Innkeeper

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Innkeeper
Info
Cost
Type(s)	Action
Kingdom card?	Yes
Set	Allies
Illustrator(s)	Julien Delval
Card text
+1 Action Choose one: +1 Card; or +3 Cards, then discard 3 cards; or +5 Cards, then discard 6 cards.

Innkeeper is an Action card from Allies. It is a non-terminal sifter that gives you a choice of how many cards to sift through; but sifting more cards leaves you with a smaller handsize. If you don't want the handsize reduction on a given turn, you can also play it as a cantrip with no other effect.

FAQ

Official FAQ

• First get +1 Action and choose which option you want, then do it.
• You either get +1 Card, or get +3 Cards but discard 3 cards, or get +5 Cards but discard 6 cards.

Strategy

Innkeeper tends to be a strong card that can be game changing on some boards, but tends to require a good amount of skill to use effectively. In spite of the name alluding to Inn, this card is more similar to Warehouse, costing more but giving two additional options that Warehouse lacks. The cantrip option is weak and the card is not usually worth buying if you end up using that option frequently, although there are specific circumstances where that choice can be beneficial, such as when you are nearly certain that no card you draw will be better than anything currently in your hand, or when it is advantageous to delay a reshuffle by one more turn.

The second option is also rather weak, and if you only ever play Innkeeper using the first two actions, it is usually slow, owing to the higher price point than Warehouse.

The third option, drawing 5 cards, is where Innkeeper usually shines, but it comes with the hefty cost of forcing a discard of a whopping 6 cards, which amounts to a net loss of 2 cards from the hand, counting the played Innkeeper. There are many different scenarios, however, which benefit from this choice.

A big money strategy can benefit from Innkeeper because a deck with sufficient treasure density needs only two Gold and a Silver to buy a province, and similarly three Silver can buy a gold. The flexibility is also of use in a money strategy, allowing you to time reshuffles as well as drawing fewer cards when you are certain that those cards will get you exactly what you need. In this scenario, you often want to pair Innkeeper with a strong terminal action that takes advantage of the +Action, typically a non-drawing one that does not risk drawing Innkeeper dead.

Innkeeper however also benefits deck-drawing engine strategies, especially those that rely on a combination of cards like Village+Smithy to get started. Innkeeper can often make these strategies viable on a board that otherwise would not have strong enough trashing to support such a strategy.

Innkeeper is weakest in highly thinned decks, where its card draw forces you to discard useful cards. Conversely, it tends to be strongest in a slog, which can occur both in the presence of a junking attack, as well as in some alt-VP games, such as a Gardens strategy. Even in engine and money games, the presence of innkeeper can make decks more resilient to greening, and thus shift the balance in favor of earlier purchase of VP, perhaps something as simple as throwing in an extra Duchy or even Estate here or there, as they will be less detrimental to the deck.

Like with most sifters, there is an obvious synergy with discard for benefit cards. In the presence of Trail, Innkeeper becomes particularly strong. Another strong combo, which can lead to a rush strategy, is Tunnel, which quickly gains golds, can be used repeatedly, and is easy to purchase in an opening with Innkeeper due to its price point of .

Versions

English versions

Print	Digital	Text	Release	Date
		+1 Action Choose one: +1 Card; or +3 Cards, then discard 3 cards; or +5 Cards, then discard 6 cards.	Allies	March 2022

Other language versions

Language	Name	Print	Digital	Text	Notes
German	Wirtin			+1 Aktion Wähle eins: +1 Karte oder +3 Karten und lege dann 3 Karten aus deiner Hand ab oder +5 Karten und lege dann 6 Karten aus deiner Hand ab.

Trivia

Official card art.

Secret History

Initially the choice was just between cantrip or Warehouse. It wasn't phrased as a choose-one either, it was cantrip, "You may: +2 Cards, then discard 3 cards." I turned it into a choose-one to work with Elder, then added the draw 5 / discard 6 option to spice it up. It was a concern, was that too generous, was it too slow.

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