Laboratory

Laboratory
Info
Cost
Type(s)	Action
Kingdom card?	Yes
Set	Base
Illustrator(s)	Julien Delval
Card text
+2 Cards +1 Action

Laboratory is an Action card from the Base set. It increases your handsize by giving you +2 cards, and then gives +1 Action so you can keep playing more Actions. Cards from other expansions which increase your handsize and give +1 Action, like Hunting Party from Cornucopia & Guilds, are sometimes called Lab variants.

FAQ

Official FAQ

• You draw 2 cards and get +1 Action.

Strategy

Laboratory is one of the stronger cards in the Base set, with a net effect of increasing your hand size by one. Drawing more cards into your hand is a good way to do more during your turn, and Laboratory does this without any support.

However, it costs more than some other methods of draw: for example, compare a Village-Smithy pair to two Laboratories. The net effect of playing these cards is the same, increasing your hand size by two, but the total cost of two Laboratories is more. At apiece, getting enough in hand to buy them is also more difficult. Laboratory's biggest strength is that unlike village/terminal draw setups, Laboratories work independently; if you draw your Smithy without your Village, you might be left without any Actions to continue your Action phase, but if you only draw one Laboratory in your starting hand, you can immediately play it and continue playing your other Action cards. Because of this flexibility, Laboratories can be safely added to most decks for extra consistency and draw. As such, Laboratory gets significantly stronger if you have a way to gain it in bulk, such as with Artisan.

External strategy articles

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

• theory's 2011 article

Versions

English versions

Print	Digital	Text	Release	Date
		+2 Cards   +1 Action	Dominion	October 2008
		+2 Cards +1 Action	Dominion (Second Edition)	October 2016

Other language versions

Language	Name	Print	Digital	Text	Notes
Chinese	實驗室 (pron. shíyànshì)
Czech	Laboratoř
Dutch	Laboratorium			+2 Kaarten +1 Actie
Finnish	Laboratorio
French	Laboratoire
German	Laboratorium			+2 Karten +1 Aktion
Greek	Εργαστήριο (pron. ergasterio)
Hungarian	Laboratórium
Italian	Laboratorio
Japanese	研究所 (pron. kenkyūjo)			+2 カードを引く +1 アクション
Korean	실험실 (pron. silheomsil)
Norwegian	Laboratorium
Polish	Laboratorium			+2 karty +1 akcja
Romanian	Laborator
Russian	Лаборатория (pron. laboratoriya)			+2 Карты +1 Действие
Spanish	Laboratorio			+2 Cartas +1 Acción	First Edition (2008)
	Laboratorio			+2 Cartas +1 Acción	Second Edition (2016)

Trivia

Official card art.

Secret History

A very early card that looked like this for forever.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, The Secret History of the Dominion Cards, June 2011

This was probably from after the second batch of cards. I don't remember multiple versions. The "+1 Card +1 Action +" card was an early star, and after Village got its +1 Card and became a "free" +1 Action, it was like, why not a free +1 Card.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, The Continued Secret History of the Early Dominion Cards, December 2012