Altar

Altar
Info
Cost
Type(s)	Action
Kingdom card?	Yes
Set	Dark Ages
Illustrator(s)	Matthias Catrein
Card text
Trash a card from your hand. Gain a card costing up to .

Altar is an Action card from Dark Ages. It is a trasher which can trash one card at a time, and a gainer which can gain you cards costing up to . It is effective at transforming your junk into expensive Actions.

FAQ

Official FAQ

• You trash a card from your hand if you can, and then gain a card whether or not you trashed one.

Other Rules clarifications

• Neither step is optional.

Strategy

Altar is a terminal trasher and strong gainer. It differs significantly from Remodel variants and other typical trash-for-benefit effects in that the value of the benefit (i.e., the range of cards you can gain) does not vary depending on the value of the card you trash, which means Altar can be used to turn junk into valuable cards costing . Since trashing your starting cards and gaining expensive cards are both strong effects in the early game, Altar is generally highly attractive if you can obtain a copy quickly, while often continuing to have value as a gainer later on.

Viewed purely as a trasher and a way to get deck control, Altar is somewhat inefficient because it is expensive, terminal, and only trashes a single card at a time. In spite of this, Altar can be a strong addition to your deck because the gaining effect provides significant value no matter what you trash. If the Kingdom is lacking other trashers, adding an Altar as early as possible may be a priority. In this case, because is an especially high price, it's usually necessary to tailor your opening purchases around this objective. Particularly useful options include Baron, which can help you spike , and effects like Ferry or Transport which guarantee the ability to acquire an Altar before the second reshuffle. If such options are not available, opening with two Silvers (or one and a terminal Silver like Cargo Ship) gives you a reasonable chance (42% in most cases) of affording an Altar.

As a gainer, Altar will provide you with strong cards costing , which is useful at any stage of the game. In the early and midgame, it lets you build faster by gaining engine pieces. Altar can be especially important if the Kingdom otherwise lacks options for extra gains, and it may be worth adding additional copies if there are particularly desirable cards such as Cursed Village. In the endgame, you can use Altar to score by gaining Duchies; it is sometimes worth trashing otherwise useful cards to do so. If you do have other sources of gains, particularly in the form of excess +Buy, it can sometimes be worth using these (once you've run out of junk to trash) on cheap cards for Altar to turn into more valuable cards, provided that this won't significantly impact your deck control. Occasionally, because Altar synergizes with cost reduction in a similar way to Workshop variants, it can be used to gain more expensive cards such as Province or Nobles.

Versions

English versions

Print	Digital	Text	Release	Date
		Trash a card from your hand. Gain a card costing up to .	Dark Ages 1st Edition	August 2012
		Trash a card from your hand. Gain a card costing up to .	Dark Ages 2nd Edition	September 2017

Other language versions

Language	Name	Print	Digital	Text	Notes
Czech	Oltář			Zahoď kartu z ruky na smetiště. Vezmi si kartu s cenou až .
Dutch	Altaar			Vernietig een kaart uit je hand. Pak een kaart met een waarde van ten hoogste .
Finnish	Alttari
French	Autel
German	Altar			Entsorge eine deiner Handkarten. Nimm eine Karte, die bis zu kostet.	(2019)
Japanese	祭壇 (pron. saidan)			手札1枚を廃棄する。 コスト以下のカード1枚を獲得する。
Korean	제단 (pron. jedan)
Polish	Ołtarz				Although Polish version is not released, this name is referred to in Polish Dominion 2E rulebook.
Russian	Алтарь (pron. altar')
Spanish	Altar

Trivia

Official card art.

Secret History

This is identical to the original version from 2007 except for name. Originally it was Foundry, then Tinker. I called it Altar so you could sacrifice Cultists to it. No, don't thank me; it's what I'm here for.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, The Secret History of the Dark Ages Cards