Distant Lands

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Distant Lands
Info
Cost
Type(s)	Action - Reserve - Victory
Kingdom card?	Yes
Set	Adventures
Illustrator(s)	Matthias Catrein
Card text
Put this on your Tavern mat. Worth 4  if on your Tavern mat at the end of the game (otherwise worth 0 ).

Distant Lands is an Action-Reserve-Victory card from Adventures. It's an Alt-VP card worth more than Duchy at the same cost, but has to be played (and put on your Tavern mat) before you can get those points. As it removes itself from your deck in a fashion similar to Island, Distant Lands can be part of a strategy that buys and plays them constantly during the game, building up   long before you would usually start greening.

Unlike other Reserve cards, Distant Lands stays on your Tavern mat permanently once played; there is no way to call it or otherwise return it to your deck.

FAQ

Official FAQ

• This is a Victory card. Use 8 for games with 2 players, or 12 for games with 3 or more players.
• This is also an Action card; when you play it, you put it on your Tavern mat. It will stay there the rest of the game; there is no way to call it.
• At the end of the game, Distant Lands is worth 4   if it is on your mat, or 0   if it is not. It counts as part of your deck either way (for example it can contribute to how many   a Gardens is worth).

Strategy

There is no strategy article for Distant Lands, but it has been discussed on the forum.

Distant Lands is an interesting and difficult card to play well. It gives you 4 , which is more than a Duchy at the same price, but only if you manage to play it before the game ends. It is very cost-effective, even more so than a Province - you get 12  for only instead of , although you do need an extra source of +Buy for it (for example, you could swap out a Bazaar for a Worker's Village. On top of it, they remove themselves from your deck, like an Island that only works on itself.

Naturally, because you want to get through your deck quickly and need a surplus of Actions, Distant Lands is best used in a big engine. You should be careful when buying them; if you lack the terminal space (meaning: you don't have enough Villages to play them all), or you don't manage to draw your deck, they do become a dead weight and don't even give you the points you want. So if your engine is more powerful, Distant Lands gets stronger exponentially; you get rewarded for overbuilding and overdrawing your deck. Also, because it's such an efficient source of  , you have more time to build. Even if your Big Money opponent gets almost all the Provinces, you can easily come back.

Synergies

• University, Altar
• Highway + Ironworks, Highway + Summon
• Royal Seal, Watchtower or Tracker, so you can play it quickly even without drawing your deck
• Sifters like Warehouse or maybe Guide
• Outpost helps if you fail to draw your deck
• Combo: Fortress and Procession can use this as payload: gain Distant Lands every time you (don't) trash a Fortress

Versions

English versions

Print	Digital	Text	Release	Date
		Put this on your Tavern mat. Worth 4  if on your Tavern mat at the end of the game (otherwise worth 0 ).	Adventures 1st Edition	April 2015
		Put this on your Tavern mat. Worth 4  if on your Tavern mat at the end of the game (otherwise worth 0 ).	Adventures 2nd Edition	August 2017

Other language versions

Language	Name	Print	Digital	Text
Dutch	Verre landen
Finnish	Kaukomaat (lit. far countries)
French	Terres lointaines
German	Ferne Lande			Lege diese Karte auf dein Wirtshaustableau. Wert 4 , falls diese Karte bei Spielende auf deinem Wirtshaustableau liegt.
Japanese	遠隔地 (pron. enkakuchi)			これをあなたの酒場マットの上に置く。これが酒場マットの上にある場合、4 。それ以外の場合、0 。
Russian	Дальние Земли (pron. dal'niye zyemli)

Trivia

Official card art.

Secret History

How about a  -Reserve card? It's a   card that isn't worth anything unless you manage to play it once. A simple concept that just immediately worked.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, The Secret History of Dominion: Adventures

Relevant outtakes

Some of the mentioned outtakes eventually became Landmarks (specifically Wall, Orchard, and Triumphal Arch.

I tried an Action-Victory card that was cost , trash a card from your hand, worth 13   minus 1   per 2 cards in your deck. "What huh," I hear you say. We had some fun playing around with it but it was too hard making it be fair but not awful both in 2-player games and 4-player games. Some versions could trash cards from supply piles, an old concept that has never worked out. When I was giving up on this, I tried a Victory card that was worth 1   per Estate or Gold you had, whichever was less. This was an old idea that I planned to try if I ever needed another   card. It's uh not awful. It had no special joy though. Briefly I tried an Action-Victory card that put a card on your mat, and was worth   based on the number of cards there. It just didn't give a new-enough experience; there's Island. It sounded like it would be a strategy but it usually wasn't, it was usually Island but maybe not worth the 2  . I tried a   card that rewarded you for having the most of something, and stopped the game from ending until its pile was empty; man, who has the time to empty an extra pile these days. I tried a   card that wanted you to have 3+ of as many cards as possible; it wasn't the same as Fairgrounds but didn't have a good new feeling. I tried 1   per copy you have of the Action card you have the 2nd most copies of - you want a lot of two things. Man there isn't much to say about any of these. I tried a bunch of Victory cards, and in the end there's just Distant Lands, which I had for most of the time, but I like it so hooray.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, The Secret History of Dominion: Adventures

Donald X.'s opinion

This is exciting for serious players. It's a nice way to get a lead in   while continuing to build up. We already had that with e.g. Nobles, but well Distant Lands is different all the ways it's different. And it's a lot of points, man, it's not stingy there.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Let's Discuss Adventures Cards: Distant Lands