Merchant Ship
| Merchant Ship | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Info | |
| Cost |
 |
| Type(s) | Action - Duration |
| Kingdom card? | Yes |
| Set |
Seaside |
| Illustrator(s) | Ryan Laukat |
| Card text | |
|
Now and at the start of your next turn: +  . | |
Merchant Ship is an Action-Duration card from Seaside. It is a terminal Silver since it gives + and no +Action on the turn you play it, but it also gives + on the turn after.
FAQ
Official FAQ
- You get + when you play this and another + at the start of your next turn.
Strategy
Merchant Ship is rarely a good payload option, as it usually suffers from serious opportunity cost problems. Although it generates a total of 
per play, it functions only as a terminal Silver on the turn you play it. If you’re consistently drawing your deck using an engine, you can play each Merchant Ship only on alternate shuffles, and you therefore need two of them in order to produce per turn. The total payout of per Merchant Ship per turn in this scenario means that it compares very unfavourably to other cards, which tend to be significantly more powerful, nor is it typically the most effective use of your terminal space.
Engines in which Merchant Ship can be worthwhile tend to be those in which the payload offered by the Kingdom is generally weak, but Action-based payload is particularly valuable and terminal space is easy to come by. Some draw-to-x decks (e.g. with Cursed Village) meet these criteria; a double Tactician deck can sometimes represent another good use case for Merchant Ship. It can also be helpful in money strategies and certain other scenarios in which you shuffle less frequently than with a reliable deck-drawing engine. In these cases, you can play your Merchant Ship on most shuffles, obviating the need for twice as many copies in order to extract their full value --- and the benefit of spreading the over two turns is also likely to be significant.
External strategy articles
Note: Article(s) below are by individual authors and may not represent the community's current views on cards, but may provide more in-depth information or give historical perspective. Caveat emptor.
Versions
English versions
| Digital | Text | Release | Date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
 |
Now and at the start of your next turn: +. |
Seaside | October 2009 |
|
 |
Now and at the start of your next turn: +. |
Seaside (2017 printing) | July 2017 |
Other language versions
| Language | Name | Digital | Text | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chinese | 商船 (pron. shāngchuán) | ||||
| Czech | Obchodní loď | ||||
| Dutch | Handelsschip (lit. trading ship) |
 |
Nu en aan het begin van je volgende beurt: +. |
Hijs de Zeilen (2de Editie) 999 Games (2022) | |
| Finnish | Kauppalaiva | ||||
| French | Navire marchand | ||||
| German | Handelsschiff |  |
+ Bei Beginn deines nächsten Zuges: + |
(2009)† | |
| Handelsschiff |  |
Jetzt und zu Beginn deines nächsten Zuges: + |
(Nachdruck 2018) | ||
| Handelsschiff |  |
Jetzt und zu Beginn deines nächsten Zuges: +. |
(Nachdruck 2021) 2. Edition | ||
| Italian | Nave Mercantile | ||||
| Japanese | 商船 (pron. shōsen) |
現在とあなたの次のターンの開姶時に、+。 |
|||
| Korean | 상선 (pron. sangseon) | ||||
| Polish | Okręt kupiecki |  |
Teraz i na początku twojej następnej tury: +. |
(2016) | |
| Russian | Торговый Корабль (pron. torgovy korabl') |
 |
Сейчас и в начале вашего следующего хода: +. |
||
| Spanish | Barco Mercante |  |
Ahora y al comienzo de tu próximo turno: + |
† The line separating start-of-turn abilities is unwarranted and was removed in later print runs. This matters e.g. when you are Enchanted or you use a Way.
Trivia
Secret History
Why is the +Buy on Wharf?
and there it is at 
.Surviving Seaside 2E
