Death Cart

Death Cart
Info
Cost
Type(s)	Action - Looter
Kingdom card?	Yes
Set	Dark Ages
Illustrator(s)	Marco Morte
Card text
You may trash this or an Action card from your hand, for +. When you gain this, gain 2 Ruins.

Death Cart is an Action–Looter card from Dark Ages. When played, it gives +; but it forces you to trash another Action card, or trashes itself if you cannot. It also gives you two Ruins, which, conveniently, make for good Actions to trash, if you can draw them with the Death Cart.

Death Cart is the only Looter that is not a junking attack.

FAQ

Official FAQ

• When you play Death Cart, you get +, and either trash an Action card from your hand, or trash the Death Cart.^†
• If you have no Action card in your hand, you will have to trash the Death Cart, but you can trash the Death Cart whether or not you have an Action card in hand.^††
• When you gain a Death Cart, either from buying it or from gaining it some other way, you also gain two Ruins.
• You just take the top two, whatever they are.
• If there are not enough Ruins left, take as many as you can.
• The other players get to see which ones you got.
• If you use Trader (from Hinterlands) to take a Silver instead of a Death Cart, you do not gain any Ruins.
• It does not matter whose turn it is; if you use Ambassador (from Seaside) to give Death Carts to each other player, those players also gain Ruins.
• Passing cards with Masquerade (from Intrigue) does not count as gaining them.

^† With the 2019 Version, you must trash first to get the +. If you don't trash, you don't get the +

^†† With the 2019 Version, the trashing of either the Death Cart or a Action card from your hand is entirely optional.

Strategy Article

See here for a Death Cart strategy article.

is seriously a lot of money, so if you have a way to keep getting cheap junk for Death Cart to trash and a way to match the Death Cart up with the cheap junk, it's a superb money source. It can make for a great Treasure-less engine, where you get coin for playing 1-2 Death Carts each turn, trashing either Ruins or cheap cantrips like Vagrant or Pearl Diver.

However, Death Cart is not a good buy early in the game. When you rely on shuffle luck to match up your Death Cart with your Ruins, there's a high chance of missing, and the two extra cards severely slow down your cycling.

And when you play Death Cart many times, you'll need a way to replenish its fuel - +Buy is the easiest, since Ruins will always be available, but Fortress and Rats also serve the same function.

Synergies/Combos

• Fortress can provide endless fuel for Death Cart.
• Necromancer can play Death Cart in the trash without penalty.
• Death Cart counters other Looters hard - the extra Ruins become a benefit and not a drawback!
• Rats can provide free Death Cart fodder, turning your Coppers and Shelters into Actions.
• Market Square is extremely good with Death Cart, as it is with any other trasher. Death Cart/Market Square is probably one of the few good Death Cart openings.
• If you have Watchtower in hand, you can buy a Death Cart, trash one Ruins, and topdeck Death Cart and the other Ruins. This gives you all of Death Cart's benefit and none of the problems you normally have in lining up your Death Cart and your Ruins.
• Cultist : First you give the Ruins to your opponents, and then you buy Death Cart without Ruins and trash the Cultists for + and +3 cards.
• In combination with Capitalism it can become a cheap Platinum.

Antisynergies

• Cursers will make it extremely difficult to match up your Death Cart with your Actions.

Versions

English versions

Print	Digital	Text	Release	Date
		+. You may trash an Action card from your hand. If you don't, trash this. When you gain this, gain 2 Ruins.	Dark Ages 1st Edition	August 2012
		+. You may trash an Action card from your hand. If you don't, trash this. When you gain this, gain 2 Ruins.	Dark Ages 2nd Edition	September 2017
		You may trash this or an Action card from your hand, for +. When you gain this, gain 2 Ruins.	Dominion 2019 Errata and Rules Tweaks	September 24, 2019

Other language versions

Language	Name	Print	Digital	Text	Notes
Chinese	運屍車			+。你可以移除你手上一張行動卡，如果你沒有移除，則移除此卡。當你獲得此卡，獲得兩張遺跡。
Czech	Pohřební kára
Dutch	Dodenkar
Finnish	Ruumisvaunu
French	Charrette de cadavres
German	Leichenkarren			+ Du darfst eine Aktionskarte aus deiner Hand entsorgen. Wenn du das nicht machst: Entsorge diese Karte. Wenn du diese Karte nimmst, nimm dir 2 Ruinen-Karten.
Japanese	死の荷車 (pron. shi no niguruma)			+。 手札のアクションカード1枚を廃棄してもよい。廃棄しなかった場合、これを廃棄する。これを獲得するとき、廃墟カード2枚を獲得する。
Korean	시체운반수레 (pron. siche-unbansule)
Polish	Trupi wóz				Although Polish version is not released, this card is referred to in the Polish version of Empires rulebook
Russian	Труповозка (pron. trupovozka)
Spanish	Carro de los Muertos

Trivia

Official card art.

Secret History

This card exists to provide a way to give yourself Ruins. So that people don't just hate it, it gives you a use for the Ruins it comes with, a use so good that you almost feel like coming with Ruins is a plus. This has a when-gain ability, like those Hinterlands cards. My initial plan was to do these here and there in the sets after Hinterlands, back when Hinterlands was half of the 2nd expansion. That didn't work out, seeing as how Hinterlands is 6th, but well here's another when-gain card anyway.

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