Library

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Library
Info
Cost
Type(s)	Action
Kingdom card?	Yes
Set	Base
Illustrator(s)	Harald Lieske
Card text
Draw until you have 7 cards in hand, skipping any Action cards you choose to; set those aside, discarding them afterwards.

Library is an Action card from the Base set. It is a terminal draw card, meaning it provides +Cards but no +Action. Its ability to set aside Action cards means that it is unlikely to draw cards dead, which makes it a little safer than Smithy. However, since it draws up to 7 cards instead of drawing a fixed number of cards, it is great with cards like Cellar and Festival which decrease your handsize for a benefit. It is also a good counter to handsize attacks like Militia.

FAQ

Official FAQ

• You look at cards one at a time, putting each one into your hand or setting it aside, until you have 7 cards in hand; then you discard the set aside cards.
• If you shuffle in the middle of doing this, you do not shuffle in the set aside cards.
• Only Action cards can be set aside. You are not forced to set aside Action cards; that is just an option.
• If you already have 7 cards in hand to start, you do not draw any cards.

Other rules clarifications

• If you have more than 7 cards in hand, you don't draw anything.
• If you have 6 or fewer cards in hand and your –1 Card token is on your deck, you remove the token, even if you have no cards in your deck and/or discard pile. Assuming there are enough cards in your deck to do so, you still draw until you have 7 cards.

Strategy Article

Original article by theory

Library is one of the most unusual of the +Cards Actions. Because you don’t draw a set number of cards, but rather up to 7, it responds poorly to Throne Room but does quite well with small hands (normally a drawback). Preferably, you get your small hand through disappearing +2 Actions cards (Festival, University); indeed, the synergy between Festival and Library are so strong that when Donald X. moved Festival into the base set, he pulled Library in with it as well to keep them together. It’s theoretically true that Library works well with Outpost, but the chance of drawing a +Actions with it in the 3-card hand is pretty small unless you’re Havening cards between hands.

Alternatively, Library is a fundamental “soft counter” to handsize-decreasing cards like Militia and Torturer. (In fact, its presence is often a strong deterrent to playing Militia, since it’s even better of a counter than Moat.) Library can also be used effectively with discard-for-benefit cards (Vault, Secret Chamber, even Haven), if you have enough +Actions to play it all: discard your cards, then redraw with the Library. And it’s possible — though unlikely — to use Golem for this purpose (ideally by drawing Tactician/Library).

Its benefit of setting Action cards aside is a little less useful than it seems. Obviously it’s of most use when your deck is cluttered with terminal Actions … but then your deck is cluttered with terminal Actions. It’s more often better used as a way to discard the outmoded opening Actions (e.g., Chapel, Moneylender), or as part of an endgame desperate draw, hoping to get up to . (Special note: often you’ll want to set aside useless non-terminals like Great Hall; this is because it draws you a card, but without giving you the option of setting it aside or not.) Alternatively, it can be nice when combined with Scrying Pool, since Library can draw all your non-Actions, and Scrying Pool picks up the Actions.

Unsurprisingly, Library is quite terrible when your hand is already quite large. This means that not only does it anti-synergize with Laboratory, it also anti-synergizes with itself unless you are drawing more disappearing +2 Actions. But at least you can set them aside, which can be quite useful if you’re running a rote Smithy/Big Money strategy with Library in place of Smithy.

Synergies/Combos

• Cards which give +2 Actions but do not draw a card: Festival, University, Native Village, Nobles, Squire, Hamlet, Fishing Village, and others.
• Cards which decrease your handsize for a benefit: Cellar, Warehouse, Vault, Secret Chamber, Black Market.
• Opponents' handsize-decreasing attacks: Militia, Torturer, Goons, Ghost Ship, and others.
• Actions which outlive their usefulness, such as early trashers.

Antisynergies

• Other handsize increasers such as Caravan, Tactician, Laboratory, and even other terminal draw like Smithy
• Opponents' Council Rooms.

Versions

English versions

Print	Digital	Text	Release	Date
		Draw until you have 7 cards in hand. You may set aside any Action cards drawn this way, as you draw them; discard the set aside cards after you finish drawing.	Dominion 1st Edition	October 2008
		Draw until you have 7 cards in hand, skipping any Action cards you choose to; set those aside, discarding them afterwards.	Dominion 2nd Edition	October 2016

Other language versions

Language	Name	Print	Digital	Text	Notes
Chinese	圖書館 (pron. túshūguǎn)
Czech	Knihovna
Dutch	Bibliotheek			Vul je hand aan tot 7 kaarten. Getrokken actiekaarten mag je houden of apart bewaren en vervangen door nieuwe kaarten. Als je hand is aangevuld leg je de apart bewaarde actiekaarten af.
Finnish	Kirjasto
French	Bibliothèque
German	Bibliothek			Zieh, bis du 7 Karten auf der Hand hast; gezogene Aktionskarten darfst du dabei zur Seite legen und nach dem Ziehen ablegen.	HiG translation error : "Discard the set aside cards as soon as you have 7 cards in hand." ASS (1. Edition) translation error : "As soon as you have 7 cards in hand discard the set aside cards."
Greek	Βιβλιοθήκη (pron. vivliotheke)
Hungarian	Könyvtár
Italian	Biblioteca
Japanese	書庫 (pron. shoko)			手札が7枚になるように、好きなアクションカードを (何枚でも)飛ばしながら、1枚ずつカードを引く (飛ばすものは脇に置き、引き終えた後、捨て札にする)。
Korean	도서관 (pron. doseogwan)
Norwegian	Bibliotek
Polish	Biblioteka
Romanian	Bibliotecă
Russian	Библиотека (pron. bibliotyeka)			Тяните карты до семи в руке, по желанию пропуская любые карты Действия. Пропущенные карты откладывайте в сторону и затем сбросьте их.
Spanish	Biblioteca

Trivia

Official card art.

Secret History

When I nabbed Festival from the 6th expansion, I took Library with it, since to me they went together. Actually it was a 3-card package, but the other card did not make the grade. Library seemed like a fine card to have around, so why not. At one point it came under fire for having confusing text, and could conceivably have gotten booted. We fixed up the text and ended up deciding it wasn't too complicated after all.

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