Sifter
Sifter is a broad term that applies to two types of cards:
- Deck inspectors that allow you to discard cards from the top of your deck
- Cards that draw and force you to discard, or allow you to discard in order to draw
Both are useful for cycling through your deck to get to more desirable cards. Many of these are non-terminal Actions, such as Warehouse. Sifters can increase or decrease handsize, depending on what additional role they take, if any.
Card that do something other than drawing cards as compensation for (usually optional) discarding are discard for benefit cards. Cards that reveal (and eventually discard) cards while looking for specific other cards are digging cards.
List of sifters
- Sifters that are also deck inspectors:
- Catacombs
- Scrying Pool
- Oracle - Top 2 cards
- Spy
- Navigator - Top 5 cards
- Jack of all Trades
- Ironmonger
- Cartographer - Top 4 cards
- Cards which let you discard cards from your hand:
Oasis technically draws and discards, but given that it only cycles one card, its use as a sifter is non-existent.
Strategy
Sifters, particularly those that give +1 Action, are most useful in trying to get two combo-ing cards to collide. The most extreme case is Treasure Map, but there are other cards that do best in combination with another card. Sifters are optimal for this because they usually draw more than terminal draw cards at the same cost, giving you more cards that could be what you're looking for, and since you're only looking for two cards, you don't care that you have to discard afterwards. All sifters are also quite nice with Tunnel, as they provide the much-needed discard outside of the Clean-up phase to gain Tunnel's Golds.
Terminal sifters are usually more useful in the context of an engine, or in big money strategies. Without village support, they are highly likely to draw Actions dead, given their higher draw, though this is mitigated by their discarding requirement. This makes them very useful for big money, as they can concentrate your Treasures in hand while skipping over Victory cards.