Port

Port
Info
Cost
Type(s)	Action
Kingdom card?	Yes
Set	Adventures
Illustrator(s)	Mark Poole
Card text
+1 Card +2 Actions When you gain this, gain another Port (that doesn't come with another).

Port is an Action card from Adventures. It is a village that comes with another copy of itself. It is the only non-Victory Action card to have 12 cards in its pile.

FAQ

Unofficial FAQ (2022)

• When you gain a Port, you gain another one; this applies whether you gain it via buying it or some other way.
• If you gain one to a place other than your discard pile, the 2nd copy goes to your discard pile. For example, if you use Transmogrify to gain a Port to your hand, the 2nd Port still goes to your discard pile.
• If you gain a Port from the trash, the second Port is still gained from the Supply.
• There are 12 Ports in the pile; use all 12.

Deprecated official FAQ (2021)

When you buy a Port, you gain another Port. If you gain a Port some other way, you do not get an extra Port. There are 12 Ports in the pile; use all 12.

Strategy

Port’s main distinctive feature is that you gain two at once. This means that you get more terminal space with fewer Buys or gains than you would with many other villages, leaving more Buys and gains available for obtaining other engine components. Building an engine with Port can thus be quicker than it would be with other villages. Because gaining Port greatly increases the number of terminals that you can play, it can often be more useful than other villages which provide superior on-play utility compared to a single Port (e.g., Plaza). This is especially relevant if extra gains are hard to come by.

In addition to the village effect, getting Ports in pairs is beneficial in several other contexts: when they have more utility than a simple village (due to Ways such as Way of the Owl or Adventures tokens from Teacher, Pathfinding, and so on); when you need more Action cards in your deck (especially nonterminal ones), e.g. for Vineyard or Conspirator; or for three-piling. Port can also be used with effects such as Advance, Way of the Butterfly, or Improve with the intent of either trashing or returning it for some benefit; rarely, this may even mean you want to open with Port.

Because it has no on-play bonus, Port plays just like the original Village once it’s in your deck. Therefore, the usual strategies for using villages apply: it is more relevant for engines than it is for money strategies and should be added to the deck as soon as you have some deck control and need the terminal space, typically in the early midgame.

The Port pile has twelve cards (as opposed to ten for most other Kingdom cards) but is empty after only six gains; the fact that the pile runs out faster than many others may be especially relevant in multiplayer games and/or if there are no other villages available. In these cases, it may be important to contest the split and ensure you can secure enough villages for your engine. This may mean gaining Ports earlier than you would other villages.

Versions

English versions

Print	Digital	Text	Release	Date
		+1 Card +2 Actions When you buy this, gain another Port.	Adventures	April 2015
		+1 Card +2 Actions When you buy this, gain another Port.	Adventures (2016 printing)	August 2017
		+1 Card +2 Actions When you gain this, gain another Port (that doesn't come with another).	Adventures (2022 printing)

Other language versions

Language	Name	Print	Digital	Text	Notes
Dutch	Zeehaven (lit. seaport)			+1 Kaart +1 Actie Als je dez kaart koopt, pak dan nog een Zeehaven.	(2015)
Finnish	Satamakaupunki (lit. seaport)
French	Ville portuaire (lit. port town)			+1 Carte +2 Actions Quand vous achetez cette carte, recevez une autre Ville portuaire.
German	Hafenstadt (lit. port city)			+1 Karte +2 Aktionen Wenn du diese Karte kaufst, nimm dir eine weitere Hafenstadt.	(2015)
	Hafenstadt (lit. port city)			+1 Karte +2 Aktionen Wenn du diese Karte nimmst, nimm eine weitere Hafenstadt (für die du keine weitere Hafenstadt nimmst).	(Nachdruck 2022)
Japanese	港町 (pron. minatomachi, lit. port city)			+1 カードを引く +2 アクション これを購入するとき、追加で港町1枚を獲得する。
Russian	Порт (pron. port)

Trivia

Official card art.

Secret History

It's two Villages! One of the first ideas that went into the set. Eventually Billy Martin argued that there should be 12 of them, so that they'd split evenly in 2-player games if the players both wanted them. We had the space and there they are, 12 Ports.

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

2022 Rewording

It wouldn't be when-buy for sure though, when-buy is just bad. I could do "when you gain this in a buy phase" but that isn't awesome. If the concern is how fast the Ports run, there's just having 20 Ports.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Dominion Discord, 2020

In 2022, Port got reworded to be like Experiment.

Lots and lots of players conflate "when you gain" with "when you buy"; for example they expect to gain two Ports when using Workshop to gain one. People who know the rules well still get tripped up by this sometimes. Then there's, when-buy is timed differently from when-gain - it happens first. This again endlessly is not something people expect, and causes weird things to happen. For example you can buy the last card of a pile with Talisman in play, gain that card with Talisman, and then fail to gain a card due to the buy itself.

It should have been that I only had when-gain from the start. And this has been clear since before Hinterlands came out. I kept when-buy because a few cards needed it to not have some other fix, and I'd already put out Mint with when-buy. I immediately regretted it, then felt for years like, oh well, that damage is done, and made more when-buy cards. Finally I stopped making them and now I'm getting rid of them.

Some people immediately feel like getting rid of when-buy is removing some important nuance or complexity. It isn't! It isn't, you heard it here. The game has so much nuance; no particular instance of it is important. And I mean the last few expansions have no when-buy; I have been on this plan for years now.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, The Why of the Errata

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