Library
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=== Other Rules clarifications === | === Other Rules clarifications === | ||
− | If your -1 | + | * If your [[Adventures tokens|-1 Card token]] is on your deck when you play Library, take it off. |
== Strategy Article == | == Strategy Article == |
Revision as of 13:27, 23 July 2015
Library | |
---|---|
Info | |
Cost | |
Type(s) | Action |
Kingdom card? | Yes |
Set | Base |
Illustrator(s) | Harald Lieske |
Card text | |
Draw until you have 7 cards in hand. You may set aside any Action cards drawn this way, as you draw them; discard the set aside cards after you finish drawing. |
Library is an Action card from the Base set. It is a terminal card draw, meaning it provides +Cards but no +Action. Its ability to set aside Action cards means that it is unlikely to draw cards dead, which makes it a little safer than Smithy. However, since it draws up to 7 cards instead of drawing a fixed number of cards, it is great with cards like Cellar and Festival which decrease your handsize for a benefit. It is also a good counter to handsize attacks like Militia.
Contents |
FAQ
Official FAQ
- If you have to shuffle in the middle, the set-aside cards are not shuffled into the new Deck. They will be discarded when you have finished drawing cards.
- If you run out of cards even after shuffling, you just get however many there were.
- You are not obligated to set aside Actions – you just have the option to do so.
- If you have 7 or more cards in hand after you play the Library, you don't draw any cards.
Other Rules clarifications
- If your -1 Card token is on your deck when you play Library, take it off.
Strategy Article
Original article by theory
Library is one of the most unusual of the +Cards Actions. Because you don’t draw a set number of cards, but rather up to 7, it responds poorly to Throne Room but does quite well with small hands (normally a drawback). Preferably, you get your small hand through disappearing +2 Actions cards (Festival, University); indeed, the synergy between Festival and Library are so strong that when Donald X. moved Festival into the base set, he pulled Library in with it as well to keep them together. It’s theoretically true that Library works well with Outpost, but the chance of drawing a +Actions with it in the 3-card hand is pretty small unless you’re Havening cards between hands.
Alternatively, Library is a fundamental “soft counter” to handsize-decreasing cards like Militia and Torturer. (In fact, its presence is often a strong deterrent to playing Militia, since it’s even better of a counter than Moat.) Library can also be used effectively with discard-for-benefit cards (Vault, Secret Chamber, even Haven), if you have enough +Actions to play it all: discard your cards, then redraw with the Library. And it’s possible — though unlikely — to use Golem for this purpose (ideally by drawing Tactician/Library).
Its benefit of setting Action cards aside is a little less useful than it seems. Obviously it’s of most use when your deck is cluttered with terminal Actions … but then your deck is cluttered with terminal Actions. It’s more often better used as a way to discard the outmoded opening Actions (e.g., Chapel, Moneylender), or as part of an endgame desperate draw, hoping to get up to . (Special note: often you’ll want to set aside useless non-terminals like Great Hall; this is because it draws you a card, but without giving you the option of setting it aside or not.) Alternatively, it can be nice when combined with Scrying Pool, since Library can draw all your non-Actions, and Scrying Pool picks up the Actions.
Unsurprisingly, Library is quite terrible when your hand is already quite large. This means that not only does it anti-synergize with Laboratory, it also anti-synergizes with itself unless you are drawing more disappearing +2 Actions. But at least you can set them aside, which can be quite useful if you’re running a rote Smithy/Big Money strategy with Library in place of Smithy.
Synergies/Combos
Works with
- Cards which give +2 actions but do not draw a card: Festival, University, Native Village, Nobles, Squire, Hamlet, Fishing Village, and others.
- Cards which decrease your handsize for a benefit: Cellar, Warehouse, Vault, Secret Chamber, Black Market.
- Opponents' handsize-decreasing attacks: Militia, Torturer, Goons, Ghost Ship, and others.
- Actions which outlive their usefulness, such as early trashers.
Antisynergies
Conflicts with:
- Other handsize increasers such as Caravan, Tactician, Laboratory, and even other terminal draw like Smithy
- Opponents' Council Rooms.
Trivia
In other languages
- Chinese: 圖書館 (pron. túshūguǎn)
- Czech: Knihovna
- Dutch: Bibliotheek
- Finnish: Kirjasto
- French: Bibliothèque
- German: Bibliothek
- Greek: Βιβλιοθήκη (pron. vivliotheke)
- Hungarian: Könyvtár
- Italian: Biblioteca
- Japanese: 書庫 (pron. shoko)
- Korean: 도서관 (pron. doseogwan)
- Norwegian: Bibliotek
- Polish: Biblioteka
- Romanian: Bibliotecă
- Russian: Библиотека (pron. bibliotyeka)
- Spanish: Biblioteca
Secret History