Trader
(→FAQ: Created a separate unofficial FAQ for the new version to better reflect the functional changes to Trader.) |
(→FAQ: Official FAQ as advised by Donald X.) |
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'''Trader''' is an [[Action]]-[[Reaction]] card from [[Hinterlands]]. It allows you to replace any card you would gain with {{Card|Silver}}, and trash cards from your hand to gain more Silver. It is a particularly good defense against junking [[Attack|Attacks]] such as {{Card|Mountebank}} and {{Card|Ambassador}}, as you will gain a flood of Silver, instead of whatever junk they intended to give you. | '''Trader''' is an [[Action]]-[[Reaction]] card from [[Hinterlands]]. It allows you to replace any card you would gain with {{Card|Silver}}, and trash cards from your hand to gain more Silver. It is a particularly good defense against junking [[Attack|Attacks]] such as {{Card|Mountebank}} and {{Card|Ambassador}}, as you will gain a flood of Silver, instead of whatever junk they intended to give you. | ||
== FAQ == | == FAQ == | ||
− | === | + | === Official FAQ === |
− | * When you play this, trash a card from your hand, and if you did, gain a number of {{Card|Silver|Silvers}} equal to the cost of that card in {{Cost}}. | + | * When you play this, trash a card from your hand, and if you did, gain a number of {{Card|Silver|Silvers}} equal to the [[cost]] of that card in {{Cost}}. |
− | * The Silvers come from the [[Supply]] and are put into your discard pile. | + | ** The {{Card|Silver|Silvers}} come from the [[Supply]] and are put into your discard pile. |
− | * You only gain Silvers if you trashed a card. | + | ** You only gain {{Card|Silver|Silvers}} if you trashed a card. |
− | * If you trash a card costing {{Cost|0}}, such as | + | ** If you trash a card costing {{Cost|0}}, such as Copper, you will gain zero {{Card|Silver|Silvers}}. |
− | * You can trash Silver if you want; you will gain three Silvers for it normally. | + | ** You can trash {{Card|Silver}} if you want; you will gain three {{Card|Silver|Silvers}} for it normally. |
− | * If costs are different, such as due to playing {{Card|Highway}}, then Trader will give you a different number of Silvers, based on the current costs. | + | ** If costs are different, such as due to playing {{Card|Highway}}, then Trader will give you a different number of {{Card|Silver|Silvers}}, based on the current costs. |
− | * For example if you play Highway and then Trader, trashing an {{Card|Estate}}, you will only gain one Silver. | + | ** For example if you play {{Card|Highway}} and then Trader, trashing an {{Card|Estate}}, you will only gain one {{Card|Silver}}. |
− | * If you trash a card | + | ** If you trash a card with {{Cost|P}} or {{Debt}} in its cost, you do not get anything for the {{Cost|P}} or {{Debt}}, just for the {{Cost}} that the card cost. |
− | * Trader is also a Reaction. | + | * Trader is also a Reaction. |
− | * When you gain a card, whether due to buying it or gaining it some other way, you may reveal Trader from your hand to [[exchange]] the gained card for a Silver | + | ** When you gain a card, whether due to buying it or gaining it some other way, you may reveal Trader from your hand to [[exchange]] the gained card for a {{Card|Silver}}. |
− | * | + | ** You return the gained card to its pile (whether in the Supply or not), and take a {{Card|Silver}} and put it into your discard pile. |
− | * | + | ** You still "gained" the card you gained (and not the {{Card|Silver}}), for effects that care about gaining a card; for example you could gain {{Card|Cache}}, use Trader to exchange it for a {{Card|Silver}}, then gain two {{Card|Copper|Coppers} due to {{Card|Cache}}'s ability, and use Trader on both of them, exchanging them for {{Card|Silver|Silvers}}. |
− | + | ** You can only exchange if both cards are available to be exchanged; you have to be able to return the gained card to its pile (only possible if it came from a pile), and you have to be able to take the {{Card|Silver}}. | |
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=== Official FAQ for prior version === | === Official FAQ for prior version === |
Revision as of 17:12, 28 May 2021
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Trader | |
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Info | |
Cost | |
Type(s) | Action - Reaction |
Kingdom card? | Yes |
Set | Hinterlands |
Illustrator(s) | Lorraine Schleter |
Card text | |
Trash a card from your hand. Gain a Silver per it costs. When you gain a card, you may reveal this from your hand, to exchange the card for a Silver. |
Trader is an Action-Reaction card from Hinterlands. It allows you to replace any card you would gain with Silver, and trash cards from your hand to gain more Silver. It is a particularly good defense against junking Attacks such as Mountebank and Ambassador, as you will gain a flood of Silver, instead of whatever junk they intended to give you.
Contents |
FAQ
Official FAQ
- When you play this, trash a card from your hand, and if you did, gain a number of Silvers equal to the cost of that card in .
- The Silvers come from the Supply and are put into your discard pile.
- You only gain Silvers if you trashed a card.
- If you trash a card costing , such as Copper, you will gain zero Silvers.
- You can trash Silver if you want; you will gain three Silvers for it normally.
- If costs are different, such as due to playing Highway, then Trader will give you a different number of Silvers, based on the current costs.
- For example if you play Highway and then Trader, trashing an Estate, you will only gain one Silver.
- If you trash a card with or in its cost, you do not get anything for the or , just for the that the card cost.
- Trader is also a Reaction.
- When you gain a card, whether due to buying it or gaining it some other way, you may reveal Trader from your hand to exchange the gained card for a Silver.
- You return the gained card to its pile (whether in the Supply or not), and take a Silver and put it into your discard pile.
- You still "gained" the card you gained (and not the Silver), for effects that care about gaining a card; for example you could gain Cache, use Trader to exchange it for a Silver, then gain two {{Card|Copper|Coppers} due to Cache's ability, and use Trader on both of them, exchanging them for Silvers.
- You can only exchange if both cards are available to be exchanged; you have to be able to return the gained card to its pile (only possible if it came from a pile), and you have to be able to take the Silver.
Official FAQ for prior version
- When you play this, trash a card from your hand, and if you did, gain a number of Silvers equal to the cost of that card in .
- The Silvers come from the Supply and are put into your discard pile.
- You only gain Silvers if you trashed a card.
- If you trash a card costing , such as Copper, you will gain zero Silvers.
- You can trash Silver if you want; you will gain three Silvers for it normally.
- If costs are different, such as due to playing Highway, then Trader will give you a different number of Silvers, based on the current costs.
- For example if you play Highway and then Trader, trashing an Estate, you will only gain one Silver.
- If you trash a card with Dominion: Alchemy, you do not get anything for the , just for the that the card cost. in its cost, from
- Trader is also a Reaction.
- When you gain a card, whether due to buying it or gaining it some other way, you may reveal Trader from your hand to instead gain a Silver from the Supply.
- If you do this, you gain a Silver, not the card you would have gained; if something would have happened due to gaining the other card, it does not happen, because you did not gain it.
- For example if you buy Ill-Gotten Gains but use Trader to gain Silver instead, no-one will gain a Curse.
- However if something happens when you buy a card, that will still happen if you replace gaining the card with gaining Silver.
- For example you can buy Farmland, trash a card from your hand and gain one costing more, then use Trader to gain Silver rather than Farmland.
- If the card you were going to gain was not going to your discard pile, the Silver still goes to your discard pile; if the card you were going to gain did not come from the Supply, the Silver still comes from the Supply.
- If there are no Silvers left in the Supply, you can still reveal Trader when you gain a card and gain nothing instead of the card you would have gained.
- If you are told to gain a card that has no copies left, you cannot use Trader to instead gain a Silver.
Other rules clarifications for prior version
- If you use Ironworks to try to gain a card, but reveal Trader to gain a Silver instead, the Ironworks does not give you any bonus(es) for the card you didn't actually gain. The same logic applies to a number of cards: see the Blue dog rule.
Strategy Article
Originally posted by DrFlux in the forum
Trader is a strange card. Typically trashers are most useful in engine decks, where getting rid of Estates and Coppers will lead to drawing your combo pieces together. However, Trader is somewhere between mediocre and awful in these cases, as it only trashes one card, and the Silvers you gain can be nearly as unwanted. Trader should NOT be thought of as a trasher, but as a way to flood your deck with Silver. Who wants tons of Silver? Money decks and only money decks.
The obvious place to use Trader is in Cursing games, as it is a clear case of a reaction that can actively punish your opponent for their cruel ways. It is important to realize that if you are attempting to beat Cursers with trader, that flooding your deck with Silver can be as important as the reaction ability. This leads to the second use of Trader, which is in slow Alt-VP games, particularly Feodum, Duke, or Gardens.
Feodum/Trader is an obvious synergy - buy two or three Traders on early turns, and then try to trash Estates, Silvers, Traders and maybe a Gold or even a Province to flood your deck with Silvers while buying ultra-powered Feodums. Its important to note that Terminal collision is not a big problem, as you can trash Trader to Trader. Since all you need is two Silvers or a Silver and two Coppers to buy Feodum, you should be golden. Trashing a Feodum with Trader gives 7(!) Silvers, which is something to keep in mind.
Duke/Trader plays similarly, and about as well as Duke/Horse Traders. You may want to buy and then trash an early Gold or even a Province to flood your deck with Silvers, so that all that Victory chaff doesn't matter. It's a little harder to reach than , but only by a copper.
The final case where Trader can shine is with cards that give on-buy benefit, such as Farmland, Noble Brigand, etc. Its important to note that unlike more flexible "trash for benefit" options like Remodel, you have to actually WANT lots of Silver for this to be worthwhile.
It is difficult to provide stats on Trader, as the simulators do not model it well AT ALL, as it is difficult to play correctly. Sometimes you want to trash Silver or Gold early to build up more Silver, but when to skip this in order to buy something expensive is case dependent.
For this reason it is difficult to rank how different strategies rate against Trader. Trader-only strategies beat Sea Hag and Familiar consistently, as both of those cards are slow and provide little other benefit than cursing. With the strongest cursers -- Witch and Mountebank, the games are a close slog, and I suspect Trader-Silver leading into eventually 2 cursers may be optimal. Interestingly, Trader's silver gaining ability dilutes the density of the Traders themselves, making sneaking curses in easier than one might expect. Try to track your opponents Traders - if its turn five and they haven't played it, you may want to skip playing your Mountebank if you can afford it. This is even more true with Ill-Gotten Gains/Trader boards, where you will typically want to buy something other than IGG if your opponent may have a Trader. IGG/Trader is very good for similar reasons as Duke/Trader. Here is a good example of a game featuring all three, and me trying to dance around my opponents Trader http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20120302-160726-afbde46f.html. In general, Trader loves Duchies, and you can start buying them earlier than usual because of all that silver. Conversely, Trader hates Colonies, as it dilutes the density of those Golds and Platinums that you need to buy your Colonies.
The final use of Trader is in Big Money without any curses or interesting green cards. In this case it works like a much weaker Jack of all Trades, trashing your Estates and giving you silver, but not providing you the full 5 cards that Jack gives you to work with. For this reason, it is rarely the strongest BM option. Trader-Silver into a draw card like Smithy is passable but swingy, as you really need to draw Estates with your trader for it to be a worthwhile purchase.
This brings us to my biggest discovery during writing this article. Opening Trader+Courtyard is awesome. Much better than Courtyard alone. Courtyard allows you to match up your Trader with your Estates much more consistently, and its nice to be able to buy an extra Courtyard if you have left after Trader-ing. Playing solitaire, it can consistently get 4 Provinces in 12-13 turns, with a lot of staying power due to all the Silver in the deck. Courtyard-Jack works in a similar way and produces similar results, but you already knew Jack was good.
Other little combos with Trader include things that give you more Copper, or more buys. Margrave+Trader is passable, as you can use your extra buy to get a Silver in the case of terminal collision. It gets 4 provinces in about 15 turns, with a lot of variance, mostly due to Trader hooking up with Estates or not. Cache can be good if you are lucky enough to get Trader+. Finally, Wishing Well can help you get Trader+Estate, and can be very likely to pick up extra Silver later. Most of these last tricks are probably not enough to make you want to go Trader by themselves, but you should keep your eye out for them if other conditions are good for Trader.
As a final note, rare occasions do occur where you have an engine and are drawing your deck consistently, but you need more money. You risk killing your combo in the long term, but you can use Trader to provide yourself with a lot of money quickly, either with multiple buys or trashing.
Synergies/Combos
- Courtyard
- Cursing Games (especially slow ones like Familiar)
- Ill-Gotten Gains
- Alternate Victory Cards (especially Feodum, Duke and Gardens)
- Cards with on-gain benefits you might not need anymore (Border Village, Inn)
- Cache, Beggar, Wishing Well, Margrave, and extra buys in general
Antisynergies
- Engine Games
- Games where you need a "key" card like Tournament
- Stronger Big Money Options
- Colony games
Versions
English versions
Digital | Text | Release | Date | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Trash a card from your hand. Gain a number of Silvers equal to its cost in coins. When you would gain a card, you may reveal this from your hand. If you do, instead, gain a Silver. |
Hinterlands 1st Edition | October 2011 | ||
Trash a card from your hand. Gain a Silver per it costs. When you would gain a card, you may reveal this from your hand, to instead gain a Silver. |
Hinterlands 2nd Edition | December 2016 | ||
Trader 2020 Version from Shuffle iT | Trash a card from your hand. Gain a Silver per it costs. When you gain a card, you may reveal this from your hand, to exchange the card for a Silver. |
Hinterlands (2020 printing) | October 2020 |
Other language versions
Trivia
Theme
Preview
Secret History
Original wording development