Attack

Revision as of 18:06, 8 September 2013

Attack is a card type. An Attack is typically a card that is likely to somehow hurt the opponents of the player who plays it—either by reducing the range of options available to them on an upcoming turn, or by weakening their overall deck composition. All Attack cards are Action cards.

Attacks are often a crucial component of an engine strategy: an engine deck can take longer to build than an unimpeded Big Money deck; but an engine that frequently plays Attack cards can slow down an opponent's deck-building enough to make engine construction competitive. However, since they attack the opponent, strong Attack cards often have relatively weak (or even no) direct benefits to their owner's deck, slowing down deck-building from that direction as well.

Not every play of every Attack card will adversely affect (or even affect at all) an opponent; and some cards which can be used to hurt an opponent, such as Masquerade and Ill-Gotten Gains, are not Attacks. The fact that "Attack" is a card type becomes relevant in that certain cards have specified interactions with Attacks. Most of these are Reaction cards that can be revealed when an opponent plays an Attack to have some effect that usually mitigates or counters the adverse effect of the Attack.

Kinds of Attacks

There are 4 basic kinds of attacks; some Attack Cards belong to two of these categories. Donald X. Vaccarino explained them here.

Handsize attacks

Handsize attacks reduce the number of cards you have in hand on your next turn. The majority of these make you discard down to 3 cards, and the victim chooses which cards to discard; thus multiple plays of such handsize attacks don't hurt the victim more than the first one. These include Militia, Ghost Ship, Goons, Margrave, Mercenary, Followers, Sir Michael and Taxman. Urchin makes you discard down to 4 cards. Minion is a variation that makes you discard down to 4 cards, but you can't choose which card to discard, because you discard your whole hand and draw 4 new ones. Pillage is a one-shot where the attacker chooses the card to discard. On the other hand there is Torturer which stacks and Cutpurse which can potentially stack, if you have multiple Coppers in hand. Bureaucrat makes you put Victory cards on your deck and can also potentially stack.

Attacks that trash your cards

They usually trash one of the top two cards of the opponents' decks. This is either restricted to certain card types (Thief, Noble Brigand, Pirate Ship) or to a certain price range (Knights and Rogue) or offers a replacement. The replacement is either a card costing less than it (Saboteur) the victim can choose or a card costing the same (Swindler) the attacker can choose.

Attacks that give you junk

They are usually cards that distribute Curses. These are Witch, Torturer, Sea Hag, Familiar, Mountebank, Young Witch, Soothsayer and Ill-Gotten-Gains (which is per definition no attack card). Then there are Looters which distribute Ruins. These are Marauder and Cultist. And then there are cards that distribute other cards, possibly including Curses and Ruins. These are Ambassador, Swindler and Jester.

Attacks that muck with your deck order

These are cards that discard the good cards from your deck. These are Spy, Scrying Pool, Rabble, Fortune Teller and Oracle. Ghost Ship and Bureaucrat make you put cards from your hand back on top of your deck.

v . t . e Dominion Card types Basic types Action • Treasure • Victory • Curse Multi-expansion special types Attack • Duration • Reaction • Command Single-expansion special types Prize • Reward • Shelter • Ruins • Looter • Knight • Reserve • Traveller • Gathering • Castle • Night • Heirloom • Fate • Doom • Spirit • Zombie • Augur • Clash • Fort • Liaison • Odyssey • Townsfolk • Wizard • Loot Non-card types Event • Landmark • Boon • Hex • State • Artifact • Project • Way • Ally • Trait