Gear

Gear
Info
Cost
Type(s)	Action - Duration
Kingdom card?	Yes
Set	Adventures
Illustrator(s)	Marco Morte
Card text
+2 Cards Set aside up to 2 cards from your hand face down (under this). At the start of your next turn, put them into your hand.

Gear is an Action-Duration card from Adventures. It is a terminal draw card that can save other cards in your hand for next turn, which may help you soften the impact of terminal collision.

FAQ

Official FAQ

• You may set aside zero, one, or two cards from your hand. Put them face down under the Gear; you may look at them. They do not have to be cards you drew with Gear.
• If you set aside zero cards, Gear will be discarded the same turn you played it; if you set aside one or two cards, you put them into your hand at the start of your next turn, and Gear is discarded at the end of that turn.

Other Rules clarifications

• If you Throne Room a Gear, but only set aside cards once, you still leave Throne Room in play. The same logic applies to other Throne Room variants.

Strategy

Gear is a powerful terminal draw card that can also set aside cards for your next turn, thereby working in a similar way to Duration draw. Flexibly moving cards between turns is a very strong tool for deck control, because it can:

• Resolve terminal collisions or dead draws by setting aside Action cards;
• Smooth out generation between turns or spike higher price points;
• Facilitate colliding particular cards, such as a trasher with the desired target;
• Set aside junk or Victory cards and cause them to miss a reshuffle, effectively acting as temporary thinning;
• Set up the start of your next turn by setting aside relevant Actions, such as a village or draw card.

Several of these attributes are very useful in the opening, and as such Gear is generally an extremely strong opening buy for the control it gives you over your early turns. Some specific situations in which it shines include:

1. Opening with another terminal (likely a trasher such as Priest) alongside Gear: in case of a collision, you can simply set aside the other terminal for your next turn.
2. Playing Gear on turn 3 guarantees that you will see the entirety of a standard 12-card shuffle over the course of turns 3 and 4. This can allow you to plan out what to buy between these two turns with greater precision, and is often useful if you want to hit a specific set of price points (e.g. and $3P) or a relatively high price point (such as Inheritance).
3. If you play Gear on turn 4, it will miss the reshuffle but does let you set aside junk cards (ideally Estates) that will also miss the reshuffle.

Later in the game, it’s generally a good idea to partner an initial Gear with at least one additional Gear. Doing so can allow you to alternate between Gears each turn, consistently setting up the following turn and maximizing the use of your available terminal space. Whether additional Gears are likely to be an efficient way to increase your hand size depends on how many cards you have that can be productively set aside. Gears that set no cards aside only increase hand size at the same rate as Moat, so other draw cards are likely to be more efficient unless there is strong village support (notably Champion and Lost Arts).

When setting aside with Gear, it’s generally best to play your Gears after other cards that draw, so that you can make an informed decision in picking which cards to set aside. If you play multiple Gears in a turn, it's usually best to keep as few of them as possible in play until next turn to maximize your future draw, so it’s generally preferable to consolidate the cards you want to set aside on as few Gears as possible.

Gear’s smoothing and terminal draw lead it to function very well in money strategies. If the Kingdom lacks the potential to build a strong engine, or if there are other compatible enablers of money strategies available (e.g. Crop Rotation), a Gear-centric strategy will often be dominant.

Gear synergizes well with effects such as Banish which appreciate its ability to set up specific hands. Trade is particularly notable, as with three Gears (two in the opening and one soon after) you can quickly convert several of your starting cards into Silvers, and then either start greening very early or pivot into a more standard build.

External strategy articles

Note: Article(s) below are by individual authors and may not represent the community's current views on cards, but may provide more in-depth information or give historical perspective. Caveat emptor.

• aku chi's 2018 article

Versions

English versions

Print	Digital	Text	Release	Date
		+2 Cards Set aside up to 2 cards from your hand face down. At the start of your next turn, put them into your hand.	Adventures 1st Edition	April 2015
		+2 Cards Set aside up to 2 cards from your hand face down (under this). At the start of your next turn, put them into your hand.	Adventures 2nd Edition	August 2017

Other language versions

Language	Name	Print	Digital	Text	Notes
Dutch	Uitrusting			+2 Kaarten Leg ten hoogste 2 kaarten uit je hand gedekt opzij. Neem deze aan het begin van je volgende beurt in je hand.	(2015)
Finnish	Varusteet
French	Équipement
German	Ausrüstung			+2 Karten Lege bis zu 2 Handkarten verdeckt zur Seite. Zu Beginn deines nächsten Zuges: Nimm die zur Seite gelegten Karten auf die Hand.	(2015)
German	Ausrüstung			+2 Karten Lege bis zu 2 deiner Handkarten verdeckt (unter diese Karte) zur Seite. Zu Beginn deines nächsten Zuges: nimm sie auf deine Hand.	(Nachdruck 2021)
Japanese	道具 (pron. dōgu, lit. tools)			+2 カードを引く 手札から2枚以下を脇に伏せて置く。あなたの次のターンの開始時に、それらを手札に加える。
Polish	Narzędzia				Although Polish version is not released, this name is referred to in Polish Dominion 2E rulebook.
Russian	Снаряжение (pron. snaryazhyeniye)

Trivia

Official card art.

Secret History

I tried a village that had you draw two cards, picking one to have this turn and one for next turn. I liked that part but had too many villages. I tried it on a Reserve card that set aside the top 2 cards of your deck until you wanted them, but if they were duds you'd let them sit there all game and that wasn't the fun part of the concept. I changed it to draw four, pick two for this turn; that was crazy at . Then it was draw 3, save however many you want for next turn, still at ; still crazy. In its current shrunk form it was still a card to watch. It doesn't look like much, just +2 Cards something something, but it's got some tricks up its sleeve.

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

Donald X.'s opinion

Gear looks innocent. +2 Cards, I can get that from Moat.

It has the coin token effect of helping you hit exactly , or whatever number. Only better because coin tokens don't stop you from overshooting. It reduces terminal clash issues a little. And there's a subtle benefit in making   cards miss shuffles.

It is a prime Lost Arts target.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Let's Discuss Adventures Cards: Gear