Upgrade

Upgrade
Info
Cost
Type(s)	Action
Kingdom card?	Yes
Set	Intrigue
Illustrator(s)	Matthias Catrein
Card text
+1 Card +1 Action Trash a card from your hand. Gain a card costing exactly more than it.

Upgrade is an Action card from Intrigue. It is a cantrip trasher, since it gives +1 Card/+1 Action and can trash one card, letting you gain a card costing more. Since there are usually no cards costing , this is an effective way of trashing Coppers, as well as Upgrading Estates into Silvers or -cost Actions.

FAQ

Official FAQ

• First draw a card and get +1 Action; then trash a card from your hand; then gain a card costing exactly more than the trashed card.
• The gained card comes from the Supply and is put into your discard pile.
• If there is no card available at that cost, you do not gain a card; for example if you play Upgrade and trash a Copper, in a game with nothing costing , you simply fail to gain a card.

Other Rules clarifications

• First you trash a card, and resolve all of its on-trash effects; then you gain a card, and then resolve all on-gain effects.

Strategy

Upgrade is a strong cantrip trasher. It has a trash-for-benefit effect similar to Remodel, but compared to Remodel variants, it is much more restrictive in what cards it can gain. One important difference is that Upgrade is a cantrip rather than a terminal stop card, and is therefore much easier to use in multiples because it both is non-terminal and reduces your hand size less. Additionally, Upgrade can only gain cards that cost exactly more than the one trashed. This means that it can thin Copper and Curse by trashing them without gaining any other card (unless Poor House is in the Kingdom). On the other hand, it cannot be used for some lines of play that Remodelers usually enable, such as Remodeling Gold into Province or milling Provinces.

Upgrade’s role varies throughout the game. In the early game, it is very effective at upgrading Estates to better cards and thinning Coppers. As a cantrip, it provides minor cycling and terminal space flexibility that many other trashers do not, and so gaining an Upgrade as your first card can be a good idea. Later in the game, Upgrade functions closer to a gainer that can often enable gain-and-play as it both draws a card and is non-terminal. Similar to other Remodel variants, Upgrade is most effective at this stage in helping you build when you can provide fodder for it in some way. Less often, it can help you score in the endgame by upgrading cards into Duchies or (even more rarely) cards into Provinces.

Upgrade generally synergizes well with cards that can provide it more expensive fodder to Upgrade. Fortress is especially enticing, as a single copy of Fortress can be repeatedly upgraded to gain other Actions, or even more copies of Upgrade to upgrade the same Fortress again. You can also use Rats to convert your starting cards into Rats, and then use Upgrade to upgrade the Rats into Actions. Certain cards that you gain primarily for their on-gain effect, such as Cemetery, are also good targets.

Upgrade is slightly more awkward with Shelters, as unless there are viable Actions, it typically upgrades them into Estates. While those can later be upgraded again, this is slower since you need two Upgrade steps to get a useful card rather than one from Estate directly.

Versions

English versions

Print	Digital	Text	Release	Date
		+1 Card +1 Action Trash a card from your hand. Gain a card costing exactly more than it.	Intrigue 1st Edition	July 2009
		+1 Card +1 Action Trash a card from your hand. Gain a card costing exactly more than it.	Intrigue 2nd Edition	October 2016

Other language versions

Language	Name	Print	Digital	Text	Notes
Chinese	升級 (pron. shēngjí)
Czech	Pokrok
Dutch	Opwaardering			+1 Kaart +1 Actie Vernietig een kaart uit je hand. Pak een kaart die precies meer waard is dan de vernietigde kaart.	Eerste editie (2009)
Finnish	Parannustyö
French	Mise à niveau
German	Anbau			+1 Karte +1 Aktion Entsorge eine deiner Handkarten. Nimm eine Karte, die genau mehr als jene kostet.	2. Edition (2021) one or more other versions listed here
Hungarian	Fejlesztés
Italian	Potenziamento
Japanese	改良 (pron. kairyō)			+1 カードを引く +1 アクション 手札1枚を廃棄する。それよりコストが高いカード1枚を獲得する。
Korean	개선 (pron. gaeseon)
Norwegian	Oppgradering
Polish	Rozbudowa			+1 karta +1 akcja Wyrzuć na śmietnisko kartę z ręki. Dodaj kartę o koszcie wyższym dokładnie o od kosztu właśnie wyrzuconej karty.	(2016)
Russian	Улучшение (pron. uluchshyeniye)			+1 Карта +1 Действие Выкиньте карту из руки. Получите карту ровно на дороже выкинутой.
Spanish	Mejora			+1 Carta +1 Acción Elimina una carta de tu mano. Gana una carta que cueste exactamente más.	First Edition (2009)
	Mejora			+1 Cartas +1 Acción Elimina una carta de tu mano. Gana una carta que cueste exactamente más.	Second Edition (2016) +1 Cartas instead of +1 Carta.

Trivia

Official card art.

Secret History

A very old card. I explained how it once cost in the entry for Great Hall. The "exactly" part actually makes the card better, as it lets you trash Curse and Copper without gaining anything.

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