This guide will show you the best Kingdom cards in the base game of Dominion.
Methodology
This guide shows the Kingdom cards in the base game ranked from most favored to least favored. Kingdom cards are the ones that form the random selection of 10 piles, excluding the 7 basic cards like Copper and Province. There are 26 Kingdom cards in total.
The order of ranking was determined not by me, but by the collective agreement of the Dominion community on the Dominion Discord in 2022 during the annual ThunderDominion ranking process. These rankings primarily focus on 2-player games, though the dynamics may shift in games with more players.
The term “better” for a Kingdom card is subjective and varies among voters. The ThunderDominion rankings deliberately avoid defining what makes a card better than another, leaving it to individual interpretation.
The ranking consensus for the base game has remained relatively consistent for a while, though some cards may fluctuate a position or two each year, especially towards the middle of the list. These rankings exclude cards exclusive to the first edition.
#1: Chapel
Chapel is hands down the most potent kingdom card in the base game. Nothing else comes close. Trash abilities are super strong, and Chapel takes the cake here. It can blitz through your starting deck at lightning speed, which totally shifts the game.
With its dirt-cheap price, everyone can snag Chapel right away, no matter how their initial cards are dealt. It’s a no-brainer to grab it on turns 1 or 2 in base games. Only with expansions do you start thinking twice about opening with Chapel.
Now, Chapel’s seeming OPness might raise eyebrows, but it’s all part of the plan. It’s intentionally designed to shake things up big time, adding spice to Dominion’s deck-building dynamics. And boy, does it deliver on that front.
#2: Sentry
Chapel showed us the power of quick card trashing, and Sentry follows suit as the second heavy hitter in the base game. It’s all about trashing multiple cards swiftly. Plus, with its +1 Card and +1 Action, Sentry lets you keep your hand size intact as you trash from the top of your deck, keeping your turns potent.
As your deck grows throughout the game, the junk card density decreases. That’s where Sentry shines bright—it’s crucial to snatch it up early so you can trash while the odds are still stacked in favor of finding duds.
Even when you’re done trashing, Sentry stays valuable. It helps tidy up your deck by ditching cards you’d rather not draw, like Victory cards, and boosts your consistency by reshuffling your deck. And don’t overlook its nifty synergy with Vassal, making Vassal plays way less risky in base games.
#3: Witch
In Dominion, dishing out Curses is a top-tier attack strategy. Curses are the worst—they not only dock points at game’s end but also clog up your draws, hindering access to your good cards.
To dodge the Curse bullet, the savvy move is to unload all Curses onto your opponent first. Once the Curse pile is empty, the Cursing attacks fizzle out. That’s why going heavy on Cursing attacks, like Witch, is a smart play.
Witch packs a punch because it not only curses but also draws cards. Drawing during Cursing attacks is gold—it speeds up your deck cycling, getting the Witch back into rotation sooner for another round of chaos. This blitz strategy overwhelms opponents, leaving them less room to counterattack.
When the Curse supply dwindles, Witch becomes a pricey Moat, which isn’t great for deck drawing compared to cards like Smithy. But its early-game dominance more than compensates for this drawback.
#4: Throne Room
In Dominion, your deck needs to adapt to different needs both throughout the game and within each turn. Early on, you might focus on trashing and Cursing, shifting to other strategies later. Similarly, during your turns, you might prioritize drawing cards before playing your big moves.
Enter Throne Room—it’s a game-changer. It lets you double up on the effects you need when you need them, shifting your deck’s focus without needing more copies of specific cards. For instance, you can Throne your Witches early on for curses, then switch to using them on Artisans when the curses dry up.
During your turn, Throne Room offers flexibility. You can double up on drawing with Laboratories, then use any extras on Festivals for cash. This flexibility boosts reliability—you don’t care about the order of your Throne Rooms, unlike your other cards where sequence matters. However, you do need to draw the Throne Room alongside the right card, so don’t skimp on other draw cards or you might stall out.
Throne Room also acts as a “village,” providing extra actions. Pair it with cards that give +1 Action for a net gain, akin to playing a Village.
What sets Throne Room apart is its price—it’s a steal at only 4 coins compared to similar cards that mostly cost 5. You can grab it early with Workshop, saving you coins compared to buying extra copies of pricier cards.
In short, Throne Room is a powerhouse at a bargain, offering versatility and value that’s hard to beat.
#5: Militia
Militia is a strong attack move in the game. It messes up your opponent’s plans big time, and it’s pretty affordable to start with. This can mess with their ability to buy expensive 5-cost cards and mess up their strategy with Chapel, which is all about getting rid of cards.
It’s like a wrecking ball for traditional treasure-focused strategies. Your opponent has to focus on building a draw engine instead. If they’re stuck with only 3 cards in hand, it’s tough to even get 6 coins for a Gold, let alone 8 coins for a Province. So, they end up just buying Silver over and over, not getting anywhere.
When you make your opponent discard down to just 3 cards, you only need to use Militia once per turn. So, it’s not too much trouble to fit it into your deck, and it packs a punch. It’s especially effective when your opponent has more than 5 cards in hand, like after you’ve played Council Room.
#6: Artisan
There are loads of cards in expansions that let you snag cards costing up to 4 coins, which we call Workshop versions. But finding ones that grab 5-cost cards is rare. Artisan is one of these rare gems, snagging the card straight to your hand so you can play it pronto without shuffling your discard first!
Artisan has a twist though: it makes you topdeck a card from your hand when you play it, reducing your hand size. Some see this as a downside, but it’s actually quite handy. For instance, if you’re fresh out of Actions to play the Action card you just got, you can stash it for later. You can also set up surefire successes with Vassal or ensure a Moat is in your starting hand next turn.
One big plus with Artisan is its ability to snatch Duchies, helping a solid deck catch up in points later on, giving you more time to beef up your deck. Despite its hefty price tag of 6 coins, which can be tough to scrape together early on, Artisan’s ability to put your new card in your hand or on top of your deck means it doesn’t slow you down when you choose it over another high-priority 5-cost card. It’s usually a top pick; the real challenge is scraping together the cash for it early on.
#7: Laboratory
Playing a Laboratory in your game adds 1 more card to your hand, making it easier for you to strategize. Unlike other cards that require additional investments like villages, the Laboratory refunds its Action cost, making it straightforward and efficient.
The Laboratory card is straightforward, providing pure drawing power without complicating deck compositions with ordering concerns. Its simplicity makes it adaptable to various deck types. However, its cost of 5 coins is relatively high, so it’s not always the best choice to continuously purchase Laboratories without considering other options.
#8: Village
In Dominion, “Village” cards play a crucial role in deck-building, so much so that any card granting +2 Actions is colloquially referred to as a “village.”
Cards lacking at least +1 Action are dubbed “terminals” because they put an end to your chain of actions. Without villages, playing more than one terminal card per turn becomes challenging. The scarcity of villages significantly alters gameplay, restricting your options with terminal action cards.
The Village card itself is a prime example of its category. Affordable and efficient, it allows you to draw an extra card, facilitating the use of other terminal action cards. However, this additional card merely substitutes the Village in your hand and doesn’t count as true “draw” like Laboratory. Thus, flooding your deck with Villages won’t affect its quality, unless you capitalize on the extra +Actions they provide.
Typically, Village isn’t the go-to card to start with since you don’t require villages until you’re likely to draw two terminal cards together. Nonetheless, its eventual impact on the game shouldn’t be underestimated.
#9: Festival
Festival presents a comprehensive set of bonuses within a single card, but notably lacks any additional card draws. Acting as a non-drawing village, Festival requires a bit more investment in draw cards to fully leverage its benefits. However, it compensates by providing extra Actions and economy, making the investment worthwhile. If you manage Festival’s increased draw demands effectively, it becomes instrumental in securing potent, high-economy turns.
Exercise caution when heavily investing in Festivals, as you pay a premium for the amalgamation of three distinct bonuses. It’s easy to overlook capitalizing on the extra Actions or the Buy, resulting in essentially paying five coins for a Silver, which is highly inefficient. Moreover, overloading your deck with Festivals can lead to stalled turns.
Festival stands out as an excellent facilitator for “draw-to-X” cards like Library, as it offers numerous bonuses while reducing your hand size.
#10: Remodel
Remodel serves as a tool to exchange cards in your deck for superior ones. Its effectiveness hinges on the cost of the trashed card, as it determines the cost of the card you can gain. Consequently, Remodel proves inefficient for removing 0-cost trash such as Curses and Coppers. However, it excels at eliminating Estates, which are crucial to purge from your initial deck. Despite its cost of 4, opening with Remodel for this purpose comes with the drawback of delaying the acquisition of higher-cost cards.
Aside from Estates, Remodel targets other trashers once your deck is cleaned up, counters junking attacks when Curses are depleted, and replaces cards gained by cost-limited gainers like Workshop. Silver and Gold stand out as prime candidates, given their widespread availability and favorable price points. Silver can be transformed into desirable 5-cost cards, while Golds can be upgraded into Provinces.
Moreover, Remodel empowers a leading player with significant end-game control by “milling” Provinces. This strategy involves trashing a Province from hand to acquire another Province, depleting the pile and hastening the endgame.
#11: Market
Market serves as a versatile income generator that seamlessly integrates into any deck, with its standout feature being its effortless provision of +Buy. Unlike other cards, Market doesn’t demand extra Actions or card draw to expand your buying capacity and even adds an extra coin to enhance your purchases.
However, as a source of income, Market comes at a relatively high cost, especially when compared to alternatives like Merchant and Poacher in the base game, albeit with additional constraints. Consequently, relying solely on purchasing Markets repeatedly proves inefficient for scaling your deck’s economic output.
Despite its drawbacks, Market can still be the optimal choice in base game scenarios where payload options are limited. In expansions, the presence of powerful yet affordable cards enhances Market’s efficacy, as does the availability of cost reduction mechanisms, which bolster its capacity to provide ample Buys.
Utilizing Markets primarily for income can unexpectedly grant strategic control in end-game scenarios by swiftly depleting cheap piles like Estates. Hence, even though surplus Buys might seem redundant at times, their potential impact should not be underestimated.
#12: Moneylender
Moneylender efficiently removes pesky Coppers from your deck while providing a substantial coin boost, enabling you to acquire potent cards while streamlining your deck simultaneously—a feat that many trashers struggle to achieve.
Although receiving 3 coins seems lucrative, it’s essential to recognize that you don’t get to utilize the trashed Copper, making the coins-per-card ratio from Moneylender equivalent to adding a Silver. Essentially, Moneylender functions akin to a Silver that consumes an Action but eliminates a Copper, which is a favorable exchange.
Compared to Chapel, Moneylender operates at a slower pace and is often overshadowed in its presence. Additionally, Moneylender lacks the capability to trash Estates, which are typically prioritized for early removal. Despite these limitations, Moneylender remains a valuable asset in efficiently refining your deck composition.
#13: Council Room
Council Room boasts significant card draw, followed by a +Buy to maximize the utility of the drawn cards. Drawing 4 cards exceeds the norm among its counterparts, reducing the necessity for additional draw cards in your deck. However, its drawback is substantial, as it grants an extra card to all opponents.
The impact of the extra card on opponents varies depending on their deck strategy. If you play multiple Council Rooms each turn, opponents with simple treasure-based strategies can swiftly accumulate Provinces, especially if they incorporate their own Council Rooms for extra Buys and lucrative turns. Conversely, if opponents are also constructing robust drawing action engines with Council Rooms, the shared benefits may outweigh the drawbacks.
Supplementing Council Room with other draw cards like Laboratory is advantageous, as it lessens the need to play numerous Council Rooms each turn. Additionally, if Militia is present in the kingdom, discarding the extra cards from opponents’ hands can significantly mitigate the downsides of Council Room, rendering it exceptionally potent.
#14: Smithy
Smithy stands out as the most straightforward Action card in Dominion. Its primary function is drawing cards, making it a valuable addition to any deck, albeit requiring village support to maximize its potential.
One of Smithy’s key attributes is its affordability compared to similar cards, although it lacks additional bonuses. This lower cost allows for easy acquisition through Workshop variants, enabling players to swiftly populate their decks with multiple Smithies. Furthermore, its modest price permits players to open with Smithy and Silver, potentially enabling early acquisition of expensive cards like Artisan.
Smithy embodies the archetype of “terminal draw,” a fundamental concept in Dominion akin to Village. While it may lack the distinctiveness of some peers, Smithy’s versatility and accessibility make it a staple in many deck strategies.
#15: Merchant
Merchant is a really good deal for coins if you can get a Silver right away. But if you can’t, it doesn’t really do much. It just swaps itself out without giving you any extra benefit, like you never got it in the first place.
If you’re not aiming to draw all your cards every turn, using Merchant comes with a bit of a gamble. But for decks that focus on getting rid of cards and drawing lots, it’s a nice cheap way to get more money. Unlike Silver, you don’t need extra cards to draw more cards, and it costs the same.
But be careful of attacks that trash your treasure, like Bandit! If you lose all your Silvers and have lots of Merchants, your whole money system could fall apart fast. So it’s smart to have backups, or maybe not take the risk at all.
#16: Vassal
Vassal can be risky but rewarding. It’s a cheap way to gain coins by playing Action cards from your deck, but only if it succeeds in finding the right one. When Vassal does find an Action card you want to play, it’s like getting an extra Action and Card.
However, if Vassal fails to find a suitable Action card, it’s worse than Silver because it costs an Action. This is especially problematic if your deck is empty or if you’re in the middle of drawing your deck, risking an early end to your turn.
To make Vassal worthwhile, you need to build your deck strategically. Having a high density of Action cards is crucial, so trashing starting cards is beneficial. It’s also helpful to have Action cards that provide additional Actions to avoid running out too quickly. Keeping spare villages handy can mitigate Vassal misses or late-game draws. Additionally, cards like Artisan or Sentry, which let you manipulate the top of your deck, can help ensure Vassal finds the right card.
Adding Victory cards to your deck increases the risk, but with the right setup, Vassal can lead to a powerful deck with high coin output at a low cost.
#17: Poacher
Starting with a straightforward deal, Poacher offers a trio of benefits: +1 Card, +1 Action, and +1 Coin, all for the humble price of four coins. Initially, it’s a fair exchange with no strings attached. However, as the game progresses, its value can fluctuate. Why? Well, as game piles empty, Poacher might demand you to discard cards. Discarding one card isn’t too shabby, but two or more can quickly sour the deal.
Investing heavily in Poachers can be risky business. If your opponents deplete a pile, suddenly your once-reliable deck might falter. Unlike its counterparts in the base game, such as Market, Merchant, and Vassal, Poacher doesn’t fully support an action-heavy deck for consistent economy. Still, snagging one or two Poachers can complement other income strategies nicely in many cases.
Interestingly, there are moments when Poacher’s discard feature becomes an asset rather than a liability. Certain expansions introduce cards that benefit directly from being discarded. In the base game, Library and Sentry can reap rewards from this mechanic. Sentry, for instance, appreciates discarding junk cards to streamline your hand and enable their removal.
Yet, Poacher faces stiff competition in the opening rounds. While it packs a punch early on, rivals like Moneylender or Militia often hog the spotlight. Consequently, you might find yourself overlooking Poacher in favor of these higher-priority options, missing out on its potential benefits.
#18: Bandit
Bandit serves as a key player in the quest for Gold accumulation. Its attack feature aims to trash opponents’ non-Copper treasures, though its effectiveness dwindles due to its limited card search, often missing the mark unless deployed in large quantities. In games with multiple players wielding Bandits, the attack can inflict noticeable damage as it targets multiple opponents.
Gold, while a coveted treasure, isn’t the most cost-effective purchase. Its hefty price tag often doesn’t align with its benefits. Hence, acquiring Gold without spending precious coins significantly boosts your economy. If your deck boasts ample drawing power to consistently fetch Golds, Bandit emerges as an efficient means to bolster your wealth over consecutive turns.
However, Bandit’s economic impact isn’t immediate; it takes until the next shuffle to reap the benefits. In decks lacking robust drawing capabilities, Bandit’s sluggishness may impede current turn profits, requiring time to cycle through your deck before drawing the newly acquired Gold. Nevertheless, in decks brimming with draw engines, a single Bandit can suffice.
Moreover, the allure of gaining Gold extends beyond its monetary value. Its substantial cost makes it an ideal target for Remodel. The synergy between Bandit and Remodel presents a compelling reason to construct a deck-drawing engine in the base game. With this combo, you can seamlessly transform Golds into Provinces, paving the path to victory.
#19: Workshop
Workshop shines when there are cheap cards in the kingdom that you’d like to stockpile. Village, Merchant, Throne Room, Gardens, and Smithy are among the prime targets. Its effectiveness hinges entirely on the availability of desirable low-cost cards in the kingdom. While Silver and Estate are ever-present, they seldom motivate Workshop acquisition.
Timing is crucial when deciding to gain Workshop, especially considering the priority of 5-cost cards. Certain cards like Sentry or Witch are pivotal and merit early acquisition. Procuring Workshop in your opening moves can impede your ability to purchase a crucial 5-cost card in the subsequent shuffle, potentially stalling your deck’s progress. Prioritize establishing deck control before integrating Workshop to swiftly bolster your deck.
An often underestimated advantage of gaining cards during your action phase, rather than buying them outright, is the opportunity to draw and play the acquired card on the same turn. This enables Workshop to rapidly accumulate additional copies of itself once your deck gains momentum, amplifying your capacity to gain cards each turn and accelerating your progress.
While Workshop may rank low in some assessments, it’s important to consider the broader context. Evaluations typically span across the entirety of Dominion, where Workshop variants abound across expansions. In this broader landscape, Workshop often finds itself outclassed by its peers. However, in base-only games, Workshop shines brightly. The base game’s emphasis on straightforward, affordable card effects aligns perfectly with Workshop’s core function. Its ability to acquire essential cards at a modest cost resonates well within the base game’s framework, making it a valuable asset despite its relative standing in the Dominion hierarchy.
#20: Cellar
Cellar may initially seem like a potent tool for drawing multiple cards, especially when paired with discarding, seemingly facilitating rapid cycling through your deck to access powerful cards. However, it’s crucial to recognize that each use of Cellar decreases your hand size by one, potentially diminishing your turn’s overall output. This aspect is often overlooked, leading to its overuse by newer players.
The “sifting” effect provided by Cellar typically falls short compared to outright trashing undesirable cards. Moreover, if you’ve already eliminated your bad cards, Cellar’s usefulness diminishes further. Nonetheless, decks tend to accumulate less desirable cards over time, such as Provinces, and drawing cards in the wrong order is not uncommon. In such cases, Cellar can help mitigate these setbacks, particularly if your deck boasts sufficient drawing power to reclaim the discarded cards.
Cellar’s affordability often leads to its spontaneous acquisition when opportunities arise, offering a modest boost to reliability. Its effectiveness is amplified with larger hand sizes, enabling you to sift through more cards at once, making it a valuable addition to robust engine strategies.
Additionally, Cellar exhibits extra utility when utilized alongside Library as your primary draw mechanism. The reduction in hand size poses no issue in this scenario, and the benefits of removing treasures and victory cards from your hand are substantial, further enhancing the synergy between Cellar and Library within your deck.
#21: Moat
When used as an action, Moat provides a modest handsize increase of 1, half the boost offered by Smithy. Despite its low cost of 2 coins, relying on Moat as your primary source of draw necessitates substantial village support, adding an extra, often overlooked, layer of complexity. While draw remains valuable, Moat falls short compared to its counterparts, facing stiff competition in the base game, which boasts several strong draw cards.
It’s worth noting that Festival proves an ill-suited companion for Moat as a village. Playing Festival followed by Moat leaves your hand size unchanged, rendering attempts to draw other cards unreliable.
However, Moat offers a unique advantage: immunity to all attacks while it resides in your hand. The challenge lies in ensuring Moat remains in your hand between turns. Topdecking it with a card like Artisan at the end of your turn can guarantee this occasionally; otherwise, it’s purely a matter of luck. Increasing your Moat density can improve the odds, particularly if you’re reliant on it for draw. However, most players rely on alternative draw methods, resulting in low Moat density and rendering it ineffective as a form of defense.
Moat’s effectiveness increases with more players, as the likelihood of attacks and their frequency rises. In two-player games, it’s common to disregard Moat altogether and handle attacks directly. Starting with a Moat in your hand can disrupt your turn’s efficiency, as it’s an inefficient card to begin your turn with.
#22: Gardens
Gardens functions as a victory card with scaling potential, its point value increasing based on the number of cards you own. This versatile scaling makes it a viable option in various deck archetypes. However, Gardens’ scaling occurs slowly, making it challenging to accumulate a significant number of points. It’s common to see Gardens worth 2 or 3 points each, but surpassing this level is less frequent.
There’s a common misconception that Gardens is only valuable if you refrain from trashing your starting cards. However, in practice, Gardens synergizes well with strong engines that can gain multiple cards per turn, swiftly compensating for the loss of starting cards.
Priced at 4 coins, Gardens falls within the same cost range as Workshops, which are ideal for acquiring multiple cards, enhancing Gardens’ appeal. It serves as an incentive to construct engines, offering an opportunity to score before a potential 3-pile ending or to catch up with opponents acquiring Provinces. However, in matchups between strong engine decks and treasure-heavy decks slowly amassing Provinces, Gardens may not significantly impact the end result. If both players focus on building robust engines with numerous gains, the game may conclude with a 3-pile ending before Gardens can amass a considerable point total.
In summary, Gardens should always be considered, but its slow scaling often relegates it to little more than a slightly cheaper Duchy.
#23: Library
Library belongs to the category of “draw-to-X” cards, which draws until you have 7 cards in hand. This is relatively high compared to other draw-to-X effects. From a starting hand of 5 cards, Library draws 3, similar to Smithy.
However, the drawback of draw-to-X is its inability to stack. Unlike Smithy, which continues to draw cards with each play, successive plays of Library achieve little unless you reduce your hand size first. Achieving this requires a deck composition focused on doing so; otherwise, there’s a soft limit on the effectiveness of your turns.
Ideally, you’re seeking ways to generate coins from Action cards, like Festival, to play from your hand before using another Library to draw back up. Treasures are less effective with draw-to-X, as they can only be played during the buy phase. If the action cards require an action, such as Militia, drawing villages early becomes crucial, as drawing them late leaves unplayed action cards in your hand, reducing the cards you draw with the next Library.
One unique aspect of Library is its ability to skip past unwanted action cards, allowing you to set up an ideal draw of the cards you want. However, this efficacy diminishes once you need to buy Victory cards, increasing the likelihood of drawing them instead. Still, it holds value in not drawing dead action cards on turns that are otherwise unproductive.
Despite its unique effect, Library is relatively expensive for a subpar form of draw. Its counterparts in other expansions are often cheaper or offer superior side benefits. The base game contains numerous draw cards, making it challenging to justify Library’s inclusion in base-only setups. It does have niche utility as a mild counter to Militia if drawn early enough in your turn.
#24: Harbinger
When you play Harbinger, you draw a card first, then have the option to topdeck a card from your discard pile. However, you need another card to draw the topdecked card this turn.
Harbinger’s primary limitation is its reliance on having cards in your discard pile for its effect to activate. Furthermore, you need a desirable card to topdeck, rather than just the Coppers and Estates often discarded with Cellar. The most potent decks aim to draw all their cards each turn, resulting in a new shuffle and an empty discard pile.
Adding Harbinger to your deck doesn’t hinder it since the +1 Card and +1 Action effectively replace the card, but if you’re not topdecking a card, it essentially does nothing, akin to never acquiring it in the first place.
Harbinger finds optimal use in slow-cycling decks, where you can repeatedly retrieve high-value cards like attacks or Golds across a single shuffle. Even so, if Harbinger appears too early or late in the shuffle, you risk having no cards in your discard pile.
#25: Mine
Mine is a card that enhances your treasures by typically upgrading a Copper to a Silver or a Silver to a Gold, although expansions can introduce additional treasures as potential targets. However, most of these treasures have costs of 4 or 5 coins, which are not ideal for Mine but still viable.
In its basic application, upgrading a basic treasure to the next tier adds 1 coin of economy to your deck, akin to using Workshop to gain a Merchant. However, Workshop is more cost-effective and versatile, while Bandit outperforms Mine by adding 3 coins of economy with each play.
The main drawback of Mine is its reliance on low-cost treasures. Players often trash their starting Coppers and seek alternative sources of economy, rendering Mine ineffective or limiting its impact due to fewer available treasures. Conversely, if you cannot trash starting Coppers, Mine offers a way to avoid adding more treasures to your deck, aiding in efficient deck cycling. However, decks lacking trashing struggle to play Mine frequently enough for maximum benefit.
Despite its limitations, Mine significantly increases the cost of cards in your deck, facilitating strategies like Remodel, which can upgrade Silvers to Golds for direct transformation into Provinces. Additionally, Mine gains value in games featuring Platinum from the Prosperity expansion, as it provides a 2-coin improvement when upgrading Golds to Platinums, compared to the usual 1 coin.
Overall, Mine ranks among the weakest cards in Dominion due to its slow effect and reliance on treasures, coupled with its 5-coin cost, which places it in fierce competition with stronger cards.
#26: Bureaucrat
Silver isn’t a great card. Sometimes you need one or two to reach 5 coins, but overall, it’s not very valuable. You don’t usually want to get a lot of Silver because it doesn’t help you consistently get 8 coins for Province and can block drawing other cards.
Bureaucrat is like getting Silver, which isn’t usually what you want. It also puts the Silver on top of your deck, which isn’t great because you can’t use it right away unless you have other cards to draw it. Plus, having it in your starting hand next turn can mess up your strategy, like if it replaces a card you need. For example, if it swaps out a Village, you might have a bad turn.
It has a potential attack where your opponent has to draw a useless Victory card again, which could be good. But usually, you want to get rid of Victory cards from your deck first, and you don’t add more until later. So most of the time, the attack won’t even work. Even if your opponent does have Victory cards, the attack often misses.
Bureaucrat ends up hurting you more than it hurts your opponent, making it one of the worst cards in Dominion, especially in the base game.
That's everything we are sharing today for this Dominion guide. This guide was originally created and written by Kieran. In case we fail to update this guide, you can find the latest update by following this link.