Contraband

Contraband
Info
Cost
Type(s)	Treasure
Kingdom card?	Yes
Set	Prosperity
Illustrator(s)	RC Torres
Card text
+1 Buy The player to your left names a card. You can’t buy that card this turn.

Contraband is a Treasure card from Prosperity. It is worth , like Gold, but also gives +buy and costs less. However, it comes with the drawback that you will be prohibited from buying a particular card that your opponent names.

It was removed from the second edition of Prosperity and replaced with War Chest, which has the same basic concept but is less confining to the player.

FAQ

Official FAQ

• When you play this, you get and +1 Buy.
• The player to your left names a card, and you cannot buy the named card this turn.
• This does not stop you from gaining the card in ways other than buying it (such as via Hoard [or Dominate]).
• They do not have to name a card in the Supply.
• If you play multiple Contrabands in one turn, the player to your left names a card each time; if they name different cards, you cannot buy any of the named cards this turn.
• If you play Contraband before other Treasures, you hide how much you will have; however the number of cards left in a player's hand is public information.

Strategy

Before it was removed, Contraband was a weak Kingdom Treasure that was usually skippable. It is somewhat similar to Gold and suffers from the same problems, namely that it has a high opportunity cost and is usually not as efficient in terms of per stop card as Action-based payload. The addition of +Buy and the fact that Contraband is slightly cheaper are small advantages, but in many situations giving your opponent the ability to prevent you from buying the card you most want on a given turn negates the benefit of both the +Buy and the generated by Contraband.

Contraband can be more viable than usual in the presence of strong Events that you’ll want to purchase frequently, as your opponents can only deny you card purchases. Ideally, these Events are the best way to score   (e.g. Dominate or Triumph), and the other payload options are weak. When it’s used for this purpose, the fact that Contraband is cheaper than Gold can make building slightly easier. For example, you might buy it on turn 3 or 4 with the goal of spiking for Inheritance in the next reshuffle.

Contraband can also occasionally be usable as a last resort source of +Buy, although you must consider the value of multiple suboptimal purchases compared to the single best purchase for your deck. In most Kingdoms, this will be a fairly large gap; however, if your game plan is flexible enough and the Kingdom offers a rich enough variety of options, Contraband may be worthwhile in the absence of better options for gains. Most notably, if there are many different viable engine pieces available, such as multiple alternatives for both villages and draw, the prospect of being able to build more quickly than with a single gain per turn could allow Contraband to pay off. Even then, you’ll usually want no more than one copy, since adding more allows your opponent to restrict your choices even further, and it’s likely to be a dead card once you start greening, most commonly because Province will be critical in scoring and playing Contraband would allow your opponent to prevent you from buying them at all. It may sometimes be worthwhile to skip playing Contraband even during building, if you especially need to buy one specific card that you can afford without using it.

Since your opponent selects the card you are not allowed to buy immediately after you play Contraband, it’s usually best to play it at a point where they have as little information as possible about the rest of your turn, as this will make it more difficult for them to know which buy would be both affordable and most beneficial for you. Generally, this just means playing Contraband before your other Treasures in order to hide your total available . Even then, it’s likely that your opponent can track or estimate the amount of you will be able to generate.

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.

• WanderingWinder's 2012 article

Versions

English versions

Print	Digital	Text	Release	Date
		+1 Buy When you play this, the player to your left names a card. You can’t buy that card this turn.	Prosperity	October 2010
		+1 Buy When you play this, the player to your left names a card. You can’t buy that card this turn.	Prosperity (2016 printing)	February 2017
		+1 Buy The player to your left names a card. You can’t buy that card this turn.	Prosperity (2020 printing)	October 2020

Other language versions

Language	Name	Print	Digital	Text	Notes
Chinese	違禁品			+1 購買 當你打出此卡時，你左邊的玩家可以指名一張卡，你這回合不能購買該卡。
Czech	Kontraband
Dutch	Smokkelwaar			+1 Aanschaf Als je deze kaart speelt, noemt de speler links van je een kaart. Je mag deze kaart deze beurt niet kopen.
Finnish	Hämärät varat (lit. murky assets)
French	Contrebande
German	Schmuggelware			+1 Kauf Wenn du diese Karte ausspielst, nennt dein linker Mitspieler eine Karte. Diese Karte darfst du in diesem Zug nicht kaufen.	(2016) one or more other versions listed here
German	Schmuggelware			+1 Kauf Dein linker Mitspieler nennt eine Karte. Du darfst jene in diesem Zug nicht kaufen.	(Nachdruck 2021)
Italian	Contrabbando
Japanese	禁制品 (pron. kinseihin)			+1 購入 左隣のプレイヤーはカード1枚を指定する。このターン、あなたはそのカードを購入できない。
Polish	Kontrabanda			+1 zakup Kiedy zagrywasz tę kartę, gracz po twojej lewej stronie wymienia nazwę karty. W tej turze nie możesz kupić karty o tej nazwie.	(2016)
Russian	Контрабанда (pron. kontrabanda)
Spanish	Contrabando

Trivia

Official card art.

Secret History

Another card that didn't change from the first version, except for a wording tweak.

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

Second edition removal

Contraband was a cool idea, but you basically never want it. You want to buy the cards you want, especially when it's oh Provinces. And being a Gold for $5 doesn't make up the difference.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Prosperity 2E Preview 1