Changeling

Changeling
Info
Cost
Type(s)	Night
Kingdom card?	Yes
Set	Nocturne
Illustrator(s)	Jason Slavin
Card text
Trash this. Gain a copy of a card you have in play. In games using this, when you gain a card costing or more, you may exchange it for a Changeling.

Changeling is a Night card from Nocturne. It's a one-shot gainer that copies any card that you have in play, making it one of the few gainers in the game with no cost or type restriction. It also has an ability that lets you swap any card you gain (that costs more than ) for a Changeling; this can let you avoid expensive junk (like Rats or a Silver from an opponent's Governor), or get the on-gain effect of a card without taking the card itself.

FAQ

Official FAQ

• When Changeling is in the Supply, any time you gain a card costing at least , you may exchange it for a Changeling from the Supply.
• You can only do this if you can actually return the card you gained, and there is at least one Changeling in the Supply.
• The Changeling goes to your discard pile, no matter where the gained card went.
• Things that happen due to gaining the gained card still happen.
• So for example you could gain Skulk, exchange it for a Changeling (returning Skulk to the Supply and putting Changeling into your discard pile), and still gain a Gold from Skulk's ability.
• Exchanging for a Changeling is optional.
• You cannot do it if the gained card costs less than , even if it normally costs or more, and you cannot do it if the cost is neither more or less than (such as Transmute from Alchemy).
• When you play Changeling, you trash it and gain a copy of a card you have in play; that can be any card you have in play, including Actions, Treasures, and Night cards, and including Duration cards you played on a previous turn that are still in play.

Other rules clarifications

• Changeling cannot gain a copy of Changeling, since it is not in play when the effect happens - it's either in the trash (in normal turn) or set aside (when played in a Possessed turn).
• Changeling can gain only Supply cards - for example it cannot gain an Imp, any Traveller upgrades, etc.
• Changeling cannot gain cards that are not available - for example it cannot gain any of Knights (since all Knights are different), a Ruins when the Ruins card you have in play is not the same as the top card on the Ruins pile, a card from a split pile when it is covered by the other card from that pile (like Plunder, when it is covered by Encampment), etc.
• You can choose any card you have in play, but if that card's pile is empty, or its name does not match the name of the top card on that pile, or that card's pile is not in the Supply, or that card has no pile, you gain nothing.
• You can exchange for Changeling when gaining non-Supply cards, as long as they come from a pile, such as Ghost, and the more expensive Traveller upgrades. You cannot exchange for non-Supply cards that do not have an associated pile, such as the Zombies.
• Remember that you can choose the order in which simultaneous effects happen. When you gain a card that either gains other cards (like Skulk above) or moves itself (like Villa), and you allow that gaining or moving effect to happen first, Changeling will lose track of the card and not be able to exchange with it. If you want to exchange, make sure you do that first.

Strategy

Synergies

• Cards that enable you to receive a supply of Changelings (typically from Silver) include: Bureaucrat, Explorer, Trader, Jack of All Trades, Rats, Beggar, Masterpiece and your opponents' Embassy. Be reminded that other cards such as Port, Tunnel and Market Square typically allow you to gain a card that would be far more useful than Changelings, often Gold, which itself would be a target for Changelings.
• Events you can buy a large quantity of Silver can instead allow you to receive a large supply of Changelings include: Delve and Conquest.
• Cards that have an on-buy or on-gain effect that you would then rather swap out for Changeling include: Farmland, Ill-Gotten Gains, Cemetery and Skulk.
• Changeling targets require you to have at least one copy already in play, but if you can line them up with your Changelings, it would transform the otherwise less useful card you had gained, such as Silver, with a more useful card. Target swap-outs for Changelings include: high-value Action cards such as Hunting Grounds, Royal Blacksmith (bypassing the debt requirement); Treasures such as Fortune (bypassing the debt requirement), Gold and Platinum; playable alt-VP cards such as Harem, Nobles (often a worthy late-game consideration); and powerful Night cards such as Raider.
• Changeling shines in longer games that require strong engines for lining up cards, and allows you to gain additional engine components. For this reason, it may be a reasonable pick-up in Platinum/Colony games.

Antisynergies

• Changelings require lining up your Changeling with other useful cards for a good swap-out, which means that junking attacks or the absence of good draw support will make it challenging to do so.
• Changelings also require good Kingdom cards present for a good swap-out; often, this is not the case, making Changelings a highly situational card.

Versions

English versions

Print	Digital	Text	Release	Date
		Trash this. Gain a copy of a card you have in play. In games using this, when you gain a card costing or more, you may exchange it for a Changeling.	Nocturne	November 2017

Other language versions

Language	Name	Print	Digital	Text
French	Changelin
German	Wechselbalg
Japanese	取り替え子 (pron. torikaeko)			これを廃棄すろ。場のカード1枚と同じカード1枚を獲得する。取り替え子を使用するゲームで、コスト以上のカード1枚を獲得するとき、それを取り替え子と交換してもよい。
Russian	Подменыш (pron. podmyenysh)

Trivia

Official card art.

Secret History

For a while this was just the top, a sleek simple classic card. We liked it but Matt's group not so much. I tried putting the gained card on your deck, but I like to go light on that as it's easy to forget and a more complex concept. Then I thought of the bottom as a way to hit the flavor harder; your Skulk is swapped at birth for a Changeling.

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

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