Gainer

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Workshop, a gainer card.

A gainer is any card which allows you to gain cards without buying them. The simplest example is Workshop. They often work well with Gardens strategies, as they allow you to gain more cards than you have buys. They can also be useful for picking up engine components, especially cheap ones.

Cards that allow you to trash one card and gain another, like Remodel, are usually considered to be in a separate category from gainers, since they don't increase your deck size. However, they can sometimes have similar functions for gaining engine components or accelerating a three-pile ending.

Types of gainers

Cards in italics have been removed.

Workshop variants

These cards let you gain cards costing up to $4. Many of them work well in combinations with cost reduction methods like Highway, which will let you gain more expensive cards than you usually can.

Gainers with a cost limit other than 4

Feast, Wish, and Spell Scroll gain a card, but as one-shots act more as temporary replacements than gainers.

Gainers depending on cards played

These cards can gain with no cost restriction; what cards they can gain depends on whether or not copies of those cards are in play when the gainer is used, or played while the gainer is resolving.

Friendly, from Plunder, resembles Way of the Rat, but lets you discard a card, rather than play it, to gain a copy.

Changeling, from Nocturne, is another one-shot gainer; which can gain copies of cards in play.

Trash gainers

These cards can gain cards out of the Trash instead of the supply:

Thief and Noble Brigand technically gain cards from the trash as well, but only the cards trashed as part of resolving their Attack abilities.

On-buy/gain gainers

These cards resemble the above in gaining cards up to or at a particular cost, but do so when you buy or gain another card, rather than when you play the gainer itself.

Treasure gainers

Certain cards allow you to gain only Treasures. Some of them gain only specific Treasures; others gain whatever Treasure happens to be available. Lists of Silver gainers and Gold gainers can be found at the articles for Silver and Gold; other Treasure gainers are listed here:

Other specific-card gainers

For a list of Estate gainers, see here. For a list of Duchy gainers, see here. For a list of Province gainers, see here. For a list of Horse gainers, see here.

When gain/buy/trash gainers

For a list of Events that gain cards, see here

Edge cases

  • Though Nocturne: Changeling trash itself and gains a copy of a card you have in play, both effects are not related. Furthermore as a one-shot Changeling acts more as a temporary replacement than a gainer.
  • Though it does not gain a card, Menagerie: Camel Train does move a card from the Supply to your Exile mat that is included in your deck at the end of the game (or earlier if you legitimately gain a copy and choose to discard the ones in Exile).


v . t . e
Attacks Attack immunity • Curser • Deck inspection attack • Deck order attack • Handsize attack • Junking attack • Trashing attack • Turn-worsening attack
Buy/Money +Buy • Cost-reducer • Disappearing money • Overpay • Peddler variant • Terminal silver • Virtual coin • Virtual +Buy
Cycling Deck discarder • Deck inspector • Digging • Discard for benefit • Sifter
Terminality Cantrip • Non-terminal • Non-terminal draw • Soft terminal • Terminal • Terminal draw • Throne Room variant • Village • Conditional non-terminal
Other Alt-VP • Basic cards • Draw-to-x • Duration draw • Command variant • Gainer • Luck-based • Non-Attack interaction • One-shot • Remodeler • Split pile • Top decker • Trasher • Vanilla • Extra turn
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