Caravan Guard

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Caravan Guard
Info
Cost
Type(s)	Action - Duration - Reaction
Kingdom card?	Yes
Set	Adventures
Illustrator(s)	Julien Delval
Card text
+1 Card +1 Action At the start of your next turn, +. When another player plays an Attack card, you may first play this from your hand.

Caravan Guard is an Action-Duration-Reaction card from Adventures. It is a delayed Peddler variant, but its -producing can be sped up by letting you play it when another player plays an Attack.

FAQ

Official FAQ

• This gives you +1 Card and +1 Action when you play it, and then + at the start of your next turn after that.
• This card has a Reaction ability that lets you play it when another player plays an Attack card.
• Playing this during another player's turn is similar to playing it during your own turn - you put Caravan Guard into play, get +1 Card and +1 Action, and will get + at the start of your next turn - the very next turn you take. However getting +1 Action during someone else's turn does not do anything for you; it does not let you play other Action cards during that player’s turn.
• Similarly if a token gives you + or +1 Buy during another player's turn, that still does not let you buy cards during that player’s turn (although + can cancel the - token given out by Bridge Troll).
• The +1 Action (or potential other +'s) does not carry over to your next turn either.
• After reacting with a Caravan Guard, you can use another one, even one you just drew, and also can use other Reactions, even ones you just drew; you keep going until you have no more Reactions you wish to respond to the Attack with.

Other Rules clarifications

• If you call Royal Carriage on Caravan Guard after you play it as a Reaction during another player's turn, it will stay in play until your next turn and give you an extra + at that time, as you would expect. However, if you call Coin of the Realm, it will be discarded during the Clean-up phase of the Attacking player's turn, and the +2 Actions it will give you don't do anything for you, as +Action doesn't mean anything when it's not your turn.
• If you react with this against a Relic, you draw a card, and then you put your -1 Card token on your deck.
• If you react with a Trained Caravan Guard against a Bridge Troll, and you don't have your - token, you will get + before you take your - token, so you won't be able to remove it. But if you get affected by a different attack afterwards, reacting with a Trained Caravan Guard will remove your - token.

Strategy

There is no strategy article for Caravan Guard, but it has been discussed on the forum.

Caravan Guard is generally viewed as a weak card. When there are no attacks, it is a delayed Peddler - but with a card like Peddler, you really want the money now, not next turn. It is worth picking up in cases where you would really like to buy something, but there are no other cheap cantrips that won't hurt your deck in some way or another. In many types of engines, you'd rather have a weak cantrip than a Silver, for example. In that vein, it's similar to cards like Pearl Diver, Vagrant and Great Hall. Like all of these cards, Caravan Guard is most useful when you just want to have a bunch of Actions in your deck, for example if you want to play Conspirator or Herald chains, or you have a Golem or Scrying Pool engine.

Caravan Guard loses its delay when you are attacked during your opponent's turn, in which case it just becomes a Peddler. Against most attacks, though, it's not exactly the greatest defense ever - you'd rather not get a Curse than be able to play your Caravan Guard as a Peddler. One exception is handsize attacks like Militia; since you get the Caravan Guard(s) in play before you have to discard, you can mitigate the negative effects of the attack. It can also trigger a reshuffle, which is useful if you have dead cards in your hand when hit by a handsize attack. That way, the dead cards miss the reshuffle.

Another little trick is playing Caravan Guard against non-offensive attacks. If your opponent plays Minion for the coins, technically they still played an Attack, so you're allowed to drop any Caravan Guards you have on the table. Other examples include Giant when your opponent's Journey token is facing the wrong way, Haunted Woods when you don't have any dead cards, or Swamp Hag when you're not planning on buying anything (because maybe you want to gain cards another way instead, or buy an Event).

Versions

English versions

Print	Digital	Text	Release	Date
		+1 Card +1 Action At the start of your next turn, +. When another player plays an Attack card, you may play this from your hand. (+1 Action has no effect if it's not your turn.)	Adventures	April 2015
		+1 Card +1 Action At the start of your next turn, +. When another player plays an Attack card, you may first play this from your hand. (+1 Action has no effect if it's not your turn.)	Adventures (2016 printing)	August 2017
		+1 Card +1 Action At the start of your next turn, +. When another player plays an Attack card, you may first play this from your hand.		June 29, 2022

Other language versions

Language	Name	Print	Digital	Text	Notes
Dutch	Karavaanescorte (lit. caravan escort)
Finnish	Karavaanivartija
French	Escorte (lit. escort)			+1 Carte +1 Action Au début de votre prochain tour, +. Quand un adversaire joue une carte Attaque, vous pouvez d'abord jouer cette carte de votre main. (+1 Action n'a pas d'effet en dehors de votre tour.)
German	Karawanenwächter			+1 Karte +1 Aktion Zu Beginn deines nächsten Zuges: + Wenn ein Mitspieler eine Angriffskarte ausspielt, darfst du diese Karte aus deiner Hand ausspielen. (+1 Aktion hat dann keinen Effekt.)	(2015)
	Karawanenwächter			+1 Karte +1 Aktion Zu Beginn deines nächsten Zuges: + Wenn ein Mitspieler eine Angriffskarte spielt, darfst du zuerst diese Karte aus deiner Hand spielen. (+1 Aktion hat keinen Effekt, wenn es nicht dein Zug ist.)	(Nachdruck 2021)
	Karawanenwächter			+1 Karte +1 Aktion Zu Beginn deines nächsten Zuges: + Wenn ein Mitspieler eine Angriffskarte spielt, darfst du zuerst diese Karte aus deiner Hand spielen.
Japanese	隊商の護衛 (noun. taishō no goei, lit. caravan escort)			+1 カードを引く +1 アクション あなたの次のターンの開始時 に、+。 他のプレイヤーがアタックカードを便用するとき、 その解決前に、手札からこれを使用してもよい。 (あなたのターン以外では、+1 アクションの効果はない)。
Russian	Охрана Каравана (pron. okhrana karavana)

Trivia

Caravan Guard was the first card released that can be played when it isn't your turn. More such cards have been released since Dominion: Menagerie.

Official card art.

Secret History

This came out of looking specifically to see if I'd missed some corner of possibilities for Durations. This is a Duration that's a round faster if you get attacked. The phrasing was an issue; what if you play it on someone else's turn and have a + token on the pile? I decided that playing the card was just way simpler than simulating playing it, and in the end it got some explanatory text.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, The Secret History of Dominion: Adventures

Donald X.'s opinion

Caravan Guard hasn't gone over as well as I would have liked so far, but I'm still a fan. It's a little lackluster sans attacks, though I still get it some. Against attacks, man, gimme my peddlers.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Let's Discuss Adventures Cards: Caravan Guard

When you're being attacked a lot, it's a Peddler, except you get a turn delay if you draw it mid-turn. When you aren't, okay, it's a delayed Peddler and I mean you can buy it over Silver like Harbinger and feel like it's always doing something. I dunno other people are more down on this than I am, but obv. it's way better when they're attacking you.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, $3 Cost Card Rankings Bottom Half