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[Diving Pikachu]

EDIT MAR 26 11:58 PM: My even-newer-than-what-was-previously-the-newest Courier (version 3.5, like the one true edition of D&D) is now here in Blue. Ignore the rest of this OP, for it's not that relevant anymore. See my latest post for comments.

EDIT NOV 12 4:59 PM: All text from the first edit which is now irrelevent will be now struck-through. See my absolute newest post for the reasoning behind Courier 3.0

EDIT OCT 31 12:50 AM: All old and irrelevant text now hidden by spoiler bars. See my newest post for more info, but please read the edits to this post as well!

Courier $6 (Even Newer!)
(Action)

+1 Card
+1 Action

You may reveal 1 Action or Treasure from your hand. If you do, gain any card costing no more $ than it does, and place both cards at the bottom of your deck.
***

I'm putting together the beginnings of an expansion which focuses upon future draws and shuffle/discard/deck interactions. This is the weirdest card I have so far a much more transparent card now, yay! and it's a bit difficult to analyze, so I turn to you But I'd still like your input.

Courier $6 [Newest!]
(Action)

+1 Card
+1 Action

You may reveal 1 Action or Treasure from your hand. If you do, gain any card costing less than it and place both cards at the bottom of your deck.
***

Courier $4 (New!)
(Action)
+1 action
At the start of your buy phase, gain a card costing less than the action you have in play which costs the most coins. Place the gained card at the bottom of your deck.
***


Old Courier $4
(Action)
+1 action
At the end of your action phase, gain a card costing less than the action you have in play which costs the most coins. After you gain that card, if your deck or your discard pile has two or fewer cards, you may put the gained card on top of your deck.
***

I've gone through the various scenarios involved in a (New) Courier opening, and found that if it hasn't been drawn or revealed dead in turn 3, it will give you an extra $3 card that you are guaranteed to see in turn 5, along with 2-4 cards from the reshuffle. Of course, improbable interactions with Loan or opponents' attacks might possibly make the gained $3 card available turn 4, or even delay it to turn 6, but worrying about that's like worrying about the opponent(s) poorly timing Noble Brigand or Fortune Teller, or the occasional 5-2 split in a Mountebank game.

However, if you open Chancellor-Courier, and turn 3 draw both Chancellor and Courier, you could see your extra $3 card with 4 cards of the reshuffle on turn 4. A neat little improbable trick that shouldn't break the game, because even if you get gold, you're at the beginning of a fresh draw and will still have to wait.

Since $5 actions are usually the most powerful ones you play, this amounts to an ironworks-ish effect, and $3-4 cards are usually not ones you want to accumulate too many of. At the same time, this card will increase in strength when you start playing $5, $6, or $7 actions. And when you approach the dreaded reshuffle of a heavily-greened deck in the late game, if you have been playing this card, it will reinforce your first hand so that you can hopefully maintain your momentum. And if you've built such a powerful engine that you're drawing your whole hand each turn... Well, you're probably already doing well for yourself, so it hopefully isn't too broken.

Random notes:

A) This card makes it important to note when your deck has 0 cards... Technically you only reshuffle when there's 0 cards left and you need to draw more, but people IRL might take a shortcut and reshuffle when they reach exactly 0... Might be a problem...

B) I worded this card to be clear about interactions with potion costs. You can't gain any potion-costing cards if your most coins-costing card the card you put back didn't cost a potion as well. But if you played put back a Golem (and no actions costing $5 or more), you can gain an Alchemist. And if you played put back even a Scrying Pool, you can gain a Vineyards(!)...

C) Chancellor FTW!

[biopower]

I feel like this is somewhat swingy in the Turn 3-4 range. A person who plays Courier Turn 3 can get a Topdeck silver Turn 4, which could translate to a Gold buy Turn 4 before the reshuffle. In contrast, someone who plays Courier Turn 4 can only Topdeck a silver Turn 5, which means even if they could buy a Gold it misses the shuffle.

[Diving Pikachu]

I feel like this is somewhat swingy in the Turn 3-4 range. A person who plays Courier Turn 3 can get a Topdeck silver Turn 4, which could translate to a Gold buy Turn 4 before the reshuffle. In contrast, someone who plays Courier Turn 4 can only Topdeck a silver Turn 5, which means even if they could buy a Gold it misses the shuffle.

Hmm... I see your point. Perhaps I can avoid that by making this a $3 card. That way, such a scenario would only transpire if you get both Courier and your $4 action on the third turn... Few people would want to rely on such chances for a card which in most cases will net them a $2 card if they opened with it, and therefore wait until they get more $5 and $4 actions.

[rinkworks]

Is the conditional top-decking important?  I'm not sure I understand the design rationale for that.  There's also the nitpick that you're technically not allowed to count your deck or discard pile during the game, so, while seeing if either contain "2 or fewer" is probably self-evident without "counting," it's still, I suppose, technically against the rules to make that determination.

Not that any given card can't explicitly allow you to count your deck or discard pile.  Philosopher's Stone does this.  But there should be a good reason to have that extra step/complication.  I may well be missing something, but I'd want to test a version that never top-decks, and one that always top-decks, and see if either of those alternatives suffice.

That aside, I really like this.  It's not so powerful that you can get extra Minions out of a Minion deck, for example, and it won't help you build up Festival/Library either.  But if you have an engine made up of differently-costed components (e.g., Village/Torturer, or Fishing Village/Wharf), it lets you stock up on the cheaper components.  That's pretty cool.  Overlaps Border Village territory, but not so much that this card won't have its own unique interactions.  I also like how, during the greening stage, it might be good for Duchies, depending on what kind of engine you have, or maybe just for Estates.  Love the Potion-cost thing, too.

[Diving Pikachu]

I was (and still am) pretty sure that unconditional top-decking is far too powerful for a $4 card, especially when coupled with the scalability of Courier's gaining power. But when I made Courier, I still wanted to include the future draws-maintenance involved in top-decking. I just needed to temper it somehow. Right now, I'm very much satisfied with bottom-decking. There's an improvement to the card's elegance in that I can give the option unconditionally, as you don't always reap the benefits the following turn. In fact, as the game draws on and your deck grows, you reap the benefits of bottom-decking less and less often. Yet the more you can play this card per shuffle, the better hands you can end up with at the end of it. (A prime opportunity for Scheme?)

Anyways, this was completely unintentional at first, but with bottom decking, Courier's now essentially giving you a parcel of goodies that's waiting for you at the bottom of the deck. I'm happy that a once-far-fetched name is now so apt! And this end-deck parcel becomes a notable element of the game, in and of itself. For one, it's definitely vulnerable to your opponents' devices. They'll note every time you play Courier, and greedily watch your deck as it dwindles closer to that sweet juicy cache at the end. And then, BAM, they target it with Pirate Ship or Jester... Or perhaps they Minion, Masquerade, or Torture it away once it's in your hand. Or even knock it all out with Rabble or Tribute or Fortune Teller (giving a different dimension to FT's attacks, for sure). You too can use this info to your advantage, by more boldy Warehousing or Cellaring or Inning to the good stuff you know you have. Perhaps Treasure Map will become a more respectable, less chancy option on a board with Courier? And of course, the once-humble Pearl Diver will now actually become a part of a viable strategy.

Anyways, Rinkworks, I should have knocked out your concerns with Old Courier--especially concerning the counting--because eyeballing the deck should be sufficient for both the Courier-user and his opponents, and if he really needs to time something precisely, counting the deck is actually allowed, while counting the discard isn't.

And Biopower's important note about Old Courier's swingy potential on turn 3 has made me doubly happy that a New Courier opening should normally get you the silver on turn 5, whether you draw Courier on turn 3 or 4.

[Diving Pikachu]

Upon further examination, this card seems underpowered. Rarely would getting a few extra $2-3 cards help anybody, and that's what you'll mostly be doing, even after you get your $5 action. Even worse, every play of this card would actually prolong the amount of time between shuffles, so that your prized $5 actions would be more difficult to trot out. So not only are you decreasing your refresh rate, but you are making it rarer for you to gain the $4 cards that that are so easy for a workshop or ironworks to get in comparison. Here's a third version of Courier that I think should be more viable (and spot on for flavor, to boot):

Courier $6
(Action)

+1 Card
+1 Action

You may reveal 1 Action or Treasure from your hand. If you do, gain any card costing less than it and place both cards at the bottom of your deck.
***

[Diving Pikachu]

Sorry if anyone sees bumping a dead thread as breach of etiquette, but it would be quite silly to make a whole new topic for a simple update:

It turns out this card just isn't as sexy as I once thought. This card only reaps worthwhile benefits when you delay plays of expensive (and usually crucial) actions/treasures--and players are really averse to the risk involved in sending these prized assets to the bottom of the deck, just to gain weaker cards in return. In this case, a bird in the hand really is worth two in the bush. So many attacks and deck-interacting cards can make players miss draws of the deck-end "parcels" which Courier accumulates. This card definitely flounders in the presence of Minion, Rabble, Jester, and sometimes even Pirate Ship. Masquerade is also a huge liability. So far, I'm not sure if it's being underrated or if it's just underpowered. Perhaps I should consider a variation that lets you gain cards worth +$1 to the card you send to the bottom of the deck?

Courier $6 (Even Newer!)
(Action)

+1 Card
+1 Action

You may reveal 1 Action or Treasure from your hand. If you do, gain any card costing no more $ than it does, and place both cards at the bottom of your deck.
***

This makes $5 villages a lot more relevant, especially when a powerful $5 terminal is on the board. But if all the $5's are terminals--even strong ones--then the liability of almost guaranteed clashing terminals would be an interesting obstacle. If you've got this situation plus Chancellor on the board, then Chancellor actually becomes pretty useful. Courier 3.5 would definitely accelerate City rushes, especially since unactivated Cities are merely the equivalent of Villages; sending a City in your hand to the bottom of the deck, in order to get another one, is not a hard decision at all... Courier 3.5+Scheme+IGG+good deck cycling would probably ruin friendships.

I'm a bit worried about Courier 3.5 + Lab... There's absolutely no downsides to a nice cache of Labs at the bottom of the deck. I'm not so worried Courier 3.5 + Minion, however. Minion's a strong, spammable nonterminal $5, but an opponent could easily Minion away your own bottom-decked Minions before you get a chance to use them. Highway would gain no benefit whatsoever from this card, either.

Anyways, the presence of this card would definitely encourage Duchy rushes. It would enable them by depleting piles ands providing a means to grab Duchies. It won't make Provinces any easier to get except with Peddlers or Platinums in play.