Patron

Patron
Info
Cost
Type(s)	Action - Reaction
Kingdom card?	Yes
Set	Renaissance
Illustrator(s)	Claus Stephan
Card text
+1 Villager + When something causes you to reveal this in an Action phase (using the word “reveal”), +1 Coffers.

Patron is an Action-Reaction card from Renaissance. When played, it gives and +1 Villager. When revealed, it gives +1 Coffers.

FAQ

Official FAQ

• Anything that causes you to reveal a Patron, and specifically uses the word "reveal," causes you to get +1 Coffers.
• For example if you play a Border Guard and reveal two Patrons, you will get +2 Coffers.
• Other players seeing a card, without the word "reveal" being used, is not enough; for example if another player plays a Villain and you discard a Patron, you do not get +1 Coffers.

Other rules clarifications

• Once Patron is revealed, getting +1 Coffers is not optional.
• If you play Black Market and Patron is one of the 3 cards revealed from the Black Market deck, you get +1 Coffers.
• If you have Capitalism, you may discard Patron to Hostelry. If you do, you will reveal the Patron for +1 Coffers.
• With the new rules to Coffers, Patron and Pursue would become an infinite combo. Because of this, Patron has received errata to only give Coffers during an Action phase.

Strategy

Patron is a multi-faceted payload card that can act either as a non-terminal or as a terminal Silver that generates a Villager to save for later. Given that Villagers are a highly valuable resource that provide extra flexibility and may help you avoid a dud, Patron is often worth gaining for the ability to stockpile a couple of these, and one or two copies can also function as a useful component of your payload in most engines. Taking additional copies of a stop card that generates is most likely to be worthwhile in a deck that specifically prefers Action cards over Treasures, such as a draw-to-X engine, although Patron’s strength as payload increases substantially if you have a way to activate its Reaction.

Patron can be a good choice in the opening and early game for two reasons. First, it functions much like a Silver in helping you afford a key early price point. Second, if you can play it a few times before it starts to collide with other terminals, you may be able to accumulate a small number of Villagers. These can be particularly useful in the early game, enabling you to counteract terminal collisions that occur before you have sufficient deck control to resolve them with villages. Later in the game, they can also provide a helpful safety net, guarding against e.g. the possibility of drawing a terminal draw card and no village in your starting hand. Occasionally, they may also help you exert more pressure in the endgame by threatening the ability to play some extra payload. Finally, Patron can enable the use of a terminal draw card as your sole terminal in a Kingdom with no other form of village effect, as it allows you to float a single +Action across turns. This means you can continue to play other Action cards after your terminal draw card each turn, provided that you can consistently restore the Villager by playing Patron.

If you can activate Patron’s Reaction consistently, e.g. by revealing several copies while drawing with Seer, its value as payload is enhanced, especially since the extra comes in the form of more flexible Coffers. The most powerful form of this effect, for which Patron is worth acquiring in bulk and can readily function as the centerpiece of your payload, occurs in situations where you can reveal multiple copies repeatedly. For example, every Hunting Party you play reveals all the copies of Patron that you have in hand and may reveal a substantial portion of your deck as well, potentially generating a very large number of Coffers. While this effect is less potent in situations where revealing Patron is less frequent or reliable, for example with Chariot Race, it can still be worth playing for the possibility of getting a free Coffers.

A couple of interactions substantially transform the role Patron may play in a particular Kingdom. First, it functions as a useful source of draw with Way of the Chameleon, which turns it into a cheaper and more flexible version of Laboratory. Second, Capitalism allows it to function as a sustainable source of flexible +Actions, as you can generate Villagers without using up terminal space.

External strategy articles

Note: Article(s) below are by individual authors and may not represent the community's current views on cards, but may provide more in-depth information or give historical perspective. Caveat emptor.

• Chris is me's 2019 article

Cards that can reveal Patron

For a full list of cards that use the word "Reveal" (including cards which can't reveal Patron), see List of cards which instruct the players to "reveal".'

Versions

English versions

Print	Digital	Text	Release	Date
		+1 Villager + When something causes you to reveal this (using the word “reveal”), +1 Coffers.	Renaissance	November 2018
		+1 Villager + When something causes you to reveal this in an Action phase (using the word “reveal”), +1 Coffers.	Coffers Rules Change	September 17, 2021 / February 18, 2022

Other language versions

Language	Name	Print	Digital	Text	Notes
Chinese	贊助人 (pron. zànzhùrén, lit. sponsor)
French	Mécène			+1 Villageois + Lorsque vous dévoilez cette carte (suite à une instruction utilisant le mot «dévoiler»), +1 Coffres.
German	Patron			+1 Dorfbewohner + Wenn dich etwas veranlasst, diese Karte aufzudecken (mit der Formulierung „aufdecken“): +1 Taler.	(2019)
	Patron			+1 Dorfbewohner + Wenn etwas dich diese Karte in einer Aktionsphase aufdecken lässt (mit Worten wie „decke auf“ oder „aufgedeckt“), +1 Taler.
Japanese	パトロン (pron. patoron)			+1 村人トークン + これが公開されるとき、+1 コイントークン。
Russian	Покровитель (pron. pokrovityel')

Trivia

Official card art.

Patron is the only Reaction whose trigger is being revealed.

Patron was the first card-shaped thing to use quotation marks in its English text. It and Capitalism were the first to care specifically about the text on cards.

Secret History

The first version had a two-sided State (it was a Cathedral that turned into a Cargo Ship for Treasures if you trashed a + card). When those went away, I preserved the top and added the reaction. I fiddled with the wording some, to try to make it clear, but the idea stayed the same.

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

Further development history

The version of Patron that Mic is remembering was, if you have a Seedy District or Wealthy District, + +1 Villager, else take Seedy District. Seedy District was a 2-sided State: like an artifact but there was a copy for each player. It was Cathedral and if you trashed a card costing + it turned over, becoming Wealthy District, which was a Cargo Ship for Treasures. And it was called Architect.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Dominion Discord, 2020

Comparison with Silver

Patron causes the problem that I avoided for many years by not making Silver-with-a-bonus at , though it dodges being strictly better than Silver on paper because you need to play it once to have a villager to not draw it dead. I decided to live with it for that one card and in practice it doesn't come up so often, though I have seen it.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, The Dominion Cards Lists 2018 Edition: $4 Cards (Bottom Half)

The problem is that normal people buy Silver for often enough that they just automatically empty the Silver-plus-for- pile, without regard even for what the bonus is. Patron does have this issue, though not always. As you can see it seemed like it wasn't enough of a problem to not do the card. And the fact that I hadn't done one of these meant... that I hadn't done one of these.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Interview with Donald X.