Haven
Haven | |
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Info | |
Cost | |
Type(s) | Action - Duration |
Kingdom card? | Yes |
Set | Seaside |
Illustrator(s) | Claus Stephan |
Card text | |
+1 Card +1 Action Set aside a card from your hand face down (under this). At the start of your next turn, put it into your hand. |
Haven is an Action-Duration card from Seaside. It is a cantrip that must set aside an extra card which will be returned to your hand on your next turn. It is helpful for smoothing out draws, setting up combos, and for matching cards to the hands where they would fit best.
Contents |
FAQ
Official FAQ
- First draw a card; then choose a card from your hand and set it aside, face down.
- Put the set aside card on the Haven, to remind you what it's for.
- Other players don't get to see what you put down.
- You have to set aside a card; it's not optional.
- Haven and the card stay there until the start of your next turn, at which point you put the set aside card into your hand.
- Haven itself is discarded during the Clean-up phase of that subsequent turn.
Other Rules clarifications
- If you have no card in your hand to set aside when you play Haven, you set aside nothing, and clean up Haven at the end of that turn; it does not stay out.
- If Haven is still in play when the game ends, it and the card set aside with it are returned to your deck before scoring; this can matter for alt-VP cards like Gardens.
Strategy Article
Original article by theory
Haven is my personal second-favorite card (after you-know-what). It significantly reduces the luck of the draw by allowing you to control card distribution. For instance, it allows you to shuffle the Explorer, Treasure Map, or Throne Room around in your deck until you find the right card to pair it with. But it also helps put together other combinations that more subtly depend on other cards: if you draw a Remodel with nothing worth Remodeling, a Smithy without +Actions, a Tactician with too much money, an early Counting House, or even a Lighthouse with another Lighthouse, then just use Haven to save it for later. In addition, in sets without +Actions, Haven can keep your terminal actions separate so you aren’t forced to discard one of them. It works especially well with Conspirator; not only does Haven feed the Conspirator chain, it also allows you to save an otherwise dead Conspirator for later hands that have more Actions to play.
Haven also optimizes Treasure distribution. Stuck at again, without anything to buy? Haven away a Copper, and next turn it might push you over to . Drew a Platinum with too much money already without +Buy? Haven it away for a big turn next turn. Have , and unsure of whether to get the Familiar or a Laboratory? Haven away the Potion (or a Silver). And when you have nothing you want to Haven, you can always tuck away a Victory card.
Haven’s biggest drawback are situations where you have 5 cards that add up exactly to 8 (or 11), and you can’t Haven any of them. But that’s pretty rare. In addition, Haven’s power is less helpful if your deck is heavily attack-based or Duration-based, since those are typically cards that you always want to play at the first opportunity.
Haven's interaction with discard attacks is complex. Haven is harmed considerably by these attacks if it is in your hand when the attack is played: in most cases, Havening away a card to leave you with a 2-card hand can be very weak, and because you don't know which card will be drawn by the Haven, it is harder to make an optimal choice of which cards to discard. But Haven's set aside card can give you better choices if your opponent plays a discard attack during the turn when you have set aside a card.
Synergies/Combos
- Throne Room / King's Court
- Treasure Map
- Remodel / Expand
- Explorer
- Conspirator
- Potion
- Vault
- Counting House
- Sets without +Actions
- Combinations of Actions in general
Antisynergies
- Actions that don’t depend on other cards, and which you generally want to play as soon as possible. For example: Spy, Witch, Mountebank, and Duration cards like Caravan or Merchant Ship.
Versions
English versions
Other language versions
Trivia
Secret History