<p>Upgrade is quite strong by itself for two reasons:</p>

<ol>
<li>You can use it to trash 0-cost cards that you no longer want in your deck (coppers and curses). Trashing curses is obvious, but regarding copper: <em>do not underestimate the power of having a really small deck!</em></li>
<li>You can use it to turn your Estates into Silver (always a good choice) or, even better, into a highly contested 3-cost card in a 3 or 4 player game (think Village in a pool where it is the only action-gaining card).</li>
</ol>

<p>These reasons are enough for Upgrade to be something you want to have in your deck, and not only in one copy. There are also, in my experience, two factors stemming from the kingdom card pool that "modify" Upgrade's usefulness:</p>

<ol>
<li><strong>If the pool is very strongly combo-oriented</strong> (lots of cards with +actions and +cards plus cards with +gold and/or +buy), Upgrade may be too slow. For example, in a pool with Festival/Smithy/Village/Nobles/Throne Room I don't think you 'd have the time to do enough with Upgrade before combos start exploding left and right.</li>
<li><strong>If the pool has no +buy actions</strong>, Upgrade is stronger. It's the only way you will have to gain a second card in your turn. In this case, lots of Upgrades (3-4) can serve to turn your initial turn buys (2-4 cost) to 5-6 cost cards.</li>
</ol>

<p>And finally, don't forget that <strong>if you have too many Upgrades you can always use one to turn another into a Gold.</strong></p>

CC BY-SA 2.5
2010-12-19T14:27:57.177Z
2010-12-19T14:27:57.177Z
Jon
<p>In addition to the +1 Card and +1 Action, Upgrade is one of only two "gain a card costing X more" (note: I'm ignoring Forge here) cards that has the word <em>exactly</em> on it (the other is Cornucopia's Remake).</p>

<p>Meaning that if you Upgrade a Copper or Curse, you get nothing back (assuming you didn't play a Bridge before it).  With Remodel and Expand, you <em>must</em> gain another card costing <strong>up to</strong> 2 or 3 more, even if the cost is lower than that of the card you trashed.</p>

<p><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/67kjf.jpg" alt="Remodel"> <img src="https://i.sstatic.net/pWuJY.jpg" alt="Expand"></p>

<p><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/WGjdh.jpg" alt="Bridge"></p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2010-12-01T22:27:49.660Z
2011-09-11T18:13:51.527Z
2011-09-11T18:13:51.527Z
Powerlord
<p>There are two key points here:</p>

<ul>
<li>Your deck starts out bad.</li>
<li>Many cards are much better in the early game than later.</li>
</ul>

<p>You can use upgrade to solve both problems. Getting rid of your starting copper (and likely estates) will improve your deck. So will trashing that first-turn buy that's just too weak to get you to provinces later. It's a non-terminal action, so it gives you a way to trash these cards <em>without</em> wasting turns, as you tend to do with something like chapel or steward. And do remember: it's an <em>upgrade</em>. You're not just removing a weak link, you're replacing it with something to strengthen your deck.</p>

<p>There are some great special cases, too, like upgrading four-cost actions to duchies in the end game, and trashing curses.</p>

CC BY-SA 2.5
2010-12-02T06:11:39.110Z
2010-12-02T06:11:39.110Z
Cascabel
<p>You can buy many <code>Upgrade</code> as early as possible in the game. This is a really good starting strategy. By many, I mean as much as 5 or 6 cards. It will clean your deck so quickly from all the <code>Copper</code> and <code>Estate</code>, you will be able to upgrade your <code>Upgrade</code> into <code>Gold</code> and reach the <code>Province</code> much faster than you can imagine.</p>

<p>And don't forget to upgrade your <code>Estate</code> to <code>Great Hall</code> (instead of <code>Silver</code>) if both are on the table!</p>

CC BY-SA 2.5
2010-12-02T07:12:20.767Z
2010-12-02T07:12:20.767Z
Didier Trosset
<p>Upgrade allows you to thin your deck with a non terminal action.  Being able to get rid of coppers and curses is almost always helpful.</p>

<p>You an also trade out poorly performing or obsolete cards for better cards.  Heck, upgrade an Upgrade to a gold :)</p>

<p>I love being able to thin my deck and will almost always grab 1-2 of these if there are no better deck thinning options available.</p>

CC BY-SA 2.5
2010-12-01T20:49:37.430Z
2010-12-01T20:49:37.430Z
Pat Ludwig
<p>The biggest advantage of Upgrade is it helps to clean the junk (coppers, estates, and curses especially) out of your deck fast. And then, when you don't need them, turn the upgrades into gold or other 6 cost cards. Here as an example of game of how to use them effectively:</p>

<p><a href="http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201106/18/game-20110618-132616-55486cf0.html" rel="nofollow">http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201106/18/game-20110618-132616-55486cf0.html</a></p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2011-09-12T06:02:01.800Z
Link is borked!
aslum
CC BY-SA 3.0
2011-06-18T20:33:07.140Z
2011-06-18T20:33:07.140Z
user1445
<p>You can use Upgrade to gradually improve your deck while also carrying out a larger strategy.  Because Upgrade is non-terminal (that +1 Action) you can turn your Estates into Silver or middling 4-cost cards into more powerful 5-cost cards while still playing your other Actions.</p>

<p>It is tricky, I won't deny that, but it can have some value.  I don't see it as the core of your strategy, though.</p>

CC BY-SA 2.5
2010-12-01T19:56:37.320Z
+1  The +Card and +Action are really what make this card worth it.  It can slowly improve a deck without slowing down your main game strategy.
keithjgrant
CC BY-SA 2.5
2010-12-01T20:43:59.760Z
But is losing the use of an action you planned to have from the beginning in favor of gaining one which costs only 1 more and is not usable until a few turns later worth it? Perhaps getting rid of estates early on for silver, and getting rid of early cards like coppersmith for something that helps in late game might be decent...
Marcin
CC BY-SA 2.5
2010-12-01T22:10:34.970Z
I wouldn't use Upgrade to kill a 4-cost action that was part of my strategy into a 5-cost action, no.   But once I had Upgrade, if I get stuck sometime with 4 coins, I might buy a middling 4-cost action expressly intending to eventually Upgrade it to the card I REALLY wanted.
lilserf
CC BY-SA 2.5
2010-12-02T18:05:19.050Z
I also use upgrade to clean out curses... Probably never would use it to destroy an action card (well, maybe coppersmith...)
My Turn Yet
CC BY-SA 2.5
2010-12-01T18:13:54.517Z
2010-12-01T18:13:54.517Z
lilserf
<p>In what situations is Upgrade (Intrigue) useful? I have never seen anyone buy Upgrade in the games I've played where it was available. Whenever I play with Upgrade and Swindler, I always give Upgrade to my opponents in exchange for their 5-cost cards. They never know what to do with it... What are we doing wrong? How can we make use of this card?</p>

<p><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/SaxSg.jpg" alt="alt text"></p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2011-06-18T22:00:40.417Z
Don't forget you can turn a card you don't need anymore into something else.  Sometimes towards the end of a game if I'm short on Gold, I'll start upgrading powerful cards into whatever victory cards I can get my hands.  I've eeked out some hilarious victories.
Mark Rogers
<dominion><dominion-intrigue>
Proper use of Dominion card Upgrade
Marcin
# Proper use of Dominion card Upgrade

(Asked by: username_0 on 2010-12-01)

In what situations is Upgrade (Intrigue) useful? I have never seen anyone buy Upgrade in the games I've played where it was available. Whenever I play with Upgrade and Swindler, I always give Upgrade to my opponents in exchange for their 5-cost cards. They never know what to do with it... What are we doing wrong? How can we make use of this card?

![alt text](https://i.sstatic.net/SaxSg.jpg)

**Tags:** dominion, dominion-intrigue

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Don't forget you can turn a card you don't need anymore into something else.  Sometimes towards the end of a game if I'm short on Gold, I'll start upgrading powerful cards into whatever victory cards I can get my hands.  I've eeked out some hilarious victories.  

---

## 7 answers

### Answer by username_9 on 2010-12-01. Score: 15 | Accepted answer

You can use Upgrade to gradually improve your deck while also carrying out a larger strategy. Because Upgrade is non-terminal (that +1 Action) you can turn your Estates into Silver or middling 4-cost cards into more powerful 5-cost cards while still playing your other Actions.

It is tricky, I won't deny that, but it can have some value. I don't see it as the core of your strategy, though.

> **Comments:**
> **username_10**: +1  The +Card and +Action are really what make this card worth it.  It can slowly improve a deck without slowing down your main game strategy.  
> **username_0**: But is losing the use of an action you planned to have from the beginning in favor of gaining one which costs only 1 more and is not usable until a few turns later worth it? Perhaps getting rid of estates early on for silver, and getting rid of early cards like coppersmith for something that helps in late game might be decent...  
> **username_9**: I wouldn't use Upgrade to kill a 4-cost action that was part of my strategy into a 5-cost action, no.   But once I had Upgrade, if I get stuck sometime with 4 coins, I might buy a middling 4-cost action expressly intending to eventually Upgrade it to the card I REALLY wanted.  
> **username_11**: I also use upgrade to clean out curses... Probably never would use it to destroy an action card (well, maybe coppersmith...)  

---

### Answer by username_2 on 2010-12-19. Score: 16

Upgrade is quite strong by itself for two reasons:

1. You can use it to trash 0-cost cards that you no longer want in your deck (coppers and curses). Trashing curses is obvious, but regarding copper: *do not underestimate the power of having a really small deck!*
2. You can use it to turn your Estates into Silver (always a good choice) or, even better, into a highly contested 3-cost card in a 3 or 4 player game (think Village in a pool where it is the only action-gaining card).

These reasons are enough for Upgrade to be something you want to have in your deck, and not only in one copy. There are also, in my experience, two factors stemming from the kingdom card pool that "modify" Upgrade's usefulness:

1. **If the pool is very strongly combo-oriented** (lots of cards with +actions and +cards plus cards with +gold and/or +buy), Upgrade may be too slow. For example, in a pool with Festival/Smithy/Village/Nobles/Throne Room I don't think you 'd have the time to do enough with Upgrade before combos start exploding left and right.
2. **If the pool has no +buy actions**, Upgrade is stronger. It's the only way you will have to gain a second card in your turn. In this case, lots of Upgrades (3-4) can serve to turn your initial turn buys (2-4 cost) to 5-6 cost cards.

And finally, don't forget that **if you have too many Upgrades you can always use one to turn another into a Gold.**


---

### Answer by username_3 on 2010-12-01. Score: 6

In addition to the +1 Card and +1 Action, Upgrade is one of only two "gain a card costing X more" (note: I'm ignoring Forge here) cards that has the word *exactly* on it (the other is Cornucopia's Remake).

Meaning that if you Upgrade a Copper or Curse, you get nothing back (assuming you didn't play a Bridge before it). With Remodel and Expand, you *must* gain another card costing **up to** 2 or 3 more, even if the cost is lower than that of the card you trashed.

![Remodel](https://i.sstatic.net/67kjf.jpg) ![Expand](https://i.sstatic.net/pWuJY.jpg)

![Bridge](https://i.sstatic.net/WGjdh.jpg)


---

### Answer by username_4 on 2010-12-02. Score: 4

There are two key points here:

* Your deck starts out bad.
* Many cards are much better in the early game than later.

You can use upgrade to solve both problems. Getting rid of your starting copper (and likely estates) will improve your deck. So will trashing that first-turn buy that's just too weak to get you to provinces later. It's a non-terminal action, so it gives you a way to trash these cards *without* wasting turns, as you tend to do with something like chapel or steward. And do remember: it's an *upgrade*. You're not just removing a weak link, you're replacing it with something to strengthen your deck.

There are some great special cases, too, like upgrading four-cost actions to duchies in the end game, and trashing curses.


---

### Answer by username_5 on 2010-12-02. Score: 3

You can buy many `Upgrade` as early as possible in the game. This is a really good starting strategy. By many, I mean as much as 5 or 6 cards. It will clean your deck so quickly from all the `Copper` and `Estate`, you will be able to upgrade your `Upgrade` into `Gold` and reach the `Province` much faster than you can imagine.

And don't forget to upgrade your `Estate` to `Great Hall` (instead of `Silver`) if both are on the table!


---

### Answer by username_6 on 2010-12-01. Score: 2

Upgrade allows you to thin your deck with a non terminal action. Being able to get rid of coppers and curses is almost always helpful.

You an also trade out poorly performing or obsolete cards for better cards. Heck, upgrade an Upgrade to a gold :)

I love being able to thin my deck and will almost always grab 1-2 of these if there are no better deck thinning options available.


---

### Answer by username_7 on 2011-06-18. Score: 1

The biggest advantage of Upgrade is it helps to clean the junk (coppers, estates, and curses especially) out of your deck fast. And then, when you don't need them, turn the upgrades into gold or other 6 cost cards. Here as an example of game of how to use them effectively:

<http://dominion.isotropic.org/gamelog/201106/18/game-20110618-132616-55486cf0.html>

> **Comments:**
> **username_8**: Link is borked!  

---

