Supply

The Supply for a particular game of Dominion.

The Supply consists of all the cards a player is able to buy in a game. These include the Kingdom cards, the basic Treasure and Victory cards, Curses, and Ruins if they are available. Some cards, such as Rewards, Spoils, Loots, Horse, Madman, and Mercenary are not in the Supply, but are able to be gained or otherwise acquired through the effects of specific other cards.

Overview

A normal game of Dominion has a Supply consisting of Estates, Duchies, Provinces, Copper, Silver, Gold, Curses, and 10 piles of Kingdom cards (which are usually, but not always, Actions). Some expansions add to the Supply:

• Alchemy adds Potions when -costing cards are in the Kingdom.
• Prosperity can add Colonies and Platinum.
• Young Witch, from Cornucopia, adds an 11th Kingdom card as its Bane.
• Looters, from Dark Ages, add Ruins when they are present.

Ordinarily each pile in the Supply consists of several copies of the same card. The four exceptions to this are Ruins, Knights, Castles, and Split pile cards, which are each Supply piles containing two or more differently named cards; in these cases, only the top card of the pile is visible to players and available to be bought or gained. For this reason, although the entirety of any Supply pile is physically part of the Supply, only the top card of any pile is considered to be "in the Supply". For instance, when Band of Misfits requires you to choose a "card in the Supply", you may not choose a card in the Ruins or Knights pile other than the one on top.

When a pile is empty, it is no longer considered to be part of the Supply. Should it cease to be empty, such as through Way of the Horse, it would once again be part of the Supply. A player can always check how many cards are left in any Supply pile, as well as any non-Supply pile. If three or more piles in the Supply are empty at the end of a turn, the game ends.

When you choose a card to buy or gain, unless otherwise instructed, you must choose a card in the Supply.

Cards that reference the Supply

City, a card that references the Supply.

Cards in italics have been removed.

Cards that trash from the Supply

• Gladiator
• Lurker
• Salt the Earth

Cards that Exile from the Supply

• Camel Train
• Coven
• Enclave
• Invest
• Transport
• Way of the Camel
• Way of the Worm

Cards that return itself to the Supply

If these are a non-Supply pile (e.g. due to being selected for Ferryman) they can still return themselves to that pile.

• Encampment
• Experiment
• Hermit
• Madman
• Page
• Peasant
• Reckless
• Snake Witch
• Vampire

Cards that return other cards to the Supply

With exception of Ambassador, these can also return cards to non-Supply piles.

• Ambassador
• Changeling
• Panic
• Swap
• Trader
• Way of the Butterfly
• Way of the Horse

Cards that rotate Supply piles

• Battle Plan
• Herb Gatherer
• Old Map
• Student
• Tent
• Town Crier

Cards that play a card in the Supply

• Band of Misfits
• Captain
• Overlord

Inheritance sets aside a card from the Supply that Estates then can play.

Cards that care about empty Supply piles

• Animal Fair
• Carpenter
• City
• Paddock
• Poacher
• Search
• Territory
• Tower

Cards that place tokens on Supply piles

• Aqueduct
• Defiled Shrine
• Embargo
• Family of Inventors
• Farmers' Market
• Ferry
• Lost Arts
• Pathfinding
• Plan
• Seaway
• Tax
• Teacher
• Temple
• Trade Route
• Training
• Wild Hunt

Cards that pick or add a pile in the Supply

• Approaching Army
• Obelisk
• Young Witch
• All Traits

Divine Wind replaces all Supply piles.

Non-Supply

Madman, a card not in the Supply.

Anything that is not from a Basic card pile or a Kingdom card pile is not considered to be part of the Supply.

Cards not in the Supply

There are many cards available in Dominion that can never actually be bought; these are usually marked with an asterisked cost, and an italicized parenthetical at the bottom of their card text explaining that they are not in the Supply. The asterisk in their cost has no effect on gameplay other than to signify this; all effects that care about costs affect non-Supply cards normally. (An asterisk may be also be used in a Kingdom card's cost to represent that it is an unusual cost, such as with Peddler.) Non-Supply cards must be gained (or otherwise acquired) via other cards that are available in the Supply, Events or Trait, namely:

• Joust instructs you to gain a Reward from the Reward pile; the similar removed card Tournament does the same with Prizes.
• Bandit Camp, Marauder, and Pillage instruct you to gain a Spoils from the Spoils pile.
• Hermit exchanges for a Madman from the Madman pile.
• Urchin instructs you to gain a Mercenary from the Mercenary pile.
• Page and Peasant each exchange into a number of increasingly more powerful cards.
• Vampire exchanges for a Bat from the Bat pile.
• Leprechaun and Magic Lamp instruct you to gain a Wish (or three Wishes, in the case of Magic Lamp) from the Wish pile.
• Haunted Mirror instructs you to gain a Ghost from the Ghost pile.
• Devil's Workshop and Tormentor instruct you to gain an Imp from the Imp pile.
• The Swamp's Gift instructs you to gain a Will-o'-Wisp from the Will-o'-Wisp pile.
• Exorcist instructs you to gain any Spirit (one of Will-o'-Wisp, Imp, or Ghost) from its appropriate pile.
• Horse cards can be gained with:
  • Cards : Cavalry, Groom, Hostelry, Livery, Paddock, Scrap, Sleigh, Supplies
  • Events : Bargain, Demand, Ride, Stampede
• Loot cards can be gained with:
  • Cards : Jewelled Egg, Search, Cutthroat, Pickaxe, Wealthy Village, Sack of Loot
  • Events : Peril, Foray, Looting, Invasion, Prosper
  • Trait : Cursed

Additionally, while Shelters, Heirlooms, Zombies, and cards from the Black Market deck do not have an asterisked cost, and do not have card text distinguishing them as such, they are not part of the Supply as they do not come from a pile. Similarly, Ferryman adds a Kingdom card pile outside the Supply for a given game.

Trash pile

The trash is not part of the Supply. While the cards in it can come originally from the Supply, you cannot normally buy or gain from the trash. There are a few cards that allow you to gain from it, however:

• Lurker, Graverobber, Rogue, Treasurer, Lich and Shaman enable you to gain a card of your choice from the trash (subject to certain restrictions).
• Thief and Noble Brigand instruct you to gain specific cards which were just trashed.

Miscellaneous

• Black Market tells you to buy from the Black Market deck, which is constructed from Kingdom cards not available in the current game's Supply.
• "Card-shaped things" other than actual cards never become part of a player's deck, and are not considered part of the Supply:
  • Events and Projects can be bought during a player's normal Buy phase, but given that they cannot, by their nature, be gained, are not truly part of the Supply.
  • Landmarks, though represented by cards on the table along with the Supply, are really just new rules that apply for that particular game.
  • Boons and Hexes gives their effects once before usually returned to their respective shuffle cycle.
  • States and Artifacts are markers for mostly temporary effects.
  • Ways provide a replacement for any Action's abilities.
  • Allies provide ways to use Favor tokens in games in which they are available.
  • Traits are special effects that modify default behavior of a Kingdom pile they are attached to.
  • Prophecies are special rules that take effect once a certain number of Omen cards have been played.

Trivia

Donald X.'s remarks on non-Supply card costs

My philosophy changed there, originally I thought "make them so it's clear you must not be able to buy them," now I think "make them a cost that makes sense, so that they interact better with cards that care about costs." Except sometimes there might still be a reason for an exception, e.g. the Spirit Costs are all based on what Exorcist wants. But, that isn't a reason I errata cards.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Interview with Donald X.