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− | {{ | + | {{Infobox Card |
− | | | + | |name = Expand |
− | | | + | |set = Prosperity |
− | + | |type1 = Action | |
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− | | | + | |illustrator = Ryan Laukat |
− | | | + | |text = Trash a card from your hand. Gain a card costing up to {{Cost|3}} more than the trashed card. |
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Revision as of 09:43, 10 November 2012
Expand | |
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Info | |
Cost | |
Type(s) | Action |
Kingdom card? | Yes |
Set | Prosperity |
Illustrator(s) | Ryan Laukat |
Card text | |
Trash a card from your hand. Gain a card costing up to more than the trashed card. |
Expand is an Action card from Prosperity. It is a beefed-up version of Remodel, allowing you to trash a card and gain a card costing more. It's great for expanding Estates into -cards and then Expanding those cards into Provinces.
Contents |
FAQ
Official FAQ
- This is not in your hand after you play it, so you cannot trash it as the card trashed.
- The card you gain can cost up to more than the trashed card, but it can also cost any smaller amount, even less than the cost of the trashed card.
- You can trash a card and gain a copy of the same card.
- If you have no card in hand to trash, you do not gain a card.
- The card you gain comes from the Supply and is put into your discard pile.
Other Rules clarifications
- Familiar into a Possession. is counted as part of the cost, so you could Expand a
Strategy Article
Original article on the forums started by Powerman, with comments by other forum members.
Expand lets you trash a bad card from your hand, and instead gain a good one. It effectively is Remodel's older brother, as it does the same thing except adding up to of value instead of of value to the card. Does this make it a great card? Yes -- sometimes. But MOST of the time, the answer is no.
When to buy Expand
Peddler
Peddler is great with any trash for benefit card, and Expand is probably the best one for it. Why is that? Drawing a Peddler and an Expand gets you a Colony (or in a province game you can still get a province). This is extremely effective, as you can get the peddler for very little but trash it at full value for a huge VP Swing.
Grand Market
Grand Market is probably the second best card for Expand. Why? Getting GM's is hard because you need not have copper in play. With Expand this isn't a problem, as you can turn your Silvers into GM's, which is more than a fair trade. Also late in the game, the GM's can be turned into Provinces if need be, which can make a double province turn trivial.
====Curses and cursers. Expand is one of the few cards that can do anything with curses. Remodel lets you turn them into Estates (most of the time), bleh. Upgrade, Transmute, Salvager, etc. give you no benefit except getting the Curse out of your deck, which is ok but too slow and leaves you with a 3 card hand and your turn accomplishes little. Expand lets you turn curses into cards, which is at a minimum always a Silver. Otherwise, there are many more cards you want than cards you want, and depending on your deck adding a Village/Fishing Village/Wishing Well/Great Hall/etc. can be even more effective.
And the cards that give out Curses also work well with Expand. Cursers are great early. Late? Not so much! After the curses are out, cursers fall somewhere between useless and a poor Silver. However, with Expand, that's ok. Witch is done giving out curses? Turn it into a Province! Familiar? How about a Possession!
Price Reduction
Price reduction allows you to do crazy things with Expand. The first (and often easiest) way is by use of Highway. How? Cards can't cost less than 0. This means for Expanding purposes, cards become closer to 0, so cards that already are 0 (Curse/Copper) become closer to the other cards. For example, after just 2 Highways, you can Expand a Curse into a Duchy for a 4 VP swing. You can Expand a Copper into another Highway. Another fun way is by use of Quarry. Buy Actions (preferably of value ) for cheap, and then Expand them into Provinces.
Strong (Nonterminal) 5's
cards fill an important role in an Expander's world. They fill the crucial step between Estates () and Provinces (). On every board, there is an option to simply expand via Duchy, but that is very rarely ideal until very near the end of the game. Instead, it is a lot better to turn your estates into cards that you want lots of. Cards that fall into this category are almost always nonterminal, such as Laboratory, Hunting Party, Bazaar, Market and Minion (or Highway, as in the previous section), but depending on the Kingdom, terminals such as Torturer, Rabble and Wharf deserve close consideration. Treasury is a special case, as it can go back on top of your deck, and since you are expanding to gain your Province instead of buying it, you can keep topdecking.
When to avoid Expand
While these all make Expand have value, what causes it to lose value? When should you avoid Expand?
Lack of +Actions
Although Expand is a non-drawing terminal (which is generally the type you like with the absence of villages), Expand is not normally the terminal you want to use, as there is normally a stronger one on the board. It is worth noting that in terminal collisions, you can Expand your other terminal, but you have to ask yourself if it is worth losing your other terminal if it is early.
If it will be used as a (weaker) Mine
0 + 3 = 3. 3 + 3 = 6. 6 + 3 = 9. The synergy between Expand and Treasures appears obvious. However, there exists a card (Mine) that does this better, as the card you gain goes directly into your hand. And Mine costs less. And it's considered a "weak" card to begin with. So Expanding treasures is almost always a bad use of Expand.
If it will be used as a Remodel
Although sometimes you need the Remodel effect, Expand is not normally the way you want it. Remodel costs less, and is far from a power . Yes, expanding your Gold into a Province to win the game is a nice feeling, but chances are if you had simply bought a Gold instead of the Expand, you could have simply bought the Province outright. So adding of value is less than ideal.
If it will be used to no effect
This may seem obvious, but I have seen many players (even some experienced players) fall into this trap. For example, they might expand a Gold into a Platinum, and then buy a Gold. If they hadn't Expanded, their deck would have ended up with a Gold and a Platinum. And by Expanding... they end up with a Gold and a Platinum. Obviously, the expand is being misused in this situation.
Large decks/ slow cycling decks
Like Mine and Remodel, Expand gets better the more times through your deck the good cards go. With a large deck, you might only see the card you gained 1 or 2 times, so the better card will have little to no impact on your deck. Expand shines in the presence of sifters like {{Card|Warehouse}, but is bad in treasure-bloated decks.
General Comments
Expand is a card that looks scarily powerful at first, but really isn't all that good. Most of the time it is used as a Mine or Remodel, in which case you are overpaying for a card that isn't all that good to begin with. Perhaps the situation where Expand "shines" the most is upgrading your victory cards. Turning your estates into duchies gains you VP points without additional clogging of your deck. However, even this is often a poor idea as you are gaining points really slowly. Expand is much better in Prosperity games (surprise surprise) but is often a non factor in games with little prosperity, especially when colony is not out. It is important to remember that every Expand you buy could have been a gold, which gives . So you have to ask yourself if it is really worth it.
The general population buys this card 68% of the time, which is way too high. The win rate with is higher without it than with it. Expand is useful in probably 1/3 of the games it is available, not 2/3.
Synergies/Combos
- Peddler
- Grand Market
- Curses and cursers
- Prosperity games with expensive cards, especially Platinum and Colony
- Mint
- Quarry and Highway (and other cost reduction)
- Strong s like Laboratory
- Treasury
Antisynergies
- Big Money boards
- Lack of good s
- Bloated decks
- Quick games
Trivia
Secret History