Cargo Ship

Cargo Ship
Info
Cost
Type(s)	Action - Duration
Kingdom card?	Yes
Set	Renaissance
Illustrator(s)	Grant Hansen
Card text
+ Once this turn, when you gain a card, you may set it aside face up (on this). At the start of your next turn, put it into your hand.

Cargo Ship is an Action-Duration card from Renaissance. It is a terminal silver that lets you save a card you gain for your next hand. This can help get Treasure or Action cards into your next hand, or get Victory cards to miss the shuffle.

FAQ

Official FAQ

• The card you set aside doesn't have to be the next card you gain; you could gain multiple cards and then gain one where you decided to set it aside.
• If you don't set a card aside at all, Cargo Ship is discarded that turn.

Other rules clarifications

• If you haven't set aside a card by Cargo Ship's ability, Cargo Ship is set to be discarded this turn, which means you may use Improve to trash this during Clean-up and gain a different card. If you do, you may then still use Cargo Ship's ability and set aside the newly gained card for next turn, even though Cargo Ship has already been trashed.

Strategy

Cargo Ship is a terminal silver that offers a potential tempo boost in the opening and early game, and reliability later. Like many terminal silvers, it is more relevant in Kingdoms where terminal space is less of a concern. Setting aside a card that you gain with Cargo Ship is somewhat akin to, and often better than, topdecking effects such as those of Tracker and Way of the Seal, as you still draw a five-card hand in addition to whatever you set aside with Cargo Ship.

Cargo Ship can be especially good in the opening if there is a strong card such as Recruiter in the Kingdom, and you open with a / or / split and therefore cannot simply buy the strong card on turns 1 or 2. If you open with Cargo Ship and are able to play it on turn 3, you will likely be able to afford the card, set it aside, and play it on turn 4, as if you had opened it. In this case, you are able to play that card for the first time a full shuffle earlier than you could have otherwise. If instead you play the Cargo Ship on turn 4, you can guarantee you will see your card at the top of the shuffle, which is still a good effect. Thinners are the most common targets for this opening strategy, as the earlier you play them the faster you can get deck control.

To a lesser extent, Cargo Ship can also provide similar tempo boosts in the early-midgame, when your engine is not yet fully drawing your deck. In these situations where your cycling or draw is not strong, it can be several turns before you shuffle and are able to play a card that you buy or gain. Cargo Ship can shortcut this process, but in many Kingdoms it is not worth getting a Cargo Ship strictly for this purpose, as there are often other cards (e.g. sifters) that can more directly get your deck under control.

Later in the game when you’re using Cargo Ship as payload, it can be useful to set aside a draw card that you buy or gain to ensure a good start to your next turn. During greening it can also be useful to set aside the Victory cards to reduce your odds of dudding. Because the Cargo Ship stays in play for your next turn if you do so, you will not be able to play it for on your next turn, effectively trading some payload for reliability; this is often a worthwhile tradeoff as a dud can often cost you a full turn, with being a small price to pay to avoid that. In this stage of the game it can be useful to add a second Cargo Ship, setting aside cards with them on alternating turns, so that your economy and reliability boosts are consistent across turns. Adding more than two Cargo Ships beyond this alternating pair usually gives diminishing marginal returns, as Cargo Ship is still a terminal silver, payload that you play every other shuffle is inefficient, and setting aside one card with Cargo Ship per turn is usually sufficient for reliability.

Versions

English versions

Print	Digital	Text	Release	Date
		+ Once this turn, when you gain a card, you may set it aside face up (on this). At the start of your next turn, put it into your hand.	Renaissance	November 2018

Other language versions

Language	Name	Print	Digital	Text	Notes
Chinese	貨船 (pron. huòchuán)
French	Cargo			+ Une fois à ce tour, quand vous recevez une carte, vous pouvez la mettre de côté face visible (sur cette carte). Au début de votre prochain tour, prenez-la en main.
German	Frachtschiff			+ Einmal in diesem Zug darfst du eine Karte, wenn du sie nimmst, mit der Bildseite nach oben zur Seite legen (auf diese Karte). Zu Beginn deines nächsten Zuges: nimm sie auf die Hand.
Japanese	貨物船 (pron. kamotsusen)			+ あなたがこのターンに獲得するカードのうち1枚を、(このカードの)脇に表向きに置いてもよい。あなたの次のターンの開始時に、それをあなたの手札に加える。
Polish	Frachtowiec (lit. freighter)				Although Polish version is not released, this name is referred to in Polish Dominion 2E rulebook.
Russian	Грузовой Корабль (pron. gruzovoy korabl')
Spanish	Barco de Carga			+ Una vez en este turno, cuando ganas una carta, puedes dejarla boca arriba sobre esta. Al iniciar tu siguiente turno, ponla en tu mano.

Trivia

Official card art.

Secret History

The concept debuted on a 2-sided State, limited to Treasures. The first version as a card set aside all gains, and doled them out at one per turn, like Archive. Then it was just one card, and that was better but weak - it cost . I tried it with +2 Coffers, then just lowered it to costing and then .

—Donald X. Vaccarino, The Secret History of Dominion: Renaissance

Parentheses Use

There's no "reminder text" rule; text in parentheses applies. However the "under this" etc. on cards like Cargo Ship is just helpfully telling you how to track the effect; if the Cargo Ship is missing you still set aside a card, still get back the set-aside card.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Cargo Ship leaves play by capitalism