Margrave

Margrave
Info
Cost
Type(s)	Action - Attack
Kingdom card?	Yes
Set	Hinterlands
Illustrator(s)	Joshua Stewart
Card text
+3 Card +1 Buy Each other player draws a card, then discards down to 3 cards in hand.

Margrave is an Action–Attack from Hinterlands. Margrave's attack generally hurts your opponents less than other discard attacks, and subsequent plays actually help them somewhat. However, +3 Cards and +Buy are very nice benefits for both money strategies and engines.

FAQ

Official FAQ

• Drawing a card is not optional for the other players.
• A player who only has 3 cards or fewer after drawing does not discard.

Other Rules clarifications

• If the card they draw is a Reaction that triggers on an attack (such as Moat or Caravan Guard), they cannot use it (but they can keep it in their hand to use against a future attack).

Strategy

Margrave is a powerful card offering terminal draw, a handsize Attack, and +Buy all at once, making it useful for both engines and money strategies. While the attack is slightly weaker than a simple discard to three, since it offers your opponent some cycling and better card selection (similar to playing Council Room then Militia), this combination of effects can quickly accelerate your early and mid-game while also slowing down your opponents, possibly from buying their own first Margrave. In any case, getting a Margrave in the early game is usually worthwhile both for the draw and for the attack.

If your engine plays multiple Margraves in a single turn, the improved cycling and card selection offered to the opponent is compounded: each Margrave after the first offers a small benefit to them rather than a negative effect. This is usually not a reason to forgo Margrave, however, though it may be better to gain other draw cards rather than another Margrave, assuming you have enough +Buy.

Margrave is also a solid terminal draw card for money strategies. The handsize attack is very relevant in Kingdoms where this is the best strategy, because it damages your opponents’ ability to generate enough to afford Gold or Province. The added +Buy is typically less important in this context, but can help by offering flexibility in the endgame and by letting you buy cheap deck components, e.g., Fool's Gold.

Versions

English versions

Print	Digital	Text	Release	Date
		+3 Cards +1 Buy Each other player draws a card, then discards down to 3 cards in hand.	Hinterlands	October 2011
		+3 Cards +1 Buy Each other player draws a card, then discards down to 3 cards in hand.	Hinterlands (2016 printing)	December 2016

Other language versions

Language	Name	Print	Digital	Text	Notes
Czech	Markrabě
Dutch	Markgraaf
Finnish	Markiisi (lit. marquess)
French	Margrave
German	Markgraf			+3 Karten +1 Kauf Jeder Mitspieler zieht eine Karte und legt dann alle bis auf 3 Handkarten ab.	(2019)
Italian	Margravio
Japanese	辺境伯 (pron. henkyō haku, lit. border chief)			+3 カードを引く +1 購入 他のプレイヤーは全員、1枚カードを引き、手札が3枚になるように捨て札にする。
Polish	Murgrabia				Although Polish version is not released, this name is referred to in Polish Dominion 2E rulebook.
Russian	Маркграф (pron. markgraf)
Spanish	Margrave

Trivia

Official card art.

Theme

A margrave is the ruler of a border province. It was a good word to get into the set, wanted to go on an attack, and here was an attack it could go on. There's no real functional connection.

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

Secret History

A later set for a long time had an attack that made everyone else discard down to two, then draw a card. Mathematically it seems equivalent to Militia: you discard down to three, then you discard the worst card, which on average is average for your deck, being the middle card out of five; then you draw a card, which on average is average for your deck. That math is tricky but run through it a couple times if you have to. It's the same as Militia. Well in practice it hurts way more than Militia, like you might have thought. Militia lets you keep three cards that could be a fine hand. This only let you keep two, which is rarely enough to have a good plan, and then you draw a random card, which could work out but often does not. Anyway it was around for a long time but eventually died and everyone rejoiced. Vinay Baliga suggested flipping it - they draw one then discard down to three. Sounded good, I tried it, it worked out, there it is.

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

Relevant outtakes

Similarly there were several versions of a when-gain discard-based attack card. The longest-lasting one was a Woodcutter for that made the other players (with 5+ cards in hand) put a random card from their hand on their deck when you bought it or played it. It's amazing how long that card was around, given how painful it made games. There was an earlier version that made players discard their most expensive card, or most expensive non-  card. Then when I killed the concept, I tried a Militia with a when-gain that Militia'd your own next hand when you gained it - look at your top 5, discard 2, put the rest back. That seemed cute conceptually but I liked Margrave better and that's what you got here. I also tried an attack that gave the other players a choice between being Militia'd or Ghost Ship'd, which is pretty weak.

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

Retrospective

Margrave got +1 Buy because something in the set needed +1 Buy and that looked like a reasonable spot at the time. In general getting two engine pieces from one card is a problem; those are significant cards. Some cards will have to do that but I want to be careful with them. I definitely don't want two engine pieces and also it attacks.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Fix the worst cards

For me another thing that stands out is, that in multiplayer, you always line up your village and Margrave. I mean you draw your hand, and you don't have village Margrave, damn. And the next player plays village Margrave village Margrave, and you get to dig through some cards. And the next player does it too, and so does the next, so when it's your turn, you at last have your village Margrave draw, so you get to do it too. So we all always do it.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Fix the worst cards

The attack premise of Margrave is cool. Being an attack with +3 Cards is never so great; I like people to commit more to the attack, not just end up with it because it draws. And then, Margrave is over-the-top, it's the +Buy. It sure did not need that. But well, I only got to fix so much, and Margrave had positives. You may also note that in Hinterlands-heavy games, more things defend against discard attacks now.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Dominion Discord, 2022