Villa
Villa | |
---|---|
Info | |
Cost | |
Type(s) | Action |
Kingdom card? | Yes |
Set | Empires |
Illustrator(s) | Harald Lieske |
Card text | |
+2 Actions +1 Buy + When you gain this, put it into your hand, +1 Action, and if it's your Buy phase return to your Action phase. |
Villa is an Action card from Empires. It is a village that allows you to use it immediately when you gain it, even returning to your Action phase from your Buy phase, which has a large number of repercussions.
FAQ
Official FAQ
- If you gain this during your Action phase, such as with Engineer, you will put the Villa into your hand and get +1 Action (letting you, for example, play the Villa).
- If you gain this during your Buy phase (such as by buying it), you will put the Villa into your hand, get +1 Action, and return to your Action phase.
- This will let you play more Action cards (such as the Villa); when you are done with that you will return to your Buy phase, from the beginning - you can play more Treasures (and Arena will trigger again).
- If you buy Villa, that uses up your default Buy for the turn, however playing Villa will give you +1 Buy and so let you buy another card in your second Buy phase.
- If you gain this during another player's turn, you will put the Villa into your hand and get +1 Action, but will have no way to use that Action, since it is not your turn.
- It is possible to return to your Action phase multiple times in a turn via buying multiple Villas.
- Returning to your Action phase does not cause "start of turn" abilities to repeat; they only happen at the start of your turn.
Other Rules clarifications
- Unlike Ghost Town, Villa visits the place it is gained to before it moves itself to your hand. This means that when you gain it onto your deck (with e.g. Artificer), Villa will visit the top of your deck before going into your hand.
- Normally, when you gain a Villa while under a Gatekeeper attack, you can choose to put Villa into your hand first, and Gatekeeper will fail to exile Villa. But if you gain it to your hand (with e.g. Transmogrify), Gatekeeper will be able to exile it.
- If Villa can't put itself into your hand (e.g. because you set it aside with Cargo Ship), you'll still get +1 Action, and you still return to your Action phase.
- Because Replace and Summon try to move Villa after it is gained and then put into your hand, they will fail to move it.
- If you buy a Villa, but you don't play it, you can enter your next Buy phase with 0 Buys. You can still play Treasures, but unless you get +Buy from them, you can't buy anything.
- Villa only returns you to your Action phase if gained in your Buy phase. If you gain it at Night (with e.g. Devil's Workshop) or Clean-up (with e.g. Improve), it goes to your hand, but you can't play it.
- Gaining a Villa during your Buy phase counts as ending it (for cards like Wine Merchant and Pageant). If you take multiple Buy phases, those cards will trigger multiple times.
Strategy
Villa is a game-warping card that often restructures the way you build in a given Kingdom. As a village and source of +Buy, it provides two important engine components in a single card, but its primary power lies in its on-gain effect, for two reasons:
- Gaining a Villa effectively allows you to generate terminal space on demand. This means that you can add terminals (especially terminal draw) to your deck much more aggressively than you normally would, ignoring the need for village support until it arises through terminal collision or drawing a card dead. For example, if you play a Smithy and draw another Smithy, you can buy a Villa, play it, and continue your turn. Additionally, gainers that are normally terminal can be used to generate terminal space: for example, if you have three Inventors in hand and only one Action remaining, you can gain a Villa, play it, and then play the other two Inventors.
- Villa’s effect of returning you to the Action phase from the Buy phase enables a host of tactical tricks, but most critically, it greatly increases the speed at which you can play the cards that you buy. Gain-and-play is a powerful move that is typically only available for cards gained during your Action phase, but if you have overdraw and multiple Buys, you can buy several cards, ending with a Villa, draw on, and play the cards you bought immediately. The benefits of this might include playing an important Duration card such as Wharf to set up your next turn or enabling a rapid pileout.
While the rewards for using Villa effectively can be high, there are a few pitfalls to be aware of. First, Villa is a stop card, so adding copies to your deck can negatively affect your deck control and increase your need for draw. In other words, while Villa may act as a significant accelerant on your current shuffle, it is important to be aware of its effect on your future shuffles. Second, your deck may stall if you have terminal Actions you want to use but are unable to afford Villa. This can happen if you trash your Coppers and gain terminal Actions too aggressively, or if you take on too much . Third, the Villa pile is limited and prone to empty quickly, both because of its tendency to accelerate games and because buying and playing a Villa is Buy-neutral. Planning for this is generally important, for two reasons:
- You should be aware of how functional your deck will be without the ability to gain more Villas. For example, it will be significantly more likely to dud if you were relying on Villa’s on-gain effect as a way to play Treasures before your draw-to-X cards. Occasionally, it can be worthwhile to empty the Villa pile to create this type of problem for your opponents.
- Pileouts can happen very rapidly in Kingdoms with Villa, both because it provides +Buy and more specifically because it can autopile with enough or cost reduction, especially given that each copy you buy refunds you from its price. Thus, it is very important to make sure your use of the on-gain effect does not leave your opponent an opportunity to pile out for a win.
While it is relatively rare to skip Villa entirely, there are situations in which it may be less useful. Weak Kingdoms without draw, strong terminals, or a synergy to exploit make it difficult to take advantage of its strengths, and may render it a stop card that provides only weak payload. For similar reasons, Villa is generally less desirable in the early game as you are less able to take advantage of it, and buying or gaining Villa has a somewhat high opportunity cost. For example, if you are trying to thin your deck, it may be a better idea to open with or gain another Priest. Similarly, if you are trying to spike for a Province for Tournament, adding another Tournament may be more useful than adding a Villa.
In addition to its primary benefits, the fact that Villa is gained to your hand and returns you to the Action phase enables three general classes of tactical tricks:
- Villa allows you to play cards in an unusual order, as you can play Action cards after putting Treasures into play. The most notable consequence is the ability to remove Treasures from your hand by playing them before drawing on with a draw-to-X effect, with Way of the Owl being a particularly strong synergy, since you can use it to draw many cards by playing the Villa itself. However, there are several other scenarios in which similar tricks can be applicable: you can play Treasures before playing Tactician, gain a free Villa via Alms before playing your Treasures, or take advantage of Quarry with a gainer such as Ironworks.
- Villa can allow you to put an Action card in your hand when you wouldn’t have one otherwise. This is most often useful in the opening, where it might give you early access to a Way such as Way of the Squirrel or Way of the Butterfly, or provide fodder for an effect such as Woodworkers' Guild.
- Villa also allows you to have multiple Buy phases. This means you can use effects that trigger at the start of your Buy phase multiple times in a single turn (e.g. Treasure Chest or League of Bankers), or benefit from effects that trigger at the end of your Buy phase earlier than you could otherwise (e.g. Merchant Guild).
Versions
English versions
Digital | Text | Release | Date | |
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+2 Actions +1 Buy + When you gain this, put it into your hand, +1 Action, and if it's your Buy phase return to your Action phase. |
Empires | June 2016 |
Other language versions
Trivia
Preview
Villa is a brand new type of Village to populate your empire with. The natives are restless, and they simply don't want your turns to end. Maybe the other players do, but you don't care; you're impressing them with your fancy action chain. Aside from being able to continue your turn, you of course gain the Villa itself, and maybe you needed one of those. I'm not judging. With Villa, the possibilities are endless. Or perhaps only tenfold, as the pile has to empty at some point.
As long as there are Villas left in the pile, you always have that shot at continuing your turn. And you can do it more than once in the same turn! Wow! The rulebook can't actually cover all possible turn order acronyms now. ABCD... ABABACD... ABABABABABABABCD... the list goes on, and that would have been valuable ink. Of course, as an emperor, you've begun to develop some higher-order critical thinking skills. I'm sure you can come up with your own mnemonic devices, or defer to your Mnemonic Advisor.Secret History
Relevant outtakes
Further development history
Other thoughts by Donald X.