Inheritance

Inheritance
Info
Cost
Type	Event
Set	Adventures
Illustrator(s)	Mark Poole
Event text
Once per game: Set aside a non-Command Action card from the Supply costing up to . Move your Estate token to it. (During your turns, Estates are also Command Actions with "Play the card with your Estate token, leaving it there.")

This article is about the Event. For the Trait with a similar name, see Inherited.

Inheritance is an Event from Adventures. It sets aside an Action card from the Supply and turns your Estates into Action cards that can play the set-aside card for the rest of the game.

FAQ

Official FAQ (2022)

• You can only buy this once per game. When you do, set aside a non-Command Action card from the Supply that costs up to , and put your Estate token on it.
• This is not gaining a card, and does not count for things that care about gaining, such as Treasure Hunter; however at the end of the game, include the card in your deck when scoring.
• For the rest of the game, on your turns, Estates are also Command Action cards (in addition to still being Victory cards), and when you play one, it plays the card you set aside, leaving it set aside. If that effect tries to move the set aside card, it fails. If the set aside card has a "while this is in play" or "when discarded from play" effect, that will not do anything; the card is never in play.
• Leave the Estate in play until the Clean-up of the turn the card it played would have left play. Normally that means you will discard it that turn, but if the card is a Duration card, it will stay out like the Duration card would have, and if the card is something like Throne Room and used to play a Duration card, it will stay out the same way Throne Room itself would have.
• If the set aside card is from a pile you have a +1 Action or similar token on, you will get that effect when playing it.
• All Estates are affected, including ones in the Supply and ones other players have; for example this means you could gain one with Seaway.
• The set aside card does not need to continue costing or less; it only has to when Inheritance is bought.
• The card cannot be a Command card; Command cards are certain cards that can play other cards without moving them, including Band of Misfits, Overlord, and Captain.

Other rules clarifications

• Inheritance affects Estates in the trash and in other players' decks and hands. This means that they can be gained with Lurker, discarded by Rabble, and so on.
• Since it is no one's turn when scoring, this means that Estates will not count for Landmarks/Victory cards that care about Actions (like Orchard or Vineyard).
• Estates do not acquire the abilities of the card with your Estate token on it; they just cause it to be played when you play the Estate. This means that, for example, gaining an Estate doesn't activate any on-gain effects of the Action card you've Inherited; Inheriting a Crown or Werewolf does not allow you to play Estates in the Buy or Night phases; Inheriting a Reaction card does not allow you to react with Estates the way you would react with the Reaction card; etc.
• Under rare circumstances (involving a combination of certain Reaction cards, Way of the Mouse, and Vassal) it can be possible to play an Estate (if it's an Action card) on another player's turn. Whether or not an Estate is an Action card on another player's turn depends on whether they have bought Inheritance, not whether you have. If you do play an Estate on another player's turn, it plays the card with your Estate token on it as usual, not the card with their Estate token.
• If your opponent has bought Inheritance but you haven't, your Estates still count as Actions on their turns, but if you somehow manage to play one it doesn't do anything.
• While the Estates become Action cards, the Estate pile is not considered an Action pile, so you are unable to add the other Adventures tokens to the Estate pile except via Seaway.

Deprecated official FAQ (2015)

You can only buy this once per game. When you do, set aside a non-Victory Action card from the Supply that costs up to , and put your Estate token on it (the one depicting a house). This is not gaining a card, and does not count for things that care about gaining, such as Treasure Hunter; however at the end of the game, include the card in your deck when scoring. For the rest of the game, all of your Estates have the abilities and types of the set aside card. For example if you set aside a Port, then your Estates are Action - Victory cards, that can be played for +1 Card +2 Actions. This also changes Estates you buy or otherwise gain during the game; if you used Inheritance on a Port and then later bought an Estate, that Estate would come with a Port, just as buying a Port gains you a Port. This only affects your own Estates, not Estates of other players. An Estate is yours if either it started in your deck, or you gained it or bought it, or you were passed it with Masquerade (from Intrigue). An Estate stops being yours if you trash it, return it to the Supply, pass it with Masquerade, or are stopped from gaining it due to Possession (from Alchemy) or Trader (from Hinterlands). There are no limits on the set aside card other than being a non-Victory Action from the Supply costing up to ; it may be a Duration card, a Reaction card, and so on. It does not have to continue costing up to , it only has to cost up to when set aside. Your Estates are still worth 1  when scoring at the end of the game. Your Estates only copy abilities and types; they do not copy cost, name, or what pile they are from (thus they don't trigger tokens like +1 Action on the copied pile, and are not the Bane for Young Witch from Cornucopia even if the copied pile is the Bane). Starting Estates come from the Estates pile.

Deprecated rules clarifications (2015 2016 2019)

Most Inheritance confusions are an issue of timing or ownership. After you buy an Estate, it becomes yours, and "when you buy this" abilities happen, then "when you gain this" abilities. After you gain an Estate without buying it, it becomes yours, and "when you gain this" abilities happen. If you Inherit a Grand Market, you can buy an Estate with Copper in play, because Estate does not have the abilities of Grand Market until after you already bought it. If you Inherit a Nomad Camp and buy an Estate, it is gained onto your deck; if you gain an Estate without buying it, it is gained to your discard pile, because Estate does not have the abilities of Nomad Camp until after you already gained it to your discard pile. If you Inherit a Fortress and trash one of your Estates, you put it into your hand and the Estate is still yours; if you trash an Estate that was not yours, such as trashing and Estate form the Supply with Salt the Earth, you do not put it into your hand and it is not yours. Some cards gain a card, and then care what types the gained card has. They check what types the card has after it is gained, when it it yours; for example if you Inherit a Village and Ironworks an Estate, you get +1 Card and +1 Action. Some cards trash a card, and then care what types the trashed card has. They check what types the card has after it is trashed, when it is not yours; for example if you Inherit a Village and Sacrifice an Estate, you get +2  only (and not +2 Actions). Fortress does not end up in the trash pile when trashed, and so it is still yours; for example if you Inherit a Fortress and Sacrifice an Estate, you get +2 Actions and +2 . Your Estates do not have the abilities and types of the set aside card when scoring. This is a change from the original rules. Your Estates do not have the name or cost of the set aside card. For example: If you Inherit a card and play Baron, you can still discard an Estate. If you Inherit a Treasure Map and play an Estate, you trash the Estate and a Treasure Map from your hand - you cannot trash an Estate from your hand - but did not trash 2 cards named Treasure Map, and so do not gain any Golds. If you Inherit a Border Village and gain an Estate, you gain a card that is cheaper than Estate. If you Inherit a Crossroads and play an Estate, you can never get +3 Actions because it is not the first time you played a card named Crossroads that turn; you do get +3 Actions the first time you play a Crossroads each turn, even if you played an Estate earlier that turn. If you Inherit a Rats and play an Estate, you gain a Rats - you cannot gain an Estate - and then trash a card from your hand that is not a Rats, but can be an Estate. Estates in the Supply are not yours; they are normal Estates. The Estate Supply pile is not an Action pile. For example: University cannot gain Estates. You cannot move Adventures tokens to the Estate Supply pile. You cannot play Band of Misfits as an Estate in the Supply. Under extremely rare circumstances it is possible to play an Estate as a card an opponent Inherited; see this post for details. This issue was solved with the current revised version of Inheritance.

Strategy

Inheritance is an often-centralizing Event that is typically worth planning around in the early game. There are two reasons for this:

1. It converts Estates, the worst of your starting cards, into something useful, massively improving the quality of your early game deck.
2. It makes future “copies” of the Inherited card cheap at , and worth 1 .

These two effects combine to make early Inheritances very strong.

Getting an early Inheritance usually requires intentionally buying components and managing your shuffles to spike . This often means increasing the draw and/or money density of your early deck, as even a hand of four Coppers and one Silver isn’t enough. One-shot draw or payload effects such as Experiment or Stockpile can be useful for this. High value Treasures such as Capital can also be helpful. Baron synergizes particularly well with Inheritance, as it generates a good amount of and can gain Estates later. In some rare circumstances it can be good to thin an Estate early to help you hit (e.g., with Goat). This is usually only worth doing if the target card for Inheritance is very strong, and there are sources of +Buy or gainers to regain the lost Estates quickly; if there are not, it can be better to just thin all of your Estates and build normally.

Good targets for Inheritance are typically cards that you would want multiple copies of in your deck. In you Inherit a cantrip such as Merchant, your Estates are no longer stop cards, which is tantamount to a thinning effect and thus a powerful one in the early game. Other good targets include villages such as Worker's Village or non-terminal payload cards such as Patron. Terminals such as Smithy can also be useful, but be aware of your terminal space after effectively adding three terminals simultaneously. Experiment and Encampment are exceptionally strong targets, as Inherited Estates do not inherit the drawbacks of those cards. Groom and Ironmonger are also good targets, as both benefit from the fact that Inherited Estates are both Victory and Action cards. Conspirator can be a good target with a little support, as playing an Estate with this card Inherited counts as two Action card plays, so if you play a single non-terminal Action beforehand, all of your Estates become activated Conspirators.

Inheritance may be skippable if there are no good targets, if a useful Estate thinner (such as Recruiter) is more easily accessible or useful, or if reaching is impractical (e.g., with Catapult present).

Rarely, it may be possible to Inherit a higher cost card with cost reduction. For example, Grand Market can be Inherited with a Quarry in play. Oftentimes this is slow or difficult to set up, and you will miss out on the benefits of an earlier Inheritance on a lesser 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.

• faust's 2016 article

Versions

English versions

Print	Digital	Text	Release	Date
		Once per game: Set aside a non-Victory Action card from the Supply costing up to . Move your Estate token to it (your Estates gain the abilities and types of that card).	Adventures	April 2015
		Once per game: Set aside a non-Victory Action card from the Supply costing up to . Move your Estate token to it. (Your Estates gain the abilities and types of that card.)	Adventures (2017 printing)	August 2017
		Once per game: Set aside a non-Victory Action card from the Supply costing up to . Move your Estate token to it. (During your turns, Estates are also Actions with "Play the card with your Estate token, leaving it there.")	Dominion 2019 Errata and Rules Tweaks	September 24, 2019
		Once per game: Set aside a non-Command Action card from the Supply costing up to . Move your Estate token to it. (During your turns, Estates are also Actions with “Play the card with your Estate token, leaving it there.”)	Adventures (2021 printing)	October 15, 2019
		Once per game: Set aside a non-Command Action card from the Supply costing up to . Move your Estate token to it. (During your turns, Estates are also Command Actions with “Play the card with your Estate token, leaving it there.”)	Adventures (2022 printing)	June 29, 2022

Other language versions

Language	Name	Print	Digital	Text	Notes
Dutch	Erfenis			Eenmaal per spel: leg een actiekaart die geen bevelkaart is en ten hoogste kost uit de voorraad opzij. Leg je erfgoedfische erop (Jouw landgoederen worden nu ook actiekaarten met "Speel de kaart met het erfgoedfische, maar laat hem daar liggen".)	(2015)
Finnish	Perintö
French	Héritage
German	Erbschaft			Einmal pro Spiel: Lege eine beliebige Aktionskarte vom Vorrat, die keine Punktekarte ist und bis zu kostet, zur Seite. Lege deinen Anwesen-Marker darauf. (Deine Anwesen übernehmen ab sofort Anweisungen und Typ dieser Karte.)	(2015)
	Erbschaft			Einmal pro Spiel: Lege eine Aktionskarte aus dem Vorrat, die nicht den Typ Befehl beinhaltet und bis zu kostet, zur Seite. Lege deinen Anwesen-Marker darauf. (Während deiner Züge sind Anwesen auch Aktionskarten mit der Anweisung „Spiele die Karte mit deinem Anwesen-Marker, lasse sie dort liegen.“)	(Nachdruck 2021)
	Erbschaft			Einmal pro Spiel: Lege eine Aktionskarte aus dem Vorrat, die bis zu kostet und keine Befehls­karte ist, zur Seite. Lege deinen Anwesen-Marker darauf. (Während deiner Züge sind Anwesen auch Aktions-Befehlskarten mit der Anweisung „Spiele die Karte mit deinem Anwesen-Marker, lass sie dort liegen.“)	(Nachdruck 2022)
Japanese	相続 (pron. sōzoku)			ゲーム中に1度のみ:勝利点カード以外の、 コスト以下のアクションカード1枚を脇に置き、その上にあなたの屋敷トークンを移動する(あなたの屋敷は脇に置いたカードの能力と種類名を得る)。
Russian	Наследство (pron. naslyedstvo)

Trivia

Inheritance is one of the available backgrounds in Dominion Online.

Official card art.

Preview

Inheritance is maybe the strangest thing in Adventures. Your Estates turn into another card. Again that's Estates you already have, and any new ones you buy. You put the token on say a Village; now your Estates are cards that cost and are worth 1  and are Action-Victory cards and can be played for +1 Card +2 Actions. It is a great feeling when you're staring at your hand and it sucks and then you remember, oh yeah, these Estates are Villages, this hand is awesome. You actually set aside a card with the token, rather than just putting it on a pile, because Dominion has crazy stuff like the Knights from Dark Ages. Lost Arts can give all of the Knights +1 Action for you, but when your Inheritance is Sir Martins, your Estates are all Sir Martin, they aren't any other Knights. And if that's not clear, there's a lengthy FAQ.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Adventures Previews #5 - Lost Arts, Borrow, Inheritance, 2015

Secret History

Another one that was initially a one-shot Kingdom card. The big thing to muck with here was what exactly you could put the counter on. At one point Treasures worked; I tried letting it go on Victory cards.   cards were too automatic, and then it was simpler not to allow Treasures. There was also the question of when exactly the Estates were yours; some versions didn't work for when-buy abilities.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, The Secret History of Dominion: Adventures, 2015

Why once per game?

When I first printed out Inheritance, it did not say once-per-game. After some games with it, LastFootnote pointed out that you could e.g. Inherit Dungeon, play an Estate, then that turn buy Inheritance again and Inherit a non-Duration card. What happens to the Estate? There were a few weird situations like that, and once-per-game got rid of them. With the new wording, once-per-game protects us from you Inheriting something, then Inheriting Estate.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Dominion 2019 Errata and Rules Tweaks, 2019

Donald X.'s opinion

Normally strong trashers mean you trash your Estates and stop considering Inheritance. Not always though. I have gone for Inheritance over opening with Chapel and won.

People especially like to Inherit cantrips, and more especially villages. You can do well inheriting other good cheap cards though. It's exciting to lower costs and Inherit a , but as usual Events don't get cheaper so it's tricky to do that and get to . The recommended sets set up Monument in one and Bridge Troll in another.

It was so sweet when we were first playtesting it - getting lots of Estates into play, so bizarre. Drawing bad hands, no wait, these Estates all do things. Buying up Estates.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Let's Discuss Adventures Events: Inheritance, 2016

Errata possibilities

A big thing about Inheriting Durations was that Adventures itself has so many Reserve cards and Durations in the "up to $4" range. IRL sometimes someone doesn't have very many expansions; sometimes they buy a set and play with just that set for a bit. Inheritance was going to be really sad in those contexts, if it didn't work with Durations. A lot of discussion went into the errata for Inheritance, and I printed and tested multiple versions. I put in the hours, now I am resting. It's work just looking through the archives at every suggestion and wording. I don't think we tried "discard an Estate"; we did try stuff that didn't make Estates into Actions.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Interview with Donald X., 2020