Island

Island
Info
Cost
Type(s)	Action - Victory
Kingdom card?	Yes
Set	Seaside
Illustrator(s)	Franz Vohwinkel
Card text
Put this and a card from your hand onto your Island mat. 2

Island is an Action-Victory card from Seaside worth 2  and with a one-shot thinning effect. When played, it sets aside itself and one other card on a playmat, meaning both cards get out of the way but still count for determining  . This works similar to the Exile effect from Menagerie.

FAQ

Official FAQ

• When you set aside your first Island, take an Island player mat to put it on.
• Island and the set aside card are face up on the mat; anyone can look at them.
• They stay there until the end of the game, when you return them to your deck and count your score.
• When playing Island, you have to set aside a card if you can.
• If you Throne Room an Island, you set aside two cards with it.
• Use 8 copies of Island for games with 2 players, 12 for games with 3 or more players.

Other rules clarifications

• If you Procession an Island, you set it aside with a card, then you set aside another card; you do not trash the Island because it has already been set aside, but you do gain a card costing more than the Island.
• If you play a Command variant that plays an Island, you leave the Island in its pile and you move a card to the Island mat.

Strategy

Island is a weak Action and Victory card that can remove cards from your drawable deck without trashing them, while providing a small amount of alt-VP. Although this lets you avoid having to draw through Victory cards while still keeping the   they provide, Island is rarely an efficient method of thinning your deck: in addition to being terminal and a stop card, each copy provides only a one-shot effect for a single target, which you must have collided with the Island. However, in Kingdoms that otherwise lack thinning, Island can occasionally be worthwhile to move a small amount of starting junk (preferably Estates) to your Island mat.

Island can also be used to maintain deck control when greening in the endgame while adding a few extra  , although this requires extra terminal space and is only likely to work if you have very strong deck control already, so that you can be sure of colliding Island with the target despite having added Victory cards to your deck. Notably, gain-and-play is a particularly good way to guarantee this when it’s an available option. In some cases, Island may be preferable to Duchy even when you can afford the latter, as the marginal increase in deck control and resulting reliability boost may outweigh the extra 1 .

Island sometimes sees use beyond its roles as a mediocre thinner or greening reliability booster. Because of its multiple types, it provides useful bonuses when you gain it using certain Workshop variants: the most important case of this is with Groom, which enables a powerful rush strategy, but gaining Island can be a good use for others such as Ironworks as well, especially in the late game. In a money strategy with Hoard, Island may be preferable to other Victory cards in the earlier stages of the game because you can remove it from your deck again easily.

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.

• silverspawn's 2015 article

Versions

English versions

Print	Digital	Text	Release	Date
		Set aside this and another card from your hand. Return them to your deck at the end of the game. 2	Seaside	October 2009
		Put this and a card from your hand onto your Island mat. 2	Seaside (2017 printing) Seaside (Second Edition)	July 2017 June 2022

Other language versions

Language	Name	Print	Digital	Text	Notes
Chinese	島嶼 (pron. dǎoyǔ)
Czech	Ostrov
Dutch	Eiland
Finnish	Saari
French	Île
German	Insel			Lege diese Karte und eine andere Karte aus deiner Hand offen zur Seite auf dein Tableau Insel. Nimm die Karten am Ende des Spiels zurück in deinen Kartenstapel. 2	translation error: "eine andere weitere Karte" (2009)
	Insel			Lege diese Karte und eine Handkarte offen auf dein Insel-Tableau. 2	(Nachdruck 2018)
	Insel			Lege diese Karte und eine deiner Handkarten auf dein Insel-Tableau. 2	(Nachdruck 2021) 2. Edition (2022)
Italian	Isola
Japanese	島 (pron. shima)			これと手札1枚をあなたの島マットの上に表向きに置く。 2
Korean	섬 (pron. seom)
Polish	Wyspa			Odłóż na bok tę i jeszcze jedną kartę z ręki. Po zakończeniu rozgrywki karty te trafiają z powrotem do twojej talii. 2	(2016)
	Wyspa			Odłóż na podkładkę Wyspy tę i jeszcze jedną kartę z ręki. 2	II Edycja (2022)
Russian	Остров (pron. ostrov)			Отложите эту карту и другую карту из руки на ваш Островной мат. 2
Spanish	Isla

Trivia

Official card art.

Card Art

The art connects with Pirate Ship to the right.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, 'Art Trivia'

Secret History

I made this during development to replace another victory card that didn't work out. I had tried a couple other ways to get a victory card out of your deck in later sets, but this was the first version tested for Seaside.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, The Secret History of the Seaside Cards

Relevant outtakes

The victory card that Island replaced was an Action-Victory with "Trash a card from the supply costing or less / Worth 1  per 3  cards in the trash." I always thought it seemed cool and interesting, but in practice it wasn't much fun. If you went for it, other people would get in on it. It would do nothing some games, then dominate others, but never in a fun way. No-one was sad to see it go. There could still be a card someday that trashes supply cards, but in practice it's mostly a waste of time, with players sitting there trying to work out which card to trash in cases where it really doesn't matter (and so it's hard to decide).

—Donald X. Vaccarino, The Secret History of the Seaside Cards