THE CARD
Name: The Great Menagerie
Set: The Dreamlands
Type: Adventure
Subtype: Corrupt
Value: +6
San: +2
Text: It is your goal to gather together a fantastic menagerie of the most splendid creatures in the world. With the help of your friend (and ADVENTURER or EXPLORER), journey to THREE different OUTSIDE LOCATIONS, and discover FOUR MONSTERS of different subtypes. Once your creatures have been gathered, you will need to find a nice CITY LOCATION to house your menagerie in.
THE SOURCE
None in particular.
CLARIFICATIONS
The card listing for this adventure is: Adventurer or Explorer; three different Outside Locations; four Monsters of different subtypes; and city Location.
QUESTIONS
Q: Can a single Location be used for both an outside Location and a city Location?
A: As is noted in the Mythos rules "One card can not meet two requirements on the same Mythos card... Multiple copies of the same card may each be used to satisfy different requirements on the same Adventure card." This means, you must have at least four Locations in your Story Deck to play this Adventure. If you have two copies of an Outside City Location in your Story Deck, one may used to fulfill the Outside requirement, and another to fulfill the City requirement. This is, in fact, an excellent strategy.
Q: Can I use Monsters in play as Allies to play this Adventure?
A: No. Whenever a card moves from one part of the in-play area to another, it tends to totally change its card type. A Monster in play as an Ally is solely of the Ally type, and not of the Monster type. The card will revert to being a Monster when it goes into your Story Deck.
STRATEGIES
The best strategy for using an Adventure is to optimize a deck for it. Here are a few suggestions for optimizing for the Great Menagerie.
On Where to Set this Adventure - There are five requirements which
may restrict region and dimension choice: adventurer or explorer;
three outside locations; one city location.
The Ally requirement is the tightest, and is met by the following
cards: Etienne-Laurent de Marigny (WW, LC, any City), Laban
Shrewsbury (WW, LC, Arkham), T. E. Lawrence (WW, ME, any Country),
Iranon the Musician (DL, Any Site), and The Hunter (DL, Any
Country).
The Following subregions have at least three Outside Locations and a
City Location: Arkham (WW, LC), Innsmouth (WW, LC), Kingsport (WW,
LC), Providence (WW, LC), and Celephais (DL, East).
Looking at Allies and Locations, Arkham is clearly the winner, but
the Adventure can be played without real problems in: Lovecraft
Country, the Middle East, and all of the Dreamlands. Don't be afraid
to add in nearby Outside Country Locations if required. You should be
rewarded with slightly better cards. If you're in Lovecraft Country,
take advantage of the outside Waterbury State Hospital in Vermont. If
you're in the West of the Dreamlands, the Temple of Bokrug is Outside.
On the Many Subtypes of Monsters - It is helpful to remember that there are actually seven subtypes of Monsters. There's the Lesser and Greater Independents and Servitors which you probably think of straight off. That's four of the subtypes. There's also Living Dead, although they haven't been seen since Limited. And, finally we have #6 and #7: Great Old Ones and Outer Gods. The more subtypes you put in your deck, the likelier it'll be that you draw at least four different subtypes. You might want to consider one of the other Adventures that requires a GOO (Seeking Everlasting Life II or The Hero's Journey) as a good match for this Adventure.
On Joining Monsters - One of the problems with multiple subtypes is that you usually can't play them together, even if you have them all in your hand. Joining Monsters can get around this. There are a few Monsters which Join across subtypes. Deep One + Shoggoth + Father Dagon + Mother Hydra is a pretty good combination, since you'll have two Lesser Servitors and two Greater Servitors which can all be played at once. Buopoth and Giant Albino Penguins are also excellent choices. They are both Lesser Independents that Join with all Monsters. Another possibility is using Cthulhu. As a Great Old One, he will count as one of your four subtypes. He will also allow all the rest of your Monsters to Join.
On Summoning Monsters - Summoning Monsters has several advantages. First, it allows Monsters to go straight to the Story Deck, instead of waiting in the Threat for an entire turn. Second, it allows Monsters to be brought into play without the use of gates. There are also disadvantages. It's costly in Sanity, and you can only bring one Monster into play at a time, but still you should consider having some Summoning devices in your deck, just in case. As of Dreamlands, there is a S/C spell for every subtype but GOOs and Outer Gods. Also, if you play in the Dreamlands, you can take advantage of a few different Lairs, which allow the Summoning of Monsters for no extra Sanity.
On the Power of Thaol - If you have the Circles of Thaol out with the Star Stone of Mnar, you can Summon both a Lesser Independent and a Greater Independent. You flip the spell, and then get to Summon and attack with two different Monsters. This is another tricky way to play Monsters from two subtypes at once. Consider putting this potent pair in your deck.
On Optimizing your Locations - This Adventure calls for three Outside Locations and one City Location. You should try and include as many combined Outside/City Locations as possible, so you can choose to use them for either requirement, as necessary.
On Optimizing your Allies - As with any Adventure, it is better to have two different Allies who meet a specific Ally requirement (in this case Adventurer or Explorer) then it is two have two copies of the same Ally. If you had two copies, the second one in your hand is a wasted card, while if you had two different Allies, you could play them both.
Once you're actually playing, one of the most important things you can do is prepare for an adventure before-hand. That is, set yourself up for it while working on prior adventures. If you follow all the preparation suggestions below, you can play this new Adventure a minimum of four cards after your previous Adventure, and the three cards in between are relatively easy: two Outside Locations and one City Locations. (Actually, there's likely one more turn required, when you convert Allies into Monsters, as noted below, but you may be able to use a "free turn" during combat to do that.)
On General Preparations - In this case, you can try and get your adventurer or explorer out, and try to hold on to outside Locations and rarer Monster subtypes.
On Preparing Monsters - This takes more work, but can be done. What you want to do is get a Monster of each subtype into play as an Ally. The Kitab Al-Azif is the easiest way to do this. There are a few other methods, such as getting Mi-go into play as Allies using N'gah-Kthun, but they aren't as convenient. Once your Monsters are in play as Allies, make sure you have a way to easily convert them back into Monsters (they're Allies, not Monsters at this point). Call Power of Nyambe is probably the best method, since it's relatively subtle until you use it. You could also stock up on Enchanted Weapons, and use your Monsters to attack when you're ready to play your Adventure, but not only does this tend to freak out your opponents and make you a target, but it's also slower.
On Preparing Locations - You need three Outside Locations for your deck. Why not be sitting at one when you play your previous Adventure?
And finally, here's a deck possibility:
On the Underworld Deck - It turns out that the Underworld in the
Dreamlands is a pretty good place to play The Great Menagerie. There
are lairs for three different subtypes of Monsters. Though there are
only four different Outside Locations, one of them is a City as
well. The Tower of Koth and the Great Abyss should be ignored; the
other five Underworld Locations are all good to use. A few copies of
The Hunter will fill the Adventurer requirement. Since he can be
buried to give you a benefit, having the extra copies won't hurt
you. Use the Kitab Al-Azif and the Brilliant Egyptian Archaeologist
to make the Adventure easier to play. Several GOOs are easily
playable since the Underworld is Underground and has Outside Country
Gates: Ghatanathoa, Hastur, Abhoth, Nodens, Nyarlathotep, and
Tulzscha. Don't forget to use Limited Edition Dholes, which are 5/-1
if you are Underground.
Staging an entire deck in the Underworld is possible, though
difficult. Four-Armed is Forewarned, as well as some of the other
tiny (5 or 6 point) adventures are playable. You'll need to go spell
heavy, and use Call Power of Nyambe, Soul Singing, and Steal Life to
gain Sanity since there are no Underworld Sanitariums. If you're
going spell heavy, consider Nyarlathotep, playable at Outside Gates.
He'll count as a subtype, and make the playing of other spells
free. He won't help with the above three spells, since you can't
gain Sanity, but if you have lots of other spells he'll be
cool... If you do this, you'll need to add the Tower of Koth, since
it's the only Tome Location in the Underworld.
Another possibility is to make the Underworld your primary home, but
have occasional trips to Waking World Sanitariums. This works well
because the Dimension-travelling items (ie, the Silver Key) stay in
play, so you can step back and forth. You could do the same trick
with Dreamlands Sanitariums and Travel Events, but it honestly isn't
as easy.
COUNTER STRATEGIES
The first step in countering an Adventure is recognizing it is being played. Here's how to watch for The Great Menagerie. If someone shows two or three of the following signs, they're probably playing this Adventure. Here's the signs, in order, from least important to most.
The Adventurer or Explorer - As of the Dreamlands, there are only five Allies who match this criteria, all listed above. Having one of these Allies out is a danger sign.
The Outside Locations - Outside Locations usually make up 1/3 or less of most Cities. If someone is playing almost all Outside Locations, this is a another danger sign.
The Four Monster Subtypes - This is the giveaway. If an opponent has lots of Monsters, unrelated by theme, and they span lots of subtypes, they're probably playing this Adventure. Especially watch for Buopoth and Giant Albino Penguins, since they're not terribly common cards.
Once you've recognized an Adventure, you need to defeat it. This is typically done by discarding required cards or burying cards required to play other cards. Here's possible ways to do that, in order from least annoying to most.
Hide an Ally - A minor annoyance at best. You can slow down your opponent by putting his Ally into the Threat with Body Warping of Gorgoroth or Innsmouth Look. Usually, this will make it so he can't play his Adventure until at least the next Round. You can make this nastier by then casting Blasphemous Obeisance. You might end up knocking the Ally back to your opponent's hand. This can be a big problem if the Ally was brought out by Surprise Meeting, or in a different subregion.
Get Rid of Summon/Control Spells - This will just slow your opponent down. Ways to do this include: Wilbur Whately, the Insects of Shaggai, and Song of Hastur.
Destroy a Location - The Outside Locations are the most vulnerable in this Adventure because so many different ones are required. Discard those via Cthulhu Rising (possibly paired with Hurricane), Green Mist of Doom (definitely paired with a Night card), and Wave of Oblivion.
Destroy an Ally - You can Discard an Adventurer or Explorer via one of several cards: Command of the Bloody Tongue (paired with something to bury the Ally), Limited Edition Nightgaunts, and the Awful Doom of Cerrit. This will work particularly well if your opponent is playing in the Middle East, where there is just one of the required Allies.
Destroy a Monster Subtype - If an opponent has Monsters out as Allies, use one of the Discard Ally tricks to try and selectively weed out one of your opponent's subtypes. Blasphemous Obeisance is another good card, since it returns a Monster to your opponent's hand.