Blighted Island cards

Frequently Asked Questions

The card is "used as if played", but is not your card.
(You cannot Forget it for any other reason, either.)
(Discussion elsewhere)  Tags: Aid from Lesser Spirits
Why does Burn Brighted Before the End have the option to remove Presence instead of adding Presence? Isn't adding Presence always better?
In most instances, yes, adding Presence will be better. However, Heart of the Wildfire is often in a position where adding Presence to one of its lands will not only add more Blight, but also cascade – rather punishing for a Blighted Island card with so little Blight. Hence, there's an option to remove Presence from tracks instead.
Tags: Blight, Blighted Island, Burn Brightest Before the End, Blazing Presence (Heart of the Wildfire), 1 more...
If All Things Weaken is out, can the third level of Hold the Island Fast with a Bulwark of Will (Stone's Unyielding Defiance) save adjacent Presence from destruction?
No. That innate threshold specifies "When a ... Blight card directly destroys Presence". All Things Weaken changes the rules for how Blight destroys Presence, but does not directly destroy Presence itself, it's adding Blight which does so.
Tags: Blight, Adding Presence, Hold the Island Fast with a Bulwark of Will (Stone's Unyielding Defiance), All Things Weaken, 0 more...
  • Anything that checks the cost of the Power Card checks its printed cost, which may be 1 Energy.
  • It's not one of your Power Cards in play, so you can't Repeat it with Gift of Twinned Days (but it doesn't stop you from repeating a more expensive Power Card).
Triggered Repeats, like those from Relentless Punishment, also work normally.
Tags: Repeat, Aid from Lesser Spirits, Powerstorm, Gift of Twinned Days, 5 more...
With the Event Outpaced, do you need to pay for a card from Aid from Lesser Spirits?
No, you cannot pay for it to be sped up, nor can you discard it for Energy.
It is "used as if played", but is not a card you played.
(Discussion elsewhere)  Tags: Changed rulings, Outpaced, Aid from Lesser Spirits
How often do you apply the Blighted Island effects from Branch & Claw?
If the Blight card says "Immediately", you do it once, as soon as the card is flipped.
If it says "Every Spirit Phase", you do it every turn, during the Spirit Phase.
If it says "At the start of each Invader Phase" or "Each Invader Phase," you do it every turn, during the Blighted Island part of the Invader Phase.
Both the effects from the base game are at the start of each Invader phase.
(Discussion elsewhere)  Tags: Blighted Island
How does All Things Weaken interact with Stone's Unyielding Defiance's ability to protect Presence from destruction?
If the conditions of Bestow the Endurance of Bedrock are met, no Presence is destroyed, either in that land or in an adjacent land. (All Things Weaken modifies how much and where Presence is destroyed, but Bestow the Endurance of Bedrock says "Presence is not destroyed", which makes those modifications irrelevant.)
Blight still destroys Beasts tokens as usual for All Things Weaken. Note that Bestow the Endurance of Bedrock only applies when blight is added to a land with Stone's Presence, so Blight added to an adjacent land might destroy one of Stone's Presence.
Tags: Blight, Bestow the Endurance of Bedrock (Stone's Unyielding Defiance), All Things Weaken
When exactly do you get the benefits from *Aid from Lesser Spirits*?
The new power card enters play as soon as the Blight card is flipped and the Spirits choose who gets which Minor Power.
You gain the elements on it immediately, and can use it for thresholds that same turn. You can also use the Power that turn, although if it is a Fast power and the Blight card flipped after the Fast phase you will not be able to use it this turn, unless something lets you use a Fast power as a Slow power.
(Discussion elsewhere)  Tags: Speed (Fast/Slow), Elements, Aid from Lesser Spirits
How does All Things Weaken interact with Heart of the Wildfire? When Wildfire places Presence, does it then destroy its own Presence?
No. All Things Weaken modifies how Presence destruction from Blight works, but doesn't change the source of the Blight, so Wildfire is still protected from Blight added due Spirit actions. This also applies to the portion which reads "...and 1 Presence in an adjacent land": if you choose Wildfire's Presence as the 1 Presence to destroy, it will survive if the Blight was added due to a Spirit Action.
While Volcano Looming High isn't protected from Blight added by Spirit Actions in general, it does have similar protection from Blight added by its Explosive Eruption Innate Power. In that one particular case, all of the above applies to Volcano Looming High as well.
Tags: Actions, Blight, Blazing Presence (Heart of the Wildfire), All Things Weaken, 3 more...
The Blighted Island card Disintegrating Ecosystem adds Blight to the board. Where does that come from?
The Blight comes from the Blight card, from the pool of 5 Blight per player that is created when the card flips.
Unless explicitly stated otherwise, Blight is always added from the Blight card (not the box), and is returned to the Blight card when removed from the board.
(Discussion elsewhere)  Tags: Disintegrating Ecosystem
If there's only 1 Blight on the Healthy Island card, and you need to add 2 at once (eg: Sweden 1), what do you do?
Immediately flip the card; any Blight that was on it is added to the newly created Blight pool. If the Blight Card has any immediate effects, resolve them. Then add the 2 Blight to the board.
Immediate effects of the flipped Blight card are nested actions - you resolve them completely (including anything they trigger) before returning to what you were doing.
Tags: Blighted Island, Nested Actions, Blight, Timing, 1 more...
When the Blight card is flipped to the Blighted Island side, how much Blight gets added?
If the new side says N Blight per player, you add N Blight per player more. The total amount of Blight on both sides will then be N+2 Blight per player, plus one Blight more (following this erratum).
The amount of Blight on the base board is roughly balanced with the Blight cards - your total Blight pool is smaller, but you have no negative effect. However, it is slightly easier to play with - first, because the certainty of knowing exactly what will happen makes some decisions easier / clearer / less risky; second, because with ongoing-effect Blight cards, there's an early-game pressure to not let the island go Blighted (as the earlier it happens, the worse it is), whereas with the base blight space it doesn't matter when Blight is placed, only whether it empties.
(The early-game pressure is also present with immediate-effect Blight cards and the Event deck from Branch & Claw, as some Events key off the island being Blighted.)
(Discussion elsewhere)  Tags: Blight, Blighted Island
For instance, with Unnatural Proliferation, you must add Presence (e.g., from Heart of the Wildfire) before adding Cities.
Tags: Blighted Island, Unnatural Proliferation
Thematically, the minor spirits are working through Bringer of Dreams & Nightmares - it's why the Power targets through Bringer's Presence and why Bringer gains the Elements from it. (An alternate version which could target anywhere but provided no Elements might be interesting.)
(Discussion elsewhere)  Tags: Playing Power Cards, To Dream a Thousand Deaths (Bringer of Dreams and Nightmares), Aid from Lesser Spirits