Island
| Island | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Info | |
| Cost |
 |
| Type(s) | Action - Victory |
| Kingdom card? | Yes |
| Set |
Seaside |
| Illustrator(s) | Franz Vohwinkel |
| Card text | |
|
Set aside this and another card from your hand. Return them to your deck at the end of the game. 2  | |
Island is an Action-Victory card from Seaside. When played, it sets aside itself and one other card on a playmat, getting them out of your deck until the end of the game; it acts as a one-shot trasher worth 2 
. It can be a good opening to hide away an Estate or a good source of alternate VP for engines; it's a subtle card which is difficult to use optimally.
FAQ
Official FAQ
- When you first take this card, take an Island player mat.
- Island is both an Action card and a Victory card.
- In a 3- or 4- player game, use 12 Islands. Use 8 Islands in a 2-player game.
- Island and the card set aside with it are set aside face up on the Island player mat provided.
- They should not be shuffled back into your deck when you shuffle your discard pile.
- They are returned to your deck at the end of the game in order to calculate total victory points. Island is worth 2 .
- If you have no other cards in hand when you play Island, just set Island aside by itself.
- If you Throne Room an Island, set aside the Island and a card from your hand, then set aside another card from your hand.
- You may look through the cards on your Island playing mat (they are face up) and other players may ask to see what you have there as well.
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.
Strategy Article
There isn't a strategy article for Island. It was discussed on the forums with no consensus as to how to play Island.
Island provides the unusual combination of and (pseudo-)trashing. It is the only trasher that removes cards from a deck while allowing them to count towards end of game scoring. While this feature appears hugely beneficial, this benefit is offset by the fact that Island is a terminal action and provides no benefit other than setting aside cards. As a trasher, it is very slow, resulting in two cards in the hand that provide no immediate benefit. It thus comes with a high opportunity cost and also can be somewhat luck-dependent when there is a chance of terminal collision.
In a Big Money-like game, it is sometimes good to buy one Island on the first shuffle, and then switch to a more conventional Big Money strategy. Simulations show that in simple cases like BM+Militia, such a strategy is marginally better than skipping Islands, and better than opening with Remodel or Moneylender, but it doesn't work with Envoy as a Big Money enabler. It is unclear as to how Island interacts with less straightforward Big Money strategies - you lose a little bit of early-game tempo in exchange for clearing out one Estate.
Alternatively, in an engine deck, it is good if you can get enough and Buys to buy an Island AND a Province or Colony each turn, while Islanding away the Province you bought before to keep your deck from stalling. Ironworks is also a good partner to Island, as it allows you to pick up 2-VP Islands and also get +1 Card/+1 Action for it.
The presence of Island on the board adds 16 to the available total in 2-player games, 24 in multiplayer. Either way, achieving a strong lead in Islands is enough to offset leads in Provinces and Duchies. A player ignoring Islands can run into trouble if the opponent is able to buy and stash away most of them. The VP lead achieved through Islands can be even higher if one player uses them to set aside Estates, and the other trashes Estates without VP benefit. This can contribute up to an additional 6 swing.
Combos
Island combines well with Silk Road, especially in the presence of Ironworks. Island adds VP cards to the deck, boosting the value of Silk Road, while thinning the deck, allowing for the quicker and more sustained acquisition of more VP cards without the deck stalling. Ironworks+Island also provides the +Action, which is often necessary in order to play Island as an action.
Scout is a good support for Island; it is often able to draw both Island and other VP cards into your hand so that you can play one with the other. But this combo alone is not usually sufficient to justify buying Scout; it only boosts its effectiveness if there are other factors making Scout a viable buy.
Because Island is a terminal action, it is often a better buy on boards with an abundance of +Actions, like in the presence of Fishing Village. This minimizes the chance of terminal collision, but does not do much else to make Island a more feasible buy.
Playing Island
In non-engine decks, such as Big Money or Rush strategies, one is sometimes faced with the prospect of drawing Island with another terminal Action card, or even drawing two Islands. When drawing two Islands, it is often best to set one aside with the other; the longer the Islands cycle through your deck, the more times you draw them instead of other cards providing direct benefits. Island can also be set aside with Copper, although this benefits Engines more than Big Money or Rush strategies.
In the case of drawing Island with a hand of higher-value cards, it is often marginally beneficial to Island away a higher-value card, especially if the average value of your deck is high, but only if doing so doesn't impair your buying power on the present turn. For example, Islanding a Silver is often beneficial if you can still afford a Province, but a poor move if the Silver is needed. In these cases, the primary benefit is removing the Island itself from the deck, which increases your deck's average value. Saving the Island will result in a later turn where you have lower buying power, which often harms you more than the lost card.
In games with Gardens or Silk Road, playing a card that enables gaining or buying is usually a better strategy than playing Island; these decks are usually full of green cards anyway and the Island doesn't add as much marginally to the deck.
Island is a poor way of trashing Curses; it does not do anything to counter the -1 . If you end up in a situation where you draw Island with a Curse, and there are no other ways to trash the Curse, playing Island and setting aside the Curse can be a good choice, but it is generally not effective to buy Islands as a way of removing curses from your deck. On boards with cursers and no other trashers, it is usually more effective to invest in more + and/or Attack cards to win the cursing race, rather than be slowed down by buying Islands early on.
Synergies/Combos
- Ironworks
- Silk Road
- Scout
- Abundance of +Actions, like Fishing Village
Antisynergies
- Other trashing such as Chapel, Remake, Trading Post, or Count.
- Opponents' Possessions
Trivia
In other languages
- Czech: Ostrov
- Dutch: Eiland
- French: Île
- German: Insel
- Italian: Isola
- Spanish: Isla
Card Art
Secret History
