
$1: 2 - 3 = -1 but it can't be less than 0; 0 + 1 = 1
A convention can be chosen, of course, but that's an unintuitive rule that has to be made via FAQ, since there isn't really room on a card to explain it all.
Assuming that issue is fixed, is this card any good? +$3 is nice, but then everything costs $1 more! That makes this pretty much Merchant Ship with +1 Buy, where that Buy is actually not so good because things become more expensive after the first one.
Another funny thing is that this can be inferior to Merchant Ship if you have a separate source of +Buy and a good enough deck to make use of those Buys.
Hm, but then you factor in that it is kind of an attack, since it should affect opponents inbetween turns...
Still, I think that price increasing is too gimicky.
Casino
$3 - Action
+1 Card
+1 Action
+1 Buy
Reveal the top card of your deck. If it is a Ruins, Curse, or a Copper, put it into your hand.
This is Vagrant with +Buy that picks up Copper instead of Victory/Shelter. It's probably just fine, but I think it's too similar to Vagrant.
Phoenix
$5 - Action
+1 Buy
--
While this is in play, Action cards you buy are immediately played.
--
(Rules clarification: This would allow you to play action cards during the buy phase, but only those you are purchasing. This is not optional and does not require leftover actions.)
Expensive +Buy. Is it worth it for the effect? As always, it depends on the board. What happens if a cantrip or Village is played? You now have extra actions -- can you use them? I'm guessing no. But this kind of mechanic worries me.
I also imagine that there must be some sort of broken combo, probably involving Bridge.
Secret Quest
$3 - Action
+1 Buy
When you play this, +$1 per Buy you have.
Probably OK, but I think this could get out of buy in some scenarios. There is a reason why Diadem is a Prize instead of a regular stack of 10.
Adventure
$4 - Action
Look at the bottom card of your draw pile; you may discard it. If you do, +$2 and +1 Buy. If you don't; put it back on bottom, +2 Actions, and +1 Card.
Village or Workshop, as required. Fine, I think.
Night Driver
$4 - Action
+1 Card
+$1
You may discard up to 2 Cards. +1 Action and +1 Buy per card discarded.
I like this more than Sky Diver, except this should cost $5. I may vote for it in hopes that it gets a price increase. It needs it. But the potential Village and more Buys is cool.
Obelix
$4 - Action
+$2
+1 Buy
--
When you discard this from play, if you gained at least 1 Treasure card, 1 Action card, and 1 Victory card this turn, draw an additional card during this turn's Clean-up phase.
That's a rather specific trigger. What if I buy a Great Hall and a Copper. Am I covered, or do I need to buy three separate cards?
Crossbow
$4 - Action
+1 Card
+1 Action
+1 Buy
+$1
Discard a card.
--
When you gain this, if at least one supply pile is empty, you may put this on your deck.
Oasis:Crossbow::Peddler:Market
Except for that topdecking clause.
I guess it seems OK.
Defender
$3 - Action-Victory
+1 Action
+1 Buy
--
Worth 1 VP
--
When you buy this, if this is the first card bought this turn, +1 Buy.
I guess it's OK.
Surround
$4 - Action-Duration
+1 Buy
+$1
--
At the end of your Buy phase, set aside one card from your deck for every unused buy face down. At the start of your next turn, put them into your hand.
Seems OK.
Xenophobe
$6 - Action
+1 Buy
+$5
Discard 3 cards or 1 [This Card].
Wow, um. I don't know. +$5 is quite a lot. Discard 3 is quite a lot too.
Street Racer
$2 - Action
+1 Buy
All players (including you) reveal a card from their hand. All cards revealed this way cost $1 less this turn, but not less than $0.
--
If you did not buy any copies of the revealed cards, you may put this card on top of your deck.
Too difficult to track, I think. Gotta remember what was revealed and what was not. And do duplicates reduce cost by more than $1?
Road Runner
$5 - Action
+2 Actions
+3 Buys
--
In games using this, when you trash a Fool's Gold, you may gain an [This Card].
--
Setup: Add Fool's Gold as an extra Kingdom card pile.
Sounds decent.
Star Raiders
$2 - Action
+1 Action
+1 Buy
--
While this is in play, when you buy a card, gain a card costing exactly $2 more.
--
When you discard this from play, trash it if you have any unused Buys.
Hard to judge. Gaining a card that costs MORE seems dangerously good. OTOH, it will often force you to pick up extra junk if you don't want to lose this card.
Quadrun
$6 - Action
+1 Buy
Trash any number of differently named cards from your hand. +$2 for each card trashed.
Seems OK. I think this might work just fine at $5.
Space Invaders
$6 - Action
Reveal an Action card from your hand, play it up to three times.
If you play it once: +1 Buy, +$3.
If you play it twice: +1 Action, +1 Card, +$1.
If you play it thrice: trash the Action card.
So strong. Too strong, I think. Note that if you play the other action only once, you get an effect that is already worth $6 on its own. It is tempered in that (presumably) you don't get any bonus if you don't have another action to play. But dang, this is really, really powerful.
E.T.
$5 - Action-Reaction
+1 Card
+1 Action
+1 Buy
--
When you buy a card you may discard this. If you do, +$3.
Probably OK. I find it difficult to judge powerful reactions like this. I wonder if this could be cheaper -- compare with Market Square. The only difference is the price and the reaction. Is this reaction so much better? Probably -- easier to trigger, at least. Hm.
Missile Command
$3 - Action
+1 Action
Choose one: +2 Cards and discard 2 cards; or +1 Card, +1 Buy.
Probably OK. Choose between weaker Warehouse or Market Square.
Galaxian
$4 - Action
+2 Cards
+1 Buy
Discard 2 cards. Reveal your hand. If you have 2 or less treasures in it, +$3 and gain a silver.
Two or FEWER. Grammar, people! (I make this mistake a lot and one friend never lets me get away with it.)
I'm trying to figure out how often you can get the +$3 to trigger. +2 cards leaves you with a hand of 6, then you discard two, leaving you with a hand of 4. Early game you probably have a decent shot of leaving yourself with 2 Copper, 2 Estate. So then you have $5 to spend plus you gain a Silver. That seems really good to me.
Hmm... might be OK anyway. I think I'd like it more if it didn't also gain Silver.
Moon Patrol
$3 - Action
+1 Buy
Discard any number of cards. For each card discarded this way, +1 Card, +1 Action.
Much better than Cellar, but it does cost more. Hmm. I think this is OK. In general, this is just a way to get a bucketload of extra actions. Might need to be $4, but I think it's OK to start testing at $3.
Human Cannonball
$4 - Action
+1 Card
+1 Action
+1 Buy
Choose one: Put a Coin token on your [This Card] mat; or remove any number of Coin tokens and get +$1 per removed token.
Aha. This reminds me so, so much of my $2 card submission. It reminds me of the original concept, in fact, before I did some tweaking. And I will indeed expound on this.
A while back, I thought it would be interesting if a set of cards used
shared tokens. The best concept card I came up with was one that would exchange those tokens for +$1. That's how I eventually created my $2 Card submission, Plunder.
By the name "Plunder" you might surmise that it relates to Pirate Ship. And so it did. The original concept used Coin tokens as well, with the intent that it could combo with PS. This is also why I made the token return worth $2, because otherwise it was always better NOT to return the tokens, because Pirate Ship was worth just as much without powering itself down.
But I didn't keep it on Coin token. Why did I change it? Look at the wording for Pirate Ship. It says, "+$1 per Coin token
you've taken with Pirate Ships this game".
The implications are subtle, but important.
First, since it specifies tokens "taken with Pirate Ships", it means that Coin tokens gained by some other means (like a fan card) would not count towards Pirate Ship. This already makes tracking difficult, as you have to keep some of your Coin tokens separate.
Second, since it specifies "tokens taken" and not "tokens you have", it means that Coin tokens removed by some other means (like a fan card) do not change the amount that PS produces. Losing tokens doesn't change how many you've taken! So that confounds tracking even more.
Anyway, I am slightly miffed at how similar this card is to my own earlier concept, so I probably won't vote for it. I do realize, of course, that this concept is simple enough that independent minds could easily come up with it, so no cries of copying. The designer didn't think enough about the implications of using Coin tokens though!
Gravitar
$3 - Action
+2 Buys
Gain a Silver.
--
While this card is in play, when you buy a Victory card, +$3.
Probably fine.
Ikari Warriors
$5 - Action-Attack
+1 Buy
+$3
Discard one card; if you do, each other player gains a Curse card.
--
While this is in play, if you buy an Attack card; play it immediately.
Terminal Gold is too strong for $5. Then this has +Buy to boot. Discarding a card might be enough to temper it (HT discards 2 but it only costs $4, plus it has the reaction). But then this will Curse others as well? Way too good. And then the "while in play" just kicks it up even higher.
Too strong. Too strong.
Joust
$4 - Action
+1 Buy
You may put a Victory card from your hand on top of your deck. If you do, +$3.
I think this is usually inferior to Baron. Both will only give you money if you can draw it with a Victory card. Baron is stricter, but for the early game it makes no difference. Baron does not harm your next turn, whereas this does. Baron gives more money. If you don't draw the VP card, Baron gains you an Estate while Joust does not -- and this can be a point for Joust (really want +Buy, don't want junk) though it is sometimes a point for Baron (late game tie-breaking).
Might be OK anyway.
Vanguard
$4 - Action
+1 Buy
--
While this is in play, when you buy a card, gain a Gold if you have no Treasures in play. Otherwise, gain a Silver if you have no Golds in play.
I don't really like this. I think it may be too powerful that you can use this to gain two Gold before the second reshuffle (albeit you have to buy two Coppers as well). I don't want to crunch the numbers though.
It can also gain Silvers lightning fast, and Silver gaining is pretty strong on its own.
Author
Topic: Mini-Set Design Contest, Challenge #17: +Buy! (Read 44613 times)