Inheritance with Highway

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njaudette

Hello, I encountered an issue using inheritance with highway. I used a highway to reduce cost of highway to 4, then set aside with inheritance. However, estates produce +1C, +1A but do not adjust the cost of cards. I checked through the inheritance page (http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/index.php/Inheritance) and this strategy is specifically listed as a viable option in an example game.

Am I missing something? Thanks!

Game#32173744

Ingix

Hi njaudette, thanks for the report.

What you are missing is a recent errata for few cards that used to be "shapeshifters" (they became more or less some other card for some time). That includes Inheritance and the way it changed Estates. You can find the complete post and explanation here: http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=19893.0

Let's look at both the old and new text for Inheritance (text in italics is out of date)

Quote
pre-errata:
Inheritance: Event, $7
Once per game: Set aside a non-Victory Action card from the Supply costing up to $4. Move your Estate token to it. (Your Estates gain the abilities and types of that card.)

Quote
post-errata:
Inheritance: Event, $7
Once per game: Set aside a non-Command Action card from the Supply costing up to $4. Move your Estate token to it. (During your turns, Estates are also Actions with "Play the card with your Estate token, leaving it there.")

The important part for your question happens in the parenthesis. In the pre-errata version your Estates gained the types and abilities of the card. That included the ability of the Highway to reduce costs while in play.

In the post-errata version,
  1) all Estates are affected (even your opponent's), but only on your turn, and
  2) Estates only become Actions in addition to what they already are but don't gain any abilities besides to play the set aside card.

That means in your case, the Estate while being played or being in play is not reducing any cost. But, of course, the Estate will play the Highway that is set aside. The Highway will give you +1 Action/ +1 Card (as you experienced). But the ability of the Highway to reduce cost is bound to it being in play:

QuoteWhile this is in play, cards cost $1 less, but not less than $0.

And if you read the text of Inheritance, you'll see that the Highway will not be put into play when the Estate plays it (that's by design).

So what you experienced is correct post-errata. The Highway is played, but not in play, so the "below the line"-part doesn't kick in.

For the wiki, they have changed the (un)official FAQ at the top, but apparently not all the strategy tips, which in this case was correct but is no longer.