Band of Misfits
Band of Misfits | |
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Info | |
Cost | |
Type(s) | Action |
Kingdom card? | Yes |
Set | Dark Ages |
Illustrator(s) | RC Torres |
Card text | |
Play this as if it were a cheaper Action card in the Supply. This is that card until it leaves play. |
Band of Misfits is an Action card from Dark Ages. It has no effect of its own; rather, its effect is to imitate the abilities of any cheaper Action card in the Supply. Band of Misfits' versatility is very useful in engine decks where you need to line up certain cards with each other; Band of Misfits can therefore have whichever effects you need it to have in the hand it appears in. However, Band of Misfits can only imitate relatively cheap cards; buying it means potentially missing out on a powerful Action, whose effects Band of Misfits cannot simulate.
Contents |
FAQ
Official FAQ
- When you play this, you pick an Action card from the Supply that costs less than it, and treat this card as if it were the card you chose.
- Normally this will just mean that you follow the instructions on the card you picked.
- For example with Village in the Supply, you could play Band of Misfits as Village and get +1 Card +2 Actions.
- Band of Misfits also gets the chosen card's cost, name, and types, until it leaves play.
- If you play Band of Misfits as a card that moves itself somewhere, Band of Misfits will do that; for example Band of Misfits played as Death Cart, choosing to trash itself, will put Band of Misfits into the trash.
- If you play Band of Misfits as a card that does something when trashed or discarded from play, and that thing happens, Band of Misfits will do that; for example if you play Band of Misfits as Hermit and buy no cards, in Clean-up Band of Misfits will be trashed and you will get a Madman.
- If you play Band of Misfits as a Duration card, or as a Throne Room on a Duration card, Band of Misfits will stay in play the same way the Duration card or Throne Room would.
- If you play Band of Misfits multiple times such as via a Throne Room, you will only pick what to play it as the first time; the other times it will be the same thing.
- Once in play, Band of Misfits is the thing it copied, rather than a Band of Misfits; for example Horn of Plenty (from Cornucopia) will count the Band of Misfits as the card it copied.
- Band of Misfits can only be played as a visible card in the Supply, and the top card of a pile; it cannot be played as a card from an empty pile, or as a card that has not been uncovered (such as Sir Martin when another Knight is on top of him), or as a non-Supply card (like Mercenary).
Other Rules clarifications
- You first play Band of Misfits, then you play it again as the card you chose to emulate. In this sense, Band of Misfits plays like a Throne Room variant, and one play of Band of Misfits with a successful emulation counts as two Actions played; this matters for Conspirator. As such, vanilla bonus tokens on Band of Misfits do give their effect when Band of Misfits is played, since token effects happen before anything else a card does. If there are any vanilla bonus tokens on the card Band of Misfits is emulating, those effects occur as well, after the effects from tokens on Band of Misfits.
- If Band of Misfits is multiplied when tokens are on its pile (and there's a card for it to emulate), the token effect on Band of Misfits happens only once, since Band of Misfits is only being played once; once it has been played, it is a different card. However, tokens on a card Band of Misfits is emulating do have their effects multiplied. For example, if the +1 Card token is on Band of Misfits and the + token is on Chapel, and you Throne Room a Band of Misfits, emulating Chapel, you would first get +1 Card, then +.
- If you use Throne Room on Band of Misfits, choosing to play Band of Misfits as a self-trashing card (for example, Embargo), the Band of Misfits will be in the trash after the first play as Embargo, meaning it has left play. Throne Room then plays Band of Misfits again (getting token effects again, if there are any), allowing you to make a new choice as to what Band of Misfits should emulate. However, since Band of Misfits is in the trash, you will only get the on-play effects of the emulated card. Similar logic applies to one-shots that do not trash themselves, but still leave play, such as Island, as well as the case where there are no non-empty Action supply piles cheap enough for Band of Misfits to copy.
- Under this ruling, it is possible for a multiplied Band of Misfits to trash itself (emulating any trashing one-shot), then gain itself back out of the trash (emulating Lurker, or etc.).
- Along a similar vein, playing Procession on Band of Misfits, choosing Fortress, would allow you to play the same Band of Misfits again afterwards, since it returned to your hand.
- If you Procession a Band of Misfits, you will gain a Action, since Band of Misfits will be in the trash (and thus cost , since it has left play) when Procession checks its cost.
- Band of Misfits does not play well with Reserve cards. If you play Band of Misfits as a Reserve card it goes to your Tavern mat and stays there; you can't call it or otherwise recover it because it is now out of your play area and no longer has the abilities of the card it was imitating.
- Effects that care about card names (such as Pilgrimage) will not register Band of Misfits as a Band of Misfits when it is in play, but as whatever it is emulating.
- The only exceptions to this are if Band of Misfits were affected by Enchantress, and thus prevented from emulating anything, or if there were no valid emulation targets in the Supply.
- If you play Band of MIsfits as a Traveller (Page or Peasant), then when you discard it from play you may exchange it for the next Traveller up the line; when you do so, you return Band of Misfits to the Band of Misfits pile in the supply.
Strategy Article
Original article on the forum by DG.
Depending upon how you look at it, this is either a very simple or a very complex card. At its simplest it can be a very straightforward card to buy and play. At its most complicated it can provide many options for card play and deck construction.
I think the place to start looking at Band of Misfits is at the card play, which is an unusual place to start. You have the choice to play the Band of Misfits as any cheap card in the supply. This means that when you have two terminal actions in hand with a cheap Village in the supply you can play the Band of Misfits as a Village for the extra actions. When you have no terminal cards in your hand you can use the Band of Misfits as a cheap terminal in the supply, and so on. This flexibility can make deck building quite simple since you can add Band of Misfits to a balanced deck and it will most likely remain a balanced deck, if not better. This is only true however if there is a good selection of cheap Actions cards in the Kingdom: something with +, something with +Actions, maybe something with +Cards or +Buy, etc. Flexibility in providing or using actions is possibly the best feature of the Band of Misfits.
What you gain in flexibility however you could lose in power. Being able to play a Mountebank is generally better than being able to play a Band of Misfits as either a Sea Hag or Nomad Camp. cost cards are usually very strong and the decision to buy them ahead of a Band of Misfits can be simple. If there are no strong cost cards in the Kingdom then the Band of Misfits might again be a simple purchase since you might otherwise have bought one of the cheaper cards instead. In the middle, though, there will be a small number of fiendish purchasing decisions where you are effectively weighing up a strong single card against variations from a choice of weaker cards.
The Band of Misfits doesn't need any specific kingdom cards to work and will behave differently in different kingdoms. The better the variety of cheap cards in the supply however the more chance the Band of Misfits has to provide value. You might draw a hand that could use a Chancellor, or a Bureaucrat, or a Thief, or a Shanty Town, or a Remodel, or a Cellar, so never rule any card out even if you wouldn't purchase it for that particular deck. Even a Feast could even let you gain a Duchy on the last turn. Taking that concept further, the more dependent a card is upon the draw the more benefit you can gain from having Band of Misfits in your deck instead of the card itself. Specific examples might be cards such as Procession, Develop, Treasure Map, or Coppersmith.
I will however single out two Kingdom cards. The option to play the Band of Misfits as a Death Cart will be strong, especially when you don't want to add two Ruins to your deck by gaining a Death Cart. The Band of Misfits will suit Conspirator decks since it can either start or continue the Conspirator chains, reducing the risks of bad draws, and you could well be willing to pay 5 or 6 coins for these engine components anyway. The Conspirator deck does highlight one risk though. Once a card's supply pile is empty the Band of Misfits cannot act as that card. It is also worth remembering that the Band of Misfits cannot act as Silver. Sometimes a simple Silver will be better in hand than a versatile action card, especially if you find yourself repeatedly playing your Band of Misfits as a low reward +action card.
If we return however to the card play we can see where the final complications come from. Band of Misfits increases the potential card plays from a hand, since you not only have to sequence your actions but now also choose what the actions are. Whilst this may perplex artificial intelligence I suspect that human intelligence will enjoy the challenge.
Synergies/Combos
- A variety of cards costing -
- Cards whose value are very dependent on what's in your hand (Throne Room) or in play (Conspirator) at the time.
- Cards which will make themselves obsolete over time, such as Moneylender, Sea Hag, and Chapel.
- Cards in the supply granting +Buy or +Actions allow Band of Misfits to function as engine grease when needed.
- Playing it as Death Cart to bypass the on-gain penalty.
- Ferry allows Band of Misfits to emulate a card that normally costs or .
Antisynergies
- Powerful cards costing and few cards costing less
- Piles that are likely to run out like Hamlet.
Versions
English versions
Digital | Text | Release | Date | |
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Play this as if it were an Action card in the Supply costing less than it that you choose. This is that card until it leaves play. | Dark Ages 1st Edition | August 2012 | ||
Play this as if it were a cheaper Action card in the Supply. This is that card until it leaves play. | Dark Ages 2nd Edition | September 2017 |
Other language versions
Trivia
Secret History
Development
I tried having it gain a card, then return that card to the supply. People just endlessly forgot to return the card. Maybe something could have reminded them well enough; I did not have the technology at the time.
I tried having it play a card without moving it. For all of your Band of Misfits solutions, consider duration cards and Feast. Here I was not satisfied with how the weird cases resolved.
I tried a choose one - Band of Misfits where the cards costing less than it are always Woodcutter, Throne Room, Peddler. It's not much like Band of Misfits. But you know. It's a thing you can try and I tried it. This was known as the Morphling solution, after the origin story behind that Magic card (they wanted to reprint Clone but were told the rules were too complex).
And I tried just not having Band of Misfits. That didn't work either. I gave it a good long try though.
In the end there it is. As the saying goes, we hope you enjoy this expanding world of Dominion.