Scout

Scout
Info
Cost
Type(s)	Action
Kingdom card?	Yes
Set	Intrigue
Illustrator(s)	Matthias Catrein
Card text
+1 Action Reveal the top 4 cards of your deck. Put the revealed Victory cards into your hand. Put the other cards on top of your deck in any order.

Scout is an Action card from the first edition of Intrigue. It is an extremely weak deck inspector that allows you to put any Victory cards from the top of your deck into your hand.

It was removed from the second edition of Intrigue and replaced with Patrol, a card that combines the effects of Scout with terminal draw..

FAQ

Official FAQ

• If there are fewer than 4 cards left in your deck, reveal all the cards in your deck, shuffle your discard pile (which does not include currently revealed cards), and then reveal the remainder needed.
• Action - Victory cards are Victory cards.
• Curse cards are not Victory cards.
• Take all revealed Victory cards into your hand; you cannot choose to leave some on top.
• You do not have to reveal the order that you put cards back in.

Strategy

Scout was extremely weak and unreliable as a non-terminal draw card for three reasons.

1. It draws very poorly with most deck compositions. In order for it to draw even as much as a cantrip, you would (on average) need one fourth of your deck to be Victory cards. Very rarely do decks ever reach this point, as most often you will aim to trash your starting Estates and build by adding Treasures and Actions.
2. Because it can only draw Victory cards, it is usually drawing the worst cards in your deck, and these do nothing to improve your current turn.
3. While in a few cases the above two reasons may be less applicable than usual (perhaps due to using Shepherd for draw or having several Action-Victory cards such as Mill), even then Scout is unreliable, especially if you have other junk such as your starting Coppers.

For all of these reasons, Scout is usually a detriment to your deck, and even in the situations where it has some positive impact it is likely only that of a supplementary piece added to your deck after more important components. If you have Scout in your deck, its deck inspection can provide a small amount of additional value in setting up effects such as Chariot Race or Wishing Well.

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.

• Powerman's 2012 article

Versions

English versions

Print	Digital	Text	Release	Date
		+1 Action Reveal the top 4 cards of your deck. Put the revealed Victory cards into your hand. Put the other cards on top of your deck in any order.	Intrigue 1st Edition	July 2009

Other language versions

Language	Name	Print	Digital	Text	Notes
Chinese	斥候 (pron. chìhòu)
Czech	Zvěd
Dutch	Verkenner			+1 Actie Toon de bovenste 4 kaarten van je trekstapel. Neem getoonde overwinningskaarten in je hand. Leg de overige kaarten in een volgorde naar keuze gedekt op je trekstapel.	Eerste editie (2009)
Finnish	Tiedustelija
French	Éclaireur
German	Späher			+1 Aktion Decke die obersten 4 Karten von deinem Nachziehstapel auf. Nimm alle aufgedeckten Punktekarten auf die Hand. Lege die übrigen Karten in beliebiger Reihenfolge verdeckt zurück auf deinen Nachziehstapel.	(2009)
Hungarian	Felderítő
Italian	Scout
Japanese	偵察員 (pron. teisatsu-in)
Korean	정찰병 (pron. jeongchalbyeong)
Norwegian	Speider
Polish	Zwiadowca			+1 akcja Odkryj 4 karty z wierzchu swojej talii. Weź odkryte karty Zwycięstwa na rękę. Pozostałe karty odłóż z powrotem na wierzch talii w dowolnej kolejności.
Russian	Следопыт (pron. slyedopyt)
Spanish	Explorador (lit. explorer)			+1 Acción Revela las 4 cartas superiores de tu mazo. Las cartas de Victoria reveladas van a tu mano y las demás cartas reveladas vuelven a la parte superior de tu mazo, en el orden que quieras.	(2009)

Trivia

Official card art.

Jokes

Scout is a common joke and meme on the Dominion strategy forums, specifically in reference to it being one of the weakest Kingdom cards relative to its cost. Such jokes often sarcastically ask how a newly revealed card will combo with Scout.

• Example: When Adventures came out, Robz888 did a joke on all 3 then-revealed cards.
• Example: Werothegreat did the same thing with Transmogrify here.

Additionally, one of the names for an AI Opponent in Dominion Online is "Scout Rush".

Secret History

One of the cards added when going to 25 cards. It was another previously untried idea from the files. I picked it out as it interacted with the victory-cards-that-do-something. It does a few other tricks too.

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

Retrospective

I would look at ways to buff Scout.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, What Donald X. Might Do With a Dominion Time Machine

Second Edition Removal

People often cite this as the weakest card in the game. I dunno, there are different metrics. There's "how often do I get it," there's "how sad am I when you give me one with Ambassador." You know. I'd rather your Ambassador gave me a Scout than a Thief. In all-Intrigue games, Scout gets to draw you some Harems and Nobles and Great Halls. New players like it; it's all upside, right? It is pretty weak though. And I could preserve the premise on its replacement.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, The Secret History of the Dominion 2nd Editions

Scout was replaced by Patrol, a stronger card with a similar premise.