Throne Room
Throne Room | |
---|---|
Info | |
Cost | |
Type(s) | Action |
Kingdom card? | Yes |
Set | Base |
Illustrator(s) | Harald Lieske |
Card text | |
You may play an Action card from your hand twice. |
Throne Room is an Action card from the Base set. It allows you to play another Action card from your hand twice, as if you had a Village and two copies of that Action card. It's great when you have lots of Action cards and are sure you'll be able to draw Throne Room in hand with a good Action, but be careful—if you buy it too early, or when you have too many Treasure and Victory cards and not enough Action cards, you'll have no Actions to play with it and it'll be a dead card!
Contents |
FAQ
Official FAQ
- Playing an Action card from your hand is optional.
- If you do play one, you resolve it completely, then play it a second time.
- You cannot play other cards in-between (unless told to by the card, such as with Vassal or Throne Room itself).
- Playing Action cards with Throne Room is just like playing Action cards normally, except it does not use up Action plays for the turn.
- For example if you start a turn by playing Throne Room on Village, you would draw a card, get +2 Actions, draw another card, and get +2 Actions again, leaving you with 4 Actions.
- If you Throne Room a Throne Room, you may play an Action card twice, then may play another Action card twice; you do not play one Action card four times.
Other Rules clarifications
- When you play Throne Room and choose to target a Duration, the Throne Room stays out in play with the Duration that it affects. If you Throne Room a Throne Room which affects a Duration, the top-level Throne Room does not stay in play and gets cleaned up during the Clean-up phase of the turn. However, if the targeted Duration won't do anything next turn on its second execution (for example, if it is a Tactician), the Throne Room doesn't stay out.
- Remember that Throne Room does NOT "double" a card - it simply makes you play it twice. It may have different effects the first and second time it is played, so remember to follow all the instructions on the card fully from top to bottom, and then go back and follow them a second time.
First edition
In the first edition of Dominion, using Throne Room's ability was mandatory if Throne Room was played. Donald X. Vaccarino revised the card because that offered no provision for keeping the player honest: if a player claimed that they had no Actions in hand, and that was why they weren't activating Throne Room's ability, there was no way for their opponents to verify that this was the case.
The first-edition card text could sometimes have adverse effects in a chain of stacked Throne Rooms and draw cards: if you Throne Room a Throne Room, by the time you play the second Throne Room a second time, you might have Actions in hand that you don't want to play. Under the first-edition card text, you would be forced to play one of them (twice) anyway; in the second edition, you don't have to if you don't want to.
Strategy Article
There is no strategy article on Throne Room.
Throne Room is a powerful addition to most decks with a high action density. It's weak in games where you might draw it without any good actions. It's typically not a good buy on turn 1 or 2, since you won't yet have good actions to Throne Room.
Throne room as a village
In the presence of cards that give +1 Action, a Throne Room can be used as a makeshift Village. Cantrips are especially useful to this end, as they replace the two cards played, leaving an additional +2 Actions.
In some cases, the combination of Throne Room and cards giving +1 Action can be used to construct a viable engine that would normally require Villages, on boards without any Villages. As with most engines, trashing is important.
Throne room as a replacement for cards that run out
In some games, there is a race to grab certain cards before the pile empty, like Minion, City, or Grand Market, cards that you want to play as many copies of as possible per turn. If the density of these cards in your deck is high enough and your deck sufficiently thin that you draw one of these cards each turn, Throne Rooms can act as a "substitute" for these power cards. This benefit is especially useful because you can pick up the Throne Rooms for cheaper than the desirable cards.
Synergies/Combos
- Desirable cantrips make a Throne Room more likely to function as a Village, and reduce the risk of drawing the card dead.
- Strong trashing like Chapel helps line up Throne Room with good targets.
The Throne Room Variations
Donald X posted his thoughts on combos with the Intrigue cards:
Bridge: This is one of the ones you really want to Throne Room. One of my playtesters had a turn that went, Throne Throne, first Throning Bridge, then Throning Bridge... buy 5 Minions. Minion costs . Maybe it's a better story if you know what all these cards do. Anyway Throne Room / Bridge, that's one people really go for.
Conspirator: Throne gets you all the way there. You played Throne Room, that's one action; you play Conspirator, that's a 2nd action; Throne makes you play Conspirator a 2nd time, that's your 3rd action, so you get your +1 Card +1 Action from Conspirator.
Coppersmith: Coppers worth each! Not shabby.
Great Hall: The beauty of this combo is just that it's insurance. You don't want to draw Throne and have nothing to Throne with it. Great Hall helps you reduce the risk of drawing a dead Throne.
Masquerade: The second time Masquerade goes off, everyone just passes the card they got passed the first time. It's certainly fine to be drawing four cards and trashing two things and passing two things, but it doesn't hurt the other players any extra the second time.
Mining Village: This is a confusing one. Mining Village says, you may trash Mining Village, "if you do..." If you Throne a Mining Village, and trash it the first time you play it, you won't manage to trash it the second time. It's trashed already. The "if you do" test fails; you did not. You can Throne it and trash it once, but you can't get from one Mining Village this way.
Minion: You might be tempted to take + for the first one, then get a new hand with the second one and take it from there. Better is to draw first, that way if you get a dud draw you can draw a second time instead of your +. There are other options though. Minion is a combo with itself, so Throne / Minion is a fine path to be on. (I corrected this in a reply to the BGN article; obv. you take the new hand first.)
Nobles: This is a strong one. Typically you take +3 Cards the first time, then pick Actions or Cards based on whether or not you have more actions to play.
Pawn: Throning Pawn lets you pick one of everything, and get Market the hard way. I don't really recommend that. Throne the most expensive card you can, that's my advice. Still, you work with what you've got.
Saboteur: Expensive attacks are usually some of the more exciting things to Throne Room. If you can get enough Saboteurs played, you can stop the other players from getting anywhere. Of course that doesn't just happen easily, because, well what fun would that be.
Torturer: No-one wants to get Tortured twice, but when it happens, at least you can gain a Curse the first time, then discard the Curse with something else the second time.
Tribute: This could get you anything from nothing (hitting four Curses), to +8 Cards + +4 Actions (Nobles / Harem twice). You may get unlucky and hit duplicates, or hit actions when you can't use them, but this turn is probably going to be pretty impressive.
Versions
English versions
Digital | Text | Release | Date | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Throne Room from Goko/Making Fun | Choose an Action card in your hand. Play it twice. | Dominion 1st Edition | October 2008 | |
Throne Room from Shuffle iT | You may play an Action card from your hand twice. | Dominion 2nd Edition | October 2016 |
Other language versions
Trivia
Secret History
Retrospective