Stonemason

Stonemason
Info
Cost
Type(s)	Action
Kingdom card?	Yes
Set	Guilds
Illustrator(s)	Lorraine Schleter
Card text
Trash a card from your hand. Gain 2 cards each costing less than it. Overpay: Gain 2 Action cards each costing the amount overpaid.

Stonemason is an Action card from Guilds. It main function is its overpay ability, allowing you to gain two Action cards at a time; once it's in your deck, it is a trash-for-benefit card that lets you turn one card into two cards that each cost less than it.

FAQ

Official FAQ (2023)

• When you play this, trash a card from your hand, and gain two cards each costing less than the card you trashed.
• Trashing a card is not optional.
• If you do not have any cards left in your hand to trash, you do not gain any cards.
• The two cards you gain can be different or the same. For example you could trash a Gold to gain a Duchy and a Silver.
• Gaining cards is not optional if you trashed a card.
• If there are no cheaper cards in the Supply (for example if you trash a Copper), you do not gain any.
• The cards you gain are gained one at a time; this may matter with cards that do something when gained, such as Inn from Dominion: Hinterlands.
• When you buy this, you may choose to overpay for it. If you do, you gain two Action cards each costing exactly the amount you overpaid.
• The Action cards can be different or the same. For example, if you buy Stonemason for , you could gain two Heralds.
• If there are no cards with the appropriate cost in the Supply, you do not gain one.
• Overpaying with a (from Dominion: Alchemy) will let you gain cards with in the cost.
• If you choose not to overpay, you will not gain any cards from that ability; it is not possible to use it to gain Action cards costing .

Other rules clarifications

• If you gain this without buying it, you can't overpay for it.
• You can't overpay with , meaning you can't overpay by to gain 2 City Quarters.
• To overpay and gain an Animal Fair, you have to overpay .
• In 2022, the rules for overpaying got errata so that now you gain the Stonemason before you gain the cards from the overpay effect. This may matter for cards like Destrier and Wayfarer.

Deprecated official FAQ (2017)

When you play this, trash a card from your hand, and gain two cards each costing less than the card you trashed. Trashing a card is not optional. If you do not have any cards left in your hand to trash, you do not gain any cards. The two cards you gain can be different or the same. For example you could trash a Gold to gain a Duchy and a Silver. Gaining cards is not optional if you trashed a card. If there are no cheaper cards in the Supply (for example if you trash a Copper), you do not gain any. The cards you gain are gained one at a time; this may matter with cards that do something when gained, such as Inn from Dominion: Hinterlands. When you buy this, you may choose to overpay for it. If you do, you gain two Action cards each costing exactly the amount you overpaid. The Action cards can be different or the same. For example, if you buy Stonemason for , you could gain two Heralds. If there are no cards with the appropriate cost in the Supply, you do not gain one. Overpaying with a (from Dominion: Alchemy) will let you gain cards with in the cost. If you choose not to overpay, you will not gain any cards from that ability; it is not possible to use it to gain Action cards costing .

Deprecated rules clarifications (2015 2017 2021)

Cards gained through the on-play effect or overpay effect are chosen and gained separately. For example, if there is one Crossroads left in the pile, and you overpay by for Stonemason, you can't choose 2 Crossroads, then try to gain 2 Crossroads, failing to get the second one. You choose to gain 1 Crossroads, and then Crossroads is no longer an option for you to choose, forcing you to choose a different Action costing as your second gain. This also means that the second card can always be Wayfarer if that card is in the kingdom. Since each card is gained separately, the first card you gain from overpaying sets Wayfarer at the same price, whatever it was prior to that. Similarly, you can't get two Destriers by overpaying; gaining the first one reduces the cost of the next one, so it no longer costs the amount you overpaid. You can't overpay with . This means you can't overpay by to gain 2 City Quarters. If you want to overpay to gain an Animal Fair, you have to overpay , and you can't trash an Action card from your hand.

Strategy

Stonemason functions primarily as a powerful gainer; its lacklustre thinning ability is usually largely irrelevant. Stonemason is a versatile card that both accelerates deck-building in the early-to-midgame and is among the very best in the game at causing rapid pile-outs.

Overpaying for one or two Stonemasons is likely to be well worthwhile in the fairly early stages of constructing an engine. You can (for example) use a single Buy and or to gain two or cards, plus the Stonemason itself. The latter is mainly a hindrance at this stage: it’s a terminal stop card whose on-play effect is only marginally helpful in achieving deck control, since you normally can’t use it to trash Estates without gaining more junk, and it thins only one Copper at a time. Its on-buy effect is generally strong enough to compensate for this and make Stonemason a good early purchase anyway. Cheap cards that you want many copies of (e.g. Lackeys) can promote an early Stonemason overpayment in order to get two of them, perhaps during the opening; this ability is also especially powerful when the Kingdom offers multiple useful and/or complementary cards at a particular pricepoint, e.g. Bazaar and Journeyman, since gaining these in pairs can be highly beneficial for your deck. How often you should keep engaging in this manoeuvre as you move into the midgame is partly dependent on your deck’s ability to handle the Stonemasons themselves without stalling: for example, overpaying repeatedly is likely to be more attractive if the draw is very strong, there’s a useful Way (e.g. Way of the Horse), or you can upgrade some of the Stonemasons using a trash-for-benefit effect.

You usually won’t want to dispose of all your Stonemasons, because their on-play effect often becomes very valuable later in the game. Once you have many expensive cards in your deck and perhaps other good ways to add more of them (e.g. a Gold-gainer), you can use Stonemason to repeatedly trash (for example) a Gold in exchange for two Action cards. This is particularly useful if you have overdraw, enabling you to gain-and-play the newly-acquired cards. By this stage, it becomes important to monitor the Supply piles and your opponents’ capabilities carefully, as Stonemason’s on-buy and on-play abilities combine to threaten a pile-out unusually early. Each one you play provides two gains, and each of your Buys equates to three potential gains: for instance, if six cards remain in the Stonemason pile itself, it can be emptied for only and two Buys. Although most Victory cards can’t be gained via Stonemason’s overpay effect, it’s common to use its on-play effect to score   towards the end of the game, especially during a pile-out turn, for example by trashing a Gold to gain two Duchies.

Like most trash-for-benefit cards, Stonemason requires some caution when used in combination with cost reduction; this consideration sometimes applies to its overpay effect too, since you can’t overpay to gain cards costing . Moderate cost reduction is often a synergy, however: for example, a single Quarry lets you pay just to buy Stonemason and gain two cards that normally cost each. Similarly, moving your Ferry token to Stonemason can provide more flexible cost reduction than the Event usually offers.

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.

• werothegreat's 2013 article
• slides from 2021 coaching session

Versions

English versions

Print	Digital	Text	Release	Date
		Trash a card from your hand. Gain 2 cards each costing less than it. When you buy this, you may overpay for it. If you do, gain 2 Action cards each costing the amount you overpaid.	Guilds	June 2013
		Trash a card from your hand. Gain 2 cards each costing less than it. When you buy this, you may overpay for it. If you do, gain 2 Action cards each costing the amount you overpaid.	Guilds & Cornucopia (2017 printing)	March 2018
		Trash a card from your hand. Gain 2 cards each costing less than it. Overpay: Gain 2 Action cards each costing the amount overpaid.	Rephrasing overpay Cornucopia & Guilds (Second Edition)	June 29, 2022 March 2024

Other language versions

Language	Name	Print	Digital	Text	Notes
Dutch	Steenhouwer				The Dutch card text says to gain two cards on overpay, instead of two Actions.
Finnish	Kivenhakkaaja
French	Tailleur de pierre
German	Steinmetz			Entsorge eine Karte aus deiner Hand. Nimm 2 Karten, die jeweils weniger als die entsorgte Karte kosten. Wenn du diese Karte kaufst, darfst du mehr dafür zahlen. Falls du das tust, nimmst du 2 Aktionskarten, die jeweils so viel kosten, wie du zusätzlich bezahlt hast.	(2013)
	Steinmetz			Entsorge eine deiner Handkarten. Nimm 2 Karten, die jeweils weniger kosten als sie. Wenn du diese Karte kaufst, darfst du überzahlen. Wenn du das tust, nimm 2 Aktionskarten, die jeweils genauso viel kosten, wie du überzahlt hast.	(2019)
	Steinmetz			Entsorge eine deiner Handkarten. Nimm 2 Karten, die jeweils weniger kosten als sie. Überzahlen: Nimm 2 Aktionskarten, die jeweils genauso viel kosten, wie du überzahlt hast.
Japanese	石工 (pron. ishiku)			手札1枚を廃棄する。それよりコストが安いカード2枚を獲得する。 これを購入するとき、追加でコストを支払ってもよい。 支払った場合、追加で払ったコストと同コストのアクションカード2枚を獲得する。
Korean	석공 (pron. seoggong)
Polish	Kamieniarz				Although Polish version is not released, this name is referred to in Polish Dominion 2E rulebook.
Russian	Каменщик (pron. kamyenshshik)

Trivia

Official card art.

Secret History

Some work went into this one. I tried the top with several Remodel-family overpay bottoms. The first one was, per you overpay, Expand the top card of your deck. The most promising one was, per you overpay, draw a card, then Remodel a card from your hand. In the end the crazy huge overpay turns were fun but too random. Meanwhile I tried the printed bottom with Develop on top and liked it. The bottom wanted to go on a super-cheap card, so I paired it with the printed top and moved Develop into Hinterlands.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, The Secret History of the Guild Cards

Relevant outtakes

I had a Village for with a penalty, and per you overpaid, you got another one. Foosh, a pile of Villages. It sounded good but was not exciting enough. Stonemason does a better job there. What about granting overpay to other cards, so to speak? There was a Village with, while this is in play, when you buy an action card, you may pay for another copy of that card. I liked it, but there was only so much space, and again, I had Stonemason.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, The Secret History of the Guild Cards