Disappearing money

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Festival, a disappearing money card.

Disappearing money is an informal term for non-terminal Action cards that give +$ and do not give +Cards. They resemble most Treasure cards in that they give +$ and reduce handsize when played, and any number of them can be freely played on a turn; but unlike Treasure cards they can "disappear" from your hand before other Action cards are played. They therefore fit well into engine strategies that depend on Action cards that benefit from, or can compensate for, reduced handsize. Since they do not draw, however, having too many of them in your deck may prevent you from drawing your other engine components when you need them.

In a Big Money game with little or no terminal draw, these cards essentially function like Treasure.

Many strategies that benefit from disappearing money also benefit from cantrip money; which of the two is better for an engine will depend on how the other engine cards interact with reduced handsize. Disappearing-money cards usually have lower costs than Peddler variants that provide the same amount of +$, to compensate for the lack of draw.

With sufficient support from villages, terminal Actions that give +$ can be treated as "disappearing money" as well—and some of the disappearing-money actions are villages themselves.

Engines which benefit from disappearing money

  • Cards that draw up to a specific handsize: LibraryLibrary.jpg, WatchtowerWatchtower.jpg, Cursed VillageCursed Village.jpg, and to a lesser extent Jack of all TradesJack of All Trades.jpg.
  • TacticianTactician.jpg, especially the double Tactician engine: since playing Tactician discards your whole hand, it's desirable to be able to play $-giving Actions before you do so.
  • MinionMinion.jpg, which discards your hand and draws up to a specific handsize (and can function as disappearing money itself to boot), is in effect a single-card engine.
  • MenagerieMenagerie.jpg: unlike Treasure, you can have any number of copies of the same disappearing-money Action and play them all before Menagerie to create a hand with no duplicates.
  • Scrying PoolScrying Pool.jpg: since a Scrying Pool engine can draw arbitrarily many Actions with ease, it matters less if the $-producing Actions don't provide draw themselves.
  • DiplomatDiplomat.jpg: reducing your handsize first before playing Diplomat allows you to use Diplomat as a village.

List of cards that can provide disappearing money

Cards in italics have been removed.

Fringe cases

  • VassalVassal.jpg acts like disappearing money if the Action you play is a non-terminal Action.
  • TributeTribute.jpg can provide disappearing money, but it is not under the player's control whether it does so.
  • OasisOasis.jpg is a Peddler variant that discards a card from your hand, and thus it reduces handsize in the same way the cards above do. It can be thought of as a cantrip that turns another card in your hand into "disappearing money". PoacherPoacher.jpg acts the same way if one or more Supply piles are empty.
    • Junk DealerJunk Dealer.jpg is a similar handsize-reducing Peddler variant that trashes from your hand instead of discarding.
    • PlazaPlaza.jpg, similarly, is a cantrip that lets you discard for a Coin token (though you can only discard Treasure).
  • BorrowBorrow.jpg gives +$1 during your Buy phase without costing an Action, at the cost of card draw later.
  • The Field's GiftThe Field's Gift.jpg provides disappearing money if you receive it by playing an Action–Fate card other than PixiePixie.jpg.


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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