Villa

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Villa
Info
Cost
Type(s)	Action
Kingdom card?	Yes
Set	Empires
Illustrator(s)	Harald Lieske
Card text
+2 Actions +1 Buy + When you gain this, put it into your hand, +1 Action, and if it's your Buy phase return to your Action phase.

Villa is an Action card from Empires. It is a village that allows you to use it immediately when you gain it, even returning to your Action phase from your Buy phase, which can allow for some trick moves. Its actual effect is relatively weak for a village of its cost, however—it gives +Buy and +, but does not draw—so gaining too many of these just for their on-gain shenanigans could weaken your deck overall without substantial sources of +Cards.

FAQ

Official FAQ

• If you gain this during your Action phase, such as with Engineer, you will put the Villa into your hand and get +1 Action (letting you, for example, play the Villa).
• If you gain this during your Buy phase (such as by buying it), you will put the Villa into your hand, get +1 Action, and return to your Action phase.
• This will let you play more Action cards (such as the Villa); when you are done with that you will return to your Buy phase, from the beginning - you can play more Treasures (and Arena will trigger again).
• If you buy Villa, that uses up your default Buy for the turn, however playing Villa will give you +1 Buy and so let you buy another card in your second Buy phase.
• If you gain this during another player's turn, you will put the Villa into your hand and get +1 Action, but will have no way to use that Action, since it is not your turn.
• It is possible to return to your Action phase multiple times in a turn via buying multiple Villas.
• Returning to your Action phase does not cause "start of turn" abilities to repeat; they only happen at the start of your turn.

Other Rules clarifications

• Villa visits the discard pile before being put in your hand. This means that when you gain it with a card like Artificer (which changes gain location), Villa will visit the top of your deck before going into your hand.
• If you gain a Villa while under a Gatekeeper, you can choose to put Villa into your hand first; if you do, Gatekeeper will fail to exile Villa.
• If Villa can't put itself into your hand, you still get +1 Action, and you still return to your Buy phase.
• Because Replace and Summon try to move Villa after it is gained and put into your hand, they will fail to move the card again.
• If you buy a Villa, then don't play it, it is possible to enter the Buy phase with 0 Buys. You may play treasures, but unless your treasures give +1 Buy, you won't be able to buy anything.
• Villa only returns you to your Action phase if gained in your Buy phase. If you gain it at Night with e.g. Devil's Workshop, it still goes to your hand, but you can't play it.
• Gaining a Villa during your Buy phase does not "end" your Buy phase in a technical sense; this means you cannot discard Wine Merchants from your Tavern mat, and you can't pay to Pageant.

Strategy

There isn't a strategy article for Villa yet.

An important thing to keep in mind with Villas is that they can be bought relatively late. Since you can use Villas as soon as you gain them, a useful move is to wait until you have two terminal Actions in the same hand—then you can play one of them, buy Villa, and play the other, getting the Villa just when you need it instead of having to set it up in advance.

Synergies

• A Draw to X card, such as Jack of all Trades, Watchtower, Cursed Village, or Library allows you to play all treasures, buy Villa, and effectively have a new hand.
• Buying Villas can be a Double Tactician enabler.
• Gainers such as Workshop, and the Event Alms, allow you to gain a Villa without spending any money, effectively giving you a free +.
• Price reduction such as Bridge or Highway can enable Villa to act as a free + combo, allowing you to potentially empty the Villa pile and gain up to virtual coins in exchange for adding a mess of Villas to your deck
• With Way of the Butterfly, you can immediately exchange a just-gained Villa for a card, enabling early and frequent access to cards.

Antisynergies

• Haunted Woods makes you lose your cards in hand when you buy a Villa.
• Devil's Workshop

Versions

English versions

Print	Digital	Text	Release	Date
		+2 Actions. +1 Buy +. When you gain this, put it into your hand, +1 Action, and if it's your Buy phase return to your Action phase.	Empires	June 2016

Other language versions

Language	Name	Print	Digital	Text
Dutch	Villa
Finnish	Huvila
French	Villa
German	Villa			+ 2 Aktionen + 1 Kauf + Wenn du diese Karte nimmst: Nimm sie auf die Hand sowie + 1 Aktion. Wenn du in deiner Kaufphase bist, kehre zur Aktionsphase zurück.
Japanese	ヴィラ (pron. vira)			+2 アクション。+1 購入。+。これを獲得するとき、手札に加え、+1 アクション、あなたの購入フェイズ中の場合、アクションフェイズに戻る。
Polish	Willa
Russian	Вилла (pron. villa)

Trivia

Official card art.

Preview

It happens to the best of us. You play that Smithy with no action left, thinking "what could possibly go wrong?" and curse your rotten luck when two Action cards pop into your hand. "If only I could turn back time," you say. Well, buckle your seatbelt because where we're going, we don't need Villages. A Villa will do nicely enough.

Villa is a brand new type of Village to populate your empire with. The natives are restless, and they simply don't want your turns to end. Maybe the other players do, but you don't care; you're impressing them with your fancy action chain. Aside from being able to continue your turn, you of course gain the Villa itself, and maybe you needed one of those. I'm not judging. With Villa, the possibilities are endless. Or perhaps only tenfold, as the pile has to empty at some point.

As long as there are Villas left in the pile, you always have that shot at continuing your turn. And you can do it more than once in the same turn! Wow! The rulebook can't actually cover all possible turn order acronyms now. ABCD... ABABACD... ABABABABABABABCD... the list goes on, and that would have been valuable ink. Of course, as an emperor, you've begun to develop some higher-order critical thinking skills. I'm sure you can come up with your own mnemonic devices, or defer to your Mnemonic Advisor.

—jsh357, Empires Bonus Preview #1: Villa

Secret History

Originally this just gave +1 Buy when you bought it. One day I thought of having a card that let you play an Action when you bought it, and after a few quick iterations it landed here, as the Village you buy to help out that same turn. For a while it was played when you bought it, but that has some tricky interactions, which were resolved by putting it into your hand instead, and giving you +1 Action to play it with.

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

Further development history

Villa got nerfed, then returned to its pre-nerfed form. The nerf being, only the first Villa each turn sent you back to the action phase. I think it was more like, I nerfed it because of the ability to run out the pile instantly, and people missed the old version. It goes back to Furrier - a in Hinterlands that said "when you buy this, +1 buy." Some people hated that you could play two Highways and empty the pile. Other people found it funny. It wasn't funny enough for how hated it was. I was worried about that for Villa and then stopped worrying about it.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Dominion Discord, 2019

Other thoughts by Donald X.

To me, Villa is that card that was some people's favorite Dominion card ever, that was nothing but endless good times; and Crown is that card people adored despite it mostly being Throne Room, that never caused any confusion whatsoever. And they were both novel, which people love. I have no interest in making expansions that are all cards that already exist; no-one needs them. If those two adored cards that never messed up our games are too gimmicky or complex then I mean there's no possibility for making more expansions. I desperately need cards just like those cards, every time out, for there to be any point to the products.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Empires Bonus Preview #2: Crown