Cellar

Cellar
Info
Cost
Type(s)	Action
Kingdom card?	Yes
Set	Base
Illustrator(s)	Matthias Catrein
Card text
+1 Action Discard any number of cards, then draw that many.

Cellar is an Action card from the Base set that acts as a sifter, replacing cards you do not want in your hand with an equal number of cards from the top of your deck. Using Cellar to sift reduces the number of cards you have in hand, but hopefully increases their average quality.

FAQ

Official FAQ

• Choose any number of cards from your hand; discard them all at once; then draw as many cards as you actually discarded.
• If this causes you to shuffle, you will shuffle in the cards you discarded.
• You do not have to let players see any but the top card discarded; however the number of cards you discard is public.

Other rules clarifications

• You cannot discard the Cellar itself, since it is not in your hand after you play it.

Strategy

Cellar is a weak sifting card. Cellar’s main drawbacks are that you discard before drawing, and that it decreases your handsize by one. Cellar’s main advantages are that the opportunity cost to gain one is usually low, and it can cycle an unlimited number of cards. Cellar is therefore best played from a large starting handsize, when you can discard more stop cards at once.

Since Cellar lets you choose how many cards to sift, it can give you some flexibility with regard to timing your reshuffles. In some cases, it may be advisable to not discard all the junk cards you have in hand, if discarding fewer would let you avoid triggering a reshuffle of a deck with mostly junk cards in it.

Cellar works best in Kingdoms with limited or no trashing but strong draw, where its cycling can be most useful. It can help you find good cards in a sloggy deck (such as when facing a Witch), and can make some engines more reliable. But in a slim, Treasure-less engine in a trashing-heavy game, Cellar is usually unnecessary.

Notable Synergies

• Cards that interact with discarding (e.g. Village Green)
• Cards that increase starting handsize (e.g. Tactician)

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.

• theory's 2010 article

Versions

English versions

Print	Digital	Text	Release	Date
		+1 Action Discard any number of cards. +1 Card per card discarded.	Dominion	October 2008
		+1 Action Discard any number of cards, then draw that many.	Dominion (Second Edition)	October 2016

Other language versions

Language	Name	Print	Digital	Text	Notes
Chinese	地窖 (pron. dìjiào)			＋1 行動。 棄掉任意張數的卡片， 抽取相同數量的卡片。
Czech	Sklepení (lit. vault)
Dutch	Kelder			+1 Actie Leg een aantal kaarten naar keuze af. +1 Kaart per afgelegde kaart.	Tweede editie (herdruk 2019/2020) "...+1 Kaart per afgelegde kaart en dan trek hetzelfde aantal kaarten."
Finnish	Kellari
French	Cave			+1 Action Défaussez autant de cartes que vous voulez. +1 Carte par carte défaussée.	(2008)
	Cave			+1 Action Défaussez autant de cartes que vous voulez, puis piochez-en le même nombre.	(2018)
German	Keller			+1 Aktion Lege beliebig viele deiner Handkarten ab und ziehe dann die gleiche Anzahl Karten.	2. Edition (Nachdruck 2019; Nachdruck 2022) Note: Earlier versions of this card (2008 and 2013) erroneously aren't phrased as +Card.
Hungarian	Pince
Italian	Sotterraneo
Japanese	地下貯蔵庫 (pron. chika chozōko)			+1 アクション 好きな枚数のカードを捨て札にし、 同じ枚数のカードを引く。
Korean	저장고 (pron. jeojang-go)
Norwegian	Kjeller
Polish	Piwnica			+1 akcja Odrzuć dowolną liczbę kart. +1 karta za każdą odrzuconą kartę.	(2009/2011)
	Piwnica			+1 akcja Odrzuć dowolną liczbę kart, a następnie dobierz tyle, ile odrzuciłeś.	II Edycja (2018)
Romanian	Pivniţă
Russian	Погреба (pron. pogryeba, Smart Ltd) Погреб (pron. pogryeb, Dominion Online)			+1 Действие Сбросьте любое число карт, затем вытяните столько же.
Spanish	Sótano			+1 Acción Descarta las cartas que quieras. Roba +1 Carta por cada carta descartada.	Primera Edición (2008)
	Sótano			+1 Acción Descarta la cantidad de cartas que quieras y roba la misma cantidad.	Segunda Edición (2016, 2021)

Trivia

Official card art.

Secret History

The oldest version of this didn't give you +1 Action. It obviously needed it, got it early on, and survived unscathed since.

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

View all Dominion cards