Throne Room variant

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* {{Card|Procession}} - doubles an Action, then {{Card|Upgrade|Upgrades}} it
 
* {{Card|Procession}} - doubles an Action, then {{Card|Upgrade|Upgrades}} it
 
* {{Card|Counterfeit}} - doubles a [[Treasure]], then [[trash|trashes]] it
 
* {{Card|Counterfeit}} - doubles a [[Treasure]], then [[trash|trashes]] it
* {{Card|Disciple}} - gains a copy of the throned card
+
* {{Card|Disciple}} - doubles an Action, then [[gainer|gains]] a copy of it
 
* {{Card|Royal Carriage}} - can be saved until needed, and more than one can be used on the same card
 
* {{Card|Royal Carriage}} - can be saved until needed, and more than one can be used on the same card
 
* {{Card|Prince}} - [[One-shot]] that plays a set-aside, inexpensive Action at the start of every turn (does not work on Durations)
 
* {{Card|Prince}} - [[One-shot]] that plays a set-aside, inexpensive Action at the start of every turn (does not work on Durations)

Revision as of 21:43, 10 June 2015

Throne Room, the archetype for this category.

A Throne Room variant is any card that plays another card, typically more than once. Normally, playing an Action card costs an Action, but being played by a Throne Room variant has no such requirement. The multiplying power of these cards makes them very useful in engines, and some of them can even be a substitute for villages. Throne Room variants can be used on Duration cards, but if they are required for tracking purposes (such as if they multiply the Duration card's effect), they must be left out until your next turn as well, which can sometimes cause them to miss your reshuffle. However, a higher level Throne Room variant multiplying the one multiplying the Duration does not have to be left out.

Throne Room variants that play Actions are sometimes called pseudo-villages.

Contents

List of Throne Room variants

Multipliers

Golem variants

These are cards that find one or more other cards in your deck and play them without any further cost; they do not multiply effects, and do not have to be left in play if they play a Duration.

  • GolemGolem.jpg - archetype for this subcategory; digs for and plays two Actions
  • VentureVenture.jpg - digs for and plays a Treasure
  • HeraldHerald.jpg - plays the top card of your deck, if it's an Action

Marginals

  • Band of MisfitsBand of Misfits.jpg - its Action emulation effect plays similarly to a Throne Room variant
  • CultistCultist.jpg - technically plays another Action from your hand, but since it can only play other Cultists, is not usually thought of as a Throne Room variant

Strategy

The multiplying effect of Throne Room variants is most useful on cards you are less likely to have many copies of, either by being expensive, or having low availability (e.g., being a Prize). King's Court is aptly named here, as its unique ability to triple an effect makes it very useful even on more mundane cards. Using Throne Room variants on other Throne Room variants (Prince and, to an extent, Golem don't work here) can also form the core of an engine, up to even replacing villages, though be careful when using Procession for this, as you may find yourself running out of Processions! For example, King's Court on another King's Court allows you to play three Actions three times. Whereas a single King's Court on a terminal draw card might leave you with a bunch of Actions you can't do anything with, if you played another King's Court first, you now have two more chances to triple cards, and if either of them give at least +1 Action (or is another King's Court), your engine can continue to trundle along afterwards. Once you get to your Buy phase, it's usually better to not do this with Counterfeit; since you can play any number of Treasures, the only benefit to Counterfeiting another Counterfeit is an extra $1 and +Buy, which is usually not worth the cost of trashing the moderately expensive Counterfeit.

Since the effect of playing another Action card does not cost an Action, if a cantrip (or any other card that gives +1 Action) is played, your remaining Actions can actually increase, rather than remaining the same. For example, playing King's Court on a PeddlerPeddler.jpg will leave you with 3 cards drawn, +$3, and 3 Actions remaining; if you had just played three Peddlers in a row, you would only have 1 Action remaining. This makes engines much more viable in Kingdoms without villages.

Bear in mind that certain cards cannot be multiplied like this. Any card with a "while in play" clause will not have that effect multiplied; for example, Bridge'sBridge.jpg cost reduction can be multiplied, whereas Highway'sHighway.jpg cannot. Also, any one-shot with an "if you do" clause referring to its removal from your deck will not be able to be multiplied. FeastFeast.jpg does not possess such a clause, and is typically much better in games with Throne Room variants.

The danger of Throne Room variants is that they can be dead cards if they don't line up in the same hand with another Action to play. Thus, adding a Throne Room to a Big Money deck with only a few Action cards is unlikely to actually let you double-play those few Actions very often; they need decks with a relatively high density of Action cards.

Golem variants play slightly differently. While Golem itself does quite well in the same sort of situations as multipliers, Herald requires a much higher Action density in order to trigger, and Venture does much better in big money style decks with light to heavy trashing.


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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