Forge

Forge
Info
Cost
Type(s)	Action
Kingdom card?	Yes
Set	Prosperity
Illustrator(s)	Martin Hoffmann
Card text
Trash any number of cards from your hand. Gain a card with cost exactly equal to the total cost in of the trashed cards.

Forge is an Action card from Prosperity. It can be a powerful trasher and remodeler, but it is often hampered by its high cost and relative lack of flexibility.

FAQ

Official FAQ

• "Any number" includes zero.
• If you trash no cards, you have to gain a card costing if you can.
• If there is no card at the required cost, you do not gain a card.
• The card you gain comes from the Supply and is put into your discard pile.
• (on cards in Dominion: Alchemy) and (on cards in Dominion: Empires) are not added, and the card you gain cannot have those symbols in its cost.

Strategy

Forge is most useful as a multi-card thinner, though its high price makes it difficult to gain and use in the early stages of the game in which you would typically like to use such a card. As a result, Forge is likely skippable if you can thin your starting cards more quickly via other methods than by working towards a deck that can afford Forge and draw a good set of targets for it. If such alternatives are unavailable or weak, it may be a good idea to try and spike for Forge, or acquire it with effects such as Transport.

Several considerations may maximize the value of using Forge as a thinner.

1. Because Forge can trash as many cards as you have in hand, the way to maximally exploit its capabilities is to trash all of your junk at once, so any method to increase your hand size before playing Forge is helpful. Given that the ideal time to do this is before you've fully established deck control, the most practical ways to do so are often somewhat one-shot in nature, including cheap non-terminal draw like Horses and effects like Sinister Plot. Duration draw, such as Barge or Tactician, can also be very beneficial.
2. Forge can trash any number of cards costing , like Copper, Curse, or Ruins, alongside its other trashing targets without affecting the price of the gained card. It can, for example, turn an Estate plus any number of Coppers into a Border Guard, or trash any number of Coppers to replace them with a single Copper.
3. In some cases it's worthwhile to trash a set of cards whose prices do not add up to that of any card in the Kingdom and gain nothing at all: for example, this is usually possible when you trash a Shelter alongside cards costing . This is often preferable to gaining a useless card.

As a trash-for-benefit card, Forge compares unfavorably to similar cards, such as Remodel variants, as it is a relatively inflexible gainer. The main weakness is that it is often difficult to find a combination of cards you are willing to trash that have the required costs for a particular card you would like to gain. For instance, if you have a Gold gainer providing fodder, you would need to pair it with a card to gain a Province—no other cost will work. Additionally, Forge needs to trash more cards (and you also need to draw them, necessitating larger hand sizes) in order to gain useful cards: for example, while Expand can convert a single Silver to a card, Forge requires two. Compounded with its high cost, these issues mean you’ll typically only end up using Forge to good trash-for-benefit effect after you’ve largely finished using it as a thinner. At this stage of the game, Forge can be useful for milling cards to empty a pile and could be particularly important if it's the only way to gain Provinces besides buying them.

There are a few cards that work particularly well as fodder for Forge. Cards that cost are often useful, as trashing two copies allows you to gain a Province; this is significantly magnified in the case of Fortress and Rats, both of which have on-trash benefits and act as renewable sources of fodder. Peddler is another notable synergy, as it is often cheap to acquire but can be Forged into Province. Using milling, by trashing a Province from your hand to gain a Province (usually the only card in most kingdoms), is a way to deplete the Province supply pile to end the game quicker, especially beneficial when you already have a point lead.

Versions

English versions

Print	Digital	Text	Release	Date
		Trash any number of cards from your hand. Gain a card with cost exactly equal to the total cost in coins of the trashed cards.	Prosperity	October 2010
		Trash any number of cards from your hand. Gain a card with cost exactly equal to the total cost in of the trashed cards.	Prosperity (2016 printing) Prosperity (Second Edition)	February 2017

Other language versions

Language	Name	Print	Digital	Text	Notes
Chinese	鍛造			移除任意數量手牌，計算被移除卡價值的總和(僅計算的部分)，獲得一張價值剛好等於總和的卡片。
Czech	Kování
Dutch	Vervalsen (lit. to counterfeit)			Vernietig zoveel kaarten uit je hand als je wilt. Pak een kaart die evenveel kost als de totale kosten van de vernietigde kaarten.	This connotes counterfeit as opposed to metalwork
Finnish	Ahjo
French	Forge
German	Kunstschmiede			Entsorge eine beliebige Anzahl Karten aus deiner Hand. Nimm dir eine Karte mit genau den gleichen -Kosten, wie die entsorgten Karten zusammen gekostet haben.	(2010) translation error: "...as the trashed cards used to cost in total." one or more other versions listed here
	Kunstschmiede			Entsorge beliebig viele deiner Handkarten. Nimm eine Karte, die genauso viel kostet, wie jene Karten in zusammen.	(Nachdruck 2021) 2. Edition (2022)
Italian	Incastonare (lit. to mount gems)
Japanese	鍛造 (pron. tanzō)			手札から好きな枚数のカードを廃棄する。廃棄したカードのコストの合計と同コス卜のカード1枚を獲得する。
Polish	Płatnerz (lit. armorer)			Wyrzuć na śmietnisko dowolną liczbę kart z ręki. Dodaj kartę o koszcie równym sumie kosztów wszystkich kart (wyrażonych w monetach).	(2016)
	Płatnerz (lit. armorer)			Wyrzuć na Śmietnisko dowolną liczbę kart z ręki. Dodaj kartę o koszcie równym sumie kosztów (wyrażonych w ) wyrzuconych kart.	II Edycja (2022)
Russian	Ковка (pron. kovka, lit. forging)
Spanish	Forja

Trivia

Official card art.

Preview

You can tell when someone draws Forge. They start staring intently at their cards and moving their lips. Figuring out what to trash is an NP-complete problem - all you can do is consider every possibility. Forge is good if you get it early, since you can use it as a Chapel that gains you stuff. Later on you will be trying to get up to Platinum or Colony with it somehow. It pays to pay attention to the costs of the cards you're buying. To get a Forge early, use a Quarry; then Forge it away later.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Dominion: Prosperity Review

Secret History

Originally cost , then . The "in coins" clause was added late, to simplify Alchemy interactions.

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