This is the second of several previews by Donald X. Vaccarino, introducing the next Dominion expansion: Guilds. The community is discussing these new cards in the Guilds Preview subforum.

Casimir III’s father, Vladislaus the Elbow-High, lived to be 72. During Casimir’s long reign, the Black Death hit Europe, and yet the Kingdom of Poland was largely spared. What was their secret? Careful rat management? Good health care? Probably being away from trade routes was a factor, but I like to consider all the angles. We had Rats in the last expansion, so it must be time for a Doctor.

The second main theme of Guilds is overpay. These are cards you can pay extra for to get more out of them. The amount you pay determines how much you get; you don’t just get to overpay a certain specific amount. With Doctor, each $1 you overpay lets you look at another card. Overpay by $4 and you will look at the top card, trash it or discard it or put it back, then look at the top card again and make another choice, then a 3rd time, then a 4th time. Get it? If you put the card back you will get it again the next time, so that’s not a great option until you are about out of overpays.

Doctor also does something when you play it. You can get rid of something you anticipate not wanting in your next 3 cards. It’s exciting enough that you might actually buy one for $3, although you will prefer to buy one for $6 or $10 or something.

Overpay can be fed by coin tokens, just look at that synergy. And your options increase even further. Let’s say you have $5 and a coin token, as with yesterday’s example. In addition to whatever else, you could get a Doctor and overpay $2, or cash in the coin token and get a Doctor overpaying $3.

Overpay is something that happens when you buy a card. Didn’t we have that already in Hinterlands? Well yes, but it doesn’t feel especially similar. As the little “+” next to the “3” reminds you, overpay cards don’t have a fixed cost (except when you trash them to an Apprentice or something; then Doctor costs $3 no matter what you actually paid). They increase the number of purchase options you have.