Pillage

Pillage
Info
Cost
Type(s)	Action - Attack
Kingdom card?	Yes
Set	Dark Ages
Illustrator(s)	Claus Stefan
Card text
Trash this. If you did, gain 2 Spoils, and each other player with 5 or more cards in hand reveals their hand and discards a card that you choose.

Pillage is an Action-Attack card from Dark Ages. It is a one-shot discard attack which lets you choose any card from the opponent's hand to discard. It also gains you two Spoils.

FAQ

Official FAQ

• First trash Pillage.
• Then, if you did, you gain two Spoils cards.^†
• These come from the Spoils pile, which is not part of the Supply.
• If there are no Spoils cards left, you do not get one; if there is only one, you just get one.
• Then each other player with 5 or more cards in hand reveals their hand and discards a card of your choice.
• This happens in turn order, starting with the player to your left.

^†The rulebook erroneously orders the attacking before the gaining part.

Other Rules clarifications for prior version

• Pillage was originally phrased to not have all effects after the trashing be dependent on the card being trashed. This means you do get 4 Spoils when you Throne Room a Pillage, for example. Also the Spoils are gained after affecting other players.

Strategy

While Pillage offers a potentially disruptive discard attack and one-time payload of , it has several glaring weaknesses that make it often skippable. First, it's expensive at and has a high opportunity cost; combined with the fact that it's a one-shot, this means it's very difficult to attack repeatedly, as you'll need a gainer or lots of spare to do so. Second, the payload of comes in the form of two Spoils, which are two stop cards in your next reshuffle, meaning Pillage often does nothing to help you afford a card and improve your deck this turn, while also ultimately requiring you to draw three cards (Pillage itself plus the two Spoils). Finally, the attack itself is often low-impact, especially relative to Pillage's cost.

The problem with the attack is that, for Pillage to be a net benefit to you, the difference between your opponent’s turn with and without the best card in their hand needs to be greater than the amount of resources you expended to gain, draw, and play the Pillage. For example, if you’re attacking someone playing a money deck, you might discard a Silver from your opponent’s hand, causing them to miss their intended pricepoint of for a Gold, but they can still buy a serviceable card in Silver—here, the slight difference of an extra less sometime later in the game compares unfavorably to the cost of Pillage. As another example, consider attacking a deck that has a lot of deck control and draw—discarding a single Laboratory is unlikely to do much damage to a hand full of them. In general, Pillage does best when attacking decks that are unreliably drawing (likely due to thinning being weak or absent), and where the difference between a dud and a full turn is large. An engine based around a village and terminal draw with Horn of Plenty payload is one example of a potentially vulnerable deck, as if you’re able to remove the only village from your opponent’s hand, they’ll be unlikely to draw their deck and gain anything useful with their Horns of Plenty.

Overall, Pillage is therefore most useful if you can make good use of the attack, have enough draw to support it and the Spoils, and can acquire it without incurring a high opportunity cost, e.g. with University or Lurker. Gain-and-playing a Pillage can also sometimes be a good idea, e.g. via Innovation or using a gainer and overdraw. With enough overdraw, you can even use the Spoils this turn, in effect removing all of the temporary stop cards that Pillage would normally put in your future shuffles. Additionally, if you are the first player to get your engine working and draw your deck, playing a Pillage now could set your opponents back from getting to that point, widening the gap between you.

Pillage anti-synergizes with other discard Attacks because most such Attacks (including Pillage itself) work best against a hand of five cards. Exceptions include Torturer and Soldier, though it’s worth noting that you’ll want to play your Pillage before these other Attacks, given Pillage does not work if your opponent has fewer than five cards in hand.

Versions

English versions

Print	Digital	Text	Release	Date
		Trash this. Each other player with 5 or more cards in hand reveals his hand and discards a card that you choose. Gain 2 Spoils from the Spoils pile.	Dark Ages	August 2012
		Trash this. Each other player with 5 or more cards in hand reveals their hand and discards a card that you choose. Gain 2 Spoils from the Spoils pile.	Dark Ages (2017 printing)	September 2017
		Trash this. If you did, gain 2 Spoils, and each other player with 5 or more cards in hand reveals their hand and discards a card that you choose.	Dark Ages (2020 printing)	2020

Other language versions

Language	Name	Print	Digital	Text	Notes
Czech	Drancování			Zahoď tuto kartu na smetiště. Všichni ostatní hráči, kteří mají v ruce 5 a více karet, ukážou karty v ruce a odloži jednu kartu, kterou určíš. Vezmi si 2 karty Kořisti z balíčku karet Kořistí.
Dutch	Plundering
Finnish	Ryöstöretki (lit. foray)
French	Pillage
German	Raubzug (lit. raid)			Entsorge diese Karte. Jeder Mitspieler mit 5 oder mehr Handkarten deckt diese auf und legt eine Karte deiner Wahl ab. Nimm 2 Beuten vom Beute-Stapel.	(2019)
	Raubzug (lit. raid)			Entsorge diese Karte. Wenn du das getan hast, nimm 2 Beuten und jeder Mitspieler mit 5 oder mehr Handkarten deckt diese auf und legt eine Karte deiner Wahl ab.
Japanese	略奪 (pron. ryakudatsu)			これを廃棄する。手札が5枚以上の他のプレイヤーは全員、手札を公開し、あなたが選択するカード1枚を捨て札にする。その後、あなたは(略奪品の山から)略奪品2枚を獲得する。
Korean	강탈 (pron. gangtal, lit. ravishment)
Polish	Rabunek				Although Polish version is not released, this card is referred to in the Polish version of Empires rulebook
Russian	Погром (pron. pogrom, lit. pogrom)
Spanish	Pillaje

Trivia

Official card art.

Card Art

The art shows Village, under attack.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, 'Art Trivia'

Preview

Pillage is a more conventional attack, in that it attacks your opponents. It's a one-shot. There haven't been very many but this is one. You make everyone else discard their best card, which is bound to hurt them, and you get two Spoils, which sounds good at least. It's a pretty rude attack, but at least it only happens once per copy bought, barring Graverobbers or something. The thing being Pillaged in the art is of course a Village. I remember when that was a peaceful place, with a guy on a horse.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Dark Ages Preview #4: Rats, Pillage, Spoils

Secret History

Discarding a card the attacker picks was a basic thing I hadn't done yet. It's so rude that the card is a one-shot. Originally it gained two cards costing up to each, but that was too good. Now you get Spoils.

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