Black Cat

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Black Cat
Info
Cost
Type(s)	Action - Attack - Reaction
Kingdom card?	Yes
Set	Menagerie
Illustrator(s)	Marco Morte
Card text
+2 Cards If it isn't your turn, each other player gains a Curse. When another player gains a Victory card, you may play this from your hand.

Black Cat is an Action-Attack-Reaction card from Menagerie. It lets you curse all your opponents when one of them gains a Victory card.

FAQ

Official FAQ

• When you play this on your turn, you draw 2 cards.
• When you play it on another player's turn - usually only possible via its reaction - you draw 2 cards, and then everyone else gains a Curse, in turn order starting with the player whose turn it is.
• When anyone else gains a Victory card - whether or not it is your turn - you may play this from your hand.

Other rules clarifications

• If another player gains a Victory card during your turn (for example, if you give them an Estate with Ambassador), you can react with your Black Cat, but you will not give out any Curses.
• If you get attacked during your turn, you can still use Reactions like Horse Traders and Caravan Guard.

Strategy

In the early game, Black Cat provides +2 Cards, making it similar to Moat with an equally low cost. However, in the late game where both players are rushing for Provinces, this card is both a junking attack and sets up a potential big next turn with a six card hand.

Chaining Black Cats together can easily provide a game winning turn and a big comeback. This makes buying a lot of Black Cats a viable strategy if you are behind. The strategy can be facilitated by effects that topdeck your Black Cats, such as Way of the Frog to ensure that at least some of them are in your starting hand. Doing this could create a stalemate situation where neither player is willing to act towards ending the game.

Black Cat can also be effective against alternate victory cards that need lots of copies, such as Duchy-Duke, Silk Roads, Vineyards, Fairgrounds and Gardens. Black Cat is countered by ways to score without gaining victory cards, such as some cards giving victory tokens and Enclave. Reactions such as Watchtower are also easier to use as a defense because you do not need to rely on them being in your starting hand as long as you can draw them later in your turn.

Versions

English versions

Print	Digital	Text	Release	Date
		+2 Cards If it isn't your turn, each other player gains a Curse. When another player gains a Victory card, you may play this from your hand.	Menagerie	March 2020

Other language versions

Language	Name	Print	Digital	Text	Notes
French	Chat Noir
German	Schwarze Katze			+2 Karten Wenn jetzt nicht dein Zug ist, nimmt jeder Mitspieler einen Fluch. Wenn ein Mitspieler eine Punktekarte nimmt, darfst du diese Karte aus deiner Hand spielen.	(2020)
Japanese	黒猫 (pron. kuroneko)

Trivia

Official card art.

Black Cat is the only Attack-Reaction card, and the only Kingdom Attack card costing less than .

Preview

Menagerie has two minor themes I didn't mention yet. Surprise! The first one is reaction cards; there are five of them. Five! Four of them do the trick Sheepdog did of letting you play them at an unusual time; Black Cat is one of those. It's a Witch they have to activate for you. I will just point out now: when they gain a Province and that lets you use Black Cat, the other players gain Curses and that lets them use Sheepdogs.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Menagerie Previews 5: More Cards

Secret History

The second reaction in the set. I wanted a black cat! Probably it would curse people? Could it be blue? I got all those things. At first it triggered on their gain and you discarded it to Curse them. It wasn't good enough. Shifting it to being played also let it be an Attack; Moat couldn't stop the discarded version.

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

Further comments by Donald X.

In response to people expressing confusion over being able to react with multiple Black Cats to the same gain, Donald X. responded with:

Suppose you have two Wharfs. You draw two cards for one. Now it's not the start of your turn anymore, so you don't get the other two cards. That's how to fight that part of the Black Cat argument. You simply can't have it be that Wharf fails there; it has to be that multiple things can happen "when x" and they all get to happen. Reactions work even if they weren't in your hand when whatever it was happened; that could have been different (e.g. reveal them all, then resolve them all) but that's how they work.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Dominion Discord, 2021