Gain
Gaining a card adds it to the ones you own, usually by moving it to your discard pile.
Contents |
Official Rules
"Gain a card" – Take a card from the Supply and put it into your discard pile.
- Sometimes a card will let you gain a card from a place other than the Supply, but by default gained cards come from the Supply.
- Sometimes a card will let you gain a card to a location other than your discard pile, but by default all gained cards are put into your discard pile.
- You do not play a card when you gain it; it just goes to your discard pile.
Other rules clarifications
- If a card lets you gain a card to a location other than your discard pile, the gained card is put into that location no matter where it would normally go when gained. For example, Artisan lets you gain a Nomad Camp to your hand, even though Nomad Camp is usually gained onto your deck.
Description
Gaining a card is a specific keyword in Dominion. By default, gained cards go onto your discard pile and come from the Supply. The most common way to gain cards is by buying them; they are gained after being bought. Other ways mainly include through gainer cards. Some card abilities trigger when the card is gained (e.g. Border Village) or when another card is gained (e.g. Duplicate).
Ownership
Gaining is not the only way to make a card yours. Any effect that moves a card to a location that is yours makes the card yours as well. You can take ownership of cards without gaining by:
- Being passed them (via Masquerade)
- Exchanging something for them (e.g. Changeling, Vampire, Peasant)
- Exiling a card you don't own (e.g. Camel Train)
- Setting aside a card you don't own (e.g. Inheritance)
Abilities that trigger when a card is gained (or would be) won't trigger in these cases.
Gain location
By default, a card is gained into your discard pile. Certain cards specify other gain locations, either for themselves or other cards. For example, Develop and Bureaucrat both cause yo to gain cards and put them on top of your deck, rather than in your discard pile; Nomad Camp contains an instruction that when you gain Nomad Camp itself, it goes to your deck.
If a card is gained directly into your hand, it may be used like any other card in your hand. For example:
- Any Treasure card gained by Mine or Treasurer
- Copper gained by Ill-Gotten Gains or Beggar
- Silver gained by Trading Post or Rocks
- Gold or Silver gained by Explorer
- Any card gained by Artisan, Cobbler, Transmogrify, Wish or Sculptor
Some cards gain themselves to your hand:
Gaining from
By default gained cards come from the Supply. You can't gain a card from somewhere else, such as the trash or a non-Supply pile, unless explicitly instructed either to gain a card from that location, or to gain a card by name whose home pile isn't in the Supply. For example:
Gain from trash:
Gain from non-Supply pile:
Who gains
Some cards cause others to gain a card instead of the person playing or otherwise activating the card:
- All the Cursers
- Those that trash with replacement: the cards Saboteur, Swindler, and the Hex Locusts when other players receive it.
- Noble Brigand
- Embassy
- Marauder
- Cultist
- Messenger
