Note: There were 3 new cards added in the $0-$2 range from Renaissance.
| #24 =0 Border Guard (Renaissance) Weighted Average: 50.21% / Unweighted Average: 52.27% / Median: 53.19% / Standard Deviation: 19.88%
Border Guard is the ultimate mediocre card, sitting at almost exactly the middle of the weighted ranking. It is one rank higher in the unweighted ranking. It never hurts your deck in a vacuum because it’s a cantrip, and its ability is not super amazing, but it’s just useful enough that it’s quite often a pretty reasonable purchase when you have a spare $2-3 and there’s nothing more important to buy. It received a wide range of different votes from very low to very high, but it was never voted first or last.
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| #23 ▼2 Crossroads (Hinterlands) Weighted Average: 50.35% ▼2.6pp / Unweighted Average: 53.18% / Median: 51.06% ▼3.6pp / Standard Deviation: 20.08%
After gaining a rank last year, Crossroads lost two ranks this year. It is one rank higher in the unweighted ranking. It’s a non-trivial card to utilize in a traditional engine, since it doesn’t draw any cards on its own and it only acts as an anti-terminal once per turn, but it does have its uses every so often. Like Border Guard, it received a wide range of votes, but never first or last.
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| #22 ▲5 Native Village (Seaside) Weighted Average: 51.49% ▲4.7pp / Unweighted Average: 52.1% / Median: 51.06% ▲3.3pp / Standard Deviation: 18.59%
Native Village gained 5 ranks this year, taking it from the bottom half of this list to the top half. In the unweighted ranking, it is 2 ranks lower. Native Village is a very strong card in some rare situations where you’re able to utilize its setting-aside ability to create a megaturn or to pseudo-trash your bad cards, but most of the time, it is still a perfectly usable (if less than ideal) anti-terminal for a regular engine. It was voted #1 by one voter.
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| #21 ▲2 Fool's Gold (Hinterlands) Weighted Average: 54.69% ▲6.2pp / Unweighted Average: 55.79% / Median: 55.32% ▲0.7pp / Standard Deviation: 22.83%
After an astonishing drop of 11 ranks last year, Fool’s Gold gained two ranks this year. It’s slightly higher but on the same rank in the unweighted list. It also has one of the highest standard deviations on the list, meaning that there’s a lot of disagreement in the community over how strong it is. Fool’s Gold is certainly no longer the powerhouse it was once considered to be, mostly because it doesn’t fit very naturally into the early game of an engine build order, but it can still be used as a late-game payload in the absence of better options, as well as the occasional big money style deck. It was voted last once.
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| #20 ▼1 Squire (Dark Ages) Weighted Average: 59.47% ▲0.5pp / Unweighted Average: 61.56% / Median: 63.83% ▲4.7pp / Standard Deviation: 15.61%
Squire continues its trend of falling down the ranks, but this year it actually gained some points, signaling that it’s starting to stabilize. It is 4 ranks higher in the unweighted ranking, suggesting that it might be overvalued by less experienced players. Squire is a versatile card for engines and other types of decks, doing a pretty unimpressive job at a few different important roles. The on-trash benefit can oftentimes be a trap, since losing the Squire, losing the ability to play the Squire that turn, and wasting an opportunity to get rid of a junk card is, in total, a steep cost to pay for what might easily feel like a “free” Attack card, but there are a few situations where you can utilize that ability to great extent. One voter voted it first.
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| #19 ▼4 Courtyard (Intrigue) Weighted Average: 60.82% ▼9.1pp / Unweighted Average: 57.81% / Median: 61.7% ▼4.2pp / Standard Deviation: 19.76%
Courtyard was still considered a top 5 card in 2015’s list, but it has since then lost ranks each year, and this year is no different. In the unweighted list, it is a rank higher but a few points lower. While the card used to be one of the better options for monolithic big money strategies, nowadays its best use case is perhaps in the early game of an engine, where it can help you cycle faster and hit $5 more often, without becoming a liability in the later stages of the game. Nobody voted it first or last.
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| #18 ▲7 Pixie (Nocturne) Weighted Average: 62.1% ▲15pp / Unweighted Average: 56.69% / Median: 59.57% ▲11.8pp / Standard Deviation: 19.36%
Pixie gained an impressive 7 ranks from last year. In the unweighted ranking, it is two ranks lower. Like any other cantrip, Pixie doesn’t hurt your deck in a vacuum, but unlike the lower ranked cantrips on this list, the benefit that it gives can sometimes be very substantial. It wasn’t voted first or last.
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| #17 ▲1 Lighthouse (Seaside) Weighted Average: 62.8% ▲3.7pp / Unweighted Average: 63.3% / Median: 61.7% ▲0.3pp / Standard Deviation: 15.7%
Lighthouse has been dropping in ranks for a long time, but this year, it broke that trend and gained a rank. It is 3 ranks higher in the unweighted ranking. As the primary purpose of the card is to block Attacks, its strength depends very largely on the Attacks that are available in the kingdom, but being non-terminal, it is relatively convenient to add to your deck when you need that defense. It was voted first by nobody, and it was voted in the bottom third by nobody, being the lowest ranking card on this list to achieve that feat.
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| #16 =0 Travelling Fair (Adventures) Weighted Average: 63.03% ▲2.6pp / Unweighted Average: 57.23% / Median: 61.7% ▲2.6pp / Standard Deviation: 21.81%
After rising 8 ranks last year, Travelling Fair stays in that same spot this year. It is 3 ranks lower in the unweighted list. Travelling Fair is a card-shaped thing that you don’t always end up buying, but its strength comes from the opportunities and flexibility that it provides just by being there — you no longer have to buy an Herbalist for $11 or buy it preemptively before you really need it when TF is available. It wasn’t voted first or last.
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| #15 =0 Lackeys (Renaissance) Weighted Average: 65.17% / Unweighted Average: 62.15% / Median: 65.96% / Standard Deviation: 21.59%
LACKEYS is a powerful 2-card terminal draw that can act as a 2-shot anti-terminal instead if necessary. Oh, and it’s ALSO PROMPT. It’s the same rank in the unweighted list, but with a substantially lower score, and nobody voted it first or last.
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| #14 ▲1 Borrow (Adventures) Weighted Average: 67.8% ▲8.5pp / Unweighted Average: 60.87% / Median: 65.96% ▲9.2pp / Standard Deviation: 24.57%
Borrow continues to rise in the rankings this year, gaining 8.5 points but only one rank. It’s three ranks lower in the unweighted ranking. The "strength" of an effect such as Borrow can be very difficult to evaluate, even if we have a pretty good understanding of when it’s a good idea to buy one, and this manifests as a rather high standard deviation, but although it has votes ranging from the bottom 10% to the top 10%, nobody voted it first or last.
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| #13 ▼4 Coin of the Realm (Adventures) Weighted Average: 69.23% ▼6.7pp / Unweighted Average: 68.7% / Median: 74.47% ▼2.8pp / Standard Deviation: 17.65%
After losing 2 ranks last year, CotR lost 4 more ranks this year. It is 2 ranks higher in the unweighted list. CotR is great for adding reliability to terminal draw engines, at the cost of having a stop card in your deck only some of the time. Nobody voted it in the bottom ¼, and nobody voted it first.
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| #12 ▲1 Ratcatcher (Adventures) Weighted Average: 69.8% ▼0.8pp / Unweighted Average: 71.99% / Median: 72.34% ▲1.8pp / Standard Deviation: 13.65%
Ratcatcher gained another rank this year after gaining one last year as well. It’s two ranks higher in the unweighted ranking. It’s a versatile and cheap trasher that basically never gets in your way, and this is why it is fairly highly ranked, even though it is slower than most other trashers. It has the lowest standard deviation on this half of the list, and it wasn’t voted first or in the bottom third by anyone.
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| #11 ▼3 Alms (Adventures) Weighted Average: 73.02% ▼3.3pp / Unweighted Average: 66.07% / Median: 76.6% ▼0.7pp / Standard Deviation: 25.96%
After increasing in ranks two years in a row after its release, Alms has dropped three ranks this year. It would be another two ranks lower in the unweighted ranking. Alms is at the very least useful for concealing your opening split in pretty much every game of Dominion, but it also guarantees that you can always hit at least $4, which is especially useful when you have an unlucky hand or when you trash cards from your hand, leaving you with fewer coins to spend. Like Borrow — and probably for the same reason as Borrow — Alms has a very high standard deviation, but it wasn’t voted first or last.
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| #10 =0 Hamlet (Cornucopia) Weighted Average: 73.35% ▼1.3pp / Unweighted Average: 72.11% / Median: 74.47% ▼2.8pp / Standard Deviation: 14.23%
In the old days of the Qvist rankings, Hamlet was considered the second best $2 card after Chapel. If you ignored all the new cards that were released since then, that would still be the case in this year’s ranking. It’s one rank higher in the unweighted list. Like Squire, it is a versatile card for engines, but because it draws a card, it’s much easier to add to your deck without causing damage. Hamlet also has a pretty low standard deviation, and wasn’t voted first or in the bottom fifth.
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| #9 ▲2 Lurker (Intrigue) Weighted Average: 74.55% ▲0.9pp/ Unweighted Average: 72.11% / Median: 78.38% ▲1.1pp / Standard Deviation: 19.51%
After its entrance last year, Lurker gained two ranks this year. It would be one rank higher in the unweighted list. When you are the only player who has a Lurker, it is a very strong gainer, and if your opponent contests it, it kind of sucks for both players until someone draws two of them together. It can also be used to threaten a 3-pile ending in the late game, and it has some neat tricks with cards that interact with trashing. Nobody voted it first or last.
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| #8 ▲4 Save (Adventures) Weighted Average: 75.01% ▲2.5pp / Unweighted Average: 68.01% / Median: 78.72% ▼0.9pp / Standard Deviation: 26.14%
Save gained 4 ranks from last year. It would be 4 ranks lower in the unweighted ranking. Save can be highly useful for a wide variety of purposes: it helps connect cards that are supposed to connect, it helps separate cards that weren’t supposed to connect, it can help you hit a higher price point by saving a good economy card, it can make one of your bad cards miss the shuffle, and it can just smooth out your shuffles in general. Much like the other higher rated Events here, Save has a very high standard deviation, but it wasn’t ever voted first or last.
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| #7 ▼1 Raze (Adventures) Weighted Average: 80.71% ▲1.3pp / Unweighted Average: 79.48% / Median: 82.98% ▲1.2 / Standard Deviation: 13.68%
Raze dropped a rank this year, breaking its streak of gaining ranks ever since it was first introduced. It is a rank higher in the unweighted list. It’s an extremely strong card for getting rid of your Estates, and it is still pretty sufficient as a Copper trasher, and it can also get rid of itself once you don’t need it anymore. Raze also has one of the lowest standard deviations on the list, and was never voted first or last.
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| #6 ▲1 Stonemason (Guilds) Weighted Average: 80.73% ▲3.8pp / Unweighted Average: 73.39% / Median: 85.11% ▲3.3pp / Standard Deviation: 26.94%
Stonemason gained a rank this year after falling two ranks last year. It’s one rank lower in the unweighted list. Stonemason itself can range from a useless stop card to a pretty useful trasher or gainer, and obviously the overpay ability is usually the main reason to buy it. It has the highest standard deviation on the entire $0-2 list, and was voted first by one voter and last by another voter.
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| #5 ▼1 Monastery (Nocturne) Weighted Average: 80.81% ▼0.4pp / Unweighted Average: 79.48% / Median: 86.96% ▲0.6pp / Standard Deviation: 18.39%
Monastery dropped a rank after its introduction last year. In the unweighted ranking, it has the same ranking with a slightly lower score. Monastery can sometimes trash multiple cards, but even when it only trashes one card at a time, it is remarkably good at doing that since it cannot be drawn dead and it can trash a Copper that you already played and spent, which makes it great for maintaining momentum even as you’re thinning your deck. Nobody voted it first or last.
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| #4 ▲1 Encampment (Empires) Weighted Average: 85.81% ▲5.2pp / Unweighted Average: 84.5% / Median: 87.23% ▲3.1pp / Standard Deviation: 13.93%
Encampment continues its streak of gaining ranks every year since its release. It’s the same rank with a slightly lower score in the unweighted ranking. A Lost City for $2 is obviously very strong, even with the drawback of having to have enough Golds or Plunders in your deck. Because it is a split pile and thus only five of them exist in the supply, they run out very fast and it’s often important to focus on winning the split. It has one of the lowest standard deviations on the list and was never voted first or last.
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| #3 =0 Page (Adventures) Weighted Average: 94.81% ▲0.6pp / Unweighted Average: 92.22% / Median: 95.74% ▲0.2pp / Standard Deviation: 15.19%
Page maintained its spot as the #3 card on the list, with a quite substantial (although smaller than in 2017 and 2016) gap of 9 points between the top 3 and the #4. All of the top 3 cards are very close together, however, having unweighted averages of 90-93%. It is one rank higher in the unweighted list. Page gives you access to the extremely strong Champion, but due to Treasure Hunter and Hero being rather low utility in many cases, it’s not as strong as the Peasant line overall. Page was voted first 4 times, and only once in the bottom half.
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| #2 ▼1 Chapel (Base) Weighted Average: 96.3% ▼1.5pp / Unweighted Average: 92.01% / Median: 97.87% ▼2.1pp / Standard Deviation: 22.32%
For the first time in the history of Qvist’s lists, Chapel drops a rank and is no longer the #1 $2. It’s a rank lower in the unweighted ranking. Chapel is without any doubt an extremely strong card and one of the strongest trashers in the game and can strongly effect your Estates and Coppers, particularly in a destructive way, but it has been shown that the strongest single-card trashers such as Masquerade can be a close match for Chapel’s speed in terms of overall deckbuilding, and with the introduction of new strong trashers such as Donate and Cathedral, perhaps some players have found Chapel’s utility ever so slightly less irreplaceable in this year’s ranking. 18 players voted it as #1 and someone voted it as the last card.
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| #1 ▲1 Peasant (Adventures) Weighted Average: 96.58% ▲0.3pp / Unweighted Average: 92.91% / Median: 97.87% ▲0.2pp / Standard Deviation: 16.84%
And finally, we have Peasant, which gained a rank from last year and is the top rated card both in the weighted and the unweighted rankings. Since the Peasant line only consists of useful cards, many games with Peasant in it are centered around buying a lot of Peasants and leveling them up to the appropriate levels. It received 13 votes for the first place and only one vote below 50%.
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