Herbalist

Herbalist
Info
Cost
Type(s)	Action
Kingdom card?	Yes
Set	Alchemy
Illustrator(s)	Harald Lieske
Card text
+1 Buy + Once this turn, when you discard a Treasure from play, you may put it onto your deck.

Herbalist is an Action from Alchemy. It gives + and +1 Buy, and allows you to put a Treasure on top of your deck to use again next turn.

FAQ

Unofficial FAQ

Herbalist got errata in 2022 to take the focus off the order of discards in Clean-up.

• When you play this, you get +1 Buy and +, and set up an effect to happen later in the turn; once, when you discard a Treasure card from play, you can put it onto your deck.
• Herbalist is cumulative; if you play two Herbalists, or Throne Room a Herbalist, you can put up to two discarded Treasures onto your deck.
• If you have Capitalism, Herbalist can put itself onto your deck.
• If a Treasure isn't getting discarded from play this turn (such as an Astrolabe, or a Crown that's staying in play with a Duration), you can't put it on your deck with Herbalist.
• If you topdeck a Treasure that does something when you discard it from play (e.g. Capital), you still have to do its ability.
• Herbalist cannot topdeck a Treasure that leaves play in any way other than by being discarded, such as Spoils, Stockpile, or any Treasure trashed by Counterfeit.

Deprecated official FAQ (2021)

When you play this, you get + and +1 Buy. When you discard this from play in Clean-up, you may choose a Treasure card you have in play, and put that card on your deck. You choose what order to discard cards during Clean-up; so for example if you have Herbalist, Potion, and Alchemist in play, you could choose to discard Alchemist first, putting it on top of your deck, then discard Herbalist, and put Potion on top of your deck. If you have multiple Herbalists in play, each one will let you put another Treasure from play onto your deck when you discard it.

Deprecated rules clarifications (2010 2018 2021)

Using Herbalist with Throne Room or King's Court does not allow you to top-deck more than one Treasure per Herbalist. Using Herbalist with Procession, or playing it with a Command variant such as the revised version of Band of Misfits, doesn't allow you to topdeck any Treasures at all, since you never actually discard the Herbalist. Herbalist cannot topdeck a Treasure that leaves play before the Cleanup phase, such as Spoils, Stockpile, or any Treasure trashed by Counterfeit. Unlike Scheme, Herbalist doesn't check if the Treasure you topdeck will be discarded from play this turn. This means you can topdeck a Treasure which is supposed to stay in play for another turn (e.g., a Crown or Scepter being used to play a Duration card, or a Treasure–Duration created by Capitalism); if you do, you will have to remember what the card was supposed to do on the next turn. Although Herbalist itself is a Treasure if you have Capitalism, you cannot have an Herbalist topdeck itself, because it's no longer in play when its topdecking ability is activated. You could, however, topdeck an Herbalist with a different Herbalist. If the Treasure you choose with this does something when discarded from play (e.g. Capital), that ability won't trigger.

Strategy

Herbalist's main value is as a source of +Buy, which can be a crucial resource when building an engine. However, because Herbalist is terminal and provides almost no benefit aside from +Buy, it will usually be outclassed by any other source of +Buy in the kingdom as well as non-buy sources of gains and will only be worth considering if these resources are otherwise severely lacking. In these cases, the timing for acquiring Herbalist is important, since it provides almost no benefit beyond the +Buy; ideally, you should anticipate when you will be able to generate sufficient to make use of this and buy Herbalist just before that. Occasionally (e.g. when drawing with Scrying Pool or City Quarter) you may prefer Herbalist over a Treasure-based source of +Buy that is generally stronger.

Herbalist’s topdecking effect is usually irrelevant, since Treasures (being stop cards) are generally among the worst cards to have in your starting hand when playing with an engine. Although in principle it could be helpful to topdeck a Gold when employing a money strategy, in practice Herbalist itself would be a weak addition to this type of deck, as it generates only (thus lowering your money density), and it would be difficult to make use of the +Buy or to collide it reliably with Gold. It is also easily disrupted by handsize attacks, especially Minion.

There are a few scenarios, however, which can cause you to want a Treasure in your next starting hand, making Herbalist's topdecking usable. Crown is usually a good choice to topdeck, and a guaranteed Gold or Plunder on top can be highly beneficial in an engine drawing with Storyteller or Encampment. Additionally, it might sometimes be worth topdecking Potion if you’re relying on Alchemist for draw, as this allows you to guarantee topdecking your Alchemists next turn as well. You may also wish to guarantee being able to use a Copper as fodder for Masquerade or Cathedral.The more marginal the benefit, the less likely it is that Herbalist is worth using for its topdecking effect if you don’t also need the +Buy, as it takes up terminal space and is reliant on your draw or shuffle luck for collisions.

Versions

English versions

Print	Digital	Text	Release	Date
		+1 Buy + When you discard this from play, you may put one of your Treasures from play on top of your deck.	Alchemy	May 2010
		+1 Buy + When you discard this from play, you may put one of your Treasures from play onto your deck.	Alchemy (2018 printing)	December 2018
		+1 Buy + Once this turn, when you discard a Treasure from play, you may put it onto your deck.		June 29, 2022

Other language versions

Language	Name	Print	Digital	Text	Notes
Chinese	中藥舖 (pron. zhōng yàopù, lit. Chinese medicine shop)
Czech	Bylinkář
Dutch	Kruidenexpert (lit. herb expert)
Finnish	Yrttikauppias (lit. herb dealer)
French	Herboriste
German	Kräuterkundiger			+1 Kauf + Wenn du diese Karte aus dem Spiel ablegst, darfst du eine deiner Geldkarten aus dem Spiel auf deinen Nachziehstapel legen.	(2019) one or more other versions listed here
	Kräuterkundiger			+1 Kauf + Einmal in diesem Zug darfst du eine Geldkarte auf deinen Nachziehstapel legen, wenn du sie aus dem Spiel ablegst.
Italian	Erborista
Japanese	薬草商 (pron. yakusōshō, lit. medicinal herbs merchant)			+1 購入 + これを場から捨て札にするとき、場の財宝カード1枚を山札の上に置いてもよい。
Polish	Zielarz				Although Polish version is not released, this name is referred to in Polish Dominion 2E rulebook.
Russian	Травник (pron. travnik)			+1 Покупка + Когда вы сбрасываете эту карту из игры, можете положить одно из вашних Сокровищ из игры на верх колоды.
Spanish	Herbalista

Trivia

Official card art.

Herbalist is the only Alchemy card which does not explicitly mention Potions in any way.

Preview

To some eyes, this is the only card in the set having nothing to do with Potions. Ten cards have the symbol in the cost; Apprentice cares about symbols in costs; and Potion is potion. What's up with Herbalist? As it happens Herbalist is in the set specifically for how it interacts with Potions! A cheap +buy is a handy thing when you're trying to buy cards with the symbol in the cost. And then it puts a treasure back on your deck. A treasure like... Potion? That's right. Of course you already knew that from the bit about Alchemist.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Dominion: Alchemy Preview

Secret History

This started out in Prosperity, in a slightly more complex form. This set needed a with +1 buy, to help support potions, and it had one. Some people complained about it though, 1) for being boring, although man, you need some simple cards here and there, and 2) for being the only card in the set that had nothing to do with potions. So we tried out this one to replace it and it seemed fine. Some people preferred the old one though. People seemed about 50-50 on it. I was 50-50 on it. In the end I felt like this card would be more interesting in this set than in most sets, and the other card could just go anywhere.

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

2E Rewording

Herbalist and Alchemist both do a thing in the middle of discarding cards in Clean-up; these days I like to limit that to topdecking the card doing the thing. Just, to avoid having you worry about the order of discards in Clean-up. So now Herbalist doesn't care what order you discard it and the Treasure, and Alchemist doesn't care what order you discard it and the Potion.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, The Why of the Errata