| #38 =0 Annex (Empires)| Weighted Average: | 3.4% | | Unweighted Average: | 4.5% | | Median: | 0.0% | | Standard Deviation: | 15.4% |
Annex defends its last position. Due to its high cost it's rare to be a good buy during the game. (I always have to check whether you select the cards to shuffle or not to shuffle when buying it.) Sometimes it provides the crucial VP on the last turn. |
| #37 =0 Harem (Intrigue)| Weighted Average: | 8.9% | | Unweighted Average: | 13.1% | | Median: | 5.4% | | Standard Deviation: | 18.7% |
Unless your deck really wants Treasure/Victory cards this is a very weak option. Maybe you want a few more VP but can't risk piling out Provinces and Duchies. |
| #36 ▼1 Raider (Nocturne)| Weighted Average: | 10.2% | | Unweighted Average: | 13.3% | | Median: | 5.4% | | Standard Deviation: | 17.7% |
Raider falls behind Farmland. It has too many weaknesses: the attack doesn't work after a handsize reduction, you might have to avoid playing all cards to make the attack meaningful, it misses shuffles, and it costs $6. It's good to spike money, but then you need to afford it before in the first place. So you get it in sloggy games, where it's useful for hitting $8. |
| #35 ▲1 Farmland (Hinterlands)| Weighted Average: | 10.7% | | Unweighted Average: | 13.4% | | Median: | 8.1% | | Standard Deviation: | 16.9% |
Switching places with Raider down the bottom of the ranking doesn't indicate that people are changing their mind about how bad Farmland is, just that a little bit of noise in people not caring about which is worse is normal. It is worth remembering that it can break province splits on single gain boards fairly easily, getting 8 VP off a triple gold hand can be strong. |
| #34 =0 Wedding (Empires)| Weighted Average: | 17.6% | | Unweighted Average: | 20.6% | | Median: | 13.5% | | Standard Deviation: | 16.6% |
Wedding sometimes means that you skip Silver and take a Gold with Debt. Having 1 VP attached doesn't matter much, but you would rarely buy Gold over Wedding - not that Gold is bought often these days. |
| #33 =0 Conquest (Empires)| Weighted Average: | 21.2% | | Unweighted Average: | 21.5% | | Median: | 13.5% | | Standard Deviation: | 20.1% |
Silver is a good card right? And what could be better than 2 good cards: VP! Making this be good takes so many other cards to line up that things are very unlikely. |
| #32 =0 Hoard (Prosperity)| Weighted Average: | 21.5% | | Unweighted Average: | 24.8% | | Median: | 18.9% | | Standard Deviation: | 20.1% |
Hoard started ahead of Border Village in 2011 and has been continuously falling since then. It has stabilized this year but I could see it fall another couple of ranks in the future. The decks in which it is a good card are not that common. |
| #31 =0 Bank (Prosperity)| Weighted Average: | 29.2% | | Unweighted Average: | 34.4% | | Median: | 32.4% | | Standard Deviation: | 22.9% |
Turning lots of money into even more money, just what you didn't need. The effect is strong, just you don't need it often and many good decks will not be able to use it. |
| #30 ▼1 Prince (Promo)| Weighted Average: | 29.9% | | Unweighted Average: | 36.1% | | Median: | 27.0% | | Standard Deviation: | 25.1% |
Prince has been quite stable throughout its history, but it has the highest standard deviation on this list. Once you get the card in play, it's a very strong affect. But it is expensive and it takes 1 Action, 2 cards (that need to collide appropriately), and forgoing your other cards Action on the turn you play Prince. This makes it often too slow. |
| #29 ▼1 Castles (Empires)| Weighted Average: | 31.8% | | Unweighted Average: | 35.5% | | Median: | 29.7% | | Standard Deviation: | 20.3% |
Alternative VP option, you'll need lots of economy and buys to ensure you gain the best ones if your opponent decides to spoil your plans by trying to buy the few important ones from you. Not a good plan A. |
| #28 ▼1 Fairgrounds (Cornucopia)| Weighted Average: | 32.1% | | Unweighted Average: | 32.7% | | Median: | 29.7% | | Standard Deviation: | 18.9% |
Fairgrounds loses another rank this year after its 4 rank drop last year. Gaining Fairgrounds is often not a winning move. But make sure that you're not going for Provinces too early. In that case, your opponent might outbuild you and catch up with Fairgrounds while you stall. |
| #27 Crop Rotation (Renaissance)| Weighted Average: | 34.0% | | Unweighted Average: | 38.4% | | Median: | 35.1% | | Standard Deviation: | 20.4% |
Great compliment to a Shepherd strategy, but very useful cycling if estates are not going to get trashed. May be better than bad estate trashers as at least when this does nothing it didn't take up a space in your hand. |
| #26 ▼1 Royal Blacksmith (Empires)| Weighted Average: | 34.4% | | Unweighted Average: | 33.2% | | Median: | 32.4% | | Standard Deviation: | 13.9% |
+5 Cards is great, but 8 debt is expensive and having to discard Coppers is a big downside early on. Therefore, it's often ignored unless there's only weak other draw on the board. Royal Blacksmith is the card with the lowest standard deviation on this list. |
| #25 ▲4 Expand (Prosperity)| Weighted Average: | 38.1% | | Unweighted Average: | 38.0% | | Median: | 37.8% | | Standard Deviation: | 21.1% |
The strength of Expand's trash for gain has been recognised since last year, moving up 4 places is biggest positive move a card in this list saw this year. Don't be caught sleeping on Expand, people have noticed its power. |
| #24 Barracks (Renaissance)| Weighted Average: | 39.2% | | Unweighted Average: | 42.1% | | Median: | 40.5% | | Standard Deviation: | 18.5% |
In theory, you have enough Villages for your deck, but in practice they sometimes collide at the bottom of your deck. Starting the turn with 2 Actions is great. $6 is maybe a bit expensive, but you want to get it on most boards. And trust me, the player who skips it doesn't win much. |
| #23 =0 Forge (Prosperity)| Weighted Average: | 39.3% | | Unweighted Average: | 39.2% | | Median: | 35.1% | | Standard Deviation: | 18.8% |
It is rare that the trashing on a $7 can be considered strong but it can do a very good job of thinning once you play it. That it will then help contribute to gaining lots of provinces with ease makes it a strong option on boards that are otherwise unexciting. |
| #22 ▼2 Hireling (Adventures)| Weighted Average: | 44.5% | | Unweighted Average: | 49.6% | | Median: | 50.0% | | Standard Deviation: | 17.9% |
Drawing at the begining of your turn is great. But Hireling is a bit expensive and slow. Still, having 1 or 2 in play often makes sense. |
| #21 ▲1 Training (Adventures)| Weighted Average: | 49.6% | | Unweighted Average: | 48.6% | | Median: | 48.7% | | Standard Deviation: | 19.3% |
Add a little bit of economy to any action. As long as you are going to have many copies of that action and the ability to play them all when you draw them it will generate more coin than buying a gold will. And you aren't buying treasures, no one enjoys buying treasures. |
| #20 ▼2 Hunting Grounds (Dark Ages)| Weighted Average: | 50.4% | | Unweighted Average: | 49.5% | | Median: | 51.4% | | Standard Deviation: | 17.0% |
Hunting Grounds loses another couple of ranks this year. It provides excellent draw and its trash effect shouldn't be forgotten. Remodeling into Province and Duchy is quite nice, taking the Estates often allows for a 3-pile win. |
+ Cards (Bottom half)
