Way of the Goat
| Way of the Goat | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Info | |
| Type | Way |
| Set |
Menagerie |
| Illustrator(s) | Marco Morte |
| Way text | |
| Trash a card from your hand. | |
Way of the Goat is a Way from Menagerie. It allows you to trash one card from your hand.
FAQ
Official FAQ
- Way of the Goat is considered so simplistic, it has no official FAQ.
Other rules clarifications
Strategy
Way of the Goat lets any of your Action cards terminally trash a single card from your hand. While thinning is generally very desirable as a way to achieve deck control, this use of terminal space and an early Action card can have a significant opportunity cost. Using Way of the Goat is therefore typically not the best way to get thin, especially if there are other thinners that are either non-terminal (e.g. Forager) or faster (e.g. Steward), or give you some other benefit (e.g. Salvager). Even if another thinner is present, however, you may still want to use Way of the Goat in a supplementary fashion, most often to remove cards your primary trasher cannot (e.g., Estates in the case of Moneylender). If there are no better alternatives and thinning is a very high priority (perhaps to enable an engine with extremely strong payload), however, you may have to use Way of the Goat as your primary option. Given how much terminal space you’ll need to do so, adding villages to your deck earlier than usual may be important.
In the early game, the primary tradeoffs you need to consider with Way of the Goat are the opportunity costs of playing the Action card normally, and hitting important price points. Many Action cards available in the opening have stronger effects than Way of the Goat, and because Way of the Goat uses up two cards from your hand size, you’ll typically generate less 
on that turn. For example, if you would otherwise play a terminal silver and buy an important 
card such as Witch, thinning a single card isn’t worth it. Similarly, playing a gainer like Groom might result in a faster build. In general, you’ll need to weigh the long-term benefit of making all of your future shuffles smaller against the immediate benefit of whatever the alternative is. The opportunity cost of trashing is lower when there are strong cheap cards such as Border Guard available, or when you can improve your deck without buying anything, e.g. by advancing your Travellers, trashing Hermit for a Madman, or taking advantage of Exploration.
Like many other Ways, Way of the Goat significantly affects games with Shelters and Ruins. Necropolis makes it especially easy to benefit from Way of the Goat because it can be played very early in the game, the opportunity cost of its normal on-play effect isn’t very high, and unlike a Kingdom card you do not have to spend resources to add it to your deck. Way of the Goat also decreases the impact of Ruins, because they can be played with the Way to trash other junk cards.
Versions
English versions
| Digital | Text | Release | Date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
 |
Trash a card from your hand. | Menagerie | March 2020 |
Other language versions
| Language | Name | Digital | Text | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dutch | Spoor van de Geit | Vernietig een kaart uit je hand. | (2020) | ||
| German | Weg der Ziege |  |
 |
Entsorge eine deiner Handkarten. | |
| Japanese | ヤギの習性 (pron. yagi no shūsei) |
Trivia
The name is a reference to Goat.
