Cathedral
| Cathedral | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Info | |
| Cost |
 |
| Type | Project |
| Set |
Renaissance |
| Illustrator(s) | Joshua Stewart |
| Project text | |
| At the start of your turn, trash a card from your hand. | |
Cathedral is a Project from Renaissance. It forces you to trash a card from your hand at the start of every turn. Since the trashing is mandatory, +Buy, junkers, and gainers can help you gain cards to feed it.
FAQ
Official FAQ
- Once you have claimed this ability, it is not optional.
- There is no way to remove your cube.
Strategy
Cathedral is generally considered to be the strongest Project. It is one of the most effective ways to thin your deck, on par with cards such as Chapel and only outclassed by Donate.
Cathedral is usually best bought on turn 1 rather than turn 2 or later. This allows you to trash an Estate immediately on turn 2 before reshuffling your deck the first time. The more immediate payoff gives Cathedral a leg up over other trashers that only begin to take effect on turn 3 or later.
Because Cathedral is a Project, its effect applies every turn, which makes it much faster at trashing than similar cards such as Ratcatcher which can only trash at most one card per shuffle rather than once per turn. And as it is not a card, Cathedral avoids the drawback of cards like Chapel and Moneylender becoming useless cards in your deck once trashing is complete.
Cathedral is not optional, so you may be forced to trash valuable cards when you draw no junk in your starting hand. While undesired trashing often occurs at least once or twice per game with Cathedral, players often overestimate the risk. A deck so clean of junk that it regularly draws no cards worth trashing is already well on its way to winning. Cathedral's value in getting your deck to that state tends to vastly outweigh the more visible but ultimately less significant harm of forcing you to trash a few useful cards late in the game.
Cathedral does have one notable anti-synergy: handsize attacks. Cards such as Militia will force you to play with a 3-card starting hand, from which you will still be expected to trash a card to Cathedral. Playing out a full turn from the resulting 2-card hand will often be difficult, and trashers that might otherwise be slower than Cathedral may become more desirable in the presence of such Attacks. But in the absence of alternative trashing, Cathedral can still be worth buying even in these contexts.
Cathedral synergizes with Duration draw such as Wharf, Enchantress, and Hireling. These cards increase your starting hand size, which gives a wider selection of cards to trash and reduces the likelihood of being forced to trash a valuable card. Cathedral also synergizes with cards that allow you to topdeck cards for the following turn, such as Courtyard and Artisan, and allow you to guarantee there is a card worth trashing.
External strategy articles
Note: Article(s) below are by individual authors and may not represent the community's views on cards, but may provide more in-depth information. Caveat emptor.
Versions
English versions
| Digital | Text | Release | Date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
 |
At the start of your turn, trash a card from your hand. | November 2018 |
Other language versions
| Language | Name | Digital | Text | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chinese | 大教堂 (pron. dàjiàotáng) | |||
| Dutch | Kathedraal |  |
Aan het begin van je beurt: Vernietig een kaart uit je hand. | |
| French | Cathédrale | Au début de votre tour, écartez une carte de votre main. | ||
| German | Kathedrale |  |
 |
Zu Beginn deines Zuges: entsorge eine deiner Handkarten. |
| Japanese | 大聖堂 (pron. daiseidō) | あなたのターンの開始時に、手札1枚を廃棄する。 | ||
| Russian | Собор | |||
| Spanish | Catedral |  |
Al iniciar tu turno, elimina una carta de tu mano. |
Trivia
Secret History
+. Once it became a Project, it didn't change.Why does it cost 3?
. I may not have ever devoted specific consideration to Cathedral there. I don't try every card at every cost to see what went the best; time could never permit. However, there are the classic things that distinguish costs from -
: openings, +Buys, and perception. +Buys are not relevant here. Perception is a little open here; there's nothing like Cathedral. And then openings are huge; at you can open with a and Cathedral. Which game plays better, the one where that happens, or the one where the / can't get Cathedral without spending the on it? Again I haven't done the experiment, but you see how I guessed.
