Expand

Expand
Info
Cost
Type(s)	Action
Kingdom card?	Yes
Set	Prosperity
Illustrator(s)	Ryan Laukat
Card text
Trash a card from your hand. Gain a card costing up to more than it.

Expand is an Action card from Prosperity. It is a stronger but more expensive version of Remodel, allowing you to trash a card and gain a card costing more.

FAQ

Official FAQ

• If you do not have a card to trash, you do not gain one.
• If you do gain a card, it comes from the Supply and is put into your discard pile.
• The gained card does not need to cost exactly more than the trashed card; it can cost that much or less, and can even be another copy of the trashed card.

Other Rules clarifications

• is counted as part of the cost, so you could Expand a Familiar into a Possession.

Strategy

Expand is an expensive Remodel variant that is held back by its large opportunity cost and the fact that it is not commensurately stronger than the Remodel. Expand suffers from some of the same problems, namely that as a terminal stop card it wants engine-levels of draw and village support to be played reliably and collide with its intended targets, and that without a gainer supplying expensive fodder such as Golds the cards you can Expand into are limited. Furthermore, Expand’s high cost means that you are unlikely to be able to afford it until the midgame, and so unlike Remodel (which can be bought in the opening) it is usually slow to improve your early deck by trashing your starting junk. If the options for both thinning and additional gains are limited, or it is relatively easy to acquire (e.g., with Transport or Lurker), Expand can still be useful, even if only as an expensive Remodel.

The main advantage Expand has over Remodel is that it can gain slightly more expensive cards. However, the difference between more than the trashed card and more is often not enough to justify Expand’s cost. The most common options for Expand fodder are Coppers and Estates since you start with them. In the case of the latter, Expand can be very appealing, as cards are generally much stronger than cards, and you’re simultaneously removing one of the worst cards in your starting deck. Given the option, however, it is usually faster to simply trash your Estates by other means (e.g. Chapel) and acquire the cards by buying them, rather than detouring for Expand. On the other hand, if the other thinning options are restricted (e.g. Moneylender), Expand is likely a good way to deal with your Estates as well as the Moneylender once it is no longer useful. Similar logic applies to the case of the former, and additionally your options at the price point are usually not that much better from those at the pricepoint (e.g., a Silver rather than a Supplies). Additionally, many of the typical functions a Remodel variant serves—upgrading Golds into Province, or milling Provinces—are not significantly better with Expand. Expand’s ability to additionally convert cards into Provinces is notable for increasing your scoring potential in the endgame, but gainers that can provide fodder at this price point are much less common than Gold gainers.

Expand works well with the typical prime targets for trash-for-benefit effects, most notably Peddler (which can be acquired for much less than ) and Fortress (which provides infinite fodder). Additionally, with a price of , it can itself be a relevant target for chains of sequentially increasing costs, such as with Upgrade or Develop.

External strategy articles

Note: Article(s) below are by individual authors and may not represent the community's current views on cards, but may provide more in-depth information or give historical perspective. Caveat emptor.

• Powerman's 2012 article

Versions

English versions

Print	Digital	Text	Release	Date
		Trash a card from your hand. Gain a card costing up to more than the trashed card.	Prosperity	October 2010
		Trash a card from your hand. Gain a card costing up to more than it.	Prosperity (2016 printing)	February 2017

Other language versions

Language	Name	Print	Digital	Text	Notes
Chinese	擴建			移除一張手牌，獲得一張比該卡價值至多多的卡片。
Czech	Růst
Dutch	Uitbreiden			Vernietig een kaart uit je hand. Pak een kaart die ten hoogste meer kost dan de vernietigde kaart.
Finnish	Laajennus
French	Agrandissement
German	Ausbau			Entsorge eine Karte aus deiner Hand. Nimm dir eine Karte, die bis zu mehr kostet als die entsorgte Karte.	(2010) one or more other versions listed here
German	Ausbau			Entsorge eine deiner Handkarten. Nimm eine Karte, die bis zu mehr als jene kostet.	(Nachdruck 2021)
Italian	Ampliamento
Japanese	拡張 (pron. kakuchō)			手札1枚を廃棄する。それよりコストが最大高いカード1枚を獲得する。
Polish	Modernizacja			Wyzruć na śmietnisko kartę z ręki. Dodaj kartę o koszcie większym o maksymalnie od kosztu wyrzuconej karty.
Russian	Расширение (pron. rasshiryeniye)
Spanish	Expansión

Trivia

Official card art.

Preview

Okay. Chapel your deck down to just 5 cards - King's Court, Expand, the Chapel, and two cards that don't matter. Every turn, King's Court the Expand, pushing the other three cards up the ladder of success. When they're all Colonies, just turn Colonies into Colonies until the pile runs out. Of course if there are only 1-2 Colonies left, you have to just Expand one, since King's Court would make you lose a Colony. Well you aren't building that deck too often. Normally Expand is just a sweet way to replace garbage with effective cards, or to get Provinces and Colonies later in the game. It's sad when you Expand a treasure to a treasure, since Mine would have done the same thing only put the new treasure in your hand. Mine doesn't turn Province into Colony though, so there you go.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Dominion: Prosperity Review

Secret History

Originally cost . I missed this the first time so there you go, this wasn't all for nothing. It cost briefly but is in the oldest file with it.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, The Other Secret History of the Prosperity Cards

Why does it cost 7?

The cost is something of a trick; it delays the average time it takes to get the card, but when you have and are looking for what to buy, usually there's no other and you don't have a +buy, and of course the money you don't spend doesn't stick around. You aren't "spending ;" you're picking between Gold, good 's, and Expand. Expand may not always win that fight but it certainly does sometimes. Costing wouldn't change how good it was compared to Gold (except marginally for the worse due to things like Apprentice and Knights); it would just create more opportunities to make the choice (and then sometimes there would be another or +buys).

At the time I wasn't focused on adding lots of tiny text to cards to hit the perfect value for experienced players while making them awful for normal players; I was making cards and then seeing what to charge for them. For normal players, I think Expand is great as is; it does something they want to do and they buy it and do it. Meanwhile experienced players get to decide when it's worth getting and when it isn't; it's not just worthless.

It makes no sense to compare it to Scout. Scout's effect is weak; Expand's is strong. You don't even need to consider opportunity cost for Scout; odds are you don't want it. When we set up a board in favor of Scout, then opportunity cost becomes the issue. But I always want Expand; there's no issue but opportunity cost. If I started the game with Upgrade and Expand in my deck, I would Upgrade Coppers and Expand Estates; it would be a while before I was ready to let go of either one.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Homage to the best card

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