The Scout
The Scout is a plain 4 with an outsized job — play one from hand and it runs ahead into your own Royal Archives to bring back the exact number card your Siege hand is missing.
RULES
Play a single 4 from your hand to search your Royal Archives for one number card (2 through 10) and add it to your hand. Every other card turned up in the search shuffles back into the Archives together.
Unlike Ace Search, The Scout can only retrieve number cards — it cannot fetch a face card, an Ace, or a Joker.
The Scout's search ability is permanently disabled for the rest of the match if 4 is your personal Forbidden Rank, set by your Cursed Seal at the end of Setup — your only remaining action for a 4 at that point is Hand Refresh, and only if 4 happens to be the specific rank sealed.
Outside of its search use, a 4 is a completely ordinary card in Siege hand comparisons — it counts toward pairs, Straights, and Flushes exactly like any other number card.
LORE OF THE COURT
The Scout carries no title worth writing down, and that's precisely why the Court trusts what it brings back. No one bribes a messenger no one remembers meeting.
It moves through the Archives faster than anything the Court fields officially — no ceremony, no Throne, no Court seat waiting for its return. Just the errand, and then it's gone again, back into the hand that sent it.
Kingdoms remember their Knights and mourn their Sovereigns. They never once thank a Scout. It has never seemed to mind.
STRATEGY
When to play it
Play The Scout when you already know exactly which number card completes a Straight or Flush you're one card away from — it's the most efficient way to close that gap without gambling on a draw. Less useful when you're not yet sure what your Siege hand needs.
Counters
There is no direct counter beyond denying the opportunity — pressure your opponent's Throne to force a Siege before they can spend a turn searching. A Forbidden Rank of 4 shuts the ability down entirely for whichever player draws it as their Cursed Seal.
Synergies
The Chancellor (Ace Search) covers everything The Scout can't reach — face cards, Aces, anything but a Joker — so the two together let you fill almost any specific gap in your hand.