Menagerie (expansion)

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Menagerie (expansion)
Info
Type Large Expansion
Icon
Cards 400
300 (30 sets)
30
Other Card(s)
Additional Material(s)  
6 Exile mats
Theme(s)
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

Non-Supply cards

Events

Ways

20 cards, 1 of each:    

Additional materials

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

Menagerie has Events, which first appeared in Adventures. In your Buy phase, when you can buy a card, you can buy an Event instead. You pay the cost indicated on the Event and immediately do its effect.

  • Events are not Kingdom cards; they sit on the table and provide an effect you can buy. There is no way for you to gain one or end up with one in your deck.
  • Buying an Event uses up a Buy; normally you can either buy a card, or buy an Event. If you have two Buys, such as after playing [Ranger, Villa, Sanctuary, Sack of Loot, or Fishmonger], you can buy two cards, or buy two Events, or buy a card and an Event (in either order).
  • The same Event can be bought multiple times in a turn if you have the Buys and $ available to do it.
  • You cannot play further Treasures that turn after buying an Event.
  • Buying an Event is not buying a card and so does not trigger cards like [Haggler, Swamp Hag, or Charm].
  • Costs of Events are not affected by cards like [Bridge or Flourishing Trade].

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.

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.

Cards gallery

Kingdom cards

Sort by Name


Non-Supply cards

Events

Sort by Name


Ways

Sort by Name


Theme

Trivia

Official box art.

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.

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.

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.

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 $3, but I tried having it cost $2, 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, +$1" 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 $6 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 +$2. There was a Scheme for all copies of "this." A flip side to Butterfly, turning a card into a cheaper one but to your hand. I tested "play this twice then trash it," which had wording issues, was a lot of fun, and just messed up the game too much. A couple cards were one-shot +$ 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 +$1. 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 +$1 or a Silver; it let you turn extra Buys into $. It was a runner-up for making the set; I did better.

|}

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.


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.


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.


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 & 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]
Animal Fair Barge Coven Groom Sheepdog
Caravan Fishing Village Lighthouse Pirate Tide Pools
Landscapes and Additional Cards
Invest Way of the Goat
Ruritania [images]
Bounty Hunter Cavalry Falconer Sleigh Village Green
Astrolabe Outpost Tactician Tide Pools Warehouse
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 Hunting Lodge Mastermind Paddock
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
Farmhands Footpad Hamlet Infirmary Journeyman
Landscapes and Additional Cards
Enclave Way of the Mule
Thrill of the Hunt [images]
Black Cat Bounty Hunter Camel Train Mastermind Village Green
Butcher Carnival Hamlet Hunting Party Joust
Landscapes and Additional Cards
Pursue Way of the Rat

Menagerie & Hinterlands

Big Blue [images]
Black Cat Falconer Sheepdog Sleigh Village Green
Trader Trail Tunnel Weaver Witch's Hut
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 Way of the 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
Mission Toil

Menagerie & Empires

No Money Down [images]
Animal Fair Cavalry Sleigh Stockpile Wayfarer
Catapult/Rocks 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/Bustling Village 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 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

Menagerie & Allies

Wise Owls [images]
Animal Fair Black Cat Bounty Hunter Hostelry Hunting Lodge
Barbarian Marquis Merchant Camp Town Wizards
Landscapes and Additional Cards
Way of the Owl Architects' Guild
Mountain Kings [images]
Barge Coven Scrap Snowy Village Supplies
Broker Courier Forts Guildmaster Skirmisher
Landscapes and Additional Cards
Toil Mountain Folk

Menagerie & Plunder

Going Home [images]
Barge Gatekeeper Kiln Snowy Village Supplies
Gondola Landing Party Mapmaker Secluded Shrine Silver Mine
Landscapes and Additional Cards
Trait for Gatekeeper
Cheap
Way of the Squirrel
Going Big [images]
Animal Fair Camel Train Mastermind Sanctuary Sheepdog
Enlarge Grotto Harbor Village Sack of Loot Siren
Landscapes and Additional Cards
Trait for Animal Fair
Nearby
Peril

Menagerie & Rising Sun

Become the Ox [images]
Animal Fair Camel Train Destrier Livery Wayfarer
Aristocrat Artist Fishmonger Poet Samurai
Landscapes and Additional Cards
Way of the Ox Enlightenment
Alternatives [images]
Bounty Hunter Coven Paddock Sleigh Supplies
Alley Craftsman Daimyo Ronin Rustic Village
Landscapes and Additional Cards
Sea Trade Panic


First Edition Kingdoms


Cards $2 Black CatSleighSupplies $3 Camel TrainGoatherdScrapSheepdogSnowy VillageStockpile $3* Horse $4 Bounty HunterCardinalCavalryGroomHostelryVillage Green $5 BargeCovenDisplaceFalconerGatekeeperHunting LodgeKilnLiveryMastermindPaddockSanctuary $5* Fisherman $6* DestrierWayfarer $7* Animal Fair
Events $0 DelayDesperation $2 GamblePursueRideToil $3 EnhanceMarchTransport $4 BanishBargainInvestSeize the Day $5 CommerceDemandStampede $7 Reap $8 Enclave $10 AlliancePopulate
Ways ButterflyCamelChameleonFrogGoatHorseMoleMonkeyMouseMuleOtterOwlOxPigRatSealSheepSquirrelTurtleWorm
Other concepts Exile
Dominion Products
Sets DominionIntrigueSeasideAlchemyProsperityCornucopia & GuildsHinterlandsDark AgesAdventures • EmpiresNocturneRenaissanceMenagerieAlliesPlunderRising SunPromo
Collections Big BoxSpecial Edition (German) • Alchemy & Cornucopia (Japanese, German, Dutch)
Accessories Base CardsUpdate PacksPlay Mat • Base Cards MatCollectors CaseDominion Chest
Retired Products CornucopiaGuilds