Baron

Baron
Info
Cost
Type(s)	Action
Kingdom card?	Yes
Set	Intrigue
Illustrator(s)	Ryan Laukat
Card text
+1 Buy You may discard an Estate for +. If you don't, gain an Estate.

Baron is an Action card from Intrigue. Keeping with the "Victory cards" theme in Intrigue, Baron provides both a way to gain Estates and to use them as a resource.

FAQ

Official FAQ

• You do not have to discard an Estate, but if you do not, you must gain an Estate (if any are left).

Strategy

Baron is a situational payload card that can provide a large amount of Action-based ; its main downside is that it is a terminal stop card that is reliant on collision with junk you would usually prefer to trash. Baron is not typically the best payload option, but it can be useful in the opening, in Kingdoms with the proper support or where it’s needed for the +Buy, and in situations where you actively want to keep your Estates.

Baron can be a relevant opening choice in the right situation. In the early game, when your chance of colliding it with Estate is naturally rather high, Baron can help you to spike or for expensive but important purchases such as Inheritance or Altar. Because Baron alone generates at the cost of two cards in hand, it is much more effective for this purpose than other options such as Silver. Alternatively, as it provides +Buy to accompany the , you can use it to buy two cheap engine pieces at once. Baron also works well with Alms: it generates enough to buy one useful card without putting Treasures into play and gives an extra Buy that allows you to gain another one with Alms.

Beyond this early game use, the value of Baron depends on the alternatives for payload and +Buy, the strength of the available draw, and the available terminal space and trashing. If terminal space is severely limited, other terminals may be more important to play. Similarly, if draw is somewhat limited and if there is a suitable trasher (such as Chapel or Remodel) available, using it to trash all your Estates is usually preferable. If such thinning is not available, strong draw or even sifting can both draw past the extra junk and ensure collision. Even if thinning is available, if you have complete deck control, it may be worth keeping a single Estate, as then Baron can reliably provide and +Buy; with overdraw, you can even use multiple Barons to discard the same Estate multiple times.

If you have independent reason to want Estates in your deck, such as with Inheritance or Shepherd, Baron becomes particularly attractive. The former is especially noteworthy: not only do both Inheritance and Baron put your Estates to good use, but Baron is also excellent at helping you afford Inheritance quickly and subsequently gain more Estates.

In most situations, you’ll strongly prefer to use Baron to discard an Estate rather than as an Estate gainer. Exceptions include strategies revolving around Inheritance, where extra Estates are very useful, and endgame situations where you want the extra  . Even in these cases, you will often prefer to buy the extra Estate rather than gain it with Baron’s effect, because the former option leaves you with an extra ; however, sometimes the extra gain is more important than the extra . Used for both an Estate gain and +Buy, particularly in combination with Throne Room variants, Baron can facilitate emptying the Estates as part of a pile-out.

Baron is often skippable in Shelters games because you do not have any Estates to use with it unless you gain them. While Baron allows you to easily gain an Estate if you so desire, this means that it has no immediate benefit the first time you play it; you now have four largely-useless cards in your deck rather than three; and you still have much worse odds of colliding Baron and Estate than in games without Shelters. These factors combine to make Baron much less desirable than usual.

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.

• theory's 2011 article

Versions

English versions

Print	Digital	Text	Release	Date
		+1 Buy You may discard an Estate card. If you do, +. Otherwise, gain an Estate card.	Intrigue 1st Edition	July 2009
		+1 Buy You may discard an Estate for +. If you don't, gain an Estate.	Intrigue 2nd Edition	October 2016

Other language versions

Language	Name	Print	Digital	Text	Notes
Chinese	男爵 (pron. nánjué)
Czech	Baron
Dutch	Baron
Finnish	Paroni
French	Baron
German	Baron			+1 Kauf Du darfst ein Anwesen ablegen. Wenn du das machst: +. Ansonsten: Nimm dir ein Anwesen.	(2009) one or more other versions listed here
German	Baron			+1 Kauf Du darfst ein Anwesen für + ablegen. Wenn du das nicht tust, nimm ein Anwesen.	2. Edition (2021)
Hungarian	Báró
Italian	Barone
Japanese	男爵 (pron. danshaku)			+1 購入 +のために、 屋敷1枚を捨て札にしてもよい。捨て札にしなかった場合、屋敷1枚を獲得する。
Korean	남작 (pron. namjag)
Norwegian	Baron
Polish	Baron			+1 zakup Możesz odrzucić kartę Posiadłości aby otrzymać . W przeciwnym wypadku dodajesz kartę Posiadłości.	(2016)
Russian	Барон (pron. baron)			+1 Покупка Вы можете сбросить Поместье, тогда +. Иначе получите Поместье.
Spanish	Barón

Trivia

Official card art.

Secret History

Going into development, the set had 20 kingdom cards. One day Jay said it would be better for him if it had 25. You know, stuff is cheaper at larger volumes. Having 25 kingdom cards was fine by me, so 25 it was. So I had to add five cards. This is one of them! I looked through the ideas file for stuff that fit the themes, and picked this as a supplement to the victory-cards-that-do-something-else theme.

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