Cartographer

Cartographer
Info
Cost
Type(s)	Action
Kingdom card?	Yes
Set	Hinterlands
Illustrator(s)	Mark Poole
Card text
+1 Card +1 Action Look at the top 4 cards of your deck. Discard any number of them, then put the rest back on top in any order.

Cartographer is an Action card from Hinterlands. It is a -cost cantrip deck inspector which offers the ability to sift through and sort the top 4 cards of your deck.

FAQ

Official FAQ

• You draw a card first, then look at the top 4 cards of your deck.
• If there are fewer than 4 cards left (even after shuffling), just look at as many as you can.
• Discard any number of the cards you looked at - none, all four, or something in-between - and put the rest back on top of your deck in any order.
• You do not reveal any of the cards, except whatever ends up on top of your discard pile.

Strategy

Cartographer is a weak cantrip that offers a sifting and cycling effect. While the effect is beneficial and Cartographer will almost never hurt your deck, many other Action cards provide much stronger effects, and therefore Cartographer is often skipped due to its opportunity cost. If the opportunity cost is relatively low, either because a gainer such as University is present or there are no competing cards, Cartographer can be useable in the following situations:

• If you have problems with deck control or engine reliability, perhaps due to a lack of thinning or a junking attack such as Witch, Cartographer’s sifting can allow you to find your best cards while pseudo-thinning your junk by discarding it. Adding a Cartographer or two in the mid-game can help achieve this form of deck control, while also making you more resilient to the decline in deck control due to greening later.
• If your main concern is with getting to your next shuffle, Cartographer can help by cycling a large number of cards. For example, this can be important with Travellers such as Peasant, and in this role Cartographer can be worth gaining fairly early in the game to quickly get through your early shuffles.
• If your draw or payload is unreliable because it depends on the order of cards on top of your deck (e.g. Wishing Well, Herald, or Chariot Race), Cartographer can solve this problem with the large number of cards it allows you to inspect and manipulate.
• If you have cards in your deck that benefit from being discarded (e.g. Village Green or Tunnel), Cartographer similarly provides many opportunities to activate them.

Versions

English versions

Print	Digital	Text	Release	Date
		+1 Card +1 Action Look at the top 4 cards of your deck. Discard any number of them. Put the rest back on top in any order.	Hinterlands	October 2011
		+1 Card +1 Action Look at the top 4 cards of your deck. Discard any number of them, then put the rest back on top in any order.	Hinterlands (2016 printing)	December 2016

Other language versions

Language	Name	Print	Digital	Text	Notes
Czech	Kartograf
Dutch	Cartograaf
Finnish	Kartanpiirtäjä
French	Cartographe
German	Kartograph			+1 Karte +1 Aktion Sieh die obersten 4 Karten deines Nachziehstapels an. Lege beliebig viele davon ab, dann lege den Rest in beliebiger Reihenfolge zurück.	(2019) 2. Edition (2022)
Italian	Cartografo
Japanese	地図職人 (pron. chizu shokunin, lit. mapmaker)			+1 カードを引く +1 アクション 山札の上から4枚を見る。その中の好きな枚数を捨て札にし、残りを好きな順番で山札の上に戻す。
Polish	Kartograf			+1 karta +1 akcja Podejrzyj 4 karty z wierzchu swojej talii. Odrzuć dowolną ich liczbę, a pozostałe odłóż na wierzch swojej talii w dowolnej kolejności.	(2024)
Russian	Картограф (pron. kartograf)
Spanish	Cartógrafo

Trivia

Official card art.

Theme

Your deck is a kingdom, and this is one of those cards that helps you find your way through it.

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

Secret History

This started in a later set. I moved it here because I wanted another that was conceptually simple. It never changed.

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