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[sudgy]

Edit: I'm changing these while refining them, if you want the original card ideas, look at the replies when they quote the old version.

So in my mind I've thought up a few random ideas...  I was just wanting to post them here for feedback/suggestions on names and costs (or anything else...). (Sorry if people have already thought of one, I don't want to look through pages of text)

Medium:
Type: Action - Attack
Cost: 4
+1 Card
If there are Curses left in the supply, choose one: +1 Action, +1VP, and gain a Curse, putting it into your hand; or each other player gain a Curse and +1VP.  If there are no Curses left in the supply, +1 Action, +$1.

The uses may not be apparent at first, but if you can trash it (or use a watchtower) you can get rid of the Curse to get one VP (that's why it goes into your hand).  And, if there's no trashing, give it to your opponents to clutter their deck.

Traveling Merchant
Action
Cost: $2
+1 Card
+1 Action
When you play this, return it to the supply.
--------
When you buy this, if you have not bought a Traveling Merchant this turn, choose one: +$3; or, +2 Buys, +$1

This basically allows you to turn an extra buy into +$1, or extra coins into +Buys.  The "if you have not bought a Traveling Merchant this turn" is so you can't piledrive them.  It would make something like the Woodcutter a lot better...

Graveyard
Type: Victory
Cost: 5
Worth 1VP per 2 Curses you have in your deck.

You could buy all the Curses (or better yet, get them through the Medium), a bunch of these, and get a fair amount of VP.

[These were made after the first post]

[some card]
Action
$2P
+2 Cards
Choose one: +$2; or, +P

This all stemmed from wanting something with +potions, I realized it would have to cost some potions and still be a pretty good card without it.

[Archetype]

Medium:
Types: Action - Attack
Cost: Maybe 3?
+1 Card, +1 Action
Choose one: Gain a Curse, putting it into your hand.  If you do, +1VP; or each other player gains a Curse.  If they do, they get +1VP.

I really like this one! I think $3 is a good price for it. I  would be worried about Watchtower/Medium openings, and then the luck of one player having them collide, and the other doesn't. But it should be fine, I think.

Traveling Merchant:
Type: Action
Cost: 2
+1 Card, +1 Action
        -----
When you buy this, +$4.

Balanced, but I would be hesitant about including this on the same board as Grand Market, Market, or really any card that allows chain able +$ and +Buy. The interaction would be cute, and probably not too big of a problem. This would be absolutely useless on a board without +Buy, that would be fine it's bonus wasn't +1 Card, +1 Action, but since it is... It should hopefully be fine though, the Conspirator/Peddler interaction should make up for it.

[Can't think of a card name]
Type: Victory
Cost: 3 or 4?
Worth 1VP per Curse you have in your deck.

Making it cost 5 as well as giving it a small bonus of some kind seems the best way to go with this.  Otherwise, it's a little bland. A good name for this would be Cemetery, Graveyard, etc.

Overall, some really cool cards you've come up with. I've created a card somewhat like the last one (though a lot of people here have too), but I've never really seen anything quite like the top two, especially the first one! That's a really innovative mechanic that I really want to test out in a real game.

[Tables]

Medium:
Types: Action - Attack
Cost: Maybe 3?
+1 Card, +1 Action
Choose one: Gain a Curse, putting it into your hand.  If you do, +1VP; or each other player gains a Curse.  If they do, they get +1VP.

The uses may not be apparent at first, but if you can trash it (or use a watchtower) you can get rid of the Curse to get one VP (that's why it goes into your hand).  And, if there's no trashing, give it to your opponents to clutter their deck.

This seems very powerful. It's Familiar but it'll give out 4-6 VPs before the curses run out. Most of the damage from curses is being in deck, not the -1VP, so this certainly seems worthy of being a $5 card. Also, this might work better if it used Ruins and not VP tokens, it just seems nicer. I don't think i would usually use the gain a curse option, unless I had say two or three of these in hand plus a good trasher.

Traveling Merchant:
Type: Action
Cost: 2
+1 Card, +1 Action
        -----
When you buy this, +$4.

This basically allows you to turn an extra buy into +$2.  It would make something like the Woodcutter a lot better...  It could also say "when you trash this, put it back in the supply" to keep them going longer, but I didn't want it to have too much stuff on it...

Such ideas have been considered... there's problems. The first is it's dead too often (Whenever there isn't +buy). So it should probably give +buy itself. The second is it's always available until it runs out, and +$2 is FAR better than +1 buy. And at $2, it's too easy to buy.

I think the first thing I would do is add a buy to this. Probably change the benefit to +$1, +1 buy. Then up the cost (and the buy bonus), say, make it cost $4, and buying it gives you +$5. Or maybe $5 and giving +$6. Now it's harder to set up for, but it self-synergises slightly (but... only into being a terminal silver, so maybe giving $2 more still, I dunno). Also, it makes it better for TFB, which is a pretty cool thing.

[Can't think of a card name]
Type: Victory
Cost: 3 or 4?
Worth 1VP per Curse you have in your deck.

You could buy all the Curses (or better yet, get them through the Medium), a bunch of these, and get a fair amount of VP.

I think ideas like this have been suggested. It's actually a viable idea. I would certainly cost it at $4 at minimum, and would consider $5 (you need stuff to grab these, but you also want to grab curses at some point, which will slow you down. This could also very easily be far better than Gardens or SR at $4). If you're uncontested on the curse pile, each of these can be worth 10VPs, relatively easily, which would make it far too strong at $4 (yes you lose 10VPs, but essentially you can think of that as your first one doing nothing). More in multiplayer. So in fact, I would even consider pricing it at $6. That might be too hard to get. But then you could modify it... perhaps make it an action-victory, giving... +1buy?

[Archetype]

Medium:
Types: Action - Attack
Cost: Maybe 3?
+1 Card, +1 Action
Choose one: Gain a Curse, putting it into your hand.  If you do, +1VP; or each other player gains a Curse.  If they do, they get +1VP.

The uses may not be apparent at first, but if you can trash it (or use a watchtower) you can get rid of the Curse to get one VP (that's why it goes into your hand).  And, if there's no trashing, give it to your opponents to clutter their deck.

This seems very powerful. It's Familiar but it'll give out 4-6 VPs before the curses run out. Most of the damage from curses is being in deck, not the -1VP, so this certainly seems worthy of being a $5 card. Also, this might work better if it used Ruins and not VP tokens, it just seems nicer. I don't think i would usually use the gain a curse option, unless I had say two or three of these in hand plus a good trasher.

It seems like it would be really strong, but is it? I mean, if they gain a bunch of curses, and there is a trasher on the board, they can just start mash trashing them, getting free VP in return. I think that if the card gave out Ruins instead of the 1 VP + Curse thing, it wouldn't be as cool.

[eHalcyon]

So in my mind I've thought up a few random ideas...  I was just wanting to post them here for feedback/suggestions on names and costs (or anything else...). (Sorry if people have already thought of one, I don't want to look through pages of text)

Welcome to the boards!  If you are interested in fan card design, I highly suggest this article by rinkworks.  It is probably a little bit out of date since the release of Dark Ages, but it is still a great foundation.

Medium:
Types: Action - Attack
Cost: Maybe 3?
+1 Card, +1 Action
Choose one: Gain a Curse, putting it into your hand.  If you do, +1VP; or each other player gains a Curse.  If they do, they get +1VP.

The uses may not be apparent at first, but if you can trash it (or use a watchtower) you can get rid of the Curse to get one VP (that's why it goes into your hand).  And, if there's no trashing, give it to your opponents to clutter their deck.

As Tables said, this is too strong in general.  -1VP does not hurt as much as the deck clogging, and this card would be extremely spammable since it is low cost and cantrip.  The early part of the game will almost always involve spamming this as much as possible, then rebuilding.

The specific use case you have in mind with Watchtower is interesting, but may not work as intended.  One thing to note is that the wording right now is ambiguous.  It is easy to read the first part of the text as requiring you to put the Curse in your hand.  If you trash the Curse with Watchtower, then the Curse never goes into your hand so the "if you do" doesn't trigger, meaning you don't get +1VP!  I'm sure that's not what you had in mind.

But actually, even with Watchtower, the stronger choice is to attack the opponent.  +1VP is not all that strong; clogging the opponent's deck is better.  But if THEY have Watchtower in hand, then you would be giving them free VP!  It makes it a card that you don't really want to play.

Traveling Merchant:
Type: Action
Cost: 2
+1 Card, +1 Action
        -----
When you buy this, +$4.

This basically allows you to turn an extra buy into +$2.  It would make something like the Woodcutter a lot better...  It could also say "when you trash this, put it back in the supply" to keep them going longer, but I didn't want it to have too much stuff on it...

I agree with Tables on this one, again.

[Can't think of a card name]
Type: Victory
Cost: 3 or 4?
Worth 1VP per Curse you have in your deck.

You could buy all the Curses (or better yet, get them through the Medium), a bunch of these, and get a fair amount of VP.

I disagree with Tables about this card.  I do not think a Curse-counting VP can ever be balanced.  There are several problems.

First, it destroys Cursing attacks.  If this card is available, why would anyone buy Witch?  Those Curses are actually helpful now!  But this is a minor issue.  There's nothing wrong with having a counter, right?

I think a bigger issue is that it would simply be too powerful.  In a 2p game, there are 10 Curses.  If one player does not contest, then the VP card will be worth a whopping 10VP.  Since Curses are free, both players have to go for them.

It gets crazier with more players, because the Curse pile changes size with different numbers of players.  When there are 30 Curses available (4p game), you really, really have no choice but to go after this card.  The lack of choice means that the card isn't so well designed.

The card is like Duke but for Curses.  Duke works because it counts Duchies, of which there is a fixed number (sort of) and which are themselves not trivial to purchase.  Curses are not a good target for counting.

That said, the idea is still interesting.  I think the best implementation I've seen of it didn't count 1-for-1, and it was a Prize instead of a regular card.  That way, the card doesn't completely negate Cursing attacks and it doesn't warp game strategy.

[sudgy]

Thanks for the feedback!

If you are interested in fan card design, I highly suggest this article by rinkworks.  It is probably a little bit out of date since the release of Dark Ages, but it is still a great foundation.

I've already read almost every article on the site...

Medium:
Types: Action - Attack
Cost: Maybe 3?
+1 Card, +1 Action
Choose one: Gain a Curse, putting it into your hand.  If you do, +1VP; or each other player gains a Curse.  If they do, they get +1VP.

The uses may not be apparent at first, but if you can trash it (or use a watchtower) you can get rid of the Curse to get one VP (that's why it goes into your hand).  And, if there's no trashing, give it to your opponents to clutter their deck.

This seems very powerful. It's Familiar but it'll give out 4-6 VPs before the curses run out. Most of the damage from curses is being in deck, not the -1VP, so this certainly seems worthy of being a $5 card. Also, this might work better if it used Ruins and not VP tokens, it just seems nicer. I don't think i would usually use the gain a curse option, unless I had say two or three of these in hand plus a good trasher.

The "gain a curse" option was if there were good trashers on the board so you wouldn't want to gain it into your hand.  I realize why it should probably cost more, and agree (but maybe not quite 5)

As Tables said, this is too strong in general.  -1VP does not hurt as much as the deck clogging, and this card would be extremely spammable since it is low cost and cantrip.  The early part of the game will almost always involve spamming this as much as possible, then rebuilding.

The cantrip was just to add something.  It could easily be changed.

The specific use case you have in mind with Watchtower is interesting, but may not work as intended.  One thing to note is that the wording right now is ambiguous.  It is easy to read the first part of the text as requiring you to put the Curse in your hand.  If you trash the Curse with Watchtower, then the Curse never goes into your hand so the "if you do" doesn't trigger, meaning you don't get +1VP!  I'm sure that's not what you had in mind.

I wasn't quite sure about the specifics about the Watchtower, is there any easy way to change it other than saying "If you use Watchtower..."

But actually, even with Watchtower, the stronger choice is to attack the opponent.  +1VP is not all that strong; clogging the opponent's deck is better.  But if THEY have Watchtower in hand, then you would be giving them free VP!  It makes it a card that you don't really want to play.

That's exactly the reason to gain the curse yourself.

Traveling Merchant:
Type: Action
Cost: 2
+1 Card, +1 Action
        -----
When you buy this, +$4.

This basically allows you to turn an extra buy into +$2.  It would make something like the Woodcutter a lot better...  It could also say "when you trash this, put it back in the supply" to keep them going longer, but I didn't want it to have too much stuff on it...

Such ideas have been considered... there's problems. The first is it's dead too often (Whenever there isn't +buy). So it should probably give +buy itself. The second is it's always available until it runs out, and +$2 is FAR better than +1 buy. And at $2, it's too easy to buy.

I think the first thing I would do is add a buy to this. Probably change the benefit to +$1, +1 buy. Then up the cost (and the buy bonus), say, make it cost $4, and buying it gives you +$5. Or maybe $5 and giving +$6. Now it's harder to set up for, but it self-synergises slightly (but... only into being a terminal silver, so maybe giving $2 more still, I dunno). Also, it makes it better for TFB, which is a pretty cool thing.

The way this card was made was a card that doesn't do anything except for when it's bought.  I could change the benefit to just +$1 coin extra instead of +$2 coins extra, but I could change the cost.  Also, I thought of a way to make it not be in your deck so much by adding after +1 Card +1 Action: "When you play this, return it to the supply."

Also, It could change to using up money for the +Buy...

[Can't think of a card name]
Type: Victory
Cost: 3 or 4?
Worth 1VP per Curse you have in your deck.

You could buy all the Curses (or better yet, get them through the Medium), a bunch of these, and get a fair amount of VP.

I think ideas like this have been suggested. It's actually a viable idea. I would certainly cost it at $4 at minimum, and would consider $5 (you need stuff to grab these, but you also want to grab curses at some point, which will slow you down. This could also very easily be far better than Gardens or SR at $4). If you're uncontested on the curse pile, each of these can be worth 10VPs, relatively easily, which would make it far too strong at $4 (yes you lose 10VPs, but essentially you can think of that as your first one doing nothing). More in multiplayer. So in fact, I would even consider pricing it at $6. That might be too hard to get. But then you could modify it... perhaps make it an action-victory, giving... +1buy?

I would maybe consider having it be $5 (but maybe less, see below).  I feel the strategy can be countered, however.  If you buy Curses first to get maximum points for them, you'll slow down your deck a lot.  If you buy these first, people will start buying curses to stop you.

I think a bigger issue is that it would simply be too powerful.  In a 2p game, there are 10 Curses.  If one player does not contest, then the VP card will be worth a whopping 10VP.  Since Curses are free, both players have to go for them.

I thought about that.  It could have a lower cost (maybe 3 or 4 still) and give you 1 VP for every two curses.  Or 2 VP for every three curses.  Something like that...  I'm not sure.

And I probably will name it Graveyard.

[ipofanes]

And I probably will name it Graveyard.

Scorched Earth, Badlands, Wasteland?

[AJD]

The specific use case you have in mind with Watchtower is interesting, but may not work as intended.  One thing to note is that the wording right now is ambiguous.  It is easy to read the first part of the text as requiring you to put the Curse in your hand.  If you trash the Curse with Watchtower, then the Curse never goes into your hand so the "if you do" doesn't trigger, meaning you don't get +1VP!

Not true. Watchtower reacts after the card has been gained to wherever it's going to go.

(Hmm, which means another not-keeping-you-honest potential cheating situation: if you gain something in hand and then reveal Watchtower to top-deck it, nothing's preventing you from cheating and top-decking a different card.)

[GendoIkari]

I wasn't quite sure about the specifics about the Watchtower, is there any easy way to change it other than saying "If you use Watchtower..."

Though AJD is right, and this card would still work, you actually don't need the "if you do" at all, I think. Without it, the only times it's different are after Curses have run out, and if you reveal a Trader (and during a possessed turn). Certainly allowing you to use it for a free +1 VP after Curses are gone is a boost to the card, but I don't think that alone would change it's power level a whole lot.

[sudgy]

I wasn't quite sure about the specifics about the Watchtower, is there any easy way to change it other than saying "If you use Watchtower..."

Though AJD is right, and this card would still work, you actually don't need the "if you do" at all, I think. Without it, the only times it's different are after Curses have run out, and if you reveal a Trader (and during a possessed turn). Certainly allowing you to use it for a free +1 VP after Curses are gone is a boost to the card, but I don't think that alone would change it's power level a whole lot.

I already thought about that, I didn't want a card that basically said "+1VP" and that was (basically) it.  I have thought of a better version though:

Medium
Type: Action - Attack
Cost: 4
+1 Card
If there are Curses in the supply, choose one: +1 Action, +1VP, and gain a Curse, putting it into your hand; or each other player gain a Curse and +1VP.  If there are no Curses in the supply, +1 Action, +$1.

I realized that stacking them and giving your opponents all the Curses was too much, but I still wanted you to be able stack them giving them to yourself (say you have a Chapel or something in your hand).  And the card could still be okay after the curses run out (maybe thematically, the Medium couldn't summon the spirit and gave you a refund?).  And it solves the problem with the Watchtower.

[Tables]

[Can't think of a card name]
Type: Victory
Cost: 3 or 4?
Worth 1VP per Curse you have in your deck.

You could buy all the Curses (or better yet, get them through the Medium), a bunch of these, and get a fair amount of VP.

I think ideas like this have been suggested. It's actually a viable idea. I would certainly cost it at $4 at minimum, and would consider $5 (you need stuff to grab these, but you also want to grab curses at some point, which will slow you down. This could also very easily be far better than Gardens or SR at $4). If you're uncontested on the curse pile, each of these can be worth 10VPs, relatively easily, which would make it far too strong at $4 (yes you lose 10VPs, but essentially you can think of that as your first one doing nothing). More in multiplayer. So in fact, I would even consider pricing it at $6. That might be too hard to get. But then you could modify it... perhaps make it an action-victory, giving... +1buy?

I would maybe consider having it be $5 (but maybe less, see below).  I feel the strategy can be countered, however.  If you buy Curses first to get maximum points for them, you'll slow down your deck a lot.  If you buy these first, people will start buying curses to stop you.
[/quote]

...If people are buying curses, then mission accomplished. They're wasting buys, losing VPs and clogging their decks. You have say two or three of this card, they have a ton of curses, you can just go for Provinces and they lose.

[sudgy]

[Can't think of a card name]
Type: Victory
Cost: 3 or 4?
Worth 1VP per Curse you have in your deck.

You could buy all the Curses (or better yet, get them through the Medium), a bunch of these, and get a fair amount of VP.

I think ideas like this have been suggested. It's actually a viable idea. I would certainly cost it at $4 at minimum, and would consider $5 (you need stuff to grab these, but you also want to grab curses at some point, which will slow you down. This could also very easily be far better than Gardens or SR at $4). If you're uncontested on the curse pile, each of these can be worth 10VPs, relatively easily, which would make it far too strong at $4 (yes you lose 10VPs, but essentially you can think of that as your first one doing nothing). More in multiplayer. So in fact, I would even consider pricing it at $6. That might be too hard to get. But then you could modify it... perhaps make it an action-victory, giving... +1buy?

I would maybe consider having it be $5 (but maybe less, see below).  I feel the strategy can be countered, however.  If you buy Curses first to get maximum points for them, you'll slow down your deck a lot.  If you buy these first, people will start buying curses to stop you.

...If people are buying curses, then mission accomplished. They're wasting buys, losing VPs and clogging their decks. You have say two or three of this card, they have a ton of curses, you can just go for Provinces and they lose.

They could also buy some graveyards too, though.

Edit: but then the curses would still slow them down, stopping them from buying Graveyards...  Although still, saying this card is overpowered because you could easily win with it is like saying Gardens is overpowered because a good Gardens player can usually beat a province player.  Graveyards would just change the strategy of the kingdom, just like Gardens do.  There probably would be a lot of counters to the Graveyard.

[Tables]

Gardens wins when there's good buy/gaining and rushing down three piles, so it's worth about 3 points each when the game ends early. This wins when there's basically any +buy, and is worth 10 points each at its current cost (and emptying Graveyard/Estate/Curse shouldn't be too taxing). We're comparing something which can end the game on its own in 16 turns with the right support and score 40, to something which can end the game with minimal support in 20 turns and score 70. If this appears with +buy, you would probably basically have to go for it, or have a strong engine.

[sudgy]

I think you should always go for gardens whenever the conditions are right.  Whenever conditions are right for the graveyard, you should go for them.  Also, I have changed the card to one VP for every two curses.  And you can still counter the graveyard.

[One Armed Man]

A Curse Victory thing from a while ago: http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=2338.msg36419#msg36419   BubbleBoy makes a prize that is worth 2VP for each curse and adds the trashed curses to the supply when gained. It works because you only play that card when there is another curser out (Followers) and you cannot make curses worth 7VP just by gaining a lot of the same card.

[sudgy]

Another thing I could maybe do is make another pile that's only in the game with them out (I don't really like this, but it might be the only thing to do).  Like just have a special card that is only out when the graveyard (or maybe a different name without curses) is out, worth 0 VP, and costs something.

The point of this card is to make something you don't want usually into something you do want.  Curses are the most obvious choice, but maybe I could make one for coppers worth $6 or $7 (so you can't buy it with just coppers) giving you 1VP for every 5 coppers in your deck or something.  But then again, you still can buy copper whenever you feel like it, so that might not work too.

[thirtyseven]

Medium:
Type: Action - Attack
Cost: 4
+1 Card
If there are Curses in the supply, choose one: +1 Action, +1VP, and gain a Curse, putting it into your hand; or each other player gain a Curse and +1VP.  If there are no Curses in the supply, +1 Action, +$1.

There are always Curses in the supply! Haha, I don't think anyone's mentioned that yet, and I'm surprised no one has....

[sudgy]

Medium:
Type: Action - Attack
Cost: 4
+1 Card
If there are Curses in the supply, choose one: +1 Action, +1VP, and gain a Curse, putting it into your hand; or each other player gain a Curse and +1VP.  If there are no Curses in the supply, +1 Action, +$1.

There are always Curses in the supply! Haha, I don't think anyone's mentioned that yet, and I'm surprised no one has....

Curses can run out.  When there are no curses left (after they are all in the trash or player's decks), there are no curses in the supply.

[thirtyseven]

Ah, right. Dang, wanted to be clever.

[sudgy]

Although I should maybe say "Curses left in the supply"...

[sudgy]

I thought of a couple more, I'll just put them here too.

[some name]
Action
$3
+2 Cards
You may choose an action card in your hand.  Play it and discard it.

I'm not sure how well it would work, or if it should be priced at $3, but in an engine it could be a somewhat good card.

[some] village (maybe something like Alchemist's village?)
Action
$3[potion]
+1 Card
+2 Actions
+1 Buy
+[potion]

This all stemmed from wanting something with +potions, I realized it would have to cost some potions and still be a pretty good card without it.

[eHalcyon]

I thought of a couple more, I'll just put them here too.

[some name]
Action
$3
+2 Cards
You may choose an action card in your hand.  Play it and discard it.

I'm not sure how well it would work, or if it should be priced at $3, but in an engine it could be a somewhat good card.

I feel like this could be broken, but no specific examples are coming to mind atm.  Hm.

[some] village (maybe something like Alchemist's village?)
Action
$3[potion]
+1 Card
+2 Actions
+1 Buy
+[potion]

This all stemmed from wanting something with +potions, I realized it would have to cost some potions and still be a pretty good card without it.

The general idea of having +P has been brought up before.  The main issue is that the +P is generally not useful.  Potion cards need to be strong enough that you would buy them without other Potion cards on the board.  +P is not really useful if there aren't other Potion cards on the board.  You had to buy a Potion to get one in the first place!  So this is something to think about when designing the card.

In this case, your card is Worker's Village with +P.  Potentially important if there are no other villages.  But WV generally outclasses it unless there are other Potion cards you really want.

I think it might be interesting to test it at a cheaper price.  Maybe $2P, maybe even $1P or just $P.  The idea would be that you invest in one Potion card to buy one of these "Alchemist's Village".  After that, it will be easy to get more AV since playing it gives both +P and +Buy.

The danger with this is that it could make it too easy to amass other Potion cards... especially Vineyard and Possession.

[LastFootnote]

[some name]
Action
$3
+2 Cards
You may choose an action card in your hand.  Play it and discard it.

This is basically a really cheap Laboratory that discards your next Action card from play so that you could potentially play it again in the same turn. It's definitely broken, no two ways about it.

[sudgy]

I thought of a couple more, I'll just put them here too.

[some name]
Action
$3
+2 Cards
You may choose an action card in your hand.  Play it and discard it.

I'm not sure how well it would work, or if it should be priced at $3, but in an engine it could be a somewhat good card.

I feel like this could be broken, but no specific examples are coming to mind atm.  Hm.

I already thought about how it could be broken, but you can only play each one onc-  !!!  Didn't think about throne room or king's court...  I guess it wouldn't work.  Oh well.  I guess I'll have to scratch that.

[some] village (maybe something like Alchemist's village?)
Action
$3[potion]
+1 Card
+2 Actions
+1 Buy
+[potion]

This all stemmed from wanting something with +potions, I realized it would have to cost some potions and still be a pretty good card without it.

The general idea of having +P has been brought up before.  The main issue is that the +P is generally not useful.  Potion cards need to be strong enough that you would buy them without other Potion cards on the board.  +P is not really useful if there aren't other Potion cards on the board.  You had to buy a Potion to get one in the first place!  So this is something to think about when designing the card.

I already thought about that too, I was thinking that it still would be fairly good without it...

In this case, your card is Worker's Village with +P.  Potentially important if there are no other villages.  But WV generally outclasses it unless there are other Potion cards you really want.

I think it might be interesting to test it at a cheaper price.  Maybe $2P, maybe even $1P or just $P.  The idea would be that you invest in one Potion card to buy one of these "Alchemist's Village".  After that, it will be easy to get more AV since playing it gives both +P and +Buy.

...but I was wondering if the price shouldn't be different.  I guess I'll change the card to $2P.  Also, I haven't been testing any of these since I only have three expansions (I only started playing the game a month or two ago, I'm getting them all one by one).  I was thinking of testing them when I finally have all the expansions.

The danger with this is that it could make it too easy to amass other Potion cards... especially Vineyard and Possession.

I also thought about that.  I realized that with Vineyards out, it basically could say "+1 Card, +2 Actions, gain a Vineyards."


All in all, I think the card could still be useful.  Some cards just aren't that useful at certain times.  Would you buy a scrying pool with barely any other +actions, no virtual coins, no trashing, and cursers out?  And when there aren't any other villages out, it could still be used.  I priced it higher because it could still be used really well with other potion cards out.  Too bad the card's price can't change depending on how many potion cards there are in the kingdom...

[DWetzel]

I thought of a couple more, I'll just put them here too.

[some name]
Action
$3
+2 Cards
You may choose an action card in your hand.  Play it and discard it.

I, um, Throne Room this and play an Ironworks, gaining a Throne Room with an empty deck.  Then the second time I draw Throne Room/Ironworks.  I gain a this and then an Estate or something.  Play another one of these... this isn't exactly right but it seems like you could mega-pileout pretty easily.

[eHalcyon]

The problem isn't that the card is only useful sometimes.  There are plenty of cards like that, and that's fine.  The concern and the thing that needs testing is how much it varies and under what circumstances.  Giving +P is probably way too strong with other potion cards (Possession especially) while giving +P is kind of useless if there are no potion cards you want.  A Worker's Village is a card you would usually be OK with stacking, so there's less fear of it being too weak, though it's actually quite expensive.  But really, it is the Possession case that is most worrying.  This card would make it simple to get lots of Possessions AND gives you the +actions to play multiples at once.  At least normally it's harder to get Possession.  With this card, it is much, much easier.

[sudgy]

I thought of a couple more, I'll just put them here too.

[some name]
Action
$3
+2 Cards
You may choose an action card in your hand.  Play it and discard it.

I, um, Throne Room this and play an Ironworks, gaining a Throne Room with an empty deck.  Then the second time I draw Throne Room/Ironworks.  I gain a this and then an Estate or something.  Play another one of these... this isn't exactly right but it seems like you could mega-pileout pretty easily.

I forgot about Throne Room when thinking of the card, I already got rid of it.

The problem isn't that the card is only useful sometimes.  There are plenty of cards like that, and that's fine.  The concern and the thing that needs testing is how much it varies and under what circumstances.  Giving +P is probably way too strong with other potion cards (Possession especially) while giving +P is kind of useless if there are no potion cards you want.  A Worker's Village is a card you would usually be OK with stacking, so there's less fear of it being too weak, though it's actually quite expensive.  But really, it is the Possession case that is most worrying.  This card would make it simple to get lots of Possessions AND gives you the +actions to play multiples at once.  At least normally it's harder to get Possession.  With this card, it is much, much easier.

Yeah, I see what you are saying.  I guess I'll have to wait until I can test it to see how good it works.  I could change the +2 Actions to something else though to make it harder to play multiple Possessions, but I know that wouldn't do much.

[sudgy]

I thought of a way to fix it!

[some card]
Action
$2P
+2 Cards
Choose one: +$2; or, +P

Of course, the other things could get changed, but I decided to get rid of the +action because you could easily stack these and get the $6P necessary for the possession pretty easily.

Also, I randomly thought of another version of the traveling merchant that might be better:

Traveling Merchant
Action
Cost: $2
+1 Card
+1 Action
When you play this, return it to the supply.
--------
When you buy this, if you have not bought a Traveling Merchant this turn, choose one: +$3; or, +2 Buys, +$1

I was wondering which one I should have it be, give you an extra buy or more coins, but I thought, why not do both?  The "if you have not bought a Traveling Merchant this turn" is to keep you from piledriving them all by repeatedly buying them and getting the extra buy, then the extra coin, etc.