Desperation

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Desperation
Info
Cost
Type	Event
Set	Menagerie
Illustrator(s)	Martin Hoffmann
Event text
Once per turn: You may gain a Curse. If you do, +1 Buy and +.

Desperation is an Event from Menagerie. It allows the player to add to their total at the cost of gaining a Curse. It is similar to Borrow or Cursed Gold.

FAQ

Official FAQ

• If the Curse pile is empty, you fail to gain one and do not get +1 Buy and +.

Other rules clarifications

• If you gain the Curse but then remove it from your deck (e.g. you trash it with Watchtower, or reveal a Trader and exchange it), you'll get +1 Buy and +. However, if you never gain the Curse (e.g. you buy Desperation during a Possession turn), you won't get +1 Buy and +.

Versions

English versions

Print	Digital	Text	Release	Date
		Once per turn: You may gain a Curse. If you do, +1 Buy and +.	Menagerie	March 2020

Other language versions

Language	Name	Print	Digital	Text	Notes
German	Verzweiflung			Einmal pro Zug: Du darfst einen Fluch nehmen. Wenn du das tust: +1 Kauf und +.
Japanese	絶望 (pron. zetsubō)

Trivia

Official card art.

Preview

It's the Event version of Cursed Gold. You can have more money, if you want it badly enough.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Menagerie Bonus Previews

Secret History

At first it wasn't limited to once per turn. You don't need to have the experience of "okay I take 15 Curses and buy 6 Provinces" twice.

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

Why is it optional?

For [Advance, Quest, Delay, and Enhance] in particular, you may not be able to do the thing, and it's telling you to do the thing; "you may" is the tersest way to deal with "keeping you honest." In practice it doesn't matter - since you'd just not buy the Event - but it's a good habit picked up from it actually mattering for kingdom cards.

In some cases, "you may" helps me get a more natural phrasing; I prefer not to tell you to do something and then check if you did it, because it looks weird to casual players.

For online play, the "you may" can be annoying; you wouldn't have clicked on whatever if you didn't want to do it, and sure don't need to be asked again. That's the kind of thing that can be fixed with an autoplay though.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, "You may" on Events