Thursday 20 March 2014

Dominion - Potion Cards

Alchemy is undoubtedly the most controversial expansion in Dominion, no doubt due to the awkward nature of the Potion cost cards. All of what follows is my humble opinion, on Potion cost cards from a design perspective.

Because each Potion cost card (hereafter PCC) may end up being the only PCC on a given board, it is understood that every potion card should be able to stand on its own as a worthy addition to a deck. However, this means that unless you plan on buying many copies of it, you have introduced an otherwise worthless potion card into your deck for a single PCC. This is bad, so logic follows that any PCC you get, you should want several copies of. What follows in turn, is that the PCC should therefore be a valuable or integral part of your deck.

I think Alchemist demonstrates this perfectly; mediocre by himself, but incredibly powerful with enough of them. Indeed, most good PCCs define the deck they are put in. It is my opinion that self-synergy should be a common feature among PCCs.

As a side note, it is also my opinion that a certain self-synergizing card would be better off requiring a potion:
Like Alchemist, Minions have incredible self-synergy, and define almost any deck they are a part of. They are powerful to the point that they almost cannot be ignored on most boards that they are a part of, and I believe that integrating a Potion into its cost would help make this more of a strategic decision and less of a reflex.

The card that I have made that best demonstrates this behavior is Shaman, who can chain multiple copies from your discard pile to rack up coins.

I intend on adding more Potion cost cards to my fan expansion, and I will be following the design principles outlined here.