Gardens
| Gardens | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Info | |
| Cost |
 |
| Type(s) | Victory |
| Kingdom card? | Yes |
| Set |
Base |
| Illustrator(s) | Matthias Catrein |
| Card text | |
Worth 1  per 10 cards you have (round down). | |
Gardens is a Victory card from the Base set. It is worth 1 for every 10 cards in your deck, so it is worth a lot of points when your deck is filled with lots of cards and worth very little if you have trashed most of your deck. It features prominently in rush strategies which use gainers or cheap sources of +Buy to quickly get all of the Gardens and empty two more piles to end the game.
It is the simplest of the "scaling" alt-VP cards—i.e., those that are worth victory points scaled in proportion to some property of your deck.
FAQ
Official FAQ
- For example, if you have 37 cards at the end of the game, each copy of Gardens you have is worth 3 .
- Use 8 copies of Gardens in a 2-player game, 12 copies for 3 or more players.
Other Rules clarifications
- Cards on your Island mat, Durations still in play at the end of the game, and cards set aside for Haven or Inheritance or for any other reason are also counted at the end of the game.
Strategy Article
Original article by theory
The standard "Gardens strategy" is to grab Gardens, bloat your deck, and simultaneously run out two other piles (one of which is typically Estates) to end the game as fast as possible, before your opponents can begin to buy Provinces or Colonies.
On most boards, this isn’t feasible. It’s just too slow to empty all three piles, and your deck won’t be big enough to make your Gardens worth all that much. But in the presence of certain cards, Gardens are nearly unbeatable.
The easiest and most straightforward way to execute this strategy is to open with double Workshop. If you’re unfortunate enough to start with a 5/2, you can still go for a (slightly delayed) Gardens strategy with cards like Festival/Market/Pawn. Otherwise you are probably best off countering your opponents’ Gardens rather than competing for them.
Assuming you opened double Workshop, on your first reshuffle, you want to pick up at least two more Workshops; although this increases the chance that you’ll draw two Workshops in one hand (without an extra +Action to play them), it is much much worse to draw a hand with no Workshops whatsoever.
After that, you should focus on grabbing as many Gardens as you can with your Workshops while spending Coppers on piles that you plan on running out. This typically means Gardens, Estates, and a 
or 
Action (possibly Workshops themselves). Great Halls are great for a Gardens pile, since they’re a cheap source of VP that your opponents will help you run out. Villages are also a popular choice, and Haven can keep your Workshops from conflicting with each other. At the very least, you should always buy at least a Copper each turn.
Ironworks and Armory can basically be substituted for Workshop in the above strategy without any significant changes. Woodcutter can as well: although it doesn’t guarantee you the Gardens, it’s close enough, and it lets you grab a Duchy every once in a while. Baron works pretty well, but in practice the cost jump from to is too great for the Gardens player to overcome, and you won’t be able to empty them out as easily as Workshops.
Trade Route or Talisman can also work, but are more dependent on the other cards available, and therefore not as scripted as Workshop/Gardens. Trade Route depends on the fact that as you empty Gardens/Estates, your Trade Route guarantees you at least +, and possibly + or + if Great Halls are present, or your opponents panic and start buying Duchies to counter your Gardens. However, because Trade Route forces you to trash a card along with the +Buy, it is a more hybrid Gardens strategy that depends on Duchy assistance. Talisman Gardens strategies have no problem emptying piles, but you need to be emptying Actions (preferably non-terminal) that can get you to Gardens. In general, any sub- card which lets you Gain cards has the potential to be used as a Gardens enabler, with varying degrees of success.
(See the comments at http://dominionstrategy.com/2010/12/16/dominion-gardens/ for an excellent discussion of “hybrid” Gardens strategies.)
If none of these cards are present, Gardens are usually ignored. They can be helpful in the late game when you have to spend and need a Victory card; in most late-game decks, they will be a cheaper Duchy. Alternatively, if you are getting brutalized by Ambassadors and Mountebanks, and a couple piles are already gone (perhaps due to a City player), you can try to rush the Gardens to end the game prematurely.
If you’re fighting another Gardens player in a multiplayer game, you should realize that although both of you are going for the same goal (emptying three piles as quickly as possible), you should let him empty the “third” pile while you go for the Gardens and Estates. In other words, if the two of you are emptying Gardens, Estates, and Villages, it may be in your best interest to spend your ′s on Estates rather than Villages so that you have an advantage over your co-Gardener.
If you’re going Gardens alone, you usually must do whatever it takes to end the game as quickly as you can. There are many cards that you could buy that would work great with a Gardens strategy (some are listed below), but if your opponent isn’t going for Gardens, you need to end the game before his engine kicks into high gear. Certain strategies can ramp up very quickly (e.g., Tactician), and if your opponent can snag a couple Provinces the game is all but over for you.
Countering a Gardens player is tricky. Don’t bother building elaborate Grand Market chains; instead, look to grab VP as quickly as possible. Remodel your Golds into Provinces as soon as you can, grab some of the Estates so the Gardener can’t get them, and try to establish a VP advantage. Your goal is to get enough points such that the Gardener is forced to slow down and fatten his deck rather than end the game; at this point, you can choose to either rebuild and get the last Provinces, or empty the last piles before the Gardens appreciate in value. Don’t hesitate to take Gardens yourself: the average Garden is worth 3–4VP for your opponent, and maybe 2–3VP for you. Buying the Garden is therefore a 5–7VP swing, which just so happens to be around the neighborhood of a Province buy (assuming your opponent buys no Provinces and you won’t be running them out). So you should definitely grab some Gardens, though not too many since you have a smaller deck than the Gardener. Bishop in particular is a fantastic counter to Gardeners, since you can buy the Gardens and then chew them up for 3VP. If you do plan on splitting the Gardens, then be sure to take a couple of Duchies before the game ends in order to make up the difference in deck size.
Gardens decks are very resistant to attacks. Ambassador is a great card for Gardeners, since they generally welcome the influx of Copper and Estates. Possession is basically useless, and Militia/Goons do virtually nothing, since so much of your deck is Victory cards anyway. Witch and Sea Hag are somewhat offset by the fact that the Curses count for your Gardens, particularly if they push your deck to the next 10-card level. Probably the most brutal attacks against Gardeners are Ghost Ship and Bureaucrat, by slowing down an already-slow deck.
Synergies/Combos
- Best with cheap (sub-
) cards that can gain copies of themselves and can gain Gardens: Workshop, Ironworks, Armory, Inventor. - Cheap cards that gain you other cards but don't gain Gardens: Talisman, Baron, Bureaucrat, Trader, Beggar
- Depending on what else is on the board, Develop
- Cheap sources of +buy, like Woodcutter, Nomad Camp, Horse Traders, Pawn, Squire, Candlestick Maker
- Ill-Gotten Gains
- Opponents junking attacks like Ambassador, Cultist, or even cursers.
- There are many cards that work well with Gardens, but you usually can’t afford to buy them and/or they would distract from your goal of ending the game as quickly as possible. Some include: Hoard, Festival, Counting House, Outpost, Warehouse, Scout, Jester.
Antisynergies
- Trashing cards like Chapel
- Strategies that ramp up very quickly (e.g., Tactician)
- Opponents’ Bureaucrats and Ghost Ships
- Bishop and Landmarks Wall and Wolf Den counter Gardens pretty heavily
Versions
English versions
| Digital | Text | Release | Date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
 |
Worth 1 for every 10 cards in your deck (rounded down). |
Dominion 1st Edition | October 2008 |
|
 |
Worth 1 per 10 cards you have (round down). |
Dominion 2nd Edition | October 2016 |
Other language versions
| Language | Name | Digital | Text | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chinese | 花園 (pron. huāyuán) | Gardens is mislabeled as an Action. | |||
| Czech | Zahrady | ||||
| Dutch | Tuinen | ||||
| Finnish | Puutarha (note: singular) | ||||
| French | Jardins | ||||
| German | Gärten |  |
Wert 1 für je 10 Karten (abgerundet) im eigenen Kartensatz |
ASS (1. Edition) translation error : added "at end of game" | |
| Greek | Κήποι (pron. kepoi) | ||||
| Hungarian | Park (lit. park) | ||||
| Italian | Giardini | ||||
| Japanese | 庭園 (pron. teien) | あなたのカード10枚 (端数切り捨て)につき 1 。 |
|||
| Korean | 정원 (pron. joeng-won) | ||||
| Norwegian | Park (lit. park) | ||||
| Polish | Ogrody |  |
Ta karta jest warta 1 za każde 10 kart twojej talii (zaokrąglając w dół). |
||
| Romanian | Grădini | ||||
| Russian | Сады (pron. sady) |  |
Приносит 1 за каждые 10 карт, которые у вас есть (с округлением вниз). |
||
| Spanish | Jardines |
Trivia
Secret History
