Guard Dog

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Guard Dog
Info
Cost
Type(s)	Action - Reaction
Kingdom card?	Yes
Set	Hinterlands
Illustrator(s)	Julien Delval
Card text
+2 Cards If you have 5 or fewer cards in hand, +2 Cards. When another player plays an Attack, you may first play this from your hand.

Guard Dog is an Action-Reaction card from Hinterlands (Second Edition). It provides a small amount of terminal draw, which increases if played from a small starting handsize, so it can help you recover from an opponent's handsize attack. It also allows you to play it immediately when an opponent plays any Attack card—this reaction ability won't protect your handsize from most handsize attacks, but can be a consolation prize for getting hit by other varieties of Attack.

FAQ

Official FAQ

• When you play this, you draw 2 cards, then count the cards in your hand; if it's 5 or fewer, you draw 2 more cards.
• When another player plays an Attack card, you may play this before that Attack resolves; then the Attack still happens (unless you stop it another way, such as with a Moat you just drew). So if another player plays Berserker, and you respond with Guard Dog, you'll first draw 2 cards, then discard down to 3 cards in hand.
• As usual playing it means putting it into play and following its instructions.
• If you play this during another player's turn, you discard it from play during that turn's Clean-up.

Versions

English versions

Print	Digital	Text	Release	Date
		+2 Cards If you have 5 or fewer cards in hand, +2 Cards. When another player plays an Attack, you may first play this from your hand.	Hinterlands (Second Edition)	July 2022

Other language versions

Language	Name	Print	Digital	Text	Notes
German	Wachhund			+2 Karten Wenn du 5 oder weniger Hand­karten hast: +2 Karten. Wenn ein Mitspieler eine Angriffs­karte spielt, darfst du zuerst diese Karte aus deiner Hand spielen.
Polish	Pies stróżujący			+2 karty Jeśli masz na ręce 5 lub mniej kart, +2 karty Kiedy inny gracz zagrywa kartę Ataku, możesz najpierw zagrać tę kartę z ręki.	(2024)

Trivia

Official card art.

Preview

Duchess had to be weak, since you could take one for free with a Duchy. It was still too weak. Man, it could at least have only looked at your own top card, without letting your opponents do it too.

Guard Dog has no connection, and is another new Reaction. Okay so. If they play say Witch, you can react to play your Guard Dog. If they play say Militia, don't react, just save Guard Dog for your turn, and then you'll draw 2 extra cards. Of course there are also all the other ways you can get the 4 cards. It's another one that plays into the filtering theme.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Hinterlands 2E Preview 2

Secret History

This is here so that one of the Reactions will react to attacks, the classic trigger. The premise goes back to before Dominion was published, an early card called Battlements, that could be played for +2 Cards when attacked. How Reactions ended up working left it undoable; then I did it as Horse Traders, which is a very wordy convoluted way to do it. This is the simple way. And since the Reaction isn't so hot against Militias, the top is good against them (as well as a combo with some of the filtering cards). I tried a version that could also trigger on your own Attacks.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, The Secret History of Hinterlands 2E

Further development history

This elaborates on the version of Guard Dog that could react to your own Attacks, and why it got changed.

I don't actually remember, and it isn't noted in my reports. Probably it was too generous; possibly it was easy to forget because it's unusual. While there was such a version, it almost immediately changed to only working on other players' attacks.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Interview with Donald X.

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