War Chest

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War Chest
Info
Cost $5
Type(s) Treasure
Kingdom card? Yes
Set Prosperity
Illustrator(s) Lynell Ingram
Card text
The player to your left names a card. Gain a card costing up to $5 that hasn't been named for War Chest this turn.

War Chest is a Treasure card from the second edition of Prosperity. It is a gainer that allows your opponent to block you from gaining a specific card.

It replaces Contraband, a similar removed card from the first edition of Prosperity

FAQ

Official FAQ

  • The first War Chest you play in a turn can't gain whatever card they name; the second can't gain the card they name, or the card they previously named, and so on.
  • The gained card comes from the Supply and is put into your discard pile.
  • You can still gain the named cards other ways, just not via War Chests.
  • They do not have to name a card in the Supply; however War Chest gains a card from the Supply, and puts it into your discard pile.

Other Rules clarifications

Strategy

War Chest is generally only strong in Kingdoms with two or more other desirable 5-cost cards. Additionally, those 5-cost options should not be terminal draw or other cards which anti-synergize with themselves. Multiple War Chests in one hand get worse rapidly, and therefore a third War Chest is almost always a mistake and even a second copy is weak.

A War Chest will, at worst, gain a Silver, and in the late game will likely gain a 5 of your choice from the kingdom as your opponent will ban Duchy. However, this is quite weak for the price.

The usual best case for War Chest is a kingdom with either multiple engine cards that synergize and self-synergize, or a mix of strong terminal actions and strong Treasures, some at $5 and some at $4. In this case, the pieces banned by your neighbor can be purchased normally.

However, this situation tends to present other opening moves which are competitive, so War Chest tends to be powerful only on boards where something else is even more powerful, making it always stack up poorly against its competition.

Versions

English versions

Print Digital Text Release Date
War Chest War Chest from Shuffle iT The player to your left names a card. Gain a card costing up to $5 that hasn't been named for War Chest this turn. Prosperity (Second Edition) June 2022

Other language versions

Language Name Print Digital Text Notes
German Waffenkiste German language War Chest from Shuffle iT Dein linker Mitspieler nennt eine Karte. Nimm eine Karte, die bis zu $5 kostet und die in diesem Zug noch nicht für eine Waffenkiste genannt wurde.

Trivia

Official card art.

Preview

Contraband was a cool idea, but you basically never want it. You want to buy the cards you want, especially when it's oh Provinces. And being a Gold for $5 doesn't make up the difference.

War Chest fixes that by being a big Workshop; there just have to be two things you'd be happy to gain with it.

Secret History

The new Contraband. It gains a $5; probably that will be good, even though they can block what you most wanted. I tried a smaller one first.


Cards $3 AnvilWatchtower $4 BishopClerkInvestmentTiaraMonumentQuarryWorker's Village $5 CharlatanCityCollectionCrystal BallMagnateMintRabbleVaultWar Chest $6 Hoard $6* Grand Market $7 BankExpandForgeKing's Court $8star Peddler $9 Platinum $11 Colony
Removed cards $3 LoanTrade Route $4 Talisman $5 ContrabandCounting HouseMountebankRoyal SealVenture $6 Goons
Combos and Counters Bishop/FortressCounting House/Travelling FairGolden deck
Other concepts Victory tokens

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