Trail

Trail
Info
Cost
Type(s)	Action - Reaction
Kingdom card?	Yes
Set	Hinterlands
Illustrator(s)	Marcel-André Casasola Merkle
Card text
+1 Card +1 Action When you gain, trash, or discard this, other than in Clean-up, you may play it.

Trail is an Action-Reaction card from Hinterlands (Second Edition). When you play it, it is a cantrip with no other effect; what's interesting about Trail is when you can play it. In addition to playing it normally from your hand during your Action phase, you can play it immediately when you gain, trash, or discard it, enabling it to be used as a source of draw or +Action at unusual times. Playing it when you trash it also has the side effect of returning it to your custody from the trash, meaning it can be used as a renewable source of fodder for trash-for-benefit effects.

FAQ

Official FAQ

• When you play this, you simply get +1 Card and +1 Action.
• When you gain, trash, or discard this, other than in Clean-up, you may play it; see the When Discarded section.
• As usual playing it means putting it into play and following its instructions.
• If you play Trail on another player's turn, the +1 Action won't be useful, and you discard Trail from play in that turn's Clean-up.
• If you trash Trail, playing it means you get the Trail back; it will go into play, and be discarded into your discard pile in that turn's Clean-up.
• This still counts as trashing it; if you Remodel a Trail you can play it and then gain a Gold from Remodel, and so on.

Other Rules clarifications

• If you gain or trash a Trail during Clean-up (with e.g. Improve), you can't use its Reaction.

Versions

English versions

Print	Digital	Text	Release	Date
		+1 Card +1 Action When you gain, trash, or discard this, other than in Clean-up, you may play it.	Hinterlands (Second Edition)	July 2022

Other language versions

Language	Name	Print	Digital	Text	Notes
German	Pfad			+1 Karte +1 Aktion Wenn du diese Karte außerhalb der Aufräum­phase nimmst, entsorgst oder ablegst, darfst du sie spielen.

Trivia

Official card art.

Preview

Silk Road was another borderline card. The experts were sure they didn't have to see it any more. I couldn't just replace it with another Victory card though - they take two extra cards, and the update pack just had room for one extra card. Hinterlands is no longer the set with 3 Treasures, 3 Victory cards, 3 Reactions; now it's, 2 Treasures, 2 Victory cards, 6 Reactions.

Trail is such a thing of beauty. It's like the most Hinterlandsy Hinterlands card. It plays into both the when-gain and filtering themes, and is a Reaction. You can imagine a board where there's no combo for it, but really it never happens.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, Hinterlands 2E Preview 3

Secret History

The first version of this was the second card of the Odysseys split pile. It moved out to be its own pile so we'd have more copies of it, then moved here because it fits new Hinterlands so well. Late in the going it got the trashing trigger on top of what it already did, just to reduce further the chance that there's no combo for it on the board. It flirted with being limited to your turn, to simplify the Militia interaction.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, The Secret History of Hinterlands 2E