As the subject line states, I'm starting to wonder how to use this new card, "Reap What's Sown." It's an X Cost Tactic that says, "ACTION: Each player with X or more total Developments may discard his hand and draw X cards." This leads to several questions:

1. What is the cost? Is there no Resource cost since the wording seems to imply that the cost is actually developments?

2. Can you utilize this card partially - so if you have 4 developments can you just tap into 3 developments to only draw 3 new cards?

3. Does your opponent, should he or she choose to use this power too, get to utilize this power free of charge or do they pay the resource cost associated with the developments?

I like the mindset behind a hand-renewal card but this one is simply too confusing and not worded clearly enough (for me - your mileage may vary).

1. The cost is anything you want, but you'll want to make it less or equal to the number of developments you have if you want to use it.

2. You are not tapping developments, you don't tap anything in this game. If you want to spend only 3 resources in your example, that's fine.

3. This is the risk of this card. If you do not have a development advantage and pay more than the number of developments your opponent has, he can use the tactic for free. Although, if he had a full hand and you only had that tactic left, I can see him passing on giving up his entire hand for a few cards.

It's a situational hand refresh. If you already have a lot of developments and not too many cards in your hand, it can be a great card draw tool, but your opponent can benefit from it as well if you're not careful.

Yeah, jeez ,wytefang, did you think this was Magic: The Gathering or something?

Anyway, yeah, this is a horrible card. It's kind of a reverse Innovation, turning barrels into cards, except it only works late in the game and forces you to chuck everything you've got, making it a dubious combo-helper. Empire is the only race that has a prayer of making it worthwhile, via City Gates. And they can squirrel away Verena as a development if they have Abandoned Mine. Still a long way from being good, IMO.

I respectfully disagree. This card has serious potential in a development heavy deck (dwarves). It allows you to concentrate on your kingdom and battlefield zones, while neglecting the quest zone. With dwarven potential at amassing resources, this card can be a great way to restock your hand quickly without needing massive power in your quest zone.

The advantages of Reap over playing stuff to Quest are: 1) the cards don't keep coming, so you're less likely to deck yourself; 2) you get the cards slightly faster; 3) your opponent can't play removal to stop you from getting the cards. The disadvantage is that you are paying way more per card than you would by putting hammers in Quest and you aren't getting any gamtext or hitpoints in your Quest. As a primary form of card-draw, it's not an option how are you going to draw it, or all those developments to fuel it? As a one-shot card to fill up your hand in the last turn or two, it's decent if you can afford to set X higher than your opponent's development total.

TheLawinator said:

#2 - Yes, I was fully aware of that - I've been playing the game since GenCon, after all. I simply used the word "Tap" descriptively, not to refer to a game mechanic.