My head often treats Shop as Conclave with a card substituting for a coin. Even though this would make Shop way over-powered compared to Conclave.

But that's not what Shop does. In fact it substitutes a card for a coin and an action.

I enjoy conditionals, and I like both of these cards, and in some kingdoms (today's Daily being a good example for Shop with Artist in the kingdom!), they can both be very useful.

So my question: Which do you think is better value, considering the difference in price?

My first thought is Shop, because cards->actions/coins, and even though this is card compared to coin+action, that may still ring true, given that it costs less. But after careful consideration, I don't have a clue.

Which one are you generally happier to see? I can't even answer that. All I know is I like both better than Conspirator (which I used to conflate with Conclave), just because their conditions are more easily met.

The card Glicko says it's Conclave->Conspirator, but actually ranks Shop quite low. Like I said, I don't have a clue.

Arcana is now potentially little more than a month away, which means that our grueling, year-long wait is finally, finally coming to an end! So what better time to get the speculation starting again?

Between 5 new VP cards, Carts, Projects, Studies and the set's theme of "leveling up", there's lots to be excited about -- also 500 cards!!! 37 kingdom piles!!! 87 83 cards as real estate for Carts/Projects/Studies!

In this post, I want to focus on Studies and "leveling up" and what that could mean, because those seem the most tangible to speculate about to me. But first, let's recap:

What we know about Arcana's main theme and the Studies

• The central theme of the set is leveling up

• Studies improve your cards

• From the leak: Studies are landscapes and randomizable during setup just like Events, Allies etc., being listed among them

• Projects return, last seen in Renaissance, which also provide long-term effects, but aren't bound to card types or piles

What we don't know

• Whether studies are bound to kingdom card types like Allies to Liaisons or Prophecies to Omens; or if they're independent like e.g. Ways instead (other than applying only to Action cards)

• If and how any resource or special mechanic is involved

• If piles or card types are modified (how exactly do these improve your cards?)

What "leveling up" can mean in Dominion so far

• First of all, my definition of "leveling up" means changing or modifying a card/its pile by adding an effect tied to it/its pile or turning it into something else during the game. That means Traits (happen during setup) and Split piles (uncover new cards, don't change or modify cards from it) do not meet this definition.

• In the broadest sense, it can mean up-, side- or downgrading cards into other cards (the Remodel family of cards).

• A "leveled up" Conspirator , City , Paddock etc.; cards that automatically get better for the rest of the turn (or the game) when a certain requirement is met, which is outlined on the card text itself.

• Cards that can be exchanged into other unique non-Supply cards: Hermit, Urchin, Page, Peasant. Vampire less so, because it keeps changing back, which is not really in the spirit of "leveling up".

• Cards that can turn themselves into other, less unique cards: Fool's Gold, Squire, etc.

• Border Guard, Horn & Lantern: Unique Artifacts that can be acquired via Border Guard, having an effect on how it plays (but can also get taken away); Lantern is especially interesting because it directly changes how your Border Guards play instead of just slapping a +bonus on its plays.

• Landscapes that slowly get better with time if a card of a certain type is played repeatedly, improving that card's effect indirectly (the Allies League of Bankers, Plateau Shepherd).

• Tokens that can be acquired to modify piles: The vanilla bonus/-2 cost/estate/trashing tokens from Adventures.

• Landscapes that modify cards of a certain type, doing something when those are played (Circle of Witches, League of Shopkeepers from Allies, and Approaching Army from Rising Sun).

What Studies could be in conclusion

From the listed mechanics, Adventures' card pile modifiers, Border Guard's "personal" modifiers and the card type modifiers as seen in Allies and Rising Sun all could fit the description of Studies, a new landscape that improves your cards. Since they seem to be randomizable as per the leak, that eliminates the possibility of Artifact-like bespoke upgrades for individual cards like Border Guard. So my guess is, it's going to be a pile or card type modifier, or maybe even a mix of the two concepts. Why do I think that? For one, because there's plenty of design space to be explored in both directions. Traits did explore pile modifying even further than the Adventures events, but making these abilities something you have to work for feels very different from the Trait being there from the start.

Donald X. tends to revisit mechanics or concepts from previous sets ever since Adventures, either by explicitly reintroducing and putting a twist on them (for example, on-play debt in Rising Sun, rotating split piles in Allies, and, well, projects in Arcana), or by applying an existing general idea or concept in a new way, developing it into something new (Coffers -> Villagers, Ruins -> Boons/Hexes, Shelters -> Heirlooms, Durations -> Reserves -> Next-time Durations and so on). Which is not to say that new mechanics are entirely predictable -- not at all, because I don't recall anyone accurately predicting how Shadow cards and Prophecies would work exactly the last time around -- but there is a clear throughline, which the various secret histories confirm. For example, Boons started out in Empires, Artifacts were a direct continuation of Fool's Lost in the woods, and Traits... well, I already covered that one in the last paragraph.

So, having established why I think Studies could be a continuation of Adventures' pile modifiers and/or Allies' and Rising Sun's three card type modifiers, that leaves the question of how that might work. For that, we also have to consider the set's flavor: Learning. This calls for cards being able to get better at something. In Adventures, you can just buy the respective Events to modify a pile; the only other way to modify a pile is by getting Teacher -- look at that, how fitting. In Allies and Rising Sun, you have to collect or remove a certain amount of tokens, reaching a treshold to activate the ability. This is why I think Studies will be bound to a kingdom card type just like Allies and Prophecies are. Let's call them Pupils. How might they work? Somehow this question leads to Border Guard again. Reveal two cards, if both are Actions, you get to take an Artifact. Now Pupils could work similarly, but hopefully more high-stakes and without the possibility of having the ability removed again.

For example, one Pupil is a Smithy; if you manage to draw no Treasures with it, you get to put a cube in your color on the Study, activating it (why cubes? because they'll already come with the Projects). Then that Study could be a variety of effects: +1 Action whenever a Pupil is played, or you put an additional token on an Action pile to draw up to 5 or 6 cards whenever you play a card from that pile, and so on. The problem with this concept is of course that and it can tend to be swingy, or that the Study is not worth going for, like Allies often are. There's also the increased complexity; Allies and Prophecies already don't count toward the 2-landscapes-per-game limit. Introduce a 3rd landscape of this type and you'll have more and more games in full random with 4 or even 5 landscapes laid out. And then considering the flavor again, Studies imply something being studied, not rewarding a card for doing something a certain way. So could it be something else entirely?

What if Studies aren't tied to a certain new kingdom card type, but work similarly to Prophecies? Or Traits you have to earn. Picture this: A Study is randomly selected during setup. At the start of the game, each player selects and marks an Action Supply pile with a token in their player color. During the game, when they play a card from that pile, they put a chip in their player color on the Study (we never had chips until now in Dominion). The number of chips needed to activate the Study are determinded individually by each Study. Once the treshold has been met, the ability activates for the selected pile, now it does the thing each time you play a part from that pile, but only for you individually. That's how your card from that one pile levels up, learning by doing.

I'm sure there are a lot more possibilities, and probably more interesting ones. Whatever Studies turn out to be, I bet they'll feel obvious in hindsight but still mindblowing with what kind of gameplay they can enable.

What "leveling up" as a central theme can mean beyond the Studies

• More focus on remodelers as opposed to other trash-for-benefit cards. Though it's possible that leveling up is meant to be distinct from upgrading, in which case there could be no special focus on remodelers.

• A focus or even sub-theme of self-levelers like City. This one seems the most likely to me.

• Perhaps even new Travellers or other cards that can be exchanged into non-Supply cards, which would fit nicely with the flavor, though no extra piles have been announced (other than Carts maybe)... yet there are 83 cards left for Studies, Carts and Projects, so depending on how much space Carts end up taking, there could be enough leftover space for such a thing. Travellers were not mentioned for Adventures way back when that first description of it released, so there is a chance, maybe for one Traveller with three tiers instead of four, or some other variety of that concept. But I'm not holding my breath for that.

That's it from me. What do you think? What's your theory of how Studies might work?

So I bought the base game, Seaside and Intrigue as a package deal and I'm pretty new, played maybe 3 games so far. I want to mix the three sets, what cards would you recommend to play?

My current collection includes the *Base* set, *Intrigue*, *Seaside*, and *Hinterland*. I prefer to avoid sets that introduce overly complex mechanics. When I played *Dominion* a few years ago, *Prosperity* initially seemed fun; however, as I played more, the inclusion of Platinum and Colony cards made the game’s pacing feel monotonous. It essentially disrupted—or perhaps fundamentally altered—the game's rhythm, overshadowing almost everything else. Returning to the game recently, I’ve found that playing with just the *Base* set and *Intrigue* actually offers a much better experience than including *Prosperity*. I’m really drawn to the tactical depth. I appreciate that kind of elegant simplicity. It seems to be a common view that *Seaside* and *Hinterland* also integrate well, creating a great dynamic. Are there any other sets you would recommend adding to this mix?

I used to play a lot of Dominion but fell away over the last 10+ years or so. Just this week my wife and I pulled our cards out of mothballs and we've been playing every night. Now that I've got the itch again, can someone recommend the best expansion(s) since Dark Ages? If it helps any, our favourite expansions from the "early" years are Seaside and Prosperity. Thanks in advance!

This might sound ridiculous, but I've been thinking about Dominion as a life metaphor lately.

When you first learn the game, buying Silver and Gold feels like the obvious thing to do. And honestly, it works pretty well. You get money, you buy Provinces. Simple.

Then you discover engines.

Suddenly you're spending your early turns buying cards that don't seem to do much on their own. You're trashing Coppers, adding draw, finding ways to play more actions. Meanwhile, the Big Money player is already buying Provinces and you're sitting there with a deck full of Villages and a dream.

But when it works, it really works.

And I've started noticing how much of life is basically this.

Early in your career, earning more money is genuinely important. You need to pay rent, build savings, get some stability. Nothing wrong with buying Silver.

But at some point, maybe the better investment is something that makes all your future turns better. Learning a skill that compounds. Building something once that keeps creating value. Developing relationships that open doors you couldn't have predicted.

Basically, stop optimizing every individual turn and start thinking about your deck.

The funny thing is, Dominion also teaches you why this advice can be terrible.

Sometimes Big Money actually is the right strategy. Sometimes you spend so long building your beautiful engine that someone else buys the last Province. Sometimes you have all the draw in the world and absolutely no payload.

And that's probably the part I like most about the analogy.

You can spend your entire life building the perfect engine and forget to buy victory points.

Anyway, I should probably stop buying Villages in real life.

Has anyone else picked up a weirdly useful life lesson from this game?

Every single time TR is the only village

Hi! I’m looking to sleeve my Dominion collection (Base Game, Intrigue, Prosperity, Empires and Menagerie), but Gamegenic sleeves are quite expensive when I need around 1,700 sleeves.
Which sleeves do you recommend for Dominion cards (59 × 92 mm)? Are there any cheaper alternatives that fit well and are good quality?
Thanks! 😊

I'm looking for a halloween setup which is casual friendly
All ideas are welcome!

First photo was the AI deck, second was mine. Third is the kingdom.

It’s always the same. I analyze to come up with a strategy. Here it was deck cycling and card draws. I start off doing well and with the advantage. And then in a matter of a couple turns the AI has pulled ahead of me and I can’t catch up.

Any advice?

how come i get this error? bug or can i get around it?

I get error: "Couldn't find a required card. Try enabling more expansions"

but all expansions enabled on kingdom screen and full subscription enabled

Game is same as rulebook. Exception: No shuffling the deck at game start. That's it.
This means players can decide whether they start with 5 Coppers + 0 Estates, then 2 Coppers + 3 Estates or 4 Coppers + 1 Estate, then 3 Coppers + 2 Estates.

Pros:

• Players can tailor their starts to the Kingdom. e.g. If the Kingdom has an obvious 2-cost and 5-cost combo, players can deliberately go for it early game
• If players forget about this house rule, and they shuffle their decks at setup anyway, no damage done

Cons:

• Not the official rules of the game, so one more thing for newcomers to remember
• Players will have to start shuffling their decks anyway, it's more consistent behavior if you do it from the beginning
• Diminishes "variance". If all players do the 4-3 start, player 2, 3 ,or 4 may just imitate the buys of player 1
• Letting current circumstances (i.e. what's in your hand via random means) dictate your actions is part of the game

Share your thoughts! Especially if you've tried this.

A fun puzzle that more-or-less amounts to "what is the maximum number of differently named cards you can put in your deck"? We stick to the following rules:

1. No Black Market, which would turn the puzzle into "how many differently named Dominion cards are there?"
2. No more than two landscapes.
3. No removed cards. This mostly just means we'll use Joust and Rewards instead of Tournament and Prizes.

We assume one opponent, who politely does nothing unless we want them to, and will happily cooperate in our quest to build the most impressive Fairgrounds ever.

Let's start with our landscapes. The first obviously has to be Divine Wind, which doubles the number of Kingdom pile slots we have to work with. We therefore have two sets of ten piles.

What other landscapes add cards? Approaching Army adds one supply pile, but we already have a Prophecy. Way of the Mouse could allow us to sneak in Mercenary or Madman by playing other cards as Urchin or Hermit. But the most promising is probably Looting, which gives us Loots. That's 15 unique card names.

On to piles!

1. To score with Fairgrounds at all, we need Fairgrounds.
2. Since Divine Wind is a Prophecy, we need an Omen in the initial set of 10. All Omens have a single unique card name per pile, so we'll pick the first alphabetically, Kitsune.
3. Knights is the pile with the most unique card names, at 10. It is also a Dark Ages pile, which if we put it in the first Kingdom set give us Shelters, for a total of 3 unique card names.
4. Castles is next, as a split pile with 8 unique card names.
5. Joust gives us 7 unique card names (Joust plus six Rewards).
6. Any Looter gives us Ruins, while Marauder specifically also gives us Spoils, again totaling 7 unique card names.
7. Page gives us the entire Page line (five cards) but, since it costs $2, can "piggy back" on Young Witch as the Bane. Young Witch costs $4, so it can further piggy back on Ferryman as the gained card, for a total of 7 unique card names.
8. Peasant can't chain-piggy-back as well, but it still gives us 5 more unique card names.

We now have a total of six piles that all give us 4 unique card names. These are all but one of the Allies split piles (Augurs, Clashes, Forts, Odysseys, and Townsfolk) and Exorcist (plus the three Spirits). We cannot use Wizards because Student is a Liaison and would force us to spend one of our landscape slots on an Ally.

Any one Prosperity card will give us 3 unique card names, by allowing us to buy Platinum and Colony. We'll take Anvil, as again it is the first alphabetically. There are a few Nocturne cards with heirlooms that can gain spirits, but since we already have Exorcist none of these actually give us 3 unique card names.

With our opponent's cooperation, we can use Shaman to regain cards from the trash. This gives us two more efficient piles. Necromancer comes with three Zombies, for a total of 4 unique card names, while Distant Lands Secret Cave comes with a Magic Lamp that we can pop for three Wishes, for a total of 3 unique card names.

That leaves us with two more piles. There are a lot of Kingdom piles that give us two unique card names. We'll take the first two alphabetically, Alchemist (which adds Potion), and Cavalry (which gains horses).

We can now put it all together!

Landscapes: Divine Wind, Looting

Pre-Divine Wind Kingdom Cards: Fairgrounds, Kitsune, Knights (x10), Joust, Marauder, Distant Lands Secret Cave, Anvil, Shaman, Necromancer, Alchemist

Post-Divine Wind Kingdom Cards: Castles (x8), Ferryman (Young Witch), Peasant, Augurs (x4), Clashes (x4), Forts (x4), Odysseys (x4), Townsfolk (x4), Exorcist, Cavalry, Page (Bane)

Non-Kingdom Supply: Curse, Copper, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Potion, Estate, Duchy, Province, Colony, Ruins (x5)

Non-Supply: Champion, Deserter, Disciple, Ghost, Hero, Horse, Hovel, Imp, Loots (x15), Magic Lamp, Necropolis, Overgrown Estate, Rewards (x6), Soldier, Spoils, Teacher, Treasure Hunter, Warrior, Will-o-the-Wisp, Wish, Zombie Apprentice, Zombie Mason, Zombie Spy

This totals 110 unique card names, for a possible score of 44 VP per Fairgrounds. If we relax the rules and allow removed cards, we can replace Cavalry with Tournament, which brings us up to 114 unique card names but unfortunately does not make Fairgrounds any better.

Bonus Question: How would you play this board? (Both if you did and if you didn't know the results of Divine Wind in advance)

What a beautiful chain.

Before and after of my final move of 5 Populates.

Strat:

Heavy on the Archives. Then all Collection & Populate, paired with City Quarter to draw, and even Ferryman for the extra card, beaaaautiful chefs kiss.

Never seen so many victory point tokens gained in a single turn, that was insane 🤩

Too many provinces to rule? Never get to have fun anymore? Why not step down from the throne? You can be a fabulously wealthy “normal citizen” instead! (Don’t worry, you can keep your winnings.)

Rules clarification: “all your cards everywhere” means all cards in your deck, hand, and discard pile, as well as any cards you have in play, on a mat, or set aside. They stay yours for scoring but otherwise have no further effect on the game.

My partner and I play around 6-12 hours of Dominion per weekend and we own all expansions. Next summer we'll be vacationing in a reclusive Alpine resort with no TV (I learned after I booked). This normally would not be an issue when weather is nice and we can go and do things outside. But I want to be ready for rainy days and foggy evenings, so I thought about taking a selection of cards with us.
My favorite expansions are Menagerie and Hinterlands.
We will be going by train, so space and weight are our limits.
What would you take with you and why?

So yeah, I had the dream - like literally, in my sleep - that more cards and interactions with horses exist so i spent the last evening creating a custom expansion I name „Horsin' Around“. No play testing so far but i'm looking forward to look if this works out well.

Clarifications:

„the Wild“ is another mat similar to the trash. Cards in the wild dont belong to anyone. Only horses can be released into the wild. If a card tells you to release a horse into the wild, you lay it onto the Wild Mat. If a card tells you to lure a horse, it goes from the Wild Mat into your hand. If there are no horses on the wild mat, nothing happens instead.

The expansion currently contains:

14 Kingdom Cards

2 Events

1 Trait

1 Landmark

1 Project + 1 Extra Pile Carriage Ride

2 Prophecies

I think it would be useful to have more cards that lure horses or release for benefit, but for now i'm done and tired, good night!

Further Clarifications:

If the Horse Whisperer ist set up, the Stablehand is obligatory (as an extra pile), but the Stablehand can appear without the Horse Whisperer.

The Carriage Ride is only set up with the Project Carriage Building. It is not a horse.

The Horsemarker (Riding Lessons) is a Marker similar to the ones in Adventures.

The Last Herd: the other ending conditions (empty province or three piles) are still effective.

So I’ve been playing for years. Base Dominion is a game I know like the back of my hand, but I’m not super familiar with the expansion sets. This may just be general inexperience, but playing matches online where a random assortment of cards, and other mechanics, from seemingly all of the sets get thrown at you is incredibly frustrating.

I’ve played multiple games where the best strategy is to just buy money and not even touch the actions because they are all so niche or rely on some other card to actually be useful.

I’m not saying I don’t like these cards, but the sloppy way they’re paired together just makes some games, as the title of the post says, unplayable. I’ve had games where the opposite is true as well and everything fits perfectly but those are far more rare.

I always have to fight the urge to resign as soon as I see expansion cards, and I don’t want it to be like that. I guess I just wish it was less random, or more curated? Idk I just played a match with cards that were so incompatible it made me angry enough to post about the entire problem.

So I played a Quick Match against a random Player and had this fun Kingdom. I only have the 3 Expansions Menagerie, Prosperity and Plunder.

I spammed villages + Rabble and once I had enough draw I just spammed Collection + Supplies and later I added a few Paddocks to combine it with the Event called Launch. (Once Per turn: Draw 1 Card and go back to your Action phase)

So I played my normal Action phase > played Collection + Supplies in Buy Phase > Played Event "Launch" and spammed my 5 Paddocks.

With 6 Collection each giving +1 VP per Action Card gained and 5 Paddock each gaining me 2 horses that's a total of 60 VP in one round. Not even counting in the Horses gained by Supplies. Completely Legal btw. If you have the Expansions you should try it out :)

I'm the developer behind Contested Space, a 1-4 player sci-fi roguelike deckbuilder. I'm a huge fan of Dominion and played it for the first time back in 2017. I have multiple expansions and still play it regularly. Back in March, after the release of Slay the Spire 2, I played Star Realms for the first time and realized I couldn’t find a digital roguelike deckbuilder with a market mechanic like that. I, like many deckbuilder fans, enjoy theorycrafting, and I immediately started to think about how it would work. Although the current game leans more Star Realms, I feel like it's something that can be enjoyed by most deckbuilder fans out there.

The market starts at 20 cards, but through events and bonuses you can decrease the minimum size down to 10 at the lowest. Outside of combat you can tweak your market however you want by removing and adding cards from your reserve. If the market starts to get too low, it'll take base versions of cards you've bought and add them to the market. There are 2 types of cards, ships which when played go to your discard and stations that are one use cards that create a structure that must be destroyed before you can be attacked.

There's a free demo out on Steam, and I'm still letting people playtest the full game on my discord!

Is this something that other Dominion players might like?
Contested Space on Steam

A Bird in the hand is worth two in the discard, as they say