Jester

Jester
Info
Cost
Type(s)	Action - Attack
Kingdom card?	Yes
Set	Cornucopia
Illustrator(s)	Jeff Himmelman
Card text
+ Each other player discards the top card of their deck. If it's a Victory card they gain a Curse; otherwise they gain a copy of the discarded card or you do, your choice.

Jester is an Action-Attack card from Cornucopia. When played, it makes each other player discard the top card of their deck, and either gives them a copy of it, gains you a copy of it, or gives out a Curse. It can thus be either a junker or a gainer.

FAQ

Official FAQ

• Each other player (in turn order) discards the top card of their deck; players with no cards (after shuffling) are unaffected.
• For each player who discarded a card, if it is a Victory card, they gain a Curse, and otherwise, you choose: either that player gains a copy of the card, or you do.
• If a card is revealed for which there are no copies in the Supply, no-one gains a copy of it.

Strategy

Jester is a terminal silver that behaves unreliably as a gainer or a junker. Because the outcome of its Attack component is usually both unpredictable and highly variable in impact, it tends to compare unfavorably with other Action cards at the price point, so it has a high opportunity cost and is generally a low priority relative to more effective Attacks such as Witch. However, it can be a useful gainer if you have good deck control, the potential targets are worthwhile, and sufficient terminal space is available, particularly if you can play multiple copies. It may occasionally be a usable junker instead if thinning is weak.

Jester's impact hinges on the probability that its gaining effect gives a worthwhile result—either gaining you a good card or giving your opponent a bad one. The negative impact on your opponent is usually strongest when a Victory card or Curse is revealed, causing them to gain a Curse. If a Copper is revealed, giving a copy to your opponent is also usually the right decision and can be effective junking. However, revealing a useful card and gaining a copy yourself is often the most attractive outcome of a Jester play. This is particularly true in a strong Kingdom with good thinning, which will generally mean there are many good cards to hit in your opponent's deck, whereas junking them is not likely to hurt much. Jester can be more attractive if it has the potential to gain you strong cards that can't be targeted by most gainers, such as King's Court, City Quarter or Scrying Pool. The gaining effect is also more likely to be relevant in Kingdoms where extra gains are otherwise unavailable or very restricted; although Jester is unreliable, it can gain you some extra engine pieces or fodder for important trash-for-benefit effects, and might enable you to build faster than your opponent.

Jester's unpredictability as a gainer is fairly limiting. Because it cannot guarantee gaining the cards that you most want, you are forced to instead build reactively, and your ability to contest splits and threaten pile outs is reduced compared to other gainers. Given the relevance of the top card of your opponent's deck, Jester synergizes with cards like Scrying Pool and Chariot Race that let you inspect or manipulate that card and therefore increase the likelihood of a good outcome of the Jester use. In multiplayer games, it is possible to gain multiple cards with one Jester play, which may make Jester more appealing if there are good targets and increases the likelihood of piles emptying quickly.

In a few cases, the decision as to whether to take a copy of the revealed card yourself or give it to your opponent is difficult. This is most likely to occur if you are pursuing highly divergent strategies: for example, if you are building an engine while your opponent has adopted a money strategy, Treasures will be likely hits, and (especially in the case of Silver) may be detrimental for your deck but beneficial to your opponent's. A similar problem can occur even in a more mirrored situation if your Jester reveals a card that isn't the right addition to your deck at that moment but that would still be likely to benefit your opponent, such as a terminal when you are already overterminaled.

If no one can gain a copy of the revealed card, the only effect of Jester's attack is to discard a card from the top of your opponent's deck. This tends to mean Jester is weaker once Supply piles begin to empty, or when the game involves plenty of non-Supply cards or mixed piles. For example, it is less likely to work as a junking attack if your opponent's deck contains Shelters rather than Estates. In this case, the net effect is most likely a small benefit for your opponent, since it amounts to simply cycling past a bad card. Discarding a useful non-Supply card (particularly one that can have a high impact if played early in the turn or shuffle, such as Horse or a Traveller) can still have a somewhat detrimental effect by causing it to miss your opponent's shuffle, but is usually less impactful than the opportunity to gain a card or junk your opponent.

Versions

English versions

Print	Digital	Text	Release	Date
		+ Each other player discards the top card of his deck. If it's a Victory card he gains a Curse. Otherwise either he gains a copy of the discarded card or you do, your choice.	Cornucopia 1st Edition	June 2011
		+ Each other player discards the top card of their deck. If it's a Victory card they gain a Curse; otherwise they gain a copy of the discarded card or you do, your choice.	Cornucopia 2nd Edition	March 2018

Other language versions

Language	Name	Print	Digital	Text	Notes
Czech	Šašek
Dutch	Nar
Finnish	Narri
French	Bouffon
German	Harlekin			+ Jeder Mitspieler muss die oberste Karte seines Nachziehstapels ablegen. Ist es eine Punktekarte, muss er sich einen Fluch nehmen. Ansonsten muss sich entweder er oder du eine Karte mit gleichem Namen nehmen (Du entscheidest).	(2011)
German	Harlekin			+ Jeder Mitspieler legt die oberste Karte seines Nachziehstapels ab. Ist es eine Punktekarte, nimmt er einen Fluch. Ansonsten entscheidest du, ob er eine gleiche Karte nimmt oder du.	(2019)
Italian	Giullare
Japanese	道化師 (pron. dōkeshi, lit. clown)			+ 他のプレイヤーは全員、山札の一番上のカードを捨て札にし、それが勝利点カードの場合、呪い1枚を獲得し、それ以外の場合、あなたの選折により、そのプレイヤーかあなたは、捨て札にされたのと同じカード1枚を獲得する。
Polish	Błazen			+ Każdy z pozostałych graczy odrzuca wierzchnią kartę swojej talii. Jeśli będzie to karta zwycięstwa gracz dodaje Klątwe. Jeśli nie, ty decydujesz, czy ty, czy też on ma dodać kopię odrzuconej karty.	(2011)
Russian	Шут (pron. shut)
Spanish	Bufón

Trivia

Official card art.

Secret History

Back when, there were cards like "trash the top card of each other player's deck." They died due to 1) being weak (hitting Copper all the time), 2) being swingy (hitting your Copper and someone else's Province), and 3) possibly reducing everyone's deck to 5 cards with no escape. In those days, Alchemy had the opposite card - "Each other player reveals the top card of his deck. Gain a copy of one of those cards." This was also weak and swingy, and died around the same time. I always had plans to fix it up though, and with Cornucopia got around to doing it. Jester lets you give them the card, so you don't mind hitting Copper as much, and it gives out Curses for VP cards, so as not to be so swingy. Of course you can gain multiple cards, which makes it swingy again. Jester gets crazy with five players and well if a card's going to get crazy with five players, it might as well be a fun one.

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

Retrospective

My classic experience with Jester is drowning in Coppers, never seeing the cards I've gotten. Jester is mostly thought of as a fun multiplayer card; yeeha, you could play it and gain 3 great cards. And sometimes it does that. And sometimes it deals out Coppers and you get too many Coppers and your deck is Coppers.

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