Camel Train

Camel Train
Info
Cost
Type(s)	Action
Kingdom card?	Yes
Set	Menagerie
Illustrator(s)	Claus Stephan
Card text
Exile a non-Victory card from the Supply. When you gain this, Exile a Gold from the Supply.

Camel Train is an Action card from Menagerie. It Exiles a card from the Supply of any cost, as long as it is not a Victory card. When you gain a Camel Train, you Exile a Gold. The Exiled cards are not available for use until discarded from the Exile mat.

FAQ

Official FAQ

• When you play this, you Exile a non-Victory card from the Supply; when you gain this, you Exile a Gold from the Supply.

Strategy

Camel Train is a cheap but relatively weak terminal gainer. It's most useful when you need multiple copies of expensive Action cards, and can help with pile control at the end of the game.

Because it sends cards to Exile, Camel Train not only uses up a space in your hand and a terminal slot to no immediate benefit when played, but its payoff is also further delayed until you can gain another copy of the Exiled card and then draw them both. For this reason, it's slow at helping you build your deck in the early stages of the game and is not often a good opening purchase. It’s also not a good way to acquire cards that have a useful on-gain effect (e.g. Border Village or Inn), since Exiling a card doesn’t trigger these --- although, conversely, this makes it useful with on-gain effects that you’d like to avoid, such as those of Lost City or Cursed Village. Camel Train’s main strength, however, is that unlike most gainers it imposes no constraints on the price of the target card. This means it can be useful when there are expensive cards that you want several copies of, e.g. Grand Market or City Quarter. Camel Train is slightly weaker with cards costing $P than other gainers without price constraints, such as Lurker, since you still can't avoid gaining a Potion if you want to make use of Possession or other $P cards; however, it does enable you to gain multiple copies per shuffle with a single Potion.

Camel Train can be helpful when the cards that you eventually want many copies of aren't necessarily the best immediate additions to your deck. These might be payload cards, which you’d prefer to add in a clump once you’ve achieved deck control, or cards that you’d like to deny your opponents but won’t necessarily derive much benefit from playing immediately, such as Groundskeeper or City. In cases like these, the downside of not getting immediate access to your gains is reduced: Camel Train allows you to stock up on several copies in Exile and then buy just one when you're ready to put them all into your deck. Similarly, if there are non-Victory cards you'd like to own (because of considerations such as Orchard or Keep) but will never want to draw or play (e.g. for lack of terminal space), you can Exile them with Camel Train and simply leave them there.

In the endgame, Camel Train is less useful than most gainers in helping you score  , since it can't be used to add an extra Estate or another cheap Victory card. Nevertheless, it can help you control the state of the Supply piles, and is therefore sometimes important in making sure you can end the game for a win. Particularly if Camel Train represents the only source of extra gains, it can be useful to add another copy or two in the midgame for this purpose if the terminal space is available.

Camel Train's on-gain effect of Exiling a Gold is usually less important than its on-play effect. Because Gold isn't typically the best payload, it's not uncommon to leave it in Exile; and as with the on-play effect, Camel Train doesn't help you get an early Gold into your deck even if you do want one, since you still need to gain a second in order to get access to the Exiled one. However, this effect can be a useful bonus in a Kingdom where both Gold and Camel Train are attractive cards, perhaps because both expensive Action cards and strong trash-for-benefit effects are present, or when Palace is present but you are running an Engine.

Versions

English versions

Print	Digital	Text	Release	Date
		Exile a non-Victory card from the Supply. When you gain this, Exile a Gold from the Supply.	Menagerie	March 2020

Other language versions

Language	Name	Print	Digital	Text	Notes
Dutch	Kamelenkaravaan			Verband een niet- overwinningskaart uit de voorraad. Als je deze kaart pakt, verband je een Goud uit de voorraad.	(2020)
German	Kamelzug			Verbanne eine Nicht-Punktekarte aus dem Vorrat. Wenn du diese Karte nimmst, verbanne ein Gold aus dem Vorrat.	(2020)
Japanese	ラクダの隊列 (pron. rakuda no tairetsu)

Trivia

Official card art.

Preview

This can pick away at piles like a Lurker, but the cards are all reserved for you, provided you someday manage to get one honestly. Or if you don't ever need to draw them, but want them sitting there, it will do that for you too. And it comes with the promise of a Gold.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Menagerie Bonus Previews

Secret History

Originally it had no below-the-line part. Some people liked it but for me it wasn't quite good enough. I tried letting you play it when you gained it, but it ran out piles too fast. So now it exiles a Gold when you gain it.

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