Gainer
A gainer is any card which allows you to gain cards without buying them. The simplest example is Workshop. They often work well with Gardens strategies, as they allow you to gain more cards than you have buys. They can also be useful for picking up engine components, especially cheap ones.
Remodelers, which allow you to trash one card and gain another, are usually considered to be in a separate category from gainers, since they don't increase your deck size. However, they can sometimes have similar functions for gaining engine components or accelerating a three-pile ending.
Types of gainers
Cards in italics have been removed.
Workshop variants
These cards let you gain cards when played. Most of them work well in combinations with cost reduction methods like Highway, which will let you gain more expensive cards than you usually can.
Gainers with a cost limit of 4
- Anvil
- Armory
- Berserker — Gains a card costing less than Berserker, which normally means up to .
- Blockade
- Carpenter
- Cobbler
- Conjurer
- Crafters' Guild
- Devil's Workshop
- The Earth's Gift
- Engineer
- Falconer — Gains a card costing less than Falconer, which normally means up to .
- Groom
- Hammer
- Hill Fort
- Inventor
- Ironworks
- Quartermaster
- Sculptor
- Weaver
- Workshop
River Shrine is an edge case: it acts as a gainer only if you gain no cards in your Buy phase. This means that it does not allow you to gain more cards than you have Buys available, making it more similar to an Event like Alms than a typical gainer.
Gainers with a cost limit of 5
- Artisan
- Craftsman
- Importer
- University — Only gains Actions
- Vampire
- War Chest — Cannot gain cards named by the next player.
Gainers with a cost limit other than 4 or 5
- Artificer — per card discarded
- Dame Natalie —
- Hermit —
- Horn of Plenty — per differently named card in play.
- Smugglers — — Only gains cards gained by the previous player.
- Wheelwright — Up to the cost of the discarded card; only gains Actions
On-buy/gain gainers
These cards resemble the above in gaining cards up to or at a particular cost, but do so when you buy or gain another card, rather than when you play the gainer itself.
- Architects' Guild — A non-Victory card cheaper than a gained card.
- Charm — A differently named card with the same cost as the next gained card.
- Duplicate — A card costing up to when Duplicate is called.
- Haggler — A non-Victory card cheaper than every bought card.
- Talisman — A copy of all cards costing or less bought.
Gainers depending on cards played
These cards can gain with no cost restriction; what cards they can gain depends on whether or not copies of those cards are in play when the gainer is used, or played while the gainer is resolving.
- Disciple — An Action card played by Disciple.
- Kiln — The next played card.
- Specialist — An Action or Treasure played by Specialist.
- Sunken Treasure — An Action not in play.
- Tools — A card anyone has in play.
- Way of the Rat — A copy of the Action played as Way of the Rat.
Friendly resembles Way of the Rat, but lets you discard a card, rather than play it, to gain a copy.
Gain from trash
These cards can gain cards out of the Trash instead of the supply, which usually means a limited selection of cards is available to be gained. They all also provide ways of putting cards in the Trash, creating later opportunities for gaining.
- Graverobber — A card costing from to .
- Lurker — An Action card.
- Rogue — A card costing from to .
- Treasurer — A Treasure.
Thief and Noble Brigand technically gain cards from the trash as well, but only the cards trashed as part of resolving their Attack abilities.
Treasure gainers
Certain cards allow you to gain only Treasures. Some of them gain only specific Treasures; others gain whatever Treasure happens to be available. Lists of Copper gainers, Silver gainers, and Gold gainers can be found at the articles for Copper, Silver and Gold; other Treasure gainers are listed here:
- Bandit Camp — A Spoils.
- Cutthroat — A Loot.
- Hero — Any Treasure.
- Marauder — A Spoils.
- Mint — A copy of a Treasure in hand.
- Noble Brigand — A Silver or Gold trashed by Noble Brigand's attack.
- Pirate — A Treasure costing up to .
- Sack of Loot — A Loot.
- Silver Mine — A Treasure costing less than Silver Mine, which normally means up to .
- Thief — Treasures trashed by Thief's attack.
- Treasurer — A Treasure from the trash.
Other specific-card gainers
For a list of Estate gainers, see here. For a list of Duchy gainers, see here. For a list of Province gainers, see here. For a list of Horse gainers, see here.
- Cursed Gold — gains a Curse
- Devil's Workshop — can gain an Imp
- Jester — can gain whatever non-Victory card is on top of other player's deck
- Joust — can gain a Reward
- Leprechaun — can gain a Wish as well as a Gold
- Magpie — can gain additional copy of Magpie
- Small Castle — gains another Castle by trashing one
- The Swamp's Gift — gains a Will-o'-Wisp
- Tormentor — can gain an Imp
- Tournament — can gain a Duchy or a Prize
Pseudo-remodelers
These cards usually require you to trash or return one card in order to gain another card, so you ordinarily can't use them to increase the size of your deck. If you have junk cards to trash, their effect is similar to that of a typical gainer; if you need to trash valuable cards with them, they function like remodelers.
- Altar — gains a card costing up to
- Pickaxe — gains Loot if the trashed card costs or more
- Rats — gains additional copy of Rats
- Swap — returns an Action to gain an Action costing up to
- Transmute — can gain another Transmute, a Duchy, or a Gold
- Woodworkers' Guild — trashes an Action and gains another Action
Vampire does not require you to trash a card to gain a card, but after playing Vampire you need to trash a card with your Bat in order to get your Vampire back and use it again.
One-shot gainers
These cards trash themselves or return to their piles when gaining you a card, so under ordinary circumstances you can't use them to sustainably increase the size of your deck; they function more as temporary placeholders in your deck for the cards you want, rather than ordinary gainers.
- Changeling — gains copies of cards in play.
- Feast — up to
- Magic Lamp — can gain Wishes
- Pillage — two Spoils
- Search — gains Loot.
- Spell Scroll — usually up to
- Tragic Hero — gains any Treasure, if played with a sufficiently large handsize.
- Urchin — can gain a Mercenary when another Attack is played.
- Wish — up to
Gained with another card
These cards come with one or more additional cards when you gain them, thus increasing the total number of cards you gain per turn. Most gain specific cards, but a couple give more flexibility, allowing you to use them more like a regular gainer.
- Border Village — gains a cheaper card when gained
- Cache — gains two Coppers when gained
- Crumbling Castle — gains a Silver when gained or trashed
- Cursed — makes you gain Loot and a Curse whenever you gain from a specific pile.
- Death Cart — gains 2 Ruins when gained
- Doubloons — gains a Gold when gained
- Duchess — allows you to gain itself when you gain a Duchy
- Experiment — gains an additional copy of itself when gained
- Fawning — gains the Fawning card when a Province is gained
- Ferryman — gains a card from a specific set-aside pile when gained
- Haunted Castle — gains a Gold when gained during your turn
- Hostelry — can gain Horses when gained
- Masterpiece — can gain Silvers when bought
- Messenger — can gain a card costing up to when gained
- Port — gains an additional copy of itself when gained
- Rocks — gains a Silver when gained or trashed
- Skulk — gains a Gold when gained
- Sprawling Castle — gains a Duchy or three Estates when gained
- Stonemason — can gain 2 Action cards when bought
- Wealthy Village — can gain Loot when gained
Gaining Events
Some Events gain you cards when you buy them. Unlike typical gainers, you therefore do need to use up a Buy to gain your card, and thus they arguably resemble simply buying a card more closely than they do using a gainer. However, they do allow you to evade certain restrictions on buying cards (e.g., Swamp Hag's attack effect), and some of them allow you to gain multiple cards with a single buy, like the cards listed above. For a full list of Events that gain cards, see here
When-trash gainers
These cards gain you another card when you trash them, sllowing you to maintain your deck size even when trashing cards.
- Catacombs — gains a cheaper card
- Crumbling Castle — gains a Silver
- Feodum — gains 3 Silvers
- Haunted Mirror — can gain a Ghost
- Hunting Grounds — gains a Duchy or 3 Estates
- Jewelled Egg — gains Loot
- Lich — gains a cheaper card from the Trash when trashed (and returns to your discard pile)
- Rocks — gains a Silver
- Sir Vander — gains a Gold when trashed
- Squire — gains an Attack
Universal gainers
These effects cause all players to gain cards in ways that are outside of their control. The effects are sometimes beneficial and can be exploited like a gainer, but sometimes harmful, functioning more like a junker, depending on what cards are available to be gained. But in any event players need to be prepared for a constant influx of cards into their decks.
- Growth — everyone gains a cheaper card whenever they gain a Treasure.
- Kind Emperor — everyone gains an Action card every turn.
- Shaman — everyone gains cards from the Trash every turn.
Edge cases
- Though they do not gain cards, Camel Train, Way of the Camel, and Way of the Worm move cards from the Supply to your Exile mat, which is included in your deck at the end of the game (or earlier if you actually gain a copy and choose to discard the ones in Exile). Similarly Inheritance sets aside a card from the Supply without gaining it.