Swindler
Swindler | |
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Info | |
Cost | |
Type(s) | Action - Attack |
Kingdom card? | Yes |
Set | Intrigue |
Illustrator(s) | Alexander Jung |
Card text | |
+ Each other player trashes the top card of his deck and gains a card with the same cost that you choose. |
Swindler is an Action-Attack card from Intrigue. When played, it makes all opponents trash the top card of their deck, and lets you choose what they gain instead. It can be a curser if it hits opponents' Coppers, but can also help opponents by skipping their Victory cards. It can be a very high-variance card, since if an opponent gets a 5/2 opening, Swindler might turn their -cost card into a Duchy! In the late-game, Swindler can accelerate the end of the game by trashing Provinces and replacing them with Provinces from the supply.
Contents |
FAQ
Official FAQ
- A player with no cards left in his Deck shuffles first; a player who still has no cards does not trash a card or gain a card.
- If the order matters (such as when piles are running low), resolve Swindler in turn order starting with the player to your left.
- Gained cards go to discard piles.
- If a player trashes a 0-cost card such as Copper, you may choose to give him Curse (if there are any left).
- You can give a player another copy of the same card he trashed.
- The gained cards have to be ones from the Supply, and you have to pick a card that's left if you can (you cannot pick an empty pile).
- If there are no cards in the Supply with the same cost as a given player's trashed card, no card is gained by that player.
- A player who Moats this does not reveal a card from his deck, and so neither trashes a card nor gains a card.
Other Rules clarifications
When-trashed effects trigger before the player who played Swindler has to choose which card the opponent gains. The opponent is the one who trashes the revealed card and resolves any when-trashed effects.
Strategy Article
Original article by theory
One of the most hated ′s. Swindler is a heavily luck-driven card: there’s a very big difference between discarding an opponent’s Estate and transforming Coppers into Curses. If an opponent opens 5/2 and you turn their first into a Duchy, that may very well decide the game.
Its attack is most powerful in the early game, since you have the best chance of hitting your opponent’s Coppers. Accordingly, it can be a good idea to open with two Swindlers: in exchange for the chance that they’ll be drawn together, I get to launch double the attacks early on, when the attacks are most likely to succeed and when losing Coppers hurts the most.
It works very poorly with Curse-giving attacks: when the Curses run out, a Swindler that hits a Curse or Copper ends up doing more good than harm. Really, Swindler doesn’t work well with most attacks: Ghost Ship just lets your opponent choose your Swindler target, and Bureaucrat -> Swindler can be a guaranteed way to hit a Victory card, which is ordinarily terrible (though it can sometimes be of value in the endgame — see below). Even discard attacks like Militia are weakened, since forcing your opponent to discard Swindled junk doesn't hurt them much.
Swindler interacts with Peddler in a very odd way. If Peddlers are still available, buying Provinces is very dangerous since they can be so easily trashed into a Peddler. On the other hand, if Peddlers are emptied, then Swindler becomes a serious liability, since you can easily accidentally Swindle your opponents’ Peddlers into Provinces!
Likewise, playing Swindler is dangerous if you are trailing in the endgame. If you want the last Province and you already have in your hand, don’t play the Swindler lest you swindle your opponent’s Province … into the last Province. On the other hand, if you’re leading, Swindling Victory cards can be a great way to run the pile down.
This incidentally suggests that one of the best counters to Swindler is playing for VPs quickly: both because Swindled Provinces help you, and because if Provinces are going to run dry quickly then you want to grab your early share. This is a special case of the more general counter, which is to buy cards that either have no crappy terminals at their cost (i.e., avoid ′s, and go for ′s when the only ′s are Caravan and Conspirator), or buy cards that have unique costs (e.g., Gold and Alchemy cards).
Synergies/Combos
Works with:
- Top-deck inspection attacks like Spy or Scrying Pool
- Bad terminal Actions (I once stuffed an opponent with 9 Workshops)
- Cost reducers (Bridge and Highway) allow you to Swindle higher-cost cards into curses.
- Engines built on ′s (e.g., City or Minion engines, since you can just Swindle into Duchies)
- Duke
Antisynergies
Conflicts with:
- Curse-giving attacks
- Engines built on ′s or even or cantrip
- Boards without easy Swindling targets
- Alchemy cards (or, in general, unique card costs)
- Peddler (sort of)
Trivia
In other languages
- Czech: Podvodník
- Dutch: Oplichter
- French: Escroc
- German: Trickser (lit. trickster)
- Hungarian: Szélhámos
- Italian: Truffatore (lit. con man)
- Norwegian: Bedrager (lit. cheat)
- Polish: Kanciarz (lit. gyp)
- Russian: Мошенник (pron. moshyennik)
- Spanish: Embaucador (lit. trickster)
Secret History