Cornucopia

Cornucopia
Type	Small Expansion
Cards	150 (13 Kingdom Cards)
Additional material	Prizes
Theme(s)	Variety
Release Date	June 2011
Official Rulebook	PDF

Cornucopia is the 5th Dominion expansion, released in June 2011. The basic theme of the set is cards that either create or reward variety in your deck and hand. It is a small expansion of 13 cards, popular for its focus on engine-friendly cards. Cornocupia is a unique set as it introduces cards for use which are not in the supply as well as the ability to have an 11th kingdom supply pile.

Contents

Basic Supply Cards

• Corncuopia is only an expansion, so no Basic Supply Cards are included.

Kingdom Cards

$2 Hamlet
$3 Fortune Teller, Menagerie
$4 Farming Village, Horse Traders, Remake, Tournament, Young Witch
$5 Harvest, Horn of Plenty, Hunting Party, Jester
$6 Fairgrounds

Additional Materials

• Prizes (1 each) - Bag of Gold, Diadem, Followers, Princess, Trusty Steed

Flavor Text

Autumn. It seemed like the summer would never end, but that fortune teller was right. It's over. Autumn, the time of the harvest. Agriculture has advanced significantly in recent years, ever since the discovery of the maxim, "leaves of three, let it be." Autumn, a time of celebration. The peasants have spent a hard week scything hay in the fields, but tonight the festivities begin, starting with a sumptuous banquet of roast hay. Then, the annual nose-stealing competition. Then you have two jesters, one who always lies, one who always tells the truth, both hilariously. This celebration will truly have something for everyone.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, from the Cornucopia rulebook

Cards Which Exhibit The Cornucopia Theme

• Fairgrounds - The value of Fairgrounds is dependent on the variety of cards in your deck.
• Hamlet - Allows you to discard cards (creating variety) in exchange for actions and buys.
• Harvest - Rewards you with more coin for having more variety in your deck.
• Horn of Plenty - A larger variety of cards in play allows you to gain cards of higher value.
• Hunting Party - Can reward both variety or lack of variety in one's deck.
• Jester - Allows you to gain good cards your opponents have.
• Menagerie - Rewards you with 2 extra cards for having a hand full of different cards.
• Remake - A trasher which can slowly upgrade and create variety in your deck.
• Tournament - Rewards having both a Tournament and Province in hand by allowing you to gain unique and powerful Prize cards.
• Young Witch - Encourages opponents to have the Bane card in their deck to prevent being cursed.

Impact of Cornucopia

Engines

Corncucopia is filled with cards which enable strong engine building. Some of these include:

• Hamlet - A cheap pseudo-village capable of providing extra buys or actions.
• Horn of Plenty - Provides an easy way to gain cards as well as the capability of producing megaturns.
• Hunting Party - Enables very simple Hunting Party + X engines.
• Menagerie - A centerpiece of some of the most fun engines to play, Menagerie is a cantrip which serves as a great counter to hand size reduction attacks.
• Tournament - The card itself is a useful early game cantrip, and the Prizes are all quite valuable in most engines.

Randomness

Though overall a well received set, Cornucopia features a "swingy" card which can cause frustration among players.

• Tournament - Because of the power of the Tournament prizes, the first player to win a prize is often able to build on that to win further prizes and/or the game. Even skilled play can sometimes be undone by a lucky or well time draw.

Trivia

Secret History

Alchemy was originally a large set, which when I made it meant it was 20 cards. I didn't count Potion. When Dominion itself was finalized, it stole whatever cards it wanted from future sets, including Gardens and Library and Festival from Alchemy. And some cards got stolen for other sets too, as I worked on them, turning former 20-card sets into 25-card sets and getting rid of dud cards. Whatever; Alchemy was last, I would get around to fixing it up eventually. It still had the Potions stuff, and I penciled in a "hand" theme for what the rest of the set would do. Cards that involved your hand. This fit with some cards that had been pushed back to be fixed up and some other homeless cards that I liked.

Around the time Prosperity was wrapping up and Seaside was getting printed, it turned out the publishers wanted small sets, could I make one please, and also, could it come out next (pushing Prosperity back). The way to get something fastest was to have it already done. Alchemy was ideal, as it had a hunk of the right size to break off of it, and it was in tatters anyway from me never getting around to working on it. I took the Potions stuff and tweaked it into a small expansion. So now there was a list of existing cards, plus untested ideas, waiting to turn into a hand-themed small set for a year after Alchemy.

When I got around to working on Cornucopia, I went with the hand theme, adding more cards that fit it, polishing up what I had, and adding cards that didn't fit it too, because what, they can't all be on-theme. And we started playtesting it.

It turned out that the "hand" theme was invisible. It made the cards play well together, but no-one recognized that it was the theme of the set. It was just not distinct enough.

The set at the time had Fairgrounds and Menagerie in it, and people would incorrectly guess that that was the theme, and that there just wasn't much of it. "Variety" sounded like a good theme, so I ran with it. Some of the hand stuff that wasn't also variety-related left, and I added more variety stuff. This theme was recognizable and worked out and well there it is.

In the end the set has only two cards that are mutated versions of cards originally in the large Alchemy set - Jester and Diadem. Some of the other cards started in other sets, and some are original to Cornucopia.

Those publishers that wanted small expansions presumably wanted them so that people who didn't want to pay the same for an expansion as for the main game could get them. And if such people exist then they don't have the large expansions. Well Alchemy is not ideal as the only expansion you have. I mean it's just so exotic. I felt like these publishers would have preferred something less exotic. Alchemy was all they could have in the time frame it was wanted, but I had plenty of time here, so this expansion tries to be more reasonable as an expansion for someone who doesn't have many expansions.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, from the Secret History of the Cornucopia cards

Recommended Sets of 10

Cornucopia & Dominion

• Bounty of the Hunt - Harvest, Horn of Plenty, Hunting Party, Menagerie, Tournament / Cellar, Festival, Militia, Moneylender, Smithy
• Bad Omens: Fortune Teller, Hamlet, Horn of Plenty, Jester, Remake / Adventurer, Bureaucrat, Laboratory, Spy, Throne Room
• The Jester's Workshop: Fairgrounds, Farming Village, Horse Traders, Jester, Young Witch / Feast, Laboratory, Market, Remodel, Workshop / Bane: Chancellor

Cornucopia & Intrigue

• Last Laughs - Farming Village, Harvest, Horse Traders, Hunting Party, Jester / Minion, Nobles, Pawn, Steward, Swindler
• The Spice of Life - Fairgrounds, Horn of Plenty, Remake, Tournament, Young Witch / Coppersmith, Courtyard, Great Hall, Mining Village, Tribute / Bane: Wishing Well
• Small Victories - Fortune Teller, Hamlet, Hunting Party, Remake, Tournament / Conspirator, Duke, Great Hall, Harem, Pawn

Cornucopia & Hinterlands

• Blue Harvest - Hamlet, Horn of Plenty, Horse Traders, Jester, Tournament / Fool's Gold, Mandarin, Noble Brigand, Trader, Tunnel
• Traveling Circus - Fairgrounds, Farming Village, Hunting Party, Jester, Menagerie / Border Village, Embassy, Fool's Gold, Nomad Camp, Oasis

Cornucopia on DS.com and F.DS.com

DominionStrategy.com

• Spoilers and Initial Thoughts