Reserve
Reserve is a card type introduced in Adventures; cards of this type have tan frames. When played, Reserve cards are put on your Tavern mat, whence most can be called for an additional effect when a condition is met. Reserve cards can be saved until you want to use them, or simply be left on your mat if you don't want them in your deck anymore.
Like Duration cards, Reserve cards usually have weak effects, or no effect, on the turn you play them, to make up for strong but delayed effects when you eventually call them. They include variants of several basic card categories: a village, a trasher, a sifter, a gainer, a remodeler, and a Throne Room variant. With ordinary cards of most of these categories, you have to hope that shuffle luck will put them in your hand on the turn when they'll most benefit you; as Reserve cards, they wait on your Tavern mat for you to call them when that turn comes.
Official rules
- Adventures has Reserve cards. Reserve cards are tan, and have an ability that puts them on the Tavern mat.
- Each player has their own Tavern mat.
- Most Reserve cards have an ability that "calls" the card. This moves the card into play at a certain time, optionally, and causes it to do something then.
- Playing a Reserve card does the part of the card's text that's above the dividing line, which includes putting it on the Tavern mat; then it sits on the Tavern mat for as many turns as desired, doing nothing; then it may be called into play at the time stated below the dividing line, to do whatever it says.
- For example Ratcatcher gives +1 Card +1 Action when played, and goes on the Tavern mat; on some future turn, at the start of the turn, the player can move Ratcatcher into play to trash a card from their hand.
- Calling a card does not repeat the abilities on the card above the dividing line; that part only happens when the card is played. Reserve cards are discarded during Clean-up normally on the turn they are called.
- A couple Reserve cards are not called; Distant Lands just stays on the mat, while Wine Merchant has a special condition in order to get it off of the mat.
- Cards on Tavern mats are not in play, but Reserve cards that have been called this turn are in play.
- So for example Pilgrimage cannot gain copies of cards on the Tavern mat, but can gain copies of Reserve cards called into play the same turn.
- Cards on Tavern mats are included in decks when scoring at the end.
- Calling Reserve cards is not playing an Action, and does not reduce how many Actions the player may play on their turn; for example a player could start a turn by calling two Ratcatchers, then continue their turn by playing a Ranger from hand.
- Playing a Reserve card other than Coin of the Realm is playing an Action and does reduce how many more Actions a player may play that turn, like other Actions.
Preparation
- If any Reserve cards are being used, get out the Tavern mats and give one to each player.
Other rules clarifications
- You can call a Reserve card even if doing so would have no effect. For example, calling a Duplicate when you gain the last card in a pile, or calling a Ratcatcher when you start with no cards in hand (such as due to Torturer).
- With Reserve cards that can be called at the start of your turn (like Transmogrify), if you play it at the start of your turn (with e.g. Way of the Turtle), you can immediately call it.
List of cards
Cards with the Reserve type
: Coin of the Realm, Ratcatcher
: Guide
: Duplicate, Transmogrify
: Distant Lands, Royal Carriage, Wine Merchant
: Teacher
Other cards that use the Tavern mat
- : Miser
Gallery
Cards with the Reserve type
Other cards that use the Tavern mat
Trivia
Eric J Carter illustrated the Tavern mat, which depicts the characters from the three Reserve cards he illustrated: Ratcatcher, Guide and Wine Merchant.
In other languages
- Dutch: Reserve
- Finnish: Reservi
- French: Taverne (lit. tavern)
- German: Reserve
- Russian: Запас (pron. zapas)
Secret History
Initially I was thinking of the set as a full-on Seaside sequel. And what else did Seaside have? It had mats and tokens. I looked at what the possibilities were for these components. For mats one thing stood out: a mat you put cards on, where they would wait until you were ready to use them. I had done one of those in Dark Ages, and it had been great, but hadn't made the set because you know, it needed the mat. […]
So I made cards for the mat, initially the Castle mat, and cards that produced tokens, initially one-shot kingdom cards (plus a few other kinds of uses for tokens). And a good time was had by all.
Why are there no Reserve cards that attack?
Yes, it would be confusing if calling a card hurt the other players. Plus it would be more political than regular attacks (e.g. the attack is Militia; how many cards does everyone have, is the person with 5 cards winning).
Why does calling put the card into play?
The issue is the possibility of replaying certain cards the same turn. I avoid the confusion of set aside cards by putting them into play instead.
Returning in a future expansion
The way to revisit Reserve or Night is with a new large expansion that has a bunch of those cards.
At one point Allies (the expansion) was going to revisit Reserve cards. But they overlapped too much with what Allies (the landscape type) could do. If it had happened, there would have been Tavern mats in Allies. I was considering having them double as a place to put Favors, to save on table space.
