Wishing Well
Wishing Well | |
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Info | |
Cost | |
Type(s) | Action |
Kingdom card? | Yes |
Set | Intrigue |
Illustrator(s) | Ryan Laukat |
Card text | |
+1 Card +1 Action Name a card, then reveal the top card of your deck. If you named it, put it into your hand. |
Wishing Well is an Action card from Intrigue. It is a cantrip since it always gives +1 Card/+1 action, and can be as good as a Laboratory if you guess what's on top of your deck. Thus, it rewards tracking what's left in your deck.
Contents |
FAQ
Official FAQ
- First you draw a card and get +1 Action.
- Then name a card - a name, not a type, so e.g. "Copper," not "Treasure."
- Reveal the top card of your deck. If it has the name you named, put it into your hand, otherwise leave it on your deck.
Other Rules clarifications
Strategy
Wishing Well is a cantrip that lets you draw an additional card if you can correctly predict its identity. In the best case, where you can guarantee knowledge of this card, Wishing Well is equivalent to a cheaper Laboratory; even if you can't guarantee a correct wish, you can often make an educated guess, meaning that some of your Wishing Wells will still act as non-terminal draw.
Guaranteeing a draw with Wishing Well requires specific circumstances, since most effects that inspect or manipulate the top of your deck (e.g. Watchtower) only leave you with information about the single top card, which will be drawn by Wishing Well’s cantrip effect. However, there are several interactions that can enable such a guarantee. A strong type of synergy involves cards which can reveal the order of multiple cards on top of your deck, such as Cartographer, Apothecary, and Seer. Secret Passage provides a weaker overall pairing, but it does allow you to reliably place a known card in the right position to name for Wishing Well. Finally, when you play Wishing Well with only two cards left in your deck, it is always possible to name the last one if you have kept close track of your deck's contents.
If you don't know which card is next in your deck, you need to consider both the probability of each possible card and the impact that drawing that card would have on your current turn when deciding what to wish for. Diligent deck tracking is very helpful in this regard. In the absence of support to help inform your wish, it's often best to simply maximize your chances of drawing any card at all; this is usually easiest to achieve when there are fewer cards remaining in your deck (meaning that it's best to play Wishing Well after your other draw cards) and there is a clear-cut most common card within those remaining cards. In the early game, this is likely to be Copper, but if you are building an engine where Wishing Well is an important source of draw, often the most likely card subsequently becomes Wishing Well itself. As you add payload or start greening, Wishing Well tends to lose value as your deck increasingly lacks a clear majority of any particular card. If there is no clear most likely card, or that card would not be very helpful for your current turn, an alternative, higher variance approach to selecting your wish is to wish for the card you most want to find. This most commonly involves naming a specific card that you need in order to continue drawing (e.g. a village or draw card) or to reach a specific price point when a small amount of is missing. While this approach may often fail, the difference between essentially cycling past a useless card and having a strong turn can be great enough to take the risk.
In a few situations, it may be desirable to intentionally wish incorrectly, e.g. to avoid a reshuffle or to leave an important card such as a village on top for your next turn. Unintentionally wishing incorrectly can also occasionally produce a useful side effect in the form of an interaction with a card like Lookout or Chariot Race, which can benefit from Wishing Well having revealed the top card of your deck without drawing it.
External strategy articles
Note: Article(s) below are by individual authors and may not represent the community's current views on cards, but may provide more in-depth information or give historical perspective. Caveat emptor.
Versions
English versions
Digital | Text | Release | Date | |
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+1 Card +1 Action Name a card. Reveal the top card of your deck. If it's the named card, put it into your hand. |
Intrigue | July 2009 | ||
+1 Card +1 Action Name a card, then reveal the top card of your deck. If you named it, put it into your hand. |
Intrigue 2nd Edition | October 2016 |
Other language versions
Trivia
Secret History
Further comments from Donald X.