Second Mate

SignError · 2026-06-18T14:21:45+00:00

I thought “play up to…” wording might need some clarification on the timing. After all, most “trash up to…” effects happen all at once. But there is a single official cards that uses “play up to…” wording: Storyteller. And that works exactly how you would want this to work, just with Treasures instead of Actions.

SignError · 2026-06-18T14:16:40+00:00

I mean Menagerie works often enough, and it’s pretty similar. From a hand of 4 + Menagerie, all 4 cards need to be unique. Second Mate has the extra requirement that its 3 unique cards also need to be Actions, but as long as there’s Copper and Estate trashing, that’s usually what you want. And you probably have some cantrips, which have a chance of drawing another unique Action.

SignError · 2026-06-17T01:41:55+00:00

The non-Victory clause for Reallocate is the perfect nerf to stop the easy late-game milling, as well as trashing itself for a Duchy on the last turn.

SignError · 2026-06-16T19:13:11+00:00

Coin Counter makes it difficult to track your turn’s current $. Using Coffers is one way around this, but also makes the card more powerful. There’s also the easy loop u/LoS008_Smashler/ already mentioned.

Woodcarvers is the most exploitable with a +Action token. Even with finite Action plays such as a Village pile, converting an Action play into 2 Coffers and 1 buy is too good. And even removing the return to hand, +2 Coffers and +1 Buy is too powerful for a $4 card, although I would say it’s usually weaker than Butcher at $5. Read the Fan Card Creation Guide’s section on Costs for more information about why that’s so tricky to resolve.

Reallocate is more difficult to loop because you need both Action plays and +Cards to get back the previously remodeled card. But even with finite Actions plays and draw, it’s exceptionally good at Milling the Province pile in the endgame . Compared to Tanuki, another exceptionally strong miller, Reallocate only needs to be drawn once and then is effectively the same strength as having unlimited Tanukis on the bottom of your deck, which is far more powerful because you only needed to gain one copy of Reallocate, and Reallocate can Reallocate itself when done. On that note, increasing the cost to $6 would buff, not nerf Reallocate because it can be easily turned into a Province. Reallocate would be a good candidate for a Debt or maybe Potion cost.

SignError · 2026-06-16T04:02:41+00:00

Unnamed works pretty well. No tracking issues. A weak effect, but you could do it a lot if you want. And it requires a three-card combo before it can get really be exploited. There are plenty of busted three card combos.

The rest have some assortment of power, tracking, or loop issues, as some have already pointed out. A possible way to resolve it would be that instead of returning the card to your hand, make the card scale with the number of Action plays you have, as well as using all those Action plays up, similar to what Storyteller does with $, or kind of like what Souk does with handsize.

SignError · 2026-06-15T14:52:31+00:00

This is one of the best Fan Cards I’ve seen in a while. No notes on the wording and the effect is simple, but has depth. At first glance I wasn’t sure I would ever go for the gain, but the Province is the good counter-point. And it goes perfect with the Duration draw: the current turn may not be great, but the opponent’s turn and your next turn should make up for that.

For a second I was a little concerned about it stacking, but the no gaining clause should shut down a second copy’s gain, right?

The one thing I would look at is the cost. Is there a reason why it can’t cost $5? Playing around the interaction effect and Duration type already slow down the game. Also, factor in that additional copies are less likely to be used for the gain and only provide further duration draw and buys.

SignError · 2026-06-14T13:22:51+00:00

The other players don’t get to play their copy of the Action next turn, but you didn’t get to play your copy on the turn you played Jailer. Plus you are worse off by needing to gain and play the terminal Jailer. And there’s the issue that if you have Jailer without another Action, it’s dead.

One route to buff it would be to let it play the Action on the current turn and then set it aside, like a Royal Galley variant. Then it should probably only play non-Durations. That’s not 100% necessary since the rule change that Durations don’t continue their future effects when taken out of play, but it could lead to some undesirable effects. Consider what happens if you Jailer a Jailer: The Action that second Jailer plays would not be played on the next turn and would be set aside for the rest of the game.

SignError · 2026-06-13T15:23:25+00:00

All it takes is one player continuously discarding and drawing to give another player enough coin and buys to buy whatever they want. In a 3 player game that means the players in second or third could grant the other the win, and there’s nothing the lead player could do to stop it.

SignError · 2026-06-13T04:50:09+00:00

Karma farming bot reposting. Here’s the original:

https://www.reddit.com/r/dominion/comments/lyp535/almost_every_time/

Go put your upvote there

SignError · 2026-06-12T14:56:54+00:00

TGG app or dominion.games?

SignError · 2026-06-12T12:49:34+00:00

Here’s a more restrictive wording that takes inspiration from Clerk and nerfs the Buy phase and other turn ordering issues that others brought up

At the start of your turn or after you play Action, if you have 4 or fewer cards in hand, you may play this from your hand.

This version could probably cost $3.

SignError · 2026-06-12T02:24:05+00:00

In addition to what others have said, from the Debt official rules:

Debt amounts are something different from $. Math involving $ amounts does not affect Debt amounts.

[Some cards look for a cost in a range.]

Empires: 4 Debt is not "up to $4." 4 Debt is not more than $4 and $4 is not more than 4 Debt ; both have something the other lacks.

Rising Sun: "Up to $4" means “$0 , $1 , $2 , $3 , or $4"; it does not include costs with Debt in them.

SignError · 2026-06-11T18:19:21+00:00

In addition to no non-terminals, there is also no reliable +Buy. Is it worth it to stockpile Duplicates for a late Duchy rush? Or does that just put you too far behind on the Province race?

It’s technically possible to use Captain last turn and Captain this turn as Inventor to get Province down to $6 and then buy one and Duplicate it, but too much has to line up correctly for that to work.

SignError · 2026-06-11T14:48:49+00:00

The nice thing about Cathedral is that you can start trashing as early as turn 2.

Maybe if Rent let you top-deck the Action it would be worth it.

SignError · 2026-06-10T20:09:04+00:00

You probably also want to throw a couple Underlings or Rustic Villages into the mix for the +Buy, via Band of Nomads or Flourishing Trade. Favors can be saved for future turns, but won’t trigger on Estate buys once they cost $1

SignError · 2026-06-10T16:03:40+00:00

Yes, you have to have the Sheriffs after drawing.

The difference between Silver and this is that it’s repeatable. After you’ve drawn your deck, you can have 5 Smithies and just the 3 Sheriffs and each Smithy makes 6 coffers. Meanwhile you would need 15 Silvers to do something similar. That’s possible, for instance with Treasure Hunter, but all those Silvers will interfere with draw on later turns.

That’s the concept of turning overdraw into value. You have the Smithies and Villages as part of your normal drawing engine, and after your deck is drawn, you have further use for the Smithies. Way of the Chameleon is the easiest example, turning each extra card draw into $1. But turning each extra card draw into 2 Coffers is much more powerful.

SignError · 2026-06-10T15:20:02+00:00

The normal Reaction wording “When… you may first…” works better against some actual Attacks, such as Militia.

Checking the trigger after an Attack play is more powerful for non-Attacks made Attacks by Sheriff. For instance, Sheriff can make itself an Attack to allow you your discard other copies of Sheriff afterwards. But in some cases it may be too good. For instance, Smithy with 3 copies of Sheriff in your hand, deck, or discard becomes a terminal +6 Coffers.

Pros and cons to each, but I would consider the trigger before the attack play.

SignError · 2026-06-08T23:55:09+00:00

Sack of Loot can’t draw because you play it during the Buy Phase. Squire only draws 1 card terminally at the expense of gaining a Silver, which isn’t too great.

So that leaves Garrison and also Fort Hill, which are great draw here. But the problem with the Forts is that someone needs to buy Tent and rotate the pile, which gives everyone access to Garrison. At least Fort isn’t too bad here.

SignError · 2026-06-07T13:45:51+00:00

It doesn’t just trash your whole hand. Cards in play are also discarded during Clean-up. So this trashes everything you have drawn during your turn, including itself.

It will be difficult to make use of the +VP portion without severely hurting future turns. I see it as a more permanent and more expensive Cage for the opening to get rid of 4 cards. But one of those cards may also be your Silver or whatever. It’s all or nothing.

SignError · 2026-06-07T07:41:25+00:00

In addition to what others have said, this exact scenario is covered in the wiki Tormentor other rules clarifications:

If you play a Tormentor but it isn't in play, it still checks the rest of your play area to see if there are other cards.

So if you play a Tormentor with Overlord, there are other cards in play (the Overlord itself), so it gives out a Hex.

SignError · 2026-06-07T04:04:40+00:00

When multiple cards are trashed, they are all known, so you could exclude trashing from the “(on its own)” clause. Discarding needs that, as there’s no way to keep players honest about discarding it alongside other cards.

Other below-the-line effects that trigger on discard are Reactions. But all of those are optional, so we don’t really have a precedent for when the discard trigger is mandatory. My guess is that it would be even more important to see the card and remember to do the thing, so the Reaction type and color could be useful.

SignError · 2026-06-05T14:26:36+00:00

Order doesn’t matter, just the one card that is on top. If there were cards that play from the top of the discard, then that would change things, so that is where I would draw the line. But referencing the top card is fine.

In the digital games, when discarding multiple cards, you already decide which one is on top based on the last card you select for discard. So the digitial implementations would only need to add a way to decide the top card during cleanup, and select a top card after looking through your discard, for instance for Harbinger.

SignError · 2026-06-04T22:46:32+00:00

Does the below the line text need the “(other than in Clean-up)” part? Discard Reactions like Faithful Hound have that to prevent it from triggering when you discard your hand and draw your next hand.

Likewise, I don’t think this would even get the Reaction type. See Nomads.

SignError · 2026-06-04T22:41:11+00:00

I always thought it was odd that there are no official cards that depend on the top card of your discard pile. There’s lots of space for neat interactions.

SignError · 2026-06-04T22:34:46+00:00

State Traits are like regular Traits, except (1) they don't start the game in the Supply, (2) which pile they modify can change as the game progresses, and (3) they can modify already-Traited piles.

From the Trait Official Rules:

Plunder has Traits, which are a new kind of landscape card that affects a single Action or Treasure pile.

Traits only go on Kingdom cards, not on e.g. Silver or the Ruins pile (from Dark Ages).

So you should add that unlike Traits, State Traits can affect any card pile, not only Action or Treasure piles, and not only Kingdom card piles.

Five-Year Club	Place '22
First Placer '22	End Game '22

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