Apprentice

Apprentice
Info
Cost
Type(s)	Action
Kingdom card?	Yes
Set	Alchemy
Illustrator(s)	Martin Hoffmann
Card text
+1 Action Trash a card from your hand. +1 Card per it costs. +2 Cards if it has in its cost.

Apprentice is an Action card from Alchemy. It is a trash-for-benefit card that provides non-terminal draw based on the trashed card's cost.

FAQ

Official FAQ

• If you trash a card costing , such as Curse or Copper, you do not draw any cards.
• Otherwise you draw a card per the card you trashed cost, and another two cards if it had in its cost. For example if you trashed a Golem, which costs , you would draw 6 cards.

Other Rules clarifications

• If you trash a card with in the cost, the component is ignored.

Strategy

Apprentice is a somewhat expensive trash for benefit thinner and non-terminal draw card whose strength fluctuates throughout the game.

In the early game, Apprentice is expensive at , but very good at getting rid of Estates. Using it to do so both trashes the worst cards in your deck and draws two cards, allowing you to still generate enough to afford what you want, cycle quickly through your early shuffles, and subsequently play a terminal. However, Apprentice is very inefficient when used to trash Coppers, providing you with no immediate benefit for doing so. Thus, Apprentice is best paired with other trashers that can handle the Coppers, such as Moneylender. If trashing Estates is a high priority and there aren’t more powerful cards such as Old Witch competing for attention, Apprentice as your first purchase is often a good goal.

In the mid- and endgame, after you’ve trashed all of your Estates, Apprentice can be weak if the only cards you now have to trash are Coppers. Apprentice is therefore best in Kingdoms that allow you to provide high fodder for Apprentice easily, with Gold gainers being the most common example. Market Square synergizes particularly well with Apprentice, as Apprentice can activate Market Square’s Reaction and then draw the Golds gained; this can very quickly ramp up both your payload and the available Apprentice fodder. Fortress, Rats, and Populate are other examples of effects that can provide a large (or, in Fortress’ case, an infinite) amount of fodder. In this stage of the game, if you can collide your Apprentice with its fodder and reliably use your gainer, Apprentice shifts to become a very powerful draw card, increasing your hand size by four if you trash a Gold. Adding a couple more Apprentices and more gainers for fodder increases these collison odds and your ability to draw.

While Apprentice does technically care about costs, very rarely is this relevant, as most cost cards are difficult to gain and therefore not easily available as fodder for Apprentice. Trashing Familiar after the Curses have run out is typically the most common case of this mattering.

Versions

English versions

Print	Digital	Text	Release	Date
		+1 Action Trash a card from your hand. +1 Card per it costs. +2 Cards if it has in its cost.	Alchemy 1st Edition	May 2010
		+1 Action Trash a card from your hand. +1 Card per it costs. +2 Cards if it has in its cost.	Alchemy 2nd Edition	December 2018

Other language versions

Language	Name	Print	Digital	Text	Notes
Chinese	學徒 (pron. xuétú)
Czech	Učedník
Dutch	Leerling
Finnish	Oppipoika
French	Apprenti
German	Lehrling			+1 Aktion Entsorge eine deiner Handkarten. +1 Karte pro , das jene Karte kostet. +2 Karten, wenn jene Karte in ihren Kosten hat.	(2019)
Italian	Apprendista
Japanese	弟子 (pron. deshi)			+1 アクション 手札1枚を廃棄する。そのコストにつき+1 カードを引く。コストにがある場合、+2 カードを引く。
Polish	Uczeń				Although Polish version is not released, this name is referred to in Polish Dominion 2E rulebook.
Russian	Подмастерье (pron. podmastyer'ye)			+1 Действие Выкиньте карту из руки. +1 Карта за каждую её стоимости. +2 Карты если в её стоимости было .
Spanish	Aprendiz			+1 Acción Elimina una carta de tu mano. +1 Carta por cada que cueste y +2 Cartas si incluye una en su coste.

Trivia

Official card art.

Preview

I know what you're thinking. Not now, in a second. You're thinking, someday, I will trash a Province with that, and draw eight cards. You will, too. And if trashing a Province with it can be good, trashing anything can be good. They especially like to feed on each other.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Dominion: Alchemy Preview

Secret History

This started out in another set, without the potion part. It seemed like a good fit for this set, so I moved it here, first at . At that cost it was slow to get going, and eventually I put it back at . The potion part makes it seem less sad when you are playing an Alchemy-heavy game, and also answers the question "what does it do with potion costs" right on the card.

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

Retrospective

Probably I would drop the clause from Apprentice. It got that because 1) it meant every card in the set interacted in some way with potions, and 2) it answers the question "what if I trash a card with in the cost" right on the card. But really, whatever, the simpler version is better.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, What Donald X. Might Do With a Dominion Time Machine

Secretly Apprentice is in Alchemy just to have an awesome card in Alchemy. It was doing great work in Hinterlands. The clause was of course a mistake. It rarely matters and makes the card messier. We let Hobby Japan drop it from one of their rethemes. Some people did really want every card to relate to the theme. But I mean that turns out to be bad also.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Dominion Discord, 2022