Hamlet

Hamlet
Info
Cost
Type(s)	Action
Kingdom card?	Yes
Set	Cornucopia & Guilds
Illustrator(s)	Kurt Miller
Card text
+1 Card +1 Action You may discard a card for +1 Action. You may discard a card for +1 Buy.

Hamlet is an Action card from Cornucopia & Guilds. It is a cantrip that can become a village and/or a source of +Buy if you are willing to discard one or two cards from your hand to activate one or both of the bonuses.

FAQ

Official FAQ

• First draw a card, and get +1 Action.
• Then you may either discard one card to get another +1 Action; or you may discard one card to get +1 Buy; or you may discard two cards and get both +1 Action and +1 Buy; or you may discard no cards at all.
• You only get the extra +1 Action or +1 Buy if you actually discarded a card for it.
• You cannot discard multiple cards to get multiple +Actions or multiple +Buys.

Strategy

Hamlet is a cheap cantrip with two optional discard for benefit effects that offer good flexibility. The fact that Hamlet can generate both extra Actions and +Buy means it can be a decent engine enabler, though it is not usually the best primary source of either effect. Hamlet is best paired with reasonably powerful draw (especially draw-to-x), as the cost of discarding a card from your hand is usually significant. However, it is a useful addition in some quantity to most decks: it often works well as a cheap and flexible supplementary source of +Actions or +Buy, and like other cantrips it’s also a good choice whenever you need a high density of Action cards in your deck. As a cheap cantrip, Hamlet is easy to empty as part of a pile-out, and its +Buy effect can also contribute to facilitating this.

Hamlet’s discarding means that it is usually a rather cumbersome primary village. This can be most clearly seen when used with a typical terminal draw card such as Smithy, as this pairing increases your net hand size by only a single card; this also means you cannot discard for +Buy without giving up the net draw effect entirely. Other options (e.g. Village itself) will therefore tend to be preferable if they’re available. Hamlet is especially weak compared to hand size neutral villages when you’re facing discarding attacks, as you need to discard a card from an already reduced hand to begin your turn with an extra Action. However, there are scenarios in which Hamlet’s discarding can be less problematic or even beneficial. If you’re using a draw-to-X effect such as Watchtower, the ability to sift junk out of your hand and draw more fresh cards can be quite powerful. Way of the Owl is especially good with Hamlet because copies of the card are easily amassable and you can play some of them with the Way. Discarding with Hamlet can also be used to activate effects such as Menagerie draw or +Actions from Diplomat, as well as effects from the discarded card, e.g. Village Green.

Outside the cases where such benefits are available, discarding the optimal number of cards with Hamlet for the most beneficial set of effects requires careful consideration. The decisions involved can be made more easily if you delay your Hamlet plays as much as possible during your turn, so as to maximize the amount of information available to you when making them. While discarding dead cards such as Victory cards may seem to have little downside even if you're not sure whether you'll be able to make use of the bonus, you should consider whether you're likely to want to trigger the reshuffle into which you're discarding them and your ability to draw through these extra cards if so. Conversely, if you have overdraw, it can be to your benefit to discard Action cards you actually intend to play later in the turn in order to maximize +Action and +Buy generation, but at the same time you may have better uses for your overdraw such as gain-and-play. Beyond these cases, you need to consider how many copies of Hamlet you will be able to play and what combination of effects you will need to make the most of your turn. Specifically, you should consider the amount of terminal space you need, the number of extra Buys you can make use of according to the you can generate, and how these benefits trade off against the cost of discarding a card.

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.

• HiveMindEmulator's 2013 article

Versions

English versions

Print	Digital	Text	Release	Date
		+1 Card +1 Action You may discard a card; if you do, +1 Action. You may discard a card; if you do, +1 Buy.	Cornucopia	June 2011
		+1 Card +1 Action You may discard a card for +1 Action. You may discard a card for +1 Buy.	Guilds & Cornucopia (2017 printing)	March 2018
		+1 Card +1 Action You may discard a card for +1 Action. You may discard a card for +1 Buy.	Cornucopia & Guilds (Second Edition)	March 2024

Other language versions

Language	Name	Print	Digital	Text	Notes
Chinese	村落			+1 卡片 +1 行動 你可以棄掉一張卡來換 +1 行動。 你可以棄掉一張卡來換 +1 購買。
Czech	Osada
Dutch	Gehucht
Finnish	Kyläraitti (lit. village road)
French	Hameau
German	Weiler			+1 Karte +1 Aktion Du darfst 1 Karte ablegen. Wenn du das tust: +1 Aktion Du darfst eine weitere Karte ablegen. Wenn du das tust: +1 Kauf	(2014) translation error: "...eine weitere Karte ablegen." (likewise, error in rulebook in that +1 Buy requires 2 cards discarded)
	Weiler			+1 Karte +1 Aktion Du darfst eine deiner Handkarten für: +1 Aktion ablegen. Du darfst eine deiner Handkarten für: +1 Kauf ablegen.	(2019) error in rulebook 2019 in that +1 Buy requires 2 cards discarded
Italian	Borgo
Japanese	村落 (pron. sonraku)			+1 カードを引く +1 アクション +1 アクションのために、カード1枚を捨て札にしてもよい。その後、 +1 購入のために、カード1枚を捨て札にしてもよい。
Polish	Folwark (lit. farm house)			+1 Karta +1 Akcja Możesz odrzucić kartę z ręki, jeśli to zrobisz +1 Akcja. Możesz odrzucić kartę z ręki, jeśli to zrobisz +1 Zakup.	(2011)
Russian	Деревушка (pron. dyeryevushka)
Spanish	Caserío

Trivia

Official card art.

Theme

It's just Hamlet because it's a small village.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Interview with Donald X., March 2014

Secret History

A simple card from the hand theme days that survived unchanged.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, The Secret History of the Cornucopia Cards, June 2011