Mandarin
| Mandarin | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Info | |
| Cost |
 |
| Type(s) | Action |
| Kingdom card? | Yes |
| Set |
Hinterlands |
| Illustrator(s) | Lynell Ingram |
| Card text | |
+ Put a card from your hand onto your deck. When you gain this, put all Treasures you have in play onto your deck in any order. | |
Mandarin is an Action card from Hinterlands. Mandarin gives + and requires you to place a card on top of your deck. Its on-gain ability can enable some very strong combos.
It was removed from the second edition of Hinterlands.
FAQ
Official FAQ
- When you gain this, you put all of your Treasures from play on top of your deck in any order.
- You do not have to show this order to other players.
- You have to put all of your Treasures on top; you cannot leave some out.
- You only put Treasures from play on top of your deck, not unplayed Treasures from your hand.
- This does not stop you from having the
you got from playing those Treasures; for example, if you have +1 Buy and play four Golds and buy a Mandarin, you put the Golds on top of your deck, and still have 
left to spend.
Strategy
Before it was removed, Mandarin was occasionally useful as payload card. However, as it’s an expensive terminal Gold which slows down your cycling with its on-play effect, most alternative options are superior. Therefore, Mandarin is most relevant in the context of a few combos and tactical tricks which make use of its on-gain effect in scenarios where it’s useful to topdeck Treasures.
The on-gain effect of Mandarin enables several different combos. The most common type of these aims to simply use five or fewer Treasures to buy a Province and a Mandarin, then topdeck all those Treasures for the next turn to repeat the process with perfect consistency regardless of the shape of the rest of your deck. The example par excellence is with Capital—the card provides +Buy and lots of , and buying a Mandarin to topdeck the Capitals prevents you from taking 
, so you can begin executing the combo with only two Capitals and a Copper in hand. In many Kingdoms this will be the dominant strategy. Some other versions without Capital (using e.g. Counterfeit or Horn of Plenty to supply at least one extra gain) are conceptually similar but typically much slower and more difficult to set up. All of these combos are vulnerable to handsize attacks; for example, Minion makes you discard all of the cards you had topdecked with Mandarin, while other attacks make it much more difficult to afford both Province and Mandarin.
Outside of these combos, Mandarin can infrequently be worth gaining opportunistically. Generally, topdecking Treasures greatly hinders an engine’s ability to kick off because it fills your starting hand with stop cards, and also slows down your cycling in situations where you can’t draw your deck. However, doing so might be useful if, for example, you have played only two Golds this turn; by buying Mandarin, you can increase your odds of affording a Province next turn. Less commonly, engines with gainers can gain a Mandarin mid-turn to topdeck, draw and then replay important Treasures such as Crown (or, under the effect of Capitalism, Action cards such as Steward which have also become Treasures). In extremely rare situations, this may allow a full loop in which you can continually play the same cards over and over.
Versions
English versions
| Digital | Text | Release | Date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
 |
+ Put a card from your hand on top of your deck. When you gain this, put all Treasures you have in play on top of your deck in any order. |
Hinterlands | October 2011 |
|
 |
+ Put a card from your hand onto your deck. When you gain this, put all Treasures you have in play onto your deck in any order. |
Hinterlands (2016 printing) | December 2016 |
Other language versions
| Language | Name | Digital | Text | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Czech | Mandarín | ||||
| Dutch | Mandarijn | ||||
| Finnish | Mandariini | ||||
| French | Mandarin | ||||
| German | Mandarin |  |
 |
+ Lege eine deiner Handkarten auf deinen Nachziehstapel. Wenn du diese Karte nimmst, lege alle Geldkarten, die du im Spiel hast, in beliebiger Reihenfolge auf deinen Nachziehstapel. |
(2019) |
| Italian | Mandarino | ||||
| Japanese | 官吏 (pron. kanri, lit. government official) |
+ 手札1枚を山札の上に置く。 これを獲得するとき、場の財宝カードをすべて好きな順番で山札の上に置く。 |
|||
| Russian | Мандарин (pron. mandarin) | ||||
| Spanish | Mandarín |
Trivia
On Discord, Donald X. stated that he would lower Mandarin's cost to 
.
Theme
Preview
/ opening. You buy Mandarin, put the Coppers on your deck, draw your new hand... of five Coppers. Enough for a Mandarin! Just how many Mandarins did you want, anyway? It all depends, but I am betting, not all of them.
The when-gain ability is also cute when you want a Province but don't have 
. Play just a Gold and a Silver, keeping any superfluous Copper in hand; buy a Mandarin, see if you do better next turn. And there are tricks it can do with special Treasures.
and put a card from your hand on your deck - the money version of Courtyard. It costs a lot more than Courtyard and well there's a lesson there for all of us.
Secret History
Relevant outtakes
Second Edition removal
