A suggestion for fixing Autodraw follows, along with the reasoning behind it. Comments and criticism are welcome.

Premise

The purpose of Autodraw is to seamlessly provide the Domain you need so that you can play your cards.

Autodraw is not responsible for other benefits that your Domain cards incidentally provide. For example, it shouldn't cough up a Vapor Mahal just because you need a 2-vision building.

Observation

It seems to be impossible to create an automated system that caters to all needs. Every system suggested has been accused of invalidating the domain plan for someone's pet deck.
Barring mind reading software, it seems that some sort of in-game manual control is unavoidable.

However, it seems that most of the problems have to do with the basic buildings. Some decks just don't need basic buildings for some (or all) of their domains. Others (especially in limited formats) need them, but in a certain order.

Therefore, the solution will probably involve some sort of manual system for basic buildings, coupled with something resembling the current system for other domain cards.

However, the manual systems that have been proposed are too complex or cumbersome. Making an active decision each and every turn about which card to draw is unworkable. An on/off switch is not as bad, but will still overtax new players (besides, how do you indicate which domain building you want?). Ideally, the system should not involve any decisions about drawing.

The Proposal

There are no basic building cards.
In game, players have an eighth "virtual" basic building card. This card looks like other cards. It is highlighted if playable (i.e., 7 flux are available), and dimmed if not.
However, it is always in hand. It is never drawn, and is not discarded when used.

When playing this card, the player is prompted to select the domain, and then places the resulting basic building normally. Doing this causes the player to forfeit her next draw (so as not to generate a free card with each use).

Other domain cards are treated as they are today (if you have no playable domain card, you draw the next playable one in your deck).

Other Problems and Solutions

1. Unplayable domain cards: some cards are unplayable even if the necessary domain is available. For example, Vessel of Cathil needs a creature to enchant, and Astridian Diplomat needs a Base. These cards are considered "playable" by the current system, even when effectively they are not.

A possible solution is adding a "playability" clause to each such card. This clause does not need to be spelled out on the card: it is part of it's "autodraw/fated" keyword. For example, Vessel would only be autodrawn if you control a creature. Of course, these cards can still be randomly drawn (if they're on top of your deck) when those requirements are not met.

Of course, in specific cases, it will still be possible to draw an unplayable domain card (say, controlling one creature enchanted by Anti-Magic Shell, or controlling one base that's completely surrounded by water and figures). However, these situations are rare, and can be alleviated by cycling and by using the "basic building" feature. The playability clause will only address the most basic requirements.

2. Abuse of the Salvage mechanic:
(everything that follows is a bit of a tangent, and can be ignored if you're only interested in autodraw)

I've read complaints about players taking advantage of the endless stream of basic buildings. They spam those buildings, making it impossible to dislodge them from flux points, even with an overwhelming force (since a building that's immediately destroyed is effectively free).
I don't know if this is a real problem, but in any case, I think it has more to do with Salvage than with Autodraw. A possible fix is reducing the initial number of Salvage counters by 1 (for basic buildings only, or even for all Salvageable cards).

Other complaints relate to people playing Salvage creatures, and immediately sacrificing them or throwing them into combat. Sacrificing, in my opinion, should not trigger Salvage at all. The mechanic is supposed to alleviate destruction caused by opponents, not enable sacrifice at no cost. Combat is more tricky. A 1/4 creature is weak for 5 flux, but pretty good for 1 or 2 (because the rest are salvaged). Perhaps taking 1 Salvage counter off is a good idea here, too. In any case, this is again a problem with Salvage, not auto-draw.

I really like that your system, read it somewhere already, suggested it to jed already.
I'd do it just like is the current autodraw system - without basic buildings which as you said cause all the troubles, so you have to have 1 card on hand autodrawing from your deck, if you have 1, otherwise it'll just draw from top of the deck. (So if I am going on 2nd domain by Observatory I will never ever get Imperial Keep - happens currently from time to time. Forces me to mull usually.)

Salvage issue: You can't cancel gaining salvage from sacriface - what about Possession? (And that's COMMON card, I still don't get why so cheap as it's key card for DL)
Also it wouldn't be fair to cut the salvage by 1 point..
My suggestion here is make some 'Sideboard deck' (=it just counts how many of these you've already used.) from that Basic Building which you can choose what will morph into - and say from some 5th or 6th their cost will slowly increase, while salvage staying still the same.

Very sensible and realistic (except for whether the part about the additional "playability" clauses which might be harder to programme with certain cards then it might initially seem) suggestions yaron. Your suggestions solve all the problems I've mentioned in my recent posts, and then some. Great work thinking it up!

you guys realize this is what this is: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=1505&start=0 with just an extra card in your hand right? (maybe yaron explained it better though)

Basically the suggested system is what Jed posted in the "Autodraw still not working thread" in the bug section, except with two improvements. First, keeping autodraw rather than introducing the fated keyword, which is good because I don't see any advantage in the fated system over how autodraw treats non-basic domain cards now and it would only cause more cycling and constrain deck building I think. Secondly, the loss of next draw deals with the issue of free cards with salvage. I actually suggested the draw-loss in the thread myself too and I still think it's a good idea.

One more tweak might be in place to deal with the default-spam issue if it is an issue: either making casting default buildings substract glory by 2 (to a minimum of 0) or losing them cause loss of 2 glory.

Jed: there is also the difference that fated cards would be separated by what domain they can produce, rather than being completely randomly organized relative to each other, and always drawing in that exact order. Right? Anyway, I personally think the latter system has no advatage over drawing the fated / autodraw card that produces the wanted domain. Why wold someone for example take Vapor Mahals in deck if they dont want to use them for elemental domain?

I didn't realize it, but you are quite correct. Forfeiting the next draw is equivalent to re-drawing the "basic building generator".

The problem I was trying to solve is that of "baseless" decks not getting a basic building they don't need. Of course, I inadvertently cheated by giving everyone else an extra card.

However, I now realize that this is not really a problem, because under your system, everyone will draw one basic building that they don't need - at one point or another (so all is fair).

In short, chalk me up as supporting the system you outlined in your thread.

There's still the question of whether you want to add extra "playability" clauses to help cards like Vessel of Cathil. However, that question is unrelated the basic building question.



That certainly wasn't intentional, mainly because I'm not sure I understand the difference between the proposed "Fated" and current "Autodraw" keywords. I'd be grateful to anyone who could explain it.

yaron: fated is different from autodraw in that they are just fated without separating domains, and the first fated card in your deck always draws if you don't have a fated card in hand. With autodrawing cards you draw the first autodrawing card that gives you the domain you are missing, which might not be the next autodrawing card in your deck. However, if you have sufficient domain for casting your whole hand, autodraw operates just like fated. Correct me if I got it wrong, Jed.

What, then, is the purpose of the change (from "autodraw" to "fated")?
Isn't autodraw all about getting the domain you need?

This is what I would like to know too. As I said before, I can't see any advantage in "fated" over "autodraw". It would just add an unnecessary and not fun luck element to the game: will you draw the fated card you want or do you have to cycle and how many times?

The way I see it, luck (or hidden information) in a game only serves a purpose as long as it makes the game more fun and less solvable by raw calculating-power or adds new strategic layers. In TFW, the randomly organized army, random sealed pool and the more or less randomly generated map are such mechanics. The chance to start on an island without a deck suited for that, the chance to get an unplayable sealed pool or an unbeatable matchup AND the chance to draw the right / wrong fated card are luck-aspects that don't serve any of the above purposes. However, all of them except the luck with fated cards can be accepted as inevitable (except maybe the island thing) by-products of the otherwise good mechanics.

The point of "fated" was to make things more clear. Right now if you just start playing the game you wont even realize there is autodraw until someone tells you. A keyword on the card would make it clear that the card would behave in a different way. Also now people must constantly ask if particular cards autodraw or not. Glimpse of Greatness,Treetop dominion, Furnace of Gibil do these autodraw?

Also it doesn't seem that different to me. For mono-domain decks it is the same. If you have multiple domains then it is a bit different but if you have an altar of ix and a great oak in your deck it do you really care that much in what order you get them.