Dominion is the game that invented the deck-builder. You start with a small, weak deck and buy better cards into it as you go, building an engine that draws and buys more each turn. Whoever has the most victory points when the game ends wins. There’s no board and the wall of cards scares people off, but the turn structure is simple enough to learn in five minutes.
Our full review: Dominion Review · New to the genre? Guide to Deck-Building Games
Note: This is a condensed version of the rules to get you playing fast — nothing important is left out, but read the full rulebook for every edge case.
What’s In The Box
- Treasure cards: Copper, Silver, Gold
- Victory cards: Estate, Duchy, Province, Curse
- 25 different Kingdom card stacks (action cards)
- Trash mat + rulebook
Setup
Dominion is played with only 10 of the 25 Kingdom card piles at a time, which is why no two games feel the same. For your first game, use the rulebook’s recommended “First Game” set.
How a Turn Works
Every turn has three phases, always in the same order: Action → Buy → Cleanup. A handy way to remember your defaults: you get 1 Action and 1 Buy each turn unless a card says otherwise.
PHASE 1
Action
Play one Action card from your hand and resolve it. Some Action cards grant extra actions, letting you chain several in a row. Skip this phase if you have no Actions to play.
PHASE 2
Buy
Play Treasure cards to generate coins, then buy one card whose cost you can afford. The bought card goes to your discard pile.
PHASE 3
Cleanup
Put everything you played and your remaining hand into your discard pile, then draw a fresh hand of 5.
The deck-building loop: when your draw pile runs out, shuffle your discard pile to form a new one. Every card you buy eventually cycles back into your hand — so a better deck means better hands.
Reading a Card
Action cards stack effects with simple keywords. The common ones:
- +Cards — draw that many extra cards
- +Actions — play that many more Action cards this turn
- +Buys — buy that many extra cards this turn
- +Coins (the coin symbol) — extra money to spend in the Buy phase
A card like the Smithy (“+3 Cards”) fattens your hand. A Village (“+1 Card, +2 Actions”) lets you keep chaining. Combining them is how engines are built.
How the Game Ends
The game ends the moment either of these happens at the end of a turn:
END 1
Provinces gone
The Province pile (the big victory cards) is empty.
END 2
Three piles empty
Any three supply piles are emptied (in a 2-player game it's still three).
How to Win
Count the victory points in your entire deck — hand, draw pile, and discard included.
- Estate = 1 VP · Duchy = 3 VP · Province = 6 VP
- Curse = −1 VP (forced on you by attack cards)
Most points wins. The trick is that Victory cards do nothing on your turn; they just clog your hand. Knowing when to switch from building your engine to buying points is most of the strategy.
Why is my starting deck full of useless Estates?
By design. Estates are worth points but do nothing on your turn, so early on they dilute your hand. Part of the strategy is buying so many good cards that you rarely draw your starting junk.
Do I have to play an Action card every turn?
No. You may skip the Action phase entirely. Many strong "Big Money" strategies barely use Action cards at all and just buy Treasure and Provinces.
What happens when my draw pile is empty mid-turn?
Immediately shuffle your discard pile to make a new draw pile, then keep drawing. If both are empty, you simply draw fewer cards.
When should I stop building and start buying points?
Usually once your deck can reliably generate 8 coins to buy Provinces. Buy them too early and your engine stalls; too late and someone empties the pile first. Reading that moment is where the game is won.
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Thumbnail image artificially generated for illustrative purposes.
