Kiln

Kiln
Info
Cost
Type(s)	Action
Kingdom card?	Yes
Set	Menagerie
Illustrator(s)	Elisa Cella
Card text
+ The next time you play a card this turn, you may first gain a copy of it.

Kiln is an Action card from Menagerie. It is a terminal Silver that can gain a copy of the next card you play that turn, no matter what phase you play that card in and no matter the price of that card.

FAQ

Official FAQ

• Kiln can gain any type of card, as long as the card is played directly after Kiln.
• It can only gain cards from the Supply.
• You (optionally) gain a copy of the card before following the instructions on the card.
• If the card is an Attack and other players want to use cards like Moat, you gain the card before they choose to use Moat or not.
• If you Throne Room a Kiln, you will play Kiln, play Kiln again, first gaining a Kiln (optionally), and then can still gain a copy of the next card you play after that.
• If the next card you play is an Action and you use a Way for it, that has no special interaction with Kiln; you still may optionally gain a copy of that card.

Other Rules clarifications

• If you play a Stockpile after a Kiln, you gain a Stockpile first, may discard Stockpiles from Exile, and then you Exile your played Stockpile.
• If you have a +1 Card token on the card you played, you can get +1 Card before or after gaining a copy.
• If you Throne Room a Kiln and gain a Kiln, you can react with Sheepdog, but since you haven't resolved Kiln a second time yet, you won't gain a copy of Sheepdog.
• If you play Kiln, play Conspirator, gain a 2nd Conspirator and play it with Innovation, both Conspirators will give +1 Card and +1 Action.

Strategy

Kiln is an expensive terminal silver and potentially useful gainer. It requires good deck control and lots of village support in order to work well, so there are many games in which it never becomes relevant, but at its best it can play a role in some explosive gain-and-play three-pile endings.

Kiln suffers from two major problems:

1. Its fundamental weakness is that it’s a terminal that you need to play before the card you’d like to gain a copy of, which imposes strong constraints on play order throughout your turn. Not only do you need to collide Kiln and its target in your hand (which may itself entail playing draw and/or villages first), you also need at least two Actions available before playing Kiln if that target is an Action card (usually the most desirable type of card to gain); if the target itself is also terminal, you need to play additional villages before Kiln if you want to be able to continue your turn afterwards.
2. A secondary weakness is that you also need to have obtained at least one copy of the card you’d like to gain already. Therefore, unlike many other gainers, it often can’t help you build until well into the midgame. This also means that although Kiln can gain cards of any cost, it can’t (for example) save you from trying to spike to afford your first King's Court or let you gain Possession without getting a Potion.

Before your deck can provide the support it needs, Kiln is likely to do little more than generate of payload, take up terminal space, and provide the option to gain a copy of a Treasure, which isn’t typically a strong effect (especially in the early game). Therefore, Kiln is rarely worth gaining before you’ve established strong deck control, added surplus terminal space, and (preferably) have some overdraw to enable gain-and-play of the Kiln target.

When all the necessary support is available and there are very good targets to gain, Kiln can become rather powerful. Its strongest enabler is King's Court, which can set up powerful loops that allow you to drain piles quickly by gaining cards with Kiln, while accumulating as well. For example, by playing King's Court on King's Court to play Kiln three times, you can gain two Kilns (because the card played immediately after your first and second plays of Kiln is Kiln itself) followed by a King's Court (due to playing the second King's Court for a second time); triple-playing a draw card with this second play of King's Court allows you to draw the gained cards, King's Court your new King's Court, and continue the loop. After the Kiln and King's Court piles are empty, it’s likely that you can Kiln enough other cards to drain a third pile (although this does require a source of +Actions other than King's Court), and use the you’ve amassed to buy at least one Victory card. Other feasible use cases for Kiln are less likely to produce autopiling loops in this way, but similarly tend to involve expensive cards (hence usefully gained with Kiln) that provide plenty of +Actions and draw, such as City Quarter.

Versions

English versions

Print	Digital	Text	Release	Date
		+ The next time you play a card this turn, you may first gain a copy of it.	Menagerie	March 2020

Other language versions

Language	Name	Print	Digital	Text	Notes
Dutch	Oven			+ De volgende keer dat je deze beurt een kaart speelt, mag je er eerst een exemplaar van pakken.	(2020)
French	Four			+ La prochaine fois que vous jouerez une carte à ce tour, vous pourrez d'abord en recevoir un exemplaire.
German	Brennofen			+ Von der nächsten Karte, die du in diesem Zug spielst, darfst du zuerst eine gleiche Karte nehmen.	(2020)
Japanese	炉 (pron. ro)

Trivia

Official card art.

Preview

Kiln is another in the long line of Explorers. It most easily gains Treasures, but if you can play an Action after it, you can gain a copy of that, and it can even gain Night cards.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Menagerie Previews 1: 5 Cards

Secret History

The only change here was adding "first," as people want to reach right over and take their card.

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