Germany - 
Finland Germany - 
IndiaThere is a lot wrong with this list.
First, Temple is clearly a top 10 card; no idea what it's doing on its place.
Smithy and Envoy should be much closer together. Ironmonger is overrated. As is Villa by the way. Also, what the heck is Caravan doing there? I had it at, like, 60.
Lookout has an often-missed ability to greatly decrease the chance that your other opening buy will miss the shuffle. If lookout turns up T3 then it "rescues" the other buy from skipping if it were going to do so. That, my rough mental calculations suggest, nearly halves the chance of a ruinous first shuffle. If the other card is something epic like Amb, Masq, Steward, Tournament, Spice Merchant, etc then this is a huge plus.
 | #28 ▼7 Market Square (Dark Ages) Weighted Average: 51.0% ▼5.3pp / Unweighted Average: 51.5% / Median: 50.0% ▼8.3pp / Standard Deviation: 20.1% Like every year since its release, Market Square drops down in the rankings. It barely made it to the top half, dropping 7 places. |
 | #27 ▲1 Doctor (Guilds) Weighted Average: 51.1% ▲8.9pp / Unweighted Average: 49.1% / Median: 50.0% ▲4.7pp / Standard Deviation: 23.6% Doctor wins one rank and has the third highest standard deviation from $3 cost list (after Loan and Develop). |
 | #26 Changeling (Nocturne) Weighted Average: 51.5% / Unweighted Average: 54.1% / Median: 51.9% / Standard Deviation: 18.9% The first card of Nocturne which takes a spot in the top half of $3 cost cards. Changeling has an interesting interaction with cards that can (or are forced to) gain $3 cost cards, especially Silver gainers like Amulet, Squire, Lucky Coin and so on. Changeling is even more fun with with Masterpiece and Teasure Hunter. You probably don't want too many Changelings though because a hand full of Changelings won't do anything. |
 | #25 ▼6 Warehouse (Seaside) Weighted Average: 52.2% ▼4.2pp / Unweighted Average: 55.0% / Median: 55.6% ▼2.7pp / Standard Deviation: 17.0% Warehouse keeps on dropping in the rankings year by year. The reason for that probably is that people want to build good decks rather than having to cycle through bad decks and reducing the handsize by 1 in the meantime. Having said that, Warehouse is good in Slogs and with Tunnel. |
 | #24 ▼10 Watchtower (Prosperity) Weighted Average: 53.5% ▼11.0pp / Unweighted Average: 55.8% / Median: 57.6 ▼13.2pp / Standard Deviation: 21.8% Dropping 10 places, Watchtower is the biggest loser of the list. |
 | #23 ▼6 Scheme (Hinterlands) Weighted Average: 54.2% ▼4.2pp / Unweighted Average: 55.2% / Median: 55.6% ▼9.0pp / Standard Deviation: 19.3% Scheme is another big loser of the list compared to last year. Often there are just better things to do with $3 at the early stages of the game and later on you often don't need the Scheme ability anymore. |
 | #22 ▲8 Chariot Race (Empires) Weighted Average: 57.8% ▲17.2pp / Unweighted Average: 55.6% / Median: 53.7% ▲14.1pp / Standard Deviation: 22.3% In its second appearance in the lists Chariot Race climbs up 8 places. Chariot Race can be a good source for both VP and money which is why sometimes it is the dominant strategy. It loves cards with topdecking abilites such as Cartographer, Apothecary and Courtyard. Or for the more evil-minded: Sea Hag |
 | #21 ▲3 Plan (Adventures) Weighted Average: 58.7% ▲10.6pp / Unweighted Average: 54.6% / Median: 57.4% ▲11.6pp / Standard Deviation: 22.2% Plan wins 3 places and is 4 places lower in the unweighted average. Open Plan on Tournament / Tournament, trash Estate. gg |
 | #20 Ghost Town (Nocturne) Weighted Average: 60.5% / Unweighted Average: 57.9% / Median: 63.0% / Standard Deviation: 18.5% One of the new Villages from Nocturne. The turn after you bought Ghost Town starts as if you would have played a Lost City, which is pretty good. It can also be bought to save your next turn from terminal collision (e.g. in turn 3 if you opened with 2 terminals and don't see either of them). |
 | #19 ▲3 Enchantress (Empires) Weighted Average: 61.6% ▲8.9pp / Unweighted Average: 58.3% / Median: 63.0% ▲10.9 / Standard Deviation: 18.7% Enchantress' deferred draw adds reliabilty to the deck. The attack can also hurt a lot, especially early on. When you have plenty of action cards in your deck you can often play around the attack. Don't forget that the attack does not affect the text below a deviding line. So you still get VP when buying a Victory card with an enchanted Groundskeeper and you can still exchange an enchanted Page. |
 | #18 ▲9 Catapult (Empires) Weighted Average: 64.9% ▲18.7pp / Unweighted Average: 64.8% / Median: 66.7% ▲3.7 / Standard Deviation: 20.1% Catapult is a big winner. It was even voted first once. Trashing and attacking at the same time is just great. Later on you can trash Rocks or Silvers to make the attack one of the strongest in the game. Rocks don't get uncovered most of the time though. |
 | #17 ▲3 Lookout (Seaside) Weighted Average: 68.1% ▲11.8pp / Unweighted Average: 66.4% / Median: 66.7 ▲10.4pp / Standard Deviation: 20.4% Lookout continues to improve its position in the list. The cycling effect that is added to the trashing is a powerful thing not to be underestimated. I would not be surpirsed to see Lookout climb even a bit further. It got voted first once. |
 | #16 ▼4 Hermit (Dark Ages) Weighted Average: 69.7% ▼1.6pp / Unweighted Average: 66.5% / Median: 70.4 ▼2.5pp / Standard Deviation: 22.1% Being stable throughout all the previous rankings, Hermit loses 4 places this year. Hermit's trashing cababilites are limited, but the fact that you can decide to exchange it for a Madman is great. You often have to decide if you want to buy another card from the supply, or rather gain a Madman by not buying anything. You can buy an Event and still get Madman, which is a powerful interaction to keep in mind. Another thing to be aware of is the Hermit/Scheme trick. You can topdeck Hermit with Scheme and still get a Madman! |
 | #15 ▲1 Village (Base) Weighted Average: 71.3% ▲10.0pp / Unweighted Average: 68.0% / Median: 68.5% ▲6.8pp / Standard Deviation: 13.6% Village was there right from the start and even wins 1 spot against the newcomers. |
 | #14 ▲3 Dungeon (Adventures) Weighted Average: 71.6% ▲14.3pp / Unweighted Average: 67.9% / Median: 70.4% ▲12.1pp / Standard Deviation: 18.1% Dungeon wins 3 places and 14.3pp, That's quite a boost. Dungeon is comparable to Warehouse, but it's better. The on-play effect also reduced your hand size by one but the duration effect doesn't. It cycles four cards in total whereas Warehouse only cycles three. |
 | #13 ▼4 Menagerie (Cornucopia) Weighted Average: 74.4% ▼4.1pp / Unweighted Average: 73.4% / Median: 75.0% ▼4.2pp / Standard Deviation: 15.2% Starting at #5 2012 and even improving to #4 before being pushed back to #6 and then #9, Menagerie drops out of the top 10 for the first time this year. |
 | #12 ▲1 Black Market (Promo) Weighted Average: 76.0% ▲8.4pp / Unweighted Average: 70.8% / Median: 72.2% ▲3.1pp / Standard Deviation: 20.6% Black Market wins one place and was voted first once. Black Market can be a swingy card at times when you find a really powerful card like Mountebank, Goons, City Quarter or sometimes Outpost. It often leads to long games with lots of pick ups from the Black Market deck. The deck it shuffled once you are through it, so remembering the order of the cards doesnt' help. Keeping some cards in mind you might be interested in can be helpful though. |
 | #11 ▼1 Forager (Dark Ages) Weighted Average: 76.5% ▼1.pp / Unweighted Average: 75.7% / Median: 81.5% ▲2.3pp / Standard Deviation: 22.2% Another card that drops out of the top ten is Forager. It has a surprisingly high standard deviation this time, too. Despite only trashing one card, Forager is a powerful trasher because it's nonterminal. It will be mostly worth $0 or $1 at the start but often gets up to bigger numbers later. |
 | #10 ▲5 Bonfire (Adventures) Weighted Average: 77.3% ▲13.6pp / Unweighted Average: 74.0% / Median: 77.8% ▲9pp / Standard Deviation: 14.6% Welcome to the elite, Bonfire! After already climbing 6 places in the last ranking, Bonfire makes another jump and is now in the top 10. Bonfire is a very quick way of trashing your coppers. To reach its full potential, you want to pair it with something that can rid of Esates/Shelters (or rather Overgrown Estate and Hovel). |
 | #9 ▼2 Ferry (Adventures) Weighted Average: 79.2% ▼1.4pp / Unweighted Average: 75.6% / Median: 83.3% ▼2.4pp / Standard Deviation: 20.9% Ferry loses 2 ranks and has the highest standard deviation of the top 10 cards. |
 | #8 =0 Gear (Adventures) Weighted Average: 79.3% ▼0.3pp / Unweighted Average: 76.5% / Median: 81.5% ▼2.2pp / Standard Deviation: 19.1% Gear stays where it was and was voted first two times. Gear is a good big money enabler because the Save effect lets you distribute your treasures nicely. It's also good in engines when you can add some reliabilty to your deck by setting aside a card to help you kick off your next turn. |
 | #7 ▲4 Amulet (Adventures) Weighted Average: 81.2% ▲7.9pp / Unweighted Average: 79.5% / Median: 81.5% ▲6.5pp / Standard Deviation: 15.0% The spots at the top are tight, so climbing 4 places and gaining 7.9pp is quite a big jump forward for Amulet. No surprise though, as it is a strong trasher and the the flexibility of Amulet is amazing. It got voted first once. |
 | #6 =0 Swindler (Intrigue) Weighted Average: 82.2% ▼0.1pp / Unweighted Average: 81.5% / Median: 81.6% =▼1.7pp / Standard Deviation: 14.7% 7, 6, 5, 5, 6, 6 are the positions of Swindler in the rankings over the years. There is no variance, not something you can say about the effect of Swindler in the games. It was voted first twice. |
 | #5 ▼1 Fishing Village (Seaside) Weighted Average: 84.3% ▼2.7pp / Unweighted Average: 84.0% / Median: 87.0% ▼2.6pp / Standard Deviation: 10.4% Fishing Village loses one rank and was voted first once. It provides $2 along with +3 actions over 2 turns for the mere cost of a Silver. Starting your turn with 2 actions from a Fishing Village in play adds additional robustnuss to your deck because you don't have to have a Village in your starting hand to kick off your typical Village / Smithy variant deck. However if the draw is weak and another Village is available that doesn't reduce your hand size you might want to get that over Fishing Village. |
 | #4 ▲1 Urchin (Dark Ages) Weighted Average: 87.3% ▲2.1pp / Unweighted Average: 85.7% / Median: 90.7% ▲2.6pp / Standard Deviation: 12.9% Despite not getting voted first even once, Urchin wins one rank. Urchins attack is not very fearsome, but the effect of Mercenary is. You often want to open Urchin/Urchin (unless there is an even more powerful trasher) and hope to collide them on turn 3 or 4 (it's 45.45% to do so). The player who collides them early is ahead most of the time which makes it Urchin a card of a somewhat high variance. |
 | #3 =0 Steward (Intrigue) Weighted Average: 88.9% ▲0.7pp / Unweighted Average: 87.7% / Median: 92.6% ▲0.9pp / Standard Deviation: 12.8% Steward defends his place on the podium and was voted first once. Steward is a powerful trasher early on and provides economy and draw later on. It is even more awesome if there are good $2s to pick up, because that's what you are left with most of the time if you trash 2 cards in the early-game. You can also use it to hit $5 on turn 3 and 4 but most of the time trashing is preferable. |
 | #2 =0 Masquerade (Intrigue) Weighted Average: 95.6% ▲2.8pp / Unweighted Average: 94.2% / Median: 98.2% ▲2.4pp / Standard Deviation: 10.2% The biggest difference (6.7pp) between two consecutive cards is between place 3 and 2 which means the top two cards are in their own league. It's like Ronaldo vs. Messi, Federer vs. Nadal, Ali vs. Frazier and Karpov vs. Kasparov. Masquerade got voted first 18 times. |
 | #1 =0 Ambassador (Seaside) Weighted Average: 97.1% ▲1.6pp / Unweighted Average: 95.1% / Median: 98.2% ▲0.3pp / Standard Deviation: 9.4% Ambassador is the again the winner of the $3 cost list with a rather comfortable lead over Masquerade by 1.5pp. It has the highest Median and lowest standard deviation. However, it was only voted first 14 times compared to Masquerade's 18. |
