Grand Market
| Grand Market | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Info | |
| Cost |
 |
| Type(s) | Action |
| Kingdom card? | Yes |
| Set |
Prosperity |
| Illustrator(s) | Marcel-André Casasola Merkle |
| Card text | |
|
+1 Card You can’t buy this if you have any Copper in play. | |
Grand Market is an Action card from Prosperity. It is a cantrip—i.e., it gives +1 Card and +1 Action—and the +
and +1 Buy make this card a powerhouse. Since it cannot be bought with Copper, it can be difficult to get early in the game; but the card creates somewhat of a snowball effect, in that Grand Markets themselves are a very efficient source of non-Copper money, so having Grand Markets makes it even easier to get more Grand Markets.
FAQ
Official FAQ
- You do not have to play all of the Treasures in your hand in your Buy phase.
- Coppers in your hand do not stop you from buying Grand Market - only Coppers in play do.
- Coppers that were in play earlier in the turn but are not anymore also don't stop you; if you have 11 Coppers in play and 2 Buys, you could buy a Mint, trash all of your played Treasures, *and then buy a Grand Market.
- You can gain Grand Market other ways - for example with Expand - whether or not you have Coppers in play.
- Treasures other than Copper do not prevent you from buying Grand Market, even if they are worth
(such as Loan).
Other Rules clarifications
- If you buy Mandarin, Coppers will be moved from play to the top of your deck, allowing you to buy Grand Market.
- Coppers played with Counterfeit will be trashed, allowing you to buy Grand Markets.
Strategy Article
Original article by theory
Grand Markets are almost always preferable to Golds, except when playing terminal card draw+Big Money. So long as the average card value in your deck is greater than , the self-replacing, non-terminal Grand Market is monetarily superior. The +Buy is always nice, and unlike Golds, Grand Markets are affected by Throne Room and King's Court.
Unfortunately, it’s difficult to buy Grand Market, since only quite strong decks are able to produce 
without relying on Copper. There’s several ways to do so before your deck gets to that point.
The first, and most obvious, way is with Actions that give money. Unfortunately, it’s difficult to get enough of them together; it normally takes quite a while to draw 3 Festivals in one hand. Grand Markets themselves are great for grabbing more Grand Markets, though.
A better way is with Secret Chamber, Storeroom, or Vault, because it basically lets you use Coppers without having to play them. Of course, Vault is best for this purpose: because it gives +2 Cards, it guarantees at least . In this game, by going Vault/Chapel instead of Torturer/Chapel, I get my Grand Markets out much sooner than he does.
Quarry also helps; it lets you buy the Grand Market when paired with either two Silvers, a Gold, or another Quarry. (If you use Black Market to play the Quarry during your Action phase, you can use Ironworks to gain it as well.) And the Copper restriction on Grand Markets doesn’t apply when you gain the card with Remodel/Expand/Upgrade.
Of course, if you trash your Coppers, buying Grand Markets isn’t a problem. Nor is it a problem if you have a ton of Silvers in your deck, either from Bureaucrat or Jack of all Trades or Trading Post, but having so many Silvers can be a liability, a sign that you’re not ramping up your deck quickly enough.
In all other respects, Grand Markets have the pretty much the same advantages and disadvantages as Peddlers and Markets (though of course beefed up considerably): they are most valuable in dense decks with high average card value, and are vulnerable to small handsizes.
Synergies/Combos
- Secret Chamber/Vault
- Moneylender/Loan/Spice Merchant
- Silver-gaining cards like Bureaucrat or Jack of all Trades
- Actions that give + (especially Conspirator)
- Trashing cards (both to clear Coppers and for a denser deck)
- Remodel/Expand/Upgrade
- Quarry
Antisynergies
- Coppersmith/Counting House/Apothecary
- Mountebank
- Attack-heavy opponents in general
- Bank, because it depends on large numbers of Treasures, typically Coppers
Trivia
Secret History
and was "+1 Card +1 Action +." People sure complained about it not having +1 Buy. "How is it a Grand Market?" they'd say. So I added +1 Buy, and then later took the anti-Copper clause from another card.
