Ill-Gotten Gains
| Ill-Gotten Gains | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Info | |
| Cost |
 |
| Type(s) | Treasure |
| Kingdom card? | Yes |
| Set |
Hinterlands |
| Illustrator(s) | Jason Slavin |
| Card text | |
 You may gain a Copper to your hand. When you gain this, each other player gains a Curse. | |
Ill-Gotten Gains (abbreviated IGG) is a Treasure card from Hinterlands. Its primary function is as a curser, but unlike other cursers it distributes Curses when it is gained, not when it is played, and does not have the Attack type.
It was removed from the second edition of Hinterlands and replaced with Cauldron which is another take on a Treasure-based curser.
FAQ
Official FAQ
- When you play this, you may gain a Copper.
- The Copper comes from the Supply and is put into your hand; you can immediately play it.
- When you gain Ill-Gotten Gains, each other player gains a Curse.
- The Curses come from the Supply and go into the players’ discard piles.
- If there are not enough Curses left to go around, deal them out in turn order†.
- Ill-Gotten Gains is not an Attack, and gaining it is not playing an Attack; cards like Moat do not work against it.
†Via erratum and in later printings of the rulebook, this no longer says "starting with the player to the left of the player who gained Ill-Gotten Gains".
Strategy
Before it was removed, Ill-Gotten Gains acted a curser but with two primary problems:
- The difference between a Curse in your opponents’ decks and a Copper (which Ill-Gotten Gains effectively is) in your own typically isn’t that large—both are junk stop cards that produce little purchasing power, weakening both engine and money strategies and likely hurting you almost as much as your opponent. As such, gaining Ill-Gotten Gains is best in Kingdoms in which that relative difference is fairly large, as is most often the case when the thinning is very weak or absent.
- At , you incur a high opportunity cost for giving out a single Curse. This compares unfavorably with cards such as Witch that can hand out multiple Curses and help rather than hinder you in achieving deck control, and means that junking your opponents with Ill-Gotten Gains is a slow process. Fortunately, Ill-Gotten Gains itself helps you hit repeatedly. Because it can gain Coppers to your hand, it’s effectively a Silver this turn if you choose to take that option. Doing so also pushes your money density for future shuffles towards
, which combined with your starting five card hand makes you very likely to hit .
In many Kingdoms, it is possible to overcome or outpace Ill-Gotten Gains’ cursing, for example with trashing, strong draw, or Silver flooding. Ill-Gotten Gains is therefore most often used in a rush strategy when the Kingdom does not allow the building of an efficient engine.
When it’s feasible, the Ill-Gotten Gains rush exploits a simple idea: buying out Ill-Gotten Gains also empties the Curses, so emptying any other pile will end the game. Duchy is a common third pile in this type of game because decks with many Ill-Gotten Gains, Coppers, and potentially Curses in them struggle to make enough money to buy a Province but will consistently hit , so buying out the Duchies can be a viable way to both score and end the game. Some alt-VP sources are also suitable. Gardens works well in this role because the Copper gaining effect of Ill-Gotten Gains bloats your deck quickly, while Triumph and the Estate pile may be an option if you have many Ill-Gotten Gains. In these cases, gaining Coppers is actively helpful rather than harmful. Because this rush never scores more than 3 
per turn, however, it will likely lose to any kind of deck that can build to more potent greening turns quickly enough, for example by Provincing reliably.
There are several synergies that can make Ill-Gotten Gains more attractive. Banquet effectively reduces the price of Ill-Gotten Gains to 
as you would likely gain the Coppers anyway, and thus the Ill-Gotten Gains rush is much faster and more reliable. Guildhall can be combined well with Ill-Gotten Gains as you gain lots of Treasures and therefore lots of Coffers which both helps you more reliably hit and may even enable you to go for Provinces. Ill-Gotten Gains is also a good target for most kinds of trash for benefit effects once its main purpose of giving out a Curse is over. Taxman is one such example, allowing you to trash and gain Ill-Gotten Gains to curse your opponents. Changeling synergizes nicely with Ill-Gotten Gains, since you can gain the Ill-Gotten Gains and then immediately exchange it for a Changeling, cursing your opponent without adding a junk card to your deck. Finally, Fountain and Keep reward you with additional for having many Coppers in your deck, which may make an Ill-Gotten Gains strategy much stronger.
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 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
 |
When you play this, you may gain a Copper, putting it into your hand. When you gain this, each other player gains a Curse. |
Hinterlands | October 2011 |
 |
 |
When you play this, you may gain a Copper to your hand. When you gain this, each other player gains a Curse. |
Hinterlands (2016 printing) | December 2016 |
|
 |
You may gain a Copper to your hand. When you gain this, each other player gains a Curse. |
Hinterlands (2020 printing) | October 2020 |
Other language versions
| Language | Name | Digital | Text | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Czech | Nečestné zisky (lit. dishonest profits) |
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| Dutch | Gestolen goed (lit. stolen goods) |
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| Finnish | Epäonnen saalis (lit. bad luck loot) |
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| French | Argent noir (lit. black money) |
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| German | Blutzoll (lit. blood tax) |
 |
Wenn du diese Karte ausspielst, darfst du dir ein Kupfer nehmen. Nimm dieses Kupfer sofort auf die Hand. Wenn du diese Karte nimmst, muss sich jeder Mitspieler einen Fluch nehmen. |
(2011) | |
| Blutzoll (lit. blood tax) |
 |
Wenn du diese Karte ausspielst, darfst du ein Kupfer auf deine Hand nehmen. Wenn du diese Karte nimmst, nimmt jeder Mitspieler einen Fluch. |
(2019) | ||
| Blutzoll (lit. blood tax) |
 |
Du darfst dir ein Kupfer auf die Hand nehmen. Wenn du diese Karte nimmst, nimmt sich jeder andere Spieler einen Fluch. |
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| Italian | Infame Profitto (lit. infamous profit) |
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| Japanese | 不正利得 (pron. fusei ritoku, lit. dishonest profit) |
銅貨1枚を手札に獲得してもよい。 これを獲得するとき、他のプレイヤーは全員、呪い1枚を獲得する。 |
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| Polish | Brudny zysk | Although Polish version is not released, this card is referred to in the Polish version of Empires rulebook | |||
| Russian | Проклятое Сокровище (pron. proklyatoye sokrovishshye, lit. cursed treasure) |
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| Spanish | Dinero Sucio (lit. dirty money) |
Trivia
Art
Theme
Preview
or so for . That is how good that ability turned out to be. Sometimes you want to gain that Copper, or will be gaining a Silver instead, and sometimes you just really want 
this turn, or won't be drawing that Copper before the game ends. So it's not always just worth . And of course it's a fine card to trade in for something else.
Secret History
, for , that gave out a Curse when gained. It was like that for a while, before I became convinced that it was dominating games too much. I tried it at 
, and as a Silver for . That version again lasted a while, but was too good. Briefly it made per copy you had in play, which I moved to Fool's Gold and fixed up. Now you get 
or out of it, depending on whether or not you want to water your deck down a little. There were two versions that gave you + and had you gain a Copper to your discard pile, rather than having you gain a Copper to your hand (one failed when the Coppers ran out and one didn't). Gaining Copper to your hand ultimately seemed simpler.Development
on top, for simplicity).Retrospective
that gives out Curses when you gain it. It doesn't sink games for me and sometimes does tricks, but sometimes you are just spending the game buying IGGs and , ho hum.Second Edition removal
