Mercenary

Mercenary
Info
Cost
Type(s)	Action - Attack
Kingdom card?	No
Set	Dark Ages
Illustrator(s)	Martin Hoffmann
Card text
You may trash 2 cards from your hand. If you did, +2 Cards, +, and each other player discards down to 3 cards in hand. (This is not in the Supply.)

Mercenary is an Action–Attack from Dark Ages. It does a little bit of everything—it's a terminal silver, terminal draw, trasher, and handsize attack, all in one card. You can only get it by playing Urchin.

FAQ

Official FAQ

• This card is not in the Supply; it can only be obtained via Urchin.
• When you play it, you may trash 2 cards from your hand.
• If you do, you draw two cards, get +, and each other player discards down to 3 cards in hand.
• Players who already have three or fewer cards in hand do nothing.
• Players responding to this Attack with cards like Beggar must choose to do so before you decide whether or not to trash two cards from your hand.
• If you play this with only one card in hand, you may choose to trash that card, but then will fail the "if you do" and will not draw cards and so on.
• If the cards you trash do things when trashed, first trash them both, then choose what order to resolve the things they do when trashed.

Strategy

Refer to the Urchin strategy section.

Versions

English versions

Print	Digital	Text	Notes	Release	Date
		You may trash 2 cards from your hand. If you do, +2 Cards, +, and each other player discards down to 3 cards in hand. (This is not in the Supply.)		Dark Ages	August 2012
		You may trash 2 cards from your hand. If you did, +2 Cards, +, and each other player discards down to 3 cards in hand. (This is not in the Supply.)	Digital version has a cost of rather than .	Dark Ages (2017 printing)	September 2017

Other language versions

Language	Name	Print	Digital	Text	Notes
Czech	Žoldnéř			Můžeš zahodit 2 karty z ruky na smetiště. Pokud tak učiníš, +2 karty, + a všichni ostatní hráči odloží tolik karet z ruky, aby jim zbyly 3. (Nepatří do společné zásoby.)
Dutch	Huurling
Finnish	Palkkasoturi
French	Mercenaire
German	Söldner			Du darfst 2 deiner Handkarten entsorgen. Wenn du das tust: +2 Karten und + und jeder Mitspieler legt Handkarten ab, bis er nur noch 3 hat. (Diese Karte gehört nicht zum Vorrat.)	(2019) one or more other versions listed here
Japanese	傭兵 (pron. yōhei)			手札2枚を廃棄してもよい。2枚を廃棄した場合、+1 カードを引く、 +、他のプレイヤーは全員、手札が3枚になるように捨て札にする。 (このカードはサプライに置かない。)
Korean	용병 (pron. yongbyeong)
Russian	Наёмный Убийца (pron. nayomny ubiytsa, lit. hired assassin)
Spanish	Mercenario

Trivia

Official card art.

Card Art

The art includes a dagger and red sash from Urchin.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, 'Art Trivia'

Secret History

Originally Urchin turned into an earlier version of Rogue, as told in that story. When that didn't work out I tried Mercenary. It's a bigger discard-based attack, so you can feel like your Urchin got better at that kind of thing. Otherwise it was a card I'd tried as a regular kingdom card in the set but which had been too good. It's still pretty snazzy if your Urchins hit right away. It's a Steward that does all three things!

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