Grand Market

Grand Market
Info
Cost
Type(s)	Action
Kingdom card?	Yes
Set	Prosperity
Illustrator(s)	Marcel-André Casasola Merkle
Card text
+1 Card +1 Action +1 Buy + You can’t buy this if you have any Coppers in play.

Grand Market is an Action card from Prosperity. It is a strong Peddler variant, giving an extra and a +Buy, making it quite powerful if you can get it. Since it cannot be bought with Copper, it can be difficult to get early in the game. However, Grand Markets themselves are a very efficient source of non-Copper money, so having Grand Markets makes it easier to get more Grand Markets.

FAQ

Official FAQ

• A single Copper in play is enough to stop you from buying Grand Market.
• You do not have to play all of the Treasures in your hand.
• Coppers in your hand do not stop you from buying Grand Market - only Coppers in play do.
• Coppers that were in play earlier in the turn but aren't anymore also do not stop you; if you have 11 Coppers in play and 2 Buys, you could buy a Mint, trash all of your played Treasures, and then buy a Grand Market.
• You can gain Grand Market other ways - for example with Expand - whether or not you have Coppers in play.
• Treasures other than Copper do not prevent you from buying Grand Market, even if they are worth (such as Loan).
• Remember you cannot play more Treasures after buying a card.

Strategy

Grand Market is a very strong but expensive cantrip, providing a significant amount of payload (including +Buy) for a card that is neither terminal nor a stop card. Like other Peddler variants, it integrates smoothly into most decks and provides the best value when you can draw and play your whole deck every turn, usually with an engine. Grand Market requires investment in non-Copper payload in order to get off the ground with the purchase of your first copy, but its powerful nature means this investment usually pays off, and once you have a couple of copies, getting more Grand Markets often becomes quite easy. Therefore, getting to this point quickly can often be a priority: not only does this allow you to further increase your deck’s payload rapidly, but contesting the Grand Market split may also be important in and of itself, because having a large number of them provides significant pile control via the large amount of and Buys they generate. Once the Grand Market pile is empty or very low, a three-pile ending becomes quite likely, often involving buying all the Estates in one swoop.

Buying your first Grand Market usually requires both obtaining some degree of deck control (generally via thinning and/or draw) and adding some payload, since you need to generate without playing any Coppers. Copper trashers that provide a benefit, such as Moneylender or Spice Merchant, can be especially helpful for this; a terminal silver, Silver itself, or other non-Copper Treasures (including Heirlooms, notably Cursed Gold) may also be used. Effects that allow you to discard cards to generate (e.g. Storeroom or Vault) can be particularly helpful, as this allows each of your Coppers to generate without being played. Alternatively, it might be possible to obtain a Grand Market without reaching , for example with cost reduction (e.g. Quarry or Ferry), by saving up Coffers, or via manoeuvres like double Transport. Sometimes it may be worth kickstarting your ability to gain Grand Markets by trashing a cheaper card, e.g. using a Remodel variant on a card costing ; Advance provides the most efficient way to do this, as it can transform any Action card into a Grand Market, including a very cheap one obtained specifically for that purpose.

Absent one of the exceptions above, Grand Market’s viability is largely tied to how difficult it is to thin your Coppers, as they affect your ability both to afford Grand Market and to draw it consistently. If the Copper thinning is weak (e.g., Scrap), it may be worth pursuing other payload options. Similarly, you are unlikely to be able to obtain it (or use it to its full potential if you do get a copy or two) on sloggy boards. Since Grand Market is a cantrip, decks with limited draw capabilities appreciate its ability to add payload much more than decks that have strong draw and can afford to add stronger payload stop cards.

External strategy articles

Note: Article(s) below are by individual authors and may not represent the community's current views on cards, but may provide more in-depth information or give historical perspective. Caveat emptor.

• theory's 2010 article

Versions

English versions

Print	Digital	Text	Notes	Release	Date
		+1 Card +1 Action +1 Buy + You can’t buy this if you have any Copper in play.		Prosperity	October 2010
		+1 Card +1 Action +1 Buy + You can’t buy this if you have any Coppers in play.	Digital version has a cost of rather than .	Prosperity (2016 printing)	February 2017

Other language versions

Language	Name	Print	Digital	Text	Notes
Chinese	大市場			+1 卡片 +1 行動 +1 購入 + 如果有銅幣在出牌區，則無法購買這張卡。
Czech	Velký trh
Dutch	Grote markt
Finnish	Suurtori
French	Grand marché
German	Großer Markt			+1 Karte +1 Aktion +1 Kauf + Du darfst diese Karte nicht kaufen, wenn du Kupfer im Spiel hast.	(2010)
German	Großer Markt			+1 Karte +1 Aktion +1 Kauf + Du kannst diese Karte nicht kaufen, wenn du Kupfer im Spiel hast.	(Nachdruck 2021)
Italian	Mercato di Lusso (lit. luxury market)
Japanese	大市場 (pron. dai ichiba)			+1 カードを引く +1 アクション +1 購入 + 銅貨が場にある間、このカードを購入できない。
Polish	Wielki targ			+1 karta +1 akcja +1 zakup + Nie możesz kupić tej karty, jeżeli masz Miedziaka w grze.
Russian	Центральный Рынок (pron. tsyentral'ny rynok, lit. central market)
Spanish	Gran Mercado

Trivia

Official card art.

Preview

This card presents you with a puzzle: how do you get it? Sure you can trash all of your Coppers. That's not always possible though. Vault provides a direct route - play Vault, discard everything, you've got and no Coppers in play. You can also use cards like Expand and Forge to get one. Of course the first one helps you get more. Once you've got some, you want a small deck, so you see them more often.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Dominion: Prosperity Review

Secret History

Originally it cost and was "+1 Card +1 Action +." People sure complained about it not having +1 Buy. "How is it a Grand Market?" they'd say. So I added +1 Buy, and then later took the anti-Copper clause from another card.

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