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[schadd]

(holding knife to fingertip) i do this for my craft

we've seen a few workshops. the ones that are bounded at $4 tend to want to cost $4 or less. and this one, cough, does cost less than $4. and the trick to this one is that she'll forfeit that patent that she's been working on for the greater good, then retire. or something. you get to make two choices each time! which card do i get, and then do i want to get another one? oh and then there's even that choice of what the second card is. there's the thing where it costs debt instead of the other thing so it can't gain itself, but people know that.


-why does she need to die on her final project? or whatever
-how often will you buy it at less than $4? in order for it to happen (meaningfully) in the opening you need to get either 5/2 or 4/3, and well when do you buy workshops other than that?
-when would you buy this when you wouldn't buy workshop or ironworks or whatever? does the fact that they trash themselves make it okay to pick up a few more?

[JThorne]

The double-gain could be really handy. I suspect that often the correct play will be to buy Engineer and then immediately trade it in for two of X so that both copies are available after your second shuffle, along with however many of X you were able to buy. It could make the difference between having 3-4 Ironmongers in your second shuffle to having 5-6. Even better if there are multiple different engine parts that are $4 or less, since the two choices can be different, unlike many other multi-gainers. The fact that it disappears is also very handy, since Workshop turns into a dead card. I will buy Engineer on a lot of boards where I wouldn't buy Workshop.

That said, it's completely skippable on boards without desirable cheap kingdom cards. I've experimented with using it to gain double-silver on such boards, and that's just not great, even when you need money. The extra cash doesn't make up for the loss of tempo.

It also might be an interesting buy right before a shuffle if you dud that hand. Sometimes a third shuffle starts generating $6 and $7 when what you really want is more copies of the key $3 - $5 cards, so you often have a situation where paying off the tiny bit of extra debt isn't an issue and it could slightly increase the gaining efficiency of that shuffle. That's what I think we have here: Not a spectacular card, but a card which can, in the right circumstances, provide a tiny edge in efficiency.

[Chris is me]

The double gain is really nice for those times you buy a gainer primarily for one specific card (Herald, Ironmonger, Caravan, etc). You generally don't want your gainer sticking around after that, so this helps you win the split AND gets out of your way. Very handy.

The debt cost is barely relevant to this card, but it is nice on 4/3 or 5/2 openings. Even 2/5 it's a reasonable choice on the first turn if you're picking up Ambassador or Masquerade or something on the $3 turn.

[Seprix]

I'm pretty interested in discussions on how many Engineers you want on a power $4 board with Heralds. I'm thinking two for sure. Literally screw Silver. Engineers can gain that crap later.

[aku_chi]

In situations where Workshop is good (multiple good sub-$5 engine components including action splitters), Engineer will be similarly good.  But Engineer is also good if terminal space is limited, so long as there is one sub-$5 engine piece you want in bulk.  You can pick up Engineer on a sub-$5 turn with the intention of trashing it for two engine pieces next shuffle.  This makes a lot of sense with $3 or $4 villages.  You can pick up an Engineer before your second shuffle, when you don't have much terminal collision, and get a couple villages before your third shuffle.  I suspect that I'll buy Engineer in more games than Ironworks, but it won't be as impactful as Ironworks in the games it's bought.

[theright555J]

Literally screw Silver.

That would be rather hard to do, especially without defacing the cards.

[Roadrunner7671]

Literally screw Silver.

That would be rather hard to do, especially without defacing the cards.

Maybe he's not referring to the card? Just...actual Silver? Thag would be tough too.

[Witherweaver]

I, for one, am glad that the Women in STEM movement has taken root in this new Empire.

[Seprix]

I, for one, am glad that the Women in STEM movement has taken root in this new Empire.

For all you know, she could be a Gender Studies engineer.