Embargo

Embargo
Info
Cost
Type(s)	Action
Kingdom card?	Yes
Set	Seaside
Illustrator(s)	Harald Lieske
Card text
+ Trash this to add an Embargo token to a Supply pile. (For the rest of the game, when a player buys a card from that pile, they gain a Curse.)

Embargo is an Action card from the first edition of Seaside. It is a one-shot terminal Silver, which adds a penalty to a Supply pile—whoever buys a card from that pile gains a Curse. This penalty can be avoided with gainers.

It was removed from the second edition of Seaside. Its successor/replacement is Blockade.

FAQ

Official FAQ

• The token can go on any Supply pile - a Kingdom card pile such as Embargo, or a base card pile such as Silver.
• The token modifies the pile, so that anyone buying a card from that pile gains a Curse.
• This even affects the player who placed the Embargo token.
• This is cumulative; with three Embargo tokens on a pile, buying a card from that pile will give you three Curses.
• Embargo tokens do not do anything if a card is gained without being bought, such as with Smugglers, or if the Curse pile is empty.
• Embargo tokens are not counter-limited; use a replacement if necessary.
• If you Throne Room Embargo, you will get + but only place one token, since you can only trash Embargo once.

Other Rules clarifications

• If there are multiple Embargo tokens on a pile, each Curse gain from buying from that pile happens separately, which allows other when-buy triggers (such as the pre-errata version of Haggler's) to activate in between Curse gains.

Strategy

Some Embargo tokens.

Before it was removed, Embargo was a one-shot terminal silver and also offered an effect that disincentivized or punished buying the target card that you chose by distributing Curses. Making good use of this effect is difficult, as the prime target in terms of punishing your opponents is likely to be a card that you also want to get many copies of. Therefore, Embargo is usually rather weak; when gained, it may be used primarily for the cheap one-shot rather than as a curser, and placing the token on an inconsequential pile may be the best choice. Using it in such a manner can be relevant in the opening, when you may want the boost in economy but don’t want a Silver in your deck as a long-term stop card.

The value of and best target for the Embargo token are dependent on several factors:

• Divergent strategies: if an opponent has already committed to a particular strategy that you don’t want to follow, you gain an advantage by creating the penalty. For example, if an opponent has already gained a Potion for Alchemist and you plan to draw by other means, there is an obvious target.
• Predictable patterns: you need to anticipate the importance of certain cards to you and to your opponents, to decide which cards are most likely to be worth Embargoing; this is often easier when there are centralizing cards that your opponents would want multiple copies of. For example, the only non-terminal draw card in a given Kingdom could be a good Embargo target.
• Methods of evasion and unsuitable targets: Embargo is significantly weaker if there are ways for your opponents to avoid buying the targeted card, e.g. using gainers. It is also ineffective against an opponent whose strategy makes heavy use of Events or whose strategy can be easily modified to avoid extensive use of the affected card.
• Curse handling: giving out Curses with Embargo is more impactful the harder it is to get rid of them again, or at least draw through them.

The best case scenario—that the use of specific cards by your opponents will be highly divergent from your own, easily predictable, and hard to divert from—is very unusual, and so more often you’ll have to judge if Embargo’s marginal upside outweighs its downsides (mostly that it’s a low-impact terminal stop card).

Other than these specific cases, the main use case for Embargo is when you’re ahead on key cards. As an example, in the early game if you open with Embargo/Silver and hit a pricepoint before your opponents, buy the important card (e.g. Apprentice), and then are able to Embargo that card, you’ll be fairly far ahead as their first copy of that card would come with a Curse. This can also happen if you have a / opening split. The same idea applies if you have one copy of, for example, the only village and your opponents have none, as even if you split the pile evenly your opponents have to take more Curses than you do. Another use case comes into play if you’re significantly ahead on deck control: if you will have a much easier time getting rid of the Curses, they will affect your opponents more even if you take the same number as them.

External strategy articles

Note: Article(s) below are by individual authors and may not represent the community's current views on cards, but may provide more in-depth information or give historical perspective. Caveat emptor.

• theory's 2010 article

Versions

English versions

Print	Digital	Text	Release	Date
		+ Trash this card. Put an Embargo token on top of a Supply pile. When a player buys a card, he gains a Curse card per Embargo token on that pile.	Seaside	October 2009
		+ Trash this. Add an Embargo token to a Supply pile. (For the rest of the game, when a player buys a card from that pile, they gain a Curse.)	Seaside (2017 printing)	July 2017
		+ Trash this. If you did, add an Embargo token to a Supply pile. (For the rest of the game, when a player buys a card from that pile, they gain a Curse.)	2019 Errata	September 24, 2019
		+ Trash this to add an Embargo token to a Supply pile. (For the rest of the game, when a player buys a card from that pile, they gain a Curse.)	Seaside (2020 printing)	October 2020

Other language versions

Language	Name	Print	Digital	Text	Notes
Chinese	封港令 (pron. fēnggǎng lìng, lit. order to seal off a port)
Czech	Embargo
Dutch	Embargo
Finnish	Saarto
French	Embargo
German	Embargo			+ Entsorge diese Karte. Lege einen Embargomarker auf einen beliebigen Vorratsstapel. Spieler, die von diesem Stapel eine Karte kaufen, nehmen sich pro Embargomarker eine Fluchkarte.	(2014)
	Embargo			+ Entsorge diese Karte. Lege einen Embargomarker auf einen Vorratsstapel. (Für den Rest des Spiels: Kauft ein Spieler von diesem Stapel eine Karte, nimmt er einen Fluch)	(Nachdruck 2018)
	Embargo			+ Entsorge diese Karte, um einen Embargo-Marker auf einen Vorratsstapel zu legen. (Für den Rest des Spiels nimmt jeder Spieler, der eine Karte von jenem Stapel kauft, einen Fluch.)	(Nachdruck 2021)
Italian	Embargo
Japanese	抑留 (pron. yokuryū, lit. internment)			+ これを廃棄する。 サプライ1山の上に抑留トークン1枚を追加する (その山のカード1枚を購入するプレイヤーは、 呪い1枚を獲得する)。
Korean	입항금지 (pron. ibhang-geumji)
Polish	Embargo			+ Wyrzuć tę kartę śmietnisko. Połóż żeton embarga na wybranym stosie kart w Zasobach. Kiedy gracz kupuje kartę ze stosu na którym leżą żetony embarga, dodaje Klątwę za każdy taki żeton.	(2016)
Russian	Эмбарго (pron. embargo)			+ Выкиньте эту карту. Добавьте Жетон Эмбарго на стопку Резерва. (До конца игры, когда игрок покупает карту из этой стопки, он получает Проклятие.)
Spanish	Embargo			+ Elimina esta carta. Coloca un marcador de Embargo sobre un montón del Suministro. Cuando un jugador compre una carta, gana una carta de Maldición por cada marcador de Embargo que tenga su montón del Suministro.

Trivia

Official card art.

Secret History

This was originally "+1 Card, +1 Action, Choose an action or treasure pile, other players can't buy it until your next turn." This had the same non-standard timing deal that Cutpurse had. It also sometimes had a tracking issue. So I replaced it with a version that went on a pile and made you get Curses for buying that card. I like that it doesn't shut you out; you can still buy the card, you just have to decide if it's worth a Curse. And this way it can go on any pile. For a while the Embargo card itself went on the pile, but in the end we switched to tokens, which don't cover up the pile, and create fewer questions.

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

Retrospective

Embargo requires embargo tokens. I could make a new version of the concept with no tokens, although arguably that's Swamp Hag.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Dominion Discord, 2019

Second Edition Removal

Embargo requires dedicated tokens, just for this card that often no-one buys. That sure wanted to be fixed. And it already had errata due to the changes to Band of Misfits & co.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Seaside 2E Preview 1