Catacombs

Catacombs
Info
Cost
Type(s)	Action
Kingdom card?	Yes
Set	Dark Ages
Illustrator(s)	Marcel-André Casasola Merkle
Card text
Look at the top 3 cards of your deck. Choose one: Put them into your hand; or discard them and +3 Cards. When you trash this, gain a cheaper card.

Catacombs is an Action card from Dark Ages. It is a terminal draw card that gives +3 Cards, with the choice of either taking the top 3 or the next 3.

FAQ

Official FAQ

• When you play this, you look at the top three cards of your deck, and either put all three into your hand, or discard all three and draw the next three cards.
• If you discard them and have to shuffle to draw three cards, you will shuffle in the cards you discarded and may end up drawing some of them.
• When you trash Catacombs, you gain a card costing less than it.
• This happens whether Catacombs is trashed on your turn or someone else's, and no matter who has the card that trashed it.

Other Rules clarifications

• Putting the 3 cards you're looking at into your hand will have no interaction with your -1 Card token and/or Way of the Chameleon. But if you discard those 3 cards, then the +3 Cards will be affected by your -1 Card token and/or Way of the Chameleon.
• If you play this with Elder and choose both its options, you won't get anything useful. You'll put the 3 cards you're looking at into your hand, but then you'll still discard them and draw 3 different cards.
• When you trash this with e.g. Remodel, you gain a card from Catacombs before you gain a card with Remodel.

Strategy

Catacombs is a terminal draw card with an optional sifting effect. While this bonus effect is less impactful than those of many other terminal draw cards such as Wild Hunt, Catacombs can still be very effective draw when supported by villages. The sifting makes it particularly useful in situations where you have lots of junk or appreciate the large amount of cycling it gives. This is more frequently the case in the early game, when there are still many starting cards that you'd like to sift past and when its ability to cycle through six cards can greatly speed up your ability to build your deck. Usually this sifting effect becomes less relevant as you get better deck control and remove your junk, although it can still help you find your villages and other draw cards to continue your turn. Thus, when there are other terminal draw cards available (such as Barge), it can be a good idea to get Catacombs first, shifting to the other sources of draw later in the game.

Whether to discard the cards you look at with Catacombs will depend on a few factors. You will generally want to weigh the benefits of sifting to find your payload, sifting to find cards to continue your turn, and avoiding bad reshuffle triggers (which you might be able to avoid by accepting the first set of three cards). For example, if you reveal Quarry in your first set of three cards but are looking for villages to continue playing more terminal draw, you’ll need to decide whether the risk of not finding your Quarry again is worth sifting past it. One possible additional factor involves cards that benefit from being discarded, with Village Green being a notable example.

Catacombs’s on-trash effect is rarely relevant, as trashing a card in Catacombs for the sole purpose of gaining a cheaper card is inefficient, and even against trashing attacks a card is usually a poor replacement for Catacombs. Its on-trash effect is most useful in Kingdoms with both trash-for-benefit effects and a way to gain it easily, as you can then use it as expensive, somewhat self-replacing fodder. Procession is notable as it provides both of these effects, and in conjunction with another gainer can even create self-sustaining loops with Catacombs. Catacombs also has a minor synergy with Lurker: using a pair of these to gain Catacombs also provides a non-terminal Workshop effect, which can be useful as a way to gain additional cheap Action cards. Regardless of trash-for-benefit effects, Catacombs's ability to gain a card can increase your pile pressure in the endgame.

Versions

English versions

Print	Digital	Text	Release	Date
		Look at the top 3 cards of your deck. Choose one: Put them into your hand; or discard them and +3 Cards. When you trash this, gain a cheaper card.	Dark Ages	August 2012
		Look at the top 3 cards of your deck. Choose one: Put them into your hand; or discard them and +3 Cards. When you trash this, gain a cheaper card.	Dark Ages (2017 printing)	September 2017

Other language versions

Language	Name	Print	Digital	Text	Notes
Czech	Katakomby			Podívej se na vrchní 3 karty svého dobíracího balíčku. Vyber si jeden pokyn: vezmi si tyto karty do ruky; odlož tyto karty a +3 karty. Pokud tuto kartu zahodíš na smetiště, vezmi si kartu, která stojí méně než Katakomby.	(2016)
Dutch	Gewelven (lit. vaults)			Bekijk de bovenste 3 kaarten van je trekstapel. Kies één van de 2 volgende: Neem de kaarten in je hand; of leg de kaarten af en +3 Kaarten. Als je deze kaart vernietigd, pak dan een kaart die minder kost dan deze kaart.	(2013)
Finnish	Katakombit
French	Catacombes
German	Katakomben			Sieh die obersten 3 Karten deines Nachziehstapels an. Wähle eins: Nimm sie auf die Hand oder lege sie ab und +3 Karten. Wenn du diese Karte entsorgst: Nimm eine billigere Karte.	(2019)
Japanese	地下墓所 (pron. chika bosho, lit. underground tomb)			山札の上から3枚を見る。次のうち1つを選ぶ:「見た3枚を手札に加える」:「それらを捨て札にし、+3 カードを引く」。 これを廃棄するとき、これより安いカード1枚を獲得する。
Korean	납골당 (pron. nabgoldang, lit. ossuary)
Polish	Katakumby				Although Polish version is not released, this card is referred to in the Polish version of Empires rulebook
Russian	Катакомбы (pron. katakomby)
Spanish	Catacumbas			Mira las 3 cartas superiores de tu mazo. Elige una opción: ponlas en tu mano; o bien descártalas y +3 Cartas. Cuando elimines esta carta, gana una carta que cueste menos que ella.	(2014)

Trivia

Official card art.

Secret History

This started out in Hinterlands. Hinterlands had plenty of card-drawing though, so I moved it here. It seemed like an okay candidate for a when-trashed ability, so I gave it one. It mirrors Border Village.

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

Wording

Catacombs has a "choose one" that is both pointless and confusing if you use it with Elder.

Considering how fantasy wordings would work is beyond the scope for me as always. I think the rules are okay here, and well I'll hope they are. Obv. Catacombs / Elder disappoints people, and you could rephrase Catacombs to deal with it; I know all about it, it's in the file to consider for whenever Dark Ages next gets reprinted.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Dominion Forums, 2024

Further thoughts by Donald X.

A lesson of playtesting with Dark Ages is, make sure not to put out Wandering Minstrel with Catacombs. It is just a much slower Village/Smithy that will automatically happen and bog down your game.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Dominion Discord, 2019