Moat

Moat
Info
Cost
Type(s)	Action - Reaction
Kingdom card?	Yes
Set	Base
Illustrator(s)	Matthias Catrein
Card text
+2 Cards When another player plays an Attack card, you may first reveal this from your hand, to be unaffected by it.

Moat is an Action and Reaction card from the Base set. When played, it gives +2 Cards, and if it is in your hand when an Attack card is played, then you can be immune to the attack.

FAQ

Official FAQ

• An Attack card says "Attack" on the bottom line; in this set, Bandit, Bureaucrat, Militia, and Witch are Attacks.
• When another player plays an Attack card, you may reveal a Moat from your hand, before the Attack does anything, to be unaffected by the Attack - you do not reveal cards to Bandit, or put a Victory card on your deck for Bureaucrat, or discard for Militia, or gain a Curse for Witch.
• Moat stays in your hand, and can still be played on your next turn.
• Moat does not stop anything an Attack does to other players, or for the player who played it; it just protects you personally.
• Moat can also be played on your turn for +2 Cards.
• If multiple Attacks are played on a turn or in a round of turns, you may reveal Moat for as many of them as you want.

Other rules clarifications

• Moat only gives you +2 Cards when you play it, not when you reveal it to use its Reaction ability.
• The other player must play the Attack card; for example, you cannot reveal Moat when another player buys a Noble Brigand.
• The played card must have the Attack type; for example, you cannot reveal Moat when another player plays a Masquerade.
• Other players must reveal Moat before you resolve any abilities of the Attack you played. For example, you can see if anyone reveals a Moat before making your choice with Minion, and before deciding whether to play your Attack via a Way.

Strategy

Moat provides terminal draw of +2 Cards, which is significantly worse than the +3 Cards present on cards such as Smithy. Each Village and Moat pair increases your hand size by one, rather than two with Village and Smithy, meaning you need twice as many pairs for an equivalent benefit. When used in conjunction with villages that do not draw, such as Festival, Moat does not increase your hand size and the combination is highly unreliable, being very vulnerable to an unfavorable order of drawing. Moat requires a very well trashed deck and plentiful access to many drawing villages to work well as your primary draw card. In these conditions, you can also use it as a supplement to better draw cards when those are present, as its low price can present you many opportunities to gain them.

Against attacks during your opponents' turns, Moat provides attack immunity only if you draw it in your starting 5 cards. As your deck increases in size, a single Moat becomes less and less consistent in its ability to defend. It is significantly weaker for this purpose than the other attack immunity cards. Some cards can help guarantee Moat appears in your starting hand every turn, giving full defense coverage with only one copy of Moat. For example, Artisan allows you to put it back on top of your deck.

Against many attacks, it can be better to simply accept that you’ll be getting attacked than to add Moats to your deck for the chance they might occasionally block an attack. In the case of junking attacks such as Witch, it is often more effective to focus on giving all the Curses to your opponent first, instead of spending time obtaining Moats solely for defense.

Unique to Moat is that each time you are attacked you have the option to receive the attack by not revealing your Moat, as occasionally an attack can be beneficial to you.

Moat's defensive capabilities improve in games with more players, as you tend to be attacked more often. Junking attacks in 4 player games can add junk to your deck very quickly and you can easily receive many copies of junk between turns, making Moat more valuable when it does appear in your starting hand.

Notable Synergies

• Black Cat - Moat is much better at defending against Black Cat compared to other attacks, as your opponents’ Black Cats are played during your turn, after you have had the chance to draw Moat into your hand.

Versions

English versions

Print	Digital	Text	Release	Date
		+2 Cards When another player plays an Attack card, you may reveal this from your hand. If you do, you are unaffected by that Attack.	Dominion	October 2008
		+2 Cards When another player plays an Attack card, you may first reveal this from your hand, to be unaffected by it.	Dominion (Second Edition)	October 2016

Other language versions

Language	Name	Print	Digital	Text	Notes
Chinese	護城河 (pron. hùchénghé)			+2 卡片 當其他玩家打出攻擊卡時，你可以先展示手上的此卡，來無效對你的影響。
Czech	Hradní příkop
Dutch	Slotgracht			+2 Kaarten Als een andere speler een aanvalskaart speelt, mag je de Slotgracht tonen. In dat geval heeft de aanval op jou geen effect.	Tweede editie (herdruk 2019/2020) "...mag je eerst de Slotgracht uit je hand tonen. …"
Finnish	Vallihauta
French	Douves			+2 Cartes Lorsqu'un adversaire joue une carte Attaque, vous pouvez dévoiler catte carte de votre main. Dans ce cas, l'attaque n'a pas d'effet sur vous.
German	Burggraben			+2 Karten Wenn ein Mitspieler eine Angriffskarte ausspielt, darfst du diese Karte aus deiner Hand aufdecken. Der Angriff hat damit keine Wirkung auf dich.	(2013)
	Burggraben			+2 Karten Wenn ein Mitspieler eine Angriffskarte ausspielt, darfst du zuerst diese Karte aus deiner Hand aufdecken, um nicht von ihr betroffen zu sein.	2. Edition (2019)
Greek	Τάφρος (pron. tafros)			+2 Kάρτες Όταν κάποιος άλλος παίχτης παίξει μία κάρτα Επίθεσης, μπορείτε να δείξετε αυτή την κάρτα αν την έχετε στο χέρι σας. Αν το κάνετε, δεν σας επηρεάζει η Επίθεση.
Hungarian	Várárok
Italian	Fossato
Japanese	堀 (pron. hori)			+2 カードを引 他のプレイヤーがアタックカードを便用するとき、 その解決前に、 手札からこれを公開してもよい。公開した場合、 そのアタックカードの影響を受けない。
Korean	해자 (pron. haeja)
Norwegian	Vollgrav
Polish	Fosa			+2 karty Kiedy inny gracz zagrywa kartę ataku, możesz odkryć tę kartę z ręki. Jeśli to zrobisz, to atak cię ominie.	(2009/2011)
	Fosa			+2 karty Kiedy inny gracz zagrywa kartę Ataku, możesz odkryć tę kartę z ręki, aby uniknąć efektów tego ataku.	II Edycja (2018) "...możesz najpierw odkryć tę kartę z ręki,…"
Romanian	Șanț
Russian	Ров (pron. rov)			+2 Карты Когда другой игрок играет карту Атаки, вы можете раскрыть эту карту из руки, тогда Атака вас не затронет.
Spanish	Foso			+2 Cartas Cuando otro jugador juegue una carta de Ataque, puedes enseñar esta carta de tu mano. Si lo haces, el Ataque no te afecta.	First Edition (2008) "...puedes primero enseñar esta carta…"
	Foso			+2 Cartas Cuando otro jugador juegue una carta de Ataque, puedes enseñar esta carta de tu mano. Si lo haces, el Ataque no te afecta.	Second Edition (2016, 2021) "...puedes primero enseñar esta carta…"

Trivia

Official card art.

First edition card art.

Card Art

Moat is the only card to have its art changed with the release of the second editions, albeit subtly (one Event, Pathfinding also had its artwork adjusted).

The artwork for Moat is different - just tinted blue - because the artist is also the layout guy and I guess this was something he regretted, not having the art match the frame.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Dominion and Intrigue second editions

Secret History

The very first Moat just stopped one attack and was discarded. That was pretty weak, so I gradually improved it. Also I felt like it was important that you be able to do something with Moat even if no attacks were on the table, for people who wanted to just deal out 10 random cards and play with them. When Valerie got her copy, the card either drew 2 cards or was discarded to stop an attack, but during the time between then and when development started, I changed it so you just revealed it to stop attacks - you could stop multiple attacks with it, and then still play it to draw cards on your turn. For a while Valerie or Dale thought this might be too good, and we tested a version you had to discard, but eventually the stronger version won out.

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

Using "First"

I am trying to give cards wordings that make it clear what happens in the game. At the same time the clearest possible wordings (computer programs) make the game unplayable, so I don't use those.

"When you play this" on a card, such as a special Treasure or Noble Brigand, is clarifying that what follows is something that the card does when played. It would be nice to not have that text on Treasures, but it seemed necessary back when.

"When another player plays an Attack card, first" is clarifying that what you are doing happens before the Attack card does anything.

I don't have much data on "first," but no-one is ever confused by "When you play this" on Treasures. So it did its job, it communicated successfully. Good luck, "first!" I'm optimistic.

I do not always have lots of time to spend considering extremely exotic situations in Dominion. If I wanted to seriously consider this issue again, I would search through the card texts for "when you play" effects, see how unique of a case Champion was; then I'd look at the future Adventures rulebook to see what rulings might be contradictory. For all I know I would see the light. But well, I try to be there for people, but Champion / Diadem / Storyteller, I only have so much time.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, When is "when you play an action" resolved.