Prince
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* {{Card|Witch}} and other non-duration terminal draws - Like having a Wharf permanently in play and, in the case of the Witch, gives out curses in the bargain | * {{Card|Witch}} and other non-duration terminal draws - Like having a Wharf permanently in play and, in the case of the Witch, gives out curses in the bargain | ||
* {{Card|Watchtower}} or {{Card|Library}} Always start with 7 cards in your hand without burning your action | * {{Card|Watchtower}} or {{Card|Library}} Always start with 7 cards in your hand without burning your action | ||
| − | * For most practical purposes, setting aside {{Card|Scheme}} will allow a player to mimic the effect of setting aside a higher cost card with Prince. The Scheme that is played by Prince will provide an extra action and an extra card to play the action while still having one action and five cards in hand afterward, and during cleanup the player can use the Scheme to return that higher cost card to the top of their deck for next turn. However, unlike setting a card aside with Prince directly, this combo with Scheme is vulnerable to {{Card|Minion}} attacks | + | * For most practical purposes, setting aside {{Card|Scheme}} will allow a player to mimic the effect of setting aside a higher cost card with Prince. The Scheme that is played by Prince will provide an extra action and an extra card to play the action while still having one action and five cards in hand afterward, and during cleanup the player can use the Scheme to return that higher cost card to the top of their deck for next turn. However, unlike setting a card aside with Prince directly, this combo with Scheme is vulnerable to {{Card|Minion}} attacks and any actions that affect the top of your deck (e.g. {{Card|Sea Hag}}, {{Card|Spy}}, {{Card|Bureaucrat}} etc.) will affect your hand one turn sooner. |
== Trivia == | == Trivia == | ||
Revision as of 16:20, 29 August 2014
| Prince | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Info | |
| Cost |
 |
| Type(s) | Action |
| Kingdom card? | Yes |
| Set |
Promo |
| Illustrator(s) | Eric J Carter |
| Card text | |
You may set this aside. If you do, set aside an Action card from your hand costing up to  . At the start of each of your turns, play that Action, setting it aside again when you discard it from play. (Stop playing it if you fail to set it aside on a turn you play it.) | |
Prince is a promotional Action card. It is a one-shot that turns a (cheap) Action card from your hand into a permanent effect that gets played every turn for the rest of the game.
The card was leaked on BoardGameGeek[1] after debuting at Origins 2014.
Contents |
FAQ
Official FAQ
Prince has you play the same cheap action every turn for the rest of the game. The turn you play Prince, you set it aside with an Action from your hand costing or less; then every turn after that you play the Action at the start of the turn, and then set it aside again when you discard it from play. If you don't discard the Action then you stop playing it with Prince; Prince at that point is just set aside doing nothing for the rest of the game. That won't normally happen but will happen for example if the Action is a Feast or Mining Village and you trashed it, or if it's a Duration card and so it stayed in play, or if it's a Madman and was returned to its pile, or if it's an Island and was set aside, or if it's a card you put back on your deck with Scheme. In practice you will probably not choose to set aside Prince with a card that won't work well with it, and so will play the Action you set aside every turn from that point on. The set aside Action technically goes back and forth from being in play to being set aside each turn, but in practice it's easier to leave it sitting on the Prince and just announce resolving it each turn.
Prince has to be set aside to do anything; using Throne Room on Prince won't let you set aside two cards. The Action card you set aside has to cost at the time you play Prince, but can normally cost more; for example you could play a Highway, then use Prince on a Laboratory. You do not play the set aside Action the turn you first set it aside with Prince. Playing the card each turn doesn't use up your normal Action play, and is mandatory; setting aside the Action when you discard it from play is also mandatory, you only fail to do it if the card isn't in play at that point. At the end of the game, Prince and the set aside card are returned to your deck before scoring. When you have multiple effects to resolve at the start of the turn - such as multiple Princes and certain Duration cards from Seaside - resolve them in any order, and that order may vary from turn to turn; choose one to resolve, resolve it, then move on to another one, until they are all resolved. Cards which cost 
such as Mercenary and the Cornucopia Prizes can be set aside with a Prince, as can cards from Guilds that cost 
or 
or 
. Cards with a 
in the cost cannot be set aside with Prince. Prince plays its Action on extra turns from Outpost and Possession. The Action card that Prince plays is in play after it's played each turn, so it will count for things like Peddler; Prince however remains set aside.
or less; then every turn after that you play the Action at the start of the turn, and then set it aside again when you discard it from play. If you don't discard the Action then you stop playing it with Prince; Prince at that point is just set aside doing nothing for the rest of the game. That won't normally happen but will happen for example if the Action is a Feast or Mining Village and you trashed it, or if it's a Duration card and so it stayed in play, or if it's a Madman and was returned to its pile, or if it's an Island and was set aside, or if it's a card you put back on your deck with Scheme. In practice you will probably not choose to set aside Prince with a card that won't work well with it, and so will play the Action you set aside every turn from that point on. The set aside Action technically goes back and forth from being in play to being set aside each turn, but in practice it's easier to leave it sitting on the Prince and just announce resolving it each turn.
Prince has to be set aside to do anything; using Throne Room on Prince won't let you set aside two cards. The Action card you set aside has to cost
at the time you play Prince, but can normally cost more; for example you could play a Highway, then use Prince on a Laboratory. You do not play the set aside Action the turn you first set it aside with Prince. Playing the card each turn doesn't use up your normal Action play, and is mandatory; setting aside the Action when you discard it from play is also mandatory, you only fail to do it if the card isn't in play at that point. At the end of the game, Prince and the set aside card are returned to your deck before scoring. When you have multiple effects to resolve at the start of the turn - such as multiple Princes and certain Duration cards from Seaside - resolve them in any order, and that order may vary from turn to turn; choose one to resolve, resolve it, then move on to another one, until they are all resolved. Cards which cost 
such as Mercenary and the Cornucopia Prizes can be set aside with a Prince, as can cards from Guilds that cost 
or or . Cards with a in the cost cannot be set aside with Prince. Prince plays its Action on extra turns from Outpost and Possession. The Action card that Prince plays is in play after it's played each turn, so it will count for things like Peddler; Prince however remains set aside.
Other Rules clarifications
- If the card selected for Prince is Band of Misfits, you may choose a new card for Band of Misfits to emulate each turn.
- Though Island is set aside when played, since it was not Prince setting it aside at the end of your turn, the Lose Track rule dictates that Prince cannot cause Island to be played past the first time.
Strategy Article
There is no strategy article for Prince.
Synergies/Combos
- The higher-cost cards assume there's a cost-reducer available to bring them to 4 or less
- Cost-reducing cards (Bridge, Princess, Highway) are very useful with Prince, since they allow you to set aside more expensive cards.
- Chapel is also very useful with Prince since it's trashing function is optional - it gets played, and you can choose to trash 0 cards
- Witch and other non-duration terminal draws - Like having a Wharf permanently in play and, in the case of the Witch, gives out curses in the bargain
- Watchtower or Library Always start with 7 cards in your hand without burning your action
- For most practical purposes, setting aside Scheme will allow a player to mimic the effect of setting aside a higher cost card with Prince. The Scheme that is played by Prince will provide an extra action and an extra card to play the action while still having one action and five cards in hand afterward, and during cleanup the player can use the Scheme to return that higher cost card to the top of their deck for next turn. However, unlike setting a card aside with Prince directly, this combo with Scheme is vulnerable to Minion attacks and any actions that affect the top of your deck (e.g. Sea Hag, Spy, Bureaucrat etc.) will affect your hand one turn sooner.
Trivia
Prince is the only Kingdom card outside Prosperity with a coin cost above 
, and the only Kingdom card that regularly has a cost of during the Buy phase.
Secret History
Jay wanted a Dominion promo sometime. No rush. I eventually got around to it. I wanted something that felt like a promo; something exotic. I tried out a few ideas I had in the file; the one that played a card every turn was easily the highlight. So I worked on that one. It was an old idea, predating the original game being published. Back then I had decided maybe I would someday do it as a unique card, to get around the issue of using Prince on Prince; then I made unique cards for Tournament but didn't do it there. There were other ways to solve the problems though; as usual it just took lots of tiny text.
The first modern version cost and set aside a cheaper card. And there were whatever issues with one-shots and duration cards and Throne Room. Gradually I weakened it until it cost and only got cards costing or less (barring Bridge etc.). That was just how good playing the same card every turn turned out to be. And you can't get two cards set aside via Throne Room and you don't get to go nuts with one-shots; we had those experiences and they were worth excising, even if it took a weird wording. Setting aside a duration card was too confusing, and anyway I needed one wording that handled every bad case, including Thrones on duration cards and Scheme'd cards. The key thing is looking for cards being discarded from play; those are the normal cards.
Some versions of Prince were duration cards, because hey, it keeps doing stuff, right? But that didn't make sense because Prince wasn't in play, and what "duration" really means is, leave this in play until it stops doing stuff (and it was better to have Prince not be in play).
