Young Witch

Young Witch
Info
Cost
Type(s)	Action - Attack
Kingdom card?	Yes
Set	Cornucopia & Guilds
Illustrator(s)	Jessica Cox
Card text
+2 Cards Discard 2 cards. Each other player may reveal a Bane card from his hand. If he doesn't, he gains a Curse. Setup: Add an extra Kingdom card pile costing or to the Supply. Cards from that pile are Bane cards.

Young Witch is an Action–Attack card from Cornucopia. As an inexpensive curser, it can be a very powerful opening. However, Young Witch always has a Bane card: another Kingdom card that an opponent can reveal from their hand to block the cursing attack. The Bane may be different each game, and therefore the value of Young Witch in any given game depends a great deal on which card is the Bane: if it is a card like Fishing Village or Lighthouse that opponents can buy large numbers of without sacrificing much deck effectiveness, Young Witch becomes much less useful.

The bane card is an 11th card added to the Kingdom, and constitutes the only way that the supply can contain more than 10 Kingdom card piles. In this way Young Witch participates in the Cornucopia theme of diversity, since its presence increases the number of differently-named cards in the supply.

FAQ

Official FAQ

• This card causes there to be an extra pile in the Supply, called the Bane pile; see Preparation. The extra pile is just like other Kingdom card piles--it can be bought, it can be gained via cards like Horn of Plenty, it counts for the end game condition.
• When you play Young Witch, after you draw 2 cards and discard 2 cards, each other player may reveal a Bane card from his hand; if he does not, he gains a Curse.
• This attack hits other players in turn order, which matters when the Curse pile is low. Players may still respond to a Young Witch with Reaction cards like Horse Traders or Moat (from Dominion); those happen before Bane cards are revealed.
• If Secret Chamber (from Dominion: Intrigue) is the Bane card, first you can reveal it for its Reaction ability, and then, if it's still in your hand, you can reveal it to avoid getting a Curse.

Other Rules clarifications

• Remember to go through the card in order. When you play a Young Witch, FIRST all other players have a chance to reveal any reactions that say "when somebody plays an attack..." Then you draw two cards and discard two cards; then all other players have to reveal the Bane or gain a curse. The important thing is that all reactions have to be revealed before the Bane is revealed. This means that if the Bane is itself a Reaction that leaves your hand when you use its ability (such as Beggar or Caravan Guard), you cannot both use its Reaction effect and block Young Witch; you must pick one.
• If Young Witch is in the Black Market deck, you do put out a Bane; however, Black Market itself cannot be the Bane in that instance.

Strategy Article

See here for a Young Witch strategy article.

As a curser, Young Witch is often an amazing opening. However, the power of Young Witch depends greatly on the Bane. In the extreme case, Scheme can make the Young Witch never hit at all, returning itself to the top of the deck every turn; cantrip Banes are also very strong, since they can be bought en masse with impunity. Terminals typically make for weak Banes, since they can collide with each other and with Young Witch.

Synergies/Combos

• Young Witch is a top-tier Tunnel enabler, since it provides a little bit of sifting, can discard Tunnels, and is even a strong attack.

Antisynergies

• cantrip Bane cards, especially Scheme.
• Nonterminal Bane cards which you nevertheless want many of, like Lighthouse or Fishing Village

Alternate versions

• 
  Digital version for Dominion Online
• 
  German Version by HiG

Trivia

Official card art.

In other languages

• Czech: Mladá čarodějka
• Dutch: Jonge heks
• Finnish: Nuori noita
• French: Jeune sorcière
• German: Junge Hexe
• Italian: Giovane Strega
• Japanese: 魔女娘 (pron. majo musume, lit. witch's daughter)
• Polish: Młoda Wiedźma
• Spanish: Bruja Joven

Secret History

When I decided to do a Black Market, I also decided to make a card that added a pile. I had also been wanting to have a card that you could Moat with a particular random pile, and the easiest way to specify it was to combine the concepts. At first the extra pile had to cost exactly; it can also cost because that adds some variety there, especially when not playing with lots of sets. That change was jeffwolfe's suggestion. At first the Young Witch "grew up" - she got better once there was an empty pile. That was cute, and some people were sad to see it go, but that version wasn't good enough, and there's only so much space on these cards. She is just always young. Not as good at drawing cards as an adult Witch, and also scared of something - maybe Cellars, or Menageries. *shiver* There was some debate as to how to indicate what the Bane pile was - did we need a mat or what. It was Jay who suggested using the randomizer card turned sideways.

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