Inn

Inn
Info
Cost
Type(s)	Action
Kingdom card?	Yes
Set	Hinterlands
Illustrator(s)	Marcel-André Casasola Merkle
Card text
+2 Cards +2 Actions Discard 2 cards. When you gain this, reveal any number of Action cards from your discard pile and shuffle them into your deck.

Inn is an Action card from Hinterlands. When played, Inn offers a village and sifting effect; when gained, it can help you set up future turns by putting Action cards from your discard pile back into your deck without having to wait for a reshuffle.

FAQ

Official FAQ (2022)

• When you gain this, you look through your discard pile (something normally not allowed), and shuffle any number of Action cards from it into your deck.
• You do not have to shuffle any Action cards into your deck.
• You can shuffle the Inn you just gained into your deck; it is an Action card in your discard pile.
• You must reveal the Action cards that you choose to shuffle into your deck.
• It does not matter what order you leave your discard pile in afterwards.

Other rules clarifications

• Anything that cares about shuffling (e.g. Star Chart or Order of Masons) can be used when you shuffle your entire deck. You may look through all the cards in your deck when using their abilities.
• If you don't reveal any Actions from your discard pile, you still shuffle your deck. This will still let you use effects like Star Chart and Order of Masons.
• If you gain an Inn and you don't shuffle it into your deck, it can still get moved by other abilities (like Changeling and Gatekeeper).
  • This is true even if you shuffle in a different copy of Inn. So if you gain an Inn, discard an Inn from Exile, and shuffle in the Inn you just discarded, then Changeling and Gatekeeper can still move the Inn you just gained.
• If you gain an Inn onto your deck (with e.g. Artificer), shuffling your deck will cause other abilities (like Changeling and Gatekeeper) to lose track. This is true even if Inn is the only card in your deck, or if you keep Inn on top of your deck (with either Star Chart or Order of Astrologers).
• If gaining an Action card causes you to gain an Inn (e.g. it was Border Village, or you played a Charm), you can shuffle both that Action card and the Inn back in your deck.

Strategy

Inn is an expensive village with a sifting effect that increases engine reliability but results in a net decrease in your hand size. This combination of features makes Inn somewhat difficult to use as a primary source of +Actions: you will need extra draw, which may also be expensive, meaning your engine will be slow to build. If such draw is available, Inn can serve in this function if there are no or only weak alternatives, but it is usually better as a supplement to other villages after you have bought some copies for the on-gain effect, which is often its primary appeal.

A well-timed Inn gain allows you to set up your next turn by shuffling important cards into your deck. In the ideal case, you can use Inn's on-gain effect to create a shuffle of only your good cards, likely by leaving everything else in your discard pile. Because this may not be available depending on how your shuffles play out, Inn can be a situationally useful card, but there are a few types of situations to keep it in mind for:

• With careful deck tracking, you can use Inn to avoid a dud. For example, if you know that your next hand would contain a terminal draw card but no village, buying an Inn can remedy that.
• More generally, if you notice that you will take another turn (or even multiple turns) to get through the rest of your draw pile but you have already seen most or all of your useful Actions this reshuffle, it may be worthwhile to buy an Inn to play those cards again more quickly. This is most likely to happen in the midgame, when you don’t yet have full deck control, though this period of usefulness can extend longer if your thinning options are weak. Gaining Inn in the early game is somewhat unusual as your priorities are usually more thinning-oriented, but gaining it can be a good plan if you have particular goals (e.g., upgrading your Page into Champion as soon as possible) that appreciate its cycling.
• In the later stages of the game when you’re drawing your deck, buying Inn after gaining other Action cards (e.g. Smithy) can allow you to guarantee a good start to your next turn.
• In slogs, Inn can often help you get extra plays of key Actions.
• Some effects (like Scavenger and Messenger) can put your entire deck in the discard pile and thereby create a good starting point for seeking out Actions with Inn.

There are a couple of nuances to using Inn’s on-gain effect:

1. Inn’s high price means that its on-gain effect has a high opportunity cost compared to tools you might use in similar situations, such as Expedition or Scouting Party. The fact that Inn does improve your deck’s terminal space and cycling in the long-term somewhat moderates this, but sometimes the immediate improvement to your next turn will be worth less than the long-term benefit of simply adding a strong card such as Laboratory to your deck.
2. It’s generally a good idea to note the amount of draw and terminal space in the shuffle you are creating with Inn’s on-gain effect. For example, if you create a shuffle composed solely of four terminals and an Inn, you run the risk of being overterminaled. Similarly, shuffling in all stop cards makes it fairly unlikely that you will be able to draw through your deck.

As a sifter, Inn is generally best played after drawing with other cards first (e.g., by playing your cantrips), so that you have the largest possible search space from which to discard your worst cards. It’s also a good idea to make sure not to trigger reshuffles when your discard is full of junk you’ve discarded with Inn.

Versions

English versions

Print	Digital	Text	Release	Date
		+2 Cards +2 Actions Discard 2 cards. When you gain this, look through your discard pile (including this), reveal any number of Action cards from it, and shuffle them into your deck.	Hinterlands	October 2011
		+2 Cards +2 Actions Discard 2 cards. When you gain this, look through your discard pile, reveal any number of Action cards from it (which can include this), and shuffle them into your deck.	Hinterlands (2016 printing)	December 2016
		+2 Cards +2 Actions Discard 2 cards. When you gain this, reveal any number of Action cards from your discard pile and shuffle them into your deck.	Hinterlands (Second Edition)	July 2022

Other language versions

Language	Name	Print	Digital	Text	Notes
Czech	Hostinec
Dutch	Herberg
Finnish	Majatalo
French	Auberge
German	Gasthaus			+2 Karten +2 Aktionen Lege 2 Karten aus deiner Hand ab. Wenn du diese Karte nimmst, sieh dir deinen Ablagestapel durch, decke beliebig viele Aktionskarten (auch dieses Gasthaus) daraus auf und mische die aufgedeckten Karten in deinen Nachziehstapel.	(2011)
	Gasthaus			+2 Karten +2 Aktionen Lege 2 deiner Handkarten ab. Wenn du diese Karte nimmst, sieh deinen Ablagestapel durch, decke beliebig viele Aktionskarten (kann diese Karte enthalten) daraus auf und mische sie in deinen Nachziehstapel.	(2019)
	Gasthaus			+2 Karten +2 Aktionen Lege 2 Karten ab. Wenn du diese Karte nimmst, decke beliebig viele Aktions­karten von deinem Ablage­stapel auf und mische sie in deinen Nachziehstapel.	2. Edition (2022)
Italian	Locanda
Japanese	宿屋 (pron. yadoya)			+2 カードを引く +2 アクション 2枚捨て札にする。 これを獲得するとき、捨て札置き場のカードをすべて見て、その中の好きな枚数のアクションカードを公開し (これを含めてもよい)、山札に混ぜシャッフルする。
Polish	Gospoda			+2 karty +2 akcje Odrzuć 2 karty. Kiedy dodajesz tę kartę, odkryj dowolną liczbę kart Akcji ze swojego stosu kart odrzuconych i wtasuj je do swojej talii.	(2024)
Russian	Постоялый Двор (pron. postoyaly dvor)
Spanish	Posada

Trivia

Official card art.

Theme

Digging through your deck kind of suggests travelling, and inns concentrate people mildly, which relates to the village aspect. And you know, people meet up at your inn, getting in the when-gain.

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

Preview

Inn was never officially previewed due to a leak at Essen, but Donald X. later released this text anyway.

Inn has an especially exotic when-gain ability: it shuffles Actions from your discard pile into your deck. Since you haven't gained a card until you've gained it, normally this includes the Inn itself, which it helpfully reminds you. And hey, it helps you play those Actions, so you'll probably choose to shuffle it in. With a / opening, Inn gives you a good chance of never getting that . Inn is somehow the 3rd Village I've previewed. The set only has three Villages, they were just all cards I wanted to show off.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Hinterlands Previews #5

Secret History

Long ago, there were two similar simple cards for in different sets. The first was +2 Cards, +1 Action, discard a card; the second was +2 Cards, +2 Actions, discard 2 cards. For a while they both seemed fine, but eventually I decided the first one was too strong, and it is no longer with us. The second one was Inn. It was fine, it was never changing. But one day I came up with the bottom part, and needed a card to graft it onto. Inn fit and was simple enough and there it is. I briefly tried it for without the discarding.

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

Relevant outtakes

Long ago, the set had a one-shot that let you buy a card and set it aside until the end of the game. That card was weak, but I stole it for Island in Seaside and fixed it up. Later I tried to revisit the concept here. First I tried some Woodcutters that let you buy cards other than to your deck, either while in play or as a reaction. Those were crazy. Then there were three versions of a victory card with a when-gain that left bad cards in your discard pile - one shuffled all non-victory cards from your discard pile into your deck, one shuffled all but 5 cards from your discard pile into your deck, one shuffled actions and treasures from your discard pile into your deck. It always took too many words and it was never clear that it was interesting enough. So none of those made it, but I saved part of the concept as the when-gain on Inn.

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

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