Wandering Minstrel
Wandering Minstrel | |
---|---|
![]() | |
Info | |
Cost | |
Type(s) | Action |
Kingdom card? | Yes |
Set |
Dark Ages![]() |
Illustrator(s) | Guillaume Ducos |
Card text | |
+1 Card +2 Actions Reveal the top 3 cards of your deck. Put the Action cards back in any order and discard the rest. |
Wandering Minstrel is an Action card from Dark Ages. It's one of the few villages that doesn't have anything like "Village" in the name. It has a filtering ability which helps your engine continue to draw Actions.
Contents |
FAQ
Official FAQ
- First draw a card, then reveal the top 3 cards of your deck, shuffling your discard pile if there are not enough cards in your deck.
- If there still are not enough after shuffling, just reveal what you can.
- Put the revealed Action cards on top of your deck in any order, and discard the other cards.
- If you didn't reveal any Action cards, no cards will be put on top.
Other Rules clarifications
Strategy
Wandering Minstrel is one of the strongest villages due to its sifting and deck inspection abilities, which allow you to cycle rapidly through a large amount of junk to find your Action cards more easily, or rearrange your topdecked Action cards in a favorable order when you don't have much junk to sift past.
In a deck where Wandering Minstrel's only role is to provide +Actions, it should generally be added in a similar manner to other villages, i.e. once you have some terminals in your deck that risk collision and need the extra terminal space. However, because Wandering Minstrel’s sifting is so strong, it may sometimes be useful to gain it earlier than you would other villages because it significantly accelerates cycling through your starting cards. This faster cycling is useful in conjunction with Action cards that you want to play early and often, for example Travellers (e.g. Peasant)) and Attacks (e.g. Witch). Similarly, adding more copies of Wandering Minstrel than strictly necessary for terminal space may help with deck control. Even if you have enough draw to draw your entire deck, discarding stop cards (including Victory cards once you start greening) and ordering the Action cards you will draw next increases reliability and offers more flexibility in play order. The reordering effect may also synergize with some effects that depend on the top cards of your deck such as Chariot Race or Herald.
There are a few tactical concepts to keep in mind when using Wandering Minstrel.
- You’ll almost always want to play Wandering Minstrel before your other draw cards, to increase the chance of drawing good cards.
- When playing with multiple Wandering Minstrels, it’s also usually a good idea to play other draw cards in between them, to fully utilize the three card search space. For example, if your first Wandering Minstrel draws a cantrip and reveals two desirable Action cards, it’s likely best to play the cantrip to draw the first Action card, then another Wandering Minstrel to draw the second and reveal the next three cards.
- Discarding a large number of stop cards, especially weak or dead ones, creates a risk of causing an unfavorable reshuffle with those cards, especially since playing another Wandering Minstrel will trigger one if you have fewer than four cards in your deck. Thus, carefully tracking your deck and discard pile is even more important than usual.
Wandering Minstrel may be slightly less appealing if the most important cards in your deck are not Action cards. For example, the only payload available might be Treasures such as Platinum or Potion, or Cobbler might be your only gainer. It is worth noting that even if Wandering Minstrel discards those key cards, it may still be helpful in ensuring you draw your entire deck, effectively sifting your payload to the end of your shuffle. Discarding these cards with Wandering Minstrel is therefore most inconvenient if you are not drawing your entire deck, either because it’s early in the game or because the draw that would allow you to do so is unavailable, and so it can work poorly with non-Action thinners such as Bat or Counterfeit that you want to play as often as possible in the early game to get deck control. For the same reason, Wandering Minstrel is less helpful than usual if there are Action cards in your deck that you would prefer to sift past: notably, it cannot discard Ruins and can therefore be less effective against Looters than against other junking Attacks.
Versions
English versions
Digital | Text | Release | Date | |
---|---|---|---|---|
![]() |
![]() |
+1 Card +2 Actions Reveal the top 3 cards of your deck. Put the Actions back on top in any order and discard the rest. |
Dark Ages 1st Edition | August 2012 |
![]() |
![]() |
+1 Card +2 Actions Reveal the top 3 cards of your deck. Put the Action cards back in any order and discard the rest. |
Dark Ages 2nd Edition | September 2017 |
Other language versions
Trivia
Theme
Secret History
For strumphf's 2022 advent calendar, Donald X. went in-depth on the development of Wandering Minstrel.