Livery

Livery
Info
Cost
Type(s)	Action
Kingdom card?	Yes
Set	Menagerie
Illustrator(s)	Garret DeChellis
Card text
+ This turn, when you gain a card costing or more, gain a Horse.

Livery is an Action card from Menagerie. It is a terminal gold that makes cards costing or more come with Horses this turn.

FAQ

Official FAQ

• This is cumulative; for example, if you use Mastermind to play a Livery three times, then each card you gain that turn costing or more will come with three Horses.
• Livery works on cards gained via buying them, and cards gained other ways.

Other rules clarifications

• This checks the cost of the card as it's being gained, not after. So if you gain a Fisherman with an empty discard pile, you will not gain a Horse, because Fisherman cost when you gained it.
• If you gain a Livery and play it with Innovation, you will gain a Horse.
• If you gain a copy of Livery with either Disciple or Specialist, you will gain a Horse. But if you gain a copy of Livery with Kiln, you won't gain a Horse, because you haven't followed Livery's instructions yet.

Strategy

Livery is a potent terminal payload card, generating and delayed non-terminal draw in the form of Horses. Because Livery only gains Horses when you gain another card costing or more, it works best in Kingdoms with gainers and/or sources of +Buy, and when you want many copies of cards costing or more (e.g., a Kingdom with Governor and Worker's Village). When used in this way, Livery can greatly accelerate the building process, as the Horses let you cycle through your deck to play your new Action cards sooner. Similarly, Livery enables you to maintain reliability more easily during greening, since Victory cards such as Province come with a Horse per Livery you’ve played that turn.

Livery typically works slightly better with gainers rather than sources of +Buy. The first reason is that the marginal cost of another gain that activates Livery’s effect is often cheaper with a gainer; a single Ironworks can get you a card and the Horse that comes with it without having to have a source of such as a Market plus a Gold. Second, gaining cards in the Action phase means gain-and-play is possible; the draw from Livery often makes this easier than usual, and in extreme cases can even enable self-sustaining auto-piling loops in which you gain a card such as Governor, gain many Horses, draw that card, play it to gain a copy of itself, and repeat. In general, using Livery with gainers tends to require plenty of draw from other sources and, more importantly, village support; this is because Livery is terminal and must be played before the gainer in order to gain Horses. Academy works very well for this purpose, as the Horses from Livery will provide Villagers. Villa is also very powerful with Livery, as it serves as a village, enables gain-and-play after buying cards, and gives a Horse when bought. University is another example of a village that synergizes well with Livery, as it allows you to play multiple Liveries while simultaneously gaining expensive Action cards and thus Horses.

As it is a payload card that also directly increases your draw on your next reshuffle, the best time to add a Livery to your deck varies. If there are cards that you would like to buy many copies of early in the game, such as Silk Merchant, it may be wise to get an early first Livery. On the other hand, if there are more important priorities such as thinning with Recruiter or attacking with Witch, Livery may be a mid- or late-game addition, if relevant at all. The value of additional Liveries is usually dependent on whether you have the terminal space and need more draw as you continue to gain cards, while a Kingdom lacking villages, gainers, or +Buy might be reason to skip Livery entirely. When you buy a Project or an Event that does not gain cards, Livery does not gain you Horses, so if you want both Livery and the Project or Event, it may sometimes be better to delay the former and get the latter first.

Because both the Horse-gaining effect and generated can be doubled, Livery synergizes well with Throne Room variants. Procession works particularly well with Livery, as you can use it on a Horse to gain a Procession and on another Procession to gain a Livery. Populate can also be a strong synergy with Livery, as it can sometimes gain many expensive Action cards at once, and therefore many Horses. Gaining Horses also helps whenever you want a high density or number of Action cards in your deck, such as with Vineyard and Herald. Conversely, Livery anti-synergizes with cost reduction (such as Highway or Quarry) that may reduce the price of desirable cards below , meaning that they don’t come with Horses. Similarly, if the Kingdom has plenty of very good cards costing or less (e.g. Lackeys) Livery may be less valuable than usual.

Versions

English versions

Print	Digital	Text	Release	Date
		+ This turn, when you gain a card costing or more, gain a Horse.	Menagerie	March 2020

Other language versions

Language	Name	Print	Digital	Text	Notes
German	Pferdestall			+ Wenn du in diesem Zug eine Karte nimmst, die oder mehr kostet: Nimm ein Pferd.	(2020)
Japanese	貸し馬屋 (pron. kashi umaya)

Trivia

Official card art.

Preview

Livery makes everything that's expensive enough come with a Horse that turn. This works on cards you buy, or cards you get other ways. With two Liveries, everything comes with two Horses. With two Liveries, and you buy Farmland, trashing Remodel to gain a Border Village which comes with a Laboratory, you gain six Horses. Many Horses could be yours.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Menagerie Previews 2: Horses

Secret History

Another early card. Originally it triggered on gaining cards from the Supply; in the end it cares if the card costs or more. Somehow or other it had to rule out Horse itself triggering it, and also Silver (due to Trader).

—Donald X. Vaccarino, The Secret History of Dominion: Menagerie

Further comments from Donald X.

If there ever was a way to increase the cost of cards, Livery could then gain all 30 Horses at once. Donald X. knew this was a possibility, and came up with a wording that would solve this.

There was an easy fix actually, which I think Sir Martin suggested. "This turn, when you gain a card costing more than Horse, gain a Horse.” However this doesn't deal with Trader in situations where you affect the Silver and Horse piles differently (i.e. you have Quarry in play). "This turn, when you gain a card costing more than Horse and Silver, gain a Horse“ goes the distance. But well. Yuck.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Livery + Hypothetical Cost-Increaser