Basic cards
From DominionStrategy Wiki
- For cards from the Base set, see Base cards.
Basic cards are those cards in the supply (or players' starting decks) that are not kingdom cards. Dominion introduced Copper, Silver, Gold, Estate, Duchy, Province, and Curse as basic cards, and other expansions have added to their ranks. The Base cards expansion has new basic cards with individual illustrations.
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Basic Treasures
- Copper is a treasure that produces + when played. Coppers cost , meaning they are "free," although they use up a buy. Each player starts with 7 Coppers in his deck. Copper is usually not desirable in one's deck, and is usually fodder for trashers when trashers are present in the kingdom.
- Silver is a treasure that produces + and costs . It is a common opening buy. Every kingdom card that costs competes with Silver, making the "Silver test" ("Is this card really better than Silver for my deck?") something to consider.
- Gold is a treasure that produces + and costs . It is a valuable card for most decks, and is a very popular buy with and to spend, barring any other important cards in the kingdom with that same price range.
Basic Victory cards
- Estate is a victory card that gives 1 and costs . Each player starts with three Estates in his deck. Like Copper, Estates are undesirable in one's deck at the beginning of the game, but unlike Copper, they can be crucial in the endgame when every point matters. For this reason, they are often bought at the end of games, usually when one is unable to buy a Province or Duchy.
- Duchy is a victory card that gives 3 and costs . Duchies are usually not bought until the endgame where one cannot afford a Province or one is observing the Penultimate Province Rule.
- Province is a victory card that gives 6 and costs . The goal for most players is to buy as many Provinces as possible, since they are the most valuable victory card in every game (except in Colony games).
Curse
- Curse is card that gives –1 and costs . Players rarely intentionally add a Curse to their own decks, but there are some Kingdom cards that can cause other players to gain Curses as an Attack or penalty. However, Curse is always in the supply, even in games that do not include such Kingdom cards.
Special basic cards
A few expansions provide additional basic cards.
- Alchemy includes Potion, a Treasure card that produces when played and costs . It is added to the supply in games using Kingdom cards with in their cost.
- Prosperity includes Platinum, a Treasure card that produces + and costs , and Colony, a Victory card that gives 10 and costs . These may be included in the supply in games using Kingdom cards from Prosperity.
- Dark Ages includes Ruins, a collection of weak Action cards costing , which, like Curses, are distributed by some Kingdom cards (called Looters) as an Attack or penalty. Ruins are added to the supply in games using Looters. Dark Ages also includes Shelters, cards costing which can replace Estates in players' starting decks and never appear in the supply; these may be used in games including Kingdom cards from Dark Ages.