Deck inspection attack

A deck inspection attack is an Attack card that reveals cards from an opponent's deck and does something with them. Trashing attacks and deck order attacks usually fall into this category. They often combine well with each other, in that some deck inspection attacks will let you determine what card is on the opponent's deck so you know how beneficial it will be to play another deck inspection attack; in other cases, they conflict with each other, and playing a second deck inspection attack will cancel out the effects of a previous one. For example, Spy or Scrying Pool can let you set up an opponent's deck to have a good card to hit with Jester, but Fortune Teller will leave a non-Treasure card on top of their deck and reduce the effectiveness of Noble Brigand.

Secret Chamber is a usually a good defense against these Attacks, since they give the victim some choice over what card the Attack will find on the deck.

List of deck inspection attacks

• Trashing attacks
  • Thief
  • Swindler
  • Saboteur
  • Pirate Ship
  • Noble Brigand
  • Knights
  • Rogue
• Deck order attacks
  • Spy
  • Scrying Pool
  • Rabble
  • Fortune Teller
  • Oracle
• Other
  • Jester

Fringe cases

• Tribute is not an Attack, but it reveals cards from an opponent's deck and has an effect that depends on the revealed cards, so it fits into some of the same strategies as deck-inspection attacks (and is often mistaken for an Attack by new players)
• Sea Hag discards the top card of the opponents' decks, but the effect of the Attack does not depend on what the discarded card is.
• Similarly, Minion, Margrave, and Soothsayer cause opponents to draw the top card of their decks.
• Bureaucrat and Ghost Ship do the opposite, causing opponents to put cards from their hand on top of their decks.