Crown

Crown
Info
Cost
Type(s)	Action - Treasure
Kingdom card?	Yes
Set	Empires
Illustrator(s)	Marco Morte
Card text
If it's your Action phase, you may play an Action from your hand twice. If it's your Buy phase, you may play a Treasure from your hand twice.

Crown is an Action-Treasure card from Empires. It is a Throne Room variant that double-plays either Treasures or Actions depending on which phase of your turn it's played in.

FAQ

Official FAQ

• If you play this in your Action phase, you play an Action card from your hand, then play the same card again; this does not use up any extra Actions you have.
• If you play this in your Buy phase, you play a Treasure from your hand, then play it again; this does not use up any Actions at all.
• Crown can be used to play another Crown in either your Action or Buy phase, causing you to either play two more Actions twice each, or two more Treasures twice each.
• If you play Crown in your Action phase via something that lets you play Treasures (like Storyteller from Dominion: Adventures), Crown will still play an Action card twice.

Other Rules clarifications

• If you have abilities to resolve at the start of your turn, it is considered part of your Action phase, and you cannot end it. This means if you play Crown at the start of your turn (with e.g, Delay), you cannot skip to your Buy phase and play a Treasure twice.
• Crown counts as both an Action and a Treasure for all purposes, regardless of when you play it. If you play a Crown in your Action phase, it's still a Treasure and will be trashed from play if you buy Mint. If you play it in your Buy phase, it's still an Action and will reduce the cost of Peddler. And so on.
• Crown can be played as a Way even if it's played in the Buy phase.
• If you somehow manage to play Crown when it's neither your Action phase nor your Buy phase, you can't play any card from your hand twice. (This could happen if you gain it at Night (with e.g. Vampire) or Clean-up (with e.g. Improve) and then play it with Innovation.) The same is true if you play it on someone else's turn via some esoteric and unlikely combo.

Strategy

Crown is a Throne Room variant that can double-play Treasures as well as Action cards. As a slightly more expensive Throne Room that offers a minor increase in flexibility, it is a strong addition to most engines, as it can amplify your draw and payload as needed while acting as a village simultaneously; however, its relatively high price can make it more difficult to acquire in bulk, and so it's especially appealing in Kingdoms where you can gain it easily, e.g. with Artisan or Tragic Hero.

Compared to Throne Room, Crown provides added flexibility in its ability to double-play Treasures as well as Action cards. Gaining Crown specifically for this purpose is usually not the best use of resources, as it typically only nets the same value as another copy of that Treasure. However, it can be a good use for a spare Crown if you are overdrawing and didn't need it to double-play a draw card this turn, or as a fallback plan on a dud turn where you draw Crown without a good Action phase target. Situationally, Crowning a strong Treasure such as Horn of Plenty or Platinum can be a good move, and there are also a few cases in which Treasures offer specific synergy as Crown targets. Notably, Capital can be a good target, as you play it twice to spike a large amount of while only incurring the once.

The fact that Crown has the Treasure type provides some additional benefits even when you're not using it to Crown Treasures. Most importantly, this means you can put it into play during resolution of Black Market or Storyteller in order to double-play an Action card without using up terminal space. Crown’s additional typing may also be relevant with effects such as Mint or Bandit. Less frequently, it could be useful to play Crown using a Way during the Buy phase in order to do so without using terminal space; this is not typically the most effective use for your Crown, but it may occasionally be relevant, e.g. to set one aside for next turn using Way of the Turtle. The downside of this feature is that you cannot Crown Action cards during your Buy phase, so it cannot offer the same lines of play that Throne Room can with certain effects such as Toil and Gamble.

Like other Throne Room variants, Crown can be a good target for bonus tokens, particularly the +Card token (e.g. from Pathfinding), which increases your chance of finding a good target for Crown to play. Some of these tokens might also have value if you play Crown during your Buy phase.

Versions

English versions

Print	Digital	Text	Release	Date
		If it's your Action phase, you may play an Action from your hand twice. If it's your Buy phase, you may play a Treasure from your hand twice.	Empires	June 2016

Other language versions

Language	Name	Print	Digital	Text	Notes
Dutch	Kroon
Finnish	Kruunu
French	Couronne
German	Krone			Wenn es deine Aktionsphase ist, darfst du eine Aktionskarte aus deiner Hand zweimal spielen. Wenn es deine Kaufphase ist, darfst du eine Geldkarte aus deiner Hand zweimal spielen.	2. Edition (2021) one or more other versions listed here
Japanese	冠 (pron. kanmuri)			アクションフェイズ中の場合、手札のアクションカード1枚を2度使用してもよい。 購入フェイズ中の場合、手札の財宝カード1枚を2度使用してもよい。
Polish	Korona			Jeżeli trwa twoja faza akcji, możesz wybrać z ręki kartę Akcji i zagrać ją dwa razy. Jeżeli trwa twoja faza zakupu, możesz wybrać z ręki kartę Skarbu i zagrać ją dwa razy.
Russian	Корона (pron. korona)

Trivia

Crown is the only Treasure that Royal Carriage can be called for.

Official card art.

Preview

Crown is Dominion's first Action/Treasure. It's an Action. It's a Treasure. You can play it whenever you can play either of those things. It counts as both of those things for cards that care about what other cards are. It does something different depending on whether it's your Action phase or your Buy phase; not that different, though. You might use it as a Throne Room that doesn't totally suck if it doesn't collide with your other Actions. Or maybe you want to save it for your treasures; playing Platinum twice is probably better than playing Chancellor twice. When the crown's on your head, you make the call.

—A Drowned Kernel, Empires Bonus Preview #2: Crown

Secret History

The first version was an Action that played an Action or Treasure twice. You really want it to be a Treasure too, so you don't draw it dead off of card-drawing. So, an Action - Treasure card! It always seemed like that would be too confusing, but here was one that was no trouble. It's something how popular it is even in games where you are almost always using it as Throne Room.

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

Being the first Action-Treasure card

I ruled out Action - Treasure at one point because it would be too confusing. Crown got rid of those issues though. People have found lots of questions to ask about it, but they're all "what if you use it with this really confusing other card," or "so it's really both an Action and a Treasure?" With I guess a little "how does Throne Room work."

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Interview with Donald X.