Capital City
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| Capital City | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Info | |
| Cost |
 |
| Type(s) | Action |
| Kingdom card? | Yes |
| Set |
Allies |
| Illustrator(s) | Lynell Ingram |
| Card text | |
|
+1 Card +2 Actions You may discard 2 cards for +  for +2 Cards. | |
Capital City is an Action card from Allies. It is a village that allows you to trade 
for extra draw, or vice versa—or both, making it a sifter.
FAQ
Official FAQ
- First draw a card and get +2 Actions.
- Then decide if you want to discard 2 cards for +. You may choose to do this even with fewer than 2 cards in hand, and will discard what you can, but you only get + if you actually discarded 2 cards.
- Then decide if you want to spend for +2 Cards. The can come from discarding to Capital City, or some other source, e.g. a Barbarian you played earlier in the turn. You don't get to play Treasures here to make the though.
Other rules clarifications
- If you play this with Way of the Chameleon, you may discard 2 cards for +2 Cards. You can also pay for +, although this isn't useful.
Strategy
Capital city is expensive among villages, but it tends to build engines that are more reliable and resilient to added cards, due to its sifting effect. In the absence of good trashing, especially in games with junkers, it is consistently at least as good as a Laboratory, and often better, both due to drawing +3 total cards, the added benefit of +1 Action, and greater flexibility in the choice to take only coin instead of card draw, which can be useful if you are short of a key purchase. Laboratory is considered a universally strong card that benefits most decks, so this card being significantly stronger than a lab in some circumstances is significant. Even when trashing exists, Capital city can help ensure your engine stays functional late in the game as your deck fills with victory cards.
Terminal draw synergizes strongly with Capital City, increasing the likelihood that if two or more are played, unwanted cards can be discarded. In an engine able to draw the whole deck, the discarded cards can even be picked up later, so this card can not only serve the purpose of ensuring that the engine starts smoothly, but in some circumstances, can repeatedly discard the same cards for coin, and can provide a main source of purchasing power in a deck with more drawing power than is needed to draw the whole deck.
This card can sometimes still be a good buy even in the absence of terminal draw, allowing for a money-based strategy that adds more terminal actions than it otherwise would. The sifting can speed deck cycling, allowing you to more quickly draw newly-obtained, more powerful cards. This effect is particularly useful if you are able to get this card early, such as on a / opening, and tends to provide less benefit if it is purchased later.
Capital city also synergizes to an extent with trash-for-benefit cards, as its sifting can help you to draw the right card to trash.
In the presence of strong trashing, however, it tend to be weak in the mid game, behaving like a heavily overpriced Village. It is especially weak in decks that rely on victory tokens and/or functional victory cards, as it does not even become much stronger in the late game. However, it can synergize with some alt-VP strategies that involve non-functional cards, especially in a slog.
Like other sifters, it is dramatically weaker in the presence of handsize attacks.
Its strengths must be weighed against its high cost. In the absence of trashing and handsize attacks, it is usually one of the strongest cards costing , but with strong trashing and/or handsize attacks, there are often much better buys.
External strategy articles
Versions
English versions
| Digital | Text | Release | Date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
 |
+1 Card +2 Actions You may discard 2 cards for + for +2 Cards. |
Allies | March 2022 |
Other language versions
| Language | Name | Digital | Text | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dutch | Hoofdstad |  |
+1 Kaart +2 Acties Je mag 2 kaarten afleggen voor + .Je mag betalen voor +2 Kaarten. |
(2022) | |
| German | Hauptstadt |  |
 |
+1 Karte +2 Aktionen Du darfst zwei Karten aus deiner Hand ablegen für + .Du darfst zahlen für +2 Karten. |
Trivia
Secret History
it gave you, and + per +1 Card it gave you. There are some tricky things here, but also some combos where it goes nuts. Letting you pay for Cards and Cards for is kind of similar without those combos and without being a Throne Room. I had other Throne Rooms. It was "up to 3" before I locked it in at "2."
