Workshop
| Workshop | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Info | |
| Cost |
 |
| Type(s) | Action |
| Kingdom card? | Yes |
| Set |
Base |
| Illustrator(s) | Christof Tisch |
| Card text | |
Gain a card costing up to  . | |
Workshop is an Action card from the Base set. It is a gainer, meaning it allows you to gain cards without buying them; it is limited to cards costing up to . Other cards with similar abilities are known as Workshop variants.
FAQ
Official FAQ
- The card you gain comes from the Supply and is put into your discard pile.
- You cannot use
to increase how expensive of a card you gain; it always costs from 
to .
Other rules clarifications
- Workshop cares about the costs cards have when you play the Workshop, which can sometimes be different than the cost printed on the card. For example, if you play Highway the cost of Duchy is reduced to , and so now you can use Workshop to gain a Duchy.
Strategy
Workshop is at its best when there are strong and cards that you want a lot of. Typically these cards are cantrips (e.g. Merchant) or villages (e.g. Village or Throne Room). However, even when it's good, Workshop is still often a poor choice in the opening, because it is a terminal stop card that provides no . This is a major drawback given that affording 
cards such as Sentry in the opening is a common goal.
In the absence of strong targets for Workshop, it’s usually not worth going for. Using Workshop to gain Silvers is slow to benefit you, and you’re probably better off just buying the Silver to begin with and using it to buy better cards.
Workshop is weak compared to other up-to- gainers. Ironworks, Inventor, and Groom are all examples of Workshop variants that have Workshop’s effect plus an extra bonus for , and the bonuses these cards provide give these other variants more use cases than Workshop. However, Workshop can be valuable when it is the only way to gain multiple cards per turn, allowing you to gain engine pieces faster than an opponent with no Workshops and only a single Buy per turn. In such single-Buy Kingdoms, the ability to build faster and gain an Estate or two near the end of the game can be decisive.
Notable synergies
- Villages and good cantrips costing or less
- Cost reduction, e.g. Highway and Canal
- Cheap alt-VP, e.g. Gardens: Gardens is most valuable in a big deck, and Workshop makes gaining Gardens easy. Rarely, Workshop may be enough to enable a rush, aiming to pile out these cheap alt-VP cards and Workshop.
Versions
English versions
| Digital | Text | Release | Date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
 |
Gain a card costing up to . |
Dominion | October 2008 |
|
 |
Gain a card costing up to . |
Dominion (Second Edition) | October 2016 |
Other language versions
| Language | Name | Digital | Text | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chinese | 工作室 (pron. gōngzuòshì) | ||||
| Czech | Dílna | ||||
| Dutch | Werkplaats | Pak een kaart die maximaal |
(2009) | ||
| Werkplaats |  |
Pak een kaart die ten hoogste kost. |
Tweede editie (herdruk 2019/2020) | ||
| Finnish | Työpaja | ||||
| French | Atelier | Recevez une carte coûtant jusqu'à |
|||
| German | Werkstatt |  |
 |
Nimm eine Karte, die bis zu kostet. |
2. Edition (2019) |
| Hungarian | Műhely | ||||
| Italian | Officina | ||||
| Japanese | 工房 (pron. kōbō) | コスト以下のカード1枚を獲得する。 |
|||
| Korean | 작업장 (pron. jag-eobjang) | ||||
| Norwegian | Verksted | ||||
| Polish | Warsztat |  |
Dodaj kartę kosztującą nie więcej niż . |
(2009/2011) | |
| Warsztat |  |
Dodaj kartę nie droższą niż . |
II Edycja (2018) | ||
| Romanian | Atelier | ||||
| Russian | Мастерская (pron. mastyerskaya) |
 |
Получите карту не дороже . |
||
| Spanish | Taller |  |
Gana una carta que tenga un coste máximo de . |
First Edition (2008) | |
| Taller |  |
Gana una carta que tenga un coste máximo de . |
Second Edition (2016, 2021) |
Trivia
Secret History
Donald X.'s opinion
+1 Buy that you can't combine. That's not exciting when you're trying to hit 
or even , but it's fantastic when you want 's. You want 's so often. Villages are the big thing, then other strong cantrips.
