Trading Post

Trading Post
Info
Cost
Type(s)	Action
Kingdom card?	Yes
Set	Intrigue
Illustrator(s)	Martin Hoffmann
Card text
Trash 2 cards from your hand. If you did, gain a Silver to your hand.

Trading Post is an Action card from Intrigue. It is a trasher which lets you trash 2 cards from your hand and replace them with a Silver card; this enables you to trash cards while still having enough to buy something.

FAQ

Official FAQ

• If you have only one card in hand, trash it and nothing else happens; if you have 2 or more cards in hand, trash exactly 2 of them and gain a Silver, putting it into your hand.

Strategy

Trading Post is a slow trasher and Silver gainer that can still be worthwhile, particularly if you can acquire it early on. While it only thins one net card, the difference between the cards trashed and the Silver gained is significant in the early game, especially given that you can use the Silver on the same turn. The ideal scenario for Trading Post is to buy it in the opening if you can afford it with a / split or some ancillary effect such as Borrow; this ensures that you will draw it with plenty of junk to trash and can add payload immediately, likely meaning you can afford another important pricepoint. Because of its high price and terminal nature, Trading Post is often skippable if more accessible options for thinning are available (e.g. Forager), and it’s rare to want more than one copy.

Thinning with Trading Post means it is difficult to trash a single junk card if the rest of your hand consists of good cards you would prefer to not trash. Occasionally, it can be worth selecting a Silver as one of your trashing targets, which produces the net effect of trashing a single card without gaining anything; once you have got rid of your junk, turning two Silvers into one can also be useful if you need to continue to thin stop cards.

Versions

English versions

Print	Digital	Text	Release	Date
		Trash 2 cards from your hand. If you do, gain a Silver card; put it into your hand.	Intrigue 1st Edition	July 2009
		Trash 2 cards from your hand. If you did, gain a Silver to your hand.	Intrigue 2nd Edition	October 2016

Other language versions

Language	Name	Print	Digital	Text	Notes
Chinese	商棧 (pron. shāngzhàn, lit. inn)
Czech	Obchodní místo (lit. place of business)
Dutch	Handelspost			Vernietig 2 kaarten uit je hand. Als je dit doet, pak dan een zilverkaart en neem deze in je hand.	(2009)
Finnish	Kauppa-asema
French	Comptoir
German	Handelsposten			Entsorge 2 deiner Handkarten. Wenn du das getan hast, nimm ein Silber auf deine Hand.	2. Edition (2021) one or more other versions listed here
Hungarian	Vándorpiac (lit. wandering market)
Italian	Stazione Commerciale
Japanese	交易所 (pron. kōekijo)			手札2枚を廃棄する。2枚を廃棄した場合、 銀貨1枚を手札に獲得する。
Korean	교역소 (pron. gyoyeogso)
Norwegian	Handelsstasjon
Polish	Faktoria			Wyrzuć na śmietnisko 2 karty z ręki. Jeśli to zrobisz, dodaj kartę Srebrników i weź ją na rękę.	(2016)
Russian	Фактория (pron. faktoriya)			Выкиньте 2 карты из руки. Тогда получите Серебро в руку.
Spanish	Puesto Comercial			Elimina 2 cartas de tu mano. Si lo haces, ganas una carta de Plata, que pones en tu mano.	(2009)
	Puesto Comercial			Elimina 2 cartas de tu mano. Si lo haces, ganas una carta de Plata, que pones en tu mano.	Segunda Edición (2016) "…, que pones poniéndola en tu mano."

Trivia

Official card art.

Secret History

This was originally in the main set, from way back when. When the main set went from 25 cards down to 20 cards, I cut this as being somewhat redundant with Mine. When we went back up to 25, I didn't add this back in; I wanted more variety. It does not seem nearly as redundant here. It's not the Smithy / Envoy problem; Trading Post and Mine are plenty different, they're just both ways to improve your money. It's more of a Smithy / Library / Council Room deal. But you know there was only so much space in the main set.

This card started out as "trash a card from your hand; gain another card with the same cost." That's incredibly weak, which was immediately obvious. After a few quick iterations I ended up with Trading Post as it exists today.

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

Started out as a way to trade a card for another of the same cost. Well that's awful. I thought of trading specifically for Silver and that's what it does. People would talk about melding treasure or victory cards - turn two Coppers into a Silver, turn three Estates into a Duchy - but that simple concept required way too many words. I could just turn two things into Silver specifically though and hey sometimes it would be two Coppers.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, The Continued Secret History of the Early Dominion Cards

Retrospective

As a source of trashing, Trading Post is bad. It's too strong turn one and too weak after that. I considered replacing it in 2E (but, too much competition).

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Dominion Discord, 2020