King's Court

Basic Info

Type: Action
Cost: 7
Effect: You may play an Action card from your hand three times.

Rating

Top-of-the-game card. The ×3 multiplier isn't just "Throne Room+1" — it's a different category of effect. Each play of King's Court turns one strong action into three, and finding the right action to triple often decides the entire game.

Cost 7 is the no-man's-land between Gold and Province, but Prosperity boards (Platinum, Bank, Hoard) commonly hit 7 coins. Skipping a Province for a King's Court is frequently correct.

KC's true power is in collapsing the game state: KC + Witch = 3 Curses to every opponent in one play; KC + Bridge = -3 cost and +3 Buys, Provinces accessible at 5 coins; KC + Remodel = trash 3 cards, gain 3 cards in one turn; KC + KC ("KCKC") = up to 9 cascading actions in a single turn — the most powerful chain in Dominion. Overall S+ tier (one of the strongest cards ever printed).

Throne Room is a +50% buff to a normal engine. King's Court warps the deck around itself.

How to Play

In the early and mid game, you need to hit 7 coins. Pure Big Money rarely gets there in time; build a moderate deck (5-cost actions like Witch, Sentry, Remodel, Market) and ramp through Gold/Platinum. Don't tunnel-vision King's Court from turn 1 — foundation first, then 7-coin upgrades.

After buying KC, your first copy triples your strongest action — Bridge, Witch, Remodel, Smithy. The second copy enables KC-KC chains. Once you have 2 KCs and a way to draw both consistently, you can chain 5+ actions in a single turn.

In the endgame, KC + Remodel/Expand converts engine pieces into Provinces. KC + Bridge crashes Province cost; buy 3-5 Provinces in one turn for the win.

KCKC Chain & Key Combos

With two KCs in hand: Play KC-A → KC-A play 1: Play KC-B → KC-B plays 1-3: Three actions tripled → KC-A plays 2-3: Two more tripled actions. Result: up to 5 different actions, played 1-3 times each, in one turn. Bridge in this chain enables Province-flooding endings.

KC + Bridge: Triple Bridge = -3 cost / +3 Buy / +3 Coin. Province (cost 8) drops to 5. Two Bridges chained = Province at 2 coins. Three Bridges = free Provinces.

KC + Remodel/Expand: Triple Remodel = 3 trashes, 3 gains. Convert 3 Golds into 3 Provinces in a single turn. The classic finishing move.

KC + Witch: 3 Curses to each opponent per play. Two consecutive turns empty the Curse pile (10 cards in 2-player).

KC + Smithy/Library/Council Room: Triple Smithy = +9 cards. Library = refill to 7 cards three times = essentially infinite draw.

KC + Vineyard (Alchemy): Vineyard scores 1 VP per 3 Action cards. KC decks naturally hoard Action cards, hitting Vineyard's curve perfectly.

Synergies

Throne Room: TR + KC = ×6 multiplier on a single action. Single nuke play.
Bridge / Engineer: Mass Province purchase.
Remodel / Expand: VP conversion.
Witch / Sea Witch / Mountebank: 3-curse plays.
Smithy / Library / Council Room: Massive draw.
Royal Carriage (Adventures): Bank up plays for big turns.
Sentry (Dark Ages): Non-terminal cantrip drawing for KC engines.
Grand Market (Prosperity): Tripled = +3 actions, +3 buys, +6 coins.
Vineyard (Alchemy): Action-heavy KC deck rates Vineyards highly.

Counters & Bad Matchups

Duration cards: Legal but the duration effect carries to next turn while KC doesn't, blunting the value somewhat.
Heavy terminal collisions: KC itself is terminal — needs Villages.
Boards where 7 coins is hard: Weak Treasure boards make KC effectively unreachable.
Trash-for-Benefit targeting your KC: Don't let your own Procession trash your KC.

Throne Room Comparison

Throne Room (cost 4, ×2) and King's Court (cost 7, ×3) are not a simple linear upgrade relationship. The +2 extra plays vs +1 extra play isn't just doubled effect — it's also doubled hand-economy. A KC engine demands roughly half as many copies of a key action to match a TR engine. Cost 7 vs 4 (1.75x) is widely accepted as fair pricing.

Chain potential differs dramatically. TR-TR chains are strong, but KC-KC chains generate 9-action turns that exist in another category entirely.

Advanced Tips

Plan your "what do I triple?" answer before drawing KC. The wrong target wastes the play. KCKC chains need draw to set up. Pair KC engines with high hand-size enablers (Library, Council Room, Wharf, Vineyard).

On a King's Court board, NOT buying KC is rarely correct. A 1-copy lead in KC count usually decides the game. Watch the cost-7 alternatives (Forge, Expand, Bank, Border Village if costed there) — KC is usually still highest priority.