Gear (Adventures)

Here's a comprehensive strategy guide for Gear:

Gear Strategy Guide

Introduction Gear is a $3 Action-Duration card from Adventures that offers deck manipulation across turns, combining card draw with the ability to save cards for later use. While seemingly simple, Gear's flexibility makes it a versatile card that can serve multiple strategic purposes in your deck.

Basic Mechanics When you play Gear, you: 1. Draw 2 cards immediately 2. May set aside up to 2 cards from your hand face down 3. Retrieve those set-aside cards at the start of your next turn

Key Features: - Net card neutral on the turn you play it (+2 cards, potentially -2 cards set aside) - Provides guaranteed access to specific cards next turn - Duration effect doesn't take up hand space on the following turn - Can choose to set aside 0, 1, or 2 cards

Core Strategic Uses

1. Draw Chain Preservation One of Gear's primary uses is maintaining draw chains across turns. By setting aside key drawing cards (like Laboratory, Smithy, or other draw actions), you ensure a strong start to your next turn. This is particularly valuable when:
2. Your deck is shuffling
3. You want to guarantee action continuity

4. You need specific draw cards to initiate engine sequences

5. Action Density Management Gear helps manage action density between turns by:

6. Saving surplus actions for turns when you might be action-starved
7. Evening out the distribution of actions across turns

8. Preventing terminal collision

9. Treasure Management You can use Gear to:

10. Save high-value treasures for bigger buying turns
11. Hold onto key treasures when deck shuffling is imminent

12. Coordinate multiple-buy turns

13. Payload Protection Gear excels at protecting key payload cards:

14. Save attack cards for when they'll be most effective
15. Hold onto victory cards that might get trashed
16. Preserve combo pieces until all components are available

Specific Strategic Applications

1. Engine Building In engine contexts, Gear serves several purposes:
2. Smoothing early engine construction by ensuring action continuity
3. Protecting key engine pieces during deck development
4. Managing terminal space across turns
5. Facilitating more consistent draw chains

Best practices: - Set aside drawing actions when you have too many terminals - Save Villages when you have excess actions but expect action scarcity - Hold essential engine pieces when shuffling is likely

1. Big Money Strategies While not primarily a Big Money card, Gear can enhance money decks by:
2. Saving high-value treasures for key purchasing turns
3. Managing hand composition for important price points

4. Protecting against attacks that might force discards

5. Rush Strategies In rush contexts, Gear can:

6. Save Victory cards from being trashed
7. Hold onto key Treasures for critical purchases
8. Maintain momentum when buying victory cards threatens to dilute deck quality

Timing Considerations

1. Early Game Early game priorities:
2. Save early game actions to ensure smooth development
3. Hold economy cards for key price points

4. Protect against shuffle luck

5. Mid Game Mid game uses:

6. Maintain engine consistency
7. Save payload cards for bigger turns

8. Manage deck dilution from green cards

9. Late Game Late game applications:

10. Protect victory cards from attacks
11. Save key cards when deck quality decreases
12. Ensure access to critical cards during final turns

Synergies and Combinations

Strong Synergies:

1. Draw Cards
2. Laboratory, Smithy, Council Room: Save these to ensure continued draw
3. Hunting Party: Save unique cards to improve Hunting Party's effectiveness

4. Library: Can save actions to hit Library's hand size target

5. Villages and Splitters

6. Village variants: Save these to enable action-heavy turns
7. Throne Room effects: Hold these to maximize powerful cards

8. King's Court: Preserve for maximum impact turns

9. Payload Cards

10. Attack cards: Save for optimal timing
11. Bridge variants: Hold for massive buying turns

12. Committee: Save to ensure proper timing of its effect

13. Other Duration Cards

14. Wharf: Coordinate draw across multiple turns
15. Haven: Similar effect, can work together for more card saving

16. Caravan: Enhance draw consistency

17. Sifting Cards

18. Warehouse: Save cards that were good but not optimal for current turn
19. Cellar: Similar principle to Warehouse
20. Storeroom: Save valuable cards while filtering others

Counter-Synergies and Weaknesses

1. Anti-Synergies
2. Schemes: Compete for similar strategic space
3. Gardens: Doesn't help increase deck size

4. Hand-size attackers: Can force difficult decisions about what to save

5. Weaknesses

6. Doesn't increase hand size long-term
7. Takes an action to play
8. Limited to saving only 2 cards
9. Cards are unavailable for current turn

When to Buy Gear

Early Game Considerations: - Strong opening at $3 - Good supplement to $4/$3 openings - Valuable in action-heavy strategies

Mid Game Factors: - Useful when deck consistency becomes important - Valuable when protecting key cards becomes priority - Good addition when building toward larger combos

Late Game Thoughts: - Less valuable as game nears end - Still useful for protecting victory cards - Can help maintain deck function during greening

Number of Gears to Buy

Factors affecting quantity: 1. Deck size and shuffle frequency 2. Presence of other card manipulation 3. Strategic goals 4. Competition for the $3 price point

General guidelines: - 1-2 for Big Money variants - 2-3 for typical engines - 3-4 for heavy action chains - More if primary strategy revolves around card preservation

Kingdom Considerations

1. Attack-Heavy Kingdoms
2. More valuable when protecting against discarding attacks
3. Useful against deck inspection attacks

4. Can save defense cards for when needed

5. Engine Kingdoms

6. Higher priority with strong engine components
7. Valuable with terminal draw

8. Important with costly payload cards

9. Treasure-Focused Kingdoms

10. Useful with high-value treasures
11. Good with treasure-based attacks
12. Helpful with special treasure cards

Alternative Cards to Consider

Similar Functions: - Haven: Similar effect, different timing - Archive: More cards over time but less selective - Horse Traders: Different mechanism but similar protection role

Competing $3 Cards: - Silver: When pure economy is needed - Village: When actions are primary concern - Sentry: When deck filtering is priority

Advanced Techniques

1. Multi-Turn Planning
2. Coordinate with other duration cards
3. Plan for shuffle timing

4. Set up powerful combination turns

5. Defensive Uses

6. Save reaction cards for attacks
7. Protect key cards from targeted trashing

8. Hold cleanup phase cards

9. Optimization Techniques

10. Track deck composition for shuffle timing
11. Count action density for optimal saving
12. Monitor opponent's likely plays

Common Mistakes to Avoid

1. Over-Saving
2. Setting aside cards that could be useful now
3. Saving too many actions without payload

4. Holding cards without clear purpose

5. Under-Utilizing

6. Not using the set-aside ability
7. Saving suboptimal cards

8. Missing key timing opportunities

9. Strategic Errors

10. Buying too many/few copies
11. Poor timing of purchases
12. Incorrect prioritization in engines

Conclusion

Gear is a versatile $3 card that offers significant strategic depth despite its simple mechanics. Its ability to manipulate hand composition across turns makes it valuable in various strategies, from engines to big money variants. Success with Gear comes from understanding its timing, knowing what cards to save, and coordinating with other elements of your strategy.

Key Takeaways: - Excellent for maintaining action chains - Valuable protection against shuffle luck - Strong support for engine building - Flexible $3 option for many strategies - Requires careful planning for optimal use

While not always a game-defining card, Gear's utility and accessibility make it a valuable addition to many decks, particularly those focused on consistency and combo execution. Understanding its various applications and timing considerations will help you maximize its potential in your games.