Overlord

Overlord
Info
Cost
Type(s)	Action - Command
Kingdom card?	Yes
Set	Empires
Illustrator(s)	Elisa Cella
Card text
Play a non-Command Action card from the Supply costing up to , leaving it there.

Overlord is an Action-Command card from Empires. It plays another Action in the Supply that you choose, leaving it there, and is a Debt card.

FAQ

Unofficial FAQ (2020)

• This plays a non-Command Action card from the Supply costing up to .
• Command is a type that appears on cards like this; it has no meaning beyond stopping these cards from playing each other.
• Overlord can only play the top card of a Supply pile.
• The played Action card stays in the Supply; if an effect tries to move it, such as Encampment trying to set itself aside, it will fail to move it. If the card checks to see if it was trashed, such as with Mining Village (from Intrigue), that part will fail, but if it does not, like Acting Troupe (from Renaissance), the rest of the effect will still happen.
• Since the played card is not in play, "while this is in play" abilities (like on Goons or Urchin) will not do anything.
• Leave Overlord in play until the Clean-up of the turn the card it played would have left play. Normally that means you'll discard it that turn, but if Overlord plays a Duration card, it will stay out like the Duration card would have, and if Overlord plays a card like Crown that plays a Duration card twice, it will stay out in the same way the Crown would have.
• If you play Overlord multiple times, such as with Crown, leave it out until the Clean-up of the turn that the last of the cards it played would have left play.

Other rules clarifications

Overlord, along with Band of Misfits, was one of the main cards affected by the 2019 errata. Instead of imitating the abilities of an eligible Action card in the Supply—which raised rules questions—it now simply tells you to play said card, leaving it in the Supply.

• See the tracking rules for interactions with Durations.
• Overlord plays similarly to Band of Misfits, so see the other rules clarifications there.

Deprecated official FAQ (2016)

When you play this, you pick an Action card from the Supply that costs up to , and treat this card as if it were the card you chose. Normally this will just mean that you follow the instructions on the card you picked. For example, with Village in the Supply, you could play Overlord as Village and get +1 Card +2 Actions. Overlord also gets the chosen card's cost, name, and types, until it leaves play. If you play Overlord as a card that moves itself somewhere, such as to the trash or the Supply, Overlord will do that; for example Overlord played as Encampment will be set aside and return to the Overlord pile at the start of Clean-up. If you play Overlord as a Duration card, or as a Throne Room on a Duration card, Overlord will stay in play the same way the Duration card or Throne Room would. If you play an Overlord multiple times such as via a Throne Room, you will only pick what to play it as the first time; the other times it will be the same thing. Once in play, Overlord is the thing it copied, rather than an Overlord; for example Colonnade will produce   if you buy a copy of that card, but not if you buy an Overlord. Overlord can only be played as a visible card in the Supply, and the top card of a pile; it cannot be played as a card from an empty pile, or as a card that has not been uncovered from a split pile, or as a card from a split pile that has been bought out, or as a non-Supply card (like Mercenary from Dominion: Dark Ages). Overlord cannot be played as Crown during a Buy phase, since Overlord itself is not a Treasure and so cannot be played in Buy phases.

Deprecated rules clarifications (2016 2019)

Overlord plays similarly to Band of Misfits, so see the other rules clarifications there. If you play Overlord as Band of Misfits, you will play it as an Action costing less than what Overlord costs, which will normally be when played as Band of Misfits. However, it is possible to play Overlord as Band of Misfits without putting Overlord into play, and so it reverts to being Overlord which costs ; for example if you play Necromancer and play an Overlord from the trash as a Band of Misfits, you will play it as an Action in the Supply costing less than , such as Engineer or Ruined Village.

Strategy

As a Command card, Overlord provides an alternative way of playing Action cards costing at most , which can be useful, especially in the early game. If there is a card that you would like to play as soon as possible (often a trasher or junker, for example Recruiter), opening with an Overlord can be a strong move, effectively allowing you to play the card as soon as if you had opened with /, regardless of your actual opening split. Usually when opening with Overlord, it’s best to buy it on turn 2 so you can get something else alongside it, though if there is nothing good to buy on turn 1 you can buy Overlord immediately, leaving you with only after the opening.

As with other cards costing , it’s usually best to buy Overlord immediately before shuffling your deck. This lets you get as many good cards into your shuffle as possible by delaying payment of the until the next shuffle. Often this type of play can leave you in a cycle of buying Overlord turn after turn, as you are unable to afford anything other than Overlord after repaying the from last turn’s Overlord. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it's worth considering the alternatives. If you plan on playing with a card costing or more it may be necessary to buy nothing for a turn so you can afford it. Furthermore, you usually want to buy a limited number of Overlords in total. This is because it's a very expensive card.

This high price is Overlord's main weakness. While its cost means you can buy it whenever you don’t already have , you eventually have to pay for a card that is often doing the same thing as one that costs . Thus, the benefit of Overlord’s flexibility comes mostly from the first few copies and after that other cards are more efficient. Exceptions occur when there is some other benefit from Overlord’s unusual cost, as with Smugglers (which can’t be used to poach Overlords) and Knights (which can’t trash Overlords), or with cards that have negative on-gain effects (such as Lost City and Cursed Village), or with cards such as Wine Merchant and Acting Troupe which have downsides which are mitigated when played by a Command card.

Overlord is also synergistic with cards such as Trading Post which are primarily useful the first few times you play them. In this case, it’s usually better to play Overlord as Trading Post rather than gaining an actual Trading Post, as this avoids the problem of having a dead card later on. Another notable Overlord synergy is with effects which allow you to gain multiple Overlords cheaply, some via the Exile mechanic (such as Camel Train and Transport), and some by other means (e.g. Way of the Rat and Kiln).

Overlord is best in Kingdoms where there are both strong terminals and strong non-terminals. This is because you can play Overlord as a terminal when you have the terminal space to do so and play it as a non-terminal when you do not. In this way, an Overlord gives the upside of a terminal without the downsides of terminal collision.

Versions

English versions

Print	Digital	Text	Release	Date
		Play this as if it were an Action card in the Supply costing up to . This is that card until it leaves play.	Empires	June 2016
		Play an Action card from the Supply costing up to , leaving it there.	Dominion 2019 Errata and Rules Tweaks	September 24, 2019
		Play a non-Command Action card from the Supply costing up to , leaving it there.	Empires (2021 printing)

Other language versions

Language	Name	Print	Digital	Text	Notes
Dutch	Despoot (despot)			Speel deze kaart alsof het een actiekaart uit de voorraad zou zijn die ten hoogste waard is. De Despoot blijft de gekozen kaart zolang hij in het spel is.	(2016)
Finnish	Ylipäällikkö (lit. supreme commander)
French	Seigneur (lit. lord)
German	Lehnsherr (lit. feudal lord)			Spiele diese Karte aus, als ob sie eine Aktionskarte im Vorrat wäre, die bis zu kostet. Sie bleibt diese Karte, bis sie nicht mehr im Spiel ist.	(2016)
	Lehnsherr (lit. feudal lord)			Spiele eine Nicht-Befehl-Aktions­karte aus dem Vorrat, die bis zu kostet; lasse sie dort liegen.	2. Edition (2021) Note: the rulebook FAQ 2021 for this card may be outdated and the card type misprinted
Japanese	大君主 (pron. dai-kunshu, lit. great monarch)			サプライにあるコスト以下のアクションカード1枚としてこれを使用する。これは場を離れるまで使用したカードとみなす。
Polish	Władca			Zagraj tę kartę, jakby była dowolną kartą Akcji z Zasobów nie droższą niż . Władca pozostaje tą kartą, dopóki nie opuści gry.	(2017)
Russian	Повелитель (pron. povyelityel')

Trivia

Official card art.

Secret History

Around when I found the good forms of Royal Blacksmith and City Quarter, I thought of trying a bigger Band of Misfits with . It was preceded by related cards - Trash a non-Treasure, gain an Action for up to and play it; then +1 Action, gain an Action for up to / and play it. Gaining the card is so much simpler but just madly rushes the game end. Overlord costs but doesn't obviously lock itself out from being worthwhile turn one; somehow it all works out here.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, The Secret History of the Empires Cards, 2016

Retrospective

Overlord is maybe the top misstep for me there. Cards that cost shouldn't be good to buy turn one. It makes for worse gameplay. It feeds itself; I bought Overlord, I paid off debt next turn and only have . What can I afford? Oh hey, another Overlord. "Equal opportunity" was said a lot in the early days, but it's not really a selling point for an overpowered card.

[W]hich game is more fun - the most fun game, or the most balanced game? And I go for that fun, I give up on balance when it seems like the move. In the case of Overlord, I don't think it [was] the move, specifically because of this "oh now I have , what do I buy" situation. cards play better when you don't buy them turn one. Yes Donate gets to be an exception.

I don't mind traps; it's really the nature of the Overlord trap that I mind. You keep buying Overlords because that's what you can afford, and then there you are playing a bunch of Overlords and making those decisions. But I mean any debt card, if you're encouraged to buy a bunch of it this way, you end up having less fun, even if it's good.

Whereas say when you go for Tunnel and it's totally not the move, well you are having fun, doing your Tunnel stuff. You're deciding what to buy to try to make your deck work.

It's not like anyone else comes to me with this complaint about Overlord either. But for sure, if work were ongoing on the set, I'd be changing it. It's a poor fit for debt. In playtesting we had a bunch of these cards, where you would buy the debt Lab and then oops I just have , buy another one, and the gameplay was bad every time. Overlord slipped through on the strength of, well it's doing lots of different things, your deck in some sense isn't just that one overpay card. But I'd still change it today, make the game that looks better to me.

There are all the other options. I don't need to put in the work today but you know, "not " doesn't mean "guaranteed bad."

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Dominion Discord, 2024