Diplomat

Diplomat
Info
Cost
Type(s)	Action - Reaction
Kingdom card?	Yes
Set	Intrigue
Illustrator(s)	Lorraine Schleter
Card text
+2 Cards If you have 5 or fewer cards in hand (after drawing), +2 Actions. When another player plays an Attack card, you may first reveal this from a hand of 5 or more cards, to draw 2 cards then discard 3.

Diplomat is an Action–Reaction card from the second edition of Intrigue. When you're Attacked, it gives you an opportunity to adjust the contents of your hand to possibly mitigate the attack. When you play it, it gives you +2 cards, plus a village effect if your hand size is small enough. Since Diplomat's Reaction effect itself reduces your hand size, its Reaction and on-play effects have some synergy.

FAQ

Official FAQ

• When playing this, you get +2 Cards, then count your cards in hand, and if you have 5 cards or fewer, you get +2 Actions.
  • So, for example if you play this from a hand of 5 cards, you will put it into play, going down to 4 cards, then draw 2 cards, going up to 6 cards, and that is more than 5 cards so you would not get the +2 Actions.
• Diplomat can also be used when another player plays an Attack card, if you have at least 5 cards in hand.
  • Before the Attack card does anything, you can reveal a Diplomat from your hand; if you do, you draw 2 cards, then discard 3 cards (which can include the Diplomat).
  • If you still have at least 5 cards in hand after doing that (such as due to Council Rooms), you can reveal Diplomat again and do it again.
  • You reveal Reactions one at a time; you cannot reveal two Diplomats simultaneously.
  • You can reveal a Moat from your hand (to be unaffected by an Attack) either before or after revealing and resolving a Diplomat (even if the Moat was not in your hand until after resolving Diplomat).

Strategy

As a draw card that provides additional benefit when played from a smaller hand, Diplomat functions similarly to many draw-to-X cards. If you can activate the bonus +Actions, Diplomat’s on-play effect is a strong one, equivalent to Lost City in combining draw with a village effect. However, an unactivated Diplomat is simply a Moat equivalent, terminally increasing your hand size by one. This difference makes it rather important to activate Diplomat; while it can be difficult to do so repeatedly due to the card’s sensitivity to draws and play order, building a deck that will enable it can sometimes pay off given the right support. The card’s Reaction can sometimes help with activation, providing a useful sifting effect in the process.

Using Diplomat as your primary source of draw is very similar to playing with a draw-to-X deck: it doesn’t combine well with other forms of draw, so your hand size is effectively capped at five, and you need to reduce it back to four or less before playing your next Diplomat. You also generally need much of the same support (i.e., the ability to handle junk via very good thinning or sifting) and payoff (i.e., strong Action-based payload such as Bridge Troll). However, Diplomat-based decks are typically more awkward and unreliable, for two primary reasons:

1. Diplomat generally draws much less than a true draw-to-X card, as its draw is independent of your hand size. This means that it provides only a small search space for the cards you need to play next, and the scope for making use of discard-for-benefit effects, such as that of Artificer, is weaker.
2. You must be able to reduce your hand size to four before you play your first Diplomat each turn. This often necessitates particular start-of-turn collisions and play orders: for example, it might involve finding and playing both a non-Diplomat village and a terminal payload card (e.g. Bridge) before your first Diplomat.

Given the importance of activating Diplomat, a primary concern when using it for draw is whether you can find a non-terminal stop card (e.g. Candlestick Maker) or hand size reducer (e.g. Oasis). Less often, you can React to your opponents’ Attacks, or use a start-of-turn effect such as Gang of Pickpockets. The most common issue with relying on Diplomat’s Reaction for activation is that your opponents can opt to avoid playing Attacks, and if an opponent’s Attack is the only way to activate Diplomat from your starting hand, it may not be worth building around Diplomat. Occasionally, other forms of counterplay can interfere with activation: this may include an opponent forcing you to draw cards, e.g. with Council Room.

As a village, Diplomat’s activation conditions mean that it is generally not very reliable. It’s particularly difficult to use it as a village when you would prefer to use another, stronger source of draw (such as Wharf), and the cost of setting up Diplomat’s activation will often outweigh the benefit of the extra terminal space provided. Even if you’re drawing with Diplomat, it’s often still desirable to make use of more reliable villages (such as Fishing Village) as they make it easier to play terminal payload.

If you don’t need to use Diplomat as your primary draw or village, it can occasionally still be worth gaining a copy or two as supplementary draw (especially if you know your starting hand size will always be reduced due to an effect such as Cathedral) or for the sifting that it can provide via its Reaction. Although it reduces your hand size, Reacting is usually beneficial if you have the opportunity, especially in response to most hand size Attacks. However, cases do occur in which it’s better to decline to React: for example, if you already have a good starting hand, you're not reliant on Diplomat’s +Actions, and your opponent’s Attack won’t affect your hand size, you may risk making your hand worse rather than better.

Versions

English versions

Print	Digital	Text	Release	Date
		+2 Cards If you have 5 or fewer cards in hand (after drawing), +2 Actions. When another player plays an Attack card, you may first reveal this from a hand of 5 or more cards, to draw 2 cards then discard 3.	Intrigue (Second Edition)	October 2016

Other language versions

Language	Name	Print	Digital	Text	Notes
Chinese	外交官 (pron. wàijiāo guān)
Dutch	Diplomaat			+2 Kaarten Heb je 5 of minder handkaarten (na het trekken), +2 acties Speelt een andere speler een aanvalskaart, dan mag je deze kaart tonen uit je hand van 5 of meer kaarten om 2 kaarten te trekken en er dan 3 af te leggen.	2. Edition (2016)
French	Diplomate
German	Diplomatin (Note: explicitly feminine)			+2 Karten Hast du nach dem Ziehen 5 oder weniger Handkarten: +2 Aktionen. Wenn ein Mitspieler eine Angriffskarte ausspielt und du mindestens 5 Handkarten hast, darfst du diese Karte aus deiner Hand aufdecken. Wenn du das tust: Ziehe 2 Karten und lege dann 3 Karten ab.	Ergänzungsset 2017 "...darfst du zuerst diese Karte…"
	Diplomatin (Note: explicitly feminine)			+2 Karten Wenn du (nach dem Ziehen) 5 oder weniger Karten in deiner Hand hast: +2 Aktionen. Wenn ein Mitspieler eine Angriffskarte spielt, darfst du zuerst diese Karte aus deiner Hand mit 5 oder mehr Karten aufdecken, um 2 Karten zu ziehen und dann 3 abzulegen.	2. Edition (2021)
Japanese	外交官 (pron. gaikōkan)			+2 カードを引く 引き終えた後、手札が5枚以下の場合、+2 アクション。 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、5枚以上の手札からこれを公開してもよい。公開した場合、2枚カードを引き3枚捨て札にする。
Polish	Dyplomata				Although Polish version is not released, this name is referred to in Polish Dominion 2E rulebook.
Russian	Дипломат (pron. diplomat)			+2 Карты Если у вас 5 или меньше карт в руке (после того, как вытянули карты), +2 Действия. Когда другой игрок играет карту Атаки, если в вашей руке не менее пяти карт, вы можете раскрыть эту карту из руки. Тогда вытяните 2 карты и сбросьте 3.
Spanish	Diplomática			+2 Cartas Si tienes en tu mano 5 cartas o menos (después de robar), +2 Acciones. Cuando otro jugador juegue una carta de Ataque, puedes revelar primero esta carta, de una mano de 5 o más cartas, para robar 2 cartas y, luego, descartar 3.	(2016)

Trivia

Official card art.

Secret History

I needed a new Reaction. As with Secret Chamber it sounded nice to have the top deal with some Attacks while the bottom dealt with others (though it didn't end up like that). The top originally only gave +1 Action as the bonus for a small hand; that was still a nice bonus, but one day I thought of giving you +2 Actions and that seemed fun. Some games that's your Village, and you go for combos that will make it work, or else hope they attack you. The bottom originally gave a Silver when you gained or trashed a card. You had to discard it, so you couldn't gain the pile instantly (a once-per-turn approach was another option). I realized that discarding Reactions was not great, due to issues with early versions of Charm in Empires. Once-per-turn would have been okay but it got me thinking about, could I do better than this Silver thing. I had always wanted a Reaction that gave you a new hand when attacked, and tried a version of that, then tweaked it into what you see. When they attack, you use the ability (unless your hand is too good), and while you end up with just 4 cards in hand, on your turn you play Diplomat and are back to 5, with the +2 Actions.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, The Secret History of the Dominion 2nd Editions

Retrospective

I would drop the reaction from Diplomat today; I like the full card, but I'd like it without the reaction and it would be way simpler, and the reaction was 100% there to have a non-Moat reaction in Intrigue, which I think was just not a good enough reason.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Dominion Discord, 2017