Patient

Patient
Info
Type	Trait
Set	Plunder
Illustrator(s)	Donald Crank
Trait text
At the start of your Clean-up phase, you may set aside Patient cards from your hand to play them at the start of your next turn.

Patient is a Trait from Plunder. Cards with this trait can be set aside at the start of your Clean-up phase to be played the turn after you draw them, without using up an Action.

FAQ

Official FAQ

• You can set aside multiple Patient cards at once; play them all at the start of your next turn, in any order.
• If this plays a card that can't normally be played, like Territory (from Allies), that card goes into play but doesn't do anything else then.

Other rules clarifications

• Playing all the set aside cards is a single start-of-turn effect. Between playing each of those cards, you cannot resolve any other start-of-turn effects (for example, from Durations played last turn).
• If you have multiple Patient cards with different names, you can play them in any order. So if you set aside Sunken Treasure and Distant Shore, you can first play Sunken Treasure, gain a Distant Shore, then play the set-aside Distant Shore.
• If Patient cards get put into your hand at the start of Clean-up (e.g. you trash a Patient Fortress with Improve), you may set it aside to play it at the start of your next turn.

Strategy

The patient trait has two unusual effects: not only does it allow unplayed cards to be set aside until the next turn, but on the next turn they can be played without using up an action. However, the play is not optional: once set aside, they get played no matter what. Both the setting-aside effect, and the playing without using up an action, allow patient cards to be included in a deck without worrying about terminal collision. As such, the presence of patient cards can enable all sorts of unorthodox strategies that would not otherwise be possible on the board, such as building a deck-drawing engine without any +Action cards, by buying patient terminal draw cards.

The actionless playing also enables a patient cantrip to function much like a delayed village, which can also facilitate the construction of an engine on a board where it might not otherwise be possible.

Patient is game-changing more often than not, because it tends to make cards overpowered. When the patient card is strong or desireable on its own, especially if it is a terminal action that is beneficial when played multiple times, the fact that it is patient makes it worthwhile to buy in quantity. This tends to speed up the game, and also make it likely that the game will end on piles, as the patient card will usually run out quickly.

Patient has less dramatic of an effect when it is attached to a treasure, in this case having only the more modest benefit of allowing a treasure to be delayed to the next turn.

Versions

English versions

Print	Digital	Text	Release	Date
		At the start of your Clean-up phase, you may set aside Patient cards from your hand to play them at the start of your next turn.	Plunder	December 2022

Other language versions

Language	Name	Print	Digital	Text	Notes
Dutch	Geduldig			Aan het begin van je opschoonfase mag je geduldige kaarten uit je hand opzijleggen om deze aan het begin van je volgende beurt te spelen
German	Geduldig			Zu Beginn deiner Aufräumphase darfst du Geduldige Karten aus deiner Hand zur Seite legen, um sie zu Beginn deines nächsten Zuges zu spielen.

Trivia

Official card art.

Preview

And Patient, which waited its turn, makes a card easy to play, if you're willing to wait for it.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, * Plunder Previews #5: More Stuff *

Secret History

Initially you had to play the card, like with Way of the Turtle.

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