+Buy

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Playing a card that provides +buy increases the number of cards you are allowed to buy during your buy phase.

+Buy is an essential component of most engine strategies, since engines can take a long time to build; +buy allows you to acquire engine components more rapidly, thus speeding up the construction of the engine, and once the engine is running it allows you to buy multiple Victory cards at once to make up for the slower start. An easy trap to fall into is that of "overbuilding" an engine in the absence of +Buy: there's no use in building a deck that can regularly generate $16 each turn if you can still only buy one ProvinceProvince.jpg with it. In some engines, it is good strategy to wait to buy even a relatively cheap +buy card until the engine is regularly producing lots of $ each turn, though, if the +buy card doesn't itself help the engine get moving—"paying $11 for HerbalistHerbalist.jpg".

In a Big Money strategy, +buy is usually less useful, since on most turns in most Big Money decks you just want to buy the most expensive card you can, and you'll rarely have a turn with enough $ to buy both a ProvinceProvince.jpg and something else useful. The opportunity cost of getting a card just for its +buy is usually too great in these decks.

Alt-VP rushes also usually benefit from +buy, since these decks depend on gaining large numbers of relatively cheap cards, and extra buys can often be used even on CopperCopper.jpg rather than go to waste.

Gainers and remodelers are sometimes referred to as "virtual +buy", since they provide other ways to gain multiple cards per turn. Gainers and remodelers don't depend on having enough money to spend to buy additional cards as +buy cards do, but they are usually less flexible in other ways.

Some cards that give +buy have it as part of their core function, such as WoodcutterWoodcutter.jpg: virtually the only reason to buy Woodcutter is if you want +buy. In some cases, a card offers +buy as a feature that synergizes with its core function: GoonsGoons.jpg offers you a +VP reward per card you buy, and gives +buy to make the reward go farther. Other cards have +buy merely as an extra vanilla bonus that keeps the card competitive with other cards at the same cost: MargraveMargrave.jpg is a useful card even in Big Money if you never use its +buy, but the fact that it has +buy compensates for the fact that its attack is not very strong and makes it easier to include in an engine.

Contents

Cards that give +buy

Terminal +Coin

Black MarketBlack Market.jpg does not technically provide +Buy, but it lets you buy an additional card during the Action phase.

Terminal draw

Cantrip

Treasures and disappearing money

Other

Synergies


Attacks Attack immunityCurserDeck inspection attackDeck order attackHandsize attackJunking attackTrashing attackTurn-worsening attack
Buy/Money +BuyCost-reducerDisappearing moneyOverpayPeddler variantTerminal silverVirtual coinVirtual +Buy
Cycling Deck discarderDeck inspectorDiggingDiscard for benefitSifter
Terminality CantripNon-terminalNon-terminal drawSoft terminalTerminalTerminal drawThrone Room variantVillageConditional non-terminal
Other Alt-VPBasic cardsDuration drawCommand variantGainerLuck-basedNon-Attack interactionOne-shotRemodelerSplit pileTop deckerTrasherVanillaExtra turn
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