Scholar

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Scholar
Info
Cost
Type(s)	Action
Kingdom card?	Yes
Set	Renaissance
Illustrator(s)	Elisa Cella
Card text
Discard your hand. +7 Cards.

Scholar is an Action card from Renaissance. It is a terminal draw-to-x card that facilitates deck cycling.

FAQ

Official FAQ

• If drawing causes you to shuffle, you will shuffle in the discarded cards.

Strategy

Scholar is a powerful card on most boards, although it can occasionally be weak in the absence of any synergies. When it is played as the only action on a turn, it is like an expensive Smithy that adds additional deck cycling. However, unlike Smithy, it also completely counters handsize attacks.

Scholar truly shines, however, when other non-terminal actions can be played beforehand, ideally ones offering + and possibly +Buy. Scholar thus synergizes with most non-terminal virtual coin, or terminal virtual coin in the presence of villages. Particularly strong synergies are Fishing Village, Villa, Town, Merchant Camp, Capital City, and Harbor Village, with Villa possibly being the best combo. In the presence of villages, any sort of virtual coin or +Buy, if needed, makes a good addition. Good trashing makes these combinations even stronger, creating a strong engine. Because of the strong cycling and draw, these engines are highly resilient to greening.

Cards that benefit from being discarded also strengthen Scholar, particularly Trail, Village Green, or Weaver.

Because it functions more like an expensive Smithy, scholar is usually weaker in a big money strategy, but it can sometimes be worthhile in these strategies, especially if it is the best counter to an attack and there are no ways to build a viable engine. Tunnel can also synergize with scholar in a money strategy, quickly packing your deck with gold.

Versions

English versions

Print	Digital	Text	Release	Date
		Discard your hand. +7 Cards.	Renaissance	November 2018

Other language versions

Language	Name	Print	Digital	Text	Notes
Chinese	學者 (pron. xuézhě)
French	Érudite (Note: explicitly feminine)			Défaussez votre main. +7 Cartes.
German	Gelehrte (Note: explicitly feminine)			Lege deine Handkarten ab. +7 Karten	(2019)
Japanese	学者 (pron. gakusha)			手札を捨てる。 +7 カードを引く。
Polish	Uczony				Although Polish version is not released, this name is referred to in Polish Dominion 2E rulebook.
Russian	Учёный (pron. uchyonyy)
Spanish	Erudita			Descarta tu mano. +7 Cartas.

Trivia

Official card art.

Scholar is the only card to give an unconditional +7 Cards.

Scholar's inspiration is almost certainly a reference to Professor Oak from the first set of Pokémon Trading Cards; Professor Oak requires the player to discard their hand in order to draw seven cards, and was a dominant trainer (or "action") card in every metagame where it was allowed.

Preview

Scholar makes the cards go round. It's a poster child for simplicity; this set goes the extra mile to be simpler than the previous few.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Renaissance Previews #1: Mountain Village, Priest, Seer, Scholar, Experiment

Secret History

This never changed. A poster child for the set being simple.

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