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[mee]

I really dislike that these are called cantrips meaning you cant lose by getting them I know of at least 2 times they are bad besides for the obvious dead draw(drawing them without actions)
1)when you are hit by a discard attack  you don't know should you discard your silver or cantrip or your cantrip or copper you don't know what your next card is to be able to make that decision
2)this is pawn specific you can make the wrong choice 
how many other ones are there

[Awaclus]

There's also Masquerade, Tournament (mostly your opponent's), Reactions, Wishing Well and Hunting Party at least.

It doesn't mean that you can't lose by getting them, it just means that it replaces itself with another card and action (in the context of Dominion, that is; in other games, it means other things, and it means yet other things outside of games).

[SCSN]

Cantrip is a word of Scots origin to mean a magical spell of any kind, or one which reads the same forwards and backwards. It can also be a witch's trick, or a sham.

Sounds entirely accurate then!

[GendoIkari]

A thread about when cantrips are good vs bad: http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=2308.0. As was said, cantrip doesn't mean that they can't hurt you. It just means that playing one doesn't either reduce your handsize or your number of actions remaining.

[DG]

I'll shamelessly link my old article too http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=6823.msg189042#msg189042.

[Aleimon Thimble]

While all of the above is true, I would still say that when the choice is between buying a cheap cantrip or nothing, I will almost always go for the cheap cantrip. I rarely play terminal draw without Villages anyway, and the other situations are mostly rather niche, so yeah.

(of course, Rats is a notable exception)

[Chris is me]

1)when you are hit by a discard attack  you don't know should you discard your silver or cantrip or your cantrip or copper you don't know what your next card is to be able to make that decision

Yes, but you have more information than you might think. You should know what cards are left in your deck, the expected value of the next card, the marginal utility of the cantrip's other effects relative to the cost of not having a Copper, etc. I've found that rarely am I in a position where having a cantrip during a discard attack was a really big negative. You almost always buy cantrips for the *other* things the cards do "for free", so I'm rarely going to avoid cantrips in the presence of a discard attack. I guess I wouldn't pick up Pearl Diver on $2.

2)this is pawn specific you can make the wrong choice 

Pawn is only a cantrip with one of the 6 possible choices - I don't think you can say "cantrips are bad because when you play a non-cantrip you might regret it"

"Cantrip" isn't short for "can't lose" or anything like that - it's derived from the use of the term in MTG, a card that replaces itself.

[GendoIkari]

"Cantrip" isn't short for "can't lose" or anything like that

Obviously, it's "can't rip", not "can't lose".

[Kirian]

Indeed.  Cantrip cards are made of Kevlar.

[popsofctown]

I'm curious what game OP has played that uses the term "cantrip" for cards that are truly never ever bad.  Magic cantrips cost you at least 1 mana to replace them.  The original term cantrips comes from D&D afaik and they are really cheap spells but they still cost you something afaik. 

[Awaclus]

The original term cantrips comes from D&D afaik and they are really cheap spells but they still cost you something afaik.

Actually the original term is an archaic Scots word and it means a spell or a trick.

[Axxle]

"Cantrip" isn't short for "can't lose" or anything like that

Obviously, it's "can't rip", not "can't lose".

but playing one allows you to rip the top card off your deck

[popsofctown]

The original term cantrips comes from D&D afaik and they are really cheap spells but they still cost you something afaik.

Actually the original term is an archaic Scots word and it means a spell or a trick.

I meant originally, as in, as soon as it became a gaming term.  I'm aware that like Witch, Curse, and Province, a entirely new linguistic concept wasn't spawned just for a game mechanic.

[GendoIkari]

The original term cantrips comes from D&D afaik and they are really cheap spells but they still cost you something afaik.

Actually the original term is an archaic Scots word and it means a spell or a trick.

I meant originally, as in, as soon as it became a gaming term.  I'm aware that like Witch, Curse, and Province, a entirely new linguistic concept wasn't spawned just for a game mechanic.

I didn't know that it had meaning outside games.