Can I look at my deck before playing the Zombie Mason

Question

The text on the zombie mason says:

Trash the top card of your deck. You may gain a card costing up to $1 more than it.

Is this a "blind play", i.e. do I make my decision to play the zombie mason without knowing what the top card in my deck will be (potentially trashing a really valuable card like a province)? Or can I look at the top card and then decide if I want to trash it or not (basically deciding if I want to play the zombie mason or not)?

From normal rules, I would expect that it is a blind play, as typically we are not allowed to look at cards in our deck, unless instructed to do so and the zombie mason does not give this instruction.

However, if it is a "blind play", it seems far too risky to ever actually use it (or at least not in later stages of play where valuable cards are in the deck).

Answer 1

It is indeed a blind play, you cannot look at the top of your deck before choosing what to play with Necromancer (or however else you came to play the Zombie Mason). However, unless a pile has been depleted or you have 'unique' cards in your deck (Knights, Castles, cards from Black Market, etc.) you can always choose to replace the trashed card with an identical copy from the supply. It's not a good outcome of the play, but you don't loose a card in that case.

At the start of the game, the possibility to get rid of a Copper or change an Estate into a Silver or other 3-cost card is really good. If you trash an Action card, no problem, another potential card to play with Necromancer.

Later in the game you might be wanting to play either other Action cards trashed, or another Zombie. But if you are ahead in scoring, accidentally trashing a Province and replacing it with another isn't a bad outcome anyway.