Governor
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* You cannot trash a Governor you played to itself, as it is no longer in your hand when you play it (though you can trash another copy of Governor from your hand). | * You cannot trash a Governor you played to itself, as it is no longer in your hand when you play it (though you can trash another copy of Governor from your hand). | ||
=== Other Rules clarifications === | === Other Rules clarifications === | ||
− | * If you play this with {{Event|Way of the Chameleon}} and choose the first option, you get +{{Cost | + | * If you play this with {{Event|Way of the Chameleon}} and choose the first option, you get +{{Cost|3}}, and each other player gets +1 Card. |
== Strategy Article == | == Strategy Article == |
Revision as of 03:51, 21 March 2021
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Governor | |
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Info | |
Cost | |
Type(s) | Action |
Kingdom card? | Yes |
Set | Promo |
Illustrator(s) | Harald Lieske |
Card text | |
+1 Action Choose one; you get the version in parentheses: Each player gets +1 (+3) Cards; or each player gains a Silver (Gold); or each player may trash a card from their hand and gain a card costing exactly () more. |
Governor is a promotional Action card. It can be a remodeler, a gainer, or a Laboratory variant—it gives you three options, each of which gives you an extremely powerful benefit and gives your opponent a smaller version of the benefit.
Contents |
FAQ
Official FAQ
- You always get +1 Action.
- Then you either
- Go in turn order, starting with yourself; this may matter if piles are low.
- The gained cards come from the Supply and are put into discard piles; if there are none left, those cards are not gained. For example if you choose the second option and there is only one Silver in the Supply, the player to your left gets it and no-one else gets one.
- For the third option, you only gain a card if you trashed a card, and only if there is a card available in the Supply with the exact cost required.
- If you do trash a card, you must gain a card if you can.
- You cannot trash a Governor you played to itself, as it is no longer in your hand when you play it (though you can trash another copy of Governor from your hand).
Other Rules clarifications
- If you play this with Way of the Chameleon and choose the first option, you get +, and each other player gets +1 Card.
Strategy Article
original article by Robz888
Governor should be called Jack-of-All-Trades, because it does so many different things for you. (And Jack should be called Governor, because it exerts dictatorial control over your deck.) As the most interactive card in Dominion, Governor presents a fundamental challenge: How do I make this card benefit me more than my opponent? Note that the dilemma doesn’t make Governor bad; in fact, it’s a powerful and versatile card that rarely gets ignored. But if you’re not careful about your choices, you will undoubtedly help your opponent more than you help yourself.
Governor is one of those self-synergy cards - indeed, it does basically everything you could want from a card, except attack your opponents - so you typically want as many of them as possible. Governor is seldom passed up entirely, but there are a couple of cards that you would want before your first Governor. These include the cursers, and maybe something like Haggler, so you can buy Gold and gain Governors.
But once you’ve gotten mandatory purchases like Witch out of the way, you usually want lots and lots of Governors. More Governors mean more Gold, more draw, more remodeling, and ultimately, more Provinces.
There are 2 important things to keep in mind as you build your Governor deck: 1) Governor loves money but hates Copper, and 2) Governor is non-terminal in all its functions, so you can afford at least 1 strong terminal.
Clearing out Coppers is very important. Later on, Coppers will stand between your Governors and the Golds they want to Remodel, and all the extra Silvers from your opponent’s Governors means you will never lack cash, anyway. So Moneylender and Spice Merchant are great, because they rid your of Coppers without crippling your purchasing power--and you need to buy Governors fast. (Moneylender yields more net cash, but Spice Merchant moves through your deck faster and can serve as an important source of +Buy later, so they are both great.) And mass Copper trashers like Chapel are great (a / start with Governor and Chapel is basically as fast a game of Dominion as you could ever have), but a well-timed Mint is also excellent.
As for your terminal, it should obviously be a discarding Attack if one is available. You will also desperately want an extra +Buy to mitigate the risk of drawing a huge hand without any Governors.
It’s also worth keeping in mind that Governor works quite well with other cards that accomplish the same functions. Hoard can gain you Gold, and Laboratory and Stables can give you draw. Of course, these things compete at the same price level as Governor, and you don’t really want them unless the Governors are out, and if the Governors are out, it’s almost certainly about time to Green, so the window of opportunity there is slim. However, Governor goes very well with other cards that accomplish its remodel function, namely Remodel and Expand. (And later, if your opponent uses the trashing ability, these 2 cards are conveniently priced to convert into victory points for you).
So when do you do what? Let’s look at Governor’s 3 different functions.
You Get a Gold; Your Opponent Gets a Silver
When you first begin acquiring Governors, this is the first thing you should do with them. Governor decks want to be brimming with Gold so that later you can remodel a bunch of them into Provinces all at once. The Silvers will boost your opponent’s purchasing power, but they also get in his way if he is trying to build a low-treasure engine. Of course, given the availability of Governor, trying to construct a low-treasure engine is probably a losing move anyway. In all likelihood, your opponent is also pursuing Governors (and giving you a fair amount of Silver, too), in which case the free Silvers are mostly a welcome addition to the deck, but will get in the way of connecting Governors and Gold.
How much Gold do you want? It depends, but remember - ideal play would be turning each and every one of them into a Province, and using any leftovers to buy the last Province or a Duchy. This means you are going to be using Governor to gain a Gold at least 4 times, but probably (hopefully) more. This is one of many reasons why you will want as many Governors as you can get your hands on.
You Get +3 Cards; Your Opponent Gets +1 Card
Here is where most Governor-related mistakes are made. Remember that Council Room, which also gives your opponent +1 Card, is a decent-ish , rather than a great . Using multiple Governors for multiple cards is even more worrisome, because though you may make good use of your huge hand, your opponent also has a huge hand to make use of - and he got his for free. Wharf is the best non-Attack precisely because you get to start your next turn with 2 extra cards. With Governor, you can accomplish that for your opponent by default. In fact, the +cards function of Governor is where the relative benefit to your opponent is undoubtedly greatest.
Thankfully, there are ways to mitigate this benefit. If you intend to end the game (or have a good chance at it) by drawing cards, then your opponent will never actually reap the benefit. (And because of this, the final Governor turn is often a go-for-broke, all-or-nothing, end-the-game-or-die scenario.) But an easier way to fix this is to simply play a discard Attack at the end of your turn. Keep in mind that this doesn’t entirely solve the problem: Your opponent still gets to hold onto his best 3 cards out of however many you gave him, and if he’s smart, these will include a Governor and discarder of his own. But at least he doesn’t get to start with an 8-card hand.
Often times, you will find yourself betting on drawing the discarder with your Governor. This is one reason Governor is really a difficult card--it demands expert memory of what’s left in your deck. You might mitigate the risk here by doubling up on your discarder. You would do that anyway if it's Goons, but in the case of Militia, consider a second or third. Remember that the additional Silvers from your opponent's Governors will more speedily dilute your Action density.
Eventually, you want to play Governor for cards in order to draw many more Governors and Golds, and squeeze several Provinces out of your turn. And you do that by utilizing the final function of Governor.
Trash a Card and Gain a Card Costing Exactly More; Your Opponent Trashes a Card and Gains a Card Costing More
In the end, Governor is a fancy Remodel that goes to great lengths to put the cards you want to remodel into your hand. But if you’re using this function of Governor to do anything but gain Provinces, you are probably making a mistake. Trashing Coppers and Estates is a huge misuse of your Governors. You missed the opportunity to gain a Gold, and you gave your opponent a free trash. Early on, an exactly + trash is situationally better than an exactly + trash, because a + trash just kills Coppers outright, and turns Estates into Silver. Governor is an elite card. You insult it by using it to clear out your riffraff.
Using Governor to remodel Silvers into more Governors is a more sensible use of the power, so long as you have enough cash to buy another one without the Silver, or you didn’t have enough to buy one even with the Silver.
So what do you do with Governor’s remodel ability? Trash your Gold into Provinces, that’s what. The great thing here is that whereas you need and another buy to snag 2 Provinces, you only need 2 Governors and 2 Golds - or 1 Governor and , including at least 1 Gold - to make 2 Provinces. Border Villages and Hoards, but also Nobles, Harems, Farmlands, and Hunting Grounds are also good contenders for remodeling, given their availability. And your Silvers can become Duchies.
You need to watch out for your opponent’s s and s, though. Caravans, Farming Villages and Spies get turned into last minute Duchies. King's Courts and Expands (both cards that work extremely well in Governor decks) become Provinces. Fortunately, you trash before your opponent gets the option to do so, meaning if you can both get the last Province, you get it first.
Putting It All Together
Much of the difficulty of Governor arises from predicting when you need to go for Provinces. A strong enough Governor deck can grab 3 or even 4 Provinces in one fell swoop, or the last 2 Provinces and enough Duchies to end it. But you only want to give your opponent the benefit of a huge hand if he will never get to play it. The timing is tricky.
Let's say you’ve bought a bunch of Governors and gained a bunch of Gold; your opponent just snagged his first Province. Your hand is Governor-Gold-Silver-Silver-Copper (a decently likely hand). You could 1). Buy a Province and gain a Gold, 2). Remodel a Gold into a Province and buy a Duchy, 3). Draw for more cards.
If you choose the third option, you absolutely must draw another Governor, or a source of +buy. If you draw Gold-Gold-Estate, you have actually decreased your options since your starting hand - because you no longer have Governor - while boosting your opponent’s hand. This is why Governor strategies necessitate keeping careful track of what’s left in your deck. If you are unlikely to draw more Governors with more Gold, don’t bother hitting the card option.
It’s also critical to keep track of the score, because in a Governor game, the penultimate Province is certainly not the second-to-last Province. If you leave your opponent 2 Provinces, there is a good chance he can end the game.
When you either suspect it's the last turn or need to make it so in order to have a good chance of winning, go for broke. Use a Governor or 2 for plus cards. Hopefully, you will draw more Governors, some Gold, and some +buy. Take a minute and think about how to maximize your points: Perhaps you buy 2 Provinces and Governor a Silver into a Duchy.
There's one more special accomplice to Governor worth mentioning: Watchtower. Since you will be gaining a lot of Silvers and Golds, Watchtower can put them on your deck, and you can buy more Governors sooner. Governors can go on top of your deck, too. Watchtower gives a burst of speed to an already quick deck, and can give you the advantage in a Governor showdown.
It's worth mentioning that Governor is still strong in Colony games. The remodel function is weaker, because you won’t be gaining many Colonies, but the opportunity to grab a Province off a Gold here and there is nice. The Gold-gaining can keep your deck afloat, and the +card effect is arguably stronger for you than normal, because 1 extra card for your opponent is less likely to push him into Colony territory than into Province territory.
Lastly, if you want to build a typical action-draw deck with virtual money, Governor is not for you. But Governor is a strong enough card that its presence will render the vast majority of engine strategies obsolete. Besides, your opponent's Governors will really hurt you if you don't want treasure.
One more thing: Don't draw a / opening against your opponent's / opening if Governor is available. This is not the path to greatness.
Synergies/Combos
- Other Governors
- Gold
- Farmland
- Border Village
- Handsize attacks
- Watchtower
- Copper Trashers
- Possession (Give your opponent a giant hand first, then Possess him and remodel all his Gold into Provinces)
- Mission
Antisynergies
- Non-Treasure engines
- Your opponent's and cards
- Most alternate VP strategies, particularly Silk Road and Gardens (because the prices of these cards make them easier for your opponent to gain off your Governor remodels than vice versa)
Versions
English versions
Digital | Text | Release | Date | |
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+1 Action. Choose one; you get the version in parentheses: Each player gets +1 (+3) Cards; or each player gains a Silver (Gold); or each player may trash a card from his hand and gain a card costing exactly () more. | Governor 1st Edition | October 2011 | ||
+1 Action. Choose one; you get the version in parentheses: Each player gets +1 (+3) Cards; or each player gains a Silver (Gold); or each player may trash a card from their hand and gain a card costing exactly () more. | Governor 2nd Edition | February 2017 |
Other language versions
Trivia
Card Art
Secret History
Jay initially thought, well, Power Grid was coming on its 10th anniversary too, or at least the original German version was (Funkenschlag), so how about something that tied in with Power Grid. He wanted it to be a green card of course. And we sat down and talked with Friedemann Friese about what could possibly be done. It wasn't sounding great. The flavor for Power Grid is not medieval, and then there wasn't an obvious mechanical thing to do that connected the games.
I said, are there any other games with anniversaries coming up? And Jay said, as a matter of fact. Puerto Rico was also having an anniversary. And well simulating Puerto Rico on a Dominion card was easy; the only issue was making the text fit, which I cleverly managed via "you get the version in parentheses." So while the previous promos were expansion outtakes, this one is a new card.
The first version of the card had +1 Card +1 Action, with the first option only giving you +2 Cards, i.e. it worked out the same as now if you wanted the cards, but gave you an extra card if you picked one of the other two things. The idea had been, that the bonus the other players get does not involve them spending a card or using an action, so it would be easier to balance the card if it also didn't cost you a card or an action. But the three options were not sufficiently balanced; the Remodel was especially crazy. So now you still get the same total number of cards if you pick cards, but you don't get a free card with your Gold or Remodel.
Retrospective