Lost Arts

Lost Arts
Info
Cost
Type	Event
Set	Adventures
Illustrator(s)	Joshua Stewart
Event text
Move your +1 Action token to an Action Supply pile. (When you play a card from that pile, you first get +1 Action.)

Lost Arts is an Event from Adventures. It gives +1 Action to all of your cards from an Action Supply pile.

FAQ

Official FAQ

• When you buy this, you move your +1 Action token to any Action Supply pile.
• This token gives you +1 Action whenever you play a card from that pile; see the Tokens section.

Strategy

Turning a terminal into a non-terminal or a cantrip into a village is often powerful, as doing so can either remove a major downside of a card or greatly increase your terminal space. Lost Arts may therefore be crucial for building some engines which would otherwise be infeasible.

Lost Arts’ relevance varies depending on how important it is to play particular terminals:

• If there is only one important terminal, you can add the +Action token to its pile and forgo villages completely. Terminal draw, such as Smithy, is a prime target in this case. With Lost Arts, you eliminate its two major downsides: the potential to draw cards dead and the need to play villages before your terminal draw; this makes your deck much more reliable. Other good terminal targets include payload cards that you would like to play in bulk such as Monument or Bridge.
• If you’d like to play multiple different terminals, Lost Arts can also be used to make up for a lack of other village options by converting a non-terminal card into a village. A good target card for this is typically a cheap cantrip.

Timing when to get Lost Arts is fairly Kingdom-dependent. If Lost Arts is extremely important to your deck, e.g. as it can be with terminal draw, it’s often a good idea to build your engine somewhat normally, with an additional priority of trying to add copies of the target card quickly while also preparing your deck to afford Lost Arts before you begin to have terminal collision; this is usually after you have a couple of copies of the target card, though it may be earlier if your target card is terminal draw and you have other terminals you would like to play. If terminal space is less needed or there is no obvious target card, you can plan to take Lost Arts more flexibly, if at all.

In some Kingdoms where the Lost Arts target is obvious (e.g. with Smithy), it can be helpful to use a gainer or a source of +Buy in order to quickly add those target cards, and in some Kingdoms you may wish to do this to ensure you don’t lose the split. In the case of a terminal draw target card, doing so is often equivalent to being behind on cheap non-terminal draw, which can be detrimental. However, as is usually the case with contesting splits, it’s important to consider the opportunity cost of doing so, and it’s almost always better to focus on building a good deck first over immediately rushing to take as many of the target card as possible, as a good deck will likely both be able to catch up on the split and afford Lost Arts.

Versions

English versions

Print	Digital	Text	Release	Date
		Move your +1 Action token to an Action Supply pile (when you play a card from that pile, you first get +1 Action).	Adventures	April 2015
		Move your +1 Action token to an Action Supply pile. (When you play a card from that pile, you first get +1 Action.)	Adventures (2017 printing)	August 2017

Other language versions

Language	Name	Print	Digital	Text	Notes
Dutch	Verloren Kunst			Verplaats je +1 Actie-fische naar een Actie-voorraadstapel (speel je een kaart van die stapel, dan ontvang je eerst +1 Actie).	(2015)
Finnish	Unohdetut kyvyt (lit. forgotten abilities)
French	Arts anciens (lit. old arts)			Placez votre jeton +1 Action sur une pile de cartes Action de la réserve. (Quand vous jouez une carte de cette pile, obtenez d'abord +1 Action.)
German	Verlorene Kunst			Lege deinen +1 Aktion-Marker auf einen Aktions-Vorratsstapel. (Wenn du eine Karte von diesem Stapel ausspielst, erhältst du zuerst +1 Aktion.)	(2015)
German	Verlorene Kunst			Lege deinen +1 Aktion-Marker auf einen Aktions-Vorratsstapel. (Wenn du eine Karte von jenem Stapel spielst, erhältst du zuerst +1 Aktion.)	(Nachdruck 2021)
Japanese	失われた技術 (pron. ushinawareta gijutsu, lit. lost technology)			あなたの+1 アクショントークンをアクションカードのサプライの山に移動する(あなたがその山に由来するカードを使用するとき、+1 アクションを得る)。
Russian	Утерянные Искусства (pron. utyeryannyye iskusstva)

Trivia

Official card art.

Preview

Lost Arts produces a +1 Action token, which modifies a pile so that those cards give you personally +1 Action. Each player has their own token. Say you put the token on Smithy; for you, Smithy is +1 Action +3 Cards, but for everyone else, it's still +3 Cards (unless they also put their token on Smithy). For example. So uh there's probably something good you can do with that. That Smithy example doesn't sound half-bad. The token on Smithy affects all of the Smithies you have, and any Smithies you get later; it's just a different card for you. It's like a giant pile of Villages that are always there when you need them for a particular action, for a one-time payment of and a Buy. You are probably wondering, is there also a +1 Buy token, a +1 Card token, a + token? Yes, of course there are those too.

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

Secret History

Initially a one-shot Kingdom card. An early star of the set. Initially the tokens weren't counter-limited; you could get multiple +1 Action tokens and + tokens and - cost tokens. I lowered it down to just two and then just one. You get the experience with one and I don't need to cost the cards for crazier situations.

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