Duration
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(→Other rules clarifications: bonfire, counterfeit old) |
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If you play a {{card|Throne Room}} that plays a ''non''-Duration card that stays in play (such as another {{Card|Throne Room}} that plays a Duration twice, or a {{Card|Band of Misfits}} that plays a Duration), the first {{Card|Throne Room}} does not stay out. However, if you {{Card|Mastermind}} a {{Card|Mastermind}}, it's possible to have a chain of {{Card|Mastermind}}s stuck in play for several turns if they keep playing Duration cards, because {{Card|Mastermind}} is itself a Duration. | If you play a {{card|Throne Room}} that plays a ''non''-Duration card that stays in play (such as another {{Card|Throne Room}} that plays a Duration twice, or a {{Card|Band of Misfits}} that plays a Duration), the first {{Card|Throne Room}} does not stay out. However, if you {{Card|Mastermind}} a {{Card|Mastermind}}, it's possible to have a chain of {{Card|Mastermind}}s stuck in play for several turns if they keep playing Duration cards, because {{Card|Mastermind}} is itself a Duration. | ||
| − | It is occasionally possible to remove Duration cards from play before they are done resolving all their abilities. Examples include trashing a Duration with | + | It is occasionally possible to remove Duration cards from play before they are done resolving all their abilities. Examples include trashing a Duration with <span class="card-popup">[[Bonfire|Bonfire (prior version)]]<span class="noprint">[[File:BonfireOld2.jpg|300px|link=]]</span></span>, using {{Card|Counterfeit|oi=2|Counterfeit (prior version)}} on {{Card|Contract}}, or using {{Card|Throne Room}} on a Duration, and playing it once for its normal effect, and once as {{Way|Way of the Turtle}}. In most cases, the Duration card's effects will still carry over to future turns, which you will have to remember. Exceptions include Durations that won't have any effect if they're not in play, such as {{Card|Garrison}} (which can't have tokens if not in play) and {{Card|Conjurer}} (which can't return itself to your hand). If any [[Throne Room variant]] or [[Command variant]] was supposed to stay in play because of the now-removed Duration card, it will be discarded from play during Clean-up. |
It's also possible for a Duration card to remain in play during your Clean-up, and yet discard itself from play during Clean-up of another player's turn. This may happen if you play a {{Card|Voyage}}, and then have its extra turn gets skipped with {{Card|Lich}}. (Skipping a turn with {{Card|Lich}} happens between turns and not during Clean-up, which is why {{Card|Voyage}} still stays in play during your turn.) Since you don't get a Clean-up phase during a skipped turn, the {{Card|Voyage}} will stay in play until the Clean-up of the next turn that happens (either yours or another player's). | It's also possible for a Duration card to remain in play during your Clean-up, and yet discard itself from play during Clean-up of another player's turn. This may happen if you play a {{Card|Voyage}}, and then have its extra turn gets skipped with {{Card|Lich}}. (Skipping a turn with {{Card|Lich}} happens between turns and not during Clean-up, which is why {{Card|Voyage}} still stays in play during your turn.) Since you don't get a Clean-up phase during a skipped turn, the {{Card|Voyage}} will stay in play until the Clean-up of the next turn that happens (either yours or another player's). | ||
Revision as of 07:52, 8 July 2022
Duration is a card type that was introduced in Seaside and revisited in later sets, starting with Adventures. Duration cards have orange frames, and usually have an effect on the turn after they are played. A Duration is not discarded from play until the Cleanup phase of the last turn on which it does something - usually the turn after the turn on which it is played.
The majority of Duration cards are Action cards, but a few belong to the Night type introduced in Nocturne, and Duration Treasures began to be introduced with Contract from Allies.
Contents |
List of Duration cards
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Guardian, Haven, Lighthouse
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Amulet, Astrolabe, Caravan Guard, Cargo Ship, Church, Dungeon, Enchantress, Fishing Village, Gear, Ghost Town, Importer, Monkey, Secret Cave,
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Blockade, Caravan, Conjurer, Garrison, Research, Royal Galley, Sailor, Tide Pools, Village Green, Voyage
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Ghost
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Archive, Barge, Bridge Troll, Cobbler, Contract, Corsair, Crypt, Den of Sin, Gatekeeper, Haunted Woods, Highwayman, Mastermind, Merchant Ship, Outpost, Pirate, Sea Witch, Swamp Hag, Tactician, Warlord, Wharf
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Captain, Hireling, Raider, Stronghold
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Champion
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Prince
Official Rules
- Duration cards are orange, and have abilities that affect future turns.
- Duration cards are not discarded in Clean-up if they have something left to do; they stay in play until the Clean-up of the last turn that they do something.
- Additionally, if a Duration card is played extra times by a card such as [Throne Room, Scepter, Mastermind or Specialist], that card also stays in play until the Duration card is discarded, to track the fact that the Duration card was played extra times.
- Keep track of whether or not a Duration card was played on the current turn, such as by putting your cards into two lines.
Other rules clarifications
In most cases, a Duration will stay in play until the Clean-up phase of your next turn. But a Duration card played in such a way as to have no effect next turn will be discarded from play the turn it was played. This may happen because the next-turn effects are optional and you chose not to activate them (e.g. Barge), or because they are conditional and that condition wasn't met (e.g., a Tactician that didn't discard any cards), or if you didn't follow the card's instructions at all (due to Enchantress or Ways). A card like Caravan that provides +Cards on your next turn stays in play even if you won't have enough cards in your deck to draw any next turn. A Duration played this turn that won't stay in play can be trashed with Improve.
Some Durations can stay out for longer than one turn. Durations that set cards aside and return them to you one at a time (like Archive and Crypt) remain in play until they run out of cards. Voyage stays in play until the Clean-up of its extra turn; if you take multiple extra turns at once, Voyage could stay out for more than one turn. Champion, Hireling, and Prince stay in play permanently.
When you use a Throne Room variant on a Duration, it stays in play for as long as the Duration does. This is the case even if the Duration is only going to have one effect on the next turn (e.g., if you play a Tactician twice with Throne Room, or if you play a Barge twice with Throne Room and opt for one same-turn effect and one next-turn effect). If the Duration leaves play at an unusual time (such as a Highwayman that's discarded at the start of your turn), the Throne Room still stays in play until Clean-up. If a card that plays other cards only once, such as Elder or Herald, causes a Duration to be played, the Elder/Herald/etc. does not stay in play; only Throne Room variants, which cause the same Duration to be played multiple times, remain in play with Durations.
Effects that resolve at the start of your turn can be resolved in any order; this includes multiple plays of the same Duration card by a Throne Room variant. For example, if you both played a Wharf and played a Throne Room on an Amulet last turn, on this turn you could choose to first gain a Silver from the first Amulet play, then draw 2 cards from Wharf (perhaps triggering a reshuffle and maybe drawing that Silver), and then choose to trash a card with the second Amulet play.
If you use a Command variant to play a Duration card without putting it into play (e.g., Band of Misfits, an Estate after using Inheritance on a Duration card, or any Action card using Way of the Mouse to play a Duration), the Command variant stays in play as long as the Duration card would. If the same Command variant plays multiple Duration cards that would stay in play for different amounts of time (e.g. using Throne Room on Overlord, and it plays a Swamp Hag and an Archive), it stays in play until the last of those Duration cards would leave play (in this example, probably the Archive). These rules also apply if a Command variant plays a Throne Room variant that would stay in play for multiple turns because it played a Duration card, or another Command variant that would stay in play for multiple turns, etc.: Command variants stay in play for as long as the card they command would stay in play, if it were in play. (However, Prince and Captain are Command variants that are themselves Duration cards, and so they may stay in play for longer!)
If you play a Throne Room that plays a non-Duration card that stays in play (such as another Throne Room that plays a Duration twice, or a Band of Misfits that plays a Duration), the first Throne Room does not stay out. However, if you Mastermind a Mastermind, it's possible to have a chain of Masterminds stuck in play for several turns if they keep playing Duration cards, because Mastermind is itself a Duration.
It is occasionally possible to remove Duration cards from play before they are done resolving all their abilities. Examples include trashing a Duration with Bonfire (prior version), using Counterfeit (prior version) on Contract, or using Throne Room on a Duration, and playing it once for its normal effect, and once as Way of the Turtle. In most cases, the Duration card's effects will still carry over to future turns, which you will have to remember. Exceptions include Durations that won't have any effect if they're not in play, such as Garrison (which can't have tokens if not in play) and Conjurer (which can't return itself to your hand). If any Throne Room variant or Command variant was supposed to stay in play because of the now-removed Duration card, it will be discarded from play during Clean-up.
It's also possible for a Duration card to remain in play during your Clean-up, and yet discard itself from play during Clean-up of another player's turn. This may happen if you play a Voyage, and then have its extra turn gets skipped with Lich. (Skipping a turn with Lich happens between turns and not during Clean-up, which is why Voyage still stays in play during your turn.) Since you don't get a Clean-up phase during a skipped turn, the Voyage will stay in play until the Clean-up of the next turn that happens (either yours or another player's).
Possession is not a Duration card, even though it does have effects on future turns, and so the Duration rules do not apply to it. (The same was true of an earlier version of Prince, but after the card was revised in 2022, Prince now is a Duration.) For example, unlike Outpost, Possession is discarded before the extra turn it creates. And if you play it twice with Throne Room, the Throne Room doesn't stay in play.
Prior Rules
In the past the rules around tracking cards that play Durations extra times were different.
- Originally, cards that played cards that played Durations extra times were left in play as well (e.g. Throne Room plays Throne Room that plays a Duration). This was changed via a ruling to only be the card that directly played the Duration extra times was left out.
- Also, originally the cards playing Durations extra times stayed in play only until they stopped doing something. This was changed with the release of Empires to have them always stay in play until the Duration left play instead. This affects situations where either the Duration leaves play earlier (e.g. Procession) or the extra play(s) of the card didn't trigger the Duration effect (e.g. when playing Tactician with a Throne Room under normal circumstances).
Strategy
On the turn on which they are played, Duration cards typically have weak effects (relative to their cost), or even detrimental effects; their strength comes in part from the fact that their effects on the next turn do not consume an Action to play or a card slot in your hand. For example, Caravan, on the turn it is played, is a cantrip with no effect; on the next turn, however, it gives you a sixth card in your hand for free—thus playing a Caravan on one turn has the same effect as playing a Laboratory on the next turn.
Although Duration cards' next-turn effects are typically quite strong, they cost less than and are usually considered weaker than cards that have those same effects immediately—for instance, Caravan costs while Laboratory costs . This is in part because it's better to receive benefits earlier—playing a Caravan on the last turn of the game gives no benefit while Laboratory does—and in part because the fact that Durations stay in play for two turns is a disadvantage, since it means that they can actually be played less frequently. For instance, it's possible to draw an extra card every turn by having a single Laboratory and playing it every turn; in order to play a Caravan every turn, you have to have two copies of the card.
Reserve cards can play rather similarly to Durations; most have a weak effect now for a stronger effect later. The difference is that Reserves don't have to be triggered on your next turn; you can wait a few turns to use them, or even use some of them the same turn you play them.
Trivia
In other languages
- Czech: Dlouhodobá
- Dutch: Duurzaam (lit. sustainable)
- Finnish: Toistuva (lit. recurring)
- French: Durée
- German: Dauer
- Polish: Następstwo (lit. succession)
- Russian: Длительность (pron. dlityelnost)
Donald X.'s remarks
Development
more), that left (well turned into Cutpurse) because it would have left play at a different time from other Duration cards, (end of the prev. player's turn) and Valerie didn't like that. Late in the going I realized I could save Lighthouse by having it produce resources on your next turn, and of course that same solution could have been used for attacks; but Tax Collector had already turned into Cutpurse and again there was anti-demand for new Duration cards.
Throne Rooms staying in play
In retrospect it would have been better if duration cards not in play didn't do anything (and, if cards you couldn't put into play also didn't do anything). That clears up Procession.
Outpost has an anti-Throne clause. Ideally it would have some form that didn't need that.
Tactician has an extra cost on getting your bonus next turn; that premise requires dealing with the tracking rule, unless the extra cost is something you can always pay (e.g. taking Debt).Ways and removing Durations from play
Lack of Treasure-Durations
Durations in later expansions
Every expansion from Adventures onwards has had at least two Duration cards.
