Woodcutter

Woodcutter
Info
Cost
Type(s)	Action
Kingdom card?	Yes
Set	Base
Illustrator(s)	Matthias Catrein
Card text
+1 Buy +

Woodcutter is an Action card from the first edition of the Base set. It is a terminal silver, meaning it provides + but no +Action. It provides +Buy, which allows you to buy more than one card per turn.

It was removed from the second edition of Dominion.

FAQ

Official FAQ

• During your Buy phase, you add to the total value of the Treasure cards played, and you may buy an additional card from the Supply.

Strategy

Woodcutter is a weak source of +Buy. It has a small effect for the cost of using up an Action to play it, and is typically only gained when no other source of +Buy is present.

External strategy articles

Note: Article(s) below are by individual authors and may not represent the community's views on cards, but may provide more in-depth information. Caveat emptor.

• theory's 2010 article

Versions

English versions

Print	Digital	Text	Release	Date
		+1 Buy +	Dominion	October 2008

Other language versions

Language	Name	Print	Digital	Text
Chinese	伐木工 (pron. fámù gōng)
Czech	Dřevorubec
Dutch	Houthakker			+1 Aanschaf +
Finnish	Metsuri
French	Bûcheron
German	Holzfäller			+1 Kauf +
Greek	Ξυλοκόπος (pron. ksylokopos)
Hungarian	Favágó
Italian	Taglialegna
Japanese	木こり (pron. kikori)
Korean	나무꾼 (pron. namukkun)
Norwegian	Tømmerhogger
Polish	Drwal			+1 zakup +
Romanian	Tăietorul de Lemne
Russian	Лесоруб (pron. lyesorub)
Spanish	Leñadores

Trivia

Official card art.

Secret History

At some point I wanted another +Buy card in the main set. I tried several things that were Woodcutter plus a small bonus, and the small bonuses kept being too wonky. Finally I went with the plain Woodcutter. Then I swapped it out for a more interesting +Buy card, but Valerie or Dale didn't like that one, so eventually we swapped Woodcutter back in. It's contributing to keeping complexity down in the main set.

In the beginning +1 Buy was written out - "You may buy an additional card this turn." When there was a second one of those cards, I changed it to "+1 Purchase," then "+1 Build," and at last "+1 Buy." +1 Action was also initially written out, but it never had any other name. During development we considered and rejected using icons instead. What do you do for your Action icon? Nothing good, is what I thought. And it's not like it actually simplifies anything. "Action" and "Buy" are text icons. Anyway for those of you who are wondering, why does a Woodcutter get you an extra Buy, that's why - I named that card when it was called "+1 Build," and never thought of changing it later.

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

Retrospective

The big thing is to add more replayability. There are six vanilla cards and probably five would have been fine; the obvious one to replace is Woodcutter. Woodcutter is a fine card for the main set but the other vanilla cards are all better. That means all of the +buy cards would cost but I can live with that.

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

Second Edition Removal

Woodcutter is fine, it's totally fine. It's just, the main set had six vanilla cards, and did it need six? Cards that do things are more interesting. I felt like five would be enough. The card to take out wanted to be one of the +Buy cards, since I thought having three of those was better than having four (even if all three cost , which is what happened). Market is way more beloved so Woodcutter was the card to cut.

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

As a vanilla card it sure doesn't feel like it's something missing. There are other + +1 Buy cards e.g. Messenger again.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Product Idea - Dominion: Memories