Throne Room
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Throne Room (Dominion)

Cost: $4

Type: Action

Text: Choose an Action card in your hand. Play it twice.

Strategy Review

Here's a comprehensive strategy guide for Throne Room:

Throne Room Strategy Guide

Introduction: Throne Room is one of the original and most important card-modifying actions in Dominion. For $4, it allows you to play another Action card twice, effectively doubling its effect. While simple in concept, Throne Room opens up numerous strategic possibilities and can enable powerful combinations that dramatically enhance your deck's capabilities.

Basic Mechanics: - When you play Throne Room, you must choose an Action card from your hand to play twice - The chosen Action is played completely the first time, then completely the second time - If you have no Action cards in hand when you play Throne Room, the effect is wasted - Throne Room itself counts as playing one Action, but the duplicated card only counts as one Action play

Key Strengths: 1. Action multiplication without using additional Actions 2. Potential for powerful combinations 3. Flexibility in usage 4. Cost-effective at $4 5. Works with both terminal and non-terminal Actions

Key Weaknesses: 1. Requires another Action card to be effective 2. Can be dead weight if drawn without other Actions 3. Vulnerable to hand variance 4. Takes up deck space

Strategic Considerations:

  1. Deck Composition When including Throne Room in your strategy, your deck composition becomes crucial. You'll want:
  2. A higher proportion of Action cards (ideally 8-12)
  3. Strong individual Actions worth doubling
  4. Card drawing to help pair Throne Room with targets

  5. Multiple Throne Rooms (usually 2-4)

  6. Timing Throne Room timing considerations include:

  7. Early game: Focus on doubling economy cards
  8. Mid game: Look for draw and deck control combinations

  9. Late game: Consider victory point generating actions

  10. Opportunity Cost When deciding to buy Throne Room, consider:

  11. Alternative $4 purchases
  12. Your deck's current Action density
  13. Whether your Actions are worth doubling
  14. The kingdom's terminal space

Core Strategies:

  1. Engine Building Throne Room excels in engine decks by:
  2. Doubling card draw effects
  3. Multiplying village effects
  4. Creating additional Actions

  5. Accelerating deck cycling

  6. Big Money Enhancement In money-focused strategies, Throne Room can:

  7. Double treasure-generating Actions
  8. Multiply Attack cards
  9. Enhance deck filtering

  10. Double terminal draw

  11. Rush Strategies For rush approaches, consider:

  12. Doubling victory point generators
  13. Accelerating curser effects
  14. Multiplying gainers
  15. Enhancing trash-for-benefit effects

Key Combinations:

  1. Draw Cards
  2. Laboratory: Draw 4 cards total, no Action cost
  3. Smithy: Draw 6 cards total
  4. Council Room: Draw 8 cards, opponents draw 2

  5. Witch: Draw 4 cards, give 2 Curses

  6. Villages

  7. Village: +4 Actions, draw 2 cards
  8. Festival: +4 Actions, +4 Coins, +2 Buys

  9. Worker's Village: +4 Actions, +2 Cards, +2 Buys

  10. Treasure Generation

  11. Merchant: +4 Coins when playing Silver
  12. Monument: +4 Coins, +2 VP tokens

  13. Market: +2 Cards, +2 Actions, +2 Coins, +2 Buys

  14. Attack Cards

  15. Militia: Opponents discard down twice
  16. Witch: Give out 2 Curses
  17. Sea Hag: Double curse-giving power

  18. Ghost Ship: Force opponents to topdeck twice

  19. Victory Point Generation

  20. Gardens: Improves VP density
  21. Duke: Doubles Duchy synergy
  22. Monument: +4 VP tokens
  23. Goons: +2 VP tokens per buy

Advanced Techniques:

  1. Throne Room Chains Multiple Throne Rooms can be chained together:
  2. Throne Room → Throne Room → Action
  3. Results in quadruple play of final Action
  4. Requires careful hand management

  5. High risk/reward proposition

  6. Draw-to-X Optimization With cards like Library or Watchtower:

  7. First play establishes hand size
  8. Second play can draw additional cards
  9. Can create mega-turns

  10. Requires understanding timing

  11. Duration Card Interactions When used with Duration cards:

  12. Effects trigger twice initially
  13. Both effects continue next turn
  14. Can create powerful ongoing advantages
  15. Remember timing of cleanup phase

Counter-Strategy:

  1. Defending Against Throne Room
  2. Maintain smaller hand sizes
  3. Focus on reaction cards
  4. Build robust engines

  5. Consider deck acceleration

  6. Competing Against Throne Room

  7. Rush strategies can outpace setup time
  8. Attack cards can disrupt combinations
  9. Alternative engine approaches
  10. Big Money can sometimes outrace

Kingdom Considerations:

  1. Supporting Cards Look for:
  2. Card draw
  3. Action multipliers
  4. Deck filtering

  5. Payload cards

  6. Competing Cards Be wary of:

  7. Alternative $4 cards
  8. Engine components
  9. Rush enablers

  10. Attack cards

  11. Absence of Support Without these, reconsider Throne Room:

  12. Strong Action cards
  13. Card draw
  14. Deck filtering
  15. Economy boosters

Purchase Timing:

Early Game ($4 opens): - Buy if strong Actions available - Consider with 5/2 opening - Evaluate alternative $4 cards - Plan engine development

Mid Game: - Add when engine developing - Look for key combinations - Balance with other needs - Consider duplicate copies

Late Game: - Usually too slow to add - Focus on existing synergies - Consider for VP generation - Evaluate deck dilution

Number of Copies:

Optimal number depends on strategy: 1. Engine Decks: - Usually 2-4 copies - More with strong targets - Balance with other components - Consider deck size

  1. Big Money:
  2. 1-2 copies maximum
  3. Focus on key targets
  4. Avoid overdilution

  5. Maintain consistency

  6. Rush Strategies:

  7. 1-3 copies
  8. Depends on critical mass
  9. Consider speed requirements
  10. Balance with victory cards

Common Mistakes:

  1. Overvaluing
  2. Buying too early
  3. Taking too many copies
  4. Ignoring alternatives

  5. Forcing combinations

  6. Undervaluing

  7. Missing key synergies
  8. Ignoring engine potential
  9. Overlooking flexibility

  10. Dismissing power level

  11. Tactical Errors

  12. Poor target selection
  13. Bad timing
  14. Improper chaining
  15. Insufficient support

Sample Strategies:

  1. Classic Engine Components:
  2. 2-3 Throne Rooms
  3. Village variants
  4. Strong draw cards
  5. Payload cards

Execution: - Establish Action chain - Build draw capability - Create payload - Scale engine

  1. VP Generation Components:
  2. 2-3 Throne Rooms
  3. VP generating Actions
  4. Support cards
  5. Economy base

Execution: - Secure economy - Establish engine - Scale VP generation - Time game end

  1. Attack Focus Components:
  2. 1-2 Throne Rooms
  3. Strong Attack cards
  4. Defense capability
  5. Economy support

Execution: - Establish pressure - Maintain tempo - Control pace - Close game

Conclusion:

Throne Room is a versatile and powerful card that rewards careful deck building and tactical play. Success with Throne Room requires: - Understanding your strategy - Proper support cards - Careful timing - Technical execution

The card's flexibility and potential for powerful combinations make it a valuable addition to many strategies, but it requires thoughtful implementation to maximize its effectiveness. Players should carefully consider the kingdom context and their strategic goals when deciding how to incorporate Throne Room into their approach.

Remember: - Plan your deck composition - Build proper support - Time your purchases - Execute combinations carefully - Adapt to game state

With practice and understanding, Throne Room can be a key component in creating powerful and satisfying Dominion strategies.