Dominion Attacks: Militia, Witch, and How to Defend

Dominion is mostly a race, with everyone building their own deck. Attacks are where the race turns into a fight. The base set has four of them: Militia, Witch, Bandit, and Bureaucrat. Each one takes something different, and the right answer depends on what it takes.

What each attack takes

Militia ($4) takes cards. You get +$2, and every other player discards down to 3 cards in hand. A 5-card hand becomes a 3-card hand, which usually means $2 or $3 less to spend. It hurts most when your plan needs big hands, such as $8 for a Province.

Witch ($5) takes points and tempo. You draw 2 cards, and every other player gains a Curse. Each Curse is minus 1 point, and it sits in the deck forever unless you trash it, taking a slot in your hand with no money. With 2 players there are 10 Curses in the Supply, 20 with 3, and 30 with 4. Witch is widely seen as the strongest attack in the base set, because its damage is permanent.

Bandit ($5) takes Treasure. You gain a Gold. Each other player reveals the top 2 cards of their deck, trashes a revealed Treasure other than Copper, and discards the rest. It only bites decks with Silver and Gold in them, which is to say money decks.

Bureaucrat ($4) takes tempo. You gain a Silver onto your deck. Each other player puts a Victory card from their hand back on top of their deck, or reveals a hand with none. That Estate or Province comes straight back in their next hand. It is mild early and nastier late, when decks are full of green cards.

Defense one: Moat

Moat costs $2 and gives +2 Cards when you play it. Its real job is defense: when another player plays an Attack, you may reveal Moat from your hand before the attack does anything, and you are unaffected. Moat stays in your hand, so you can reveal it against every attack in a round and still play it on your own turn.

The catch is that Moat has to be in your hand at the right moment. With one Moat in a 15-card deck, it is in any given 5-card hand about one time in three. Two Moats help, but each is also a weak terminal that can collide with your better Actions. Moat is worth buying when opponents are playing attacks often. It is rarely worth more than one or two.

Defense two: recover what the attack takes

Often the better answer is a card that undoes the damage.

• Against Militia: Library draws until you have 7 cards in hand. After a Militia leaves you with 3, a Library draws 4. Any draw card helps too, because you choose which 3 cards to keep before you play it.
• Against Witch: trashing. Chapel can trash Curses along with Coppers and Estates. Remodel turns a Curse, which costs $0, into a card costing up to $2.
• Against Bandit: do not lean on Silver and Gold alone. Draw and Kingdom cards that make money are safe from it.

When you discard to Militia, keep your best cards: Gold, Silver, and any draw card that can pull more cards into your hand.

Defense three: fight back

Against Witch, the strongest answer is usually your own Witch, as early as you can. In a two-player game the 10 Curses get split between you, and the player who plays Witch more often gives out more of them. Skipping Witch entirely means taking most of the Curses.

Against Militia, your own Militia keeps the trade even, and it gives you money. The same is true of Bandit in a money mirror.

Turn order and the Curse pile

When Witch is played, the other players gain Curses in turn order, starting to the attacker’s left. When the pile is nearly empty, that order decides who gets the last ones. Remember that the Curse pile is a Supply pile too: if Curses run out, that counts toward the three empty piles that end the game.

A table manner worth keeping

Attacks can sting, and some players dislike them. If someone at your table is new, a kingdom with Militia is a gentle introduction, while Witch is better saved for a group that knows the game. The rules say nothing about this. It is just good hosting.

Next time a kingdom has an attack, look at what it takes before you look at what it gives. That one habit tells you whether to buy it, block it, or race past it.