Ghost Town
Ghost Town | |
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Info | |
Cost | |
Type(s) | Night - Duration |
Kingdom card? | Yes |
Set | Nocturne |
Illustrator(s) | Marcel-André Casasola Merkle |
Card text | |
At the start of your next turn, +1 Card and +1 Action. This is gained to your hand (instead of your discard pile). |
Ghost Town is a Night-Duration card from Nocturne. It's a delayed village, doing nothing when it's played, but drawing a card and giving an Action on your next turn. It's also conveniently gained to your hand, so it can be played immediately.
Contents |
FAQ
Official FAQ
- Since Night is after the Buy phase, normally you can play this the turn you buy it.
Other rules clarifications
- If you gain this onto your deck (with e.g. Armory), you didn't gain it to your discard pile, so Ghost Town's ability doesn't trigger and it stays on your deck.
Strategy
Ghost Town is a Night card which causes your next turn to begin with a village effect. Since playing it does not require an Action, it effectively gives you one extra Action per play, despite saying only "+1 Action" on the card.
Ghost Town is often a strong auxiliary village and worth gaining at specific times in most games. One of its main functions is averting anticipated terminal collisions. If you are paying close attention to their deck, you will sometimes be able to predict that you are about to draw two terminal Action cards but no village on the following turn. Because Ghost Town is gained to your hand and can be played immediately to take effect next turn, it can prevent such collisions. For example, if you are playing a money deck that has three terminal Action cards you might notice that you have only drawn one of your terminals during the current shuffle but have 6 cards left in the deck. Knowing your remaining terminals are both coming up in the final hand of the shuffle, you may buy a Ghost Town to allow you to play both terminals on the following turn.
Opening with two terminal Action cards on turn 1 and turn 2 also becomes more desirable with Ghost Town in the Kingdom. If neither card is drawn on turn 3, the player can buy Ghost Town to resolve the likely turn 4 terminal collision, substantially reducing the downside of double-terminal openings as a true collision can only occur on turn 3.
Ghost Town’s other main advantage is its tempo effect, namely a one-time +1 Card effect that can help accelerate one’s deck in the short term. Ghost Town does not in general function as draw for the same reason Cantrip Action cards do not. While it gives +1 Card, you also have to spend 1 card of draw first drawing it to hand, leaving it draw-neutral; however, because it is gained directly to hand, you do not have to expend any draw on the initial play of Ghost Town and the very first +1 Card received is a true one card’s worth of draw. Ghost Town’s draw effect alone is thus roughly half as strong as Expedition and can occasionally be reason enough to buy Ghost Town even if you don’t value the village effect.
Finally, because Ghost Town draws a card at the start of your turn, it provides some marginal value in improving the consistency of your deck. Many engines need to find a specific combination of cards (such as Stables and Copper, or Shepherd and Estates) to kick off their draw. Seeing 6 cards to start the turn rather than 5 makes dud turns less likely.
Ghost Town’s main drawback is that, as a Duration card, it can only be played at most every other turn, because it remains in play. Over the long term, a deck that is drawing itself will need two Ghost Towns played on alternating turns to achieve the same effect as a single Village played every turn.
Ghost Town’s limitations also make it poorly suited to function as the sole or primary village of most engines. In a Kingdom with no other villages, the most Actions you could reliably generate per turn would be +5 from 10 Ghost Towns, playing 5 each turn. If your opponent contests the Ghost Town pile and you end up with half, this comes out to only +2 or +3 Actions per turn. Engines with strong non-terminal draw such as Laboratory or Hunting Party can often function with the limited terminal space afforded by Ghost Town, but engines with terminal draw such as Smithy or Action-intensive payload such as Bridge will find Ghost Town inadequate as a primary village.
The strongest counter to Ghost Town is Haunted Woods, which blocks the Night phase entirely by forcing you to topdeck your hand during the Buy phase. Ghost Town should only be bought under exceptional circumstances with Haunted Woods in the Kingdom, as it will end up being a dead card in the deck versus an opponent who plays this Attack consistently.
Versions
English versions
Digital | Text | Release | Date | |
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At the start of your next turn, +1 Card and +1 Action. This is gained to your hand (instead of your discard pile). |
Nocturne | November 2017 |
Other language versions
Trivia
Preview
Secret History
Wording
This quote also applies for Nomad Camp, Guardian, Night Watchman, and Den of Sin.