Silk Merchant

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Silk Merchant
Info
Cost
Type(s)	Action
Kingdom card?	Yes
Set	Renaissance
Illustrator(s)	Elisa Cella
Card text
+2 Cards +1 Buy When you gain or trash this, +1 Coffers and +1 Villager.

Silk Merchant is an Action card from Renaissance. It provides terminal draw and +Buy, as well Coffers and Villagers when it is gained or trashed.

FAQ

Official FAQ

• When you play this, you get +2 Cards and +1 Buy; when you trash it or gain it, you get +1 Coffers and +1 Villager.
• If Silk Merchant is trashed, the player trashing it takes the +1 Coffers and +1 Villager, regardless of whose turn it is.

Strategy

While it may look quite unassuming, Silk Merchant is one of the best 4 cost openers in the game because of how easy it makes it to get to 5 coins on turns 3 and 4. Also, because it draws 2 cards, opening Silk Merchant and a non card draw card, like Silver, allows you to perfectly use your whole deck on turns 3 and 4 (unless Silk Merchant is bottom decked). While in some kingdoms you will prefer to open with a thinner like Remake on a 3/4 start, you can open Silk Merchant Remake on the 4/3 because of the added flexibility of the coffer and villager, and with a strong 5 cost card in the kingdom like Sentry, opening Silk Merchant Silver is likely better than getting a slower trasher like Forager, which is by no means a weak card, but with Silk Merchant enabling you to hit 5 so often, it is probably better to not open Forager.

According to calculations by WanderingWinder, a player opening Silk Merchant/Silver has an over 50% chance to open with two 5 cost cards, and getting at least one 5 cost card is guaranteed on turns 3 and 4 because of the coffer. It also gives a player a decent chance to hit 7 for an early Inheritance if that is in the kingdom. An even better opening is Silk Merchant/Improve if the kingdom has desirable 5s, as the villager from Silk Merchant helps in the case of collision, and otherwise, the Improve can turn into another Silk Merchant or other 4 cost card, like one of the villages, to allow you to play your 5s, if terminal, more often.

Synergies

• Powerful 5 cost kingdom cards

Antisynergies

• Opening 5/2
• A board where all major kingdom cards are less than 5, such as a Native Village/Bridge board

Versions

English versions

Print	Digital	Text	Release	Date
		+2 Cards +1 Buy When you gain or trash this, +1 Coffers and +1 Villager.	Renaissance	November 2018

Other language versions

Language	Name	Print	Digital	Text
Chinese	布商 (pron. bùshāng, lit. cloth dealer)
French	Marchande de soie (Note: explicitly feminine)
German	Seidenhändlerin (Note: explicitly feminine)			+2 Karten +1 Kauf Wenn du diese Karte nimmst oder entsorgst: +1 Taler und +1 Dorfbewohner.
Japanese	絹商人 (pron. kinushōnin)			+2 カードを引く +1 購入 これを獲得または廃棄するとき、+1 村人トークン、+1 コイントークン。
Russian	Торговец Шёлком (pron. torgovyets shyolkom)

Trivia

Official card art.

Preview

Silk Merchant spills out tokens both coming and going. You may even get use out of it in the middle.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Renaissance Previews #3: Villain, Ducat, Silk Merchant

Secret History

Briefly this was like a Pawn when gained/trashed, only with tokens in place of + and +1 Action. I always like the idea of a when-gain that can draw cards, but it never survives, for the same reason: in the default situation, you don't want the cards. And then the triggered +1 Buy was problematic. So, no choice, it just gives you the other two.

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

Connection between top and bottom abilities

No connection, beyond, it wanted to be terminal.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Logic behind "special things"

Donald X. on Silk Merchant being strong

My Renaissance playtesters knew that Silk Merchant was strong. And by mine I mean the ones at my table, and by those I mean the good ones. Which is to say I checked, and Sir Martin and Kevin both did speak up and accuse it of being too strong. The last time it came up, I said, "I think it will just be that overpowered card we like." I have missed various powerful cards over the years, and it was no great feat to notice Silk Merchant, but we did notice it.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Dominion Discord, 2019

For sure the powerful cards want to be things like Silk Merchant. They don't want to be e.g. Mountebank [or] Ghost Ship.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Dominion Discord, 2019