Crown

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Crown
Info
Cost
Type(s)	Action - Treasure
Kingdom card?	Yes
Set	Empires
Illustrator(s)	Marco Morte
Card text
If it's your Action phase, you may play an Action from your hand twice. If it's your Buy phase, you may play a Treasure from your hand twice.

Crown is an Action-Treasure card from Empires. It is a Throne Room variant that plays either Treasures or Actions depending on which phase of your turn it's played in. It is the only Action-Treasure in the game, and the only Action (except when Capitalism is activated) that can be played during your own Buy phase (Caravan Guard can be played during another player's Buy phase).

FAQ

Official FAQ

• If you play this in your Action phase, you play an Action card from your hand, then play the same card again; this does not use up any extra Actions you have.
• If you play this in your Buy phase, you play a Treasure from your hand, then play it again; this does not use up any Actions at all.
• Crown can be used to play another Crown in either your Action or Buy phase, causing you to either play two more Actions twice each, or two more Treasures twice each.
• If you play Crown in your Action phase via something that lets you play Treasures (like Storyteller from Dominion: Adventures), Crown will still play an Action card twice.

Other Rules clarifications

• If you have abilities to resolve at the start of your turn, it is considered part of your Action phase, and you cannot end it. This means if you play Crown at the start of your turn (with e.g, Delay), you cannot skip to your Buy phase and play a Treasure twice.
• Crown counts as both an Action and a Treasure for all purposes, regardless of when you play it. This means during an Action phase, it can be played with Black Market, and during a Buy phase, it can be played as a Way.
• If you gain this at Night (with e.g. Vampire) or Clean-up (with e.g. Improve) and play it with Innovation, you can't play any card from your hand twice.

Strategy

Original article written by Avester.

Crown is a typically underrated card, and this strategy section will cover how it can be best used.

Crown + Engine: Crown, in an engine deck, functions similarly to Throne Room. While it is pricier, often, the benefit of a Throne Room-esque card far outweighs its price tag, and will make it a good pick-up on any decent engine, and it would shine in particularly thin decks.

Crown + Big Money: Crown, in a Big Money deck however, absolutely shines, and has become one of the strongest enablers in Big Money games. The versatility of this card means that it is well-tailored for a range of Big Money-like strategies. Crown in Smithy + Big Money: The flexibility afforded by Crown would make your terminal draw cards, such as Smithy and Hunting Grounds ridiculously powerful, and should never be underestimated. Of note here is that because you would not normally buy Throne Room in a typical Big Money game, Crown allows you to have a card flexible enough to draw sufficient cards to trash Tragic Hero for its on-trash effect, which, in the presence of powerful Treasure cards such as Bank or Platinum, would be a welcome benefit. Crown in Pure Big Money: This is where Crown establishes itself as a powerful must-buy - the fact that it can double your plays of various Treasures. While vanilla Treasure cards such as Gold and Platinum seem like obvious Crown-candidates, the presence of alternative Treasure cards in the Kingdom can allow Crown to completely alter your gameplay. Consider the following examples:

• Bank: Crown can allow Bank to generate obscenely large amounts of money in a Big Money game; this benefit will be amplified if you have two Crowns: one for a terminal draw to vastly improve your handsize, and one for Bank itself. Remember that even if Crown is played in your Action phase, it will still count for Bank.
• Fool's Gold: Crown can accelerate Fool's Gold. Having two Fool's Gold in your hand and two Crowns is worth a total of 13. (Note: the wording on Fool's Gold mentions 'played', not 'in play'.)
• Counterfeit: Crown will accelerate Counterfeit-trashing of Coppers, a welcome boost for Big Money decks.
• Plunder: Another key candidate that should always be Crowned, this allows a Big Money player to be significantly competitive. Plunder is typically hard to get, because of the Encampment 'penalty', thus always take the opportunity to Crown it.
• Capital: A good combination, which effectively grants you free . In a pinch, it will grant you a useful and +2 Buys, perfect for a game-ending megaturn.
• Idol: Crown carefully; you may consider hedging your bets on receiving the next two Boons, or deliver two curses to your opponents. If you're aiming for Boons, keeping careful track of the Boons pile would be advantageous. Otherwise, junking your opponents' decks with two curses, as a Big Money player, is definitely a strong move, especially since Idol itself is a very slow curser. (Note: Idol counts 'in play'.)
• Lucky Coin: Worth a mention, but unlikely to be useful past the early stages of the game, since Silver is not as desirable with better options typically available.

With these in mind, remember that while Throne Room is terminal (and hence extremely situational and often poor in Big Money), Crown is almost always usable, and its flexibility makes the Big Money player highly competitive.

Synergies/Combos

• Powerful alternate Treasure cards, such as Capital, or Bank
• Powerful Terminal Draw, such as Royal Blacksmith, Smithy
• Cards that play treasures during your action phase - Storyteller and Black Market
• Pathfinding the Crown pile does yield a draw when played during the buy phase.
• For other strategies and synergies, see Throne Room.

Antisynergies

• Junking attacks, which are extremely ruinous to a Big Money game

Versions

English versions

Print	Digital	Text	Release	Date
		If it's your Action phase, you may play an Action from your hand twice. If it's your Buy phase, you may play a Treasure from your hand twice.	Empires	June 2016

Other language versions

Language	Name	Print	Digital	Text
Dutch	Kroon
Finnish	Kruunu
French	Couronne
German	Krone			In der Aktionsphase gespielt: Du darfst eine Aktionskarte aus deiner Hand zweimal ausspielen. Alternativ: In der Kaufphase gespielt: Du darfst eine Geldkarte aus deiner Hand zweimal ausspielen.
Japanese	冠 (pron. kanmuri)			アクションフェイズ中の場合、手札のアクションカード1枚を2度使用してもよい。購入フェイズ中の場合、手札の財宝カード1枚を2度使用してもよい。
Polish	Korona
Russian	Корона (pron. korona)

Trivia

Crown is the only Treasure that Royal Carriage can be called for.

Official card art.

Preview

Crown is Dominion's first Action/Treasure. It's an Action. It's a Treasure. You can play it whenever you can play either of those things. It counts as both of those things for cards that care about what other cards are. It does something different depending on whether it's your Action phase or your Buy phase; not that different, though. You might use it as a Throne Room that doesn't totally suck if it doesn't collide with your other Actions. Or maybe you want to save it for your treasures; playing Platinum twice is probably better than playing Chancellor twice. When the crown's on your head, you make the call.

—A Drowned Kernel, Empires Bonus Preview #2: Crown

Secret History

The first version was an Action that played an Action or Treasure twice. You really want it to be a Treasure too, so you don't draw it dead off of card-drawing. So, an Action - Treasure card! It always seemed like that would be too confusing, but here was one that was no trouble. It's something how popular it is even in games where you are almost always using it as Throne Room.

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

Being the first Action-Treasure card

I ruled out Action - Treasure at one point because it would be too confusing. Crown got rid of those issues though. People have found lots of questions to ask about it, but they're all "what if you use it with this really confusing other card," or "so it's really both an Action and a Treasure?" With I guess a little "how does Throne Room work."

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Interview with Donald X.