Editing Command variant

[[Image:Band of Misfits.jpg|thumb|right|200px|[[Band of Misfits]], tells the player to play a card from the Supply.]]

A '''Command variant''' allows you to play a card not in your deck, for example a card in the [[Supply]]. Many are also [[Command]]s. Command variants provide extra flexibility and reliability to the deck: when you draw such a card, you get to choose from the effects of whichever other cards would be the most beneficial for you on this particular turn. Because of this flexibility, most Command variants restrict what you can play, such as by only playing cards from the Supply up to a certain cost. So if you need expensive cards, you'll have to buy them straight out. Emptying a Supply pile can severely weaken Command variants because there's one less card they can copy.

==List of Command variants==
* {{Cost|5}}: {{Card|Band of Misfits}}—plays a card in the Supply costing less, normally up to {{cost|4}}
* {{Cost|8}}: {{Card|Prince}}—plays from a set-aside area a card which you first had to [[collision|collide]] with Prince costing up to {{Cost|4}} every turn for the rest of the game
* {{Split|7|2}}: {{Event|Inheritance|Inherited}} {{Card|Estate|Estates}}—at one point, when you play an Estate, it plays a card costing up to {{Cost|4}} previously selected by you from the Supply with {{Event|Inheritance}}
* {{Debt|8}}: {{Card|Overlord}}—plays a card in the Supply costing up to {{cost|5}}
* {{Cost|4}}: {{Card|Necromancer}}—plays a card in the [[trash]]
* {{Cost|6}}: {{Card|Captain}}—plays two cards in the Supply costing up to {{cost|4}}

An Action card played for {{Event|Way of the Mouse}}'s ability mechanically resembles a Command variant, in that its effect is to play a set-aside card, "leaving it there", but unlike a proper Command variant it does not allow the player to choose during the game what that card is.

The card {{card|Flagship}} is a Command card for mechanical reasons, but functionally it is a [[Throne Room variant]] rather than a Command variant.

==Tracking Rules==
* Some cards can play a card that isn't put into play.
* When you play one of these cards, leave it in play as long as you would have left the card it plays in play. So if {{Card|Overlord}} plays a {{Card|Wharf}}, {{Card|Overlord}} will stay in play, and if {{Card|Overlord}} plays a {{Card|Throne Room}} that plays a {{Card|Wharf}}, {{Card|Overlord}} will also stay in play.
* If it plays multiple Duration cards (e.g., you used Throne Room on it), leave it out until the Clean-up of the last turn that one of them still had effects.
* If you {{Card|Throne Room|Throne}} an {{Card|Overlord}}, and the {{Card|Overlord}} plays a {{Card|Wharf}}, the {{Card|Throne Room}} will not stay in play.

==Rules complications with Command variants==
Early Command variants—{{Card|Band_of_Misfits|prior versions of Band of Misfits|oi=2}}, <span class="card-popup">[[Inheritance#Versions|Inheritance]]<span class="noprint">[[File:InheritanceOld2.jpg|320px|link=]]</span></span>, and {{Card|Overlord|oi=1}}—acted by actually changing the identity or abilities of the played card. Thus when you played a Band of Misfits, for example, it "became" a copy of whatever card it was ''playing as'' until it left play, and was counted as such for the purposes of such cards as {{card|Horn of Plenty}}. [[Donald X.]] had expressed dissatisfaction with this state of affairs because it involved "shapeshifting": two copies of the same card in different locations (e.g., a Band of Misfits in play and one in the trash, or an Estate in your deck and one in an opponent's deck) might have different names, types, and/or abilities. This led to the [[Dominion 2019 Errata and Rules Tweaks]] that altered these to work like the later Command variants.

The later Command variants ({{Card|Necromancer}} and {{Card|Captain}}) work in a different way: technically, instead of "becoming" the target card, they just cause the target card to be played without entering the play area (i.e., "leaving it there"). Certain of these cards are not allowed to play [[Duration]] cards, to avoid confusion caused by Duration cards being played with nothing left in play to track them. New tracking rules were added to allow some of these later-style Command variants to track Duration cards (either playing them or playing a card that plays them multiple times).

Later Command variants are more effective at playing [[one-shot]]s than earlier ones: if you play an {{Card|Experiment}} with {{Card|Captain}} nothing returns to the [[Supply]], whereas {{Card|Band_of_Misfits|pre-errata versions of Band of Misfits|oi=2}} that played an {{Card|Experiment}} would. On the other hand, earlier Command variants were more effective with cards that have a [[Triggered effects#Discarding from play|"when you discard this from play"]] ability, like {{Card|Herbalist|oi=2|Herbalist (prior version)}}; with later Command variants, the played card is never put into play, so those abilities are never triggered. For these reasons, certain one-shots were given errata to have some of their effects contingent on trashing.

The [[Command|Command type]] was added to certain cards ({{Card|Band of Misfits}}, {{Card|Overlord}}, {{Card|Captain}} itself, {{Card|Prince}} and {{Event|Inheritance}}) to prevent strange loops that could happen if they could (or were forced to) play each other.

==Gallery==
{{CardImage|Band of Misfits}}{{CardImage|Prince}}{{CardImage|Overlord}}{{CardImage|Necromancer}}{{CardImage|Captain}}
<br>{{LandscapeImage|Inheritance}}{{LandscapeImage|Way of the Mouse}}

== Trivia ==
=== Why aren't Estate and Necromancer Command cards? ===
{{Quote
|Text=Inherited {{Card|Estate}} being a Command card is not bad, the downside is just having to say that on {{Event|Inheritance}}. Again I can keep thinking about that for when [[Adventures]] actually gets reprinted. It doesn't feel urgent. {{Card|Necromancer}} being a Command card merely stops you from using e.g. {{Card|Band of Misfits}} on it; but that's not some exotic combo that will never happen, it's useful just with those two cards on the board.
|Name=[[Donald X. Vaccarino]]
|Source=[http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=19892.msg812893#msg812893 Dominion 2019 Errata and Rules Tweaks]
}}
=== Further thoughts from Donald X. ===
{{Quote
|Text=
Sometimes fun cards make it out because of how fun they are, despite issues. There are some examples! Band of Misfits left {{Set|Dark Ages}} due to its rules issues; it came back because people missed it. People liked it when it came out, and often it's not tricky. The {{Card|Band of Misfits|oi=2|original version}} was a mistake, but I'm not sure that the {{Card|Band of Misfits|tweaked version}} is. It's not the kind of thing I want to do lots of, but it's fun.
|Name=[[Donald X. Vaccarino]]
|Source=[http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=5799.msg874639#msg874639 Interview with Donald X.]
}}
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