Border Guard
Border Guard | |
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Info | |
Cost | |
Type(s) | Action |
Kingdom card? | Yes |
Set |
Renaissance![]() |
Illustrator(s) | Claus Stephan |
Card text | |
+1 Action Reveal the top 2 cards of your deck. Put one into your hand and discard the other. If both were Actions, take the Lantern or Horn. |
Border Guard is an Action card from Renaissance. It is a cantrip that lets you choose one of the top 2 cards of your deck to draw. If all the cards you choose between are Actions, you can get one of its corresponding Artifacts, the Lantern or the Horn. Both Artifacts extend the abilities of Border Guard.
Contents |
FAQ
Official FAQ
- When you play a Border Guard and do not have the Lantern, you reveal the top 2 cards of your deck, choose one and put it into your hand, and discard the other; then if they were both Action cards, you take the Lantern or the Horn.
- When you play a Border Guard and have the Lantern, you reveal the top 3 cards of your deck, choose one and put it into your hand, and discard the rest; then if all three were Action cards, you may take the Horn.
- If you reveal fewer than 2 cards, or fewer than 3 cards when you have the Lantern, you don't take an Artifact.
- Both the Horn and the Lantern function the turn you get them.
Other rules clarifications
- Lantern will still affect Border Guards you play from the Supply (with e.g. Band of Misfits) or the trash (with Necromancer)
- If you play Border Guard using Way of the Chameleon (which may still be useful against an Enchantress attack), and you have the Lantern, you'll still reveal 3 cards. [1]
- If Border Guard is Reckless, Lantern affects both iterations, so you'll reveal a total of 6 cards. [2]
- If Border Guard is Reckless, you can topdeck one of your Border Guards with Horn, while the others will return to the Supply.
Strategy
Border Guard is effectively a cheap cantrip sifter, and as such is often a small, low opportunity cost way to improve the reliability of your deck.
Almost all decks appreciate sifting as a way to ensure good collisions and cycling to strong cards, and because Border Guard offers that in a non-terminal and draw-neutral package it is good in many decks. Money strategies can often use help finding higher value Treasures, while engines may need help finding their draw cards, for example ensuring Village and Smithy collisions. Border Guard’s sifting is not particularly strong as it only allows you to pick between two cards, and thus is much weaker than cards such as Forum, and Border Guard’s presence is usually not enough to ignore thinning and other methods of deck control.
Border Guard can be decent in the opening if you open it alongside a high-priority card such as Remake that appreciates the cycling, and if hitting higher pricepoints such as is not a priority. Given that it’s almost always a net positive addition to a deck, it’s often worth getting one if you have and a Buy left over, at any point throughout the game. In Kingdoms without sources of +Buy or gainers, Border Guard is less relevant as the opportunity cost of spending a Buy on it is likely high.
The Horn and Lantern are, like Border Guard itself, usually a small improvement to your reliability, but not so strong as to heavily prioritize getting them. The Horn is useful to help you find cards to start your turn, while the Lantern makes all of your Border Guards slightly stronger sifters. Both are easier to get if you have thinned out your starting cards and added many Action cards, and thus are usually acquired easily as a side effect of building a strong deck. If you take the Lantern first, all three cards revealed by your Border Guards must be Action cards in order to take the Horn, so it is usually best to take the Horn first, and only take the Lantern instead if you strongly want to find a specific card on the current turn.
Versions
English versions
Digital | Text | Release | Date | |
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+1 Action Reveal the top 2 cards of your deck. Put one into your hand and discard the other. If both were Actions, take the Lantern or Horn. |
Renaissance | November 2018 |
Other language versions
Trivia
Border Guard is the only Kingdom card that lets you take two Artifacts.
Secret History
Retrospective