Crypt

Crypt
Info
Cost
Type(s)	Night - Duration
Kingdom card?	Yes
Set	Nocturne
Illustrator(s)	Lynell Ingram
Card text
Set aside any number of non-Duration Treasures you have in play, face down (under this). While any remain, at the start of each of your turns, put one of them into your hand.

Crypt is a Night-Duration card from Nocturne. It stores away your Treasures, adding a Treasure to your hand every turn from a stack of Treasures placed under it when it was played.

FAQ

Official FAQ (2021)

• For example if you set aside three Treasures, then at the start of each of your next three turns you will put one of them into your hand, and at the end of the last of those turns you will discard Crypt from play.
• The Treasures are face-down; you can look at them at any time, but other players may not.

Other rules clarifications

• Crypt got errata in 2022 so that it can't set aside Treasure-Durations (like Astrolabe).

Strategy

Crypt is a unique card that typically sees use as a Copper thinner. Less often, Crypt can be used situationally to store other Treasures, perhaps to ensure output on your next turn, or to line up Treasures in a useful way, matching Gold with Remodel or colliding a pair of Idols.

Crypt is strongest at Copper thinning when 3 conditions are met:

1. Weak Copper trashing
2. Strong Estate trashing
3. Draw, especially one-time draw

Because Crypt only temporarily stashes away Coppers, it is outclassed by top-tier trashers such as Donate. In their absence, the effectiveness of Crypt varies largely depending on how many Coppers you are able to line up with the Crypt. Crypt benefits from increasing marginal returns for each additional Treasure set aside: the first stays out of play for one turn, the second stays out of play for two turns, and so on. For this reason, Crypt relies heavily on appropriate set-up. Trashing Estates (e.g. with Hermit) allows you to line Crypt up with your Treasures more reliably, and draw cards increase your hand size so that you can see more total Treasures on the same turn as Crypt. One-time draw effects such as Madman or Sinister Plot are especially valuable here, as they can be activated to give you one turn of massive draw to set aside all your Coppers at once.

Because Crypt's strength relies so strongly on the ability to set it up properly, it is almost never advisable to buy it in the opening. The risk that you can only set aside 1-2 Coppers and extract little benefit from it is high before you have trashed your Estates and acquired some draw.

Crypt has a strong synergy with Capital. Capital normally generates upfront in exchange for to pay off on the following turn, but if you set it aside with Crypt, it is never discarded from play and you never take any .

Notable Synergies

• Capital
• Stampede
• Sinister Plot

Versions

English versions

Print	Digital	Text	Release	Date
		Set aside any number of Treasures you have in play, face down (under this). While any remain, at the start of each of your turns, put one of them into your hand.	Nocturne	November 2017
		Set aside any number of non-Duration Treasures you have in play, face down (under this). While any remain, at the start of each of your turns, put one of them into your hand.		June 29, 2022

Other language versions

Language	Name	Print	Digital	Text	Notes
Dutch	Crypte
French	Crypte			Mettez de côté autant de cartes Trésor en jeu que souhaité, face cachée (sous cette carte). Tant qu'il en reste, au début de chacun de vos tours, prenez-en une en main.
	Crypte			Mettez de côté autant de cartes Trésor non-Durée en jeu que souhaité, face cachée (sous cette carte). Tant qu'il en reste, au début de chacun de vos tours, prenez-en une en main.
German	Krypta			Lege beliebig viele Geldkarten, die du im Spiel hast, verdeckt zur Seite (unter diese Karte). Solange sich dort Karten befinden: Nimm zu Beginn deiner nächsten Züge jeweils 1 davon auf die Hand.	(2017)
	Krypta			Lege beliebig viele Geldkarten, die keine Dauerkarten sind und die du im Spiel hast, verdeckt zur Seite (unter diese Karte). Solange sich dort Karten befinden: Nimm zu Beginn deiner nächsten Züge jeweils 1 davon auf die Hand.
Japanese	納骨堂 (pron. nōkotsudō)			場の財宝カードを好きな枚数だけ(このカードの)脇に伏せて置く。(残りがある限り、)あなたの各ターンの開始時に、その中の1枚を手札に加える。
Russian	Склеп (pron. sklyep)

Trivia

Official card art.

Preview

Crypt is yet another Night-Duration card. But unlike most Duration cards, Crypt may stay in play for several turns, providing you with an ongoing benefit. When you play a Crypt, you set aside any number of Treasure cards you have in play, and you get to put one back into your hand as an extra card at the start of each of your turns until they run out. It’s like you got to use each Treasure twice!

Often you’ll just set aside all the Treasures you have in play, but probably not every time. Maybe you’ll play two Crypts in the same turn and want to split your Treasures between them, or maybe you just won’t want to have all of your Treasures trapped in a Crypt. Or perhaps you might prefer them to sit in your Crypt for as long as possible! You won’t have to draw those Coppers for a while.

—LastFootnote, Nocturne Bonus Preview #1: Crypt

Secret History

A late card, though the set had a history of Night cards that imitated Scheme. There was a card that put all copies of one card onto your deck, then one that put any two cards on your deck. Then I tried saving a treasure for next turn as resources on a Night card with other stuff going on, then made it its own card. Finally I hit on letting you go nuts with it.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, The Secret History of Dominion: Nocturne