Steward

Steward
Info
Cost
Type(s)	Action
Kingdom card?	Yes
Set	Intrigue
Illustrator(s)	Matthias Catrein
Card text
Choose one: +2 Cards; or +; or trash 2 cards from your hand.

Steward is an Action card from Intrigue. Keeping with the choices theme in Intrigue, Steward gives you a choice of whether to use it as a trasher, a terminal Silver, or terminal card draw. It is most often used as a fast early-game trasher, with some mid- and late-game uses.

FAQ

Official FAQ

• First choose one of the three options, then do it.
• If you pick "trash 2 cards from your hand" and only have one card in hand, you trash that card; if you choose that option and have 2 or more cards in hand, you have to trash 2.

Other Rules clarifications

• You first choose which two cards to trash, then trash them both at the same time, and then choose which order to activate any when-trashed effects.

Strategy

Steward is a versatile terminal that offers you a choice between trashing, terminal draw, and . While the draw and effects on their own are overshadowed by other cards, the strong trashing effect with added flexibility makes Steward a strong tool for deck control early, and a passable option for payload later. This means Steward is usually a good opening choice for building an engine, though it is most likely skippable if even stronger trashers such as Chapel or Donate are present in the Kingdom.

In the early game it is often best to trash two cards instead of drawing or generating in order to afford a or Action, as the rapid increase in deck control often outweighs the benefit of cycling or a card you would buy instead. Additionally, if you can trash one or even two Estates or Shelters, Steward is also likely to improve your deck quality and money density. Steward therefore works well with strong cards like Border Guard or Lackeys that you can still buy when trashing. Given Steward is terminal and rapidly thins your deck, you usually only need one copy and would prefer to open it alongside a non-terminal, with a sifter such as Dungeon being a good example.

Once the trashing is no longer necessary, Steward flexibly provides you with either card draw or , which is generally useful when you need draw for increased deck control and reliability, or payload when you have sufficient draw otherwise. While the availability of both options can be useful in a few cases (e.g., to hit a price point without triggering a shuffle), in general using Steward for either effect is a relatively inefficient use of terminal space, as it is the equivalent of a Moat or terminal Silver. The main reason to use Steward for either is usually just that it’s already in your deck, having completed its primary purpose as a thinner.

With Capitalism, Steward can act as non-terminal draw in your Buy phase. It is important to consider that in most cases, any Action cards drawn this way cannot be played; this use is therefore only viable if you rely almost exclusively on cards you can play at this point in your turn or later, i.e. Night cards and Treasures (including other cards under the effect of Capitalism). This may be overly restrictive on your deck construction, and often the Kingdom will not offer sufficient payload options. However, if they are available it may be worth it to get deck control with Steward early, buy Capitalism, and quickly acquire more Stewards for cheap non-terminal draw.

Versions

English versions

Print	Digital	Text	Release	Date
		Choose one: +2 Cards; or +; or trash 2 cards from your hand.	Intrigue 1st Edition	July 2009
		Choose one: +2 Cards; or +; or trash 2 cards from your hand.	Intrigue 2nd Edition	October 2016

Other language versions

Language	Name	Print	Digital	Text	Notes
Chinese	男侍 (pron. nánshì, lit. manservant)
Czech	Správce (lit. administrator)
Dutch	Lakei (lit. lackey)
Finnish	Käskynhaltija (lit. governor)
French	Intendant
German	Verwalter			Wähle eins: +2 Karten oder + oder entsorge 2 deiner Handkarten.	2. Edition (2021)
Hungarian	Intéző (lit. manager)
Italian	Maggiordomo
Japanese	執事 (pron. shitsuji)			次のうち1つを選ぶ:「+2 カードを引く」:「+」:「手札2枚を廃棄する」。
Korean	집사 (pron. jibsa)
Norwegian	Kammerherre (lit. chamberlain)
Polish	Zarządca			Wybierz jedną opcję: +2 karty lub + lub wyrzuć na śmietnisko 2 karty z ręki.	(2016)
Russian	Управляющий (pron. upravlyayushshiy, lit. manager)			Выберите одно из трёх: +2 Карты; или +; или выкиньте 2 карты из руки.
Spanish	Mayordomo			Elige una opción: +2 Cartas ; o + ; o bien eliminar 2 cartas de tu mano.	First Edition (2009)
	Mayordomo			Elige una opción: +2 Cartas; o +; o bien eliminar 2 cartas de tu mano.	Second Edition (2016)

Trivia

Official card art.

Secret History

The first version of this gave you a choice between +2 Actions/­Buys/Cards/­. It wasn't interesting enough, so I traded in the Actions and Buys for trashing two cards.

I changed a few card names late in the process, to synch things up better with the Intrigue theme, and confuse the playtesters. This card had been named Butler. As it happens, a medieval butler was a wine guy. A steward was the guy who ran your castle. Anyway when the art came in for Steward, it showed a guy with some serving dishes. Like a steward on an airplane. Also Pawn came in showing someone being forced to sign something. As you can see, we got replacement art. As of Seaside we are providing notes on what the card names mean for the artists. These aren't always just your everyday words here.

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

"Servant's Room:" , "Choose a card in your hand. Trash it; or discard it and +1 card; or trash it and gain a card with equal cost, in your hand." It was trying to be a follow-up to Pawn. I remembered the bad Trading Post and thought hey maybe it just needs more bad options. It didn't see much play and then turned into "choose one: +2 of something" which then turned into Steward.

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