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Can I buy a Farmland, trashing a card from my hand and gaining one costing up to 2 more, but then reveal Trader, and gain a Silver instead of the Farmland?

I always think of the "buy" operation as containing a "gain" operation, so any cards that trigger on gain also trigger on buy, but not vice-versa. However, when does the "gain" reaction actually occur? Is it after you have already resolved the "buy" reactions or operations?

A follow-up question is this: because I converted the Farmland to a Silver, can I still put my Treasury cards back on my deck at the end of this turn?

I predict that the "correct" answer is going to look like the following algorithm, but I'm not 100% on this, hence my question here:

  • You "buy" a Farmland.
  • That triggers any "buy" reactions or actions on the card, using Farmland, (e.g. you can trash a Gold from your hand and gain a Province)
  • Add Farmland to the set of cards you "bought this turn".
  • You then "gain" the Farmland.
  • You reveal Trader, and gain a Silver instead.
  • That triggers any "gain" reactions, using Silver (e.g. Watchtower, to put the Silver on deck)
  • (Note, this does not trigger any gain reactions using the Farmland, e.g. imagine a new reaction card like Fool's Gold, except it triggers whenever anyone gains a victory card)
  • Add Silver to the set of cards you "gained this turn".
  • On cleanup, you cannot put your Treasury on deck, because the "cards bought this turn" includes a Farmland, which is indeed a victory card.
  • The next player will be able gain Silver via Smugglers because the "cards you gained last turn" includes a Silver, but it does not include a Farmland, so they will not be able to gain a Farmland via Smugglers.
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  • The Treasury cannot go back on top of your deck. It depends on what you buy, not what you gain, and you definitely paid for and bought the Farmland. Aug 19, 2012 at 15:11

2 Answers 2

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On buy effects are resolved before on gain effects. So, you would buy the Farmland and follow it's on-buy effect of trashing a card, etc. Then, you are going to gain the Farmland. At this point, you can reveal the Trader to gain the Silver instead of the Farmland.

Your algorithm is correct, and your assumptions about Smugglers and Treasury are correct.

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Yes,

This works, it is explicitly called out in the Hinterlands rules for the Trader card (page 11)

For example you can buy Farmland, trash a card from your hand and gain one costing 2 more, then use Trader to gain Silver rather than Farmland.

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