The king need buff

[TigerKing]

For a prestigious cards like the king we need an heavy buff, at the moment its expensive as hell and underpowered

Hail to the king!!!!!

[Frogodo]

I have to agree with you, here's borderline the worst card in the game. I feel like he should be gaining money through taxes, not giving it away to the peasants!

[RaptorRed]

He is weaker than the other cards in his cost, but he isn't bad. There are many other cards that need fixing more than King.
Crowns is a strong strategy and it's quite easy to get 20 points out of him and he is a double mixed shield. Beginner players consistently undervalue the power of double shields, they are very, very strong.

The thing about him is you need to buy King once you are already in the strategy, if you buy him and then try to build around it you will get blocked out of the game AND you gave your opponent's cash early.
He is a little weak and could stand to lose the downside or give you a key, but it isn't gamebreaking and he would be busted at 5 gold or with a major upside. It's also good design that not all cards are equally strong in a vacuum.

King is an opportunity-buy late game - if you can can score extra off him with patron or exploit his double shield, or if you built a 3 crown row, grab him. Otherwise just skip like any other situational card.