Talisman
| Talisman | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Info | |
| Cost |
 |
| Type(s) | Treasure |
| Kingdom card? | Yes |
| Set |
Prosperity |
| Illustrator(s) | Eric J Carter |
| Card text | |
 While you have this in play, when you buy a non-Victory card costing or less, gain a copy of it. | |
Talisman is a Treasure card from Prosperity. It generates 
, like Copper, and allows you to gain a second copy of any cheap ( or less) non-Victory card that you buy.
It was removed from the second edition of Prosperity and replaced with Anvil. which is also a Treasure that works as a workshop-like gainer.
FAQ
Official FAQ (2020)
- Each time you buy a non-Victory card costing or less with this in play, you gain another copy of the bought card.
- If there are no copies left, you do not gain one.
- The gained card comes from the Supply and goes into your discard pile.
- If you have multiple Talismans, you gain an additional copy for each one; if you buy multiple cards for or less, Talisman applies to each one.
- For example if you have two Talismans, four Coppers, and two Buys, you could buy Silver and Trade Route, gaining two more Silvers and two more Trade Routes.
- Talisman only affects buying cards; it does not work on cards gained other ways, such as with Expand.
- Talisman only cares about the cost of the card when you buy it, not its normal cost; so for example it can get you a Peddler if you have played two Actions this turn, thus lowering Peddler’s cost to , or can get you a Grand Market if you have a Quarry in play.
Other rules clarifications
- When you buy a card from the Black Market deck, you do not get a second copy of it even if Talisman is in play, since there is no second copy in the Supply.
- Talisman, like most other gainers, cannot be used to gain cards with
or 
in their cost. - This checks the cost of a card when you buy it, even if it changes later. So if you buy a Fisherman for
and then gain a Sleigh with Charm, you will gain a second Fisherman, even though it now costs 
.
Strategy
Before it was removed, Talisman was a non-terminal but restricted gainer. It is at its best when you want many copies of cards within its price range. Typically, these will be strong non-terminals that are also not stop cards, so as to not stress your terminal space or draw. Cantrips and draw cards such as Worker's Village, Advisor, or Ironmonger are the most common examples of such. However, Talisman generally compares poorly to Workshop variants: any stop cards you gain with it come in multiples, you effectively have to spend a Buy to activate it, you cannot score with it by gaining Victory cards, and it does not enable gain-and-play. As such, Talisman is usually only worth gaining if the alternative options for additional gains are weak or nonexistent, and at least one desirable target is present.
One strength particular to Talisman is that its additional gains scale with your extra Buys. For example, if you have three Buys and sufficient 
, a single Talisman can gain you three cards rather than one. Adding an additional Talisman would again greatly increase the total number of cards gained. Talisman is therefore more likely to be effective in Kingdoms with sources of +Buy, and situations in which you expect to have lots of and Buys. It also means that a few Talismans in your deck can drastically increase your pile control and the likelihood of a pileout, as Talisman is also easy to play multiple copies of (because it is a Treasure) and can gain itself quickly.
Similar to Workshop variants, Talisman synergizes with cost reduction. Even of cost reduction is sufficient to make powerful cards available, and Talisman is easy to use with cost-reduction cards even if they are terminal (like Bridge) or only apply in the Buy phase (like Quarry). Talisman also favorably interacts with Cavalry: buying Cavalry with Talisman in play draws you four cards and generates net +Buy. Talisman also synergizes with Tower—you can first empty the Talisman pile, then a sufficiently cheap non-terminal Kingdom card pile, then a third Kingdom pile, scoring significant 
in the process.
Versions
English versions
| Digital | Text | Release | Date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
 |
While this is in play, when you buy a card costing or less that is not a Victory card, gain a copy of it. |
Prosperity | October 2010 |
 |
 |
While this is in play, when you buy a non-Victory card costing or less, gain a copy of it. |
Prosperity (2016 printing) | February 2017 |
|
 |
While you have this in play, when you buy a non-Victory card costing or less, gain a copy of it. |
Prosperity (2020 printing) | October 2020 |
Other language versions
| Language | Name | Digital | Text | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chinese | 幸運符 | 當此卡在出牌區，當你購買一張價值 以下的非分數卡，再獲得一張。 |
|||
| Czech | Talisman | ||||
| Dutch | Talisman |  |
Zolang je deze kaart in het spel hebt en je koopt een kaart die of minder kost en geen overwinningskaart is, pak dan nog een exemplaar van de gekochte kaart. |
||
| Finnish | Talismaani | ||||
| French | Talisman | ||||
| German | Talisman |  |
Wenn diese Karte im Spiel ist und du eine Karte kaufst, die oder weniger kostet und keine Punktekarte ist, nimm dir eine weitere Karte mit gleichem Namen. |
(2010) | |
| German | Talisman |  |
Wenn du diese Karte im Spiel hast, wenn du eine Nicht-Punktekarte kaufst, die oder weniger kostet, nimm davon eine gleiche. |
(Nachdruck 2021) | |
| Italian | Talismano | ||||
| Japanese | 護符 (pron. gofu) |
これが場にある間、コスト 以下の勝利点以外のカード1枚を購入するとき、それと同じカード1枚を獲得する。 |
|||
| Polish | Talizman |  |
Kiedy ta karta znajduje się grze, a ty kupujesz kartę koszcie 4 lub mniejszym, która nie jest kartą Zwycięstwa, dodaj dodatkową kopię zakupionej karty. |
(2016) | |
| Russian | Талисман (pron. talisman) | ||||
| Spanish | Talismán |
Trivia
Secret History
and only worked on one card per turn, via a "when you spend this" wording.Retrospective
cards somehow, but some people do like it as is. There might have been a good tweak there, dunno.
. It has a while-in-play which I don't like much these days, and overall is more complex than ideal for what it does.Second Edition Removal
