Monastery

Monastery
Info
Cost
Type(s)	Night
Kingdom card?	Yes
Set	Nocturne
Illustrator(s)	Harald Lieske
Card text
For each card you've gained this turn, you may trash a card from your hand or a Copper you have in play.

Monastery is a Night card from Nocturne. It's a trasher that allows you to trash the same number of cards that you've gained that turn. You can trash either cards from your hand or Coppers from play, meaning you can get out of your Coppers and still trash them on the same turn.

FAQ

Official FAQ

• For example if you have gained three cards, you may trash up to three cards, with each being either a card from your hand or a Copper you have in play, in any combination.
• Normally, bought cards are then gained, but cards exchanged for (such as Vampire exchanging for Bat) are not gained.

Other rules clarifications

• Cards are trashed one at a time. This matters if one of the cards you trashed draws another card; such cards drawn in the middle of trashing can be trashed by Monastery.
• Gaining cards while you trash to Monastery (for example, if you trash a Hunting Grounds) does not let you trash additional cards; you can only trash a number of cards equal to the number of cards gained that turn prior to playing Monastery.

Strategy

Monastery is a trasher whose trashing capacity scales with the number of cards you gain. Compared to strong thinning options like Chapel and Steward, it is usually much slower in the early game when you can typically gain only one card per turn, and it offers no other benefit, unlike single-card trashers such as Salvager. Once you can collide it with gainers or sources of +Buy, however, a single copy of Monastery is much more effective, trashing multiple cards at once; while this is more likely later in the game as you add draw and start to get deck control, it can still be a good idea to gain a Monastery earlier as single-card trashes may still be desirable. Monastery also has a couple of minor but unique advantages relative to other trashers: its ability to trash Coppers from play means that you can still hit price points that turn; and as a Night card, it can't be drawn dead and consumes no terminal space.

Monastery can be especially good in the early game when extra gains are available immediately or particularly abundant, although lining up Monastery with a hand that can provide these gains is usually somewhat dependent on shuffle luck before you have deck control. Examples include Lucky Coin and Stonemason's overpay effect; matching Monastery with Horse gainers such as Cavalry that gain multiple cards per turn is strong but unusual in the early game.

Because Monastery can trash Coppers in play and scales with the number of cards gained, it works relatively well in situations where you would like to buy or otherwise gain Coppers. With sufficient draw, you can expect to play and trash as many Coppers as you gain, allowing you to maintain deck control. Examples of such situations include the following:

• Buying Copper might be the cheapest way to reap the benefits of effects such as Merchant Guild, Triumph, and Guildhall. Similarly, gaining Coppers is the downside of effects such as Banquet and Treasure Trove. Monastery can help you keep the amount of junk in your deck relatively constant if you will be using these repeatedly over multiple turns.
• Beggar can act as a cheap terminal Gold with Monastery’s support. Because it gains Coppers directly to your hand, you can play them immediately and trash them at the end of your turn.

It can be reasonable to buy a Copper for the opportunity to effectively replace a card that is at least as bad for your deck, such as a Curse or Estate. This might involve buying it on a dud turn or with a spare Buy.

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.

• Chris is me's 2018 article

Versions

English versions

Print	Digital	Text	Release	Date
		For each card you've gained this turn, you may trash a card from your hand or a Copper you have in play.	Nocturne	November 2017

Other language versions

Language	Name	Print	Digital	Text
Chinese	修道院 (pron. xiūdàoyuàn)			這回合你每獲得一張卡片，你就可以移除一張你手上的卡片，或是一張你打出的銅幣。
Dutch	Klooster
French	Monastère			Pour chaque carte que vous avez reçue ce tour, vous pouvez écartez une carte de votre main ou un Cuivre en jeu.
German	Kloster			Pro Karte, die du in diesem Zug genommen hast, darfst du ein Kupfer, das du im Spiel hast, oder eine Handkarte entsorgen.
Japanese	修道院 (pron. shūdōin)			このターンに獲得したカード1枚につき、手札1枚か、場の銅貨1枚を廃棄してもよい。
Polish	Klasztor			Za każdą kartę, którą dodałeś w tej turze, możesz wyrzucić na Śmietnisko kartę z ręki lub kartę Miedziaków, którą masz w grze.
Russian	Монастырь (pron. monastyr')

Trivia

Official card art.

Secret History

One of the first Night cards was a trasher. It wasn't very interesting. Then I thought of this one and it went the distance. It calls out Copper like that because I need to avoid hitting Duration cards in play (or Thrones that played them), and "Treasures" does the trick; but really, while in some situations you'd trash another Treasure, mostly you want to trash Copper, and it's simpler to just stop there. You can trash that other Treasure from your hand if you must.

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

Relevant outtakes

The first Night trasher just trashed a card from your hand and a card from play, with a Scheme clause to handle Durations. There were more interesting things to do, so it did not last.

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