142. Contraband
$5 Treasure: $3. +1 Buy. When you play this, the player to your left names a card. You cant buy that card this turn.
This is the first instance of a card ranked low not for "it sucks" but rather for "I just don't care for it." I'm not good at mind games, and I tend to shy away from games or mechanics that emphasize them. There's plenty of good with this card- there's almost always at LEAST two good options with two buys and lots of money, even if you can't get your first choice. It becomes a liability in the late game or if you're going for a very specific card for a certain strategy, and it suffers if there aren't any good cheap cards for a double buy, but even with those caveats....gold with a +buy tacked on, for $5. C'mon now.
It's just not my style. I can never think of a good ban (granted, I haven't really had this card played against me since my noob days) and neither do I feel comfortable using it effectively. My tendency is already towards wasting too much time screwing around with cheap cards, and I don't need more excuses to get more of them instead of provinces. And once you hit the late game green rush, it becomes a liability unless you can hit $10 with it and go for double Duchies. It's one of those cards that just makes me go :\ if I see it, but luckily, there are usually better options at $5 anyway.
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~Tommeri Uranius Bombaldi the Fourth, esq.
(aka not Krakenprophet)