Menagerie (expansion)

Menagerie (expansion)
Info
Type	Large Expansion
Icon
Cards	400
Kingdom	300 (30 sets)
Randomizers	30
Other Card(s)	30 Horses 20 Events 20 Ways
Additional Material(s)
Mats	6 Exile mats
Theme(s)	Exile Ways Horses Additional Reaction cards Alternative card costs
Release	March 18, 2020
Cover artist	Marcel-André Casasola Merkle
Official Rulebook	PDF

Menagerie is the 13th expansion to Dominion. The box contains 30 sets of Kingdom cards. It introduces Ways, the Exile mat, Horses, and adds more Events and Duration cards.

Contents

Kingdom cards

• : Black Cat, Sleigh, Supplies
• : Camel Train, Goatherd, Scrap, Sheepdog, Snowy Village, Stockpile
• : Bounty Hunter, Cardinal, Cavalry, Groom, Hostelry, Village Green
• : Barge, Coven, Displace, Falconer, Gatekeeper, Hunting Lodge, Kiln, Livery, Mastermind, Paddock, Sanctuary
• : Fisherman
• : Destrier, Wayfarer
• : Animal Fair

Non-Supply cards

• : Horse (30 copies)

Events

• : Delay, Desperation
• : Gamble, Pursue, Ride, Toil
• : Enhance, March, Transport
• : Banish, Bargain, Invest, Seize the Day
• : Commerce, Demand, Stampede
• : Reap
• : Enclave
• : Alliance, Populate

Ways

20 cards, 1 of each: Way of the Butterfly Way of the Camel Way of the Chameleon Way of the Frog Way of the Goat Way of the Horse Way of the Mole Way of the Monkey Way of the Mouse Way of the Mule

Way of the Otter Way of the Owl Way of the Ox Way of the Pig Way of the Rat Way of the Seal Way of the Sheep Way of the Squirrel Way of the Turtle Way of the Worm

Additional materials

Mats

• 6 Exile player mats

Additional rules

Durations

Menagerie has four Duration cards.

• Duration cards are orange, and have abilities that affect future turns.
• Duration cards are not discarded in Clean-up if they have something left to do [on a future turn]; they stay in play until the Clean-up of the last turn that they do something.
• Additionally, if a Duration card is played extra times by a card such as [Throne Room, Scepter, Mastermind, Specialist or Flagship], that card also stays in play until the Duration card is discarded, to track the fact that the Duration card was played extra times.
• Keep track of whether or not a Duration card was played on the current turn, such as by putting your cards into two lines.

Exile

See the Exile page.

Ways

See the Way page.

Events

See the Event page.

Reactions played at an unusual time

See the Reaction page.

Unusual costs

See the Cost reduction page.

Flavor text

Dominion, that’s what you’re trying to achieve. This time with animals! They each have a lesson to teach, whether it’s how to spit really far, or what kind of grass tastes the best. It’s a lot to keep track of, but you’re like an elephant: you remember everything. And you’re afraid of mice. You’ve taken up riding. Horses are intimidating; they say you can lead a horse to water, but you haven’t managed it. So you’re working your way up, starting with dogs. So far so good; the dog hasn’t bucked you off yet. Your menagerie got off to a poor start, with just a goat, two rats, and the advisor who suggested starting a menagerie. You couldn’t get that fox you wanted, but it was probably bad anyway. Now you’ve got some camels, which are just as useless for sewing as you’d been warned, and a turtle that can hold its breath for longer than anyone can stay interested. Soon the animal kingdom will be yours.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Rio Grande Games

Mechanics

This is the 13th expansion to Dominion. It has 400 cards, with 30 new Kingdom cards. There are Horses that save a draw for later, Exile mats that cards can be sent to and rescued from, and Ways that give Actions another option. Events return.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Rio Grande Games

Cards gallery

Kingdom cards

Events

Ways

Non-Supply cards

Theme

• 12 card-shaped things use Horse: Bargain, Cavalry, Demand, Groom, Hostelry, Livery, Paddock, Ride, Scrap, Sleigh, Stampede, Supplies
• 14 card-shaped things use Exile: Banish, Bounty Hunter, Camel Train, Cardinal, Coven, Displace, Enclave, Gatekeeper, Invest, Sanctuary, Stockpile, Transport, Way of the Camel, Way of the Worm
• 5 Reaction cards: Black Cat, Falconer, Sheepdog, Sleigh, Village Green
• 4 cards with weird costs: Animal Fair, Destrier, Fisherman, Wayfarer

Trivia

In other languages

• Dutch: Menagerie
• French : Ménagerie
• German: Menagerie
• Polish: Menażeria (as referred to in Polish Dominion 2E rulebook)

Why reuse the name Menagerie?

Menagerie was a good name for the expansion. Oops, but I'd used that name on a card. I could therefore find a different name... or decide, this doesn't really matter. The publisher was not phased at all. So I went for it.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Why Menagerie twice, Mr. Vaccarino?

Flavor text work

- animals are great. they can carry you, pull a plow, fetch things, and be delicious, sometimes all in the same day

- they're eager, busy, and industrious - and that's just the beavers

- Horses have a saddle for riding, a bridle for when they get married, and a bit which can be on or off. They also have shoes but no socks, which looks better on them than on you. You can spur them on with spurs, and stir them up with stirrups. They sleep standing up, and are awake lying down.

- There are farriers to put shoes on the horses, furriers to make coats out of them, and ferriers to get them across rivers.

- Horses are ungulates, which you're making do with until you can get some gulates.

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

Teaser

Menagerie previews start Monday, and as usual I have a teaser. I like trying different things with the teasers, and well this time the teaser is little bits of text from 10 cards or card-shaped things. See what you can make of them.

• "5 or fewer"
• " less per"
• "a different thing"
• "an unused Action"
• "either now or"
• "hand three times"
• "instead, and vice-versa"
• "instead of paying"
• "province, a duchy"
• "they discard their"
  —Donald X. Vaccarino, Dominion General Discussion > Dominion: Menagerie

Secret History

I took a break after Renaissance, and worked on other games. One night there was just me and Kevin. What's good with two? I dunno, Dominion? It happened again a week or two later. And then that was that, I was making an expansion. A lesson for us all.

There were two ideas waiting to be used, from when working on Renaissance. First, the Jail mat. This was a mat cards could put cards onto, and then it had a built-in rule that let you get the cards back when gaining another copy of whichever card. This mat and the associated cards had been good, but I didn't want more mats in Renaissance. At one point it had four mats; in the end it has one that does double duty. So I saved this for next time, and well, it was next time. So this went right into the set and had good cards right away. Eventually I renamed it to Exile, because I wasn't looking to make a wild west expansion, which is what "jail plus horses" sure suggested. "Exile" was nice because you can use it as a verb too, and it made at least some sense for a medieval game.

The other idea was for a particular way to do "+1 Card tokens." I considered them for Renaissance, but it didn't sound great to have a pile of tokens you could constantly consider cashing in for cards. What I ended up doing for Renaissance was Sinister Plot, which just happens at the start of a turn. But another approach was to have a pile of one-use Labs you could gain. It was like a +1 Card token, except different in all the ways it's different - you can only use it when drawing it, you can Remodel it, and so on. There wasn't room for a big pile of those in Renaissance, though it got Experiment. So this was another thing to try right away, and right away I liked it. Horse itself started and ended costing , but I tried having it cost , to make it weaker with trash-for-benefit. I preferred it being stronger there.

The first two cards using Horses were "Gain 3 Horses" and "+1 Action, discard any number of cards for that many Horses." They both immediately showcased the beauty of Horses. "Gain 3 Horses" is like Smithy... but it doesn't draw dead cards, and doesn't draw at all the first time you play it, and well more differences, Remodel and stuff. It was a pretty neat variation on Smithy and still really simple. And then the Cellar variant was nothing like Cellar. It was pretty neat too. Well as you may have noticed, these cards aren't in the set. They both just produced too many Horses. Another way "Gain 3 Horses" is different from Smithy is, it takes longer to resolve - not just playing it, but playing it and playing the three Horses. So in the end there are "Gain 2 Horses" cards, but no 3, and only Livery gets to really go nuts gaining Horses.

I tried several new kinds of landscape cards for the set. The one that stuck was Ways, which let any Action be played for a particular effect. I liked the vanilla ones right away. I also planned to add Events to the set. The set was going to have to be 400 cards, to include 30 Horses and some landscapes and not have fewer Kingdom cards than usual. So, it had space. It took me a while to get around to trying some Events, but when I did that all worked out, there were new things to do, not all of them involving Exile and Horses.

I considered having another card like Horse, a pile that some cards could give you. I didn't get around to trying one for a while, and meanwhile two minor themes crept into the set. So I never tried one, I had plenty of stuff going on. The minor themes are Reactions and uh weird costs. It seemed cool to have a bunch of Reactions, and I had this good trick to do to get some, which was letting you play the card. Caravan Guard had done that, but it had +1 Action, which severely reduced how exciting that was. And then the weird costs, I added Wayfarer and Animal Fair and they were just immediately highlights of the set, so I looked for a couple more.

‎* Outtakes *‎

As I mentioned above, the first two cards were the Smithy of Horses and the Cellar of Horses. They were great except for how slow they made games. I tried a smaller Cellar before killing it.

Already there's a card I don't want to share. This card was fine, it just wasn't great with the other things in this set. Well let's move along.

One direction I looked in for new cards was "this turn" abilities. It sounded good to trigger on treasures, effectively giving them an ability, and I tried "when you play a Gold, gain a Horse" and "when you play a Copper, +1 Buy." I had big plans to try "When you play a Silver, +" again too, but that didn't happen and those cards didn't work out.

One of the very old cards I dredged up was "Trash a card from your hand, discard a card, +3 Cards." It holds the distinction of being the first card in the oldest Dominion file, though I know it replaced something; I wasn't saving every image back then. In its day it was fine but then seemed redundant. I brought it back with exiling, and we tried it with the +3 Cards first and last, and then versions to try to iron out things I didn't like about it. I was never happy with it and then did a different trasher, which got me to Goatherd in the end.

Some attacks tried to cause discarding after each card play. Oh boy. Yes, "attacks," I tried more than one of these.

The cards that tried to save cards for later in Exile included one suggested by Matt, that seeded Exile with something and always made you swap. Initially it was Silver but that was nuts; then it was Copper and well, did I mention you don't really want to put your good cards into Exile for later? You just don't.

I tried some takes on cantrips that gained Horses. Conditionally; for discarding a card. It was always dangerous space; Horses are more interesting on terminals, but also I didn't want the game to get too slow, and the cantrips threatened that or did it.

Here's a cantrip that dug for an Action and put it onto your deck. Kind of a fixed Harbinger. It was unobjectionable but did not add much to the game. Another short-lived card was a cantrip that Exiled a Gold from the Supply.

I tried a card that added another VP card to the top of the Province deck. Well I never made the card, since it didn't matter for testing out the concept, but I made the VP card (it came with 2 Horses) and we played some games with one per player on top of the Provinces. You know, it has a mild charm, but did not add much.

There was a Smithy that Exiled a supply card for up to when you gained it, and let other players get in on it by discarding a treasure. Then, a Smithy that let each other player play any Action card from their hand when you gained it. Sometimes it was very cool, but in practice they so often could not get use out of it. I replaced it with the first of the cards that led to Falconer.

One concept I trotted out briefly was to trash cards from low supply piles. There isn't much like that in the game and well the game doesn't need much of it.

For a while I liked the idea of a village with 20 cards in its pile, with no special connection to the pile being 20 cards. You know, it wouldn't gain copies of itself or anything, there would just be 20 of them. The idea was, for multiplayer, you put in this card and you are set for villages. So many multiplayer games, if there aren't two village piles, you have to build a deck that doesn't need very many villages. But uh surely the multiplayer players know about this already? They must be putting in those villages or living without them already, that's what I think. And it ate up a slot that stopped seeming so available, I could have a pretty 30 kingdom cards 20 events 20 ways. I came up with a lot of villages trying to be the good 20-card village; many were bad, some have potential but were no good for a 20-card pile, and some got tried out. In the end I did Village Green for this slot.

A couple cards tried to be some slightly novel way to discard cards for .

I briefly tried a Haggler variant that had Treasures come with a cheaper card. It seemed promising and then had issues to fix and I grew weary of it.

There are Way outtakes. There were multiple versions of a Workshop. Multiple cards tried to give + with some formula, e.g. "per copy of this you have in play." None of those seemed as good as just plain old +. There was a Scheme for all copies of "this." A flip side to Butterfly, turning a card into a cheaper one but to your hand. I tested "play this twice then trash it," which had wording issues, was a lot of fun, and just messed up the game too much. A couple cards were one-shot + formula things. I tried Band of Misfits - all your cards do a zillion things! I tried Throne and Scepter that only worked on cheaper cards, and a Throne for Treasures. I tried Training - choose a card, the last one picked with the Way has +. There was an Embargo, man it didn't do much. Coppersmith seemed promising but oops it was way too mathy, you play lots of cards as Coppersmith and not all at once necessarily. There was a Bridge. There were a couple versions of Navigator, for a bit it seemed like one would make it. There was "gain 2 Horses" - what animal does that? It was an okay ability but not essential, and the name was trouble. It was called Way of the Mare, which I didn't like. I also tried a Way that gained Silver, and a "card from discard to hand."

And there are Event outtakes. An early one gave you a Gold and a Horse per Gold you had in play; man it's okay but I did better. Similarly there was, when drawing your hand this turn, +4 Cards then discard 4 cards. I tried a Witch variant that was no good. There were a couple versions of a trasher/exiler (it tried both) that looked through all your cards like Donate. There was a Harbinger. I had a free Event that gave you + or a Silver; it let you turn extra Buys into . It was a runner-up for making the set; I did better.

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

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Retrospective

For me Exile was a slam dunk, an excellent mechanic. It created some really novel cards. I'm still enamored with Horses and Ways too, and it was great to revisit Events. The reaction subtheme is great too. The weak point of the set for me is the weird-cost cards. They are nicely novel, but all generate a lot of rules questions. Animal Fair seems worth it; I could have done a few of those, saved other weird costs for another day.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Menagerie Hot Takes

For Menagerie I would weaken Stockpile, replace Gatekeeper (simplify the Exile mat), and then instead of 4 different weird cost things, try doing Animal Fair 2-3 times, with the others becoming more new reactions, push that direction more.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Dominion Discord, 2021

From Menagerie, Ways would be tricky to revisit because I'd want a bunch. Maybe I'd have a bunch though, I don't have to rule that out. Horses requires including the pile; exile requires the mat. You could certainly do more with them though.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Interview with Donald X.

Recommended sets of 10

Menagerie only

Intro to Horses [images]
	Animal Fair			Barge			Destrier			Goatherd			Hostelry
	Livery			Paddock			Scrap			Sheepdog			Supplies
Landscapes and Additional Cards
	Enhance			Way of the Sheep

Intro to Exile [images]
	Black Cat			Bounty Hunter			Camel Train			Cardinal			Falconer
	Mastermind			Sanctuary			Snowy Village			Stockpile			Wayfarer
Landscapes and Additional Cards
	March			Way of the Worm

Menagerie & Dominion

Pony Express [images]
	Barge			Destrier			Paddock			Stockpile			Supplies
	Artisan			Cellar			Market			Mine			Village
Landscapes and Additional Cards
	Stampede			Way of the Seal

Garden of Cats [images]
	Black Cat			Displace			Sanctuary			Scrap			Snowy Village
	Bandit			Gardens			Harbinger			Merchant			Moat
Landscapes and Additional Cards
	Toil			Way of the Mole

Menagerie & Intrigue

Dog and Pony Show [images]
	Camel Train			Cavalry			Goatherd			Paddock			Sheepdog
	Mill			Nobles			Pawn			Torturer			Upgrade
Landscapes and Additional Cards
	Commerce			Way of the Horse

Explosions [images]
	Animal Fair			Bounty Hunter			Coven			Hunting Lodge			Scrap
	Courtyard			Diplomat			Lurker			Replace			Wishing Well
Landscapes and Additional Cards
	Populate			Way of the Squirrel

Menagerie & Seaside

Innsmouth [images]
	Caravan			Fishing Village			Lighthouse			Pirate			Tide Pools
	Animal Fair			Barge			Coven			Groom			Sheepdog
Landscapes and Additional Cards
	Invest			Way of the Goat

Ruritania [images]
	Astrolabe			Outpost			Tactician			Tide Pools			Warehouse
	Bounty Hunter			Cavalry			Falconer			Sleigh			Village Green
Landscapes and Additional Cards
	Alliance			Way of the Monkey

Menagerie & Alchemy

Class of 20 [images]
	Cavalry			Coven			Hunting Lodge			Kiln			Livery
	Snowy Village			Wayfarer			Transmute			Vineyard			University
Landscapes and Additional Cards
	Potion			Delay			Way of the Owl

Menagerie & Prosperity

Limited Time Offer [images]
	Destrier			Displace			Fisherman			Supplies			Wayfarer
	Anvil			Grand Market			Mint			Peddler			Worker's Village
Landscapes and Additional Cards
	Platinum			Colony			Desperation			Way of the Frog

Otter Chaos [images]
	Animal Fair			Camel Train			Mastermind			Paddock			Stockpile
	City			Clerk			Monument			Quarry			War Chest
Landscapes and Additional Cards
	Platinum			Colony			Reap			Way of the Otter

Menagerie & Cornucopia/Guilds

Living in Exile [images]
	Gatekeeper			Hostelry			Livery			Scrap			Stockpile
	Fairgrounds			Hamlet			Jester			Journeyman			Taxman
Landscapes and Additional Cards
	Enclave			Way of the Mule

Thrill of the Hunt [images]
	Black Cat			Bounty Hunter			Camel Train			Mastermind			Village Green
	Butcher			Horse Traders			Hunting Party			Menagerie			Tournament
Landscapes and Additional Cards
	Pursue			Way of the Rat

Menagerie & Hinterlands

Big Blue [images]
	Black Cat			Falconer			Sheepdog			Sleigh			Village Green
	Trail			Trader			Tunnel			Weaver			Wheelwright
Landscapes and Additional Cards
	Banish			Way of the Turtle

Intersection [images]
	Cardinal			Hostelry			Livery			Mastermind			Supplies
	Develop			Farmland			Nomads			Stables			Wheelwright
Landscapes and Additional Cards
	Gamble			Way of the Mouse

Set-aside card for Mouse is Crossroads

Menagerie & Dark Ages

Friendly Carnage [images]
	Animal Fair			Cardinal			Falconer			Goatherd			Hunting Lodge
	Altar			Beggar			Catacombs			Fortress			Market Square
Landscapes and Additional Cards
	Shelters			Ride			Way of the Camel

Gift Horses [images]
	Camel Train			Destrier			Displace			Paddock			Scrap
	Hunting Grounds			Pillage			Rats			Sage			Squire
Landscapes and Additional Cards
	Shelters			Bargain			Way of the Butterfly

Menagerie & Adventures

Horse Feathers [images]
	Destrier			Displace			Falconer			Sleigh			Stockpile
	Magpie			Ranger			Ratcatcher			Relic			Royal Carriage
Landscapes and Additional Cards
	Pilgrimage			Way of the Ox

Sooner or Later [images]
	Barge			Gatekeeper			Groom			Mastermind			Village Green
	Amulet			Caravan Guard			Dungeon			Giant			Raze
Landscapes and Additional Cards
	Toil			Mission

Menagerie & Empires

No Money Down [images]
	Animal Fair			Cavalry			Sleigh			Stockpile			Wayfarer
	Catapult			City Quarter			Crown			Engineer			Villa
Landscapes and Additional Cards
	Advance			Way of the Pig

Detours and Shortcuts [images]
	Camel Train			Fisherman			Gatekeeper			Sanctuary			Snowy Village
	Enchantress			Overlord			Sacrifice			Settlers			Wild Hunt
Landscapes and Additional Cards
	transport			Triumphal Arch

Menagerie & Nocturne

Seize the Night [images]
	Barge			Falconer			Hostelry			Sheepdog			Supplies
	Cobbler			Devil's Workshop			Exorcist			Monastery			Skulk
Landscapes and Additional Cards
	Hexes			Seize the Day			Way of the Sheep

Animal Crackers [images]
	Black Cat			Goatherd			Groom			Hunting Lodge			Kiln
	Faithful Hound			Pixie			Pooka			Sacred Grove			Shepherd
Landscapes and Additional Cards
	Boons			Enhance			Way of the Chameleon

Menagerie & Renaissance

Biding Time [images]
	Cavalry			Coven			Displace			Fisherman			Goatherd
	Ducat			Priest			Recruiter			Scepter			Swashbuckler
Landscapes and Additional Cards
	Sinister Plot			Treasure Chest			Way of the Turtle

Villager Madness [images]
	Cardinal			Groom			Kiln			Livery			Wayfarer
	Border Guard			Flag Bearer			Patron			Silk Merchant			Spices
Landscapes and Additional Cards
	Demand			Academy			Flag			Horn			Lantern

Menagerie & Allies

Wise Owls [images]
	Barbarian			Marquis			Merchant Camp			Town			Wizards
	Animal Fair			Black Cat			Bounty Hunter			Hostelry			Hunting Lodge
Landscapes and Additional Cards
	Way of the Owl			Architects' Guild

Mountain Kings [images]
	Broker			Courier			Forts			Guildmaster			Skirmisher
	Barge			Coven			Scrap			Snowy Village			Supplies
Landscapes and Additional Cards
	Toil			Mountain Folk