Outpost
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* Playing any Outposts beyond the first one on a turn does nothing, and extra Outposts will be discarded from play before you take your extra turn. | * Playing any Outposts beyond the first one on a turn does nothing, and extra Outposts will be discarded from play before you take your extra turn. | ||
* If you buy {{event|Mission}} on the same turn you play Outpost, you can choose whether the Mission turn or the Outpost turn happens first; whichever one does will start with a 3 card hand, while the other will start with a 5 card hand. | * If you buy {{event|Mission}} on the same turn you play Outpost, you can choose whether the Mission turn or the Outpost turn happens first; whichever one does will start with a 3 card hand, while the other will start with a 5 card hand. | ||
+ | * An {{Card|Estate}} {{Event|Inheritance|Inherited}} as an Outpost will never do anything. | ||
== Strategy Article == | == Strategy Article == |
Revision as of 08:33, 25 August 2017
Outpost | |
---|---|
Info | |
Cost | |
Type(s) | Action - Duration |
Kingdom card? | Yes |
Set | Seaside |
Illustrator(s) | Claus Stephan |
Card text | |
If this is the first time you played an Outpost this turn, and the previous turn wasn't yours, then take an extra turn after this one, and you only draw 3 cards for your next hand. |
Outpost is an Action-Duration card from Seaside. When played, it lets you take an extra turn - albeit an extra turn where you draw fewer cards. This is good if you have a way to guarantee that this extra turn is still pretty good even with only three cards, but weak if you end up having mediocre extra turns.
Contents |
FAQ
Official FAQ
- Outpost only does anything the first time you play it in a turn, and only if the previous turn was another player's (meaning, you are not already taking an extra turn).
- If these conditions are met, you take an extra turn, and only draw 3 cards for your next hand rather than 5 (thus usually only having 3 cards in hand on the extra turn).
- Except for the smaller starting hand, the extra turn is a normal turn.
- If you play e.g. Merchant Ship in the same turn as Outpost, the extra turn will be when you get the + from Merchant Ship.
- Extra turns do not count towards the tiebreaker of which tied player had fewer turns.
Other Rules clarifications
- Remember that the extra turn is completely normal (if it happens); it is the turn in which you play Outpost which is different, in that you only draw three cards during cleanup.
- This makes Outpost an exception to the basic rule that Duration cards are discarded from play during the Clean-up phase of the last turn on which they "do something"; Outpost doesn't do anything on the extra turn it creates, but it is not cleaned up until the end of the extra turn regardless.
- Interactions with Possession are difficult: remember that when your opponent Possesses you, he makes you take an extra turn, and makes all decisions for you.
- So, if your opponent plays a Possession, then makes you play an Outpost during that Possessed turn, they will get to see the three cards you draw; then you will take your 3-card Outpost extra turn, since that will only be your second turn in a row; and then you will take your regular turn.
- If your opponent plays two Possessions, you take two extra turns from them. If your opponent then makes you play an Outpost on the second Possessed turn, nothing happens, as the "previous turn wasn't yours" condition is not met, and Outpost will be discarded at the end of that turn.
- If your opponent plays two (or more) Possessions and makes you play an Outpost during the first Possessed turn, you decide when to take the extra turn from Outpost, since this decision takes place between turns; you can take an extra turn with only 3 cards after the first Possessed turn, or you can choose to have the second Possessed turn happen first (with a 3 card hand), in which case you will take your Outpost turn (with a full 5 card hand) after that (or after any other Possessed turns you allow to happen in the meantime).
- Playing Throne Room (or similar cards) on Outpost would seem to do nothing, but the Throne Room will still have to stay out with the Outpost as long as it does.
- Playing any Outposts beyond the first one on a turn does nothing, and extra Outposts will be discarded from play before you take your extra turn.
- If you buy Mission on the same turn you play Outpost, you can choose whether the Mission turn or the Outpost turn happens first; whichever one does will start with a 3 card hand, while the other will start with a 5 card hand.
- An Estate Inherited as an Outpost will never do anything.
Strategy Article
There isn't a comprehensive strategy article for Outpost.
Outpost is a card that can be quite bad in some circumstances, but that combos with quite a few cards, and can be dominating with the right support. Outpost depends on some way of guaranteeing that the extra 3-card turn will be good. In a Big Money type deck, or a rush strategies like Gardens or Duke/Duchy, the 3-card turn is likely to be quite poor, and the spent on Outpost is probably better spent on any number of other terminal actions, possibly even cheaper cards like Smithy.
Duration cards can give you a modest next-turn bonus, both in terms of virtual coin (Lighthouse, Merchant Ship, Fishing Village) or card draw (Wharf, Caravan) to ensure that your Outpost turn is better than a typical 3-card turn. Seaside also has other ways of setting up your Outpost turn like Native Village or Treasury. Cantrips that provide virtual coin, such as Peddler or Market can work well with Outpost, but Treasury is stronger because it is reliable. These methods, however, are still not using outpost's full potential. Outpost can sometimes be harmful when used with durations--if you miss a key price point on your Outpost turn, the durations will end on that turn rather than carrying through into your next 5-card turn.
Engines that are able to draw their deck every turn, even starting from a 3-card hand, make Outpost turns just as valuable as a regular turn. Draw-up-to-X engines, like those based on Library or Watchtower also make the turn as good as a typical turn, so long as one is able to draw both a village and drawing card. Minion decks also work well with Outpost: so long as at least one Minion is drawn, the second turn is about as good as any other.
Scheme is a very good card to include in decks with Outpost, as it can guarantee certain cards to end up in the Outpost hand. This can help ensure deck drawing by top-decking a village and/or card drawer. Haven is another good option to send a card to the Outpost turn; although it does not allow one to play the sent card this turn, it increases the hand size for the next turn. Haven can smooth out engines using Outpost, but because it reduces the handsize by one on the current turn, too many of them can harm some decks.
Outpost goes nicely with cards that gain coin tokens. It's much better to sock away two coin tokens during an Outpost turn than to have to spend, and of course you can spend your coin tokens during your Outpost turn as well if you need a little help to pay for a card you want to buy.
Outpost is usually a poor first purchase of a cost-card; early in the game the Outpost turn is likely to be very weak, and the early purchase of this card can slow down a deck. In most decks, only buying one Outpost is necessary. Engines that reliably draw the whole deck cannot benefit from a second outpost, and most decks where one might be tempted to buy two Outposts would be unlikely to benefit enough from the outpost to begin with to make it worth the opportunity cost.
Outpost works very well with an active Prince. You get the Princed Action at the start of your Outpost turn. If the Princed card is something powerful like Smithy or Remodel, it can render the reduced hand size almost irrelevant. (Like all Durations, Outpost itself does not work with Prince even if you reduce its cost to allow Prince to set it aside.)
Synergies/Combos
- Durations
- Cards which set up your next turn: Treasury, Alchemist, and, to a lesser extent, Courtyard
- A large Native Village mat
- Cards that can easily recover from small handsize: Minion, Library and other draw-up-to-N cards, Menagerie
- Scheme
- Minion
- Scrying Pool
- Cards that gain coin tokens
- Prince with a good action set aside
Antisynergies
- Big Money or rush strategies
- Silver-based strategies are likely to have mediocre Outpost turns
- Possession does not work well with Outpost and makes people go look up FAQs and still not understand what's supposed to happen and why
Versions
English versions
Digital | Text | Release | Date | |
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You only draw 3 cards (instead of 5) in this turn’s Clean-up phase. Take an extra turn after this one. This can’t cause you to take more than two consecutive turns. | Seaside 1st Edition | October 2009 | ||
If this is the first time you played an Outpost this turn, and the previous turn wasn't yours, then take an extra turn after this one, and you only draw 3 cards for your next hand. | Seaside 2nd Edition | July 2017 |
Other language versions
Trivia
Secret History
Retrospective