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[Davio]

I wonder how big this list is, in fact, I wonder if it's bigger than 1.

There are a lot of strategies that revolve around a single copy of one good card, all the BMU+Drawer (Smithy+) strats often only really need one copy. Still there are times when you're going for a big chain, so you'll have multiple copies.

Chapel seems to be a good candidate, because... what the hell do you need two Chapels for? Pure overkill if you ask me. So this makes Chapel a multiplayer friendly card. Every player will have his or her chance to pick one up. There won't be much competition for it.
Would you ever need more than one Chapel? I doubt it.

Are there any more?

[DStu]

Forge?

[theory]

Envoy is the main BMU + Draw that you only want one copy of.

You rarely want more than one Mine.  Several of the other trash-for-benefit, e.g. Remake/Trading Post.  Tactician, usually, unless you're doing double-Tactician.

[DG]

Treasure Map?

[WanderingWinder]

Envoy is the main BMU + Draw that you only want one copy of.

You rarely want more than one Mine.  Several of the other trash-for-benefit, e.g. Remake/Trading Post.  Tactician, usually, unless you're doing double-Tactician.

Most of the cards I can think of are trashers. TFB based on cost you're actually quite happy to have many of, generally. Trading post was the first thing that came to mind though. Remake is hit and miss.
Non-trashers... there's lots of joke answers. Like curse. Which I will buy occasionally but very rarely buy more than one of.
Potion you usually need only one.

But the best non-trashing example I can think of is outpost. Well, you don't want it anyway, usually, but when you do, you're usually drawing your deck. And you can't get extra benefits from playing more than one anyway, so there you go.

[Captain_Frisk]

I agree with theory, Trading Post is likely the closest.  Remake doesn't work because sometimes you'll get another remake.

I'd second forge, except that forge appears frequently with provinces / colonies.  Sometimes you might want to forge a forge + $4 into a colony, or pick up a forge @ 7 because its a good upgrade / remake into province later.

Or - how about Adventurer?  You might not even want 1!

[HiveMindEmulator]

Followers, Trusty Steed, Princess, Bag of Gold, Diadem.
I've never gotten more than one of any of these.

Among kingdom cards, I'd say Chapel, Trading Post, Moneylender.

[jsh357]

Chancellor

[DStu]

Chancellor

Chancellor/Stash wants more than one Chancellor.

[werothegreat]

Bag of Gold?  More than one, and your deck will just be too riddled with Gold to do anything.

[Thisisnotasmile]

You usually only want to buy one Mint unless Mountebank is pumping you full of Copper and you get more than one opportunity to trash multiples...

[HiveMindEmulator]

You usually only want to buy one Mint unless Mountebank is pumping you full of Copper and you get more than one opportunity to trash multiples...

Double Mint can be good. You don't have to only use Coppers to buy them. +$ from cards or Silver works just fine.

[Asklepios]

You usually only want to buy one Mint unless Mountebank is pumping you full of Copper and you get more than one opportunity to trash multiples...

Game I played today I bought Mint twice, just to trash treasure quickly, as I wanted to clear out every non-platinum Treasure ASAP:

http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201202/20/game-20120220-071043-e316937f.html

Weirdly, this has been a great day for me where Talismans and Mints are concerned, with the two working together when logically they shouldn't (thanks to the presence of other worthwhile $4 cards, and a need to clear treasure out of the way once I hit platinum).

Also, this was a game where I bought two Upgrades, which is another card I normally don't seek to duplicate.

I would, however, add the caveat that I'd broadly agree that buying more than one Mint is a bad idea. It was only because this game had Upgrade that I considered it.

[AJD]

In general I agree of course you only want one Chapel. But if you open Chapel/Something and happen to draw Copper-Copper-Estate-Estate-Estate on turn 3, picking up a second Chapel can sometimes be better than nothing if you're planning to build up a big engine. If you're lucky, you'll get one extra turn of trashing out of it before the two Chapels collide and you want to trash one with the other.

[chwhite]

WW is right that Outpost is the best non-Chapel candidate; you get zero benefit from playing a second Outpost and really want it most often when you're in draw-your-deck mode. 

Trading Post, Forge, and Moneylender are also good candidates; I've played games where I ended up with multiple Forges but the second one was clearly a mistake in retrospect.  Many trashers are cards you usually want one of, but those three seem to be the ones with the least exceptions; cards like Remake, Steward, and Mint are usually better as singles but there are situations where the second copy makes sense.

There are a lot of situational early-game cards where you don't normally want more than one: Bureaucrat, Cutpurse, Chancellor, Navigator, for instance but even these have exceptions: multiple B-crat is a good route to Silk Roads and Dukes; Chancellor/Stash wants many Chancellors; Cutpurse and Navigator are less likely, but if they're the only virtual money in a setup replete with Scrying Pool, Villages, trash, and +Buy then you'll probably take them for the cash if nothing else.

Double-Tac decks are way too common to consider Tactician here.

[Young Nick]

I would think Ghost Ship works. It's attack is brutal, but, obviously, it doesn't stack at all. The +2 Cards is quite weak. I guess maybe you want 2 if you are going for BMU + Ghost Ship, but if you have any type of engine...just 1 is plenty enough.

[WanderingWinder]

I would think Ghost Ship works. It's attack is brutal, but, obviously, it doesn't stack at all. The +2 Cards is quite weak. I guess maybe you want 2 if you are going for BMU + Ghost Ship, but if you have any type of engine...just 1 is plenty enough.

BM/Ghost Ship is very strong, wants 10, and... yeah....

[GendoIkari]

Envoy is the main BMU + Draw that you only want one copy of.

You rarely want more than one Mine.  Several of the other trash-for-benefit, e.g. Remake/Trading Post.  Tactician, usually, unless you're doing double-Tactician.

I think multiple Remakes can often be good, on the right board.

[ehunt]

I think chapel, forge, and trading post are the best answers, although I can think of corner cases for all three. (The chapel corner case has already been mentioned; I'd upgrade a gold into a second forge if I were ahead, planning to upgrade the second forge into a province, and for trading post - well, if it's reasonably early, I got brutalized by familiar, and I was about to reshuffle, and I had five, and there was no other option better than silver, I'd do it.)

It's pretty rare that I want two scouts, talismans, transmutes, etc...

[RisingJaguar]

It's pretty rare that I want two scouts, talismans, transmutes, etc...

Actually a good chunk of the time you want talismans, you want them all (gardens).  But yes for engine building, you do only want one if that. 

[ecq]

Spice Merchant.  One is okay occasionally.  Two is nearly always overkill.

[Algebraist]

Spice Merchant.  One is okay occasionally.  Two is nearly always overkill.

I recently used multiple spice merchants to keep my deck sane as worker's village + goons scored loads of points.

[Ozle]

I'll second Trading Post, don't think I have ever even thought about a second one, and cant think of any combo decks it goes into.

[brokoli]

WW is right that Outpost is the best non-Chapel candidate; you get zero benefit from playing a second Outpost and really want it most often when you're in draw-your-deck mode

I think you would take a second outpost for the same reasons you would take a second tactician (not in a double tactician strategy). Sometimes you simply want to see your outpost more often, I used it in a crazy menagerie-conspirator engine, and outpost was so good that I wanted more than one.

[jimjam]

Curses, in Fairgrounds deck

[Beyond Awesome]

Curses, in Fairgrounds deck

Why would you buy a curse when there would be 16 other cards to chose from with Fairgrounds in play. I could see that happening with Tournament and Fairgrounds...and maybe Black Market. But, needing a curse with Fairgrounds is super rare.

But, there are corner cases where your deck needs one curse, usually to end the game on piles.

[HiveMindEmulator]

Why would you buy a curse when there would be 16 other cards to chose from with Fairgrounds in play.

Because it costs $0.

[Davio]

Curses, in Fairgrounds deck

Not in a 3p Gardens deck.
20 Curses, 12 Gardens = + 4 VP. 

[Asklepios]

Curses, in Fairgrounds deck

Why would you buy a curse when there would be 16 other cards to chose from with Fairgrounds in play. I could see that happening with Tournament and Fairgrounds...and maybe Black Market. But, needing a curse with Fairgrounds is super rare.

But, there are corner cases where your deck needs one curse, usually to end the game on piles.

I'm not a big fan of Fairgrounds without the enablers like Black Market or potion cards, but I'd observe that you'll often consider buying a single curse to up the variety in your deck, as you'll not always have enough $ to buy a copy of a different card that you're missing, and why waste the buy by not getting the curse now?

[Davio]

Well, in most games it's not that hard to reach the 10 different cards mark.
Province, Duchy, Estate, Gold, Silver, Copper, Fairgrounds gets you to 7. So you need just 3 kingdom cards to complete the set of 10. Unless you're going plain BMU+ that's very doable.

[Asklepios]

Well, in most games it's not that hard to reach the 10 different cards mark.
Province, Duchy, Estate, Gold, Silver, Copper, Fairgrounds gets you to 7. So you need just 3 kingdom cards to complete the set of 10. Unless you're going plain BMU+ that's very doable.

You may be right there. I'm don't often play Fairgrounds, so I don't have much of a feel for knowing whether its worth buying a curse for it. I can't recall when I last went for Fairgrounds as a 4VP card. For me, if there's not a good route to making it worth 6VP+, its too slow to make my startegy around.

But Fairgrounds is probably one of my weakest cards.

[Davio]

I'm not an active Fairgrounds player myself, but I take them as a consolation prize over Duchy when I'm $2 short of a Province. Much like when I take Tunnel over Estate in no-discard games.

[jotheonah]

I can't imagine buying more than one Minion or Torturer. Or Province for that matter.

[GendoIkari]

I can't imagine buying more than one Minion or Torturer. Or Province for that matter.

Especially Province! They do NOTHING for you at all during the game; just take up room in your deck and prevent you from drawing the good cards! I suppose there might be an exception in Crossroads games, though.

[WanderingWinder]

I can't imagine buying more than one Minion or Torturer. Or Province for that matter.

I don't think those really qualify for the spirit of the thread. We're more looking for cards you want exactly one of, not cards you don't want at all.

[jotheonah]

I guess if both Explorer and Tournament were out I might buy a second Province.

[Davio]

And if Fool's Gold is out, I'm definitely NOT buying them!

[Asklepios]

And if Fool's Gold is out, I'm definitely NOT buying them!

I might get ONE. Just for variety, y'know.

[Tables]

Well, now that we've taken a single joke and stretched it over about 10 posts, can we get back on topic...?

It's interesting I think to look also at the flipside of this: When might you want multiple copies of a card you'd normally only be interested in having one of? When is buying 2-3+ chapels a good idea? What board makes you want to buy multiple curses? How about something that's powered by multiple Envoys (that isn't just a long BMU+ game)?

[Epoch]

You could potentially buy multiple Chapels in a Vineyards game which lacked other $2 actions.

[jotheonah]

Also, you can play Chapel and choose not to trash anything. Which makes it occasionally worth it to power up HOPs, especially as it's cheap.

[Taco Lobster]

I've bought out Curses to close out a Goons game, and I doubt I'm alone in that. 

[ecq]

Well, now that we've taken a single joke and stretched it over about 10 posts, can we get back on topic...?

It's interesting I think to look also at the flipside of this: When might you want multiple copies of a card you'd normally only be interested in having one of? When is buying 2-3+ chapels a good idea? What board makes you want to buy multiple curses? How about something that's powered by multiple Envoys (that isn't just a long BMU+ game)?

I've bought two Chapels before.  I can't remember the exact circumstance, though.  Most likely I had a $2 hand with no other worthwhile $2 cards and fast trashing was really important to whatever I was doing.  It might also be worthwhile if your deck has gotten huge for some reason and you need to make it small again (Goons).

A word of caution, though: it doesn't matter how big your deck is, if you buy a second Chapel, it's guaranteed to show up in the same hand as the first.

[Loschmidt]

Trading Post, Forge, and Moneylender are also good candidates;

A double Moneylender with Cache (or IGG) on the board is something I've been meaning to try.

What about Feast there's probably only one copy of it in your deck at any given time.

[Ozle]

Well, now that we've taken a single joke and stretched it over about 10 posts, can we get back on topic...?

It's interesting I think to look also at the flipside of this: When might you want multiple copies of a card you'd normally only be interested in having one of? When is buying 2-3+ chapels a good idea? What board makes you want to buy multiple curses? How about something that's powered by multiple Envoys (that isn't just a long BMU+ game)?

I like the way you asked for it to get back on topic and then took it in completely the other direction!

I bought two outposts the other day to ensure i got them with my tactitians, does thatcount?

[mischiefmaker]

I have a hard time believing double Moneylender with IGG is a good way to go. If you buy a Silver instead, any hand you draw Moneylender-Copper, you get $3, same as Silver-Copper. Trashing the Copper isn't that great, since you actually like having tons of copper in the endgame. And that's if you happen to get a random $4 hand; if you pay $5 to get the second Moneylender, there's the huge opportunity cost.

It's not uncommon for there to be multiple Feasts in your deck at once. It's usually not how you plan to use that card, but hey, stuff happens. It's definitely not a card you never want to buy more than one of.

What about Contraband? I imagine if I think long enough I can come up with some situation where I want multiples, but it seems pretty rare.

[jotheonah]

In a Gardens game after you have all/most of the Gardens and you just want as much money and +buy as you can get (and there are no better options for +buy), maybe you want multiple COntrabands

[greatexpectations]

In a Gardens game after you have all/most of the Gardens and you just want as much money and +buy as you can get (and there are no better options for +buy), maybe you want multiple COntrabands

at that point in a garden game you would likely want duchy over contraband.  buying multiple contrabands very early though can help a garden or silk road strategy.  i have used / seen it used for both.

[jotheonah]

In a Gardens game after you have all/most of the Gardens and you just want as much money and +buy as you can get (and there are no better options for +buy), maybe you want multiple COntrabands

at that point in a garden game you would likely want duchy over contraband.  buying multiple contrabands very early though can help a garden or silk road strategy.  i have used / seen it used for both.

Ultimately it's a judgment call, but if I can add a Gold and a +buy at the same time and only delay my Duchy-rush one turn, I might do it, especially if the Gardens split is close and I think my opponent's buying power is a lot better than mine.

[Asklepios]

I've bought two moneylenders before in a multiplayer where two players had mountebank. Sure, it upped my curse density a little, but curses are finite, and moneylender at least upped my treasure density enough to allow me to start getting consistent duchies before the game three-piled.

[Geronimoo]

I've bought two moneylenders before in a multiplayer where two players had mountebank. Sure, it upped my curse density a little, but curses are finite, and moneylender at least upped my treasure density enough to allow me to start getting consistent duchies before the game three-piled.

If your goal is getting Duchies, then Coppers aren't bad and you should probably buy Silver over Moneylender so you don't trim your deck to the point where you're drawing more Curses.

[MasterAir]

I've often wondered if, when dealing with the Mountebank's attack, you aren't better off trashing the copper than the curse (if you can only trash one), so that you have the curse to react to more Mountebanks being played.  Sure, copper is better than curse, but if it's a pseudo-moat as well, then there is a discussion to be had.  Also, copper isn't terrible if you're aiming at Duchies, but if there are curses around then you need better than just copper to buy even duchies, and more still if you want to have a chance at provinces.  I think in a Mountebank game, a couple of Moneylenders might not be the worst idea in the world.

[jomini]

I'm going to have a hard time coming up with cards I'd only EVER want one copy of. Chapel is pretty close, but you may stockpile them late game with vinyards. You might also consider remodeling curses to chapels if you have any reason for preferring a dead chapel to a dead estate (e.g. you have a scrying pool deck, you don't want to pile out the estates, etc.), and lastly in a second chapel can be useful if you are doing something like WV/chap/Peddler to get the peddler price down to 2.

As far as other contenders - outpost works good with multiple copies in menage decks where you will get to good hand sizes, but not maybe draw the whole deck (e.g. late game when provinces start clogging up the menages a second outpost increases the odds of getting a second turn & getting two good point buys).

Forge is excellent upgrade/governor/remake bait so I will often toss a second one in to a mix with any of those if I hit 7 in the mid game. With colonies out, it is an easy shot to forge a forge with the appropriate card into either a plat or a colony.


Multiple moneylender's is a bit more problematic, but I'd be inclined to get a second one in a jester-engine war if I have an otherwise useless 4 coin had. I'd also maybe grab multiple moneylenders in a goons engine where I can reliably draw my deck and have enough actions to kill the coppers.

Trading post is likely the strongest contender for one copy only - it has a high opportunity cost, it is a trasher that decreases in usefulness over time, and collision isn't pretty. Still, I could see something like a board with hamlet/trading post/familiar where opening off a 5/2 split to trading post/hamlet/trading post is better than other options.

[Tables]

Actually, on the topic of Goons, my housemate recently built a Goons engine in a game which (ab)used multiple chapels, along with cities and some +draw (which apparently mostly came FROM the cities...) to draw decent portions of his deck, trash away coppers, then use extra buys with the Goons for more coppers. It was probably not quite the best strategy, but beat his opponent's fairly standard but Goon light deck by a landslide.