Woodcutter
Woodcutter | |
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Info | |
Cost | |
Type(s) | Action |
Kingdom card? | Yes |
Set | Base |
Illustrator(s) | Matthias Catrein |
Card text | |
+1 Buy + |
Woodcutter is an Action card from the first edition of the Base set. It is a terminal silver, meaning it provides + but no +Action. It provides +Buy, which allows you to buy more than one card per turn.
It was removed from the second edition of Dominion.
Contents |
FAQ
Official FAQ
- During your Buy phase, you add to the total value of the Treasure cards played, and you may buy an additional card from the Supply.
Other Rules clarifications
Strategy Article
Original article by theory
Woodcutter is the most niche card in the Base set. Its +Buy can be critical if (and this is a big if) you can make use of it and no superior alternatives exist. But with one major exception, Woodcutter almost always ends up being the least-bought Action on the table.
The value of +Buy is often underrated; in evenly-matched 2-player games, having an extra Buy gives you an important tactical edge. Even if you can’t afford to double-Province, the ability to buy the last Province with an additional Estate forces your opponent to hesitate before buying the penultimate Province; your ability to squeeze in an extra Victory card can mean the difference in an otherwise symmetrical game. Alternatively, extra Buys are important to soak up free Peddlers if they are available, or to make use of Hoard‘s Gold-gaining ability. (Note that Goons and Bridge strategies do not want Woodcutters, since more terminal Actions just means fewer Goons or Bridges getting played.)
The problem is that Woodcutter is pretty much the worst card possible for getting this Buy. By the time you’re in a position to need extra Buys, you almost certainly have the money to afford one of the far superior sources of +Buy: Festival, Goons, Market, Salvager, Wharf. Even Baron, Contraband, and Trade Route at least serve useful early game purposes; unlike all the other sources of +Buy, Woodcutter is just never worthwhile outside of its +Buy. Accordingly, Woodcutter is strictly a last resort, a source of +Buy if nothing better is available. (If you do conclude that you’ll need its Buy, then it’s probably better to buy it earlier rather than later, so you don’t have to look foolish spending on a Woodcutter.)
This is assuming, of course, that extra Buys are useful enough to justify spending an Action on. If they aren’t (for instance, in low-quality or Action-poor decks), then buying Woodcutter is simply a mistake. Although there are certain decks that make use of money-providing Actions (e.g., a double Tactician deck that King's Courts Actions for money before discarding for Tactician every turn, or a deck crammed with Villages and defending against Pirate Ships), Woodcutter is (again) usually the least helpful of the cheap Actions that give + (e.g., Swindler, Chancellor, Steward, Militia).
Woodcutter in Alt-VP Strategies
Woodcutter becomes much more useful in alt-VP strategies.
Gardens works particularly well with Woodcutter. Although Workshop and Ironworks are superior for Gardens rushes, Woodcutter, like other cheap cards which give +Buy, can be a decisive card that makes a Gardens strategy viable; although it doesn’t guarantee a Gardens like Workshop does, it allows beefing up of the deck with the extra buys, and sometimes can help you grab Duchies to compensate. In a head-to-head battle, Workshop-Gardens is probably slightly superior to Woodcutter-Gardens, but either of them dominates “normal” decks by ending the game on piles before the opponent can get his engine humming.
Woodcutter also works very well with Duke/Duchy strategies. The extra buys can be used on Silver or filterers like Warehouse or Oasis if you draw , and on Copper otherwise. Woodcutter can also help Silk Road strategies. It is usually inferior to Horse Traders or Bridge in both Duke or Silk Road strategies, but like with Gardens, it can still be a decisive card that makes these alt-VP strategies viable even in the absence of better supporting cards.
Synergies/Combos
- Alt-VP:
- Gardens, though Woodcutter+Gardens can still lose to many reasonable engine decks
- Silk Road
- Duke
- Peddler, Hoard, or other decks that need +Buy but have no other alternative
- Decks that need money-producing actions and have no other alternative
- Strategies that do not involve other terminal actions (so Woodcutter has no downside when compared to Silver)
Antisynergies
- Most other sources of +Buy
- Terminal Draw + BM, which does not need +Buy.
- Other decks that don't need +Buy.
Versions
English versions
Digital | Text | Release | Date | |
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+1 Buy. +. | Dominion 1st Edition | October 2008 |
Other language versions
Trivia
Secret History
Retrospective
Second Edition Removal