Philosopher's Stone

Philosopher's Stone
Info
Cost
Type(s)	Treasure
Kingdom card?	Yes
Set	Alchemy
Illustrator(s)	Jacob Corn
Card text
Count your deck and discard pile. + per 5 cards total between them (round down).

Philosopher's Stone is a Treasure card from Alchemy. It generates more in huge, bulky decks. It does not count cards in your hand or in play.

FAQ

Official FAQ

• When you play this, count the number of cards in your deck and discard pile combined, divide by 5, and round down. That is how many this produces for you.
• Once played, the amount of you got does not change even if the number of cards changes later in the turn.
• Make sure not to change the order of your deck when counting it; the order of your discard pile does not matter.
• You will get to look through your discard pile as you count it.
• You only count your deck and discard pile, not your hand or cards in play or set aside cards.

Other Rules clarifications

• It is sometimes possible to play multiple copies of Philosopher's Stone that give different amounts of . For example, if you have 20 cards in your deck and play this, it produces . Then, you could play a Crystal Ball (from Prosperity), which could cause you to reveal and play another copy of this. When you play the second copy, you would only have 19 cards in your deck, so it would only produce .

Strategy

Philosopher's Stone is an extremely weak Kingdom Treasure that is almost never worth buying. You should only consider gaining it in exceptional cases where it has both an unusually low opportunity cost and a chance of actually generating significant . Philosopher's Stone is easier to gain if you already have Potion for another purpose or if you have a Treasure gainer like Hero or Tragic Hero, but even then the opportunity cost is usually still prohibitively high, as it's highly likely there are better targets for either effect.

In addition to its cost, the other main problem with Philosopher’s Stone is that its payload scales with the amount of your deck that you have not drawn, and that that scaling is relatively slow. The former means that Philosopher’s Stone works very poorly with engines, for which an undrawn deck usually indicates unrealized potential. The latter means that Philosopher’s Stone compares poorly to alternatives, even mediocre ones such as Gold. In order for Philosopher's Stone to be a good payload option, you would need to have a large deck with poor draw, since cards in play or in hand don't count for with Philosopher's Stone. This is most likely in the case of a heavy slog. However, under these conditions it is often difficult to afford for Philosopher's Stone or to play it often enough to make it worthwhile. Therefore, you would additionally need to have some effect to help you find the Philosopher's Stone in your large deck: strong sifting effects (like Warehouse) or topdecking effects (such as Scavenger, Herbalist, or Harbinger) may work. Strong draw, which is usually the primary way to find and play important cards, is counterproductive in this case because it reduces the amount of that Philosopher’s Stone generates.

Rarely, it may be worth gaining Philosopher's Stone as a way to score  , most notably with Keep or Museum. In the case of Keep, the presence of two additional Treasures (in Potion and Philosopher’s Stone) increases the total amount of   available, and purchasing both a Potion and Philosopher’s Stone may be a relatively cheap way to score 10 . Keep also tends to lead to large decks with lots of Treasures and therefore little deck control, which may make Philosopher’s Stone viable payload.

Versions

English versions

Print	Digital	Text	Release	Date
		When you play this, count your deck and discard pile. Worth per 5 cards total between them (rounded down).	Alchemy	May 2010
		When you play this, count your deck and discard pile. Worth per 5 cards total between them (round down).	Alchemy (2018 printing)	December 2018
		Count your deck and discard pile. + per 5 cards total between them (round down).	Alchemy (2021 printing)	2021

Other language versions

Language	Name	Print	Digital	Text	Notes
Chinese	賢者之石 (pron. xiánzhě zhī shí)
Czech	Kámen mudrců			Když zahraješ tuto kartu, sečti dohromady karty ve svém dobíracím a odkládacím balíčku. Získáš za každých 5 karet ve svých balíčcích (zaokrouhleno dolů).
Dutch	Steen der wijzen
Finnish	Viisasten kivi
French	Pierre philosophale
German	Stein der Weisen			Wenn du diese Karte ausspielst, zähle die Karten deines Nachzieh- und deines Ablagestapels: Wert pro insgesamt 5 sich darin befindenden Karten (abgerundet).	(2019)
	Stein der Weisen			Zähle die Karten in deinem Nachzieh­stapel und Ablage­stapel. + pro 5 Karten der Summe der beiden Stapel (abgerundet).
Italian	Pietra Filosofale
Japanese	賢者の石 (pron. kenja no ishi)			山札と捨て札の合計枚数を数え、5枚(端数切り捨て)につき。
Polish	Kamień filozoficzny				Although Polish version is not released, this name is referred to in Polish Dominion 2E rulebook.
Russian	Философский Камень (pron. filosofskiy kamen')			Когда вы играете эту карту, посчитайте карты вашых колоды и сброса. Эта карта приносит за каждые 5 карт суммы (с округлением вниз).
Spanish	Piedra Filosofal			Cuando la pongas en juego, cuenta las cartas que hay en tu mazo y en tu pila de descartes. + por cada 5 cartas que tengas en total (redondeando hacia abajo).

Trivia

Official card art.

Philosopher's Stone is the only -costing card that gives +.

Preview

This one is tricky. You want to draw through your deck in order to play it more often. But when you play out that line of Villages and Smithies, suddenly your cards aren't in your deck anymore, and Philosopher's Stone doesn't make you any money. You want ways to draw it more often that don't actually put cards into play or your hand. That sends you into the realm of underappreciated cards like Chancellor and Navigator. Or hey, Herbalist.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Dominion: Alchemy Preview

Secret History

This started out as an action, "+1 Buy, + per 4 cards left in your deck." It was in the original Alchemy, but I considered it for the main set at one point (when Gardens moved there). Eventually I brought it back as a treasure. First it counted cards left in your deck. Some people don't like how huge the variance is on that though. I can make a card here and there like that, but not too many. I dropped it, then later brought it back with "put your deck into your discard pile" (and then it counted your discard pile). That still had high variance, a different way; you might draw it immediately after shuffling, which was a lot better than not drawing it immediately. Finally I changed it to how it is now. The random element is completely gone; it still isn't consistent, due to card-drawing and such, but that's your own problem.

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

Retrospective

I could have swapped Philosopher's Stone with Bank. Bank was originally in this set, and the only reason I took it out was because Alchemy got pushed ahead of Prosperity, and Prosperity introduced treasures where the order of played treasures mattered. Philosopher's Stone did not quite require all of the rules that Bank did. But I could have sucked it up and had Bank anyway. It's a good fit for the set otherwise. And Philosopher's Stone, it is not such a slow card, but people sure think it is.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, What Donald X. Might Do With a Dominion Time Machine