Fisherman
Fisherman | |
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Info | |
Cost | |
Type(s) | Action |
Kingdom card? | Yes |
Set | Menagerie |
Illustrator(s) | Marcel-André Casasola Merkle |
Card text | |
+1 Card +1 Action + During your turns, if your discard pile is empty, this costs less. |
Fisherman is an Action card from Menagerie. It is a Peddler variant whose cost drops to when your discard pile is empty.
Contents |
FAQ
Official FAQ
- This costs normally, but whenever the player whose turn it is has an empty discard pile.
- If you have and two Buys with an empty discard pile, you can buy Fisherman for , but then you will no longer have an empty discard pile, so you cannot buy a second for .
- See the Unusual Costs section.
Strategy
Fisherman offers excellent value when you can buy it at its reduced price of , and as a Peddler variant it is a good addition to many decks, in particular well-thinned engine decks, especially if draw is somewhat lacking. Adding it at any point throughout the game is useful because it provides payload without hindering deck control or taking up terminal space, and relatively easy since it has a very low opportunity cost at its reduced price.
Because of its built-in cost reduction mechanism, which is active when your discard pile is empty, Fisherman’s accessibility in the opening is more dependent than usual on which opening split you draw. At the beginning of the game, your discard pile is always empty, so you can buy Fisherman for on turn 1, but not on turn 2. Therefore, a / or, especially, / split is much better for opening with Fisherman than the other way around. Unless there is strong competition at (e.g. from Lackeys or Page), adding a cheap Fisherman early is a very good choice, since it does not affect the amount of draw you need but provides almost as much on average as a Silver (as you’re likely to draw a Copper when you play it), while not adding a stop card to your deck. This makes it a useful card if there is an important card that you want to afford quickly.
Beyond the opening, Fisherman can be a good card to take more copies of later, especially if you can continue to buy it at or gain it with a Workshop variant. For this reason, it promotes achieving good deck control so that you can consistently empty your discard pile, but gaining multiple copies (or gaining it after playing other gainers, e.g. Paddock) can be more problematic because the gained cards generally go to your discard pile. This problem can be alleviated if you have some overdraw or can make use of a topdecking effect such as Travelling Fair to keep your discard pile clear. Similarly, the use of sifters such as Dungeon as a method of deck control can make Fisherman harder to gain.
Shuffle management and play order to manipulate the cost of Fisherman during your Action phase can occasionally have ramifications for draw as well. For example, if you're drawing with Seer it may be preferable to keep your discard pile empty, while Patrician might draw Fisherman if you play a sifter to discard a card first.
Versions
English versions
Digital | Text | Release | Date | |
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+1 Card +1 Action + During your turns, if your discard pile is empty, this costs less. |
Menagerie | March 2020 |
Other language versions
Trivia
Secret History
Retrospective